Base and endurance
Easy running, long sessions and back-to-back training build the ability to keep moving for hours without turning every workout into a hard day.
My approach at a glance
I train the problems of Nice, not a Dutch copy of the Alps.
My base remains a high volume of easy running and consistent recovery. On top of that, I train the specific demands that make the Nice 100M difficult: long climbing, controlled descending, hours of purposeful hiking, eating while tired, managing heat and darkness, and making sensible decisions as fatigue builds.
Climbing, descending and strength
Anna’s Berg and real mountain trails provide the specific downhill load. I use the Technogym Climb Excite and Skillrun mainly for sustained climbing, power hiking, muscular endurance and the transition from steep climbing back into running.
Nutrition, equipment and recovery
Long sessions are also rehearsals for carbohydrates, hydration, my race vest, clothing and headlamps. A hard block only counts if I absorb it afterwards.
My training map
Six Nice 100M race problems I train in the Netherlands
The Nice 100M is too large to treat as a single training task. I split it into separate problems. Each block explains what can go wrong, what I train and how that fits into an ordinary week in Hilversum.
Descending without destroying my quads too early
Risk: Nice contains more than 10,000 metres of descending. Downhill can feel cheap cardiovascularly while being expensive for the quads, hamstrings and tendons. If I accumulate too much braking damage in the first half, I pay for it later in worse descending, weaker climbing and eventually less ability to run on flatter terrain.
What I train: real trail descents, repeats on Anna’s Berg, controlled technique, box step-downs, single-leg stability and strength work. The key adaptation is not simply descending faster, but repeated exposure so the muscles tolerate the same eccentric load with less damage.
What I have learned: downhill is now more of a skill-and-tissue session than a cardiovascular one. Faster is not automatically better. I try to land softly, keep cadence high enough, avoid leaning back into the brakes and read a clean line through the terrain.
Race consequence: I am willing to give away time on the first major descents. The goal is not a pretty split at Isola; it is to still have normal legs after twenty or twenty-five hours for the next climb and the final runnable kilometres to Nice.
Building muscular endurance without real mountains
Risk: living in the Netherlands does not automatically prepare the legs for hours of climbing and descending. My cardiovascular fitness can be good while my legs are still not race-ready.
What I train: Technogym Climb Excite, Technogym Skillrun, power hiking, strength work, stairs and long blocks that alternate running and hiking.
What that looks like: sometimes mountain training is simply an evening at SportCity: strength first, then a long climb on the machine. Not glamorous, but specific enough to strengthen the chassis.
Why: machines can create climbing fatigue and muscular endurance, but they cannot replace technical descending and thousands of eccentric braking actions. Anna’s Berg and real mountain trails remain essential for that.
Continuing to eat when my brain has lost interest
Risk: nutrition is not a minor detail over 100 miles. If my stomach shuts down, pace becomes irrelevant.
What I train: a mostly liquid race protocol built around Tailwind High Carb. My normal rhythm is roughly one 500 ml soft flask every 48 minutes, which works out at about 79 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Small PF90 top-ups move the total towards roughly 90 grams per hour. I deliberately save caffeine for late in the race.
What that looks like: long sessions now rehearse the same system: take a soft flask, drink to schedule, remix powder, add a small carbohydrate top-up and keep moving. Tailwind also provides my normal electrolyte base; extra salt capsules are a contingency, not an automatic hourly habit.
Why: race-day nutrition should feel like boring, practised behaviour rather than an experiment.
Holding my technique together when I am tired
Risk: fatigue makes posture smaller, foot placement less precise and every mistake more expensive on technical terrain.
What I train: cadence, foot placement, trunk control, single-leg stability, controlled descending and hiking without collapsing through the hips.
What that looks like: short stability work at home, box step-downs, strength training and attention to how my legs land late in easy runs.
Why: speed only helps while I remain in control. Nice rewards repeatable technique, not bravado.
Making heat, cold, darkness and equipment less uncertain
Risk: Côte d’Azur sounds warm, but the race starts in the mountains. Within one race I may face warmth, cold, darkness, wind, sweating and rapid cooling.
What I train: headlamp use, clothing decisions, carrying water, equipment checklists, cooling, staying warm and making decisions while tired.
What that looks like: laying out equipment as if it were race day, running with a loaded vest when it feels excessive in the Netherlands, and studying course videos before the race.
Why: fatigue makes simple choices harder, so I want as many of those choices as possible to be familiar.
Making the race mentally smaller
Risk: 167 kilometres is too large to hold in my head all at once.
