Episode 469: Failures & Success: Assessing a Training Cycle & Future Planning

I ended the year with a race where I didn’t meet expectations. These types of experiences offer opportunities about what should be kept, versus what will likely lead to the same mistakes. For this episode, I highlight how I assess a training cycle to tease out the positives and the learning opportunities. 

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Timestamps:

Episode Transcript:

Alright, welcome back everyone for the final episode of 2025. I'm gonna do a topic based episode where I dive into the assessment process I like to use after completing a training cycle and a goal race and just share with you how I. Take that all apart and pull out things that I felt worked really well, that I can more or less trust and put on cruise control heading into the next training cycle and things that maybe didn't go so well or that I need to adjust, and then I can spend a little more time thinking about optimizing for that to make sure that I'm not making the same mistakes again.

So. This particular training cycle that spanned the second half of the year, I think is a good one to do this for because it had a pretty good mix of all that stuff. It wasn't something where everything went great and there weren't a lot of learning opportunities from mistakes or failures. But it also was far from failing left, right and center to the degree where I felt like, oh man, I gotta go back to the drawing board and rewrite everything I'm doing in this type of a [00:01:00] scenario.

It was a pretty good mix of everything. So. I'll start this by maybe touching on a little bit on the end Race for the year for me, which is the Desert Salsas Track Invitational, where I missed all my goals going into it. So it ended up being a pretty bad result, and I'll talk a little bit about why I think that was, at least this point in time, I'm about a week out, so maybe I learned a little bit more about to what degree that this was the case, as I get myself back into some structured training and see how my body's feeling.

But at the end of the day. I went in there with two main goals and the top goal was to try to PR a hundred miles , which would mean breaking 11 hours and 19 minutes. For me. The second goal was if things didn't feel great early and I could course correct soon enough. Just try to break 12 hours for a strong hundred mile and end the year with another sub 12 hour, a hundred mile.

I ended up not being able to get either of those. I ended up pulling the plug at 48 miles because it really just felt like I was a little cooked. I think in hindsight I [00:02:00] just drew out the ultra marathon long run phase of training a little bit too long, and it came and bit me at that last race. So in terms of maybe what one of the first learning things was for me was.

Just the proximity that I'm placing a hundred miles with one another and how long I'm looking at extending that phase of training versus resetting and going back to some of the more fundamental training principles before doing that peaking phase that I like to do for a hundred miles and things that are gonna be a little bit longer in duration and lower in intensity.

So that was maybe the first kind of thought afterwards was that was likely the. The scenario that I was dealing with. But again, I'll talk about that maybe a little more in the future as I get into some structured training in 2026 and see how my body's responding to things. But at this point in time, I'm pretty confident that is likely the case because the training as a whole for the six months went quite well.

It was actually. When I look back at everything from the [00:03:00] early phases of training, the short intervals, the long intervals, the standard long runs, the long runs with some pace work in it, the ultra marathon specific long runs and things like that. It was like pretty much the, definitely the best six month training cycle I've had since we moved to Austin four years ago.

I've had some training cycles that were as good or maybe better than this in the past when I was in Phoenix, but. In terms of making a pretty big jump in what I got outta that six months compared to anything I've done since moving to Austin, it stood out. So I definitely want to leverage that and carry a lot of that over into the next training cycles and hopefully compound.

Some training cycles on top of one another where there aren't interruptions other than structured downtime that I plan versus being injured and things like that. Because I think that's been part of the issue for me here in Austin is I've had some training cycles that were heading in the right direction and then I've had some unfortunate timing with injuries and things like that, that have derailed that sort of thing.

So I think the training, [00:04:00] generally speaking went really well. There are a lot of positives there. I need to be a little bit more cautious about how long I draw out that long run, ultra long run development phase of training. And I probably need to be a little more strategic about how closely I'm placing a hundred mile efforts.

