Leadville 100 MTB - Leadman Challenge

[@saprissa26]

This is one of the best Leadville videos I’ve seen, so worth it man, congrats and thanks for sharing your experience.

[@runningwithsimon]

Thank you so much :)

[@XCBen]

This got me hyped. Thanks for the video. Well done. I do my first one in two weeks.

[@runningwithsimon]

You're racing Leadville? Cool good luck! I'll be up at Columbine aid station this year! Go get that buckle!

[@XCBen]

@@runningwithsimon We could call it racing, but I am just going to try and finish it under 12 hours. I am sure its going to almost kill me. Ill see ya at the top! Thanks man! Great recovery by the way. That crash looked brutal.

[@Chahtawarrior31]

Salute to you all for completing this monster! OORAH Keep Going!

[@elennane1133]

brings back memories, I did it in 2008, loved how you overcame the fall and pushed on.

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks! And congrats to you :) I head the race used to be much harder!

[@elennane1133]

@@runningwithsimon nope, looks exactly the same. 105 miles of suffering

[@danilohermoso8560]

Hard core, man! I am impressed!

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks - that was hands down my biggest challenge this year. And not planning to repeat any time soon lol

[@benshredding2577]

Congrats on pushing through after the crash and finishing! Great job on the video too!!!

[@chadhurd1570]

Love the Metroid music towards the end! Great ride BTW

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks! Just did a playthrough and remembered how awesome the soundtrack was!

[@PoppoBikes]

Well well done video. Thank you...

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks! Were you racing yesterday?

[@chuckfrizzell8668]

Great fortitude brother! Congrats!!!!

[@runningwithsimon]

Appreciate it!!

[@seanmullins9187]

Great Video Good luck on the 100!

[@dcasandman]

Congrats finished this year too. Considering both next year.

[@runningwithsimon]

Congrats! And good luck for next year :)

[@nikond90]

Congrats on finishing

[@2011hwalker]

Mountain biking takes a lot of skill. Even these non technical descents can get dangerous if you are not used to the pitches coming up.

[@kensegel5909]

Great Job!!

[@runningwithsimon]

Thank you!

[@kevindraper4000]

Nice work!!!

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks!!!

[@royrcf]

Superb well done for completing after crashing.

[@roxic1212]

Really liked the bio data set up like a car. Watts, mph, etc

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks! It's very helpful for me too to see if I paced myself well or not!

[@ivanmillan-pulecio4734]

This was great ! I'd love to know if you went up ahead of time and what your experience with altitude is.

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks! Yes altitude will mess you up if you don’t adapt. I live at sea level but spent most of the summer in Colorado racing and hiking 14ers. It takes me a week to feel better and maybe 2 weeks to be fully adapted to 14k. It still affects you but not nearly as bad. In contrast, I raced Leadville marathon earlier that year coming 2 days ahead of race day and it was brutal. The race was arguably the easiest of the year, but one of my biggest struggle because I struggled with thin air/altitude (you can see in the video I developed some coughing related to that. Which lasted until the evening, along with terrible headache and dizziness)

[@XCRiders]

Your no gloves Guy!! Beyond cool 😎

[@runningwithsimon]

Haha thanks!

[@artemartem7534]

Thanks for the video! Congratulations! What kind of training plan did you use?

[@runningwithsimon]

It wasn't very structured to be honest. With the amount of ultra marathon I was racing, especially through the summer, it was hard to follow any plan. The bulk of my training for cycling happened in Feb / March / April (most of it is on my strava, although some indoor session are not). If I was not running an ultra, tapering or healing, I tried to go a long ride every weekend (100ish), trying to have a fair amount of gain and some trail/single track. Week days, I'd include some 1-2hrs indoor ride at low intensity. But weekly mileage varied greatly depending how much running vs. cycling I was doing, and even cycling, how much was indoor vs. road vs. trail. Tracking my FTP, it went from about 3.0 W/kg to 4.0 W/kg fairly quickly, then it was stagnant. I think including more intervals would have helped, but I felt it was good enough fitness-wise and that my real weakness was my handling skills. Then the last big piece was to get acclimated to altitude - I was able to work remotely from Colorado for a couple of months while racing the Leadman. From experience, I know altitude would be an issue. It takes me about 1 week to 'feel good', and 2 weeks to feel '100%'

[@artemartem7534]

@@runningwithsimon Thank you so much for the answer! Are you going to race Leadville MTB this year?

