Have you done a long race before? Sure you don’t NEED to go long to train for events like these, but it sure helps figure out fueling and gear choices.
1 Like
I’d suggest focusing more on hours. I like to make my long rides at least as long as what I expect it will take to hit powerline inbound on race day (around 6.5 hours for my typical pace). I like to get those rides to a point where I’m not completely shelled and could still ride hard for a couple more hours if needed. Part of these rides are fitness, but it’s also about the mental side, comfort on the bike, nutrition/hydration, etc.
I don’t disagree with the TR guidance of doing long events on short rides, but I dont’ think it tells the entire story. You can absolutely build the aerobic fitness to ride 10+ hours on a bunch of short rides. But figuring out all the other stuff takes some long rides (in my opinion). And some of it also comes down to what you want your race day experience to be. I like to suffer in long races from an effort standpoint, but not from fueling/GI issues, comfort issue, etc. I want to feel reasonably strong all day, I’m not into the death march approach.
3 Likes
I’ve done long rides both distance and time but never under specific time constraints like Leadville. Assuming I’m at the back end of the race and aiming for sub 12, how long do you think my rides should end up in training?
If you can, I’d try to push a couple out to ~8 hours. And again, it’s not about the aerobic fitness as much as all the other stuff. But it’s a careful balancing act and very individual. Don’t go try 8 hours if your weekly volume is 6 hours and your long rides are typically 2 hours. Whatever you get to, try to work up as gradually as possible. You don’t want to go so long that it puts you in a big hole that hurts your training, but you want to figure out those other aspects as much as possible. A lot of this stuff is trial and error, so just try to minimize and learn from the errors and you will figure out what works for you over time. You’d much rather figure out fueling and pacing mistakes now vs. race day.
2 Likes
It’s not the time or distance but the cumulative volume of a short 3 day block. An example could be 90 mins w sweet spot intervals on the first day to generate some fatigue, followed two 3 hour days. TR will give you a yellow light after day one, I ignore that. The goal is to build some fatigue and then just ride Z2 for the remaining days. Or you could pile on some miles, but this was my strategy last go around and it worked out well. I’ll do the same for this year.
2 Likes
Got an email yesterday on Coral position. Was pleasantly surprised as they took my better time from the stage race vs LT100 last year putting me back in Silver.
Only change I noticed is I thought the Gold corral started with the Elites last year at 6:10am. Looks like they are now going off 20 minutes after Elites at 6:30am then Silver at 6:32:30
Training has been going good so far and ahead of where I was at a year ago. Current FTP is similar to before LT100 last year and recently hit a couple 1hr power PR’s. Durability seems better on long rides where I am still able to put in good efforts after 3-4 hours. Also have been focusing on increasing cadence as I tend be more of a low cadence power rider. Still a ways to go before the big day so gotta stay focused!
2 Likes
Yeh I got my email. I have got blue - first time entrant from the uk so not unsurprising and tbh I was expecting to be in brown!
Got a 6 hr endurance xc race in 2 weeks so hoping for a good result there and then I can try and bump myself a bit up by emailing them. At the moment I am at 3.85w/kg. Training is going well. Just got of 3 hours on the turbo this morning. Hitting some good power PRs. I think I will be close to hitting 4w/kg for race day but realistically I would be happy with 9:30/10hour pace with plenty of leeway if things go wrong out on the course to bring home a small buckle.
2 x conti race kings arrived yesterday. Been hard to get hold of out here. Will give them a go but prob not in the race in 2 weeeks. Even with the dry weather we have had over here where it is held in Cannock has a reputation for staying muddy in the shaded tree sections so will stick with the xr2 and then try out the race king on the dry and dusty main trails.
1 Like
Are you saying you got in the Blue corral as a first time lottery entrant without doing an official qualifier? I’m currently in that scenario and got Brown which is what I expected as I thought everyone without a qualifier got the worst corral.
Regarding emailing them a result from a non-qualifier, can someone confirm if they will consider that? The published verbiage sounds like they won’t but if they will, that would be awesome as I’d shoot them an email too.
I got white. My last finish time was 10:10 in 2021. I don’t think this qualifies me to get bumped up (I think this was part of the registration form), but worthwhile to email them? I am doing lutsen to try to improve my corral. Shooting for at least orange but ideally green. Currently 3.6 w/kg but hoping to be in the 4.0 neighborhood in August.
