How I Trained for a 100 Miler...

I have had several of my friends ask me how I trained for the Prairie Spirit Trail 100 Miler that I ran in March, so I thought I would elaborate a bit.  For any non-running people, this is probably pretty boring.

I had been planning on doing this race since October, but I really did not share that with anyone except for Ken.  I had talked myself in and out of doing it about 100 times and it was not until I was at Ken's holiday party that I decide I would 100% do it.

Ken was so proud telling one of his board members about my wanting to run this race and when the board member asked me about it, I could sense Ken's pride and I new I just needed to make it happen.
I ran the Kansas City Marathon back in October and basically recovered and maintained running 10-12 miles as my long run until the end of the year.  I knew that running 100 miles is far different from 26.2, so I tried to focus more on increasing the number of days I run a week.  In the past, I tried to run 3-4 days only because I would do speed work and I was worried about getting injured.  Without doing speed work, I could slowly start adding a day here and there to basically run 6-7 days a week.

Once I switched to day shift, I really did not run every day, but that was not until February.  I did a lot of research and realized the biggest thing with running an ultra is back to back long runs.  I would do my long run and then run long or semi-long the next day as well and then take a rest day.  This seemed to work well for me.

My longest run was 18 one day followed by 11 the next day and then a rest day.  I ran 6 days total that week with other 6-10 mile runs included.  I also read that if you have a job where you are on your feet, you are used to more endurance than if you sit all day.

While I really should have run a little further than I did, I am happy with how the rest turned out and did the best training I could while starting a new career.  I also ran my runs completely without walking, while I knew I would run/walk the 100 miler.

If anyone out there has any questions about taking things to a distance beyond a marathon, let me know!  I am by no means a professional, but I am a girl who feels that anyone can do anything they want to do if they give it a shot!  Plus, I think it is important to maintain balance with exercise, work, and real life.