Bieler Lauftage – Courses de Bienne 100 km: race recap

preparation, execution, and learnings

Happy Marco.

A few days ago I ran my first official ultra (race data, here), one hundred kilometers at night in the Swiss countryside at the Bieler Lauftage - Courses de Bienne, an historical race that dates back to the 50s. It took me 9 hours and 50 minutes, finishing 36th / 693.

It has been quite a journey, nothing I had planned or imagined many years ago when I started getting interested in how technology can be used to monitor our physiology. A journey that never ceases to amaze me when it comes to how we can transform our bodies (as a wise coach once said, “Training works!”).

Learning from the science of endurance training, and adjusting based on individual responses, often through self-experimentation, remains a challenging and fascinating area for me, and I look forward to continuing this journey.

This post covers my preparation, race execution, and learnings.

Background

For the past 2 years, I have been obsessed with the 100 km del Passatore. While last year I DNF’d, this year the race was canceled due to the floods that hit our region the week before the race. This is why Alessandra and I ended up in Biel / Bienne to race during the night in the Swiss countryside: we needed a 100 km race which was more or less in line with what we had trained for (i.e. a runnable race), and right now (give or take two weeks).

I’m very glad we had the opportunity to put to use all the training and to release the stress we built while preparing for the event. However, I am still obsessed with Passatore :)

Something I look forward to racing next year.

Grateful to share the journey with you.

Learning from last year’s DNF

I covered in detail how my training has changed in the past year here and about my running journey over a decade and a half here. Specifically in the context of racing 100 km, I think last year I made a few beginner’s mistakes that I tried to address this year. In particular, here are 5 aspects that I tackled differently this year:

• Training: instead of focusing on volume, I tried to get as fit as possible during the year, and focused on specificity and distance only in the last 2 months. I think this went very well, as I have never been as fit as now. This year I ran PRs over every distance, including the sub-3 hour marathon that I thought was never going to happen for me. In the last month of training, I managed to run up to 200 km / week, which was also way more than my normal. Most importantly, I was feeling good while doing it. Hence in terms of training for this race, I can say I was extremely happy with what I was able to do and I do not think I could have prepared better (this wasn’t the case for the marathon for example, where due to health issues, and injuries, I skipped plenty of the sessions I wanted to do). I am looking forward to building on top of this year now.

• Racing: I raced more frequently to improve my approach to the race (psychologically), as I felt way too stressed before last year’s Passatore. I was indeed way more relaxed this year, partially because of the more frequent racing and good results, and partially because I was able to do very long runs in training, which I really needed mentally.

• Fueling better: running an ultra is very different from running short distances or even a marathon, and this year I spent a great deal of time trying to figure this out (more on this later). I’d say it’s still a work in progress, but I’m getting there.

• Managing weight: a delicate topic, but I let it slip a bit last year while this year I have been quite focused and I was more or less where I wanted to be on race day.

• Heat acclimation: this is more relevant for Passatore, which starts in the middle of the day in Florence (35 C last year), while we ended up racing in the night in Biel / Bienne, and therefore despite a warm start (22 C), things got better and better through the night (17 C at the finish). Regardless, I felt a lot better during the build and during training, and I credit this to a passive heat acclimation protocol we implemented this year.

This was my biggest block of training before the race, mostly focusing on race specificity, with some threshold work not to neglect intensity completely. My full log is available here.

Race plan and goals

I went into the race aiming for a 9h 30’ finish (A goal), with a sub 10 hour as a B goal, and just to finish as a C goal.

I was ready to DNF again in case of any physical problems, no event is worth weeks or months of not running because of an injury, at least for me.

Pacing plan

I had planned to run at 135 beats per minute tops, based on trial and error during long runs. This is 72% of my max, and I think I do have some margin for this distance (up to ~138-140 I think), but given issues experienced in training when going just a bit higher, I preferred to stay conservative.

Fueling plan

After plenty of trial and error, with nausea, muscle cramps, and other issues, I settled on 1 gel every 6 km as my fueling strategy, with no other food. This would make for 16 gels over 100 km, plus 1 before the start.

I had planned 4 gels with caffeine (1 before the start, one at approximately 25, 50, and 75 km). This is not much in terms of total carbs intake (at least according to current recommendations), but I tried it twice when running 70 km in training, and it went really well, while anything more resulted in nausea, not eating for hours, and stopping. Minimum effective dose first.

As reported below, this plan went partially out of the window due to other issues.

Hydration plan

I cannot bare to drink anything but water for a race this long (otherwise I get even more nausea), so I do not drink carbs nor do I drink electrolytes, but I take electrolyte pills from Precision Hydration (mostly sodium) and separate my food and my hydration. Hard to be sure about these things, but I think the pills have been helpful in the past year, given my high sweat rate and sodium loss. I had planned 1 pill every 6 km, just like the gels. In terms of water, I had planned to go by thirst, and sip water when having gels or pills, for obvious reasons.

