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With my current training phase coming to an end and a new 50 mile goal, it’s a great time to do some self-evaluation as to where I stand and where I need to go from here.  I need to really focus on improving the speed at which I can cover the distances and I think the flaw in my training until this point has been that I’ve always run to prep for a race but, if I’m honest with myself, I’ve never run enough and never really followed a structured running program.  On the strength side, while I made progress doing my own thing in the gym, I made much better progress once I started following a more structured training program.  I’ve relied far too much on being an avid hiker and having a high level of general physical preparation (GPP) to get me through the 50K distance.  Doing my own thing I turned myself into someone who is fit enough to complete an ultra, but not someone who is a true ultrarunner.  I will need to change that to step up in distance. I need to start taking a structured approach to running.  I think I will need to take a step backwards to ensure I have a strong enough foundation to make the leap forward to 50 miles.  I will lay out my thoughts and the approaches I will be taking in more detail in upcoming posts, but at a high level I intend to:

1.  Find a structured running program that I can pair with the strength training that I am already doing.
2. Take a look at my running mechanics and mobility to ensure I am able to cover the higher mileage I will likely need while keeping my risk of injury low. 

This week I’m coming to the end of my latest mesocycle in which I am wrapping up the month-long Train Like Bane bonus program from AthleanX.  I have really enjoyed programs from AthleanX over the years due to the athletic nature of the programs and they have worked to make me a much more well-rounded athlete.  While I typically lean towards programs that have a conditioning focus built in, this month-long bonus has been on my “really want to do” list for a while now and it was a program that I thoroughly enjoyed. It consisted of 3 total body workouts (Mon, Wed, and Fri) broken up by workouts focused on grip strength and calves on Tuesday and Thursday. 

While not a typical ultrarunner type program, I am considering running another Spartan Ultra as a part of my journey towards 50 miles as I think I can benefit a lot from completing and improving my performance at a few more 50K events before attempting a step up in distance.  Repeating an event would also provide a way to gauge progress. I think the Bane program is great as a part of a Spartan Ultra preparation block in that the grip strength and pull strength focus could be beneficial in a lot of the obstacles. I was able to mix in zone 2 cardio on the grip strength and calf days as well to maintain my aerobic base while I ran the month-long program.  It was fun and rewarding program to run over the off season. Moreover, all of the grave diggers on each Wednesday’s workout helped me to break through a plateau in my overhead press.

While I was always athletic, running was something that I dreaded doing for the first 30+ years of my life.  I was an athlete that was described as strong, powerful, and other like terms but never one that was associated with any of the qualities that one typically attributes to a long-distance runner.  The idea of running a 5K, let alone an ultramarathon, seemed an unreachable goal.  Until one day when I decided to actually give running a try.  I was overzealous and my pace way too fast but I managed to push myself for a mile before succumbing to breathlessness.  The next day I set out to do the same thing again and I made it further.  This got my competitive side intrigued and made me start to wonder, how far could I go if I kept this up for a few weeks?  Of course, trying to set a PR every day is not long-term sustainable, but by the time I reached that point it had become a habit and I looked forward to going for a run. It had become a form of moving meditation for me that I could use to let the stress of the day fade away and find solutions to elusive problems. A habit I kept up and eventually ran a number of 5K, 10K, and half marathon length races.  Although anything longer than a half marathon still seemed like an impossibility. 

The sport of OCR than began to become more prominent and I, more importantly, formed a group with a few friends that would do the events (primarily Spartan races) together.  We started with the Sprint and moved up to Super, which got us curious – could we tackle a Beast?  As the distance got longer, the group grew smaller but pretty soon a few of us had conquered the Beast?  Could we do the Ultra? 

While the group was very small at this point, it turned out that a couple of us could.  At that point, it was by far the hardest thing I had done athletically and even though there were times during the event I swore I would never do such a crazy thing again, the reality was I became hooked.  I have since gone on to complete two more 50K Ultramarathons and am yearning for the bigger challenge of a 50 miler.  Just one problem – I’m a back of the back runner who will need to up his running game. This blog is my reflections on how I approach and overcome challenges as I progress towards 50 miles (while still trying to improve strength) in the hopes that it helps someone else.