With regards to what others have said about duration of training, I think can get by with short TR rides, but I don’t think you can finish well or avoid real suffering without practicing some longer rides. Do a couple 3 h, then 4h, then 5h, etc. I think if you go too long out the gate, you just bury yourself. You want to push it long enough to test your resilience, but not so long that you are absolutely cracked and can’t recover for days.
I got into Purple probably based on my Silver Rush last year.
Just about to head out for a 6 hour gravel ride. Then hopefully will be building my new race rig in the next 2 days. Riding an Epic 8 Sworks that I am building up from the frame tires will be Dubinital Race.
I will have try to sell my old bike as well in the next couple of weeks as well.
1 Like
Had some training success this past weekend - gravel race of 135 miles with 14000 ft of elevation, average power of 2.8 w/kg and NP of 3.12 w/kg, 9:35 moving time and dealt with a bunch of rain and mud. No cramps and Garmin said I had 20% of “potential” left.
Although this was at sea level, this definitely gave a boost of confidence. The w/kg, when adjusted for elevation, gets me right on the line of going sub-9. Here’s to hoping I can continue to be productive over the next few 13 weeks!
4 Likes
My Unbound training really is my Leadville training and it’s been going well this year. Just wrapped up a big block with a stage race this past weekend and ready for some rest. CTL hitting an all time high of 142 (based on an all-time high FTP). Have hit all time power pr’s for 1, 2, and 3 hours by healthy margins. Pretty happy to see numbers going up as I’m in my mid 50’s. I’ve been pushing the volume hard that last couple years and testing limits. Mixing in a bit more intensity this year, will be interesting to see if that translates to race performance. I’m going to hit a bunch of 30/30’s in the run into Unbound and also planning to do some vo2 stuff in the final weeks before leadville this year. Last year, I really dialed down intensity and focused on volume. Endurance was good at Leadville, but I struggled with the punchy stuff. Not much of that is needed at Leadville, but I figured I’d try mixing up the training a bit this year.
6 Likes
142 CTL…I wish I had the time for that!
3 Likes
I did send them some results from last year so I assume they took that into account in setting the coral. I think as a international entrant due to the qualifiers they said to send in any results and they will take these into consideration although they cant guarantee anything.
1 Like
Very impressive CTL and consistent gains this year! What has your training schedule looked like this year?
My graph plateaus around 75 with 12 hrs/wk (2 days intensity) and have a TR AI FTP of 299 as of a month ago. I’m trying to increase volume up to SR50 to get over that plateau.
1 Like
Back in Green.
With a couple other cancellations this year, I’m having evil thoughts about going back to Lutsen 
I swore I’d never do it again after the conditions and travel logistics, but just got off the wait list if I want it. Fantastic course if it doesn’t end up being a mud fest. Again…
2 Likes
It’s always muddy in spots, even when dry up there. Just a matter of how muddy.
1 Like
Tues/Thurs interval days. And those intervals usually happen in the middle of a 4-6 hour easy ride. Saturday group ride with a couple hours of Z2 prior and an hour after. And then, just a bunch of easy riding to push the volume. Have worked up to 20+ hours a week over the last couple blocks, feeling pretty good. I’m not sure the big volume helps me at Leadville that much, but Unbound is a different animal. I retired a couple years ago, so cycling is now the job I always wanted (but the pay sucks).
For me, once I get into the 80’s, I’m hitting on a very large percentage of my potential. The additional volume/CTL does push FTP (and other numbers) up a little bit, but it is definitely diminishing returns. The biggest thing I see when I get into 120+ is improved durability. 5-6 hour rides get pretty easy and knocking out hard efforts deep into rides can feel easier than in the first hour.
4 Likes
Bit early to be thinking about this but on our way over to Leadville/Copper on the Thursday before the race I believe we will come from the Buena Vista side. I dont want to do a lot on this day but I wont have any opportunity to pre-ride the course so I though a descent of Powerline might be a good idea.
Is there somewhere my wife could drop me with a fairly short climb (maybe 10 mins or so) for a bit of an effort and then I can descend powerline and then she could meet me in the hire car at the bottom?
She could drop you where haggerman’s road does the hard turn to climb up sugarloaf. And then pick you up at the bottom of powerline. Sugarloaf is more like 20-25 minutes of climbing though, but not too bad and a pretty part of the course. I don’t think you can get a normal car up to the top of sugarloaf, but not positive.