Great job, congratulations. Exceptional write-up too, many thumb’s up 
Huge thanks to the Trainerroad guys for my Leadville Performance as well!!
the prep for my race I had documented a bit here: How running fitness translates to cycling FTP and fitness. N=1 case study
cliffs notes, I was solely running until the end of February, where I finished a BQ marathon run, and switched over to MTB to qualify for Leadville Via Austin Rattler.
leaving off from that thread, after the rattler, I was able to do a lot more outdoor rides, and was down to indoors only when weather was bad or trails were closed (most of may). I did my commute to work 9 miles each way likely 3 times a week, and was averaging around 8-12hrs a week of riding to build for Leadville. I did another ramp test around June 17th and hit 325 watts, or above my goal race p/w of 4.25 at 4.3 W/kg. from there I drifted away from the prescribed TR plans because I like biking outside to much, so I stuck to trails when I could, long weekend rides, and maybe 1-2 indoor rides a week tops. I also went away from the vo2 max rides on the trainer because I got good workouts doing a Thursday night short track MTB series here (roughly 40 minute races, racing the A group, podiumed every time in fields of 20+ people. )
So onto Leadville race. I arrived Sunday night with my family, and Monday I did a 2 hour ride from the copper mountain village up the Colorado trail for around 1:45:00… I made it I think 3/4 of the way to the top of the that climb before needing to turn around and head back down. spectacular views everywhere on that trail. its a must for anyone in the area. Also saw that Rose Grant rode the same section that day according to strava, and I passed by her when I was coming back down. cool to see pros in the wild! spectacular views above the treelike!
Wednesday I joined the Leadville podcast ride up Columbine (at least 5/8th of the way up). my first view of any of the course… it was humbling how long the climb was… but thankfully it was technically really simple. I was fortunate to do most of that ride with Dave Zabriskie.
Thursday I did the Gu energy Labs pre-ride up st Kevins with several guys from my newly joined Mckinney Velo Club, and a slew of other Leadville racers. It was a good ride getting a feel for the start and finish (super important it turned out), showing me about how long the end is. This ride I saw Rose Again, and actually got to talk with her, and its really awesome hearing peoples stories in person. Turns out we were staying in the same condo complex in Copper!
Moving on to Race day, I started in the Red Corral. with a target time of 8:30 to 9:00. The plan was to carry a 1.5L camelback with 4 SIS gels in the pockets, along with two bottles (one big and one small), all with scratch in them to twin lakes alternate where my wife was at.
The start was uneventful, a slow climb up Kevins, fast decent, and a decent climb up and down power line. By then I had a great group to ride with (we were pace lining at 25+mph at one point), and we flew through the road/flats to pipeline aid station where some of the group pitted. I continued on with a few from the group, and kept pace through twin lakes aid station. by this point If I remember correct I was a bit ahead of my target time according to the sticker with split times I had on the top tube. I think was I showing around a 8:15 estimated time.
Between Twin Lakes and twin lakes alternate, Chris Opie from GMBN rode up on me. I noticed his GoPro chest mount so I grabbed his wheel until I had to pit at the alternate. Here I ditched the camelback, grabbed two fresh bottles, a PB&J sandwich, and some new SIS gels. the climb up Columbine wasn’t great for me. my pace was a little slow as I lost a ton of places. I’m pretty confident @Jonathan was one of the early people to pass me as I saw the TR kit… he was moving faster then I wanted to climb at. my slower pace I think helped me get through the rest of the race at a good clip. I reached the summit right on target for a 8:30 finish, zipped up my vest and headed back down.
At the alternate aid station again, I grabbed my refilled camelback again, and two more bottles and headed out, pretty much solo all the way to twin lakes aid. Here I grabbed Ty Halls wheel. we slowly accumulated more and more riders in our group as we rode to pipeline aid station. the group shifted people as some stopped and others didn’t… we had a few working together on the road leading up to power line where I knew I was going to walk the steep section because my back was bothering me and. I needed to give it and my legs some rest. Just as I planned, I walked it. lol. mid way through I remounted and pedaled up the rest of that section to another team mate dressed as a pizza who gave me some much needed straight water at the top of that section, and an ice pack for my neck. I also ditched my camelback and vest with him as it was getting to hot by this time of the day.
I cleaned the rest of power line climb if my memory serves me correct… but I was cursing at every false flat. lol. coming down the hill I thought something was wrong with my bike it was coasting so slowly… but it was just me sitting up so straight to stretch my back. The climb back up to the top of Kevins on that road was great for me. I was solo, but I cruised past a bunch of people picking back many of the places I had lost at Columbine. I also descended Kevins Solo, and right at the bottom, was rejoined by Ty Hall and 3 others. they had a good pace going, so I grabbed a wheel and hung on. they flew through the streets heading back to town. and when we got to the last dirt climb, and flat, the group kind of fell apart. they asked me to pull through and take a pull, which I obliged, but I think they had spent themselves on their pulls and I just pedaled away from most of them. Ty managed to hang and by the time we got to the last street, he walked away from me as well, likely to pass one final guy for his charity work before the finish! I finished a few seconds behind him, at 8:33:08.