If one of those hundred mile efforts is gonna be a PR attempt, I think there's maybe an opportunity for me to say, do 200 miles in relative close proximity. If the goal for both of them is a more conservative target. But if one of 'em is gonna be a PR target, it's just asking to draw out that ultra long run peaking phase a little bit longer than I can probably ask my body to do reasonably.

And the risk of having a day like I did at Solstice, it just. High enough where I probably shouldn't put myself in that position. So that's a big takeaway for me going into the planning phase of 2026 in terms of how I'm gonna structure the different races because there are just gonna be certain courses that lend themselves to going after a PR and ones that maybe aren't just due to logistics and the, their opportunity to present a [00:05:00] fast time and eliminate as many of the hurdles that would maybe slow you down to some degree or another for a fast runable a hundred mile or so.

Those are two really big takeaways for me personally. Another one that was a pretty big standout thing for me during this training cycle was my nutrition. So one of the reasons for that is I've been doing a lower carbohydrate approach to my hundred mile race for 14 years. This year after I had an Achilles issue and started rebuilding, I decided, all right, I'm gonna try a high carbohydrate diet in order to attempt to be able to target some of these higher carbohydrate per hour ranges that we're seeing.

Some of the top guys in the sport hit on some of the better performances that we're seeing out there nowadays. And. Going into that, I had a lot of curiosity around how that would work. What might be some hurdles I'd have to try to get over. And I really think over the six months I've gotten to a point where within the context of high carbohydrate and high [00:06:00] carbohydrate fueling, I found an approach that I can more or less rinse or repeat and trust versus feel like I have to be worried about or continue to refine.

So going into 2026, I really think I can maybe focus a little more energy on some other aspects versus having to. Try to continue to learn that, and I'll give you a little bit of a breakdown of how I have things structured and why I more or less think that's gonna work for me is one is I have two races, albeit one was.

Essentially about a 50 mile or something, about five to six hour duration, and then one that was 12 hours or just a little bit past a hundred miles. In both of those races, I was pretty easily able to hit 90 to a hundred grams of carbohydrate per hour. At no point during either of those did I find that I was struggling from just upper or lower GI issues to the degree where I was like, okay, this approach just isn't sustainable the way I have it right now and it's gonna cause more problems.[00:07:00] 

If anything, I was surprised at how well it worked. In hindsight, when I look back at it, based on my initial thoughts, I think I was able to do a lot less. Gut training is better than what a lot of people think you would need to do, or at least what I thought I would maybe have to do in order to tolerate that, and it just didn't happen to be the case.

I found that getting right about a hundred grams per hour is a pretty easy process for me when I have the structure I currently have in place, which basically is focusing on my longer runs, so like my runs that are usually two hours or beyond, I am practicing my race fueling strategy and I'm not even practicing it to the full capacity, meaning hitting those higher gram per hour targets.

In a lot of cases, most of the time I'm usually between two thirds to three fourths of my grand per hour target from race day. But I'm really consistent in doing that over like essentially dozens of long runs when we get into just the whole span of a training cycle and that ultra long run development phase where I'm really [00:08:00] doing just.

A lot more of that type of work, and I'm finding that if I'm pretty consistent hitting two thirds to three fourths of that for those and then occasionally doing one, that's a pretty specific training or race day simulation. Getting up closer to the actual targets I'm gonna hit on race day. That's enough to make my digestion be able to tolerate that.

The only other thing that I've been doing would be some, potentially some gut training outside of the training fueling itself. So for those of you who've been listening to this podcast consistently over the last few months, you might remember I did a couple episodes that just highlighted my process of switching to high carbohydrate and what I was doing.

And one thing I noticed early on in that transition is. You do have to be mindful of just carbohydrate sources where you can go really whole food based and get a lot of fiber along for the ride. And in the early stages I found okay, there's like a line you don't want to go beyond, where if you're doing too many kinds of whole food carbohydrate sources or higher fiber carbohydrate sources, you can easily just do too much of that.

