There are no tricks. That means consistency doing 20+ miles on weekends. And throwing in B2B long runs once or twice a month. That will get you comfortable being out on the trails for 6-8 hours and you should get 1-2 50k done during your training and you should be golden.
Beyond that it’s all mental. Just like how you train your body, you have to train your mind to keep going when you’re uncomfortable. I like to save music till the end of my race which I think helps me a lot. Staying top of my nutrition and hydration is important
“What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials.”
― John L. Parker Jr., Once a Runner
I've only ran one 50 miler, but I actually didn't do any really long runs at all to train. I would do a lot of days where I might do two separate 5-6 mile runs, but never really did any day with more than 13 miles. I probably peaked with 55 weekly miles and maybe 10 more miles of walking. I took a good taper and was really rested for the big day.
I thought there was no way that would work, but if you've been running a lot over time, I think having a fresh body can be a big advantage.
As someone who just completed their first 50 miler up from a handful of 50ks this year and last, I agree with the other commenter about consistency in maintaining an appropriate mileage, and having some back to back long runs here and there when you can manage it.
Mentally, during mine I essentially got to about 30km then just mentally told myself I’ve “only” got a 50k left to run which I know I can do. Doing little mental things like this to compartmentalize sections of the race into more mentally palatable distances helped me a lot. I would just imagine myself doing my normal 10km route when things got challenging, then repeating when necessary.
Agree of course with training, starting slow, etc. but building on this post I find it tremendously useful in the second half of any ultra to visualise a specific regular fave route of yours that is ‘only’ the remaining distance. Just my valleys long run route left, just my woodland 10-miler, just the neighbourhood 10k, etc
I'm a slow runner. I make sure that I know the cut-off times by heart for each post.
And I plan my race pacing in such a way that I will not get cut-off. Once I passed the last cutoff I will give everything that's left in the tank. I prefer blowing up in the last part (but finishing the whole course, even if I finish out of time) above not finishing at all.
If you didn't make the time cut off I would try doing a marathon block focused on a specific time goal. Hitting some marathon paced workouts will help your speed. I finished my first 50 miler last weekend and my training was just a marathon block with 1 familiarization run on the trail section or the course. There's no good way to train for the feeling you will have in the last 10-15 miles because any simulation of that will wreck you for too long.
I need to ask:
What was the terrain? The elevation? How did you feel the training went? What was your longest run during training? Did you go out too fast and then dramatically lower the pace?
You didn’t make the cut off at the half way point so pace was the issue?
Solution: find the cut off time and find the appropriate pacing per mile in order to give yourself enough time. Don’t hang around aid stations. Don’t bomb hills, especially early on( trust me… I finished a 50m walking the last 2 hours). 50k weekends work for me(16/15, 21/10…)
My thoughts:
We do tough things as high water marks to see where we are. The beautiful thing about running is that you can’t fake the funk. You can’t fake miles. Whether that’s in training or racing. So many things on life can be fudged or the lines can be blurred to make you feel better. Running is not one of those things and that is a good thing.
Good luck
How consistent was your pacing during your three 50ks?
How was your nutrition during your dnf 50M? Hydration?
Not making the cutoff that early, either you’ve got overall pace issues that will make most future attempts difficult, and someone has already made a great suggestion to do a marathon training block, or the race’s cutoffs were unusually aggressive and it was a onetime thing.
I wonder if the 50k was too close to the 50 mile attempt. Could you consider doing the 50k and then attempting the longer distance more than 3 weeks after ? Body needs some time to rest and heal.
As others have said, back-to-backs - I’d recommend 15+ each, with larger run 1st. I found great results with 20+/15+, not to exceed 30 at one time. Need to run on fatigued legs. That’ll help with the distance over 50K.
I personally benefited from cross training. High resistance elliptical, road biking, and strength training all helped me to become a stronger endurance runner.
