El Scorcho = Insano!

I've officially lost my mind!  I signed up to run a 50k race (yes I said FIFTY) in the heat of the summer ... at midnight.  LOL!  Thank you to Ben and Erin for talking me into this one.  :)

Fifty kilometers is just over 31 miles.  No problemo!  Ha!!!  Just gotta start training NOW.  And training is a little different than training for a marathon.  Instead of 6 days a week training, I only need to do 5.  But the runs are longer and the biggest difference is back-to-back long runs.  I did that this week and I can tell it will be difficult.  The reason behind back-to-back long runs is to make you physically and mentally tougher.  I know the last 6 miles of a marathon are killer so I can only imagine what miles 26-31 will be like in this race.  Really all a mind game because your body is shot by that point.  Sounds fun, right?!

I just need to whip myself into shape and that shouldn't take that long with the amount of running I'll be doing especially since it's getting hot outside.  Average weeks will be 40-50 miles.  Not too bad.  The longest run I'll do is 24 miles followed by a 10 mile run the next day.  That should be interesting.  I'll try to keep you posted on most of the training runs.  To be in top race shape, I need to lose about 10 pounds and about 4-5% body fat.  Totally do-able in 3 months.  Right now my goal time is about 5 and a half hours.

So here is my training so far.  My long runs aren't very long just yet but will ramp up quickly.  Sunday I ran a medium-paced 12 miles.  And it felt good.  I ran one of my favorite routes and took a detour through this really cool cemetery then out past my donkey friend.  He usually won't come over to see me but he was in a good mood that day!

Splits were surprisingly good with little effort.  I was extremely happy with my pace and the negative split.

Then came Monday.  Monday has been my rest day for over 3 years!  So to get up and run on a Monday was just too weird!  But it actually felt pretty good.  Here's a happy runner after a very early Monday morning 8 miles.

And, unbelievably, the run felt good, my pace was good and I had another negative split with enough energy left to push it the last mile.  Who knew?!  :)

So today is Tuesday which is now my rest day.  And you know how I feel today?  SORE!!!!  OMG!  So glad it's my rest day!!!  Tomorrow's 4 miles will be interesting.  See ya then.