[@runningwithsimon]

@@artemartem7534 No, but I'll be volunteering at the aid station up top Columbine, and racing LT100 run the week after! Are you racing this year?

[@artemartem7534]

@@runningwithsimonFirst, I have to finish Lake Tahoe 100k :)

[@garrettbarner2403]

Just watched the full leadman series! Grateful you weren't too hurt on the bike crash. I'm looking into doing leadman next year - how quickly did you sign up for the race? I know spots are limited and I'm not sure if it sells out in an hour or if its a couple weeks and am concerned with just getting into the race. Thanks and I look forward to seeing you finish off the series!

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks! 100 run tomorrow - really excited about it :) Good luck for next year! I actually went through the lifetime foundation, but my guess is you have to be quick!

[@seanmullins9187]

Garrett I am also thinking of Leadman. From what I see it fills up rather fast.

[@garrettbarner2403]

@@seanmullins9187 thanks, sean. I wonder if it’s fast as in an hour or a day… I’m guessing perhaps an hour.

[@gavinmatten4524]

Fantastic effort, congratulations on completing the Leadville 100! Great video too. Can you tell me what system you use to get the power/speed etc graphics on the video?

[@runningwithsimon]

Thanks! Sure, I use Garmin VIBR edit (free). Then you just need to create an overlay, upload your data file, and sync. It can sometimes be a pain to sync manually, but definitely worth it.

[@gavinmatten4524]

@@runningwithsimon thanks mate

[@michaelhotten752]

great video. what corral were you in?

[@runningwithsimon]

Orange. It looks really hard if you start all the way back of white - there isn’t really enough time before St Kevin’s to avoid being stuck

[@michaelhotten752]

@@runningwithsimon thanks for that. despite wave starts and white corral being subdivided, there is still some riders saying it is congested going up kevins. would like to see some video of that.

[@rogsands5644]

Great Job!! You should always wear MTB gloves, might have helped to save your arms, but maybe not?

[@runningwithsimon]

You’re 100% right - I’ll get some. I was lucky my hands themselves were spare otherwise the race would have been over

[@johnsands578]

Great job Simon. I couldn’t believe your heart rate never went all that high and kept recovering. You must be in incredible shape!

[@runningwithsimon]

@@johnsands578 Thanks! I tried not pushing beyond zone 2. But yep, I relied on having good legs to compensate my bad handling skills!

[@michaelhoward6752]

No gloves on this course 🤔

[@runningwithsimon]

haha yeah... ...yeah... Gloves would have been nice. I was (obviously) bleeding some from my hands after the crash. You live, you learn. I'm more of a trail runner and did a lot of things wrong in that race. But hey, I made it :)

[@joseph42s]

The music especially at the end was too much! Great ride and congrats on finishing, but man that alarm bell music was so terrible.

[@straps9859]

Please wear full finger gloves next time. 🙂

[@thedexterlakeclub8614]

Awesome...next time, gloves

[@munch2048]

Great job .. you need to wear gloves

[@runningwithsimon]

I really do - I was lucky this time. I'll get some for sure!

[@ShaneKloepfer]

Are you wearing tennis shoes? That’s a major major disadvantage

[@runningwithsimon]

Yes, I'm using flat pedals and running shoes. Certainly not the best ... The bike is pretty heavy too at ~30lbs

[@elefantrising]

@@runningwithsimon my lord a 30lbs bike on top of it hats off to you man.