Leadville Trail 100- an alternate viewpoint
Saturday was the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race and all I can say is “WOW”! 1400+ dripping wet, mud covered, grunting, grinning and exhausted Mountain Bikers all pedaling their hearts out.
Three days ago I knew exactly what I was going to write here and how I felt about my Leadville result, but now I'm not so sure. You see, I DNF-ed and I was OK with that....at first. Let me give a quick race report and some power numbers and then I can explain my uneasiness with how I feel about the result.
My buddy Thor (yeah that's the name on his birth certificate) and I decided to do this race as a “just finish under 12 hours” type of ride. Thor is a Cat 3 racer from Colorado who also started training with a PowerTap this year (and collecting upgrade points to move up to Cat 2). His background is in 24 hour solo Mountain Bike racing and he's done a number of 100+mi MTB races, so he has all the tools to really do well in Leadville.
The gun went off at 6:30 and three minutes later Thor and I crossed the Start line at about 2mph. It was frustratingly slow! The first few miles of the race are on a paved road and it was very much like working your way to the front of a crit. Thor and I moved up a 100 riders or so before the road turned to double track and we were stuck riding 3 wide with no way to move up. At 6 miles or so the first real climb started and it was a mess! The rain had made the normally hard packed road soft and the rocks slick, people were falling right and left causing pile ups because there was nowhere to go. Some riders decided to just walk their bikes along the side of the trail and stay out of the mayhem. Thor has awesome bike handling skills and was able to ride on the side of the trail and bypass the mire I was stuck in. He ended up waiting at the 11mi aid station for 15 minutes, but realized riding together was no longer an option and turned his sights towards a 9 hour finish. When I got to the aid station things started to thin out but the descent was almost as frustrating as the climb as I repeatedly got stuck behind riders on hard-tails who were descending “cautiously” and by now I was starting to worry about when I would get to the bottom of the climb to Columbine Mine.
I reached the bottom of Pipeline at 2:53 into the ride and in 1095 place. Thor on the other hand had passed 500+ riders (532nd place) and was a full 30 minutes ahead of me at that point. Up to that point, despite being stuck in traffic, my power had been right on target, 180w (norm). It took me just over an hour to go from the bottom of Pipeline to the Twin Lakes rest stop, just making the 4:00 cutoff time. But, by that time my race was finished. My ability to make power had dropped significantly, just as it had in the Tour de Park City. The only difference being, I wasn't bonking (I don't think) I was happy, well fueled, my heart rate was normal, I just couldn't make more than 150w and that wasn't going to cut it in Leadville. I've been reading Chris Carmichael's new book “The Time Crunched Cyclist” and his assertion is that training 6 hours per week can take you far, but the limit to your endurance is at about 3 hours. This makes sense to me as on both my ultra long rides I died at 3 to 3.5 hours. The difference being in the TdePC 140-150w could get me up the 6% grade to Bald Mtn. but not up the 9%, 3000ft climb to Columbine. So I rode when I could and walked when I couldn't and I made it to the 12,700ft summit of the climb. I knew when I got back to the Twin Lakes aide station they would take my chip. But as long as I still had it, I was going to keep going. A little after 8 hours into the race I got back to Twin Lakes and gave up my chip.
At first, I was OK with the DNF. My inability to finish under the cutoff time was simply a factor of my limited ability to train. It wasn't a reflection on me or my giving up. I had trained as much and as hard as I could and had gone till they made me stop. I was content with the result. Then after a few days reflection, I started to wonder what would have happened if we had arrived earlier and started further forward in the pack? If I had arrived at Twin Lakes at 3:30 my whole day would have changed. Even pushing my bike up the climb I could have made the cutoff time easily and then finished the race sub 12 hours, certainly sub 13. Or am I kidding myself? Who knows? I do know I'll be back! Maybe next year, maybe after the girls are in school and my training time opens up a little. But I'll be back!
How did Thor do? 9:45! He ended up 263rd overall, passing close to 1000 riders. If he had started closer to the front I have no doubt he would have been sub 9 hours. Oh and by the way, to get to Thor's power to weight ratio I need to increase my threshold by 50 watts and loose 10kg, something to shoot for if I want to finish sub 9 hours next time.
Train Hard and Smart
Pat
