It's 5:30am on Saturday morning. I'm awake, voluntarily, and awaiting the start of my first ultramarathon. I signed up for the 50-miler, though the website now claims it's actually 51-- apparently after 26.2 miles, a little extra mileage doesn't really matter-- but you'd better not short us Mister (49...ppph)!
So, how does one prepare for a 50- miler? According to my research, you run 4 to 8 miles Tuesday through Thursday of most weeks. You take Friday off. Saturday you run 3-5 hours. Sunday you run 2-3 hours. Monday off. This will keep you fresh while still mocking the amount of time you'll be on your feet during the ultra.
Now you're asking how I trained? I ran 6-15 miles most days, 0 miles some days, and threw in the occasional 25-30 miler, while quoting Pilgrims Progress when ascending the Hill of Difficulty and searching the trails for the ever-elusive Hermit Thrush mentioned in Walt Whitman's When Lilac's Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd. The bird lives just north of my home in the summer, where I often run the trails and listen for it's haunting melody.
More on that tonight or tomorrow morning. I've got to run! Literally! And when I say literally, I mean literally and not "not literally true but used for emphasis or to express strong feeling"*!
*the new google definition for literally...is not literally. Sounds like an oxymoron to me, but who am I to contradict society!? Or pop culture for that matter!? In fact, I firmly believe that someday, one will be able to answer the question, "How are you?" with the word, "Good" and society will consider it grammatically sound. I move to start this process now! How are you today?
1. You signed up for an Ultra? I can't think of anything appropriate to say.
ReplyDelete2.) The news of literally's fall from literalism made me sad for some reason.