Leadville 100 MTB first impressions

I posted the following on a Yahoo group thread for Leadville riders about our weekend.

This past weekend, five of us from Monument drove over to Leadville to ride parts of the course. After six months of hearing about, wondering about, and dreaming about this race, I got a chance to see it for myself.

A little about me for perspective. Although I ran for a lot of years, including marathons, I've never done a bike race. I've been more of a recreational rider, with only moderate technical skills.

I've trained diligently for this race, and have the advantage of sleeping at 7460 ft. I ride Mt. Herman at least once a week, a 2-2 1/2 hour climb from my house to Rampart Range Road that gains about 3000 ft elevation.

We started at Twin Lakes and rode up Columbine, using the bypass around the dam. Once we started the climb, I thought the first 10 minutes would do me in. (Steeper than my home climb, I saw my heart rate go into uncharted territory.) I thought the grade eased just a bit after the first 10 minutes. But the road is in great shape, so its easy to get in a rhythm and not have to be watching for your line every second. You've heard about the last few miles going from nice gravel road to jeep trail? Yeah, its much steeper and trickier to ride, especially with the fatigue you have by then. Lots of water running down the trail from snow runoff. We got within sight of the turnaround point before the snow blocked us. Phil, our resident Pb expert said we were 10 minutes from the turnaround. We buzzed back down to the lakes, had a pbj and some beverage, then drove over to the fish hatchery and tackled Powerline.

(Sidenote, I was surprised at how much relatively flat course there was between Twin Lakes and the base of Powerline. Good to know there will be plenty of easier spinning to recover from Columbine.)

I don't know what others have revealed about their first impressions of Powerline, but just the sight of it immediately created fear in me. A big ugly gash running straight up the mountain. We started up and I was the first in our group to have to walk. Going back to the shoe discussion, all I know is that if you're a middle-of-the- packer, you'd better be able to walk well in whatever shoes you bring. And I climbed, and climbed and climbed. I'd get back on the bike for short stretches, but my legs and my morale were shot. Everyone else, I thought, was way ahead of me. I really battled with thoughts of quitting the climb, but worse, not showing up for the race.

One thing you need to know. There are three false summits before you hit the actual top. It was disheartening to think you were at the top and find you had to drop into a canyon and climb out again. But--most importantly, I made it. Not as far behind my friends as I thought. We eased our way down, and called it a day. In spite of one of the highest intensity training days I've ever had, I was more committed than ever to facing up to this beast and conquering it.

Brief review--day one we rode Columbine and Powerline. With relatively fresh legs, we rode them both harder than race day. Big impressions for me—

1. Watch my heart rate more carefully. I redlined so many times that it took a big toll on me.
2. Keep my head in the game. I succumbed to some pretty black thoughts in the midst of the suffering, and need to work on how I'll keep from giving in to failure during the race.
3. For me, walking isn't that much slower than riding on the steepest parts. The main thing is to keep going, and not stop long if ever. I found that a 40 second break would let my heart rate recover by 10 bpm. Then I would start up again.

Day two, most of the guys had to head back, but Tom and I stayed at the little cabins at Twin Lakes. We had a great prime rib dinner at Quincys in Pb. The next morning, we went to the start and worked toward the middle. Tom is a techie, so he had downloaded waypoints into his GPS and we had no trouble finding the course. When you start the real climb up Kevins, I've heard that the bottleneck there reduces a lot of people to walking. It was rideable, but steeper than I was expecting. The second half, after you hit the switchback, is a lot better road and not as steep a grade. Coming up on the way home is also steep, but mostly paved. That's it, really. We hit the most difficult parts of the trail and beat them. Stringing them all together on one day, of course, is a different matter.

Here's how I'm going to modify my training in these last two months.

1. More intensity. I've got to suffer more now w/ rides that will raise my lactate threshold. The pain of suffering hard in training prevents the pain of regret on race day.
2. Steeper hills. If you are familiar w/ the trails around Monument, I've got to ride to the Palmer Lake reservoir more. Its steeeeeep.
3. Less ballast. I'm really committed to dropping another ten pounds before race day. Lord knows it will be hard enough w/ out all the excess blubber.
4. Technical skills. Like I said, I was more of a recreational rider until this year. Although there is no true single track, significant portions of the trail are deeply rutted, steep jeep trails. Finding a line and committing to it are essential skills. After an endo three weeks ago that broke some ribs, I really faced some fear in the descents of the first few miles of Columbine, all of Powerline going home, and the ascent of St. Kevins. I've got to gain more confidence and find a happy place somewhere between fear and recklessness.

Be prepared for the worst, train like your life depends on it, and I think we'll all celebrate at the finish line.