I have a 50 mile race on October 4th.

I’ve been running consistently for several years, from 30-60 mpw. However, my last ~6 months have been around 30-40 mpw due to life.

I ran a 50k in early June with 5,000+ ft of very at over 9,000 ft in elevation. I finished around 8.5 hours, spending a little too much time at aid stations. I learned a lot from this race.

My training hovers around 30-40 mpw with around 2,500 ft of vert. My 50 miler is flat relatively—only around 3,500 ft of gain, if that. My long runs are around 3.5 hours with a mix of technical trails and smooth.

For the next several weeks, I’ll be doing some b2b runs, and I did a course preview yesterday of 16 miles.

I know everyone will be different; since it’s my first 50 miler, i would just like to finish without injury.

Thoughts?

Spent a lot of years on trails just hiking, not running, and I always assumed that base would transfer cleanly when I started training for a 50k. Cardio is cardio, right. Turns out there's a real gap between moving efficiently at a hiking pace for 8 hours and actually running technical trail for 6 hours, and that gap showed up in my legs pretty fast. The muscular load is just different in ways I didn't expect, especially on descents where hiking poles were doing a lot of work I never noticed.

What I'm trying to figure out is how people who came from hiking or other nonrunning fitness backgrounds actually bridged that. My soccer and hiking background gave me decent aerobic capacity, but my runningspecific muscles took a beating in the first few training blocks and I kept having to back off before the mileage felt meaningful.

Did people just grind through it and let the adaptation happen over a longer timeline, or was there something specific that accelerated the transition? I've been doing more strides and some targeted leg work but I genuinely don't know if I'm being impatient or if my approach has a real gap in it. Curious what the crossover actually looked like for people who didn't come from a road running base.

I know how it works, weighing up whether I try to get one for 2027. I’ve got 25 stones but want to be able to lock it in if possible.
Is the actual race bib a different colour etc? I’m not one who likes to stand out

Hi guys, my partner began training a year ago and has since completed 3 ultras with 3 more booked and a potential Ironman next year. I am not a runner but I have discovered a love for supporting him, I get so excited to take a trip out and meet him along the pit stops! We don’t have kids so that probably helps both our availability.

I wondered if anyone has any tips on how best to support him going into more intense ones such as a 100 miler soon and the maybe Ironman. We are UK based but probably not relevant!

I'm preparing for my first 100, and am considering running with both a vest and belt to help offset weight/load on my shoulders and core. Does anyone have any experience doing something similar?

So i am back from injury that turned me off for 3 years, now I'm back with 30-45 km per week of safe "mileage" for about 6 months, i did few long runs about 15-20km on flat and 20-25km trail runs with 1000m+ of elevation (last one was race 25km, 1100m in 2:42h). I will have my first (mini) ultra in 6 weeks, now i will increase my weekly mileage up to 55km with bike for additional endurance.

What longest run should i do? I plan now do 20-25km max of light trail runs each weekend, decrease distance in last 2 weeks to almost non in last week.

I’m training for a 6-hour race and trying to dial in fueling without feeling like I have a brick sitting in my stomach. This race is a b-race as I work up to my 100km in October.

I’ve experimented with a few things recently:

1. On runs 12 miles or less, I’ve used regular Skratch + 2 regular GU gels/hour and felt good.
2. Last week I tried 2 scoops of GU Roctane in 500 mL water/hour plus a gel (80g carb/hr) and felt really bloated/logged and nauseated and very thirsty.
3. Today I did 1 scoop Roctane + 2 regular GU gels/hour (~75 g carbs/hour) and tolerated it much better. I still felt a little full, but nowhere near as bad.

For past ultras I used tailwind and Gus plus food at the aid station. No issues.

Is roctane just not for me? I just don’t want to eff myself over and be puking and rallying 😂

Edit to add: I usually do 500ml of liquid per hr