Hey Folks- I am doing Leadville for the 2nd time. My goal is sub 9. Last year I came very close, but not quite there. I am having this internal debate about using a hydration pack or not. My bike can carry two 750ml bottles, and I have an experienced crew that will be at Outward Bound and Lost Canyon. Based on my time splits last year, I was never more than 2 hours between aid stations, with the exception of Outward Bound and the finish. I really don’t like having to suck on a tube at elevation, and I feel like I can’t monitor my intake all that well. What do y’all think about just swapping two bottles at each aid station?
My preference is a pack, but 2 bottles work pretty well at leadville. My only concern would be Outward Bound to Carter if it’s hot. It’s less than 2 hours, but can be pretty brutal on a hot day climbing powerline and the road climb. Certainly doable, just might be empty before Carter.
Pack here too. There are times I’ll use pack and one bottle, may even have a second bottle with just mix to fill at an aid station.
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Yeah, I am probably overthinking it. It is so easy to do that.
What I like about my hydration pack is that I can drink in situations where juggling a bottle would be sketchy. So, I usually use both, a bottle and a pack. The bottle has carbs and pack plain water to rinse down gels etc…
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You could always grab a bottle at the last neutral aid for the descent down kevens and boulevard. I think it’s doable, especially for sub 9.
On the other hand, I got down damn near a whole 2l on the columbine descent with a pack. No way I could have done that with bottles (obviously people do though)
Joe
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With a pack I tend to take smaller sips but a lot more often… which is good for digestion and the gut in a long chunky race… that as others have said may have limited opportunities to grab a bottle.
The trade off though is I hate a hot back from the pack.
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I keep going back and forth on this one as well. Did only bottles last time and really, either works. But I’ve converted over to the pack completely in 1.5-2 hours xc races because it allows me to drink in the single track and then attack all out on the fast connector sections or hills where most guys grab a drink and slow down. It would be nice to have that freedom to drink anytime, even though it’s not hard to drink on most spots at LV. It would help on descents basically to get that constant drip.