The Just Races ultra training plan

Next Saturday I'll be doing my first 50 miler in Las Vegas.

I completed 50 miles at Across The Years in Phoenix, over New Years  weekend. I completed 35 miles, then went back to my hotel for 6 hours. I returned at 4am to complete the last 15.

I've wanted to do a 50 miler for a couple years. I just didn't want to do the required training runs. I googled "minimal ultra training", even those plans seemed to take too much time.

I wanted to do ultras but I don't want to do the training runs. Hmmmm... looks like I'll have to come up with my own plan.

As much as I dislike training runs, I love the actual races. I love running in new places.

I'm also obsessed with shiny marathon medals. Here's some of my collection...

An idea began to form in 2011.

At that point, the only marathon I completed in 2011 was in February, in New Orleans. Since that time, I was doing half marathons, about one a month.

What if I used races as training for my 50 miler? I get the mileage and shiny medals! It's so crazy that it might work!

That's been my plan since last October.

I began with a half marathon in Denver, I added distance to get in about 16 miles.

In November I did the St Louis marathon. I ran/walked up to 18 miles, then just walked to the finish.
I also did San Antonio in November, increasing my run/walks distance to 20 miles.

December was crazy, I had already signed up for the half marathon in Las Vegas. It was held at night and the course was on the Strip. I wanted to get at least 22 miles in so I did about 10 miles before the start of the race. I was weaving in and out of casinos and dodging drunk tourists.

At the end of December I did my first timed event, a 24 hour race in Phoenix. I completed my goal of 50 miles, with a 6 hour nap after about 35 miles.

This year I've completed a marathon a month. January was Phoenix, February was Austin and March was Las Vegas. I topped it off with a 12 hour, 40 mile event in Boise, a couple weeks ago.

All my long distance training was in races. I think the longest I did at home was about 6 miles.

Next weekend I'll find out if this was a good plan or I was out of my mind.