Plan Builder: The Leadville 100

The Leadville 100 is a long, hard day in the saddle. On race day, you should have complete confidence in all the hard work you put in to get there. Trust your training plan and all the workouts that lead up to the start line by making a custom training plan with Plan Builder. 

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What is Plan Builder?

Plan Builder is an automated training plan creator that builds custom training plans. Using your current training load, experience with interval training, the date of your priority event, and race discipline, Plan Builder creates a training plan designed to bring you to peak fitness for your goal event. You can further customize your training by choosing which days you’d like to take outdoors, and when you’d like to integrate additional races into your training plan.

How Will Plan Builder Prepare me for the Leadville 100?

To establish and reinforce the endurance needed for The Leadville 100, your plan will be composed of workouts that train the energy systems used in long-distance events. Your training plan will maximize the efficiency of your hard work with workouts that target specific energy systems. By completing targeted and time-efficient workouts, you can strengthen the appropriate energy systems while avoiding the massive fatigue that comes with extremely long rides.

To expand on your preparation for Leadville, you can take any TrainerRoad workouts outside using your Garmin, Hammerhead, or Wahoo head unit. While it’s not necessary to replicate any 10-hour rides, you can learn a lot by spending 2-3 hours in similar race day circumstances outside.

Leadville 100 Training Plan Examples

So what might a Leadville 100 training plan look like? Every athlete has unique needs and experience. Plan Builder takes care of the details and creates a plan just for you. Depending on your circumstances, your training plan could look several different ways.

Here are a few examples of what a training plan for Leadville 100 might look like.

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Shane is new to interval training and is just about to start a structured training plan. He’s going into structured training riding an average of six hours per week.

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Blake has some experience with interval training and began structured training two months ago. On average he’s been training seven hours each week. Because he started training two months ago, he can backdate his plan to the start of his training progression. Doing this includes all of his completed workouts.

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Kortney is a seasoned athlete with years of experience doing structured intervals. On average, she’s been training ten hours per week. She won’t be starting a structured training plan until the beginning of April. Because she is starting in April, her plan is 20 weeks long. 

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After Plan Builder outlines your progression, you can further customize your training plan before you add it to your TrainerRoad Calendar.

You can choose which days you’d like to do your workouts. Also, you can choose any days to mark workouts as outdoor workouts. As you progress through your training plan, you can make adjustments along the way to your training volume and schedule, so that your preparation for Leadville is based on your changing needs. 

FAQ’s

Can I train for The Leadville 100 with a low volume training plan?

Absolutely! If Plan Builder recommends a low-volume training plan, this is probably the best option for you. Plan Builder recommends the training volume that will be most effective for you and your time based on your current training load. You can effectively train for an ultra-distance event with a low-volume training plan as long as the weekly TSS is challenging enough to promote adaptation.

If you reach a point in your training plan where you feel like you can successfully handle higher weekly training stress, you can increase the volume of your plan.

Alternatively, you can train with a low volume training plan and tack on additional riding outdoors. In this scenario, the training plan serves as the high-quality structured portion of your overall time on the bike. 

How can I integrate outdoor riding into my training plan?

You can learn a lot from spending a couple of hours each week on the mountain bike. Spending time on the MTB to sharpen your technical skills and experiment with nutrition can be super helpful. With that said, you can integrate as much or as little outdoor riding as you’d like with TrainerRoad Outside Workouts.

If you’d like to integrate MTB rides into your weekly training schedule you can check out MTB Outside Workouts: How to Nail Your Planning and Training. 

Do I need to complete any ultra-distance workouts before Leadville?

You don’t need to complete a ton of super long training rides to successfully prepare for the Leadville 100. By spending shorter durations of time training the energy systems used in an ultra-distance event, you train more effectively without breaking your body down in extra long training rides. 

With that said, it’s definitely beneficial to spend time on the mountain bike working on you bike handling and testing out different nutrition strategies. If you have time to integrate a couple hours of mountain biking into your schedule when it’s convenient, try and do so.

Coaching Tips and Resources

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