Leadville, The 100 Mile Mountain Bike Race Podcast p/b Shimano

Hottie and Fatty start this episode of the Leadville Podcast from higher than 10,000 feet...even though they're nowhere near Leadville. In fact, they're at the finish line of the Crusher in the Tushar, which might just be the most perfect Leadville 100 Tuneup a racer could pick. In addition to talking about their race day and what they learned, Hottie and Fatty dig into a very short — but deceptiv...

Kimo Seymour is SVP in charge of events and media at Life Time Fitness, which includes the Leadville 100. In other words, he's the boss of the race. He's also raced the Leadville 100 eleven times, finishing under EIGHT hours every single time. In this conversation, Fatty and Kimo talk about how Life Time chooses qualifiers and what their plans are for new qualifiers going forward, why they have do...

There's a good chance that you've got friends and/or family coming along with you to Leadville, in which case there's nearly a 100% chance they're going to be crewing for you on race day. Which means that they've got as big a day coming up as you do...but concentrated into short little moments of crazed intensity when you roll in, breathing hard and amped up and unable to articulate a darned thing...

In this episode,  we'll also be talking about the part of the course everyone obsesses about — one of the true defining moments of the Leadville 100: the climb to Columbine Mine. We set you straight on the most asked about part of Leadville bike setup: the rolling parts. We brought in a couple of our friends from ENVE, both of them Leadville veterans — each with finish times of around 7:30 — to ge...

Here at the Leadville Podcast, we have fun preparing for and gaming out and gearing up for this race. But what we LOVE are the stories that come out of this race. And it's high time we posted a woman's race report. More to the point, this is Lisa Nelson's (now Fatty's wife, though this happens before they were together) telling of her first Leadville 100, in her own words.  It is a case study in s...

A Note from Fatty: Hey, next week (7/4-9) The Hammer and I are headed to Leadville to race the Silver Rush 50. If you're going to be in Leadville during that time, let me know. And more importantly, if you're thinking of RACING the Silver Rush 50 (the MTB or running version), use my MRK18INFEN code a checkout to get a $10 discount. This same code works, by the way, to get into the LT100 Stage Race...

When Dave Wiens talks, Leadville racers listen. That's because they know that this six-time LT100 champion really knows his stuff, partly from having won this race so many times, and partly from having taught the Leadville 100 Camp of Champions several times. Chances are, if a racer has a question, he's heard it. We get into bike choice, pacing, nutrition, the Race Across the Sky movies, Dave's up...

Six-Time Leadville 100 Champ Dave Wiens joins Hottie and Fatty to talk about strategies for racing the Leadville 100, from pacing yourself to pacing others to  just trying to not blow up halfway through the race. We deep-dive on the first dirt descent in the race: The Powerline, teasing apart one of the most treacherous parts of the race And In our Questions for the Queen, we ask Rebecca Rusch abo...

All of our episodes are "must-hear" episodes, but this is quite likely the most critical episode you can listen to this year. We've got an incredible interview with Dr Colin Grissom, a well-known pulmonologist with special expertise in exercise at high-altitude. If you're racing the LT100, you NEED to hear what he has to say. In Our Questions for the Queen segment, Rebecca Rusch gets gross, talkin...

Dave Edwards is a guy Fatty met in 2014 during a pre-race clinic Rebecca Rusch and Fatty put on. Dave was a friendly guy, who — like most people — was very excited about the race. Unlike most people, he had an amazing head of below-shoulder-length blond hair. He had been growing it out, like Samson, for this race. Dave's story and Fatty's intersected again, at the finish line of the race...but not...

In this episode we go to the buffet — it's the show almost ALL about food. Dr Kevin Sprouse — Medical Director for the EF Education First / Drapac presented by Cannondale Pro Cycling Team — has a practical prescription for your race nutrition, including changes you need to start making RIGHT NOW. Rebecca Rusch will reveal what's in her feed bag in Our Questions for the Queen segment, then Fatty an...

In this episode, we talk about the endurance racer's worst enemy: cramps . Fatty interviews Rebecca Rusch — The Queen of Pain — to get her tips on avoiding and surviving cramps, and Hottie and Fatty talk about our own experiences and expertise on dealing with cramps, too. We detail the dash for the Leadville City limits in our "The Course" segment, digging into the seven most important things you...

We kick off Season 1 by addressing the question that keeps every Leadville 100 MTB racer up at night: "Can I finish this race?" Race founder Ken Chlouber has some wisdom to lend with his perspective. Rebecca Rusch launches her "Questions for the Queen" segment with advice on the most important thing you can do while training, during your taper, and during the race itself. Coach Jonathan Lee has tr...

You're an out-of-work miner in a town with 60% unemployment. So what do you do? Well, what Ken did was create the most iconic 100-mile mountain biking and trail running races in America. Fatty talks with him about how, and why, and what he'd do next. It's an inspiring episode with a man who will genuinely make you believe you are better than you think you are, and can do more than you think you ca...

This is Fatty's story about his fastest Leadville ever. For some reason (probably because he reacts strongly to trash-talk), he fixated on beating four-time Leadville Trail 100 champion Rebecca Rusch's time from her first win. You'll have to decide for yourself whether this is a tale of obsession, redemption, or something else much weirder.

Like most people, the first time Fatty rode the Leadville 100, he just wanted to finish. And like most people, after that he wanted more. Time after time he chased a sub-nine-hour finish, and time after time he missed.   Until his fifteenth year of racing the Leadville. This is Fatty's story of the year everything finally came together. 

Ask yourself: what would it take for you to call a race your best ever? Would you need to win? Set a personal record? Move up in your category's standings? That's what Fatty has always looked for, and this year — his first on a single speed — had none of those things. But it's still stands out as one of his favorite days on a bike. Enjoy this bonus episode!

Fatty and two of his best friends, Bob and Dug, each tell their story of racing the 1998 Leadville Trail 100. All of them had big plans, and not one of them hit their goal. Somehow, though, all of them had a pretty amazing experience (although Fatty probably should have gotten stitches afterward). Enjoy this bonus — i.e., not one of the weekly episodes of the show — story the next time you need a...

Way back in 1997 the Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race  was capped at 400 people — one fifth as many as today! — and all you needed to do to get in was mail in your registration. Fatty was there, and wrote up his story, now read for you twenty years later by Fatty himself. See if you can catch all the things he got wrong (the food he ate, the names of parts of the course, much more).