What I train: section thinking, checkpoint study, course videos, mental cues for each phase and scenarios for difficult moments.
What that looks like: I pause videos to study paths, aid stations, packs, lamps, running style and how people move when fatigue becomes obvious.
Why: on 25 September I do not want to think “another 100 miles”. I want to ask: what is the next correct action before the next aid station?
Race execution · descending
Gain time by not trying to gain time too early.
An important change in my race plan is that I no longer see descents simply as kilometres where speed feels cheap. At Monte Rosa I was still able to handle long descents deep into the race. I use that as a personal reality check for Nice. I do not need to maximise every early descent. A few minutes can disappear in the first half if that preserves the quads for climbing and running later.
The rule is simple: early lost time does not need to be chased back. If the legs are still good late in the race, speed can return naturally. If they are not, the stopwatch is the least interesting problem.
2025 race data · first night
Why I do not want to force the first night.
The 2025 results support what the course itself suggests: the biggest attrition did not happen only near Nice. In our checkpoint analysis, more than half of all DNFs occurred in the Isola-to-Valdeblore part of the race. From Levens onward the field looked statistically very different: 92.4% of runners who reached Levens eventually finished.
For my preparation that reinforces one simple rule: the first evening is not the time to collect minutes. I want to enter the first night with a working stomach, a clear head and, above all, quads that are still useful for the hard middle of the race.
See the full 2025 checkpoint analysis in the Nice 100M route guide. The figures describe the 2025 field and are not an individual finish probability.
Final specific build · August–2 September 2026
More vertical work, but at progressively lower cost
In July the preparation shifted from Dutch muscular-endurance blocks towards real mountain training in Italy. August then became the final major Nice-specific build: technical descents, sustained climbing, back-to-back vertical sessions and indoor combinations where I had to run again after long climbing. The objective became less “collect more vertical metres” and more “perform the same task at lower cardiovascular and mechanical cost”.
Campiglia and Rapallo: real technical load
During the summer trip I ran several trails with steep climbs and genuine technical descents. In Campiglia I combined two key mountain sessions within a few days for roughly 1,400 metres of real climbing and descending load. Rapallo later added very steep, rocky terrain. The important part was that the work remained pain-free and downhill control stayed good on tired legs.
A stair machine can train climbing capacity; it cannot replace a real mountain descent.
Rabuons and Anna’s Berg: the same task became cheaper
On the Skillrun, a Rabuons simulation moved from about 1,411 vertical metres at 153 bpm average to about 1,447 metres at 138 bpm. A week apart on Anna’s Berg, another roughly 1,000-metre up-and-down task came out at around 1,032 metres with 134 bpm average versus about 149 bpm the week before.
These are not laboratory-controlled comparisons, but the direction is useful: similar vertical work was costing less.
Three hours of climbing, then still able to run
On 1 September I combined about one hour on the Stairmaster with two hours on the Skillrun: roughly three hours of continuous movement and around 1,670 metres of simulated climbing. More important than the number was what happened afterwards: I could return to running after the steepest blocks without progressive heart-rate drift or mechanical collapse.
Fuel was rehearsed at around 80–85 grams of carbohydrate per hour. The following morning I ran just over 15 kilometres easy, without pain or obvious residual damage. That made the session proof that the load had been absorbed, not an invitation to do more.
The build is essentially complete. From early September the goal is no longer to stack new fitness, but to preserve specificity while fatigue disappears.
22 days to Nice · 3 September 2026
Doing less becomes part of the training.
The largest training stimuli are done. The final weeks are no longer about heroic volume. I want to keep roughly the same training frequency, but sessions become shorter. Climbing and downhill skills still get small maintenance doses without creating another large wave of muscle damage.
That can feel counterintuitive. After months of building, less training can feel like losing something. But the fitness that matters now will not come from one more monster session. The important gain comes from absorbing what is already there.
In this phase I pay more attention than ever to the difference between the cardiovascular system and the musculoskeletal system. A low heart rate does not automatically mean a session is cheap. Descending in particular can be locally expensive while the “computer” barely complains.
The next weeks therefore revolve around one question: do I come out of this session stronger than I went in, or am I buying fatigue that I may still carry on 25 September?
The build to September
From muscular endurance to race execution.
July — muscular endurance
The Anna’s Berg block on 11–12 July was an important step at the time: 30.6 km, 5:06 and 2,221 m+ across two days, with added weight uphill and controlled descending. The main lesson was that local tissue load can be much higher than heart rate suggests.
