Registered for the Mississippi 50 Mile Trail Run

I've been threatening myself with an ultra so tonight I went ahead and made it official. I'm signed up for the Mississippi 50 Mile Trail Run on March 10th, 2007... a little over two months from now. I wanted something to combat off-season base fitness loss and the notion of running 50 miles scares the living daylights out of me.

My plan's fairly simple. Starting the first week of January I'll do a long run every other week. I'll start at 15 mi and increase by 5 mi each long run. 10% be damned. This will put me at 30 miles with the option of doing 35 miles 10 days before the race.

While a pure runner would also calculate total weekly miles, I'm gonna mix it up with the bike and swim. I want to get my morning swims going again for base aerobic fitness and a better sleeping pattern (it's past 2:30am right now and I'm wired). And I'll keep doing the social base rides (Airport Ride, Gaps, etc). I'll try to put an afternoon together with an hour or two of work each day. But the key is to keep it base(y) and fun. I want to have the flexibility to do new things.

I'm not out to burn up the course... just to finish and trick myself into a nice run base early in the season. I feel like I could go out and turn out 20 miles tomorrow so starting at 15 miles is reasonable. After that, all bets are off. Spectacular explosion or graceful first 50? Only time will tell.

Hoping to get some more trail running in. Blair mentioned some places. I can hit Kennesaw Mountain. And the Chattahoochee Natl Rec Area is always fun. I'll have to give up my Silver Comet habit, at least for a while. Maybe I'll even join Bob on one of his Stone Mountain runs... where he runs Stone Mountain... as in, the mountain... not the road around the mountain... the mountain itself.

A generic pure running calculation based on a 3:30 marathon (Ironman Florida) has me turning out the 50 miler in 7:45-ish. But that assumes proper training and, well, given the time constraints that's out the window. But the general aerobic scope of the workout is similar to the mega workouts that I was doing near the end of the season so I'm not terribly intimidated by the time scope.

It's the muscular and skeletal strain that worries me most. IT band. Knees. Blisters. Ankles. The small supporting muscles that connect the femur to the core. I need to get my core strength back... nothing but a bunch of flab there right now.

Sixty five people registered right now. No bike check-in. I chose this race because a) its in early March so it won't interfere with any other races b) the Umstead 100 miler won't let you in until you complete a 50 miler (bring it 08) c) it's the closest 50 miler in march at about six hours away from Atlanta. Not planning on bringing the fam... if Ironman is the worst spectator sport ever then this thing would be pure torture. I'll bring a tent and camp out.

Fairly scared but looking forward to the challenge. 50 miles looks darn big right now but I'm sure that training will bring it into focus. No matter what happens it'll keep me moving over the winter.