AndyPants and JenSw should be here any minute to help you.
I do a 50K every march and it trashes my legs everytime. i run trails every weekend three months out. I just keep it slow and try to watch out for stumps and other things in the trails.
Where are you sore. When I switch from road to trails I experiance soreness most around the lower leg from the tendons working so much more with the uneven terrain. That takes me a few weeks. If quads from downhills that takes more time. Usually I am not able to have the muscle specificity for the quads with the descents on trails so i am ok till two days after the race ; )
I am doing my first ultra in the Fall and in the last 2 weeks have dramatically increased my mileage. I have a solid run base so am not worried about going from 35-45 mpw to 60 quickly. I have been slowing down my long runs and recovering ok. However, this weekend I did back to back 3 hour trail runs and my legs were trashed during the last hour of each run. How many long runs, which I define as over 2 hours for this type of training, will it take for my legs to adjust and not feel so sore and achy? I have been walking the steep uphills per my coach’s advice which worked well this weekend. I never hit the wall and my nutrition was solid, but my legs were killing me after 2 hours of running.
You should ask your coach.
You are averaging 5-6 mile a day (35/7 or 45/7). And you want to run 30 miles. That is a plan for pain. Which you have.
You define a long run as over 2 hours. And you want to run for over 4 hours. That is a plan for pain. Which you have.
Your coach should be able to help you determine if your goal is reachable or not. If it is reachable, he should be able to give you advice.
Starting with back to back 3 hour days was a bit extreme, but the weekend sandwich is exactly what you need.
Dial it back and schedule your weekends to build up to that 14 days before the 50k.
Train for the 50K exactly like you would for a trail marathon. Back to back 3 hour runs now? A 4 hour run now for a fall trail run? How long until that race? Seems like currently you are pretty high volume for a fall race. A 50K should only take you an hour or so more than an marathon, what the heck are you running 4 hours for already? Has your coach ever run a 50K or longer? Just tack three extra miles (up to 30-40 minutes) to your long run and you’ll be just fine. Hill repeats once a week, forget track workouts, a total waste of time for trail runners. Gong from 45-60MPW on trails is so entirely different than doing the same thing on the road that I would suggest a gut check with your coach. If your legs were trashed after two hours on day one that’s a pretty big red flag in my book.
I have run several 50K’s and 50 mile trail runs and coach several folks who run them as well. I have seen what works and what does not. Are you running a lot DOWNhill in your training? Most folks don’t run the downhills hard enough and pay for it with weak VMO muscles that break down towards the end of the event.
Not an expert by a long shot, but I love the 50K distance and did 5 of them in 3 months this past spring in addition to a 70.3 and an Olympic distance tri. My training for 50K involves doing regular tri training, but with all of my brick runs and other runs on trails around my house. I don’t do back-to-back long efforts like you did, but my runs consist of:
Monday- 90 minute bike/30-minute swim
Tuesday- 10 mile trail run
Weds- 90-minute bike/5-mile trail run
Thurs- 8 mile trail run/20-minute swim
Friday- 90-minute bike/30-minute swim
Saturday- Long bike (depending on which tri I’m training for)/5 mile trail run
Sunday- Long run, peaking at 22 miles 2 weeks before the 50K
That has worked for me in every case. I also switched to Hoka shoes which made a HUGE difference in recovering from the long efforts and don’t have soreness the day after the long run any more. Just keep at it, but I don’t think you need a double up the long run like you’re doing. Just my opinion.
Seems extreme, but maybe you are looking at a faster finish than I was.
Basically marathon training with a few single track runs will get you a finish. If you manage not to start out too fast the finish might even be confident – my first 50K was 3 loops with the 2nd loop being 30 minutes slower than the 1st and the 3rd 30 minutes slower than the 2nd.