Yes or No emails were sent out yesterday for the Leadville 100, and I didn't get in. Unlike last year, I'm not going to pay a $1000 for the Carmichael camp. I would like to, as it was a fun camp and the race lives up to all the hype, but in the end I don't want to put a dent like that my wallet.
There is however plenty of 100 mile mtb races, so I'll have to look into finding another event to replace the Leadville experience.
Showing posts with label Leadville 100. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Leadville 100. Show all posts
11 February 2010
23 October 2009
Leadville Pics
Just got a bunch of Leadville pics from Leisa:
Getting ready to head out to the start line.
Around 6:00 am at the start line
Feeling good after the first climb and on my way.
Just exiting the new singletrack addition to the course.
Down from Columbine and headed back in.
Just stopped and got darker sunglasses, Mark is on the right in the red.
Headed back up the singletrack, riding with a fellow CTS athlete.
16 October 2009
Leadville Movie - October 22
In case you haven't heard there is a Leadville 2009 movie coming up next week: Thursday October 22. Watch the trailer and buy tickets at: www.raceacrossthesky.com
it looks like its going to be awesome!
it looks like its going to be awesome!
18 August 2009
Some Quick Notes from Leadville
Since I'm leaving for the British Virgin Islands tomorrow and won't get a chance for a couple weeks to post any pics or a summary on Leadville, I thought I would send out the following notes which I mostly copied from an email I sent to my coach:
Actual finish time was 11:30:15, which was of course better than the 12 hr finish required to get the coveted belt buckle!
Many people were talking about the bottle neck at the beginning of the race, and were worried about how much time they were losing to it... I felt just the opposite, it was a nice easy pace for the first climb and amazingly my HR never got out of hand, (especially considering it was around 170-180 for the Firecracker and the Silver Rush), I felt good and stayed calm and steady around 155 bpm for first couple hours. I would also have to say I was well prepared for this race and most likely made significant performance improvements in the last few weeks as I felt I rode stronger than I have all summer!
I'm sure you heard it rained for the first couple hours and was cold, I'm really not sure where I came up with the strength to make it through that, especially when I could no longer feel my hands or feet, then if that wasn't enough I nailed a tree at the bottom of powerline while attempting to go around the huge water crossing! I hit the tree branch hard enough to knock me off the bike and I nearly face planted in the water crossing, I was one step away from falling in -it was close! I nearly passed out it hurt so bad, it was another 20 minutes before I could even think straight. fortuneately the arm was still useful for holding the handlebar but that was about it, I couldn't lift it much farther than 6 inches from my waist... That was all the bad luck I had, from there on out the race went well, I didn't drink as much as I had planned, but evidently still drank enough, food was much tougher to eact than I expected and I will be changing my plan for next year. I had a few logistical/planning errors, but overall everything worked out well!
Amazingly my arm feels nearly fine today, which is good for the sailing trip as I was worried about whether or not I would be able to do any scuba diving... It is disappointing however that for as bad as it hurt in the race there really doesn't seem to be any damage, this certainly casts a shadow of doubt on how much I really suffered in the race due to the arm...
It certainly was getting a bit scary as to whether or not I was really going to make the 12hr cut-off, around hour 8 is when I really started to fade, I think this is when the good nutrition/hydration plan really came into play (and training), although I was fading I never actually ran out of power, it always seemed like I was getting a second wind and while I was definately slowing, I know I still climbed the final pavement section faster than I did on the first day of the CTS camp!
When Lance came by, he was a flash, he was already down the Columbine climb when I saw him, and we were on a flat section, I was probably doing 18 mph and most likely Lance was doing 25+
Also, on Friday CTS hosted a pre-race dinner where we dropped off our drop-bags for the aid stations. I got to meet Chris Carmichael, so that was also pretty cool.
My friends took tons of pictures, but doubt I'll get any posted until after I get back from the sailing trip.
Actual finish time was 11:30:15, which was of course better than the 12 hr finish required to get the coveted belt buckle!
Many people were talking about the bottle neck at the beginning of the race, and were worried about how much time they were losing to it... I felt just the opposite, it was a nice easy pace for the first climb and amazingly my HR never got out of hand, (especially considering it was around 170-180 for the Firecracker and the Silver Rush), I felt good and stayed calm and steady around 155 bpm for first couple hours. I would also have to say I was well prepared for this race and most likely made significant performance improvements in the last few weeks as I felt I rode stronger than I have all summer!
