Preparation for Canyons 100k 2024

I’m writing this about 2 weeks prior to the 2024 Canyons Endurance Run 100k. This will be my first 100k trail run, and I wanted to share of some of my race prep. I’m writing this as much for the community as I’m writing it to show myself I’m well prepared for the race.

Let’s talk about:

• The race itself
• My physical training
• What I learned in tune-up 2 races to adjust my Canyons race plan
• My nutrition plan
• My goals and my fears.

About Canyons Endurance Runs 100k

Canyons is a trail running event held around Auburn, California, sharing parts of its course with the Western States course. The race is part of the UTMB world series, and serves as the North American Majors (meaning you get double stones for the UTMB lottery). The race has multiple distances, 25k, 50k, 100k and a 100M race.

My specific race, the 100k, will be (big surprise) 100km long, and will have - depending on your data source - about 13,000 ft of climbing and 17,000 ft of descending (about 4,000m of climbing, 5,000m of descending). The image below is how CalTopo plots the elevation chart, the names on there are names of the aid stations.

The race starts about 5,000ft (1,500m) of elevation, and given the snow year we’ve had there might be some snow out on the course. The first section will be the hilliest section, going from China Wall to Devil’s Thumb, where we’ll descend towards Swinging Bridge and go back up. 1.5 miles (2.5km) one way with 1,500ft (500m) of vert. It’ll be a descent/climb at a 19.5% average grade, which will be one tough cookie. According to the Strava segment data, the uphill can be done in 20 minutes if you’re Jim Walmsley, but I plan to take just a tiny little bit longer.

Even though Canyons is well known for being a potentially very hot race early in the season, I had a friend scout that section of the course a few weeks ago. She encountered snow as well as multiple stream crossings. I’m prepared to get my feet wet, see snow and later in the day get really sweaty and hot.

From there, the course will travel to Michigan Bluff and then to Foresthill at approximately the half-way mark. Both are crew accessible aid stations, but based on information I read on Reddit a while ago, Foresthill is a more accessible aid station. This is where I’m planning to see my crew for the first time. Hoping to get my own food, my own drink, change socks and take some time to get myself ready for the second half.

From there, we’ll travel to Cal 2 aid station and to Driver’s Flat. Driver’s Flat is the last crew accessible aid station. I plan to see my crew there again, mainly hoping for some of my own food, a hug and a pat on the back as I’ll have about 20 more miles to go to downtown Auburn.

There will be 10 aid stations along the course, with the distances between them ranging from 3.2 miles to 9.3 miles.

My training leading up to Canyons

Before I detail my training leading up to Canyons, let me share with you my achievements of 2023:

• Ran 4 50k races
• Paced a friend for 50k at her 100M race
• Ran 54 miles during a backyard ultra
• Ran 1,565 miles (2518 km) with 210,000 ft (64,000m) of vert
• On top of running, hiked 450 miles (720km) with 100,000 ft (30,500m) of vert

I took it pretty easy running wise after the backyard ultra, and started my training year hiking around Southern California with my wife and a good friend. It’s a great way to spend Christmas and New Year.

That’s when training started! For my training, I’ve been working with coach Mason Coppi since last year and I enjoy having a coach to help build my schedule and give me feedback on my workouts.

Overall, training went well with maybe a couple setbacks but nothing major. Overall, I ran 5 days per week, with 2 rest days. Typical week contained one workout, one long run, one recovery run and 2 easy runs. There were a few instances of doing a workout during the long run in the early training cycle, which we cut out once I started doing some tune-up races.

January was a pretty easy month. Averaged 20 mpw over the first 3 weeks. That should have been a bit higher, but I pulled my back during my warmup routine one Saturday. That kept me from running for exactly a week. After that week off, we built up mileage to about 40 mpw, which was a little under my average mileage in the block from August to December.

During February we built up to 50mpw, which ended up being approximately my sustained mileage throughout the rest of the block. I took one weekend off running in February when I felt like I needed it; but other than that I was able to stay on plan.

March was the month of tune-up races. I planned 2 races (in talks with my coach): Marin Ultra Challenge 50k and Redwood (Spring) Trail 50k run. More on what I learned in the next section, but those training races were great in the middle of my training cycle. Took 2 days off running after each of those runs, and was able to pick up training without any issues in the week after.

