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Simple question… Hard answer.
I think many might argue that you’re never ‘really ready.’ But for me, since I’m ~6 weeks out from my first 100 miler (High Cascades 100), it’s top of mind… I did the Cat 1 Base Plan and now I’m in week 6 of the 100 PR Plan. However, if I’m honest, I’ve only done about +/-80% of the plans — work, family and other commitments have kept me busy. I hope to 100% follow the last 6 weeks.
The good news is that I feel great, I’ve done more structured training than ever before and have had great results at my ‘B’ races (ex: http://www.strava.com/activities/140156004 and this unsanctioned race that I won http://www.strava.com/activities/142343742). Just this past Sunday for example, the PR plan called for 5:00hr Z2 ride so I mapped out a fun, scenic 77 mile route with 4100’+ of climbing that I figured would take me just over 5hrs to complete and be my longest ever solo road ride. To my surprise, I knocked out the ride in 4:30 without batting an eye. (http://www.strava.com/activities/148387669)
I guess my concern still lies in the fact that I expect the race to take me over 11hrs and I have never ridden my bike for longer than 6-7hrs. Week 10 will be my last big test, I have a 6hr MTB race on Sunday and I plan to ride 4-6hrs the day before, per plan. My guess is that if I feel good during that race, riding slightly tired from the week leading up, I’ll be ready?
Have a race plan for race day. Know what you are going to eat for breakfast, what time you are going to get up, what your warm up is, where you need to leave your drop bag etc Plan out all the details so on race day all you need to do is follow your plan and you don’t run into anything you have forgotten or missed. With a race plan comes confidence and calmness so you can focus on your race.
Lynda
Don, JonK, great read. I too am doing HC100 this year, my first marathon race. (I do race XC MTB and CX). I’ve been following the PR 100 MTB plan but probably only 75%. (vacations/other excuses). As we are getting down to the wire I do have my reservations. A couple questions where I would appreciate the feedback.
Lynda’s plan pretty much calls for training 7 days/week. I feel rest days are really important for me. I do some strength work on Mondays but have been fully resting on Fridays. Will I regret not following the plan 100%? Granted, I realize this is a PR plan not a finishing plan but feel I will benefit more with a full day recovery during the week, before long weekend training.
Don-your comment about nutrition, any chance you could provide more detail? Email is fine if you’d rather. How often did you eat/drink last year, what types of foods (real food, gels, bars?) What would you do differently? What do you consider long distance? Since I’m not training many long distance rides this is another concern. (most of my rides are 5-6 hours, no where near the 12hr it will take me to finish HC100)
Thanks for at least reading. -bill
Bill,
I was purposely vague because I didn’t want to throw around advice on a topic I don’t understand too well. There are a lot of articles, including Lynda’s articles section.
I can relay my obvious mistakes, which might be helpful. I went into the HC100 doing my normal “long ride” nutrition. Endurolytes, Perpetuem, and a few gels for when I felt bad. This had always worked. I was forgetful and didn’t eat regularly at the beginning. At hour 6 I had to stop everything but water. It was that or throw up. Eventually I had to stop for 25 minutes at an aid station and force down nibbles of banana and trail mix. I can normally eat everything in sight, but after that I couldn’t eat large bites of food until the next day.
There were warning signs in the few longer rides I’d done earlier. I’d drink Perpetuem until it started tasting gross. The ride would be almost over, so I could afford to quit eating, or I could stop and take in the view and eat real food. If I’d come up with my exact fueling plan ahead of time and rode some training rides eating to that plan all the way through, I would have known before the 100 that it wasn’t going to work.
My solution was CarboPro slurry in a bottle, gels in a flask, and eating both regularly on schedule from beginning to end. The bottles and flasks have lines on them so I know where I’m at. That got me through a subsequent hundred miler a month later with no problem. My stomach was settled and I was back to my normal self, able to snag cookies at aid stations for moral support.
I can’t tell you what quantities or substances will work for you, but doing some of your longest training rides with race nutrition can’t hurt.
Cool, thanks Don. Good to get an idea what works/doesn’t for folks. I’ve overloaded on long rides before, a little too cautious on calorie/fluid intake. Experience will only tell, of which I have little. Best I can do is stick with the food plan. Going to test out a long ride in TOE this year, a long day on the bike for the purpose of seeing how I respond to food intake.
Don, do you think you felt sick from not eating regularly from the start and the heat or actually from what you ate? Also, were you mixing fresh bottles of Perpetuem at the aid stations? If not, I wonder if your bottle had ‘turned’ from the heat…
It sounds like you found what works well for you. Once the course is announced, I hope to build a plan like Lynda discusses, here.
Hopefully this will give you an additional boost of confidence: Last year my training was inconsistent, my longest prior ride was 1 six hour epic, and the HC100 was my first hundred miler. It took 12 hours. It was unseasonably hot and the fun ceased for a little bit around ~70mi. But I finished, and overall had fun. The aid stations are the best of any race I’ve done.
This year I’m doing a similar progression to what you have done. I also raced the Chainbreaker, and we came in with similar times. You’re going to be much better prepared than I was last year.
I’m doing it again this year, so I’ll see you on race day. Heed their advice about wearing some kind of mask/bandana for the start, it is DUSTY at the beginning and you’re going to want working lungs later.
EDIT: I should have added that last year’s shoddy training was entirely self-directed. I don’t want to besmirch Lynda’s good name!
I’m training for the Breck Epic in mid-August, so for the HC100 that means I’ll ride hard but not bury myself (that’s how it works out in my head, anyway). I know I can cut off a good chunk of time from last year, but there are far too many new variables for me to set a goal time: the course is flipping around, it (hopefully) won’t be as hot, my fitness is far better, and I know better what can fuel me for that distance.
I’ll be validating nutrition lessons from last year, trying some equipment changes, and seeing what my legs feel like at that distance now that I’ve been consistently training. Maybe I’ll have some magical reserves late in the day. We’ll find out.
My stomach behaved differently at that distance, so hopefully you can use your long rides to get a hint about what yours is thinking.
Here’s last year’s course for reference:
http://www.strava.com/activities/68601169My comment about flipping the course around came from some grapevine talk I heard after last year’s race. Mile 60-80 of that route didn’t have much tree cover, and I heard they wanted to get people through it earlier in the day. There’s just so many downed trees up there right now that I’m not surprised they can’t release a definitive course yet.
The difficulty will be about the same either direction. Both ways are mostly a long gradual climb interrupted by some downhill to the top, and then mostly downhill with at least one moderate climb ~70mi when you will be tired and questioning your life choices.
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