Overall the experience was amazing! Hands down the best run bike race ive ever done. everyone was super nice, and there was so much energy the entire way through the course. I don’t think I would do the race again though (at least not for another few years(, as its just a really long time on the bike, and quite painful for someone not out there to win. Ive got several other races I would like to try such as BC bike race, Breck Epic, and the Glacier 360 Iceland stage race.
some of the details on my effort, the bike was a 2019 s-works epic FS. I changed the shifting out to grip shift, and added a second of the specialized ribcages. Also running a 34 tooth chainring as I have a relatively slow cadence. it also has a bell for passing on the left grip, and I was using a Garmin Fenix 5X watch on my bar for GPS. I had a wahoo speed and cadence sensor, and a Garmin HR chest strap. no power on the bike yet sadly, but I managed by just controlling my effort. I was also using a brand new set of the s-works fast track tires… had them mounted 1 week before the race. I was running 20.5/21psi. time carbon TI pedals (they were pissed off all race for some reason, with the carbon shells squeaking basically the entire time). The chain and cassette were also brand new, replaced under warranty 1 week before the race (it was having shifting problems that replacing it fixed).
My nutrition was just 3 SIS gels, around 2/3 of the 2L camelback with straight water, and 1.5 bottles before TLAlt of skratch, 3/4 of the PB&J and one more SIS gel, along with 1 more bottle of scratch. TLAlt return I got 1.5L in the camelback of SKratch, and two more bottles of scratch, as well as 4 SIS gels. I ditched the camelback likely half full, and had one gel left at the finish. I would have rather had the camelback all water only if I did it again. I was to heavy on scratch and not enough straight water. I didn’t bonk though, so whatever I did worked decent. I felt dehydrated after I finished, and not peeing the entire race likely showed that was the case.
Thanks to the Trainerroad team for helping me with training leading up to this race, and the podcast for the inspiration to do it! Also thanks to the Mckinney Velo Club for taking me under their wing and giving me tons of valuable information about doing the race, as well as support during it. Everyone on the team racing also did amazing with everyone beating the goal or PR times!
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sub 9 next year!!! Let’s do it!! Way to go man, what an achievement; that elevation is amazing.
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I’ve ridden the LT100 twice, and both races have unfolded similarly for me: I feel fine for the first 2/3, then start to fade, and the last 1-2 hrs I have no energy and limp back to the finish. I guess it’s what I’d call a slow motion bonk. I never stop, but I move very slowly.
This year was 14 mins slower vs last time (9:52 vs 9:38) and 12 of those minutes I lost between turquoise lake and the finish. Looking at my race ranking, I was passed by 80 people between carter summit and the finish.
My symptoms have been the same both times - legs have no energy, heart rate won’t elevate, and stomach won’t accept any more food, and only a little water.
I think the root cause issues are inappropriate pacing (too hard in the first 6 hours) and my stomach does not digest well when I’m pushing that hard. When I’ve done 10+ hour rides at slightly more relaxed pacing, my stomach does fine, I can keep eating, and I don’t experience the same bonk.
For nutrition this year, I was using SIS gels (with electrolytes), honey stinger chews and water, generally at 200-250 cals/hr - until my stomach raised the white flag.
Between this year vs last time my training was a little different: I rode about 2 hrs per week less (6-8 instead of 8-10), as a result did fewer 3-4 hr outdoor rides/long climbs and did more shorter indoor rides on TR (last time was pre-TR for me), and changed my gearing to ride at a higher cadence (road and MTB). These changes I’m sure contributed to me being slower this time at Leadville, but hard to say how much vs me not having a great day on the bike.
Curious fact on how consistent my Columbine climb times have been - all paced by RPE:
2017 pre ride: 1:38:42
2017 race: 1:38:56
2019 race: 1:38:54
I used neutral aid this year, and have to say that the volunteers were simply awesome. There’s not much time difference between using neutral aid vs having your own crew. Maybe 1-2 mins total. If you’re planning to ride the LT100 in the future and are thinking about neutral aid, go for it.
Next up 140 miles on gravel this weekend - I need to give my MTB a break!
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Nice work @DaveWh. Everyone kept saying the race starts at mile 80 and it is so true. Everything else just softens you up for the last 24 miles.
Anyone know what happened with Taylor Phinney? A few days before the event he said he was going to ride more of an Enduro bike with 130mm travel and “have fun” out there, but it looks like he didn’t ride at all.
