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! 
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.