I realize that in the grand scheme of things, a big belt buckle earned by finishing the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race in under nine hours is still just a belt buckle, but right now that gold and silver trophy is proudly displayed in my office - right between my US Olympic Committee Coach of the Year and US Bicycling Hall of Fame awards and below Lance’s Tour de France jersey.

It took me three years to earn that damned piece of hardware, and in some ways I’m glad I didn’t go out and capture a big buckle on my first try. Sure, I lost a $1000 bet by finishing the 2006 race in nine hours and 18 minutes, but that was a small price to pay for jumpstarting my fitness and helping me lose 15 pounds. And then, even though I missed my nine-hour goal by just five minutes in 2007, I made big strides in my abilities on a mountain bike and further improved my overall fitness. What’s more, my preoccupation with the race peaked Lance’s interest in trying it. It was great to see him back in competition during this year’s event, and I hope his renewed interest in competitive cycling continues to grow.  Each year, preparing for the Leadville 100 has yielded benefits beyond the race itself, and 2008 was no exception.

This year I knew my fitness was better than in either of the past two years, but I also knew that fitness alone might not be enough. I had some significant gut problems in the second half of last year’s race, and though it’s hard to say that’s what cost me five minutes, it certainly didn’t help. In an effort to have a better nutritional performance in 2008, I consulted my staff Registered Dietitian, Alicia Kendig, who is also one of only a few RDs in the US who have earned the additional accreditation of Certified Specialist in Sports Dietetics.

After looking at what I ate and drank in 2007 she commented, “You certainly consumed enough calories, perhaps even more than enough, but I think fluids and how you combined food and drinks was the root of your problem.” It turns out I’d made a relatively classic error in ultra-endurance nutrition: binging on massive amounts of food in the belief I needed as much energy as I could possibly consume in order to perform well for such a long event. For 2008, we worked out a more conservative nutrition plan that actually reduced my total caloric intake, but increased my fluid intake and - perhaps most important – closely paired my eating and drinking to improve digestion and absorption of key nutrients.

This year I was much more careful about always consuming fluids right after eating a gel or bar. As Alicia told me before the race, “The water helps dilute the concentrated carbohydrate-electrolyte mixture in a gel to the point that it’s similar to the concentration of a sports drink. Digestion and absorption rates are much better with the addition of water, meaning you’ll get more benefit from each gel compared to eating them alone.” In total I ate probably five fewer gels this year, but my gut felt better and my energy levels were always great. It just goes to show you that even when you’re using great products, you still have to use them the right way in order for them to work best.

Ultra-Endurance Nutrition Tip #2: Scrutinize the course
Standard sports nutrition advice is to consume small amounts of food and fluid at frequent intervals, and this advice usually manifests itself by reaching for a bottle or some food every 15-20 minutes. However, the Leadville 100 is a mountain bike race, and even though it’s not the most technical course, there are still areas that are more and less conducive to eating. For instance, in the first 45 minutes of the race, there’s an intense climb followed by rolling singletrack and a few short, steep hills. It’s very difficult to eat or drink during this portion of the course, so it was important to plan my early-race nutrition accordingly. The vast majority of the food I ate in the first two hours of the race was consumed about 60-70 minutes into the race, during a road descent and the somewhat gradual climb immediately after it. Similarly, the 10-mile climb to the turnaround at Columbine Mine – and the subsequent super-fast descent – are not areas where I feel good consuming a lot of food or fluid. To compensate, I packed more of my eating and drinking into the hour-long rolling section that came before and after the Twin Lakes aid station.

When you look at the course for a long race, a century, or even just a super-long training ride, keep in mind that flat to rolling terrain is most conducive to eating and drinking. Athletes tend to consume less when they’re climbing, simply because the intensity is higher and they’re more focused on the effort. And though professional racers take risks to eat during technical descents because they have to, most riders wait until the descent is over to reach for bottles and bars. Similarly, areas you know will be intense – like the early miles of a road or mountain bike race, or a section of a local group ride that’s always really fast – are difficult times to eat. Plan ahead so you consume food and fluids before these hard sections and have enough with you so you can eat and drink once the pace settles down again.

Ultra-Endurance Nutrition Tip #3: Listen to your body
The reason I listed both my goals and actual consumption of food and fluids in the table above is to illustrate that even though I had a great day from a sports nutrition standpoint, I didn’t follow my plan perfectly. In fact, there wasn’t a single leg of the race in which I consumed the exact amount of food listed in my plan. That doesn’t mean there was a problem with the plan or that I screwed up; the plan ensured I was carrying adequate food and fluids at all times, and I listened to my body in order to regulate how much of it I consumed and when. There are times when it’s necessary to eat and drink when you don’t feel like it – or to coerce an athlete you’re coaching or crewing for to eat or drink for the sake of their health – but when you’re ahead of the game in terms of nutrition you have the luxury of being able to adjust your intake based on how you feel. Blindly cramming food into your stomach because a schedule tells you to can lead to just as many gut and performance problems as failing to eat enough in the first place.

Over the past three years, the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race has been very good for me. It’s a challenging event that motivates me to train in the dead of winter, and training for it has gotten my fitness back to a level I haven’t seen in 10 years. But most important, I look forward to Leadville because it’s an event for everyone. This year Lance was at the front of the pack battling Dave Weins for the win, I was two hours back in my own battle to reach my goal, and more than three hours behind me CTS Athlete and advocate Ingrid Hinshaw finished third in her age group with a finishing time of 11 hours and 52 minutes. In between there were nearly 1,000 riders – including more than 20 CTS Athletes and Coaches – each pursuing their own personal goals. I don’t know what Leadville will teach me next year, but I know I’ll be there - either on the bike or supporting athletes from an aid station - to find out. I encourage you to get out there and try it too.