100K Protocol

Purpose

Turn the linked evidence into a rehearsed decision plan for this event context.

Prerequisites

Check the actual route, expected duration, support rules, weather exposure and safe exit options. Rehearse familiar equipment and food; resolve health concerns before using a race checklist.

Applicability

Use duration, terrain, descent, environment, night exposure, support and recovery window to choose adaptations. Distance alone cannot determine a dose or readiness.

Prepare

Write a segment plan with resupply, route decisions and fallback points. Practice the demands within tolerable training, then review intake, movement and next-day function.

Choose priorities before adding work

Read the protocol and action plan together. Identify the current training phase, tolerable load and terrain demands. A prescribed-looking schedule still requires adaptation to your background and recovery.

Original context

Use a race-system rehearsal

Test food access, kit, route decisions and effort management together in a manageable outing. A rehearsal can reveal practical failures without reproducing the entire race’s exhaustion.

Original context

Follow the evidence trail

The strength evidence page separates research on running economy from the practical protocol recommendation. Keep that distinction when choosing exercises and scheduling them around trail load.

Original context

Execute

At a planned checkpoint, compare actual progress, intake tolerance and alertness with the plan. Adjust to observed conditions; a missed time goal does not justify removing a safety margin.

Build segment decisions

Compare course segments by footing, climb, descent and support, not distance alone. Plan an early effort ceiling and identify places where walking is a reasonable execution choice.

Original context

Check the weather and refill plan

Audit the longest time between reliable supplies, including a slower-than-planned segment. Carrying enough fluid and being obliged to drink it are different decisions.

Original context

Translate the course into kit

Review race rules, mandatory equipment and likely day-to-night changes. A flat daytime 100K and a mountain course require different contingencies even though the distance matches.

Original context

Use the twelve priorities carefully

The concise priorities support recall; they do not override readiness or stop rules. Arrange a simple way to communicate a changed plan with support before fatigue makes explanations harder.

Original context

What the protocol evidence covers

Version 1.2 remains the current 100K text. Its strength and downhill rationale have explicit source trails; the linked fueling and hydration checks are practical interpretations with their own limits, not new doses or a silent version change. Read the dated changelog before treating an evidence mapping as an instruction change.

Original context

Common mistakes

Copying a plan without checking duration and terrain; testing unfamiliar equipment on race day; treating a checklist as medical clearance; and leaving no fallback when intake, weather or support changes. Use the linked topic guides to examine those assumptions before the start.

Original context

Recover

Use the shared Recovery Protocol after the finish. Arrange food, shelter and safe transport; reassess ordinary movement and symptoms before deciding when to resume training.

Decision rules

If support, weather, intake or attention makes the next segment unsafe, stop at a safe location and involve event support; revise or end the plan. Checklist completion is not medical clearance.

Rehearse the plan’s failure branch

Planning example: your preferred food becomes unavailable at a late station. Before the race, identify an alternative you have actually tried, where it can be obtained and who carries it. Rehearse accessing it with the equipment you will wear. The existing 100K protocol is the starting point; a successful rehearsal supports your execution plan but does not validate every protocol recommendation. Record the change separately from the underlying scientific evidence.

Original context

Context adaptations

Recheck the next segment when terrain, heat, cold, altitude or support differs from training. Use organizer instructions and the linked environment guide; this collection supplies no universal environmental threshold.

Uncertainty

This operational sequence is an editorial application of bounded evidence, not a trial-validated algorithm. Linked claims show which findings transfer directly and which remain indirect.

Safety and escalation

Persistent vomiting, inability to drink, unsafe navigation or inability to stay awake calls for a safe stop and event medical/support assessment. Do not use food, sodium or a mental cue as clearance to continue.

Scope

Keep the published 100K v1.2 as the baseline. This proposed companion makes shared evidence and context explicit; its original individualized training text remains available unchanged.