And then it just [00:09:00] becomes a hassle, at least for me, digestively and feeling comfortable throughout the day with that. So. I pulled back a little bit and replaced some of the whole food carbohydrate sources with more low fiber, more refined options to find that sweet spot for me.

But after I had some repetitions with what felt like a pretty good setup in that regard, I got a little curious about just what could be done in terms of just gut expansion in general. So that when you get out there for, say, a long run on a relatively empty stomach, it wouldn't feel as full with more refined sports specific carbohydrate inputs.

So one thing I was doing was I would pick a spot, maybe three times a week where I was finished with the training for the day. I had a decent stretch of time before my next training session, and oftentimes my next training session was a little lower consequence. It wasn't like intervals or a long run or something I had to do really early in the morning, and I would have a meal after that last training session.

That was just a lot higher volume and. [00:10:00] Kind of carbohydrate specific sugar specific, essentially fructose specific. And one way I'd do that is I'd make this really big fruit bowl. So it was like this big fruit bowl with apples, pears, pineapples, grapes, berries and things like that. And it was just something where I was gonna get this huge bolus of sugar essentially.

And then, also have a lot of volume that came in with it. And I, you definitely, I would definitely feel uncomfortably full after eating that. But since I was basically shutting things down for the day at that point and just relaxing going to bed and had that timeline between my next quality training session, it wasn't something that I felt was gonna be problematic in terms of me being able to be productive during the rest of the day or having digestive issues on the next training session and things like that.

And I do think that probably helped. I think maybe that was one of the reasons why I didn't have to. Over clock fueling in training to a degree where in order for me to tolerate, say a hundred grams per hour on race day, I needed to be doing that consistently or going above that [00:11:00] consistently in training to really overstress the gut.

So I. I don't know for sure if that's the case. That's just my thought process or my thinking out loud side of the approach. But it is something that I am confident enough in, for me personally, that I'm going to keep doing it because it doesn't seem to be problematic and it seems to be potentially helping.

So I'm gonna keep that in the rotation going into 2026 as a non. Workout gut training protocol, that'll probably lean on a little bit more heavily during the ultra long run phase, because that's gonna be the phase where I think the gut training is gonna be a little bit more important. And it's also gonna be a phase where I'm further removed from doing, say short intervals, long intervals on eyes, a frequent basis where maybe I wouldn't wanna be playing around with as much of that sort of potential digestive risk for sessions like that.

Next is just the protocol. I ended up learning through training and racing that I'm really confident that I'm gonna apply for race day. The way I wanna do it is I have a protocol now. Carbohydrate [00:12:00] targets and types, fluid and electrolytes, and then supplements that I think are just something that I have figured out in a way where I can package that and apply it and set it and forget it and free up any other cognitive loading that would take for something else to stay focused on the race specifics and things like that.

So the way I have it set up right now is. When I get to about an hour before the training session that I'm replicating race day or race day itself is I'm gonna have two cla two caps of black currents which is a black current berry, which has some evidence that suggests it's good for blood flow, fat oxidation, and digestion.

So since I've had such good luck with digestion with that in the protocol, it's not something I'm looking to change. And that's the protocol I've been using. So I'm gonna stick with that. I also have about a 16 to 20 ounce bottle of water where I mix a pack of electrolytes to do some sodium loading prior to that [00:13:00] session at a higher concentration than I would typically have for that amount of fluid.

And then I'll usually mix a packet or a serving of the Probio nutrition, which is my multivitamin prebiotic supplement that I like to use on a daily basis. So I'll check all those boxes with that last bottle during that first hour leading into the race itself. Then once I start the race, I really like trying to be very, even with my carbohydrate intake over the course of the race.

So rather than arriving at. 90 to a hundred grams of carbohydrate per hour by having these big boluses and then these smaller inputs and going back and forth between those and getting that average. I like to keep a pretty flat line, so trying to get 90 to a hundred grams pretty consistently, one hour after the next seems to work really well for me.

