Leadville 100

[Thomas]

After entering several times (lottery) I have finally been accepted to the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race. I start training the first of April and the race is in August. I would start training today, but I am running the Moab Half Marathon the end of March.

Has anyone ridden in Leadville or in the Leadville 100? I would like to know what you ate during the race, and what type of tires you used, and if you would do anything different. I am very excited about this race and very worried that it will chew me up and spit me out.

I have only ridden a few epic rides, include an 80 +mile ride in Moab in one day, and White Rim Trail in one day and in two days.

Any advice would be great.

[live2ride]

Good job, sounds like a very coolk race, sorry I have no good input on what too eat cause everyone varies and then you could have the heat to deal with. Can you eat the energy packs during your runs? do you have a good stomach or is it touchy?

[Thomas]

My stomach is pretty good. I can no longer eat Power Bars. Rode Gold Bar Rim in Moab and bonked hard about a mile away from town (we rode from the hotel to Slick Rock did the practice loop and then back to town and out to Gold Bar) and I can no longer eat them, but for the most part I am fine. My favorite is GU vanilla; I also like the Shot Blocks from Cliff Bars. I have never tried a mix/energy drink, do you use anything besides water that works well. I was planning on water in my pack and a mix in two water bottles but I need to experiment with them to find something that will work.

I am excited to be biking again, the last two years I have spent more time running than biking and it will be good to get on the bike again.

[devo_stevo]

Never done Leadville, but I did do the Brian Head Epic. From everything that I've read the Brian Head course is tougher, but it wasn't too bad. The trick is to stay in it mentally. It's a long day on the bike. I can type more later tonight when I'm not at work as far as training and nutrition (that worked for me).

Congrats by the way. That's awesome. We expect a full report telling us if it's worth the hype in the end.

[Thomas]

We looked at doing the Brian Head Epic last year but it looked like it had been discontinued. Any info you have would be great. It also looks like there is 100 mile ride in Utah called Endurance but from what I read it has an insane amount of climbing and boasts as the worlds hardest 100 mile race.

I have had some family members ride Leadville and was hooked after listening to their stories. I know I can ride the first 75 miles, it is the last where you have to dig deep that will be the challange.

I have run a few marathons and my Uncle said it best, "the half way point of a marathon is at 20 miles, not 13." He was right the first 20 are not too bad, the final 6 takes something extra. I look forward to your information.

[devo_stevo]

ok. It's lunch and I'm off the clock so I'll try to tell you what my experience with these things has been and hopefully some if it helps.

Training...

The best thing you can do is to ride your bike as much as possible. I know it sounds obvious, but most people don't do it. When I was training for the epic, I was riding 4 or 5 times a week. Usually for an hour and a half to 2 hours in the mornings during the week before work and on Saturdays, I would ride for anywhere from 4 to 6 hours at a time. Do this at a moderate pace and don't push yourself so hard that you blow up. If you go to hard, you will have a lot of lactic acid build up in your muscles and you're done. Even though you can keep up a pretty fast pace for an hour or so, you should be patient and slow down because your ride isn't over in an hour. You'll be out there for a lot longer than that. The important thing here is being able to do it for a long time without stopping. If you have any roads or trails near you that are a prolonged climb with some significant elevation gain, ride those and get to the point where you don't have to stop in the middle to rest. This takes time and hurts a lot in the beginning but it gets better as time goes on and eventually you will come to enjoy riding up as much as you do riding down.

Patience is the key here.

Nutrition...

The biggest rule here is eat before you're hungry and drink before you're thirsty. When you start to feel hungry or thirsty, it's too late and you are going to be playing catch up with your food intake. At that point, things will start to go downhill quick.

