Central Coast Dirt 100 — a Repack Racing endurance MTB event at Lake San Antonio, Monterey County, on Sunday, October 18, 2026, with 30-mile, 60-mile solo and 60-mile DUO relay options on a 15-mile lap of fire road, doubletrack, singletrack and lakeside riding.
Build Your Personalized Race Fueling Plan — $19Registered Central Coast Dirt 100 athletes with a Repack Racing benefit code.
General, evidence-based guidance. Numbers should always be personalized to sweat rate, body mass, fitness and weather.
70–90 g/hr of mixed-source carbohydrate (glucose : fructose ~1 : 0.8) for most trained riders on the 60-mile solo. Trained guts can push toward 100 g/hr on the longer sustained sections. Liquid + gel is more tolerable than solids on singletrack and helps you eat safely between the technical passages.
60–80 g/hr for the 30-mile course. The shorter duration lets you push the top of the range without stretching gut tolerance the way a 6-hour day would.
For each racing lap, 80–100 g/hr split across the 60–75 minute segment. Between laps, sip a carb-electrolyte drink (~30–40 g CHO) and eat one solid item while waiting for the exchange to keep glycogen topped off.
17–30 fl oz/hr for the 60-mile solo, adjusted for October Central Coast heat. Cool starts trick riders into a light bottle plan that leaves a deficit by hour 3. Drink to the clock, not to thirst — especially in the first two hours when the perceived need is lowest.
500–1000 mg of sodium per liter of fluid as a default. Salty sweaters and afternoon-half riders should push toward 800–1200 mg/L. Sodium debt on Central Coast Dirt 100 builds silently across 5+ hours and typically shows up as cramping on the last lap, not the first.
3–6 mg/kg body mass, split between pre-start and the base of the biggest mid-race climb. A 154 lb rider targeting 5 mg/kg takes ~200 mg pre-race and 150 mg mid-race. Save at least one 50–100 mg dose for the final third.
The lap format means you pass the start/finish area at the end of every 15-mile lap. Pre-mixed bottles in a labeled cooler + a support crew handing up bottles on the fly saves 60–120 sec per lap versus stopping. Cap start-finish stopped time to 30–60 sec on laps 1–2 and 60–90 sec on laps 3–4 if you need to grab solids.
1–4 g/kg carbohydrate 2–4 hours before the gun, from familiar low-fiber, low-fat foods. A 154 lb rider targets 140–280 g CHO. Oats + banana + honey, bagel + jam or a rice bowl are proven. Add 30–50 g CHO 15–30 min pre-start via a gel and sports drink.
Fuel BEFORE entering technical singletrack sections and IMMEDIATELY after exiting them — never force intake with both hands on the bar. Set a 15-minute alarm on the head unit from mile 0. Chew during flat lakeside connectors, sip constantly on descents where the surface allows.
Within 30–60 minutes of the finish: 1.0–1.2 g/kg carbohydrate and 0.3 g/kg protein, plus 150% fluid replacement with sodium. Repack Racing finish villages typically include post-race food — use it. The 60-minute post-race window is the single highest-return investment for how you feel the next week.
Grams and millilitres per hour for each phase of the race. Personalize to your sweat rate, body mass and conditions.
Central Coast Dirt 100 — 60-mile solo (4 × 15 mi laps, 5–8 hr) — targets for a mid-pack finisher
0 → 15 mi (start → end of lap 1)·0:00 → ~1:20
Caffeine: 150–200 mg 20 min pre-start (with breakfast option)
Focus: Do NOT chase early moves. Cap effort at high Zone 2 / low Zone 3 HR — even if the front group goes harder. Lap 1 is reconnaissance: learn line choice, singletrack grip and lakeside doubletrack rhythm. Lock in a 15-min intake alarm from mile 0.
15 mi (start/finish)·~1:20
Focus: Fast in, fast out. Support crew hand-up ideally — no dismount. If solo, cap stopped time at 30–60 sec. Take 1 gel now if you skipped one on lap 1.
15 → 30 mi (lap 2)·~1:20 → ~2:45
Focus: The biggest lap-race trap: legs feel fresh so riders push. Wrong lap. Lap 2 should feel identical to lap 1. Save the effort for laps 3 and 4 where it actually decides the finish.
30 mi (start/finish)·~2:45
Focus: Halfway checkpoint. Quick internal audit: HR trending up for the same effort? Cramping signals? Fueling on schedule? Take the solid item now — chewing gets harder on the second half.