Italy — real mountains and technical descending
Campiglia and Rapallo added the missing dimension: long real climbs, rocky terrain and descents no machine can simulate. Downhill control on tired legs became a genuine training skill.
August — specific vertical benchmarks
Rabuons simulations, Anna’s Berg and back-to-back vertical sessions showed that similar tasks could be completed at lower cardiovascular cost.
September — proof, taper and execution
The integrated 1 September session was not a starting gun for more load; it was the final proof. From here the priorities are maintenance, automated nutrition, error-free equipment and fresh legs at the start.
The real constraint
Not a standard plan, but preparation that must also work at home.
On paper, the Nice 100M is a mountain ultra from Auron to Nice. In my calendar it means training around family life, work, school runs, shopping, fatigue and the question of how to prepare seriously without making everything at home revolve around my race.
I call some workouts “ninja sessions”: get up early, train while the house is still asleep and return before the day properly begins. Not because that is heroic, but because it is practical. Preparing for 100 miles only works if the people around me do not pay the price every week.
I cannot copy the mountains here. What I can do is split the race into problems: descending, braking with tired quads, eating without appetite, hiking without collapsing, starting conservatively and repeating those skills until they become less uncertain.
Sometimes that means a long run. Sometimes it is a session on the Technogym Climb Excite. Sometimes it is dozens of short repeats on Anna’s Berg. Sometimes it is an office-day rest day, because recovery is training too.
Who is writing this
From my first trail race to the Nice 100M
I live in Hilversum, surrounded by heathland and woodland but without real mountains. I have run since my student days in Amsterdam, alongside field hockey, and gradually increased my focus on running from 2016 onwards.
In 2019, a close friend in Geneva told me about the trail races she ran. In 2021 I entered the Matterhorn Ultraks Mountain race, my first running event. I completed the final metres in Zermatt with my children. Since then, I have increased both distance and elevation almost every year.
Why I share the process
I spend a great deal of time preparing and share the lessons with runners planning a mountain ultra, as well as people who want to understand what sits behind a start number.
Why Alzheimer Nederland
My parents-in-law live with dementia. In 2025 I ran the Monte Rosa Trail for Alzheimer Nederland and together we raised more than €5,300. In 2026 I am doing it again with the Nice 100M.
Not a coach, but an engaged runner
I am not a coach. I am interested in running, trails and data, and I share my own preparation even when it is untidy because I work full-time, have three children and need the process to remain sustainable at home.
What it really looks like
Preparation is not one giant heroic workout.
Anna’s Berg in Hilversum, again and again
Anna’s Berg is not an Alpine pass. It is a small Dutch hill I have repeated often enough to know almost too well. That is precisely why it is useful: I can focus on breathing, foot placement, quads, descending, eating and what happens when repetition becomes boring.
Nice will not only be difficult during spectacular moments. It will also be difficult because simple actions must continue when I am tired.
Early-morning ninja sessions
A large part of my training must fit around family life. Sometimes that means shoes on before the rest of the house has properly started the day, training completed, then breakfast, school, work and everything else.
It may sound less romantic than mountain training, but for me that is the point: prepare for a huge race without requiring my whole environment to move with it.
Rest days are planned family days
Thursday is usually my fixed rest day. During holidays I also plan complete family and travel days without inventing a recovery jog. Sometimes the best training is a normal office day, a walk with the family, enough food, an early night and no extra workout because the data happens to look good.
Ultra preparation requires discipline to train, but also discipline to stop.
Lessons from previous runners
What Nice 100M race reports make me train differently
I have not copied personal reports from previous Nice 100M runners directly onto this page. Some were shared privately and the details would create too much noise. The recurring patterns, however, are too useful to ignore.
The common thread is clear: Nice requires more than fitness. It demands durable legs, sensible layering, a tested nutrition plan and the restraint to reach the second half without destroyed quads.
Low heart rate does not mean low damage
A descent can feel easy cardiovascularly and still be one of the most mechanically expensive parts of the race. I therefore do not use heart rate as permission to descend harder. Local load on the quads and tendons matters more there than breathing.
Save the downhill legs for the second half
Several runners describe the course as rougher and more technical than expected, with extensive singletrack and long steep descents. I therefore train not only to climb well, but to retain control late in the race.
Step-ups and high knee angles
Long climbs can require repeated high steps and sustained muscular work. Box step-ups, stair climbing, power hiking and single-leg strength remain part of the preparation.
