I intend to run the
Shadow of the Giants 50k, which apparently is actually more like a 56k on May 31st. On a whim last year I entered a 33 mile trail race in Big Bear, and had a blast despite being undertrained, drinking the night before, driving to the race straight from the bar and running on 1 hr sleep. Ultras are a bit of a different animal, but to me an infinitely better experience than pounding pavement for 26 miles. They're on trails, there is usually several thousand feet of elevation gain, and the fields are usually quite small. At the race last year, each aid station had homemade cookies and other foods, and the finish area was just a small tailgate party with a bunch of lawn chairs set up, a guy grilling burgers and dogs with an assortment of snacks and salads to choose from as well. I'm not that into long distance runs, but decided to do one race a year of between 50k and 50 miles. I'd like to be at least a little more prepared this year, finish in the top 8 or so with a tentative goal of about a 5:10.
I've been running regularly for about 3 years since moving to San Diego. For the first year and a half I was running about 20 miles a week, not so much because I liked running, but because the weather was just about always perfect for a run, I didn't have any good people to play tennis with, and I had problems with recurrent dislocations of my left shoulder that made it difficult to lift anything. I entered a couple races, could run about a 19min 5k and 1:30 half marathon. About a year and a half ago I decided to take it a little more seriously, so joined a track club and about doubled my training efforts. Within 6 months I improved to a 17:30 5k and 1:23 half, and have gone nowhere from there in the past year.
For the next month or so, I intend to run about 40-50 miles a week, about 75% of the volume will be slow stuff with one track interval workout and one tempo run each week. In March I'll try to build up some speed for a few 5k races in late March and Early April, then I'll take 2 easy weeks in mid April before focusing on building strength through a lot of hilly trail workouts and hill repeats up through the end of May. On the longer term I'm trying to get ready for some killer ascent races at the end of the summer, the Pike's Peak Ascent (13.3 miles 7800 ft climb) and the Mt Baldy Run to the Top (8 miles 4000 ft climb). At 6'2" 180 lbs I'm about 20 lbs heavy for these type of races, but just intend on doing the best with what I've got and have no desire to whittle away at myself enough to excel at this sport.
For the rest of the week I'll just have a few slow easy runs with a
tough trail 15k race on Sunday.