What a great race it was this year. I loved the training. I loved being out in Colorado. I loved the comeraderie. I loved the race. My goal time this year was sub-10. I beat last year's time by a healthy hour and ten or so minutes, finishing 9:48. Reasons for the success? Great training help by CTS, a Gary Fisher Superfly, great weather and trail conditions, better nutrition, and better strategy.
I did some preriding of the course and tested out the Powerline descent at a race pace to see how fast I can do this on race day. I tapped my breaks lightly to control my speed and went into a full skid, fishtail, and ultimate tailspin into a rut, biting it HARD. Conditions were really dry and sandy, and I was second guessing my ACX Jones front and XDX rear tire setup. Luckily, the night before the race were big storms, which I feared would plague us race day, but luckily did nothing but make for a tacky fast surface. No traction issues during the race.
First, before I go into race details, let me tell you a few other things that made me happy about this race.
1) Led by Brent, our team (Team First Descents) raised over $100,000 for First Descents!! This opens up huge opportunities for young adults with cancer to gain a new outlook on life through extreme adventure, like kayaking and mountain climbing. So, while I only raised a small portion of the total, I'm proud to be a part of the accomplishment.
2) Racing with Lance Armstrong and Dave Wiens was spectacular. Lance seemed to fit in like any other racer with his own goals for the race, showing no celebrity or macho image.
3) Anna got to race and finished under 12 hours.. Long story short. She got into the race. Then.. nope, she's out of the race. Then, two weeks before the race, Ken says she's in. I don't know what's worse, not getting into the race, or being told that you have two weeks to train for it. Well, she finished in under 12 hours and even though I barely know her, she's part of the team and I just thought that was cool.
The rest of this post is going to get a little technical, so, you might only be interested if you're an endurance racer who wants to hear my ideas on Leadville strategy.
Nutrition
My nutrition strategy worked this year. Last year 3.5 hrs into the race I wanted to puke, and that feeling kept with me almost to the end. What I learned was the following:
1) Even if you've done ultra endurance races with your nutrition strategy in the past, altitude messes with your stomach, so have a backup strategy that includes easier to digest foods and less caloric intake in the event you're hurting bad.
2) Rediculous amounts of sodium is good, and necessary
3) Keep it simple. Some simple sugars and carbs, little or no solids. Nothing hard to digest, like fats or protein.
My nutrition for this year consisted almost entirely of Powerbar drink mix formula and shot bloks. Per hour I ingested approximately 270 calories (3 scoops) Powerbar formula and 6 Shot Bloks (200 calories). I added 2 scoops of endurolyte formula to every 3 scoops of Powerbar. I'd put in more, but any more starts really affecting the taste. While that amounts to about 410 calories per hour, i rarely ate my full allotment of Shot Bloks, so I was more in the 350 calorie range. The amount of electrolytes in this concoction equals about 1000mg. That's the equivalent of 10 endurolyte pills. I think people blame altitude and poor calorie consumption to their bonking, but in reality i think much of the time its poor sodium replacement. Even with 1000mg per hour, i started getting slight leg cramps at the top of Columbine. I swiftly ingested 3 pills (I think they were called Sicaps??) that had about 390mg elecrolytes, which seemed to help me out. I injested probably another 7 or 8 of them throughout the rest of the race. I did feel a little bit of nauseu, and a lot of bloating, which made me not want to eat. On the big climbs i didnt eat as much as i should. But, I kept stuffing the shot bloks down often enough and the nausea I had was slight and did not result in poor performance.
Race Strategy
I read a couple of articles that helped me form some key tenets to my strategy. One was an interview with Chris Eatough on his strategy for 24 hour races, and another from Chris Carmichael that was specific to Leadville. What I learned in these articles went against a lot of the advice given to not start out too fast and blow yourself up too early. I know my endurance is pretty solid, so I figured I could take some chances early. In 24 hour races, Chris Eatough goes strong for the first couple of hours. His rationale is that his legs are fresh, and its the only time during the race where his legs will be fresh, so why not take advantage. Chris Carmichael's go fast from the start strategy has to do with getting to the flats after the powerline descent with a faster group so that you can get into a fast paceline.
I tried this strategy and it was a success. I started out in the 9-10 hour group. I felt pretty strong on the St. Kevins and Sugarloaf climb. I would have climbed harder if traffic permitted. I got to Powerline and had NO traffic. While I like to BOMB descents, I took it a little reserved. Real fast, but slightly reserved, as the slight speed increase is not worth the risk of a crash here. It felt good to fly down unencumbered by slow riders though. At the bottom, I got into a pace line and saw that for the first 10 minute or so I was averaging 25 mph. Part of the time I noticed I was in the middle of a peloton, not even pedaling, going 27mph. The pace did slow as the terrain changed and it became slightly uphill, but overall I was able to get good speed and a good rest before Columbine.