When I did the epic, they had 5 aid stations (the Leadville has 6). They provided "drop bags" at the aid stations. This means that they let you put whatever you wanted into the bags and they would take them to the aid stations for you. We ended up putting a water bottle with a bunch of Cytomax powder in it and a bunch of Carb Boom gels and Clif Bloks into the bags (3 bags total). I didn't use a Camelbak (sweaty back and the weight on your back can take a toll after a long time in the saddle). In between the aid stations I would force myself to take down 2 packs of gel and the Bloks and drink a full bottle of Cytomax (this is much harder than it sounds). I felt great if I did this and was able to keep things moving really well. At the aid station you simply fill your bottle(s) with the Cytomax and fill your pockets with the other stuff. You're in and out of the aid stations in less than 5 minutes this way.

This is one of the hardest things to get right. It's really hard to learn to ride long distances on a full stomach, but that's the most important thing to finishing one of these things without bonking hard at the end. If you let your tank get below half empty, it's really hard to get it full again. Try out different drinks and gels and if you can stand them, bars and see which ones work for you. I like Cytomax to drink. It tastes great and has a lot of great electrolytes and other stuff that your body needs. Works great for me. I also like the Carb Boom gels. They have fruity flavors that I prefer to the vanilla and chocolate that other rely on so heavily.

Oh and get yourself a gel flask. They hold up to 5 servings and are way easier to use while riding compared to the packs.

Mental...

The third and hardest part of these is the mental part. By the end, you are probably going to be spending a lot of time alone and it gets hard to stay focused. Think positive thoughts, listen to music, do whatever you have to do to stay happy and cranking. Most of all have fun with it.

Good luck and I'm jealous.

Oh and this is all my experience and opinion. Try things out for yourself and see what works for you.





BTW, the Brian Head Epic no longer exists and was replaced with the American Mountain Classic. www.americanmountainclassic.com

The Epic 100 was cancelled last year and I don't think it will be back.

[live2ride]

+1 on the cyto max, also on Utahmountainbiking, they have a whole section on training and there are some great websites that will give you a schedule to kind of follow in regards to prepin yourself for the race. Keep us posted and maybee we can get some scheduled training rides with ya to keep you company.

[Mtnbeer]

I haven't done the Leadville 100, but have biked most of the course. The main thing is riding at altitude. Leadville is at over 10,000 feet and the course goes pretty close to 13,000 feet at one point. I'd ride as many higher elevation rides as you could before the race. Ideally, you'd want to go to Leadville about a week before and do some hiking and easy to moderate biking.

The trail is usually in decent shape. It's not a really technical course and most of it is pretty fast. The one thing I noticed in terms of trail conditions is where people have taken horses on it and it gets pretty bumpy. I wouldn't want to ride an all-rigid bike although I'm sure some do (and probably SS at that).

Any tire for riding here in Utah would work great for Leadville (usually dry hardpack to loose sand and gravel).

[devo_stevo]

I haven't done the Leadville 100, but have biked most of the course. The main thing is riding at altitude. Leadville is at over 10,000 feet and the course goes pretty close to 13,000 feet at one point. I'd ride as many higher elevation rides as you could before the race. Ideally, you'd want to go to Leadville about a week before and do some hiking and easy to moderate biking.

The trail is usually in decent shape. It's not a really technical course and most of it is pretty fast. The one thing I noticed in terms of trail conditions is where people have taken horses on it and it gets pretty bumpy. I wouldn't want to ride an all-rigid bike although I'm sure some do (and probably SS at that).

Any tire for riding here in Utah would work great for Leadville (usually dry hardpack to loose sand and gravel).

+1 to that. I forgot about the altitude.

[Thomas]

Thanks for all the great information, I have been look at food and will try several options over the next few months. I live in American Fork, and plan several rides up AF canyon, to Miller Flats which is at 10,600 and drop down into the ski resort on the other side and come back again, as well as some other rides.

I have bonked several times on several long rides. I usually get about 3/4 of the way done and stop eating because nothing sounds good and start having problems. I plan on trying Cytomax as well as Sustained Energy.

Thanks for all the great info.