We’re now in April and starting to taper down volume. I have a final (shorter) tune up race coming up on Saturday at the Woodside Crossover 35k, and after that it’s only 2 more weeks prior to Canyons.

The graph below shows my weekly mileage and vert from January to last week. I think there’s a small alignment issue between start and end of week; but the graph still shows the overall trend:

I am also doing heat training in preparation for the risk of high temperatures at Canyons. I’m following Jason Koop’s 6 week repeated exposure plan for that, doing hot water immersion. I started off in the hot tub of our apartment complex, but found the bath tub a bit more convenient. I’m doing the maintenance phase right now, and will pick up with 6 days per week again after the Woodside 35k.

My body has been able to adapt to the training fairly well. Outside of the pulled back and the one weekend where I felt I needed some additional rest; I’ve been surprisingly resilient to the increased training and the 2 50ks. I do plan on taking one week off completely from running and then 4 easy weeks after Canyons to ensure I’m not overdoing it; but all signals are pointing in the right direction.

So far this year, I’ve done 600 miles of running (960km, which will be 1,000 km after Woodside), with 98,000ft (29,800m) of vert. I feel in the best shape of my life, and even though I’m stressed out like never before, I feel physically ready for Canyons.

What I learned during my 2 tune-up races to create my Canyons race plan

As I mentioned earlier, I did 2 tune-up races during March: The Marin Ultra Challenge 50k and the Redwood (Spring) 50k run. I broke my PR in the 50k twice, once with a 6:08 at Marin; and then again at Redwood in a 5:55.

There are however a couple lessons learned during those tune-up races:

1. I used to race at a pretty consistent effort level, aiming to be in zone 2 for the whole race. With feedback from my coach, I worked on pushing a bit harder on the uphills and going easier on the downhills. That worked absolute wonders in Marin, and I finished that 50k with 6,000 ft (2,000m) of vert feeling like I could keep going. I messed that up a bit in the Redwood run, where I didn’t take it easy enough on the downhills and lost my legs for the final 5 miles. Wasn’t a full 100% blow up, but I definitely lost power. The images below show the smoothed GAP (grade-adjusted pace) of both races. You can see that during the Marin race my GAP was pretty consistent with a nice speed-up at the end (don’t mind the final little segment, that was me running a bit longer to get 50k on GPS). You can also see that during the Redwood run, the GAP gradually decreased near the end.

   

   

2. You don’t lose much by starting too easy. At the Marin race, I gained 61 places from the first aid station to the finish line. I started off very easy, got passed on the first downhill by a ton of people; but managed to catch a lot of them again prior to the finish. It’s something I need to take into account going into Canyons; because I forgot that a bit during the Redwood race.

3. Aid stations are great, but I love my own food. I’ll talk about this more in the nutrition section; but this year I started optimizing my nutrition plan by setting a food timer. This, combined with knowing the calories in my own food makes it very easy to manage nutrition during both training and racing. While I still like to look at the aid station food and might grab something that looks appealing; knowing I have my own food on my with the full nutrition info makes racing less of a mental struggle.

4. Racing is fun.

I’ll use these lessons in Canyons. My race plan is - very high level - the following:

1. Take it super easy on the first 10 miles. They’re net downhill, but don’t waste your energy here. Ensure you’re in a good headspace, maybe find someone to chat with, make sure your gear is sitting well, eat, hydrate and most of all: don’t focus on the time in this section. Just go with the flow, take it easy, the race hasn’t even started yet.
2. Go a bit harder on the uphills, but don’t burn yourself out. There’s a ton of hills on the whole course, you can go hard near the finish.
3. Eat every 25 minutes. In the first 30 miles, don’t waste a ton of time at the aid stations. You’ll see crew at Foresthill, and let’s spend some time with the crew.
4. If it even remotely starts like getting warm/hot, take ice early.

Nutrition

One crucial aspect I’ve learned through my training is the importance of proper nutrition. It has become clear that maintaining a steady intake of food boosts my performance significantly.