I did some preriding of the course and tested out the Powerline descent at a race pace to see how fast I can do this on race day. I tapped my breaks lightly to control my speed and went into a full skid, fishtail, and ultimate tailspin into a rut, biting it HARD. Conditions were really dry and sandy, and I was second guessing my ACX Jones front and XDX rear tire setup. Luckily, the night before the race were big storms, which I feared would plague us race day, but luckily did nothing but make for a tacky fast surface. No traction issues during the race.
First, before I go into race details, let me tell you a few other things that made me happy about this race.
1) Led by Brent, our team (Team First Descents) raised over $100,000 for First Descents!! This opens up huge opportunities for young adults with cancer to gain a new outlook on life through extreme adventure, like kayaking and mountain climbing. So, while I only raised a small portion of the total, I'm proud to be a part of the accomplishment.
2) Racing with Lance Armstrong and Dave Wiens was spectacular. Lance seemed to fit in like any other racer with his own goals for the race, showing no celebrity or macho image.
3) Anna got to race and finished under 12 hours.. Long story short. She got into the race. Then.. nope, she's out of the race. Then, two weeks before the race, Ken says she's in. I don't know what's worse, not getting into the race, or being told that you have two weeks to train for it. Well, she finished in under 12 hours and even though I barely know her, she's part of the team and I just thought that was cool.
The rest of this post is going to get a little technical, so, you might only be interested if you're an endurance racer who wants to hear my ideas on Leadville strategy.
Nutrition
My nutrition strategy worked this year. Last year 3.5 hrs into the race I wanted to puke, and that feeling kept with me almost to the end. What I learned was the following:
1) Even if you've done ultra endurance races with your nutrition strategy in the past, altitude messes with your stomach, so have a backup strategy that includes easier to digest foods and less caloric intake in the event you're hurting bad.
2) Rediculous amounts of sodium is good, and necessary
3) Keep it simple. Some simple sugars and carbs, little or no solids. Nothing hard to digest, like fats or protein.
My nutrition for this year consisted almost entirely of Powerbar drink mix formula and shot bloks. Per hour I ingested approximately 270 calories (3 scoops) Powerbar formula and 6 Shot Bloks (200 calories). I added 2 scoops of endurolyte formula to every 3 scoops of Powerbar. I'd put in more, but any more starts really affecting the taste. While that amounts to about 410 calories per hour, i rarely ate my full allotment of Shot Bloks, so I was more in the 350 calorie range. The amount of electrolytes in this concoction equals about 1000mg. That's the equivalent of 10 endurolyte pills. I think people blame altitude and poor calorie consumption to their bonking, but in reality i think much of the time its poor sodium replacement. Even with 1000mg per hour, i started getting slight leg cramps at the top of Columbine. I swiftly ingested 3 pills (I think they were called Sicaps??) that had about 390mg elecrolytes, which seemed to help me out. I injested probably another 7 or 8 of them throughout the rest of the race. I did feel a little bit of nauseu, and a lot of bloating, which made me not want to eat. On the big climbs i didnt eat as much as i should. But, I kept stuffing the shot bloks down often enough and the nausea I had was slight and did not result in poor performance.
Race Strategy
I read a couple of articles that helped me form some key tenets to my strategy. One was an interview with Chris Eatough on his strategy for 24 hour races, and another from Chris Carmichael that was specific to Leadville. What I learned in these articles went against a lot of the advice given to not start out too fast and blow yourself up too early. I know my endurance is pretty solid, so I figured I could take some chances early. In 24 hour races, Chris Eatough goes strong for the first couple of hours. His rationale is that his legs are fresh, and its the only time during the race where his legs will be fresh, so why not take advantage. Chris Carmichael's go fast from the start strategy has to do with getting to the flats after the powerline descent with a faster group so that you can get into a fast paceline.
I tried this strategy and it was a success. I started out in the 9-10 hour group. I felt pretty strong on the St. Kevins and Sugarloaf climb. I would have climbed harder if traffic permitted. I got to Powerline and had NO traffic. While I like to BOMB descents, I took it a little reserved. Real fast, but slightly reserved, as the slight speed increase is not worth the risk of a crash here. It felt good to fly down unencumbered by slow riders though. At the bottom, I got into a pace line and saw that for the first 10 minute or so I was averaging 25 mph. Part of the time I noticed I was in the middle of a peloton, not even pedaling, going 27mph. The pace did slow as the terrain changed and it became slightly uphill, but overall I was able to get good speed and a good rest before Columbine.
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