Do not put warm layers on too early
The race can move through cold, snow, wind and ice before becoming warm towards Nice. The lesson is not simply “wear more”, but stay dry, avoid overheating on climbs and add warm layers when they are actually needed.
Do not rely blindly on aid stations
Soup, broth and cola may help, but aid stations do not always provide the solid food you hope for at exactly the right moment. My own nutrition and gut training remain the foundation.
Chafing and equipment are not details
Small equipment choices become large problems after many hours. I test layers, shorts, socks, vest, salt, hydration and everything that remains in prolonged contact with my skin or stomach.
From snow to sea
The race may begin in winter-like conditions and finish beside the Mediterranean. That contrast makes Nice beautiful, but also deceptive. My preparation needs to cover both worlds.
Periodised nutrition
My nutrition now trains the week and the race protocol.
For Nice I need to train not only my legs, but also my gut and my execution. My approach is influenced by Asker Jeukendrup’s work on gut training and nutritional adaptation in endurance sport.
Easy days: recovery and simplicity
Office, rest and recovery days are mainly about normal food, enough protein and supporting recovery. Not every day needs to resemble race-day nutrition.
Long sessions: repeat the same system
Long sessions are now true rehearsals of the race protocol. Instead of constantly trying new products, I repeat the same actions: take a soft flask, drink to rhythm, remix powder, add a small carbohydrate top-up and keep moving.
Tailwind base, PF90 top-up
My normal race setup uses Tailwind High Carb as the liquid base: about one 500 ml flask every 48 minutes, or roughly 79 grams of carbohydrate per hour. Small PF90 top-ups move that towards about 90 grams per hour. I deliberately save caffeine for the late race.
Race-day logic: boring is good
The ideal nutrition plan is boring enough that Warner and I both know the next action without thinking. Tailwind also supplies my normal electrolyte base; extra salt capsules are a contingency for conditions that genuinely require them.
Jeukendrup’s work highlights the gastrointestinal system as central to carbohydrate and fluid delivery during prolonged exercise, and nutritional training can improve tolerance. I therefore rehearse not only how much I take in, but how consistently I can keep executing the protocol when tired.
Body weight and performance
Getting lighter without emptying the race tank.
Weight matters in a race with more than 10,000 metres of descending: every kilogram has to be absorbed and decelerated thousands of times. But lower weight only helps if strength, recovery and glycogen remain intact. The target is not my lowest morning weight ever, but my lowest fully fuelled and fully functional race weight.
The long trend
My sports-medical baseline in March 2025 was 87.1 kg. During the Nice build my normal weight range has gradually shifted into the low 80s. That structural trend matters far more than one isolated reading.
Italy showed how misleading the scale can be
During the Italy trip my weight jumped quickly from the low 81s into the mid-80s. That could not plausibly be fat alone. More carbohydrate and glycogen, salt, food volume, heat, plasma-volume expansion and recovery fluid after heavy descending can all move the scale by several kilograms. That does not make poor eating irrelevant; it makes one scale reading a poor body-composition test.
Fuel the work
Until roughly a week before the race, a modest energy deficit can still exist on easy and recovery days. Key sessions are fully fuelled. The training stimulus must never become worse simply because I want a lower number on the scale.
The final week
Active weight loss stops completely in race week. Recovery, glycogen, hydration and gastrointestinal calm become more important. Weight may even rise as carbohydrate and its associated water are stored. That is not failure; it is fuel.
Race Study Room
Why I watch race videos as if they were homework
A GPX file does not show how a trail feels. Video reveals where runners slow down, how narrow the paths are, what technical descents look like, how aid stations operate, what people wear and how they move when fatigue becomes visible.
Sometimes I replay a section several times. Recognition may save time, stress and poor decisions later.
Terrainhow technical are the trails?
Descentswhere does braking damage begin?
Aid stationswhere do I need a quick reset?
Equipmentwhat do runners use in heat, cold and darkness?
Finishwhat does the final approach to Nice look like?
Sources and influences
What I base my preparation on
This is my personal preparation, not a universal blueprint. I combine official race information, my own experience, ideas from specialists, data, videos and lessons from runners who have completed Nice.
Official 2026 race information
The official 2026 race information is authoritative for distance, checkpoints, equipment and race organisation. For unchanged route geometry I also use available files from earlier editions. I do not assume older GPX data is the exact 2026 course: in the middle section, for example, the older line towards Madeleine differs from the 2026 route towards Venanson.
Official Nice 100M pageMy own route preparation
I use a section plan, course videos, online GPX files, finisher reports and information shared through TrailTalk and Strava to make the race less abstract.
