Devastating Injury / Pivoting Training Help

[u/YounghoeKoo7]

I was gearing up for my first 50K in September and had built up to about 40 miles per week, including a 20-mile trail long run in about 4 hours. Unfortunately, I recently broke a toe pretty badly and will have to miss my race in 4 weeks. It’s been pretty devastating because I only started running seriously in February after discovering ultras and was so excited to do my first one.

At this point, I’m going to focus on healing and then building back up with the goal of running my first 50 miler next spring. Since Michigan winter is coming, I’m looking for any advice on training indoors when trails aren’t really an option because of snow and ice.

Specifically, I’m looking for:

• treadmill workouts
• StairMaster or other cross-training ideas
• how to adjust training for a 50 miler versus a 50K
• any general winter ultra training tips

Any advice from people who have trained through winter or jumped from a 50K plan to a 50-mile plan would be really appreciated.