A 50K every other day: new prescription?

As I mentioned in my previous post, with 2 weeks on the road so far in 2016, my training got inconsistent and I had some catch-up to do this week. Although I started with an ultra on January 1st, I couldn't run much in Jordan and was so excited to log miles last week in Chamonix, I stayed for 3 hours and 20 minutes on the tread mill for what the machine reported as 31.1 miles.

On Thursday, Agnès and I took the night train from St Gervais to Paris and, on Friday, I was back on the Coulée Verte for another 50K, 2 days later, running from Stade Charlety to Saclay Bourg, and back, in freezing temperatures. 3:57:54 or a 7:37 min/mile, certainly slower than my Wednesday workout on the tread mill. As a matter of fact, I couldn't feel my legs while running against the wind on the plateau of Saclay in sub-zero (Celsius) temperatures, I need more 'cold training...' Fortunately, the sun made an appearance as I turned back, and that helped a lot!

This Sunday, after running 10 miles yesterday 2 hours after landing in SFO, I was aiming at doing my 16.6-mile run on Joe's Trail, twice, something I have never done before. It was a good mental strength training to go for a second round as I felt tired enough after the first one and it started drizzling just as I was leaving home for the second time. I did turn around the second time 1 mile before Winchester Boulevard as I was lacking juice by then and it was enough to make it 31.1 miles. Oddly so, I finished really close to my Friday run, just 8 seconds slower for the same distance, albeit a flatter course.

3 50K runs in 5 days, 3 different locations including 2 countries, that's quite an ultra regimen! But not one that I expect to last, this is way too tiring, not sustainable. So, back to the title, not an advisable prescription! Still, I'm glad I did it, at least this got me used to the distance in preparation for Jed Smith 50K in 3 weeks. I've done more intensive training than this, like 1 daily and hilly ultra a day for 3 days, but never that early in the season. And I'm trying to listen to my body on one hand, to avoid the minor injuries I got the past years when resuming too quickly and, on the other hand, balancing ramp-up training with the constraints I can't schedule on the business side.

Anyway, I hope that, if you were not racing this weekend, your training is going well albeit maybe not so aggressively. But keep up the effort and discipline,  it will pay back! Eventually... ;-)