Read my Nice 100M route guideMuscular endurance and specificity
I try to translate ideas from Scott Johnston and Jason Koop into my own setting: frequent repetition, specific load and training that matches what the race will actually demand.
Jason Koop — Training Essentials for UltrarunningHill training in Hilversum
Most outdoor hill sessions take place on Anna’s Berg, a roughly 20-metre hill in Hilversum. I also use the Technogym Climb Excite and Skillrun at SportCity for climbing, power hiking and muscular endurance.
See the six race problems I trainSports nutrition and gut training
Asker Jeukendrup has influenced how I think about periodised nutrition and gut training: nutrition is something to practise, not improvise on race day.
Asker Jeukendrup — Training the Gut for AthletesDownhill running and eccentric load
My downhill strategy combines personal experience with research on eccentric muscle damage and the repeated-bout effect. The practical lesson is that specific downhill exposure matters, but more and harder descending does not automatically create more useful adaptation. Technique, dose and recovery matter.
CTS — Downhill Running: How To Protect Against Muscle Damage Study — Khassetarash et al., repeated-bout effect in downhill runningSports medical screening
In 2025 I completed a sports medical assessment at OREC for the Monte Rosa Trail. In 2026 I also use OREC preventively for movement-chain assessment, single-leg control and preparation for long descents.
OREC sports medical assessmentLast meaningfully updated: 3 September 2026 — added the Italy and August blocks, current vertical benchmarks, downhill strategy, Tailwind race nutrition, body-weight development and the final taper phase.
Mandatory gear for the Nice 100M
Equipment is now part of race execution.
Most mandatory race equipment is no longer just purchased; it has been used in practice. Headlamps and spare power have been tested in longer sessions, waterproof trousers and shell in real rain, warm layers as a system, and the four-flask setup is now part of the race-fuelling routine.
The choices also connect to execution. At Levens I plan a functional reset with fresh shoes, dry socks and a clean Alzheimer Nederland shirt. The equipment must not only be present; after twenty hours I need to know where it is and why I am using it without thinking.
Why I share this
This preparation is about more than a finish line.
My parents-in-law live with dementia. That is why I am running the Nice 100M for Alzheimer Nederland. The preparation is therefore more personal than training for a sporting goal alone.
Early ninja sessions, repeated laps on Anna’s Berg and deliberate rest days all belong to the same campaign. Training is not more important than Alzheimer’s disease; the 100 miles are a way to raise attention and money for something that directly affects our family.
The first 100 symbolic miles are filled. The same simple idea continues: every additional €60 counts as another symbolic mile while the campaign moves towards €10,000 for Alzheimer Nederland.
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Frequently asked questions
Questions about training for a 100-mile mountain ultra
How do you train for a mountain ultra in the Netherlands?
By separating the race into demands. Climbing, descending, hiking, eating, darkness, heat and equipment each need different work. I use hill repeats, Anna’s Berg, Technogym Skillrun, Technogym Climb Excite, strength training, long runs and frequent repetition.
Why do you train so often on Anna’s Berg?
Because repetition is useful. The hill is short, but it allows controlled climbing, descending, eating, technique work and fatigue close to home. It is not an Alpine substitute, but it is a practical test slope.
Which machines do you use for mountain training?
Mainly the Technogym Skillrun for incline work and the Technogym Climb Excite for repeated climbing. They do not reproduce the Alps and they do not replace real descending, but they allow focused work on climbing, hiking and muscular endurance.
What are ninja sessions?
Sessions planned early or efficiently so that family life is disrupted as little as possible. The preparation must work athletically and remain sustainable at home.
What do you mean by periodised nutrition?
Nutrition changes with the purpose of the session. A rest day requires something different from a long hill session. During specific work I deliberately rehearse the Tailwind/PF90 protocol, fluid, electrolytes and timing so my gut and execution are not surprised on race day.
What do you mean by plan versus reality?
The plan defines the intended purpose and limits of a session. Reality determines the execution. If terrain, recovery, family life or pain signals change, I adjust. Doing more is only useful when the session remains specific and the recovery afterwards still works.
Why does body weight matter in your preparation?
Total mass must be decelerated repeatedly on long descents. I aim to reduce unnecessary mass gradually, but not at the cost of strength, recovery or carbohydrate availability. Multi-week trends matter more than daily smart-scale readings.
Is this training advice?
No. This is my own preparation, not medical, nutritional or general training advice. Other runners need to make decisions appropriate to their experience, health and circumstances.