I've had this discussion with three people in the last week, so I think it's worth comment. The question is, "Why are some people really, really good at mountain biking and clearing technical climbs as well as descents; but when you get those people on a road bike climbing a steady climb like Rist, they don't do so well?"

First, a little about the Rist Canyon climb, via road bike. On yesterday's group road ride, we decided to do "the Rist loop". This is a road ride that loops from Loveland to Ft. Collins, up Rist Canyon, down "the backside of Rist", then descending via the Buckhorn road and back to Loveland. This is about 59 miles with a hill rating of 68.6 ft/mi. The lowish ride rating is somewhat deceptive because the bulk of the climbing comes within 12 miles where the road climbs from 5100ft to 8000ft, giving this particular section of the ride a rating of 242ft/mi.

Before I head into the training tips part of the column, I need to write a few words about some cool features of the ride. The first note is that Jonathan Zeif showed up for the ride and I hadn't seen him in about a year. One item that makes Jonathan famous in certain circles is that his name is the first one on the plaque that notes winners of the Leadman competition. I asked Jonathan what made him enter the first Leadman event and he said it was such a good deal, he couldn't turn it down. For only $10 more, he could be entered in five events rather than just two (the Leadville 100-mile mountain bike ride and the Leadville 100-mile run). Ah yes, a bargain indeed. Congrats Jonathan, you are a Leadman.

Secondly, we had a chance to see the longboarders coming down the hill again. I greeted Joel and when I shook his hand, I noticed he had about ¼-inch plate of plastic glued to his glove. I inquired about the glove and other questions I had from the previous week. I learned it that it takes four right Vans shoes (ie brakes) per month of longboarding. Predrifting and sliding are ways to slow down as well. From Joel Putrah:

There are other methods to burn speed such as slides and predrifts. Predrifting is much like car racing where you start to drift before a corner so you can burn off speed to grip through the apex of the corner. Sliding is also a way to slow down or through an emergency stop. Having pucks on our hands you can throw the board into a "pendulum" slide where you can slow down significantly or slow if need be.

Back to the training question posed earlier. Cleaning short, relatively short, technical pops on the mountain bike is a high-power, technique move. These high bursts of power are usually followed by a lot of recovery. Think of it as training for sprint events on the track, on the velodrome or in the pool. The strength and metabolic requirements of high-power events are different than those of an endurance event.

The long, steady climb at Rist takes somewhere around an hour, depending on where you start and stop your clock. This hour-long effort, at a high speed, takes muscular-endurance near lactate threshold. Because of the hill gradient, it also takes more power output than a time trial on the flats would take. This effort is more like running a distance from 10k to 10 miles (depending on your ability), or riding a time-trial effort near the 40k mark.

If someone is very good at cleaning short power climbs on the mountain bike, and not so good at long, sustained climbs on the road or mountain bike, I suspect it is because they don't train the muscular-endurance, near threshold system.

A handful of people are relatively good at both ends of the spectrum (high power and high muscular-endurance) and those people can be found doing workouts or races that stress both systems. The people that tend to be a one-trick pony probably don't do workouts or races that would improve their "weakness".

Now, a weakness doesn't really matter if it doesn't limit your performance capabilities in the events you choose to, or love to, do. On the other hand, if your event performance is limited by a feature you hate to train, you need to do the very workouts you hate in order to improve.

Friday night I watched some of the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics. What I saw was fantastic, I think the Chinese organizers did a really nice job.

While I wanted to watch all of the ceremonies, I needed to get some sleep. I knew a 4:45 am wake-up call would be the start of a long day on Saturday at the Leadville 100 Mountain Bike Race.

I posted that Lance Armstrong did indeed show up to the pre-race meeting. He was discounting his race ability, compared to five-time champion Dave Wiens. Dave, however, knew better than to think Lance would do anything other than try to win.

Meanwhile, on the women's side of the race, very few people knew that Susan Williams was racing. Regular blog readers knew Susan was racing, but not many others did. When we were driving up to pre-ride the course, Susan asked what my time goal was and I told her 10:30. She said that was her time goal too, on the advice of someone that knew her.

"No Susan, you will go faster than 10:30," I told her.

She asked if she could line up with me at the start line and I told her, "Of course, you're welcome to start with me...but you ride your own race and do not pace off of me."

I told my husband after the pre-ride that Susan is well-capable of a sub-9 finish; but I don't know how she'll ride this year after running around 30 miles in a 24-hour relay the week before the Leadville event.

The rain the day before the race put the course in perfect condition. Race morning was cool and overcast, not too cold. Perfect!

Below are shots of people outbound at Twin Lakes, getting ready for the Columbine climb...

Roy Gatesman (441)

Todd Kornfield (his fiancé Jen is crewing)

More shots home bound after Columbine Mine....

Del, my husband and great race support with me

Scott Ellis

The short story is most everyone had a good race. Two guys that missed the cut-off last year, got their shiny buckles this year. They both had plenty of time to spare.

Dennis Andersen

Eric Houck

As most of you know by now, Dave Wiens was the first place male. At the awards ceremony, Lance gave a really nice speech and complimented race organizers as well as Dave. "Not many guys can ride me off of their wheel, but this guy did," Lance said. Lance continued to say something else complimentary about Dave, but I don't recall his exact words.

The women's champion was Susan Williams. Did she race faster than 10:30? Ah, yeah...try an 8:40. I guess running more than a marathon the week before the race isn't a bad idea after all.

Below is a shot of Susan Williams and her two girls, Dave Wiens, his wife Susan (DeMatti) and their three boys.

Several of my buddies got more good photos, but I don't have them yet. If you're a subscriber to the blog, you will be notified when new photos are posted to this blog or to a new one.

As for my race, I did make my 10:30 goal with a bit of time to spare at 10:27. I could have lived without an hour of rain near the end of the race, but given the rest of the day's weather, I won't complain.

My second goal was to get on the podium to score one of those nifty mining pans. I managed to do that as well.

I can't say/write enough about the incredible support I received during the race. The crowd support was fantastic. At the base of Columbine Mine there were two little girls standing on the edge of the road screaming, "Girl power!!! You rock!!!" That was really cool.

Lots of people got me to smile with their encouraging words. It's nice to smile during a ride like Leadville.

I rode with some really terrific guys that helped me achieve my race goals. I told several of you I owe you a beer post-race and I'm more than willing to pay on that promise. Seriously, you guys were awesome.

I think people can post photos in the comment section. Give it a shot. If you can't send me your photos and I'll post them in the blog.

Thanks to Ken and Merilee for another great race.

Postscript:

Cool video from Superhuman Magazine  - thanks for the heads-up, Scott