And it's. Makes it logistically pretty easy for me too, so I'm pretty inclined to trust that setup that I have, that I found worked really well at [00:14:00] Equalizer and worked really well for the five to six hours I was out there. At Solstice. At Solstice, I didn't get to any point during that race where I was like, okay, digestively, I'm having some issues and this is part of the reason why I'm not getting what I want out of this race.

It was rock solid. I wouldn't put that as any sort of a concern. So it did give me an opportunity to stress test for a longer duration than I normally would in training, even though it wasn't 12 hours like it was at Equalizer. What that is made of. So I really like a setup where it's about two thirds gel, one third liquid carbohydrate.

So. The way I like to set that up is I tie a fair bit of stuff into my fluid intake. People are gonna differ with this. Some people aren't gonna wanna do that. They're gonna wanna separate that more so they have more individual control, and I can totally appreciate that. If that's what your experience has been showing you, you should definitely go that route.

For me. I tend to be able to. Put a few different things into one and minimize logistics into one thing, and then it makes it just a little bit easier, both [00:15:00] cognitively and logistically. So I fill up basically a two plus gallon jug and mix all my fluid, all my liquid carbohydrate, all my electrolytes, and most of my caffeine, and some of my exogenous ketones too.

So the way I do that is I will. Mix the fluids to match my electrolyte loss. So when I fill it up, whatever the total is for that, I'm gonna mix in. Element electrolytes to that 614 milligrams per liter that I personally lose. So it's important to note that people are gonna range on their electrolyte loss.

So my protocol may vary from yours. If you get someone who's higher on the electrolyte loss side of things, you're gonna want to have a stiffer concentration there. If you're someone who's lower than me, although I am skewed a little bit more to the lower side of things, so it's less likely that you're much lower than me then you're just gonna wanna put less in.

I like that. 'cause then when I get handed that bottle, I get a certain amount of carbohydrate per [00:16:00] ounce. I get a certain amount of, I get the right concentration of electrolyte, and then I have like just a steady drip of exogenous ketones from the Delta G performance that I use for race day. And

Then I'm just knocking all that out at once. If I drink more, then I get the extra electrolytes because it's already pre-mixed. If I drink a little bit less, I can always add more of the other stuff if I need to, whether that be exogenous ketones or caffeine or something like that too.

'cause the other aspect of what I like to do for these races is what I like to have. A very low but continuous drip of caffeine over the course of the race versus boluses and then break periods. Again, that's something else that's gonna take a little individual playing around with. That's not gonna be everyone's preference or everyone's positive experience, but for me, I find when I do bigger boluses, I end up feeling almost too fidgety or too aggressive with my pacing and my perceived effort.

And then you get met with maybe a bit of a dip and you're riding a little bit more of a roller coaster. [00:17:00] When I do smaller amounts spread out evenly, I find like my focus stays pretty dialed in and I get that aspect out of the caffeine, but not the jittery side of things or the, I feel great now and I feel terrible later type of experience that some people are gonna get from higher amounts of caffeine.

So. For me, I have found historically for 12 hours, I can usually tolerate somewhere around 600, 600 milligrams of caffeine. So that's usually what I'll plan to get in over the course of the days, and I'll have most of that mixed in with those, with that fluid fluid I take in. And then I'll have some other options to take in if I want a little bit of extra for one reason or another, whether.

Be, I'm just taking in less fluid 'cause the day is cooler or everything's working really smoothly and I'm near the end of the race and I feel like I can tolerate a little more caffeine. And I do want to hit that a little bit harder. I have that option but most of it is gonna be tied to that jug of water, electrolytes, carbohydrates, and ketones that I have already set up.

So in terms of how much exogenous ketones I'm doing, I'm usually doing one bottle, the delta G. Ketones prior to the race [00:18:00] because it's a low intensity race. If it were a higher intensity race like a marathon or a shorter one, I probably wouldn't do that. I'm not necessarily convinced that's gonna be a value add in that context, and it could potentially be a detriment.