During training, I eat a bunch of different stuff. Mostly sports nutrition products, with the occasional real food mixed in. But if I look at my food basket, my staples are:

• Clif Margarita Blocks
• Naak bars
• Gu Stroopwafel
• Gu Gel / Roctane Gel
• Betty Lou fruit bars
• Enduro bites (with Fig)
• Enervit Performance bars
• SIS BETA Fuel
• The occasional Clif bar

I complement the food with Tailwind for hydration. I mix my tailwind at 80g/liter, which equates to about 1 gram of sodium per liter as well. I don’t exclusively drink tailwind, I also sip on water that I consume with the food. I drink enough by myself, so I don’t set any drink timer. I do try to consume about 500ml of the tailwind mix per hour; which might be more during hot days.

When it comes to racing, I know I have a lot of food I can stomach, but for the past 2 races, I have relied on the following food timing that worked very well:

• 25:00: 3 Clif Blocks.
• 50:00: Gu Gel
• 75:00: 3 Clif Blocks (empties the packet)
• 100:00: Naak Bar
• 125:00: skip this food timer, let the stomach digest.

The reason I do this is for a couple reasons: Each feeding is 100kcal, except for the Naak bar which is about 200kcal. I take a break from eating after the Naak bar, to give my stomach some extra time to digest, and given the Naak bar is 200kcal, it keeps me on my schedule.

Now, I hear you ask: why set a food timer every 25 minutes; why not 20 or 30? It’s pretty simple: I feel like 30 is too long, and 20 is too short. 25 feels just fine for me.

I’ve been able to stomach all that food in my training as well as during the 2 tune up races. I had zero issues during the Marin race. During the Redwood race, my effort was higher, and I was just a tiny little bit nauseous at one point.

Talking about nausea for Canyons: I hope to combat that in two ways: Firstly by doing less effort than during the Redwood run, secondly by carrying some ginger chews (that I also tried during training) to help calm down the stomach.

One thing that is top of mind for me is how I’ll react when it gets hot and I’m drinking more - and also drinking more Tailwind. My plan for that is to monitor my intake on a 25 by 25minute basis (as the food timer goes off) - and potentially skip an additional food timer if I consume significantly more than 500ml of Tailwind per hour. That is a very likely scenario, that I won’t be able to test in training (it’s just not hot enough) but I’ll figure out on race day.

I plan to closely stick to my tried-and-tested plan for the first 50k. Might supplement with some aid station food (banana anyone?) left of right, but mainly want to stay to my tried and tested routine. In the second half, where I expect to slow down due to fatigue, I am prepared to deviate from the plan and to see what the race throws at me. I do want to try and stick to a continued intake of food; but I am prepared to enjoy more variety at the aid stations in the second half.

Final thing on nutrition: I like Naak bars but find their drink mix less appealing. As Naak is a major sponsor for both Canyons and UTMB, their drink mix will be the main hydration option available. Given I want tailwind to keep me hydrated and for extra carbs, I’ll have to carry a decent amount of stuff; mainly during the first 50 kilometers of the race. First off, my clif blocks and my gels, which they won’t have at the aid stations. Second, sticks of tailwind. I’ve done some back of the envelope math, and I’ll carry 6 tailwind sticks, 4 tubes of clif blocks, 4 gels and 1 of my own Naak bars. The race will stock Naak bars, so I’ll rely on their supply for that. At Foresthill I’ll see my crew, and I’ll be able to get fresh tailwind sticks, fresh tailwind bottles and fresh blocks and gels.

My goals and my fears

Canyons will be my first 100k race. I honestly have no idea how it’s going to go. I know I put in the right training, I know I have a good strategy for the race and I have my nutrition dialed; but I’m nervous as hell.

That said, let me lay out my goals:

1. Get out of my own head, don’t do too many course split time calculations, focus on enjoying the day.
2. Having said that, I hope to finish in under 14:40.
3. Pace the first 30 miles conservatively.

My biggest fear for the race is for me to blow up. I don’t want a repeat of the Redwood race. I know I’ll slow down in the second half just due to biomechanical breakdown and fatigue and I can live with that, but I don’t want to feel at mile 30 like I did in the Redwood race. Other than that, I mainly have fear of the unknown. I have no clue how I’ll feel after 50 miles in a 100k. I covered 50 miles in a backyard ultra, but that was a totally different race format and I did that after running a 50k the week prior.

Closing thoughts

I’ve written this as much for myself as for the public to see. For myself, writing all of this down was helpful to think about the race, how I’ve prepared for it and telling myself I’m ready for it. For the public, I hope this helps others as they are prepping for their races; because I’ve read other’s race prep stories and it has helped me as well.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out via Twitter or Strava.