Leadville 100 is 15 weeks away according to my TrainingPeaks app. The previous 15 have flown by and I’ve stuck with it since signing up for the plan.

The dashboard shows me the B and C races I chose for the year. All of them canceled: CSU Cobb Lake Road Race, Buff Gold Road Race, Front Range Classic Road Race, Koppenberg, Ridgeline Rampage, Battle the Bear, Superior Morgul Road Race, and the Rattler’s been postponed.

Yesterday, The Leadville Series posted on their social media channels and sent out an email:

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An update on our June Leadville Race Series events: Our team has been working so hard to make the 2020 season a great one, despite the unknown each day brings, and today we’d like to share an update on our June events, as well as the status of our remaining events this summer. As a small community, Leadville typically welcomes the Race Series participants with open arms. Given the uncertainty and severity of the COVID-19 situation taking its toll on the Leadville community, city and county officials have deemed it unsafe to permit events through the month of June. We will continue to keep you posted on the status of the remaining events, and are hopeful we can see you in July and August. Read our FAQ’s at the link in our bio.

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With their June races canceled and August a mere two months after that, it’s hard to believe Leadville 100 MTB will happen. It’s a small community and to have people fly in from all over the world seems like too big of a burden on them.

I also planned to race the Leadville Stage Race to secure a better starting position for LT100. That’s at the end of July/beginning of August. Who knows at this point. All we can do is stay the course. 

Today’s workout is sub-threshold intervals (6×10). 2.5 hours long. If I didn’t have these workouts, I’d feel lost. What would I be training for? It sounds silly because it is. My husband said, “You can just ride for fun.”

It’s been four years since I didn’t just ride. Every ride I’ve done since starting to race has had an objective. Even thinking about “just riding” puts me on edge. It puts me on edge because I like plans. I like following things. Maybe not rules because let’s face it, I’m a natural dissenter, but plans, schedules — I like those.

I enjoy training. I don’t know if I’d call it “fun” but being on my bike is always enjoyable whether that’s aimlessly wandering through the woods on my mountain bike or a structured workout on my trainer as I watch people walk by the window, pulled by their dogs. The bike brings us happiness, peace, tranquility, and strength.

It makes me think about the first time Jared asked me to ride bikes with him. I was 24 or so and my only point of reference for cycling was my Uncle Don. The classic middle-aged white male with a greying goatee, worn-out skin, and a gut that hung over his Wrangler jeans. I never saw him in lycra and I actually never saw him on a bike but I remember the stories he’d tell us at Thanksgiving.

When he told us he rode 50 miles that day, I didn’t believe him. Driving 50 miles tired me out let alone doing that on a bike.

I borrowed my cousin’s old mountain bike, the one she’d outgrown and had been collecting dust over the years. I dusted it off with my borrowed cycling gloves from Jared. I also had to borrow his blue Bell helmet because I owned zero cycling gear. For several months, I donned workout clothes on the bike, refusing to buy a pair of cycling shorts.

As soon as I bought my first off-brand pair from Sports Authority (R.I.P), there was no turning back. I fell in love with cycling. The accomplishment that comes with it was more deeply fulfilling than any other fitness endeavor.

And during these crazy-ass times where we’re told one thing and contradicted by another, it’s the bike that keeps me level. It’s the bike I can turn to for peace. That means that even if the Leadville Stage Race gets canceled and then the Leadville 100 MTB follows suit, I’ll still have my bike. I can focus on improving my mountain bike skills just like I worked on getting comfortable on my first road bike in the drops seven years ago.

I’m going to continue to train as if Leadville 100 is still on. If it gets canceled, I’ll go back to riding out of curiosity. Asking myself, “Can I climb that?” And answering, “Let’s try anyway.” 

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