Black Canyon 100K
training plan
An adaptive 100K plan for a net-downhill course on trail, run in warm February conditions, built around the three things Black Canyon actually asks of you: heat, a one-way course and technical descending. Twenty weeks written two at a time, from what you actually did in the two weeks before, and rewritten the moment you travel, get ill or something starts hurting.
This page describes the race and what its course, climate and date ask of a build. On Pro, the plan itself is written for you, from your experience, your weekly hours and your date, so two athletes entered in this race get different plans.
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Three demands, three answers
A generic 20-week 100K plan gets you to the start line. It has no idea about heat, a one-way course or technical descending.
On the ground, Black Canyon is a net-downhill course on trail, with 2,200 m of climbing in it. It is usually held in February, when it is usually warm enough that the last hour costs more than the arithmetic says it should. So over a 100K race, the cost is eccentric damage, banked early and paid for late, and the heat is a pacing tax you either trained for or pay in full on the day. There will be a few hundred to a thousand starters out there with you.
- Profile
- Net-downhill · trail
- Climbing
- 2,200 m · 35 m in every mile
- Usual conditions
- February · warm
- Race season
- Winter, northern hemisphere
- Field
- Small · a few hundred to a thousand
Heat will cost you more than the course does
Warm, still air moves your heart rate up for no extra speed and turns a sensible pace into an unsustainable one. Fluid and sodium losses that seemed trivial in training become the reason you slow down.
Heat sessions in the last block, pacing set by effort rather than the number on your watch, and a fueling plan for Black Canyon 100K that you rehearse in the long session.
Nothing about the day is symmetrical
A point-to-point route means an early transfer, a start far from your bed, and a profile that never returns to where it began. Logistics eat into the night before, and the course gives no second chance at any section.
Race-week guidance built around an early, disrupted morning, and long sessions that rehearse the profile in the order Black Canyon presents it rather than in a convenient loop from your front door.
Descending here is a skill you have to practice
Loose, steep or rocky descents ask for balance, braking control and nerve. Treated as recovery they cost you time and shred your legs for whatever comes after.
Repeated descent practice on terrain like the course, and eccentric strength so the legs holding you back at the end of Black Canyon 100K are still the ones you started with.
Getting in, and getting to the line
Adaptlete has no involvement in entry, allocation or ballots for any race. This is what the format asks of your planning.
Ballot
Places usually go by ballot, which makes the honest sequence place first, plan second. If the draw goes against you, the same block moves to another race without being rewritten. Twenty weeks back from February puts the first week in late September.
Small field
A small field means no pens and no queues, and nobody to tuck in behind when it gets hard, and a downhill start makes everybody around you faster than they can hold. Over a 100K race, that is a long time to be running somebody else's race.
Trail
Trail, so the long sessions have to happen on ground like it. Footing, poles, descending and eating while you move are skills, and none of them are learnable on a treadmill in the last two weeks. The peak week puts downhill reps on it, months before February.
You will be training through the northern winter
Work backwards and a twenty-week block for a February race opens around late September, running September through to February. That is the northern winter, and it is the half of the job most plans never mention. Most of your long sessions will start or finish in the dark, in weather that makes the warm-up longer than the session. Ice takes the pace out of your hands, a chest infection goes round in week six, and the treadmill stops being a punishment and starts being a tool. And the last block lands in February, with net-downhill ground, warm conditions and a small field waiting at the end of it.
So the plan swaps outdoor quality for treadmill or turbo equivalents by effort rather than pace when the ground is unrunnable, and treats a week lost to illness as a rebuild rather than a hole to run through. Whatever the season takes out of two weeks, the work for heat, a one-way course and technical descending is what the rebuild puts back first.
- Weeks 1-8 September-November the light goes; the sessions that need it come first
- Weeks 9-13 November-December dark, cold and interrupted, so showing up matters more than intensity
- Weeks 14-20 · peak and taper December-February
Months assume Black Canyon keeps its usual February slot and that you take the full 20 weeks. Adaptlete builds from the date you enter.
A real week from a Black Canyon build
This is the shape of the biggest week in 20: 5-6 sessions a week, 12H 25M of training, and one session that matters more than the rest. Two of them are here because of this course and not the distance: downhill reps for the net-downhill profile, and a heat session for conditions that are usually warm. The key session itself is written for heat. For a February race, week 14 lands in January. Your version is written from your hours, your history and how far out you are.
