Reddit reviews Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons

Hal Koerner's Field Guide to Ultrarunning is a really useful reference. Hal won Western States and Hardrock despite never having "elite" athletic ability. His race day execution is legendary.

Relentless Forward Progress by Bryon Powell is another good one. Bryon is a front-of-the-mid-pack runner and editor of irunfar (which is another good reference). His knowledge of ultrarunning is encyclopedic.

I strongly recommend the training plans and other info in Relentless Forward Progress. Only $11 on Amazon!

Only you can be the judge if you’re being overzealous or not. Running a 50K Ultra is only ~5 mi longer than a marathon. If you’re going longer you need to be both mentally and physically prepared. I picked up Bryon Powell’s book Relentless Forward Progress to help me get prepared for my Ultras. Good luck.

Edit: Progress

It's a question that will have widely varying answers depending upon the specific 50k.

1. Train for the course you will run. Easy road one? Great. Do marathon training plus a bit more, call it a day. On trails? You better run some trails (ideally on the course in question or ones that are similarly difficult in hilliness and technicality), get used to spending more time on your feet.
   
   
2. Assuming trail: figure out what fueling you need for something like 1.5 * marathon worth of running (gels, solid food, water, etc.). Some people are fine with just more of the same, some people will want to avail themselves of the goodies at the aid stations. Just practice and see what works for you.
   
   
3. Training...just find a plan that works for you. Many will have people start doing back-to-back runs on the weekend to boost mileage, harden your will, and get you familiar with running even when tired and cranky.
   
   Best single item of advice I can give someone taking that leap is go buy Relentless Forward Progress. RFP is a rock solid book with lots of great information on most every facet of ultra-running, including solid training plans.

Relentless Forward Progress Byron Powell

Well funny you would say that, because Bryon has written a fantastic book on how to train for an ultra called "Relentless Forward Progress". You can go out and spend all you free time running and training, but that is not the only way to be a successful runner.

There are some plans in the following two books:

1. Relentless Forward Progress
   
   
2. Hal Koerner's Field Guide to Ultrarunning
   
   I personally didn't follow any plan but made sure for the training to be specific - on trails similar to what I expected in the race and with similar elevation gain per mile. I focused on back to back long runs on weekends, a lot of climbing, and less on the distance. I don't think I ever did more than may be 45-50 miles per week for any of my 50 milers or 100K races but made sure to hit close to 8,000-10,000 ft of gain per week on my peak weeks.

I really like the plans in Relentless Forward Progress. Different options for distance and weekly mileage. All around great read.

This one?

Relentless Forward Progress by Bryon Powell. All you need.

https://www.amazon.com/Relentless-Forward-Progress-Running-Ultramarathons/dp/1891369903

Yeah double weekend days should be like 3-4 hours and 1.5-2 hours, not 5+ and 3-4. Maybe you do like one harder weekend a month to push things, but you take an easy week afterwards to recover. Buy a book like Relentless Forward Progress for more on how ultra training works. $5 used https://www.amazon.com/dp/1891369903/ref=olp_product_details?_encoding=UTF8&me=

Read Relentless Forward Progress. There are training plans and lots of useful information.
Or just lurk in /r/ultramarathon and /r/ultrarunning a lot and piece together your own training.

You haven't really discussed what your training base is (weekly mileage, how long you've been running). Have you read Relentless Forward Progress?

Relentless Forward Progress has good advice and several different training programs.

Running Through the Wall has lots of personal accounts by "ordinary" ultrarunners telling their stories. It's inspiring and gives a real sense for what it's like to run a 100 miler.

"They say" you should only increase your distance by 10% per week. That puts you at about 17 weeks to go from 15 to 60 miles. That doesn't include rest weeks every 4th or 5th week, which is smart. So add another 3 or 4 rest weeks in there that you're not upping your mileage. Let's say 21 weeks, total. Which is within the 30-31 weeks you have alloted. It doesn't account for injury.

Read "Relentless Forward Progress". It has some Ultra training plans in there. http://www.amazon.com/Relentless-Forward-Progress-Running-Ultramarathons/dp/1891369903