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Finished my first (and probably last) Leadville in 10:15:xx 
Quick Background: Female, live at sea level, qualified at Barnburner last year, started in Red Corral.
I had no time goal except to finish, make time cuts etc. I have only done one race that was above 10k elev for a shorter time so I had no idea how riding for that long at 10-12k feet would feel (turns out it felt fine), I don’t have power on the mtb just HR.
Overall loved the experience, the town, the people. Didn’t expect the course to be so crowded (due to never having pre rode any of it), or to be walking my bike in lines of people (I’m assuming it is a different experience for the faster riders), I didn’t have anyone out there to do support for me but the neutral aid stations and volunteers were awesome, I didn’t have to wait much at all and don’t feel it cost me too much time.
Congrats to all the finishers! That one was hard earned.
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Great after actions! Thank you for sharing all of the information, especially for those of us who didn’t get to ride this year. Perfect amount of detail. Congratulations to all the finishers.
Don’t know about Phinney, but Quinn Simmons seems like a beast. That kid has a bright future.
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I was just reviewing results for the 50-59 men’s group this year and comparing it to last year. I’m racing in 2020 and my I’m shooting for sub 9 , with a stretch (big stretch) goal of top 10 finish in my age group. So, I’ve been watching finishing times, comparing strava power numbers and weight, etc.
In 2018, a ~ 8:35 would have put you in 10th place in the 50-59 group. In 2019, it took an 8:20 for 10th place and a 8:35 would have been 17th.
That’s a huge swing from my perspective. I was thinking maybe the course was much faster this year and that might be part of it, but I think the 50-59 field is just getting deeper. There were over 30 more finishers in the 50+ this year compared to last. There were over 30 less finishers in the 40+ compared to last year, so it looks like an aging field. It looks like the 60+ field grew this year as well. I did the stage race a few weeks ago and the 50+ was the largest field.
Anyway, I just thought the numbers were interesting and it’s pretty cool to see such good representation from the older crowd (even when it means tougher competition for me).
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With the graded Powerline, I’m guessing that’s probably 30-50% of the time difference?
I wasn’t there and didn’t see what it looked like, but you probably could go up and down faster by a good margin.
I don’t think the grading on Powerline made that much difference. The grading likely impacted descending the most where riders who were more cautious in the past could now go down the steep bottom section a little more confidently. For climbing, it was still a hike a bike and the grade was the same.
The weather was perfect though this year. No rain, minimal wind, and not too hot. I couldn’t imagine it any better. I’m sure this had a positive impact on some of the times.
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The graded section of powerline is pretty short - just the steep part at the bottom. I went down 33 seconds faster, and up 36 seconds faster this time vs last. So not a big difference.
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I spot checked a couple of the top 15 guys in 50+ that raced last year and this year. Their times were pretty close. That doesn’t necessarily prove anything about the course, but they didn’t go any faster this year.
If I get motivated enough, I’ll pull some strava times for guys with power meters from the last 2 years and do some comparison. If you dig deep enough into that data, Strava is an amazing resource for race prep and setting split times. I was shooting for specific times splits at the stage race based on a bunch of strava research. I was within 2 minutes of every split for the first 2 stages (literally 1 minute ahead of target after 2 days of racing). Day 3, not so much after I tried to stay with a fast group and blew up and missed my target time by 5 minutes.
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It was not perfect weather for the slower folks. It was a hot 88 degrees between Twin Lakes and Pipeline, then by the time I got to the top of Powerline it was 43 and pouring rain. It was really cold coming down from there. I had to slow on the descent to avoid crashing due to the shivering.
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Ah didn’t realize it was only the lower portion.
15 mins up, less than 2 mins down. Bet there’s not many sections of trail with that ratio!
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But for the group of folks with finish times he’s asking about, I think the weather was much better. Nate mentioned that he “absolutely melted” on Powerline last year during a 8:53-ish finish. I finished in 8:49 this year and never felt hot (and I had a black jersey).
I had @Nate_Pearson’s heat comments in my mind during training and was hitting the sauna after indoor rides leading up to the event. However coming from the hot, humid mid-West, Colorado felt so refreshing even on the “hot” days.
The other factor was wind. I really didn’t notice any and I heard others say, including Fatty from Leadville podcast, that it was one of the calmest days they could remember.
Too bad about the rain for the later finishers. The weather does seem to roll in there late in the day and one of my crew members told me to hurry up and finish because they didn’t want to get wet…
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It was a great race… until it wasn’t.