But for these lower intensity ones, I'm not too concerned about that. If anything, I'm more concerned about getting out a little too fast. So. I don't mind doing a full serving of that to start that race off. And then from there I'm doing really small amounts with two or three bottles mixed into that fluid jug that I have, just slowly trickling that in over the course of the race itself.

And then the only other thing I'm really doing consistently is. I do re-up on the current cap. So I'll have another current cap every three hours that I'm out there. So I do those two to start, and then at 3, 6, 9 and so on, depending on how long that race is gonna be, is the frequency at which I'm going to re-add that supplement to the mixture.

And that's basically it. That's the protocol I find that I really [00:19:00] like and is gonna be what I carry into 2026. So. That covers that for the most part. The other thing that I think is interesting too, and it's getting more, more interesting as products get developed and things like that, is just the shoes.

So I wore them. I wore a ton of different shoes over training and I played around with a bunch of different options and things like that. And it has been a fun experience that's gonna continue into 2026 for the most part. And I'll continue to refine that as I see products come out and as I find things that are working well for me.

But I ended up using the Puma Fast R three for both the Equalizer and Desert Solstice. Now that shoe, from an efficiency standpoint, you're gonna have a hard time finding something that beats that it scores about as good or better than pretty much anything you're gonna find on the market. But usually when you have these very efficient shoes, the compromise, oftentimes there is stability.

So the FAST [00:20:00] R three is also one of the least stable super shoes that I've worn, and I think there's a conversation to be had. At least at the individual level of how much of that compromise you can make. And a course might make a big difference there. So for example, say running a fast track 400 meter loop ultra, that's gonna be different than say a course like Tunnel Hill, where.

Running a hundred miles on very fast terrain in both those scenarios. But one, you're turning basically half the time and the other one you are running straight basically the entire time. Tunnel hill is basically straight out and back where you do a 180 degree turn just a few times over the course of a hundred miles, but for the most part, you're moving in a straight line.

So I think that's gonna make a difference where I think. With the equalizer. I didn't find that the fast R three felt all that problematic. I did feel like it was maybe a little bit more impactful early on. I didn't notice it being quite as, as lively, maybe near the end of the race. I didn't notice it to be a huge [00:21:00] problem on race day from a stability standpoint either.

I did notice after the race I had some. Aches and sorenesses in areas that would suggest lower leg instability, that it was just an interesting point in terms of maybe what I could get away with that shoe. I ended up going with it for Desert Solstice. In hindsight, I think I might have worn a different option.

I think I would've learned a little bit more compromise, a little bit of efficiency for a little more stability on a course like that in the future. So for a track Ultra, I think I'm gonna likely explore some other options for that. Part of the reason is the stability. The other part is I noticed after the solstice that my quadriceps were quite a bit more sore than they normally would be after a race like that.

And I've done enough track races now where I've got a pretty good understanding of what I should expect with good training and I didn't even go a full hundred miles. I went about half as far as I normally would on one of those races. And I was, my quads were equally or more sore afterwards in those following days than they had been after some of the a [00:22:00] hundred mile efforts I've had on a track.

So I think just maybe the way that those shoes position you, I'm like, eccentrically loading my quadriceps a little bit more than I would in a different shoe. And that's just creating a little more strain on that specific area. So. Whether that's something where it's hey, get in that shoe more often and just get your, let your body evolve or adapt to that.

Or if it's something where I just need to be like, alright, there's a better option for me in that specific environment. Those are all things that I'm really interested and curious about and we'll continue to explore going into 2026. The other thing I'll just highlight too that I really learned from this training cycle is I think there's a lot of value for me with a more structured cycling component.

So. I started out this training cycle with cycling being the primary training input. Because I was rehabbing an Achilles tendon issue. I could only tolerate so much running and, but from an energy standpoint, a freshness standpoint. From a physical standpoint outside of that Achilles tendon, I was ready to put in some [00:23:00] work.

