I am historically a trail runner and have completed several 100 milers including Leadville 3x. That said, I am not a cyclist. And I want to complete the mountain bike portion as close to 10 hours as I can. I “winged” it a bit 2 years ago and made it to 92 miles before missing the cutoff. My training was largely running with a focus on the LT100 run the following weekend.
I feel that because I’m not a trained cyclist, I need to focus on cycling for the next 3 months. I’m currently in a general fitness plan and start the TR “Climbing Road Race” plan in March. Leadville isn’t as technical so thought this the best option.
Has anyone approached multi sport training for this event or other similar events that occur within a week or two of one another? I know the bike will help with building aerobic capacity and VO2max which will benefit running in the spring. The challenge I have is that I don’t know whether to alternate weeks of run focus and ride focus at that time (eg, during a build, alternating threshold or VO2max between bike and run while attempting to still do z2 ride AND run on Saturday/Subnday.
Any insight or experience is welcome. Would be great to hear from others who have done Leadman/challenge or are planning to this summer.
FWIW I’m no spring chicken so I can no longer pull off the shit I did 10 years ago punishing myself without consequence!
Thanks!
Hey @RunLong 
I think what may work best is if you pick a primary focus and let the other sport ride shotgun rather than trying to develop both at once.
Given your background, the bike is clearly the limiter. If the goal is getting closer to a 10-hour bike split, I think you’re spot on to make cycling the main focus for the next few months and mostly use running as maintenance.
It may not be wise to alternate hard run weeks and hard bike weeks as it can lead to accumulated fatigue, not really getting better in either discipline.
You could:
- Do your hard work on the bike (threshold, VO2max, long climbing)
- Keep running mostly easy with maybe some short pickups just to stay sharp
The bike fitness will carry over really well to running.
Climbing Road Race is a reasonable plan choice. Even though Leadville isn’t technical, it’s still about sustained power, repeatability, and not blowing up at altitude. I’d just plan on swapping some of the long rides for outdoor MTB rides as you get closer to get familiar with the bike set up, nutrition and hydration which play a big role in being able to complete these long events.
Great feedback. Having not done both, I worry I’ll not improve running with bike. Physiologically, it should cross over as you suggest. I’ll definitely give it a shot as I know how I should feel running-wise… just don’t know how I should feel on a bike when I’m truly fit.
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Yeah I feel ya. I was in the same pickle but the other way around.
I knew how I felt on the bike, but when I started trail running, I wasn’t sure how I would hold up distance wise compared to the bike. They are very different impact sports, but I think you’re at an advantage coming from running! Running can be brutal. If you can fine tune the bike and do the maintenance on running I think you’ll be good!