First race of 2013

Well, I am officially registered for the Trail Marathon 50k at the end of April.  In order to accomplish the "No Wimps Challenge" I'm going to run the half marathon, which is held the day before.  I thought it would be a fun way to kick off my training for the Hallucination 100, in particular since the races are on the same trails.  Actually, this week marks my first week using an actual training plan.  I picked up a copy of Brian Powell's Relentless Forward Progress: A Guide to Running Ultramarathons.  There is a 70 mile/week 100 miler training plan that I am going to try to follow.  This is at the high end of my weekly mileage (historically I vary from 30-50 miles/week) and I'm a little uncertain as work/family/life has typically kept me from following a formal training plan.  On top of this, I'm not certain how I will get my miles in during my trip to Asia.  Still, I really want to finish the Hallucination 100 and, ideally, finish without falling apart in the last 25-40 miles as has been the case in previous races.  I also see it as a bit of a test of my self-discipline.  We'll see.  In either case, I am really looking forward to my first race of the year.  I've had a couple 20 mile runs and one 25 mile long run so I think a slow 50k shouldn't be too much trouble even following a half marathon.  My mantra will be to go slow.  I'm not sure that anyone is keeping track, but I have also switched from Daily Mile to Endomondo and put up a new widget here that accurately lists my total mileage for the year.  This is really just because I have dropped using my Garmin and started using the GPS on my phone.