30 → 45 mi (lap 3)·~2:45 → ~4:15
Caffeine: 100–150 mg at the base of the biggest climb this lap
Focus: Fixed HR / RPE ceiling on the climbs. Fuel through the lakeside sections. Riders who overcooked lap 2 blow up here; riders who paced conservatively pass them. This is where the race sorts itself.
45 mi (start/finish)·~4:15
Focus: Last transition. Take 1 gel, one more caffeine dose if under daily cap (≤6 mg/kg). Confirm you have enough fluid + one emergency gel for the last lap.
45 → 60 mi (lap 4, finish)·~4:15 → finish (~5:00–8:00 depending on pace)
Focus: Ride to power / HR, not to feel. Late-race under-fueling is where riders break — reset the 15-min alarm even if you 'know' the finish is close. Descend within your skills; a crash on the last descent costs the race.
Finish line to team box·T+0 → T+60
Focus: Recovery starts the moment you cross the line. Compress, shade, elevate. Use the finish-village food. Full meal 1–3 hours later.
Times assume a ~6-hour 60-mile solo finisher; scale ±30% for faster or slower paces. Peak-heat and lakeside-exposure windows may shift the numbers within a lap. 30-mile finishers can compress the same phase logic into laps 1–2 with lower intake ceilings. DUO relay racers should treat each of their 2 racing laps as an 80–100 g/hr threshold effort with active recovery between laps. Confirm the exact 2026 course layout, on-course aid stations, cutoffs and category-specific details in the Repack Racing pre-race athlete communications on repackracing.com/central-coast-dirt-100. Individual sweat rate can shift fluid and sodium targets by ±30% — personalize with a pre-race sweat test.
October dawns at Lake San Antonio can be 41–50 °F, which tricks riders into a light bottle plan; by 1 PM the exposed lakeside sections are 72–79 °F and the deficit is already baked in.
Central Coast Dirt 100 punishes riders who match early surges on lap 1. The 4-lap format compounds early over-effort into hour-4 cramping and lap-3 blow-ups. Cap effort at high Zone 2 / low Zone 3 heart rate through lap 1 — even if the front group is going harder.
The biggest lap-race mistake: legs still feel fresh at the start of lap 2, so riders push harder than lap 1. This is the wrong lap to push — lap 2 should feel identical to lap 1. Save the effort for lap 3 and 4 when it actually decides the finish.
You cannot safely open a gel in a rocky singletrack chute. Riders who skip a scheduled feed 'because the trail is technical' arrive at the next open section already 20 g behind — front-load calories before technical sections instead.
Rolling Central Coast terrain with lakeside doubletrack surges burns glycogen faster than steady road tempo at the same average power. Intake should sit at the top of the recommended range (80–90 g/hr) not the bottom (60 g/hr).
Dust, sunscreen residue and long time-on-course amplify GI risk. Race only what you have trained on 4+ hour rides — even a familiar-looking new gel is a bad bet on hour 5.
Dry Central California sun and low humidity accelerate sweat evaporation, which masks total loss. Riders systematically underestimate sodium needs. A structured plan tied to fluid intake (600–1200 mg/L) prevents late-race cramping and cognitive fog.
Thirst under-reports fluid deficit by 1–2%. On a 5–8 hour Central Coast day, that gap compounds into cramping and cognitive fog by hour 5.
DUO riders who sit down and eat a full meal between their two laps come back cold and slow on lap 3. Keep warm layers on, spin the legs 5–10 minutes before your exchange window, and stick to small frequent carbs while waiting.
Central California UV in October is stronger than most riders expect. SPF 50+ reapplied at every start/finish pass is a performance decision, not comfort.
A practical race-week checklist: carbs, hydration, sodium, caffeine and race-day supplies — print it or keep it on your phone.
Free calculators, checklists and articles to help you personalize your Central Coast Dirt 100 plan.
Every athlete is different. FTP, finish time, body weight, sweat rate, weather, nutrition preferences and race goals all change what you should eat and drink.
FuelQ Pro builds a personalized race fueling strategy tuned to your ride — carbohydrate, hydration, sodium, caffeine and recovery, mapped to the course.
A Race Fueling Plan gives you a personalized strategy for this event. The free checklist helps you prepare the basics first: race-week setup, 48-hour prep, race morning, hydration, sodium, caffeine, aid stations, and backup calories.
