the unofficial Cape Epic thread

[DieselnDust]

9 hours ago, Titleist said:

Can those who participated this year please post some feedback on your training for the past 6 months so we can see what it takes?

Weekly hours, intensity, amount of rides >4 hours etc etc.

10-12 hours per week

Very specific about zones 

Tuesday to Thursday intervals targeting specific zones 1-1,5 hrs

friday recovery; gym, swim , easy ride

saturday 2-3hrs endurance with intervals

sunday 4-5 hrs zone2 only

 

this is a very basic overview and does not convey the periodisation.bThe detailed plan is structured using both pyramidal and polarised models for specific training blocks.

when time crunched you have to be very disciplined to the point of divorce if you want to ride the cape epic comfortably and complete it.

i don’t believe in training camps, special mats or extraterrestrial interventions 

i train my metabolic systems as if i was racing. 

I do not target specific carbohydrate intake per hour. That will naturally increase as you get fitter. For the epic it is not purely about carbs per hour as you are not at that sort of intensity for very long if you wan to last the duration of the event. Racing the Cape Epic takes a couple of years of build unless it is your job to do so.

 

Edited March 25, 2025 by DieselnDust

[Pandatron]

48 minutes ago, karma said:

What's doff is, assuming everyone who struggles did not prepare well.

If you make the cut-off daily by 1 second, you still made it.

Is there a point responding to this?

[DieselnDust]

1 hour ago, karma said:

What's doff is, assuming everyone who struggles did not prepare well.

If you make the cut-off daily by 1 second, you still made it.

It is however a safe assumption. 
 

what is preparing well? 
training peaks has these measures called 

fatigue (ATL)<30

fitness (CTL) 75-85

form (TSB) a positive number >10

the numbers are what I would target for the start of a stage race like cape epic but not a hard and fast rule.

Everyone is watching YT videos but also extracting nuggets that

serves to confirm their bias. Some want to train by racing every weekend and nothing in the week. That’s a high risk strategy basis the accumulated training load, long recovery that often results in unsustainable short term gains. They won’t have the durability for an 8 day event.

The other extreme is ride every day and this builds up massive fatigue. If rest isn’t managed then this person is poorly prepare despite the high training load.

the  there are the nuances in the middle. Basically it is easy to be badly prepared yet have ridden regularly.

the fact that many survive is more testament to the generous time cutoffs than anything 

I rode with many prologue hero’s who then hung on by their finger nails. Some made the week and others did not. Many who got cut rode a lot.

preparation is not about volume alone. Preparation is about understanding the job at hand and building the required engine

 

Edited March 25, 2025 by DieselnDust

[Lynskey]

My last epic was 2014. I got an invite a week before. So nothing new happened,  we came 159 I think, at that time i was riding 5 times a week for about an hour per ride. I wouldn't do it now. I don't ride anywhere near as much and I am just gone 50. Every single scenario is different. There is no one size fits all here. 

[DieselnDust]

Just now, Lynskey said:

My last epic was 2014. I got an invite a week before. So nothing new happened,  we came 159 I think, at that time i was riding 5 times a week for about an hour per ride. I wouldn't do it now. I don't ride anywhere near as much and I am just gone 50. Every single scenario is different. There is no one size fits all here. 

In a nut shell^^^

[Bro Derek]

To throw a cat in amongst it, if the race is billed as the toughest in the world, do those who finish at the back and struggle every day truly believe they have trained well enough to confidently tackle the toughest race in the world?

If not, then the question needs to be asked, why do it if it's not the toughest in the world as you've not treated it as such but still want to claim the accomplishment, which seems like a whole other series of questions regarding motivation, drive and expectation.... It's a pretty deep thing to go into.

I personally don't think many of the field train sufficiently to ride what they claim to have ridden once they ride it OR say it was too tough if they don't successfully ride it. 

 

[NotSoBigBen]

A certain mental fortitude (just plain old vasbyt if you will) definitely helps .... It may even overcome a bit of shortcoming in training. Luckily I haven't done 0 or 3 events so I guess I can comment 😜

[DieselnDust]

4 minutes ago, NotSoBigBen said:

A certain mental fortitude (just plain old vasbyt if you will) definitely helps .... It may even overcome a bit of shortcoming in training. Luckily I haven't done 0 or 3 events so I guess I can comment 😜

#vasby

#bytvas

#HTFU

all contribute to getting through 

 

the most important thing to train is ….?

answers below

 

[ChrisF]

2 hours ago, Pandatron said:

I'm asking the question not making a statement.. but i will provide my own answer.