I'm sure you heard it rained for the first couple hours and was cold, I'm really not sure where I came up with the strength to make it through that, especially when I could no longer feel my hands or feet, then if that wasn't enough I nailed a tree at the bottom of powerline while attempting to go around the huge water crossing! I hit the tree branch hard enough to knock me off the bike and I nearly face planted in the water crossing, I was one step away from falling in -it was close! I nearly passed out it hurt so bad, it was another 20 minutes before I could even think straight. fortuneately the arm was still useful for holding the handlebar but that was about it, I couldn't lift it much farther than 6 inches from my waist... That was all the bad luck I had, from there on out the race went well, I didn't drink as much as I had planned, but evidently still drank enough, food was much tougher to eact than I expected and I will be changing my plan for next year. I had a few logistical/planning errors, but overall everything worked out well!
Amazingly my arm feels nearly fine today, which is good for the sailing trip as I was worried about whether or not I would be able to do any scuba diving... It is disappointing however that for as bad as it hurt in the race there really doesn't seem to be any damage, this certainly casts a shadow of doubt on how much I really suffered in the race due to the arm...
It certainly was getting a bit scary as to whether or not I was really going to make the 12hr cut-off, around hour 8 is when I really started to fade, I think this is when the good nutrition/hydration plan really came into play (and training), although I was fading I never actually ran out of power, it always seemed like I was getting a second wind and while I was definately slowing, I know I still climbed the final pavement section faster than I did on the first day of the CTS camp!
When Lance came by, he was a flash, he was already down the Columbine climb when I saw him, and we were on a flat section, I was probably doing 18 mph and most likely Lance was doing 25+
Also, on Friday CTS hosted a pre-race dinner where we dropped off our drop-bags for the aid stations. I got to meet Chris Carmichael, so that was also pretty cool.
My friends took tons of pictures, but doubt I'll get any posted until after I get back from the sailing trip.
15 August 2009
14 August 2009
13 August 2009
Leadville Nutrition Plan
Here's my nutrition plan for Leadville and estimated time splits, I'm planning for a 10 hr 20 min finish time:
28 June 2009
2009 CTS Leadville Training Camp
The Leadville training camp went really well this weekend. The camp was extremely well run and the coaches were great, the recon riding experience and information learned was priceless and I can not say enough good things about this camp and the CTS staff that put it on. This camp was very encouraging mentally and gave me a good confidence boost in understanding my physical capabilities, also very remotivating as I feel I can make a very good jump in performance and weight loss before the race. The pace which we were riding puts me on track for an under 12 hr finish, which is very promising for race day results.
Friday June 25
I probably could have rode harder the first day of the camp, but after reading the CTS information on altitude and pacing I decided it would be best to back off more as opposed to less to avoid fatigue. This was certainly one of the smarter decisions I made, I found myself riding by myself more to keep at my own pace, but this was good as I really didn't have the overall fitness to hang with the second group that I riding with. "overall fitness" may not really be the correct term to describe my situation. Here's how the day worked out, on flat sections of the course I had no difficultly keeping up with the group, and really I could have kept up with the first group. On medium to slightly inclined (gradual climbing) sections of the course I struggled to maintain pace and keep up with the group. This is where I had to just stay consistent and ride at a pace I could maintain. I really never ended up too far back from the group, but just wasn't quite there for keeping up and maintaining a comfortable pace. The interesting twist to day is the steep climbs, on our return trip up Powerline, I found myself passing nearly everyone and nearly leading the way up these climbs. My HR was higher than I had previously been riding at, but felt maintainable -really it just wasn't possible to ride any slower, to stay smooth and efficient it felt like the only pace I could ride at. On the medium climbs I originally felt my weight was hurting me, but my performance on the steeper climbs contradicts this. In talking with the coaches, my only conclusion is that I engage a lot more muscles on the steeper climbs and somehow I seem to have a much higher performance efficiency for this type of terrain.
Unfortuneately the battery was dead in my Edge 705 on this day, so its very disappointing that I don't have any HR data for Friday...
