Race Changes and my first race of the year

As I mentioned before I need to replace Miwok since I'm not doing it now. The replacement was either Silver State 50 or Bishop High Sierra 50 mile. Bishop 50 won out, here is why.

My goal for the year is Western States 100. What do I need my prep races to have to train myself to be ready, distance, hills, heat, altitude, (among other things).

Bishop has all of this, and I have DNF'd at the race so I'm more motivated for Bishop, over Silver States.

I know from talking to others that Silver State is hard, I'm not saying it's easier. But my personal opinion is Bishop is a little harder for me due to my history at the race.

I also know altitude can mess with my running. Bishop goes higher up and I'm pretty sure it has more gain, 11,000ft from what I read somewhere.

The second change is that instead of the Auburn 50K for my last long run/race I'm going to do the Diablo 50K. How I missed this race before I'll never know. I thought it was just in March and April. I know from running and hiking that pile of dirt that it's all good training at Diablo.

And finally, my first race of the year is here, the venerable Way to Cool 50K.

I'm keyed up and want to race. I haven't done much quality running yet so it will be interesting to see how I hold up. Normally people run WTC as as training as they prep for WS100. Been there done that in 2007. I'm not knocking the idea but I'm itching too much to go hurt a bit and test my fitness. So I'll throw myself out on a limb and post my goal for the race.

Regardless of the new accurate course distance I think I'm capable of and would like to run 4:30 or faster. We shall see....

AB