Just watched FInsty’s recap video…man, that looked brutal. Solid work just getting through the day, let alone grabbing a podium spot. 
ETA - FInsty’s video. Looks like Kerry Werner is going to be filming all his stuff this year.
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It was cold and muddy in places with some sleet/snow mixed it, but honestly wasn’t that bad. I didn’t give the weather a second thought until I finished (and then got cold in a hurry). I was pretty disappointed they cut it so short. Part of the reason for choosing the MTB was anticipating the mud. They removed most of the sections where the MTB would have been a big advantage. 94 mile race was reduced to ~60miles before we even started. And then adjusted on the fly down to 40 miles during the race. But it was the right call. Snow was really picking up as we finished and there were slower riders out there for a couple hours longer than us. I drove to Palo Duro canyon after the race and it was borderline blizzard conditions at times. So the weather was real, but there is a bit of internet drama making it seem worse than it was during the race (in my opinion). Pros and fast amateurs were done long before the really bad weather rolled in.
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Yeah, in the video it seems they were very concerned about some of the back markers having to walk long distances (12 miles, I think was mentioned) due to the mud.
Yeah, I normally don’t have much sympathy for folks not preparing for the mud (forecast was basically 100% chance of rain/snow), but it becomes a safety issue walking for hours at those temps. Absolutely the right call.
Started the build phase this week. TR gave me a couple pretty intimidating workouts, I guess it’s time to get out of the comfort zone. @Power13 had the perfect post last year to celebrate the start of build, so I’m stealing it.
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I do a little bit of a different progression.
For me, I’ve already done a 3 week ball buster of a VO2 Block, and a 3 Week FTP & Over Under Block, Currently in week one of another FTP & Over Under Block trying to drag out some more FTP gains. Want to talk about miserable, yesterday I did 12 minutes TiZ very close to my 5 minute max power
From here, It’ll be a shift to more and more Sweet Spot and Tempo while building overall volume and duration. So, the real “Build” is getting close to done for me, from here it’ll be extending TTE and overall CTL / volume / fatigue resistance.
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Keep up the training.
I’m hurt and will hopefully be on bike by April. I’m jelly of you all
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Yeah, I’ve been following your suffering a bit this year on Strava… I’ve heard people having good results flipping things around like that, will be interesting to hear how it goes. I kind of did a flavor of that for leadville last year, mostly because I was just sick of intervals after Unbound. Worked out OK, but I was a little lazy with training overall and not sure I really gave it a chance.
I’ve got an AIFTP check in tomorrow and I’m curious what it will say with only a couple hard workouts under my belt. Feeling like it’s set a bit low right now. Last year, I rejected a couple increases since my base training got disrupted by injury, but I plan to take my medicine this year if it suggests an increase.
For me this is the third year in a row - all coached so I can’t claim I came up with the plan. There are some great VO2 progression threads that cover the approach though.
The last two have been great, but at the same time I’m feeling like FTP gains are getting harder to come by - I haven’t tested since before the last FTP block but am probably about where I peaked last year, albeit much earlier in the year. The whole idea behind the concentrated VO2 and FTP is to put a bunch of intensity in short blocks to try and raise threshold though before really working on fatigue resistance.
With that said - one of the things that I thinked helped prepare me best for Leadville last year, were some “Sim” workouts I did in the heat of the summer. 4-6 hour fartlek type workouts with a lot of race specific intensity to simulate the climbs and efforts up to threshold. Trying to replicate this approach again. Here’s a couple summer examples:, high intervals being FTP, low being Z2. And usually not going into these race-day fresh…
Then, I’d do the 6+ hour rides as mostly Z2 paced off how I’m feeling that day.
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Had my first century gravel race today (around 4th or 5th time riding the distance). It was a challenge with 20 mph sustained winds and 30 mph gusts all day. Lots of super steep and technical rocky sections with many many miles of deep sand mixed in. I crushed my power PR’s from 3 hrs to 6.75 hrs. Also very pleased that my NP was 196 for the whole race, and my Pr for a 3 hr race at 100% effort just 10 months ago was only 204. Definitely making solid progress.
Last week before we left my wife asked why I don’t bring my aero bars. I mentioned with my new bike/more aggressive fit, I just haven’t been able to get comfortable with them compared to my old bike. I decided to try them for a couple rides and bring them. While I didn’t use them the first 50 miles because I was riding in a group, I rode solo the last 55 miles and had many chances to use them. While they obviously helped from a solo aspect (particularly riding into the wind), they also made a HUGE difference from a comfort perspective. Since they engage muscles differently, it was like I had a major second wind every time I dropped down into them. Allowed me to finish much stronger than I could have otherwise, especially with lots of the cramping I experienced.
I’ll be looking forward to bringing them to Leadville.
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lol that meme is great. One of my 3 year olds favorite songs.
Sorry, no idea why my brain went to Leadville, I meant I’ll bring them to unbound, which makes more sense for this thread.
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Will my Strada Bianca Pros (the handmade ones) survive the 200? I’m easy on stuff looking for 13 1/2-14 hours but 200#
Joe
I can’t speak for that tire, but Unbound (and particularly the north course) is notorious for slicing/cutting tires and having small punctures from the sharp flint. It’s definitely a course to prioritize durability over speed.
In my experience, the chance for catastrophic failure can be greatly minimized by letting gaps form and carefully picking lines through the chunky stuff, but there is still a good chance of picking up small punctures even when doing everything right. I’ve done about 750 miles of racing around emporia the last 2 years (Unbound and Stage race) and have never had to stop and add air (but have had multiple punctures seal). Knock on wood and all that, I think I’ve just been very lucky but I’m also super careful on line choice and burn a bunch of energy allowing gaps to form when the road gets rough. But I’ve had to stop and plug tires on about ~30% of the pre-rides I’ve done in the area and I’m even more careful during pre-rides since I’m often alone and riding much slower. Part of that might be luck, but I also think the Unbound course is less prone to flats on race day compared to a month prior (due to so many people pre-riding). Last year in particular, the course was dramatically smoother on race day compared to late April. Either way, Unbound causes flats at much higher rate than any other place I’ve ridden gravel. I ran pathfinder pros the last couple years, known to be pretty durable and not terribly slow. I’m planning to run a race king 2.2 up front this year with a pathfinder pro 47 in rear if the course is dry. Pathfinder pro 47’s front and back if some mud, 42’s front and rear if significant mud.
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That’s a great summary, thanks! I think I’m good if dry (planning on thunder Burt rear race king front), it’s the 40-45mm option I’m worried about. Thanks for the intel
Thunder burt is definitely one of the more prone to puncture tires out there. I would (and probably will) run it for the front, but rear is definitely risky.
Yeah, I’ve had Burt Speed Grip puncture and seal on the Sea Otter course and it’s not known for punctures. I don’t know that I’d run Burt at Unbound even if they fit my gravel bike.
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Count me as another who wouldn’t run the Burt at all on this course.
Race Kings front and rear if dry. Pathfinder 47 or Thundero 48 if not. Have Thundero 40’s if it’s an absolute mess.
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With the recent tire talk here, I thought I’d share some comparison testing I did today between Race King and Pathfinder Pro 47 as a front tire. Not super scientific, but pretty confident that a Race King up front costs at least 5 watts compared to the Pathfinder on pavement and smooth dirt/gravel at ~18mph. I did a very craptacular write up in the MTB/Gravel tire thread linked below.
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