I still had to hike around 2.5 miles. But yeah, what a great year for the XL. We got a beautiful sunny start and finish. When I saw the rain in the west the next morning I was like, uh-oh, looks like the 200ers are getting rained on.
Did you have a rockin’ first night? I that was my favorite part of the course. I was having so much fun between Eldorado and Eureka.
I’m glad there was some adversity via mud otherwise I would’ve felt cheated a true Unbound experience. I rolled in 30 minutes before midnight. This was my first Unbound and fourth gravel grinder. Good to cross one off the bucket list!
In case anyone is interested, I did a modified polarized training plan. 1 VO2Max + 1 Threshold session per week for ~1-1.5 hours each. Didn’t do any endurance during the weekdays and dumped it all into long weekend rides. Lifted heavy when I could; the regimen wasn’t cycling specific. 1-2 “big lifts” + 1 accessory + 1 core 2-4x a week along with post-ACLR quad rehab.