First of all Good Luck! I am planning to do it next year assuming I am lucky enough to get in and can get in shape for it. I don't have any specific recommendations for Leadville but highly recommend the book "The Mountain Biker's Training Bible" by Joe Friel. I am using it this year to develop a training plan. There's a lot of good info in the book but you have to do your homework. The book does go a bit into high altitude/long distance stuff as well as nutrition.
One alternative view I have read about (not trying to contradict an earlier post because I would tend to agree with that approach) about when to arrive at altitude - some suggest not getting there until the day of or day before the race. Stay at lower altitude as long as possible. Once you're at high altitude your fitness begins to erode, and even if you arrive there a week early and train while you are there, you won't be doing yourself any favors - just training with less oxygen. If you've always trained at lower altitude, better to train as much as you can at low altitude to maintain/increase your max VO2 as much as possible. Unless you can live and train at altitude for a long period of time, a week before the race won't do you any good. I can't speak to this at all from experience, just stuff I've read. And I am sure everyone's metabolism, fitness level, etc. are different.
Also suggest you watch (if you haven't already) the Race Across the Sky movie. I actually just got it on DVD and it's very good. Should at a minimum get you psyched about the race and also give you an idea of what it's like. It focuses more on the elite riders (Lance and Dave) and I wish it would have shown a bit more of the "regular" folks to give you more of a feel, but then it wouldn't be as exciting I guess. There is some of that in the movie. I could potentially loan it to you if you want to watch it. Let me know.
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Originally Posted by Honestcox
