Captain Hog

500+ calories per hour. Heading into the Leadville 100, I wanted to chase Matt Carpenter’s legendary time of 15:42. That presented an obvious problem—Matt is a GOAT, who was better than I could dream of being. How can you compete with someone whose VO2 max was one of the highest ever recorded, and who trained with methodical focus in a way that was ahead of his time? Answer: I’d need to disrespect the distance by pushing harder. My plan was to run every step of the course, as close to aerobic threshold as I could, going into Zone 3 when I had to on climbs. To do that for 15.5 hours, I’d have to slurp carbs like my life depended on it, since my glycogen burn rate would be high. Here was the plan for every 2.5 or so hours based on training and the science showing that it’s possible to push up to 120 grams of carbs per hour at higher efforts: * Hour 1: Science in Sport Beta Fuel gel (40g carbs), another Beta Fuel, Precision Fuel and Hydration 100 mg caffeine gel (30g carbs) * 30 min break from gels * Hour 2: Beta Fuel, Beta Fuel, Precision gel without caffeine I supplemented that with sports drink in every bottle, mixed with Precision electrolytes, aiming for 24-36 ounces of fluid per hour. Doing the math, depending on aid station Skratch concentration, some hours I would consume closer to 140g carbs/hr. I didn’t take in anything other than Precision, Skratch, and Science in Sport (not even plain water). I did that for 15:26, a 16-minute record ahead of my heroes who ran Leadville before me. I may not have GOAT talent, but perhaps I’m a GOAT at slurping. This approach pushed the limits of our understanding of human physiology. But to do something I have never done, I knew I’d have to try something that hasn’t been done. If I woke up tomorrow and found out this was all a dream, I’d be ok with that. It was a good dream.  But I think I can say with confidence that despite all of my doubts, I’m not living through some sort of wildly real hallucination. You know how I know? The post-100 gel burps are real. Forget pinching, the hottest way to evaluate whether you’re dreaming is belching. History comes with an aftertaste 🙌 Love you all 🧡 BELIEVE!!!!