Help! thoughts & advice

Hi Marcus, everyone you ask is going to give a different answer, but before my first 50-miler I reached B2Bsof 30+12 and 29+15. I basically tried to follow the Ultraladies 50 mile training plan: http://www.trailrunevents.com/ul/schedule-50m.asp  - there are others linked from http://www.ultramarathonrunning.com/training/ . Obviously they vary - choose one which seems right and adapt as necessary, but they should give you a broad idea of what you need to be doing.

Don't forget to practice hydrating and eating and carrying the backpack you'll wear on the day.

As for speed, I don't work in km, only miles. After a rough calculation... depends on your speed for other distances!

And don't forget to enjoy it!

I'm at about the same stage as you I guess - My first Ultra is April, SDW 50. My longest run to date is marathon distance x-country. And I have slightly less time than you before my race.

I'm slowly upping my pace and I intend my longest training run to be 35 miles, two weeks prior before I start winding down and looking after myself. So I'm doing double my longest run.

I can't give you any advice, but I wish you teh very best of luck and if you keep recording your progress here, I'll keep an eye on it.

On the day go out really slow. Let everyone overtake you. By half way into the run you should have plenty in hand and you can start moving up through the field. Ultras are run more in your head than your legs. Overtaking others will give you a far bigger boost later in the race. If you  crash and burn on an ultra the cause can almost always  be traced back to overrunning in the early stages. 

 Its not the length of an ultra that matters its your pace!!!

Your first ultra will be a massive learning curve  Run your own race and  enjoy your self. Don,t set yourself an expected finishing time.

As the ultras you run get longer you will realise that marathon times don,t count for much any more.

One word of warning . Shorter ultras attract sometimes 50% first timers. You will all rush off too fast assuming that you are the only novice and  must be running this fast cos everyone else is. Seek out a knackered old tatty runner at the start  , ask what they have done then watch and learn.

Marcus: For hydration, best thing I've found (for me) is Elete - just concentrated electrolytes (minerals) which you add to water - nothing for your stomach to object to, no artificial sweeteners or flavourings to leave a nasty taste in your mouth. I have a 25 mL bottle which I keep in my backpack, and now buy the much larger (cheaper per mL) bottles to refill it. I have been known to squeeze some into my mouth neat when I was feeling suddenly tired.

Food: I like Kendal mint cake for instant energy (lot cheaper than gels, and pure sugar + mint oil - nothing for your stomach to object to, really), also malt loaf (that's popular with a lot of people), fig rolls, pretzels for savoury. On longer runs I'll even take sandwiches (I found cheese wraps were great in the middle of NDW50 last year). Really it's whatever works for you.

Your speed is probably okay, but I wouldn't go any faster. I'm a bit slower than you (10 K 45.30, HM 1.40, 20 mile 2.47, Marathon 3.47) and try to do my long runs at about 9-10.30 mins/mile, but I get slower on hilly trails and longer runs (25+ miles). Don't worry if you find yourself a lot slower on some of the long runs - terrain, footing and temperature all affect speed.

Marcus, it sounds silly and probably foolhardy, but I ran the xc marathon on a bit of a whim, entering really late in the day and leaving myself no time for training. My only specific training run was a 20 miler xc to give myself a bit of confidence.

Time was 4:30 and the race was the fairly tough Greensand Marathon which packs in the same elevation as the SDW50 but in half the distance. My average HM time on the same type of terrain is 1:50. I'm aiming to complete in 9 hours. Like Debra and Ian say, I'm going out slow but I aim to maintain that pace throughout. I just hope my Garmin holds out another few months!

I'm looking at making my own electrolytic drinks and energy bars. there are loads of easy recipes around. I like Clif bars but they're expensive and I like to do this stuff on a shoestring (less for my partner to complain about!).

I have a fairly gruelling training schedule between now and the end of March but I heard it said 'better undertrained than overinjured' - so I'm going to live by that mantra and try not to take too many risks.

...and debra, thanks for the training plan suggestion. I'm guessing it's not too gender-specific. 

Your chase mentality can work up to marathon length runs but beyond that pushing hard early will lead to burn out. Many novice 50milers take almost twice as long on the second 25 as the first. Crawling the last mile with everyone else overtaking you is just not nice. Think fun not time. When you do find yourself running/chatting with others then keep with the group you were about to overtake don,t try to keep up with a group overtaking you.

. Nutrition on ultras is a very personal thing but most of us find we switch from wanting sweet foods to craving salty foods. Personally I carry baby bell cheeses and mini peperamis with Cliff shock blocks for raw energy. If you don,t like energy gels ( and I mean really like them not just tolerate them!) then find something else you fancy to eat. 

As for training plans I never really do them. I run when work/home will allow, try to maintain a good level of fitness and try to get it right on the day. I will never win races but I will finish and hopefully  have learned how to do that faster next time. Getting better at race tactics is far more important than the training I do. Thats why you will learn so much on your first ultra.

ps stalking is good!

I'll agree about the pacing - NDW50 I was 40th overall at half way, and 18th overall at the finish - so I felt I'd managed a "relative negative split" and that felt good - and I had enough energy to push on and speed up a bit in the last few miles where the terrain allowed, and that felt good as well.

I'll also second the bit about wanting savory foods as time goes on. I'll be taking a cheese wrap with me for TT50 and maybe a vege hotdog sausage or two as well.

I do think training plans are useful, particularly when starting, to give you an idea of approx the amount of training to do - if only on the basis of "well, the plan said I needed to do this, and I've done that, so I should be able to get round."

Walk the first 1/2 mile to ensure you are dead last, you will then only improve your race standing.

As you slowly start to pass people count them and you can roughly work out what postion you're in.

It's a great motivator in the last half of a race.

Actually I had no idea what position I was in on NDW50 - I only found out my placings afterwards (okay, a few people started saying I was second woman and stuff, but I didn't believe them). Because the NDW100 people had set off before us, I passed quite a few people in the second half, but generally didn't know whether they were 50 or 100 runners. Also, I did lots of leapfrogging with other runners, and didn't really notice if/when they stopped coming past me again.

Snap! No, no gender specificity for the training plan!