Anton Krupicka - Training in Leadville, Colorado

I really like training in Leadville this is the third summer that I've spent kind of based in Leadville area you live at 10,000 feet sleep spend your days at 10,000 feet and then from here you can run up to 14,000 feet really easily there's all the 49ers in the salaah range and and this summer especially I've really been focusing on getting them high as possible as often as possible but Leadville itself people always kind of ask me or like it's like oh you could be training in any mountain town you know in the state why do you why do you choose Leadville I guess one is I just have a history of the town I was where I do my first alter of the level hundred back in 206 but also it's not overrun by the ski industry or tourism or anything like that really it's it's there's a lot more of a real feel to it and you know it's quirky that way it's there's no there's no condos and and not a lot of amenities but this is everything you need nothing more and it's close to the Front Range - it's only a two-hour drive back down the boulder and no place else is at 10,000 feet which is something I really like training sleeping high-level Colorado is this interesting place I was booming I don't know 50 60 years ago something like that and then the eighties and went Boston and so it kind of got very economically depressed and this really flamboyant sort of charismatic dude Ken Klauber was like we need to do something to get the economy going here so in 1983 he came up with the idea of doing a hundred mile race there and I think originally they wanted to go actually from Leadville to Aspen or something which would have been awesome but even then maybe they were having issues with the permitting or something so it ended up just being out and back to this old mining town Winfield 50 miles out 50 miles back and it's funny you know back in the 80s there's a little different like 100-mile racing was still so new because Leadville was the second one you know western states was the 74 that they didn't really care if I don't know 15 miles if it was on road or something you know like it's just like where race we're running a hundred miles like the easier the better something rather than like looking for the aesthetic lines in the mountains that kind of thing the course itself isn't as I don't know daunting or gnarly as something like for say hard rock or something like that but it's cool because it's such a classic race and it's been around for so long you do go over hope pass twice which is a legit mountain pass twelve thousand six hundred feet and and it is the whole thing is above 10,000 feet you drop Twin Lakes just duck under for a few minutes basically but uh so it's still a really big challenge especially because of the altitude but uh yeah in terms of the racecourse it's I'm happy to see it stay the way it is because it's been around for so long and you can kind of test yourself against standards that go back almost thirty years now this goes back 200 mile races being unpredictable and full of so many variables and I went even with the wrong attitude in 2009 sort of I don't want to say arrogant but focused on the wrong thing you know trying to run really fast and it is still 100 miles and it's still a really long day and and if you aren't willing to kind of adjust your expectations along the way then you're gonna get crushed mentally because things are gonna go bad at some point um I mean I was doing some issues i Giardia and that sort of thing but I could have finished that day if I'd just been the right mental space but I was just focused on trying to run fast and then 2010 I just it was just stupid you get to a point where you know calories stop wanting to go in and once you can't eat you pass out like I did and I felt like that was you know that it was in my control that I could have kept eating or should have kept eating but once you kind of like subconsciously make the decision not to do that I I couldn't continue anymore like it was I needed to get calories and me quickly and so had to get an IV and all this stuff but um yeah it was uh so I dropped out oh nine and twenty ten and that's a hugely motivating factor for me to go back like there's no way I could never just I could ever end my time in Leadville with two DNFs you know it's just silly like this year I mean oh I'm willing to walk in like a 28 hour finish it just doesn't matter like I need to at least finish the race this year you know this summer I've really just been focusing on being in the high mountains as much as possible the last time I did the race in 2010 I was living in Boulder that summer and I didn't go into the race acclimated enough for sure and I think that's why I kind of lost my stomach the second half and ended up dropping eventually so this year I'm gonna be extremely acclimated which I think will help a lot in terms of maintaining the fast pace and the flat stuff and also just being able to eat a lot of calories all day long which is key and honor my race but beyond that you know last night I did kind of my first flat run gosh in months you know and that was very much with the idea of well I'm gonna be racing level it's good to have the legs used to just you know doing like seven eight minute miles in the flat instead of eighteen minute miles up the side of a cliff face or something you know we just not ever doing a lot more of lately this goes back to kind of intuitive like less scientific side of me I don't do anything specific for the race you know someone like Nick Clark he's probably on some speed work to get ready for Leadville and I don't enjoy winning enough in order to do that I guess I'd much rather go wrap a 14 or anymore and then do my repeats you know on the track in the park or something so we'll see how it shakes out but I'm pretty confident you

Channel: BoulderVideo

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Keywords: Anton Krupicka, running, ultra, marathon, ultra marathon, ultra running, ultra runner, New Balance, Tony Krupicka, Riding the Wind, race, Racing, trail running, trails, trail runner, Boulder, Colorado, Green Mountain, Flatirons, endurance, endurance sports

Id: xOwh98VzCGI

Length: 6min 8sec (368 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 19 2018