Trying not to get ahead of myself ... again

My training for the Iron Horse 100 Endurance Run continues to move ahead nicely. I've been averaging 45-50 miles per week of training and have completed at least two 22 milers in the past few weeks. My midweek runs continue in the 6-8 miles per day range and I'm being fairly consistent about taking one day per week completely off from running. All in all, I'm happy with how things are moving forward towards February 18.

With the 100k now less than 6 weeks away, I'm nearing my peak mileage weeks of training, so I'm now starting to lean even more heavily on the weekend long runs and the back-to-back component that goes with them. For instance, I'm planning on running around 22 miles this Saturday morning, and will follow it up on Sunday with another 10 mile LSD run. This is a huge departure from marathon training tactics, and I'll be honest, it's not particularly easy to accomplish. It is making me stronger though, and I do believe that my endurance and mental toughness is seeing a benefit from it. I once heard a fellow ultra runner say that running a 100 miler is 90% mental, and the other 50% is physical. I'm believing that more and more.

I know how many of you have an absolutely hatred for the treadmill in your training, so I know you'll get a kick out of this. A few days ago, I needed to run a 24 miler. No problem, right? Wrong. Mother Nature brought a thunderstorm of epic proportions to our area and there was simply no way for me to spend 4+ hours out in it. What did I do? Bag the 24? Skip the run? Wait until another day?

You got it. I ran the miles on the ole treadmill. That's a LLLLLONG time to run on a treadmill, let me tell you. I started about 10 minutes after midnight, and I stepped off the 'mill at 4:25am. I don't know how I managed to do it, honestly, but I did. My relationship with our 'mill is a Love/Hate one. Sometimes, we get along fine; other times we hate each other.

Here's hoping noone has to do what I did...