@Jonathan are you still running, or did you drop that to focus on riding/Leadville?
My emotional reaction to this is interesting. I’m so much more interested in what someone like @Jonathan or @BCM or @grwoolf do to prepare for events like this because, while you’re all faster than I’ll ever be, you’re living with constraints that I can relate to, both physically and life stress wise. I read these posts and think “oh hey, maybe I should be doing it that way”. While I do love it when you have Keegan on the show, I don’t really expect that much of what he’s doing at the pointy end will be the low hanging fruit that I need to pick.
5 Likes
This has to be cooked. 2 Cups uncooked is a hell of a lot of rice and I know how to eat and am about 20 pounds heavier than @Jonathan at the same height.
3 Likes
Even looking at me and @grwoolf - we’re above average for this race. @Jonathan was top 3%. I was top 13%. @grwoolf was top 18%. I think it was posted here or in the race thread that the median finisher was just under 11 hours.
I stay with a group of guys who finish in the 11-12 hour range every year. In their 50’s, and if you saw them, you’d probably assume no way in hell they finish. But, they get it done every year.
Really it just comes down to Committing to training, being consistent about training, and as you get closer just trying to spend a lot of time on the bike. If you’re really crunched for time - do a low volume plan for the bulk of the year building FTP, and then for the summer (2-3 months before the race) focus on building volume and long rides as much as you can to make sure your body can handle the time on the bike (And, I’d also recommend a consistent core routine year round for this reason.) If you’re committed and consistent throughout the year, I think Leadville is achievable if you’re smart about it on race day.
The reality for someone like me - there’s a hell of a lot of grinding and boring training that leads up to race day. It’s about putting in the time.
4 Likes
Those are just reference points for the relative amount of carbs I’d have in the two meals prior. Assuming it was an exact scenario, I’d have somewhere between 1-2 cups of rice in each of those meals prior. And that is cooked rice, not pre-cooked.
4 Likes
I started listening to this. About 30 seconds in, Jonathan described himself as an average rider. I stopped listening.
1 Like
Hey Jonathan, can I clarify here what you would call an easy ride? Would anything below sweetspot be easy? How long would you go for before adding carbs? An hour? 2 hours?
Are you saying you just fuel with protein and fat and whatever glycogen is in the system for anything endurance?
I miss fasted riding, I used to do a lot of early mornings fasted (and often felt good for it) but changed as I thought the narrative now was to fuel the work and even endurance work in z2 still needs carbs to stop the body overstressing/reducing immunity
Why the fasted route? A bit of metabolic flexibility training?
Just curious
For these typesof podcasts, Would love to hear more about Keegan’s training leading up to the race. What is the focus, give an example of typical workouts he did. I know everyone loves to know what tire he ran, but we can find that info elsewhere (and that ain’t what makes Keegan Keegan).
2 Likes
I certainly share the sentiment that Jonathan is far from average, but if you can move past that, it’s still a very interesting comparison. The power and time differences between Jonathan and Keegan are pretty astronomical.
I’d love for someone smarter than me to fact check me on this, but it wouldn’t surprise me if the watt/kg difference between Keegan and Jonathan (top 3% rider), are way more Jonathan and a…. 40-50% rider? I.e. the gap between Jon and Keegan is huge power wise, but much smaller between Jon and mid pack.
3 Likes
@Jonathan - Happy to be that “average” rider. DM me if interested. 11:04 finish.
Jonathan said he increased his aiftp to something like 305w going into the race. Mine ftp was higher than that this time last year and I’m a 56 yo nobody, and weighed over 200# 
. (haven’t been able to recreate that much power this year, but am down another 10#… I don’t think I’m chasing 7hr if I could make it to Leadville to put that in my bucket)
1 Like