The Blackbird Training Plan - Revision 01

Given that this is primarily intended to be a training blog, I should probably write something about my training plans, because no sane blackbird would ever just get up one morning and run 250km without some kind of preparation. As I see it, there are four things working in my favor and four things working against me.

Go Blackbirds!

1. I'm not starting completely from zero. It's true that I haven't run more than a couple of miles in one shot all year, but I've been hitting the gym regularly since August and building overall strength and fitness. I just need to spend more time on endurance and cardio in addition to the strength training.
2. Time is on my side. This won't always be the case, but as of this writing I have over 300 days to prepare, which should give me plenty of time to approach this in an intelligent fashion.
3. I'm not trying to win the damn race. I just want to finish it. There are daily time cutoffs for each stage, but they are quite generous. If I can average more than 2.5 miles per hour, I'll make it. They say that 20% of entrants run the whole thing, 60% do a combination of running and walking, and 20% walk the entire course. So it's possible to walk the whole thing and still finish in under the time limit.
4. I can be a stubborn bastard when it comes to something I really want. This isn't always a positive trait, I'm sure, but in this case, I think it's an essential one.

No Blackbirds!

1. Altitude. The race starts around 10,000 feet above sea level, and I think the entire event is at altitudes over 7500 feet. I live at 400 feet or so. There is no substitute for dealing with the reduced oxygen at higher elevation other than spending significant time at altitude. I did the research on "elevation training masks" - they don't work.
2. Gear. This isn't just a matter of covering X distance in Y time. You also have to carry all your gear (there is a mandatory set of equipment everyone has to have, from sleeping bag to a minimum number of calories to blister kits, and so on) in a backpack for the entire course.
3. Mass. I am not a small human, and while I'm sure I'll probably drop some weight over the course of this training regime, right now I'm at 22% body fat. Let's say I get down to 15. Assuming no other changes in body composition, that still has me hitting the starting line at around 215. I've seen the people that run these things, and I'd be surprised if any of them weigh over 200. It's not that I give two shits about my weight relative to anyone else's, but every pound on my ass is a pound I have to huck.
4. Feet. My feet are so flat you could land an airplane on them. I have no idea how they are going to hold up under this kind of massive distance or if my lack of arch is going to cause biomechanical problems for me farther up in the stack.

A Bird With a Plan

OK, so what am I actually going to do? I can't fix my flat feet, and there are limits to reasonable mass reduction, so at a high level, this is the plan:

Phase 1: For the next six months, I am going to keep doing the same strength-training routine that I've been doing plus add in as much running and cardio as I can put up with. Some days this will mean running in addition to lifting, and other days it will just be running or biking. Once the days start getting longer, I'll probably start biking to work again as a cross-training activity. The main thing here is just adding distance / time on my feet / overall endurance in a gradual fashion so as to avoid injury. The other main goal here is that each week there will be a "long" outing (doesn't matter if it's running or walking or run/walking) that needs to increase by one mile each week. If all goes according to plan (it never does) then I should be able to do at least 35 miles in one outing by the time phase one is over.

Phase 2: This should pick up around May 2017 or so, at which point I'll start training with gear - specifically, a backpack that either contains the actual stuff I'll be carrying with me or that just contains some 20-30 pounds of weights. My race pack should be less than 20lbs, so if I'm used to a 30lb pack, 20lbs might feel like no big deal. :-) During this phase is when I will probably do most of my experimentation with race-time nutrition - what kinds of things work best, what doesn't taste like absolute shit, etc.

Phase 3: For the final month leading up to the event, I need to deal with the altitude problem. Right now my thinking is that I'll try to spend the month of September 2017 working remotely from Denver or Tahoe before coming back to SF to pack up my gear, hug my cats, and start praying to the flying spaghetti monster. If I can get three or four weeks of living and training at 6500 feet or so, hopefully that'll be sufficient so that I'm not completely sucking wind come race start day.