No matter what you will need to do some climbing to ride Powerline. The easiest would be to have her drive you up Hagerman dirt road to the start of Sugarloaf climb. This will cut out some of the climbing. If you have a jeep/4wd you could drive up Sugarloaf but there likely will be a lot of riders doing the same. Plus, pre riding Sugarloaf be good to scout as well and will not be a ton of climbing.
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That sounds like a good option cheers both. We are getting a Chevvy Suburban or similar as our rental car but dropping off at the road/track interface seems like a good plan. Will be good to at least see some of the course before riding it.
20-25 mins climb plus a 10-15 min descent? So around 40 mins is for the whole thing?
Thanks for the feedback. Thatās some serious volume.. impressive. Can we trade jobs?
I can get around 300w FTP with a few months solid training at the start of each season but think I am hitting near the top of my potential at that point. Iāve never put in consistent weeks of 15+ hrs though so will be interesting to see the effect of that if Iām able to keep it up. I also canāt avoid getting sick and having fitness take a serious hit at some point in the season. Iāve already lost weeks of consistent training and fitness in March due to something. Fingers crossed I can make it to Aug with nothing else!
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I have a VRBO downtown 8/8-10. Iāll have a spare bedroom if anyone is interested.
Everyone posting their FTP and W/kg: these are only important after assessing durability and how you are going to respond to altitude. Just sharing a perspective. I know these are difficult to measure but they are what gets you through the day. A 400 FTP and 5.5W/kg mean nothing if you canāt ride for 8 hours at 10,000ft.
If you had that ftp and w/kg, you wouldnāt need 8 hours. 
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Disagree.
Iām completely lost on why people seem to think durability matters more than your FTP when durability is a function of your FTP. I think a lot of what weāre seeing on the downplaying FTP is click bait hype.
They both matter, but there are lots of folks with big 1-3 hour power who struggle to hold a decent percentage of that all day. Of course, the person who has a 5w/kg FTP can almost certainly do higher wattage all day than the person who is 3.5w/kg, but durability can absolutely be a difference maker when you start getting close.
At 56, my FTP hasnāt moved much in the last 5 years, but my durability has increased significantly. Setting power PRās for 4,5,6+ hours that are 20+w higher than what I could do with a similar FTP in the past. There are absolutely people I race against that have FTPās over .5w/kg higher than me and they often beat me in 3 hour events, but never beat me in 100+ mile gravel races. Super common with guys coming over from road racing where many of the events arenāt much longer than 3 hours.
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For what itās worth, I donāt see much difference between 15+ and 20+, but I do remember a significant jump when I went from 10-12 to consistently hitting 15+. But I think it took a couple years of that, so it was gradual. And yeah, getting sick sucks. Another advantage of retirement is not getting sick every time I had to get on a plane for work. Have not had so much as a sniffle in the last 2 years (knock on wood).
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I hear you but they are both important for longer events. And as you point out, only one (FTP) can be quantified and compared against others. While not the full picture, one data point is better than none. If most people going sub 9 hrs are around 5 w/kg, I know itās off the table for me regardless of my durability. But 4 w/kg?.. so, youāre telling me thereās a chance
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I tend to perform better in longer events too. Full gas XCO races are fun but donāt seem suited to my power profile. I had a good result in a 100+ mile gravel race earlier in the year so am optimistic that durability is solid and hopefully continues to improve. Elevation will be the largest wild card for me.
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Yeah, a pretty good chance. 4w/kg (sea level) is often thrown around as having a good shot at sub 9 if you execute well. But a lot depends on how you respond to altitude. Iām a pretty average responder, losing ~18% of my power at 10k even after acclimating for a couple weeks. Some do worse, some only lose ~10%.
Curious what kind of intensity workouts people are doing. After an XCO race, the races on my calendar are longer marathon races (with SR50 and LT100 coming next) and as a result, my TR plan has 1 day of SS and 1 day of TH each week. I have done very little VO2max workouts this season and according to Garmin, my VO2max is down about 5 from last summer. I live at sea level and it seems like going into Leadville with a high VO2max would be beneficial so wondering if I should replace the SS or TH workout with VO2max. Thoughts?
And at least one (Keagan) it seems to not impact at all! 
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After a day in Crested Butte last summer, I can confidently add that to the long list of ways I am NOT like Keegan. 
For SR50, I plan to fly in the day before. Depending on how that goes, think Iāll either replicate for LT100 or get to Leadville a week or so early (assuming I can pull that off at work).
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I have been doing a block of Vo2 max but I think that finished this week and my calendar through to Leadville looks like Threshold and SS workouts. I tend to do two intensity days a week with 2 hours workouts on those days and then hitting 11-14 hours per week with the rest made up of endurance workouts, commutes etc
Anybody have further info about this? I got in for the first time via lottery and got placed in Brown, no surprise. Itād be very nice if they considered Unbound 2024 results given itās a Lifetime eventā¦
I donāt think thereās an official policy, but I continuously hear of it happening. I would certainly email them. Pretty sure youād be a red (or higher?) so it doesnāt hurt to ask.
Bit of a training/race update from me.
Been increasing volume recently and hitting 12-13 hour weeks but I am going to struggle to get much more than that with work and family responsibilities. Had an AI FTP detection and was up 3w to 331w (not really worth bothering about!). Since Jan the 8th my weight has dropped 24.5lbs, so I am currently sitting at 3.93 w/kg.4.5lbs more will get me to 4 w/kg for race day so it is achievable (although will likely make little difference in reality it is nice to hit the number). I donāt think the FTP will increase much more before then.
On Sunday I did my B race which was a bit of a nutrition/equipment test. It was a 6 hr XC endurance race of a 4 mile circuit local to us here in the UK at Cannock Chase. I went for 120g per hour from 80g of Beta fuel in my bottles per hour plus a gel. This worked fine and no issues with gut etc but I will prob dial back to 100g on the day (with the same products). The bike worked fine and it was good to get some technical biking in as well as racing in close proximity to other people. Loved the electronic shifting allowing me to change under load etc and felt really strong on the hills. I exceeded the 31 miles I managed last year and hit 39 miles (both in just under 5 hours). I pulled out on 5 hours as it was getting a bit sketchy with people pushing to make up places in the last hour and I really didnt fancy a broken collarbone this far out.
The bike (Trek Procaliber 9.5) is pretty much ready to go but I am going to swap out the brake discs from 160mm to 203mm front ant 180mm rear. We donāt have any long descents here which justify those disc sizes but I would rather have some reserve for Leadville. Will also be fitting some inserts and 2.4 Dubnitals later in the week ready. That will pretty much be the bike ready to go (apart from having to replace the rear hub bearings which have a bit of a wobble). Ill post up some pics once it is done.
Training wise I am back to the same plan although I have a bit more free time next week so I am having a mini training camp with 3 days back to back hard rides. One day will be 5-6 hours on the MTB, one day will be 4 horsemen on Zwift and the final one will be a long endurance ride (maybe Zwift pace partners).
Feeling good about the day and I have worked out a plan for nutrition which I will post up another time.
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For the weight weenies among you the change from 160mm rotors front and rear to 203mm front and 180mm rear cost me 16 grams difference in the discs themselves. Forgot to weigh the adaptors but would guess it was less than 100g for the whole upgrade.
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