Gear

Apart from carrying all my gels and pills, I started with 0.75 liters of water (flasks not full), a headlamp, a Coros watch, an old iPhone mini, and a Stryd (for pace). I used PPG from the watch for heart rate as I found a way to get very good data from my Coros, while the strap has been a joke recently (even when not wearing a hydration pack, which anyways makes it perform really poorly). The phone was needed for tracking and communication as I had a friend on the bike meeting me after 20 km.

The watch and phone are missing from the pic.

How did it go?

I am very happy with the result, despite being off target by 20 minutes.

It is not always so easy to make adjustments on the fly and change goals to accommodate whatever happens in these long events, and I am glad I am finally learning to do this better.

Below are a few more details.

First mistake

I never raced at night, and I made a beginner’s mistake by eating too much for dinner, thinking I would easily digest it (I had potatoes and bread 3 hours before the race, at 19:00, while the race start was at 22:00). I got to the start line feeling too full and bloated: I had clearly overdone it. When I started running, I noticed my heart rate was really high (maybe 10-15 bpm higher than expected), and tried to stay calm and run slower than planned.

Pacing

Hundreds of people passed me, but I stayed calm, and figured it would just make it for a more fun second half if I was able to keep the intensity low, get past this, and run my race. As an adjustment, I also skipped eating for the first hour (1 gel), until my physiology started renormalizing.

This seems all quite logical now that I write it, but I am actually quite surprised I pulled it off in the heat of the moment, instead of pretending nothing was happening, going out too hard, etc. - maybe we do learn.

Needless to say, heart rate was instrumental in all of this: internal load doesn’t lie, and only by managing it correctly, we’ll get to the end without drama.

Special thanks to Valerio for helping me out through the night.

Midrace gastrointestinal problems

After about 20-25 km my heart rate started to lower, and I started to feel more normal (not as full). At this point, I had started with my fueling protocol, and everything seemed to be heading in the right direction until I started having gastrointestinal problems.

It happens to me all the time on race day, normally I go to the bathroom maybe 3-4 times between wakeup and race start, but then race fine. As the race start this time was at 22:00, I probably went to the bathroom 10-15 times during the day. Part of this is some form of stress, but I wonder if Beet It shots contributed negatively as well (that would be the only thing I didn’t have in training - and Alessandra also had some issues, which was odd).

Anyways, at about 50 km, it was getting quite ugly (headlamp off, detour in the Swiss countryside, and you can imagine the rest). At this point, I changed plans again, as I was afraid to eat and get more problems, so I started by drinking a bit, then skipped a gel, then had half a gel, and when I saw I was more or less stable, with stomach cramps but no need to stop, I started again with gels every 6-7 km. Eventually, I had another forced stop at 83 km, and then again skipped a gel, and ate two more gels before finishing.

For long parts of the race, I felt like my stomach, more than my legs, were limiting me, which was an unusual feeling, given all the muscular problems I experience. Despite the issues, I do feel like this could have gone a lot worse, and therefore I am very happy with the outcome of the race.

Almost all spikes in pace are gastrointestinal issues.

Fueling and hydration execution

When I checked the gels in my hydration pack at the end of the race, I had 3 left, so I was able to eat 13, which means approximately 35 grams of carbs per hour (I had a mix of Maurten - 25g - and Precision Hydration - 30g). Definitely on the low side, but I didn’t really feel like I was lacking energy despite the extra bathroom breaks.

I have no idea how much I drank, but I tried to drink plenty of water not to get too dehydrated because of gastrointestinal issues. I think this worked out quite well.

It’s a long race

Having done two runs of 70 km in training, never feeling like it was too much, I was not worried about the distance anymore. I think these runs were really important for me, as they were key to figuring out issues with my initial fueling and pacing plan. We are not all the same (Alessandra for example had a great race despite never running more than 6 hours or 50 km in training), and our training should reflect our individual history, limiters, and needs. For me, staying out very long is a must, as otherwise, I do not experience issues that I need to figure out (e.g. muscle cramps, nausea, etc.).

Anyways, during the race, I felt differently. Between 75 and 90 km, it was really hard mentally. I think much of this was due to starting at 22:00. As a morning person, normally I’m in bed at that time, and despite spending most of the day “resting” on race day, by the time it was 5 am, I had been awake way too long and I was very tired.

At that point, I kept running only for one reason: walking would take too long. And I don’t mean I’d miss my goal time, at that point it was quite irrelevant, but I couldn’t bare thinking to be out there for e.g. another 4 hours instead of 2. I think it was the first time in my life that I felt like I didn’t want to run anymore despite my body being able to run. I’m curious to see if next time, running during the day, I still feel like this towards the end, or if this was just sleep deprivation (which would be my guess now).