So I just matched what I would've done with biking until I could ramp up running to a degree where I could start titrating back on the cycling and then move that into a supportive role. But I think structured cycling, even as a supportive role, is something that I want to keep in training.

'cause I think there's value added there for me from just a durability standpoint. Just a little bit of a different mechanical stressor in terms of how you're. Your legs behave on a bike versus on running is something that I find that my body just feels a little stronger when I have that component in there.

And one thing I did do is when I got to the ultra long run development phase of my training, I scaled the cycling completely out. And one of the reasons why I did that is my body was responding really well to the running and the loading to the degree where I hit some of my higher volume running weeks in four or five years.

And I just rolled with it because, at the end of the day, I want to be as durable as possible for a hundred miles on a [00:24:00] real mechanically uniform setting for the most part. And you know that working on specific things, the more you can get away with, the better. You're probably gonna be able to tolerate that.

I think that was okay, especially if I look at it through the lens of, ideally I wouldn't have drawn that phase out as long as. Going forward, if I do a shorter, long run, ultra long run development phase, I might play around with eliminating the bike altogether, but I'm keeping the door open to at least keeping that component in there through that phase as well versus just completely taking on, even if it's just like one day per week or something like that.

I do think there's probably some consideration to doing that and. Helping it or just helping with having that input not get entirely eliminated for that long of a period of time. But generally speaking, in the overall standings, I think that bike input is just. A really good one for me and what I'm gonna continue to leverage and give myself the ability to reduce some of the impact during different [00:25:00] phases of the year, but to still maintain some of that aerobic input.

Maybe even keep doing some of the, some workouts on it because early on in this training block, when I was doing higher intensity stuff like VO two max target stuff or long interval threshold stuff, I did a lot of the early stages of that on the bike before I got to the point where my Achilles was ready to tolerate that from a running standpoint.

So. That is something I think I'm gonna leverage a fair bit in this next phase of training, especially as I add back some or more of that kind of short interval, higher on the aerobic intensity spectrum type intensity training. So that's what I got. I think I covered everything I wanted to with.

The pros, the cons, everything in between. I'm really excited about 2026 because I had a really good training cycle and I found historically when I can compound training cycles injury free with just planned short off seasons, I tend to get stronger in racing. I think looking at the calendar going into 2026, I'm excited to maybe do some shorter [00:26:00] ultras two versus just.

Kind of focusing on the hundred mile distance, using those as more BC races or kind of ultra specific long run type stimuluses is gonna be a fun add in. And then ultimately take a crack at a few, a couple more hundred milers next year. Right now it's looking like Petit Center in June is probably gonna be a big one where I may take a swing at a PR there.

That's about as fast of a spot as I found from both the logistic and a climate control standpoint. Then heading into the end of next year I'd love to get back to Tunnel Hill. Just take another swing at that course because I think I've left quite a bit of time on that course in the past. But if Tunnel Hill doesn't work out, does it?

Solstice is always there. There's some opportunities in the fall for Fast Runnable hundreds that always, there's something that I have to pick between. So that's the general scaffolding of maybe how I'm looking at things now where I'll probably have some 50 Ks, 50 miles, maybe a hundred k.

Interspersed between those events but. That's kinda the way I'm looking at it. So if you have any questions about any of this, feel free to shoot me a note. If it's specific about the stuff I [00:27:00] talked about, if you're curious like, Hey, why did you say this? I would like to know more. Or if it's specific to your own training and racing prep with going through this process.

Happy to help you out if you are looking for more support. On the coaching front, I do offer a range of different options between pre-made plans, one-on-one support at varying tiers, as well as group packages where we meet once a week as a group and hang out, talk about training, make adjustments to training, cover topics, questions, all that sort of stuff.

So feel free to head over to my website for any of that stuff zachbitter.com