Ultramarathon forums?

I am not an ultra runner but do train with several people that are. They have done races like La Griz (50 miles), Rocky Raccoon (100 miles), and Western States (100 miles). From talking with them I have found that their training is similar to my training for Ironman, with a few exceptions. When I'm swimming they are running, and when I'm biking they are running, and when I'm running... you get the idea. I guess what I'm tring to say is maybe post your question over on the Ironman forum and see if anyone over there can answer it or point you in the right direction.

I don't know much about this myself but there are lots of ultra runners in my area and the site for their annual event here is:
http://www.lostsoulultra.com/
You may find something from the links page.

As a sidenote: there is an interesting race report in there from a local guy who came 2nd at IM Canada last year in the 70 - 74 age group.

If you're really stuck, a local running store has a message board too. It's not very active but you might get some ultra people to offer links or answer questions themselves.
http://www.runnersoul.com/leth.htm
There is a link to the message board on the left.

I'm curious what they consider a long run.  I'm going to do an ultra at some point in the next few years and I'm trying to get a handle on what to expect.  If you're training for a marathon your long runs typically max out around 20-25 miles...just short of race distance.  But for something that is 50 miles are the long runs really 40+ or is there some point when you change the strategy.  Do 100 milers really do 80+ mile training runs?

Synchronicity... I just happened to be surfing on
http://www.runnersworld.com/
and found an ultramarathon training article.
Go to that site, follow the link for the training section, and in there follow the link to "more articles..." under training plans. The ultramarathon article was on the top of the list.

Hey there.
You might want to look up the Club Fat Ass ultramarathons. http://www.clubfatass.com/cdn_ultras.htmlis the one I use (being Canadian) but there are Fat Ass runs all over the world. That is if you are into unorganized ad hoc kind of things.

My long runs are 32K with weekly totals in the 75-85K range. depending on injuries and life its own self interfering.

To qualify as an ultramarathon a race only needs to be longer than the 42.2K of a marathon so you will see a lot of ultras at 50K.

I don't know of any forums per se but you might find this a useful resource:
http://www.carey.abelgratis.co.uk/100km/page9.htm

.. But real ultra runners consider a real ultramarathon must be at least 50 miles. Or so that was the logic that I used to convince myself I needed to do a 50 miler

As far as long runs, I think my longest run was in the neighborhood of ~5 hours (with a ~4 hour run the next day). Check out this plan here, it's what I used for my race:

http://www.halhigdon.com/ultramarathon/ultramarathon2000.htm

Now, just like ironmans, you'll get a wide variety of training philosophies with regards to volume and long run distance.

Thanks...looks like I've got some sources to check out.  I'd like to do at least a 50 miler...if that doesn't kill me I might consider a 100 miler at some point.

I've talked to a few of the ultramarathoners that I know and they have all said that you do not need to be running 30 to 40 miles at a time. It would be better to do back to back 20 mile runs on the weekend. Check out the training tips from Le Grizz Ultra http://www.cheetahherders.com/TrainingTipsLG.html

Another thing to consider is the course that you are going to be running on. If there are alot of hills plan (and train) to walk them and then start running again at the top. IMO very few people actually run an ultra, the majority of people use a run/walk plan.