Training plan and race guideOctober 2026 to September 2027

Colorado 100Training plan, 2027

From the Crested Butte 50 to a mountain hundred, with Quad Rock 50 in May as the dress rehearsal. Pick a race and the plan, profile and countdown adjust to it.

Choose your 100

Leadville 100

Crew access Restricted crew access Aid, no crew Pass or summit Pacers allowed from here

The plan at a glance

Most weeks have five runs: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is always the long run. Sunday stays short or medium and only turns into a real back-to-back from late winter on. Monday and Friday are off from running, which makes them natural upper-body days.

On 100-mile weeks: you don't need them. For a buffer-first finish, what matters most is months of steady 50 to 70 mile weeks, back-to-back long days, lots of climbing, and time up high. The peak here tops out around 80 miles, with room to stretch toward 90 if the week before it goes well.

Weekly mileage

Week by week

Miles per day, read across like a Hal Higdon chart. Green cells are long runs, brown are workouts, and the pill under a run is that day's leg session. Check a week off when it's done; it saves in this browser.

Back up progress
Week MonTueWedThuFriSatSun MilesClimb (ft)Done
RestNo running. Upper body, walking or mobility are all fine.
5 easyConversational effort on trail or road. Walk the steep bits.
6 hillsWorkout day. The note says what. Easy miles fill the rest.
16 longSaturday long run. Sunday back-to-backs are marked B2B.
Legs AHeavy lower-body session after the run.
Legs BBalance, hips, eccentrics and core after the run.
CoreCore, balance and band work only, 15 to 20 minutes.
ClimbWeekly vertical target. A range of plus or minus 20% is fine.

Save and back up your progress

Check-offs, your race pick and finish-time goals save automatically in this browser on this device, separately for everyone who opens the page. Export a backup now and then so a cleared browser or new phone doesn't cost you anything.

Export

Download a backup file, or copy a save code you can paste into a note or text to yourself.

Import

Load a backup file or paste a save code. This replaces the progress saved on this device.

Add it to your Home Screen

  • iPhone: open the site in Safari, tap Share, then Add to Home Screen.
  • Android: in Chrome, open the menu and tap Add to Home screen or Install app.
  • On iPhone the Home Screen app keeps its own storage, separate from Safari. If you've already checked weeks off in Safari, export here first, then open the Home Screen app and import.

Strength

Lower-body lifting goes on Tuesday (Legs A, heavy) and Thursday (Legs B, stability), after the run, so hard days stay hard and easy days stay easy. Heavy legs never land within 72 hours of a Saturday long run. Upper body is yours to do whenever it's fun; just skip heavy hinging the day before a long run.

The lifting curve runs opposite to the running curve. October through December is when you lift heaviest, because mileage is modest and there's nothing to protect. Spring shifts to single-leg and slow-lowering work for downhill durability. In the peak, Legs A drops to maintenance. The last Legs A is about 10 days before Quad Rock and before the 100; core and balance continue into race week.

Why these exercises

Squats and step-ups build climbing power for Hope Pass, Mount Werner or the Colorado Trail. Leg extensions and slow step-downs harden the quads for descents, which is what usually wrecks legs late in a hundred. Balance, hip and tibialis work cut down on rolled ankles and cranky knees on rocky trail at 2 am.

Legs A (Tuesday)Foundation, Oct to DecBuild, Jan to Apr and JunPeak and taper
Back squat (or goblet or safety-bar)4×5 heavy, 2 reps in reserve3×6–82×5 moderate
Bulgarian split squat3×6 each leg3×8 each leg2×8
Weighted step-up, knee-height box3×8 each leg3×10, 3-second lower2×10
Leg extension3×103×12, 3-second lower2×12
Romanian deadlift3×63×8Skip
Calf raise, straight and bent knee3×12 each3×15 each2×15
Legs B (Thursday)Foundation, Oct to DecBuild, Jan to Apr and JunPeak and taper
Single-leg balance: foam pad, eyes closed, reaches3×30 s each3×45 s each2×45 s
Eccentric step-down, 4-second lower3×6 each3×8 each2×8
Lateral band walk and clamshell2×15 each3×15 each2×15
Tibialis raise2×152×202×20
Copenhagen plank3×15 s each side3×25 s2×25 s
Core circuit: dead bug, Pallof press, side plank2 rounds3 rounds2 rounds
Pogo hops or low box jumps3×102×10Skip

Workout key

Easy
Conversational, roughly 3 to 4 out of 10. Trails when you can. Hike anything steep.
Strides
At the end of an easy run: 6 to 8 × 20 seconds quick and relaxed, full recovery walking.
Short hills
6 to 10 × 60 to 90 seconds uphill at 7 to 8 out of 10, walk or jog down.
Long climbs
3 to 5 × 8 to 15 minutes of steady climbing, running or power-hiking. Green Mountain, Mount Falcon, Lookout Mountain and Apex all give 1,000 to 2,000 ft close to home.
Incline treadmill
Winter swap for any hill day: 12 to 15% grade, same efforts. A stair climber works too.
Tempo
Comfortably hard, about the effort you could hold for an hour. Uphill tempo is the same effort on a steady grade.
Downhill repeats
4 to 6 × 3 to 4 minutes down a smooth trail with quick, light feet. Walk back up. This is quad armor.
Long run
Time on feet, mostly easy, practicing race fueling and gear. Hike the ups, run the rest.
B2B
Back-to-back: Sunday's run on Saturday's legs. Keep it easy and hike more than you think.
Night run
Start after dark with your race headlamp, backup light and night layers. Practice eating when cold and tired.

Guidelines

Fueling

Every run over two hours is fueling practice: aim for 60 to 90 g of carbs an hour and settle on a sodium dose. The races stock different products (Leadville: Neversecond and Skratch; Run Rabbit Run: Tailwind and Honey Stinger, no gels; the Softie's basic aid: Tailwind; Quad Rock: Gnarly and Naak), so train on your own mix and plan drop bags to carry it.

Poles

Quad Rock bans poles, so do your March to early May long runs without them. From June, bring them back and train with the exact pair you'll race with. Run Rabbit Run and the Softie allow them, and they're a common sight on Hope Pass.

Altitude

From late May, put long runs at 9,000 to 13,000 ft whenever snow allows: 14ers, the Colorado Trail, Guanella and Kenosha passes. Few people can take two weeks off to acclimatize, so lots of high weekends plus arriving a day or two before the race is the practical version.

When life happens

Missed days are gone; pick up where the calendar is rather than making up miles. Sick or a niggle: run the nearest cutback week until it settles. If Saturday falls apart, swap the long run to Sunday and make Saturday short. Never stack two hard days to catch up.