First 50 Miler Training

[u/Traceless___Morale]

Completely honest, not really sure on what to stick with for a training plan. This is something I found and I am actively strength training 4-6 times a week at the moment. Does anyone have any recommendations on this or tips? The race is the San Diego 50 Miler. Thank you!

[u/no_defaults]

I generally like it, but I may be weird in this regard - I like to put my shorter run on the first day of the back to back. I always felt like at the end of the second run if I was still able to keep moving then I was probably going to be okay

[u/Delicious-King-1310 → u/no_defaults]

Putting the longer run on the Sunday seems best to simulate fatigue.

[u/DenverTroutBum]

Why so low during the week? Any fartlek, hillz, tempo, strides? What’s your base mileage? Assuming 34 isn’t a huge jump.

[u/Traceless___Morale → u/DenverTroutBum]

Yeah that’s something else I’ve thought about. Luckily I have some decent hills and trails where I’m at to implement with this so it’s not all flat terrain. I feel like the 4/6 milers would be perfect for fartleks & hill work. My base right now is 25-30 miles per week.

[u/DenverTroutBum → u/Traceless___Morale]

My opinion is that intensity is important and easier to add volume by adding 20 min to weekday runs. Long runs carry more risk of injury. Also want to ensure you’re doing some steep downhills to simulate the race at least 1x a week. Take as you may…I’m not a coach, just a middle aged guy that’s been doing this for a while 😂

[u/Traceless___Morale → u/DenverTroutBum]

Absolutely! I appreciate your advice and I will definitely make some changes. I’m a noob for something like this but have been running a long time so I’m glad to hear different gouge from everyone. I will definitely make changes to a few things, specifically weekday mileage to cater a balanced weekly mileage spread out vs the weekend just getting slayed. Fartleks/hills and things to assist with the terrain during the week as well. Thank you for the help, truly.

[u/bradymsu616]

You don't mention speedwork or hills. Provided you're using those Tuesday and Thursday four-mile runs for 5K of tempo, intervals, or hill sprints after a 1-mile warm-up, this is a strong plan. Otherwise, four-mile runs at easy pace aren't contributing much toward endurance. Initially, the double 24-24, marathon-marathon, and 28-28 long runs seemed a bit risky; however, implementing a deload week every third week instead of every fourth week makes that part of the plan viable.

[u/Bubbada_G]

No injury concern given that your long run is more than 40% of your weekly mileage in some instances? Wonder if it might be better to shorten the long run and add that mileage to the Sunday run

[u/YoloHornHigh]

lol this is over 800 miles logged for a 50 miler. Buddy you aren’t even going to toe up on the starting line. You will be in bed from injuries. Scale it back like 70%.

[u/mediocre_remnants]

Looks reasonable except for weeks 13/14 and 16/17, when I do a long long run like that, followed by a medium long run the next day, I usually don't do the exact same distances the next week.

My usual progression is to build up to a peak over 3 weeks, do the long long run, then the next week is a rest/deload week. I've also experimented with doing the opposite, where I start with the long long run at the beginning of the 4 week block, then cut down the distance over the next 2 weeks, so it's like every 4 week block starts hard and then tapers down to the next.

But if you can do this, go for it. You'll find out pretty quick if two hard weeks in a row will punish you too much.

[u/TheodoreK2 → u/mediocre_remnants]

Same. I like the three week build, fourth down.

[u/YoloHornHigh]

Maybe unpopular but this just seems like too many miles logged for a 50 miler.

[u/iamblindfornow → u/YoloHornHigh]

That’s a lot of marathons to run for a 50. Might as well make at least one of those a race itself.

[u/Federal__Dust → u/YoloHornHigh]

I'm with you, this is totally overkill for a beginner at this distance not looking to compete.

[u/hpdk → u/YoloHornHigh]

i had the same thought. also so many back to back long runs weeks after week.

[u/sophiabarhoum → u/YoloHornHigh]

I agree. In training for my 50k, I had one week where I ran 30 miles, that was my max. I also didn't run more than 3 days a week, and I focused on strength training 4-5 days a week and specific hill training one day a week.

I don't think people who haven't already done a bunch of races of varying distances should suddenly try to run 5 days a week, at any distance.

[u/Jam_Drop]

I wouldn't think you need so many back to back long runs every weekend (I usually consider 10+ miles to be a 'long run'). Usually I wouldn't do any LRs back to back but obviously some training plans encourage them.

[u/systemnate]

This looks decent, I'm sure you'd get it done if you did this. It looks similar to my first plan and I felt pretty strong during it.

I'd personally remove a couple of the 20+ mile runs and adjust the weekday mileage so I'm doing about half the mileage during the weekday and half on the weekend.

[u/Br33na]

Fully support two rest days. That’s always in my plans, or at least one full rest and one active rest. On first impression seems like more miles and back to backs than necessary, but idk your goals or current base. To just finish? To PR? Might change the perspective.

What’s the vertical of the course? I would suggest taking that into account. Miles are certainly important but strength/climbing will really help push you through a hilly or mountainous course (speaking from experience where I finished a 100k with almost 15k of vert and my weekly mileage max was like 45 [far from what I hoped] but all the climbing work I incorporated into my training totally got me to the finish line). I also think cross training is underrated if you’re starting with a good base! Could sprinkle that in instead of back to backs every weekend.

Good luck!

[u/Traceless___Morale → u/Br33na]

The goal is definitely to just finish! I’m not going into it trying to win. Elevation is 2000’ I believe (not bad at all). Thanks for sharing! Will definitely take note to make some changes.

[u/countingchris]

This is a pretty similar plan to what I did for my first 50 miler earlier this year. Very similar midweek program (mixing in speedwork and hills on Tue + Thur), but I took longer to get up to 20+ miles and I didn't do as many double long run weekends. I did do a 50k long run once though which I found very helpful in learning about time on feet and nutrition. I agree with other commenters that you could scale this back to 75% and be fine. Your legs will be very strong by the end of this.

[u/fangorn_forester]

I'd personally spread those Tues-Thurs miles out more evenly between Tues-Friday, and make Tuesday a workout of some sort. Awesome that you are strength training but I'd dial it back to 1-2 times a week to get more mileage and aerobic base time on feet.

Also you can probably do more evenly spread back-to-back long runs. Like instead of 20 & 10 only 5 weeks in, do two 15s.

[u/cluelessLA]

I used a training plan almost identical to this for my 50 miler. I actually cut the weekly mileage back a bit in the later stages and focused on intervals, short tempos, and speed work (doing HIIT with some friends). It might not be the best plan, but I ran really well off this. Also my back to back long runs were a bit more balanced. I think I maxed at 25/20.

[u/Swat0311]

I did this exact plan. It worked great. Found via QR code in the back of one of my ultra books. I also used the first short run of the week as a tempo/ hill sprints day. One off day was a FULL stretching and rolling session and self - care (feet etc) and the other was a light body weight legs work out