Leadville Mountain Bike - Overview

by Gordo Byrn

As you’ll read on my personal blog, I’m navigating a life shift these days. The realities of having a house filled with small children have led me towards reducing my training load. That said, the desire to train and perform remains, so I was stoked when the opportunity to participate in the Leadville 100 mountain bike race appeared.

Given that many long course triathletes are drawn to Leadville, I’m going to check in periodically with updates from my fat tire apprenticeship.

Much of the Leadville event suits me well:

Altitude (the course moves between 9,000-12,500 feet)
Sustained uphill climbing (11k of vertical, five major climbs)
Performing when fatigued (a late, steep, 40-minute climb)
Pace management (my pals are recommending take-it-out hard and hold on)
Energy pacing (the event requires less energy than an ironman but output is more variable)

The video shows the main part that’s a stretch -- my current skills are weak!

So there’s the skills aspect, as well as getting used to riding on an unstable surface -- it freaks me out how much my bike moves around underneath me.

I’ll be checking back with how my preparations go and also share ideas on how a triathlete can prepare for the event.

If you want to follow my specific sessions then I’ll be posting on my Strava page.

See you out there!

Gordo is the founder of Endurance Corner. You can find his personal blog here.