- Every session says what it is for, in plain language
- Intensity you can scan down the week without reading
- Move any session to any day without breaking the block
| Day | Intensity | Session | Distance and duration |
|---|---|---|---|
| MON | Rest | Rest | |
| TUE | Zone 4, threshold | Downhill reps: 8 × 90 s of controlled descending | 9 mi1H20 |
| WED | Zone 2, easy | Heat session: easy, in the warmest part of the day | 8 mi1H15 |
| THU | Zone 3, steady | Strength: eccentrics & carries | 50' |
| FRI | Rest | Rest | |
| SAT | Zone 3, steady | Long mountain day: at the hottest part of the day | 30 mi6H00 |
| SUN | Zone 2, easy | Back-to-back hike with vert | 12 mi3H00 |
Something will go wrong.
That is the part we built for.
Nobody finishes a twenty-week build without missing a week, and September through to February is a long time to stay lucky. The plans that fail are the ones that carry on as if nothing happened.
A work trip in week 11
Hotel treadmill, nothing else? Those days get rewritten around it.
Flu in November
The block rebuilds and ramps you back. Nothing is deleted.
A niggle at week 16
Loading comes off it, the rest of your week stays. And go see someone.
Questions people actually search
How many weeks do I need to train for Black Canyon 100K?
Twenty weeks is the usual build for a 100K race like Black Canyon, at 5-6 sessions a week. Counted back from a February race that opens the block around late September and runs it September through to February. Coming from a lower base, give yourself longer. With fewer weeks than that the plan compresses. It builds what it can from where you are, protects the work for heat, a one-way course and technical descending first, and tells you plainly what it had to leave out.
When should I start training for Black Canyon 100K?
Black Canyon is usually held in February, and the next edition an athlete could realistically build for is Winter 2027. Count back twenty weeks from whatever date you enter and the block opens around late September, running September through to February. Adaptlete builds backwards from your date, so the whole 100K plan lines itself up the moment the date is confirmed. Entry runs on a separate clock (places here are allocated by ballot), and the training deadline is the one you control.
Is Black Canyon 100K an easy course because it drops?
A net-downhill course on trail, with 2,200 m of climbing in it, and in February it is usually warm enough that the last hour costs more than the arithmetic says it should. So the cost is eccentric damage, banked early and paid for late, and the heat is a pacing tax you either trained for or pay in full on the day. That combination is what the twenty weeks are built around: heat, a one-way course and technical descending. The 100K race on its own would give you a completely different plan.
Do I need hills to train for Black Canyon 100K?
There is 2,200 m of climbing in it, about 35 m in every mile. That is net-downhill ground on trail, over a 100K race, and it is trainable without moving house. The peak week carries downhill reps and loads the long session the way the course does. Train somewhere flat and the plan substitutes sustained-effort and eccentric work that loads the same tissue, and tells you it has done so. It is one of heat, a one-way course and technical descending, and none of the three gets dropped to make room for the others.
What kit do I need for Black Canyon 100K?
Trail, so the long sessions have to happen on ground like it. Footing, poles, descending and eating while you move are skills, and none of them are learnable on a treadmill in the last two weeks. There is 2,200 m of climbing in it, about 35 m in every mile. Over twenty weeks the plan puts the long sessions on ground like it and asks you to use the same pack, poles, shoes and food you intend to use in February. Check the organizers' own mandatory kit list. It is theirs, it changes, and we do not publish it.
How do I keep a Black Canyon 100K build going through the winter?
A twenty-week block ending in February runs September through to February, which is the northern winter. Most of the long sessions start or finish in the dark, ice takes the pace out of your hands, and something goes around the office in the middle third. The plan swaps outdoor quality for treadmill or turbo work by effort rather than pace when the ground is unrunnable, and treats a week lost to illness as a rebuild instead of a hole to run through.
Is this an official Black Canyon 100K training plan?
No. Adaptlete is an independent training-plan service with no affiliation to the organizers of Black Canyon 100K, and none is implied. We name the race because the plan is built around what its course, its format and its date ask of you.