American River 50 mile ultramarathon training has officially begun!!! In other words…YIKES!! Technically, it started December 2 when I did a 2 mile run, followed by a 6 and a 8 mile run over the next few days, but I digress. I will be honest. I am very nervous. I’m going from sporadic runs over the past few years to rigorous training for the next 4 months. And I do mean rigorous.
I’m a schedule girl. To me, a training schedule is like homework and I need that structure to push me. Like homework, if I have a training schedule I will do my absolute best to follow it with as little deviation as possible. In case you are wondering, I have always used the schedule that is set forth by Santa Clarita Runners (SCR,2018). The website will be listed in the reference section below. It is simplistic in design but it tells me the miles I need to run on a weekly basis and has helped me finish all my past ultramarathons.
So here I go again. I have stayed true to my schedule for the first week, although, I will admit that doing back to back long runs last Monday and Tuesday was really tough on me. On Monday I wondered what was I thinking when I signed up for AR50. On Tuesday, I was seriously beginning to doubt my capabilities while running my 8 miler. However, I did it. And I’m proud of myself for doing it. I didn’t quit and having or not having mental toughness and stamina is what makes or breaks people during endurance training and racing.
According to the schedule for next week, I will be running a 10 miler followed by a 6 miler the next day. My plan is to run my 10 miler on Monday morning in San Juan Capistrano (SJC), because I used to run those trails practically every day when I lived in SJC so I know them. I feel comfortable with them. And they are a butt kicker.
My 6 miler will be run at Bolsa Chica. My smaller runs I plan on doing some speed work on the treadmill with strength training mixed in.It shall be interesting. I am just going to try my best to remain injury free and have fun with it! Like I said, I am nervous, but, in all honestly, I am really excited! I hope you enjoy reading about the journey too!
References
Santa Clarita Runners. (2018).Ultramarathon training schedule generator. Retrieved from http://www.scrunners.org/ultramarathon-training-schedule-generator.html