Today was a 31 mile ride in Upper 80° heat. I used that time to test out some Precision Fuel and Hydration gels during the ride. Apparently they’re sponsoring the Leadville events, so their gels will be available at the aid stations. It would be a shame to need a little extra go, grab one of those, and end up with stomach issues because of them. Today I used the 30gm carb packs that include 100mg of caffeine.

First one was on a pretty empty stomach, just the usual morning 24oz of LMNT water and supplements, about 45 minutes prior to the ride. Second was about 20 minutes into the ride, and the last was just over an hour into the ride. Overall, I felt pretty good, nothing spectacular, but 90gm of carb to fuel a 2 hour ride seemed to be pretty easy to tolerate. I only drank water and, again, ran the hydration pack dry shortly before getting home.

The gels had a pretty mellow, but sweet, flavor. That’s probably a good thing, since there’s only one flavor. I don’t think I’d want to spend an entire day just sucking those things down. Over the next few weeks I’ll test these gels out with some other food/drink combos to make sure I don’t run into any nasty combo. I’ve also been playing with some maltodextrin mix, working my way up to double the dose on the bottle, and I’m tolerating that well too. The taste is much mellower, and it seems to mix well with LMNT and other electrolyte options for a bit of flavor.

Hit the first DEADLIFT workout in almost a full month. Only worked up the first 4 warmup sets. I wasn’t expecting much since I hit that about an hour after the ride. Not the best way to get in some strength & cardio on the same day, but it’s what I could do with the time available today. I’m looking forward to dialing back the riding some after the race and getting back to moving more heavy stuff.

Do hard things.

This time it’s just two rides. Good news is I’m getting acclimated to the summer heat. Bad news is I need to carry more water. Hit the Refuge for a quick hour ride a couple of days ago and back to White Ranch for another somewhat prolonged climbing session.

Not much to report on the short ride. Yesterday was hot and dry at WR though, burned through a full hydration bladder and two water bottles with about 5 miles to go. Fortunately, most of that was down hill.

Still dig the view over the city from that little cliff out cropping. Riding in the middle of the day is hot, but there aren’t many people around, so it makes life a little easier.

Life lesson- figure out what you need to deal with now, and what you can hold off on and do all together in a batch. As an example, the workouts need to get done on a regular basis, but I can batch up these updates, as they won’t impact my performance on race day. Focus on what you need to get done now, and work out the other things as time, and your priority tasks allow.

I’ve been behind on these updates, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been getting after it. Had some good days, including a 32 mi ride where I felt good through the whole thing and finished feeling solid.

There were also some not so great days like the Green Mountain climb repeats where I was planning on getting 8 in, but the heat wrecked me, and I only finished 5. I was not ready for that kind of work in 90 degree heat and ALL the sun. It’s been a while since I’ve crushed a full hydration bladder.

Lifting is backing off a bit more, very much in maintenance mode there. The running has also dropped off significantly during this last month leading up to the race. Looking forward to hitting them both again next month!

Do hard things