Saturday June 26
Saturday was a much different day. After dinner on Friday I was super tired and was looking forward to going to bed and being rested for the next day of riding. Due to the altitude this did not turn out as planned. I never actually slept that well due the altitude and sort of felt like I was constantly waking up periodically all night long. Needless to say I didn't feel well rested in the morning and my second days performance suffered. The Columbine climb really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but my pace dropped me well behind the group I was riding with the day before. About 3/4 the way up, my performance flat lined and I was forced into a survival mode pace. Since there really wasn't any hard efforts or climbing required after getting to the top the rest of the day went fine and I didn't really notice my decreased performance anymore.
I do have the HR/GPS data for Saturday, haven't had a chance to download it yet, but I'll get the link posted as soon as I can.
I had a hotel rented for Sat night also, but decided to get to a lower elevation for the night as there was no need to get another night of poor sleep. This decidsion was confirmed when I tried taking a nap before leaving. I stayed in Denver Sat night with some friends and while I slept better I still felt the effects of higher elevation. Due to my sensitivity to the altitude I am heavily investigating getting supplemental oxygen for sleeping the night before the Leadville race.
Technical skills are not going to be an issue in the race, and actually I found that I seem to way ahead of most people in this area, I was very surprised at the slow decending speeds of a lot of the guys, the CTS coaches kept our decent speeds to a relatively low speed as the purpose was to recon the course and this turned out be very good strategy as there are certainly a few obstacles that could be dangerous if your not aware of them.
Friday June 25
I probably could have rode harder the first day of the camp, but after reading the CTS information on altitude and pacing I decided it would be best to back off more as opposed to less to avoid fatigue. This was certainly one of the smarter decisions I made, I found myself riding by myself more to keep at my own pace, but this was good as I really didn't have the overall fitness to hang with the second group that I riding with. "overall fitness" may not really be the correct term to describe my situation. Here's how the day worked out, on flat sections of the course I had no difficultly keeping up with the group, and really I could have kept up with the first group. On medium to slightly inclined (gradual climbing) sections of the course I struggled to maintain pace and keep up with the group. This is where I had to just stay consistent and ride at a pace I could maintain. I really never ended up too far back from the group, but just wasn't quite there for keeping up and maintaining a comfortable pace. The interesting twist to day is the steep climbs, on our return trip up Powerline, I found myself passing nearly everyone and nearly leading the way up these climbs. My HR was higher than I had previously been riding at, but felt maintainable -really it just wasn't possible to ride any slower, to stay smooth and efficient it felt like the only pace I could ride at. On the medium climbs I originally felt my weight was hurting me, but my performance on the steeper climbs contradicts this. In talking with the coaches, my only conclusion is that I engage a lot more muscles on the steeper climbs and somehow I seem to have a much higher performance efficiency for this type of terrain.
Unfortuneately the battery was dead in my Edge 705 on this day, so its very disappointing that I don't have any HR data for Friday...
Saturday June 26
Saturday was a much different day. After dinner on Friday I was super tired and was looking forward to going to bed and being rested for the next day of riding. Due to the altitude this did not turn out as planned. I never actually slept that well due the altitude and sort of felt like I was constantly waking up periodically all night long. Needless to say I didn't feel well rested in the morning and my second days performance suffered. The Columbine climb really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, but my pace dropped me well behind the group I was riding with the day before. About 3/4 the way up, my performance flat lined and I was forced into a survival mode pace. Since there really wasn't any hard efforts or climbing required after getting to the top the rest of the day went fine and I didn't really notice my decreased performance anymore.
I do have the HR/GPS data for Saturday, haven't had a chance to download it yet, but I'll get the link posted as soon as I can.
I had a hotel rented for Sat night also, but decided to get to a lower elevation for the night as there was no need to get another night of poor sleep. This decidsion was confirmed when I tried taking a nap before leaving. I stayed in Denver Sat night with some friends and while I slept better I still felt the effects of higher elevation. Due to my sensitivity to the altitude I am heavily investigating getting supplemental oxygen for sleeping the night before the Leadville race.