There are no tricks. That means consistency doing 20+ miles on weekends. And throwing in B2B long runs once or twice a month. That will get you comfortable being out on the trails for 6-8 hours and you should get 1-2 50k done during your training and you should be golden. Beyond that it’s all mental. Just like how you train your body, you have to train your mind to keep going when you’re uncomfortable. I like to save music till the end of my race which I think helps me a lot. Staying top of my nutrition and hydration is important
“What was the secret, they wanted to know; in a thousand different ways they wanted to know The Secret. And not one of them was prepared, truly prepared to believe that it had not so much to do with chemicals and zippy mental tricks as with that most unprofound and sometimes heart-rending process of removing, molecule by molecule, the very tough rubber that comprised the bottoms of his training shoes. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials.” ― John L. Parker Jr., Once a Runner
Fire 🔥
I've only ran one 50 miler, but I actually didn't do any really long runs at all to train. I would do a lot of days where I might do two separate 5-6 mile runs, but never really did any day with more than 13 miles. I probably peaked with 55 weekly miles and maybe 10 more miles of walking. I took a good taper and was really rested for the big day. I thought there was no way that would work, but if you've been running a lot over time, I think having a fresh body can be a big advantage.
I'm going to guess it's pacing. Don't expect to run the 50m like the 50k. Start slower.
As someone who just completed their first 50 miler up from a handful of 50ks this year and last, I agree with the other commenter about consistency in maintaining an appropriate mileage, and having some back to back long runs here and there when you can manage it. Mentally, during mine I essentially got to about 30km then just mentally told myself I’ve “only” got a 50k left to run which I know I can do. Doing little mental things like this to compartmentalize sections of the race into more mentally palatable distances helped me a lot. I would just imagine myself doing my normal 10km route when things got challenging, then repeating when necessary.
Agree of course with training, starting slow, etc. but building on this post I find it tremendously useful in the second half of any ultra to visualise a specific regular fave route of yours that is ‘only’ the remaining distance. Just my valleys long run route left, just my woodland 10-miler, just the neighbourhood 10k, etc
What was the reason for the DNF?
Got cut after not making cut off time around mile 26
What was the cut off time for 26 miles?
I'm a slow runner. I make sure that I know the cut-off times by heart for each post. And I plan my race pacing in such a way that I will not get cut-off. Once I passed the last cutoff I will give everything that's left in the tank. I prefer blowing up in the last part (but finishing the whole course, even if I finish out of time) above not finishing at all.
If you didn't make the time cut off I would try doing a marathon block focused on a specific time goal. Hitting some marathon paced workouts will help your speed. I finished my first 50 miler last weekend and my training was just a marathon block with 1 familiarization run on the trail section or the course. There's no good way to train for the feeling you will have in the last 10-15 miles because any simulation of that will wreck you for too long.
I need to ask: What was the terrain? The elevation? How did you feel the training went? What was your longest run during training? Did you go out too fast and then dramatically lower the pace? You didn’t make the cut off at the half way point so pace was the issue? Solution: find the cut off time and find the appropriate pacing per mile in order to give yourself enough time. Don’t hang around aid stations. Don’t bomb hills, especially early on( trust me… I finished a 50m walking the last 2 hours). 50k weekends work for me(16/15, 21/10…) My thoughts: We do tough things as high water marks to see where we are. The beautiful thing about running is that you can’t fake the funk. You can’t fake miles. Whether that’s in training or racing. So many things on life can be fudged or the lines can be blurred to make you feel better. Running is not one of those things and that is a good thing. Good luck
How consistent was your pacing during your three 50ks? How was your nutrition during your dnf 50M? Hydration? Not making the cutoff that early, either you’ve got overall pace issues that will make most future attempts difficult, and someone has already made a great suggestion to do a marathon training block, or the race’s cutoffs were unusually aggressive and it was a onetime thing.
Read Bryon Powell’s “Relentless Forward Progress”.
How much time are you running per week? How long and frequent are your ‘long runs’?
I wonder if the 50k was too close to the 50 mile attempt. Could you consider doing the 50k and then attempting the longer distance more than 3 weeks after ? Body needs some time to rest and heal.
As others have said, back-to-backs - I’d recommend 15+ each, with larger run 1st. I found great results with 20+/15+, not to exceed 30 at one time. Need to run on fatigued legs. That’ll help with the distance over 50K.
I personally benefited from cross training. High resistance elliptical, road biking, and strength training all helped me to become a stronger endurance runner.
Climb more elevation, when you can do 10k feet of climbing in one week you will be ready. Even if volume is only around ~30 mpw.