I had a lottery start, and really tried fairly hard to get through as much traffic as possible, it was just tough right from the gun. Never had to put a foot down on Kevans but it was very slow, to the point it was “too” easy. Ty Hall passed our group at the turn as everyone yells “let him by”…I tried to get in that slip stream but the amount of people didn’t really allow it, so I just bided some time. I did catch back up to Ty’s “group” on the pipe line section and hung around with them until every one was stopping around the aid stations at twin lakes and alternate, everything was going fairly well I think I had 3 bottles down (one electroyte and two 160 maurtan and around 5 (SIS gels)
I cam through twin lakes and started to notice my gut was just a little off, but yet I was still eating and swapped some bottles with my crew and just carried on and figured it would settle, climbed up columbine steady but nothing to wild, I do not believe I got passed in the “pack” I was traveling around, only passing. Then the goat trail hit and with it lots of hiking. Around this time the leaders where ripping down through, that was cool. My hamstrings really did not like hike a bike section a whole lot but it was what it was, there was no where to go… At this point I started to develop a low grade headache, I didn’t think much of it at the time and just ate and drank more knowing I had to keep putting fluids and calories in my system. At the aid on columbine, I was full blown headache, and it was not pleasant. Every little bump would resonate to my head and then by the time I made it back down to twin lakes I was very queezy, and struggling to eat and drink. I almost felt drunk, I really had to focus descending due to the throbbing in my head at that point. I was right on my spilt though for sub 9 - 4:28 to the top.
After getting back down and taking some asprin and knowing I was on track time wise I stuck with my plan. As time went on that headache just got miserable. I previously had seen a few others hurling on the sides of the trail, and that was exactly what was running through my head, I was super ill heading into pipeline, I had somehow maintained enough to be just on my spilt time at pipeline. However I knew I was really not in a good place. I tried to take a bit of waffle and just gagged and forced down a gel with a little water. At this point I dont much remember what I ate and drank, my headache was awful, any effort sent me to the the moon and I had to slow was down; around this time I went from being right where I wanted to be at 6:08 to just thinking, can I survive until the finish.
Ultimately I just had to creep along, the headache never got better, that lead to stomach distress, which lead to eating and drinking issues. It was a real shit show. Every bump was like a punch to the head and gut, I was miserable with nausea and that headache. I did end up finishing right at 10 hours, I sat at carter aid for 25 minutes trying to just drink water and eat some banana’s I knew I wasn’t going to finish if I couldn’t eat, I had already conceded the big buckle at that point and was not willing to concede a finish.
All in all, I finished and it was my first try and my first ever time at any elevation over 6k feet. I live in Ohio and only get into the Smokey “mountains”. I flew in on Wednesday and stayed in Frisco, I should have known that night I may need acclimation time as I had a slight headache that night all night sleeping. I did the GU ride Thursday and felt fine, granted it was crazy easy, and really thought I was going to do well. I trained avg 7.7 hours a week since Nov, and was sitting around 4.6-4.8 watts per kg depending on my weight. I had done a very large training simulation day in the smokey mtns 3 weeks before the race, 101 miles, 13500 feet of climbing, demoed the exact nutrition, pacing, ect and never came un glued or a ton of stress; I believe I did my first hour of that day at 285 watts (332 ftp) and then I did another 4 hours above 250, so again the thoughts were positive and my legs were pretty good.
I think I just got a bad case of Acute Mountain Sickness when I was on Columbine. All I can really believe, based on training, nutrition, ect. It was the only real variable. I didnt have a PM, but I never felt like I was smashing it, or going to hard, I felt fine and kept a reasonable HR until my headache crept in.
What can I do differently do combat this?
Has anyone else experienced altitude sickness with similar symptoms?
Is this a case of maybe I did go harder then I thought and then my body could not catch up in those high altitudes?
Also did anyone suffer the “dust” hack? I normally have no breathing issues but I was for certain coughing up some of that dust!
Those 3.5 hours to end the race were some of the most miserable I have ever had suffering on a bike, just to keep moving. Ironically I never felt even close to a bonk, I never really got leg cramps, I just couldn’t muster anything with my head pounding and that nausea, HR would only make the problem worse. In fact the next day I felt okay (that took all night) and I went for a light spin and didnt really feel thrashed. In other words, yeah it was 10 hours, but my legs had a lot more in them then my body let them produce, very strange.
I will be back, for one with a better corral position, because that starting at the back was stressful, so to avoid that from the gun would be nice. And two I will figure out that elevation, maybe a week before is going to be necessary and do a longer test ride up columbine?..
Bike setup was great. I ran my epic, full stiff on the brain (s), about 5 psi extra in each shock. Ran maxxiss treadlites, 2.1, fast rollers, and I would run them again, I didn’t have traction issues. I should have ran a few PSI less was 24 front 26 rear. Ran bottles all day, that was fine as well.
Good job to the rest of you as well, it was a tricky day.
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What you describe sounds like almost textbook altitude sickness and combined with your arrival time (about 72 hours ahead of the event), it matches up pretty well.
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