Ahead of Schedule?

If I had a schedule I think I'd be ahead of it but right now the only real plan is this...begin the drive to Leadville on August 1st and be at the LT100 start line before 4:00am on August 16. Other than that it's about logging as many miles as my body can handle while staying healthy.
I guess what I've been using as sort of a schedule is my running log from last year. I've occasionally gone back to look at distances and pace to see how I'm doing compared to a year ago. If I didn't have those records to look at I'd be feeling completely unprepared for Leadville. Even with them I still seriously question my ability to finish 100 miles within the 30 hour time limit. One of the main reasons for these doubts is that I begin to analyze my conditioning during the heat of the day sometime around mile 40 of a hilly 50 mile training run. Even as I do it I'm aware that it's unfair to make judgments about what my performance might be two months down the trail. If I had to make a decision today as to my participation in Leadville, I wouldn't even start the car for the drive. Fortunately I don't have to make that choice just yet and the further away from last Monday I get the more objectively I can perceive the experience. Monday, June 16th was rough. It certainly didn't begin that way but by the end of the day I was hurting. We started our first 50 mile training run of the season promptly at 6:00am in absolutely perfect weather. We actually had perfect weather the entire day. I don't think the temperature ever went above 75, we had sporadic cloud cover and a near constant breeze. We set out with the idea of returning to the car for bottle refills about every 15 to 18 miles. This would allow me to only carry two bottles full of Accelerade with a stash of Endurolytes and a few caffeinated PowerGels as an emergency back-up. Joel and I decided to start the day running a portion of the Afton Trail Run course in reverse. By doing this we would be able to immediately get in some great single-track while avoiding a couple of big hills before we were truly warmed up. After maybe six miles we left the park and ran on River Road into the town of Afton, MN. We made a quick visit to the river while in Afton and then headed back into the park. As I said before our plan was to be back to the car for refills well before we hit the 20 mile mark. Unfortunately we didn't make it to the car until we were more than 23 miles into the run. I began conserving my Accelerade when I knew we were still 5 miles out and took in my first gel about 3 miles later. By the time we got to the car we had done 23.34 miles in 4:33 and I was already beginning to bonk. We reloaded our supplies and headed out to do a single loop of the 25K course. At the bottom of one of the long downhills the miles began to take their toll on me. As I hit the bottom of the hill I quietly exclaimed "oh crap" and looked at my watch...26.2 miles. Good to know. I used to say things like that around mile 19. Maybe I am improving. We hit the 50K mark in 6:33 while adding in some laps on one of the runnable hills for good measure. This was when I began to realize that our later than planned arrival at our first aid stop had done some damage. My legs were getting tighter with every mile and the Endurolytes were just barely keeping the cramps away. We made it to the car for our second aid stop just shy of 40 miles and 8:56 into the day.
10 miles left. I was already hurting all over and was beginning to make comparisons to Leadville...."if I feel this bad after only 40 miles...." You get the point. Bad thoughts. Doubt. Nothing good could come of it but I couldn't shut it off. These last 10 miles were excruciating, both physically and mentally. I walked most of them due to the pain in the balls of my feet. I've never had pain in my feet like that before and I can only attribute it to the early miles on the road in trail shoes that lack cushioning for that surface.
Once we were done I felt good. I changed shoes and socks, washed the salt and dirt off my body, and drank a bottle of Endurox for recovery. I was tired and still sore. I still had doubts rolling around my head but the first big run of the season was done.
It doesn't matter how many of these I do, I always learn something. This time it was about aid stops. I need to plan better. I shouldn't have let that first one wait until 23 miles. I suffered for it the rest of the day and will continue to suffer for it for most of this week. If aid stations are further apart than 15 miles I need to carry a spare bottle.
While the road miles are good for logging true running miles my feet can't handle too many of them in trail shoes. Better to break up the running with steep hills than bruise my feet on the road and be hobbled for days to come.
When I got home Monday night I had a chance to sit down and look at last years log book. I was pleased to learn that I ran my first 50 miler of 2007 on July 23. More than a month later than this year. That was 51 miles at Afton in 12:46. This year we did 50 miles in 11:34. If we remove that extra mile from last year along with 15 minutes of time, we were nearly an hour faster this year.
100 miles on the Leadville course is about 15,000 feet of elevation gain and loss. 50 miles at Afton State Park gives us roughly 11,500 feet of gain and loss. Not bad numbers for the Midwest.
As I get further away from the experience the doubts lessen. I'll take about a week off from running to let everything heal (my mind included) and then begin building on the accumulated miles. Since I'm apparently a month ahead of last year, there's a good chance I'll be able to get in a second 50 before August.