Hello all - I'm planning on running the Leadville 50 this summer and may do the Leadville 50 mtn bike the day before. This will be my first real ultra although I did Pikes Peak Marathon in '10 and many consider that an ultra due to the difficulty of the race. I've also ran 3 other road marathons.
I live in Denver so altitude acclimation isn't an issue and I obviously have easy access to great mountain trails.
Has anyone here done the race? If not, any tips on coming up with a training plan for my first 50 miler would be great.
Thanks!
GreyBeard
Yes - It is a good race. I struggled with hydration as I was (am) playing with nutrition, packs, etc.
The course is beautiful.
Since you are so close, you could go check it out in advance and run/hike some of the legs. Is 25 out and back so you could realistically do the course as part of your training. I wrote it up on my blog if your interested (see footer below).
2020
Good Bad & The Monkey
Leadville has a 50?
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
They have all kinds of stuff... 1/2 marathon, marathon, 10k, 50 mile run, 50 mile bike, 100 mile run, 100 mile bike... scattered all across the summer. There may even be a 24 hour something...bike, I think.
Michael;
I'd recommend more time on trails unless you're already training there. Based on your Pikes Peak and 3 recent marathons(?) you're close to ready now. Figure out what you can eat during a race during your longer training runs as that's ahuge part of Ultras; the re-sustenance piece. Maybe enter some trail races as part of your training. Try to increase your weekly training mileage. I never go over 12 to 15 miles in a run but I like to double up back to back days of those to increase my mileage in a compressed time span; IE long runs on Friday-Saturday-Sunday. That said I'm just a mid- to back of the packer in most longer events.
Definitely get a lot of hills in your training and daily running.
www.run100s.com is a great website to start with in terms of all things Ultra.
Tim
Arlington, VA