Technical skills are not going to be an issue in the race, and actually I found that I seem to way ahead of most people in this area, I was very surprised at the slow decending speeds of a lot of the guys, the CTS coaches kept our decent speeds to a relatively low speed as the purpose was to recon the course and this turned out be very good strategy as there are certainly a few obstacles that could be dangerous if your not aware of them.
28 April 2009
22 February 2009
Gear, It Lasts Forever Right?
So I'm reading the list of gear that I need to bring with me for the Leadville camp in June, (here's the list):
Things to Bring
Items to pack for any of our camps:
Mountain Bike Clean, tuned and ready to ride (bring the bike you plan to race)
Gearing Your bike should be equipped with a triple in the front, and a 12-32 or 12-
34 cassette. Unless you’re a singlespeeder (gear ratio of 1.8:1 or less)
Helmet
Jerseys at least 4 (2 short and or 2 long sleeve)
Shorts at least 4 pair
Leg or knee warmers 2 pair
Wind Vest
Wind Jacket
Baselayer 2 lightweight
Rain Jacket
Arm Warmers 2 pair
Socks (regular cycling and wool cycling 3 pair of each)
Cycling gloves Long finger
Cycling Shoes/pedals (carry these with you if traveling by plane)
Eyewear/sunglasses
Camelbak or other hydration system
Chamois cream
Small tote or backpack for anything you wish to keep in support vehicles.
Sunscreen Very important as most of the camp will take place above 9000 feet
Toiletries for clean up between rides.
Items to add for any Colorado camp.
Light jacket
Medium weight jacket
Long finger cold weather gloves
Beanie/helmet liner
Shoe covers/booties
Bottles/mix/food
The better part of this list I do have, but a few things caught my attention:
4 jersey's, well that's actually a problem because I sold off all my team clothes when I left Peoria, Il. So I'll need some jerseys.
Then I got to thinking about what I had for cycling shorts, going to need 4 of those also, turns out I only have 3 pair and 2 of them have holes in them... so I'll need more shorts,
What else? yep I got a helmet -it's new but wait it was a team issue back in Peoria, wrong color, tiny vents and... darn it "I hate that thing" so I need a new helmet.
Next: Wind Vest, yep, no wait nope, sold that because it was a LeMond, sold all LeMond stuff when that idiot accused Lance of doping... guess I'll need one of those too..
OK no more looking at the list today, next thing I know I'm going to need a new bike... Oh great... I'm not even going to deal with that reality today...
Things to Bring
Items to pack for any of our camps:
Mountain Bike Clean, tuned and ready to ride (bring the bike you plan to race)
Gearing Your bike should be equipped with a triple in the front, and a 12-32 or 12-
34 cassette. Unless you’re a singlespeeder (gear ratio of 1.8:1 or less)
Helmet
Jerseys at least 4 (2 short and or 2 long sleeve)
Shorts at least 4 pair
Leg or knee warmers 2 pair
Wind Vest
Wind Jacket
Baselayer 2 lightweight
Rain Jacket
Arm Warmers 2 pair
Socks (regular cycling and wool cycling 3 pair of each)
Cycling gloves Long finger
Cycling Shoes/pedals (carry these with you if traveling by plane)
Eyewear/sunglasses
Camelbak or other hydration system
Chamois cream
Small tote or backpack for anything you wish to keep in support vehicles.
Sunscreen Very important as most of the camp will take place above 9000 feet
Toiletries for clean up between rides.
Items to add for any Colorado camp.
Light jacket
Medium weight jacket
Long finger cold weather gloves
Beanie/helmet liner
Shoe covers/booties
Bottles/mix/food
The better part of this list I do have, but a few things caught my attention:
4 jersey's, well that's actually a problem because I sold off all my team clothes when I left Peoria, Il. So I'll need some jerseys.
Then I got to thinking about what I had for cycling shorts, going to need 4 of those also, turns out I only have 3 pair and 2 of them have holes in them... so I'll need more shorts,
What else? yep I got a helmet -it's new but wait it was a team issue back in Peoria, wrong color, tiny vents and... darn it "I hate that thing" so I need a new helmet.
Next: Wind Vest, yep, no wait nope, sold that because it was a LeMond, sold all LeMond stuff when that idiot accused Lance of doping... guess I'll need one of those too..
OK no more looking at the list today, next thing I know I'm going to need a new bike... Oh great... I'm not even going to deal with that reality today...
