One of the questions I get asked the most is, “how did you train for your 50-miler?” Well, I tell you, it didn’t go as planned, but I still managed to have a successful run.

First, I didn’t use a full 16- or 18-week training plan. Instead, I piggybacked off of my 50K training and continued on for an additional 9 weeks until the 50-mile race. Was this smart? I have no idea, but it worked out okay for me.

Here was my original plan that I found off of the internet, reduced to the last 9 weeks:

My first run right after my 50K was a 20 mile run. That’s when my friend Natalie (who is a 100-miler finisher) asked to see my plan, she pretty much smacked me upside my head, virtually, and said – don’t do that…it’s stupid. So she readjusted my plan to the following:

I was SO relieved when I saw the new mileage. THIS was manageable. Well, so I thought. With my crazy work schedule, which has kept me from blogging to ya’ll, I wasn’t able to meet all of the mileage. In fact, of the 9 weeks, I was only in the green 4 of those weeks and in the red or yellow for 5 of those weeks. Here’s what it actually looked like:

I admit as the race got closer, I was really worried about whether or not I had trained enough. Obviously, I either got lucky or it was just enough to get me through. Natalie kept reminding me that consistency was the key and that it was okay not to follow the plan perfectly and that plan was meant as a guideline and I could adjust it as I needed. She was right. But would I recommend being this far off target? Probably not, but I guess that would depend on your current base.

What else did I incorporate in my training plan? Weights and Yoga. I worked with a personal trainer 3 – 4 days a week to cross train and build muscle and I practiced yoga about twice a week. I think this helped make me a more rounded athlete (I still snicker when I call myself an athlete…cause I’m so not an athlete), and I think it helped me to stay healthy and free from injury. Perhaps helped augment the mileage that I was missing.

How did I do? Well, I finished! And I placed 5th in my age group! Well, there was only 8 of us, but I didn’t finish last 🙂