You should be arriving at ACE competently prepared in my view and have the ability to at least clear the cut off by 30 minutes.

Survival of just making it Waterpoint to Waterpoint day after day increases your risk exposure exponentially, there will definitely be days where something goes wrong and stuff happens.

But going or attempting to day after day in a completely blown state/dehydrated and then wondering why bad things happen, is doff.


 

 

Fair enough.  That makes sense.

 

Not the Comrades approach of running to meet each cut off by seconds ....

 

Thus a comfortable and well planned pace, without trying to set age-cat record times.

[PhilipV]

9 hours ago, Shebeen said:

simple:

 

Ironman are using the long term legacy to prioritize the short term profit at the expense of rider experience.

 

 

Maximizing Shareholder Value 101

2 hours ago, DieselnDust said:

Those who were involved in comforting , monitoring , first aid, and paramedic duties will find ways to deal with their own trauma of the day 
 

 

Having recently been involved in a (fortunately successful, but still dramatic)  Search and Rescue, let me tell you that dealing with the aftermath takes a while. And we were successful…

[Tiny K]

I rode Epic this year, so feedback below.

My prep was 2x Zwift races mid-week, 1hr Z2 x2 on Zwift for the other week days (Friday rest / prep), and then at least a long ride the weekend, preferably both days. I'm a roadie, so not many MTB miles, but I'm comfortable on technical dirt, so it wasn't really necessary. 

Last year I did 6 days of W2W (2x back to back) which I might add had not nearly prepared me enough for Epic. I rode Atta and Imbuko Big5 (where I realised that my partner wasn't nearly as prepared as I was).

I did a couple road races too, Tour du Cap and Argus. I prepared as much as I could for what lay ahead... and it felt like it wasn't enough, especially the volume of climbing (more the gradients they sent us up).

Last Tuesday was the hottest that the Boland has been this past year, and I won't go into the happenings of the day. We started in E/F batch, lost a lot of time to standing in the shade, but finished the stage. Fairview was k@k because of the thorns, and REALLY dusty.

Lourensford was a mess because of the rains, but not crazy amounts. A few riders complained that their tents leaked.

The food was not bad, and it was enough. A good variety of everything... except for their overripe bananas.

I do agree to an extent regarding qualifying races, but maybe not so much a stage race (like W2W) but rather evidence of consistency and mileage. The ability to deal with the terrain and temperatures.

I would definitely love to do it again - it's a real test of physical and mental fortitude.

I've ended the week with the best fitness I've ever had, starting with fitness/fatigue of 90/90, and ending with 116/195 (which has also changed to 112/153 after a 45min Zwift ride this morning).

[cadenceblur]

How reliable is the fitness measure on Training Peaks? 
My form always aligns or rises with fatigue hitting zero  after a taper but fitness stays around 60? Sometimes lower

I train consistently around 8 hours a week, without about 80% in zone 2 and the balance a solid spread across threshold ,  O2Max etc

[mikkelz]

https://off.road.cc/content/feature/bike-check-keegan-swensons-cape-epic-2025-santa-cruz-blur-16783

[DieselnDust]

9 minutes ago, cadenceblur said:

How reliable is the fitness measure on Training Peaks? 
My form always aligns or rises with fatigue hitting zero  after a taper but fitness stays around 60? Sometimes lower

I train consistently around 8 hours a week, without about 80% in zone 2 and the balance a solid spread across threshold ,  O2Max etc

It’s not about it accuracy but rather an indicator for you of where you are relative to your training load and recovery. Once you know what numbers work for you aim for those while raising your thresholds across durations that matter for the event you’re targeting 

[cadenceblur]

That was my gut feeling as well

[saturdayknight]

1 hour ago, DieselnDust said:

Give a few days to get my head back into normal mode and I’ll gladly write up some basics around my approach to training and eating for an event such as cape epic. I don’t want to add to the amount bad facts so I will keep it at conceptual level. There is definitely a fallacy around a certain CHOgr/hr and training for that without considering what metabolic pathways are relevant at the time or what your overall performance level is, your weight etc. hence specifics should be discussed with a physician qualified to advise each person accordingly. YT is great but it is also dangerous 

Yip I worked hard before the epic last year to kickstart ketone metabolism - I think this helps for various reasons