Palo Duro 50K Training Program

I'm 18 weeks out from Palo Duro 50K and I think it's time for me to get this party started. And yes, I have a training program!!! More on that later, but first...

Let me tell you about last week:
I was so eager to run, I racked up 36 miles and I even did a little bit of cross training. Normally, during a training season, that would be fine, but coming off of P90X, I maintained about a 20 mile weekly average --  So, 36 miles last week just about killed my body. I'm starting to feel the painful ramifications. I've got back pain and foot pain. This is not how I wanted to start week 1 of 18, but hey it's still early.

The good news is this, I only have 26 miles to run this week. Each week, my mileage will increase peaking at week 11, which will be 60 miles. I think I just had a panic attack, re-reading that sentence. If I think that's scary, I should calculate my total training mileage, oh wait -- I already did. It's 746 miles in 18 weeks!!!!!!!!!!!

What I didn't know about ultra marathon training:
It's common practice to double long run days. For example, every Saturday and Sunday I will be running LONG. This excites and scares me. My speed and ego will suffer, but I need to get use to being on my feet and running on tired legs. If this starts to take a negative toll on me, I will eliminate one of the long runs. I'm flexible like that, it's all that yoga I've been doing.

I trained for Cowtown 50K, like a marathon and that worked for me, last time around. The goal is train hard and have fun.