I made it through Big Sugar on 42 Pathfinder Pro’s unschathed so this definitely sounds a little concerning…lol Depending on the forecast I am planning on either 42 or 47 Pathfinder Pros, as they are the toughest that I have used. The argument for a mountain bike tire is strong but I wouldn’t be able to clear it in the rear of my Checkpoint. It will be interesting to see what Dylan Johnson settles on this year.
Maybe Keegan’s Refuse don’t sound so bad now…
Good intel, thanks…
Were you running inserts? I’m kinda leaning away form them at this point simply because if I get a cut, dealing with carrying the insert around would be a PITA.
I’m curious if any of you have used best bike split on the S course. Right now it’s coming up with times that seem 2-4 hours faster that I actually expect to finish in. My FTP is 248 and its estimating 12:30 on the S course. I’d be happy to be at 15.
I have not. I should check into it.
It might be faster/smoother on some stuff, but I’m not sure it would reduce the flat risk much. At some point, a bigger tire is just rolling across more stuff and a wider tire could be more prone to sidewall issues. There is certainly a risk of pinch flatting out there, but that can be avoided if careful and light on the bike.
No, and not planning on it for same reasons you stated. And I don’t think they would have prevented any of the flats I got. Inserts are great to reduce pinch flats, but I think I can manage that risk (famous last words).
Depending on your weight, that 15 is probably in the ballpark. My ftp was a bit over 300 last year (at ~170lbs) and my NP for the day was 210 for a finish of a little over 13 hours. Probably burned 20+ minutes in the mud, but a pretty clean day other than that.
Best bike split can be a data point, but a race like unbound is a bit of a crap shoot with conditions. Wind, mud, mechanicals, drafting/group time, and heat can all dramatically affect finish times even if you execute pretty well. You can try to bake some of those variables into BBS, but it’s definitely a race where you want to leave a big buffer (ie don’t commit to nutrition/power for 13 hours and get surprised when it’s 16+)
I’m at 350tss this week, goal is 1000. Trying to ride heat of the day
I opted out of bringing my bike down to Bentonville today……very hard to resist the gravel down here, but my legs need the rest. So I am skipping today and will on,y ride ~1 hour tomorrow when I get home.
But planning a mega-ride on Sunday (minimum 120 miles) along with a ~60 miles on Saturday (all gravel).
Here in Wisconsin we’ll be lucky to get any truly hot days in before race day 
Some version of the course was briefly leaked this morning. Looked very similar to 2021 except the first water oasis was in Eskridge, not after Alma. We should know for sure soon…
Is that closer?
Wonder if I can get though first section with just 3 L of water
Eskridge is only about 40 miles in and the first checkpoint is around mile 70. Doable depending how hot it is/how fast you drink.
Did a shake down run today. .8 of for 4 hours, I think i need to drop power by 20w. I know last unbound I ran .9 of for 5 hours and then came apart. My last 200 mile ride I held .6if. I had a ton left in the tank today and could still put down a ton of power.
Next week I’ll try .7 if for 6 hours
Did 4 hours today on the trail, just working on checking equipment, focusing on nutrition and a relatively easy pace. Ended up at .73 IF, which felt pretty easy all day.
Most importantly, if my math is correct, i hit 100g / hour. Did 8 scoops of Flow Formula in my pack, which is 30g / scoop, so 240g total. Supplemented with a 150ml / 5 oz soft flask filled with maple syrup….but i filled it to the top, which is over 6 oz, i think. So that is 150g of carbs, totaling 410g for 4 hours.
Definitely the most carbs / hour i have ever consumed on the bike……
Doing a really long trail ride tomorrow…shooting for 10 hours at least. Hoping to keep the carb train rolling. Will be a good test for Unbound fueling.
Didn’t quite hit the 10 hour mark, but we did 135 miles in about 8.25 hours (riding time). Was hoping to do ~155, but we were down to just two of us at that point and both our drivetrains were sounding like schitt.
The southern end of the Des Plaines River Trail was a mess….lots of mud and standing water. The bike was coated in mud. My Thunderburts packed with mud twice and I ended up sliding out in the mud and going SPLAT. Needless to say, I was a mess by the time I got home. 
Little over 400TSS for the day…honestly not super happy with the IF or how my legs felt. I was right on ~100g / hour for the first 6.5 hours, but then my stomach got wonky. I stopped all nutrition and went about an hour without eating or drinking (it was relatively cool, less than 60* and I had been drinking plenty so there was no issue there. Stomach came around and I started with small amounts of calories, etc. The good news is that I know what I need to do on race day to work through it.
Definitely could have knocked out another 65, but I likely would have slowed a bit. Of course, the route was flat as a pancake, but who’s counting? 
Good ride to build some confidence.
(Oh yeah, my CTL has gone up 10 points in 2 days after taking it easy this week. 
)
Seeking advice to ward off cramps in Unbound 200. Last week I did 135 miles in Northern VA gravel, 8000 ft climbing. Tried to hold to my approx. LT1 at 160 watts. Felt good all the way, but did have sudden hamstring cramps about mile 105. I did pick up the pace at 100 to beat the dark. Finished strong but cramps never really left. My thinking is to get off bike and self-message and light stretch whenever I stop. Basically the same thing you would do when you have a cramp, only earlier. And of course stay on top of H20, nutrition & electrolytes. Any thoughts?
4 weeks
2 weeks of good training left in my opinion
This is going to be a complicated month for me….last week was a recovery week, although I got two solid rides in over the weekend and still ended up with 780TSS.
The challenge is that next week I am at our Global Distributors Sales Meeting, so my riding will be limited. (Now, don’t feel too bad for me, it is in Sicily 
). So I am going to do a lot of volume this week and use next week as a pseudo-recovery week. I will have my bike with me and get a couple of short rides in, but nothing substantive. I arrive back home in the 18th and then I’ll probably do one more really long gravel ride on the 19th. The week of the 20th will be a normal training week and then I will taper on Race Week (I don’t do well with long tapers).
One thing that doesn’t work is mounting the bottles behind the seat at a 45 degree angle, like some triathletes do. Specialized has a mount for that that attaches to their saddles. I tried that with the tightest fitting bike cages I could find and just hitting normal pavement bumps was ejecting bottles consistently.
Depending on how much you need, hydrapak has soft 500ml flasks. I’ve only used a single one and it worked fine in my jersey pocket.
Course drop this week…definitely some sketchy areas ahead!!