In all of this, gels with caffeine were instrumental. I was really fading every time, and then after having one, I’d be really clear-headed and running well for at least 60-90 minutes. Not sure if being off coffee amplifies the effect, but it would have been a different race without caffeine.

Good pacing made for a fun race for about 85 km, then I faded a bit.

Other thoughts

For the reasons above, I think I’d rather not race in the night again. As I am not interested (at the moment at least) in very long events, there is no reason for me to race a 100 km that is not during the day (unless my other race gets canceled 5 days before the start!). Don’t get me wrong, the event was great, the organization was perfect, and running in the night was really something, I loved the atmosphere, the headlamps, the people cheering, etc. - but the downsides don’t play well with me (i.e. feeling stressed all day before the start, then feeling tired during the race, then feeling exhausted the day after the race when I got work to do, etc.).

Learnings

Training

Training takes time. I do not think I could have done last year what I did this year, for the simple reason that this year I had 5700 kilometers more under my belt. For the same reasons, I am sure I can do better at this distance next year when I’ll have another 5500-6000 extra. This being said, this year I trained hard and spent much of my time being very worried about being almost broken, or sometimes, being broken. I’d like not to do the same next year, and for this reason, I will change quite a bit the way I train (a story for another blog).

To maintain: training high volume, training hard once in a while, training specific only close to the event.

To avoid: training too hard or training hard too frequently, too much of the same type of training in a short time.

To try: different periodization.

It’s been a really good year but in February I messed up by training too hard and too frequently, coming off some weird stomach bug. Eventually, I had a rough 2 months, felt miserable, and even got injured during a race. Not worth it.

Race preparation

This year I’ve also experimented with tapering differently, i.e. not tapering at all until 5-6 days before the race, and loading as much as possible until the last week. Then, doing almost nothing for 3-4 days to get the legs fresh. This has worked really well for me and I’ll keep training and racing this way.

I have also had a very good experience with Maurten bicarb and muscle cramps. The jury is still out as I will have to see the impact for an event at higher intensity, but every time I had it I didn’t cramp, while I would otherwise cramp every single time. Cautiously positive about this at the moment.

To maintain: big training blocks 1-2 weeks before the race, Maurten bicarb 90 minutes before the race.

To avoid: excessive food intake in the 48 hours before the race, concentrated beet juice.

To try: ways to relax more, possibly avoiding additional gastrointestinal issues.

Arrows point to the Manchester marathon and 100 km race. On both occasions, I had just done very big blocks of training the 1-2 weeks before the race. Obviously, I didn’t force it just to accumulate volume/intensity, but it came naturally as I felt good, and did not hold back. Feeling poorly and having to taper for weeks is for me a sign that training was not handled well in the prior months.

Race execution

Once you have done the training, executing on race day is mostly pacing and dealing with whatever happens (changes in environmental conditions or else). I found it often difficult to let go of whatever goals I had set for myself, but this year, I think I have learned to really focus on the effort I can handle for a given distance, which might or might not match whatever pace I thought I could run, for a number of reasons.

I have also tried a lot of different things in terms of fueling, but considering I am targeting road races (pace is faster, duration is shorter), I think it is fine to rely on gels only, maybe aiming at increasing slightly the intake.

To maintain: managing pace based on internal load (heart rate) to keep things under control when conditions change. Basic fueling and hydration strategy that seems to work for me. Gels with caffeine.

To avoid: shitting myself.

To try: eating a bit more or drinking calories for short parts of the race (or having them as a backup option). I’m also still trying to find shoes that work for my flat feet and are reasonably light.

One more.

What’s next

Since racing sub-3 in Manchester, I kind of lost interest in the marathon. I love the energy of a road marathon and I’ll run more for sure, but my ceiling is close and at this point, I don’t really care about running 2h 55’ or similar. Combining that with my obsession for the 100 km del Passatore, my main goal is to improve over this distance, for events that are mostly on asphalt (what can I say, I love to spend much of my week on trails, but I’m a road runner, I like road races).

Given that my limiters remain muscular issues and poor efficiency, I think there is a lot to gain over the 100 km for me, even without getting any faster in shorter distances.

I am looking forward to seeing what the next 3-5 years will bring if I manage to stay healthy and train well.

Play the long game.

Marco holds a PhD cum laude in applied machine learning, a M.Sc. cum laude in computer science engineering, and a M.Sc. cum laude in human movement sciences and high-performance coaching.

He has published more than 50 papers and patents at the intersection between physiology, health, technology, and human performance.

He is co-founder of HRV4Training, advisor at Oura, guest lecturer at VU Amsterdam, and editor for IEEE Pervasive Computing Magazine. He loves running.

Twitter: @altini_marco

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