20 February 2009
I've got it! I Need a Training Plan.
OK, I know what to do, I'll have CTS write me up a 6 month schedule and then I'll follow it and be on track to do the right training for the race. yeah, that's it. simple enough...
I thought this would be a good plan as I trained with CTS in 2005 and while I had a pretty expensive package back then, I really wasn't committed to spending that kind of money today, so I asked CTS if they would just make me a generalized 6 month schedule to follow. I was will to pay a consulting fee and I thought it sounded like a good idea.
Sometimes I am really just not that bright: I'm really not sure how I even got past the salesman to the Coach with this idea. Within 5 minutes of talking to the Coach I realized he wasn't going to write me a 6 month plan. He did however turn out to be a really good salesman, not because he was a salesman, but because he was telling me how it was and sometimes I recognize good advice when it's presented to me...
Even if he made me a 6 month plan (which he wouldn't do no how no way) I was setting myself up for certain failure. What I needed was a real coach, and a real coaching program, not a generic outline of a plan. Fortuneately I didn't have to pay the consulting fee, for him to sell me on signing up for a coaching program.
So now I'm an official CTS athlete again!
I thought this would be a good plan as I trained with CTS in 2005 and while I had a pretty expensive package back then, I really wasn't committed to spending that kind of money today, so I asked CTS if they would just make me a generalized 6 month schedule to follow. I was will to pay a consulting fee and I thought it sounded like a good idea.
Sometimes I am really just not that bright: I'm really not sure how I even got past the salesman to the Coach with this idea. Within 5 minutes of talking to the Coach I realized he wasn't going to write me a 6 month plan. He did however turn out to be a really good salesman, not because he was a salesman, but because he was telling me how it was and sometimes I recognize good advice when it's presented to me...
Even if he made me a 6 month plan (which he wouldn't do no how no way) I was setting myself up for certain failure. What I needed was a real coach, and a real coaching program, not a generic outline of a plan. Fortuneately I didn't have to pay the consulting fee, for him to sell me on signing up for a coaching program.
So now I'm an official CTS athlete again!
15 February 2009
Leadville 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race
In early January 2009, I once again thought it would be a great idea to sign up for the Leadville 100 MTB Race. In all honesty I wasn't even really that excited to get in when I filled out the application, and since it really was a longshot to get into the race anyway, I thought why not if I get in: that will be great I coule really use some motivation to get back in shape, and if I didn't get in: then no big deal, (I was really already on track to get back into shape from the MMA training I had started a few months earlier). So I mailed the application.
Well by the time early February rolled around, I had changed my mind completely and had high hopes and desperately wanted to do this race, this race would revolutionize me, I would train, I would eat right, it would be the final stamp of motivation that I needed!
So as most people know who sign up for the Leadville 100: I didn't get in. Rejected for the second time now, but... hey look at that: Carmichael Training Systems is offering free entry into the race if you enroll in their Leadville Camp. (When I say free, I really mean "free" as the camp isn't exactly free). Knowing the 40 spots CTS had would fill up fast, I called them within 10 minutes of reading the letter and signed up! Wow I can't beleive it. I am doing the Leadville 100 this year!
Holy Crap! I'm doing the Leadville 100 this year! ...and its only 6 months away! I'm still 30 lbs overweight (from what I used to race at) and I'm in terrible cycling shape, how am I going to get ready...?
Well by the time early February rolled around, I had changed my mind completely and had high hopes and desperately wanted to do this race, this race would revolutionize me, I would train, I would eat right, it would be the final stamp of motivation that I needed!
So as most people know who sign up for the Leadville 100: I didn't get in. Rejected for the second time now, but... hey look at that: Carmichael Training Systems is offering free entry into the race if you enroll in their Leadville Camp. (When I say free, I really mean "free" as the camp isn't exactly free). Knowing the 40 spots CTS had would fill up fast, I called them within 10 minutes of reading the letter and signed up! Wow I can't beleive it. I am doing the Leadville 100 this year!
Holy Crap! I'm doing the Leadville 100 this year! ...and its only 6 months away! I'm still 30 lbs overweight (from what I used to race at) and I'm in terrible cycling shape, how am I going to get ready...?
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