Preparing for my first 50 mile race

I am less than two weeks out from my first 50 mile race - The 2009 Buffalo Run 50 Mile Race on March 28th, 2009. My emotions the last few months have ranged from total excitement to total terror and I am mixed with thinking how cool this will be with how idiotic it will be.

The biggest preparation has taken a couple of years - in order to finish a 50 mile race I had to get fast enough to be able to finish the race in a time limit and I knew I would have to become a runner in order to do this. Yes - I might have been able to as a speed walker - but I was not looking forward to the pressure that would have put on me the entire race. In order to complete this race in the 12 1/2 hour time limit - I need to maintain an average pace of a minimum of 4 miles per hour - including time at rest stops and bathroom breaks. Now that most of my running miles are comfortably under 11 minutes per mile, I think I can maintain this for that many hours.

The next preparation was making sure that I had enough time on my feet and endurance. Time on my feet has been building since I started training seriously in 2004 and increased significantly last year. My endurance has also jumped steadily up since I started running non-stop last October. The 35 mile training run from 3 weeks ago indicate that I have the capability of doing 50 miles. Until I actually do this first race, I won't know the challenges ahead of me - but I think I can persevere and finish the course.

So - the mental and physical preparation are behind me. The next two weeks will consist of 'fine-tuning' my plans and being as ready as I can. The biggest step - avoiding any injuries.

In order to avoid any injuries - I need to let my body rest and heal. For this first race I want to do a serious taper. My plans for the pre race and post race taper periods are as follows:

• Monday - 5 miles - including some explosive sprint sessions
• Tuesday - 4 easy miles - including some hills
• Wednesday - 5 miles
• Thursday - 4 miles a.m. & 4 miles p.m.
• Friday - rest day
• Saturday - 10-12 miles, last 3 miles at marathon speed
• Sunday - rest day
• Monday & Wednesday - 5 miles - including some explosive sprint sessions
• Tuesday, Thursday - walk to and from work
• Friday - rest day
  
• Saturday - race day

• Sunday - rest day
• Monday to Friday - no running - if I feel up to it, walk or bike to and from work
• Saturday - alternate a little running and walking if I feel up to it - preferably on trails and slow

MY PACER - Leslie Peterson will be pacing me starting around mile 33. Her job will be to get me to the finish line under the time limit and keep me motivated. I am providing her some pacing instructions and a map and am relying on sharing the fun of this with her and then helping her finish her first 50 mile race this fall. My first marathon I had another running friend, Vic Mason, bring me in from mile 19 on and this will be the same. While I have run all the trails on Antelope Island - the distance starting at 35 miles will all be 'new territory' and it will help to have her there to push me on when I am starting to sag.

Drop Bags and Gear - I will be writing up lists of good weather, bad weather and mixed weather plans for both my drop bags and gear I will be carrying. Check back in a couple of days for another post with those details.