What It Takes to Go Sub-7 at The Leadville 100 MTB | Sub-7 Leadville Episode 1 | Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast 574
Ask a Cycling Coach Podcast - Presented by TrainerRoad
TrainerRoad
4.9 • 4.6K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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// TOPICS COVERED
(00:00:00) Sub-7 Leadville 100 Plan
(00:01:30) Training Plan + FTP Progress
(00:09:54) Weight Loss + Nutrition Strategy
(00:16:39) Leadville Gear + Aero Upgrades
(00:22:25) Leadville Charity Fundraiser
Coach Jonathan is chasing a sub-7-hour Leadville 100 MTB finish and shares his Week 4 training update using TrainerRoad. He breaks down how he’s building FTP from 289 to 299 watts while dropping weight from 156 to 154 lbs, with the long-term goal of ~320w and ~147 lbs. You’ll hear his weekly structure of sweet spot, over-unders, and endurance volume, how AI FTP Detection keeps workouts “appropriately difficult,” and the nutrition plan behind it: a small ~250-calorie deficit, 90g carbs/hour during rides, and consistent post-workout recovery to avoid under-fueling. He also covers Leadville race strategy and gear upgrades—aero positioning, skinsuit options, helmet and pedal changes, and tire testing—plus his charity fundraising for the Life Time Foundation.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I have a super lofty goal of going sub seven at the Leadville 100. That's finishing the Leadville 100 mountain bike race in under seven hours. Before when I've done it, I did it in 814 and then 743. So this is a huge cut. I'm going to walk you through everything that I'm doing all throughout the year leading up to Leadville, show you my training, show you what I'm doing on nutrition with equipment, strategy, all that stuff to try to get there at sub seven. |
| 0:23.2 | My name's Coach Jonathan Lee. |
| 0:24.6 | This is the Ask a Cycling Coach podcast, a special episode of it where we're just going to dive into this topic specifically. |
| 0:30.5 | This is week four of training to go sub seven at Leadville. |
| 0:33.3 | Four weeks ago, I started at 289 watts for my FTP and 156 pounds or 4.1 watts per kilogram. |
| 0:41.3 | To go sub seven, I'll likely need to be somewhere around 320 watts and around 147-ish pounds. |
| 0:47.9 | So that's about 4.8 watts per kilogram. I've got a long way to go. That would be a 31 watt |
| 0:53.9 | FTP increase and then a nine |
| 0:55.3 | pound loss. So I am making good progress so far. After four weeks of training, I'm at a 299 FTP and my |
| 1:01.8 | weight is at 154 pounds flat as of this morning. So in other words, that's right around there about |
| 1:08.7 | four point, I think I'm like 4.2 something watts per kilogram. So it's good, but every watt gained now and then every pound loss just gets harder to do. So it's kind of like beginner gains phase. So here's what I've done so far to get that increase. We're going to go through it. We're going to look at my training calendar. And then let's look at what I have to do moving ahead to. |
| 1:29.5 | So right now we're looking at my training calendar. |
| 1:31.8 | This is on Trainer Road. |
| 1:33.3 | And I started trainings. |
| 1:34.8 | You can see I was around 282 watts from my FTP. |
| 1:38.1 | Then I went through an AIFTP detection reassessed after some spotty training, as you can see here. |
| 1:43.8 | And on the 19th of January |
| 1:45.5 | uh i had an ftp of 289 watts and this is when i was 156 pounds as well at that point so |
| 1:53.4 | uh the training schedule that i had when i started out here i have like sundays or mandatory rest |
| 1:59.6 | days for me so on mond, I got one hour sweet spot |
| 2:02.6 | intervals and train road built this out for me. It just looked at what I've done recently and gave |
| 2:06.2 | this to me. So I had one hour sweet spot intervals on Monday, Tuesday rest, Wednesday, one |
... |
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