We sat down with pro cyclist and PEARL iZUMi athlete Hannah Shell to talk racing, training, Unbound Gravel, the Lifetime Grand Prix, and her best advice for surviving an endurance race. Read on to learn more about Hannah, and pick up a few tricks for your next big ride.
Pearl iZUMi:
So - how's training going?
Hannah Shell:
It's pretty much non-existent right now.
Pi: Ha! Say more.
HS:
So I’m kind of restructuring everything. I've got a new coach, that's probably the biggest thing. And I even have a different coach than I had for the first few months of the year. What I'm trying to do right now is focus less on volume, and more on top end and also on my technical skills. I'd been doing like 20-22 hours a week of training, and it's just really hard to fit any skills practice in around that much volume. So one of my big goals for this year was to have more focus-specific training, and then have more time to go work on the things that I need to get better at on both the gravel and mountain bike. And my first coach wasn't really aligned with that. So that was the plan for coming into this year, and yet I still managed to overtrain. So I'm restructuring everything now, and I've been resting for about three weeks, just doing endurance rides, and I'm hoping that less volume, more focus on skills, and then more focus on top end will address some issues that I had last year.
Pi:
A lot of people probably don't realize that so many things have to go right on race day. And the person who wins is the person who managed to sleep well and didn't have any mechanicals, and got into a good position right off the start. So much of it is luck and timing, not just preparation.
HS:
Yeah - and I think there’s a certain degree of people trying to figure out how to train for these events - I don't necessarily think someone like me needs to be doing as much volume. I know I can ride at tempo for ten hours, and I think in fact, that volume might be hurting me. Just looking at the power that I could produce when I was a crit racer, compared to where I am now. So I think there is a lot of learning going on, because this is so new, and so much of it is figuring out the right equipment, and mostly I feel like my setup is really dialed, but there are certain things that are totally unavoidable. Like if you hit this rock, it's gonna find your tire. And then it's how fast can you get back in the race.
Pi:
It seems like there are places where you just have to go for it and hope for the best.
HS:
Yeah, and you can have issues that are fine. Like if you have a small puncture on the surface of your tire that you can patch really quickly and keep going, that's not going to have any lasting impact on your race. But if something happens that’s not fixable - that kind of stuff just really sucks.
Pi:
I read all of your post race captions about (the Fuego XL at) Sea Otter and I think a lot of people don't understand how hard that race is. How do you feel about how you did? And how do you finish something like that and then immediately start focusing on the next thing?
HS:
So for Sea Otter, I was actually really happy with my skills - this was major progress for me as someone who legit could not turn a mountain bike at this time last year. And even after I crashed, I was still catching riders on the descents instead of on uphill. So coming away from that, I thought it was really positive for me. Obviously crashing is a sign that I have more work to do, but I'm happy to see progress. And I think anytime you race you have to look at what when wrong, what went right, and ask yourself, if it was a bad race, was it a one-off? Or is this a systemic problem? And then what needs to change.
Pi:
How are you feeling going into Unbound?
HS:
I have no idea what to expect. I mean, I put in so much work at the beginning of this year, and I was feeling really good but just overdid it. So now that I'm undoing that, I'm in a weird position, because I could come back and be really fit. I could also just still feel really terrible. I’ve never taken this much time off in the middle of the season before. And so I have no idea. It's a really interesting event to train for. I don't think that I have it figured out yet. In fact, I don't know that many people do, because it's just so new. Like it's it's not been very long that elite athletes have been trying to win these long races. And then turn around and keep racing shorter events after it. So I don't know. We'll see.
Pi: Is your background in endurance?
HS:
I raced road from 2016 to 2020. And then I switched to gravel. Like obviously 2020 was not a season that really happened, so gravel in 2021. I raced primarily crits and I loved it until I didn't. The pressure of road racing is so different. Because, particularly with the teams that I was on, it's very expected that the team wins. When you're not winning, it feels terrible. I started to feel like it wasn’t returning as much value, and then I started dabbling in gravel. And what I love about gravel is there is so much satisfaction in just reaching the finish line.
Pi:
That’s what we love about gravel, that you can just do it for your own reasons, and it's rewarding in that way. A lot of other disciplines aren't as accessible to so many skill sets, and it's such an experience, no matter why you're out there, what you're trying to accomplish. Speaking of that - do you have any tips for people that are new to racing gravel? Or who want to try Unbound?
HS:
Being able to eat enough and effectively at Unbound is different than other races. Fueling it is a big challenge, and having your hydration strategy and your aid station strategy - it takes a lot of work and pre-planning. I've seen a lot of, even I don't know if I guess they call them professionals now? but I've seen people just literally die at the end of that race from being underfueled. So I think that's the one biggest piece of advice. Eat!
The other piece of advice I would have is for anyone that's trying to race that event is that the race doesn't end when the group is broken up, particularly for women, because a lot of times I think, you don't see any other women, you can easily forget that there are other women out there. But you never know how far ahead they are. And the two years that I've done it, I've caught like 10 women in the last half of the race, just from keeping my nutrition dialed and continuing to ride at a hard pace. And it's surprising how much progress you can make even when the group breaks up. You can move up a lot. So, again, eat!
Pi:
What are you most excited about this season?
HS:
I think probably what I'm most excited for is Gravel Worlds in August. I'm hoping that with the kind of changes that I'm making now, I'll be in a really good position to try to win that race. And I just love the organizers. I love the kind of culture around the people that attend. It's just, it's a really cool event.
Pi:
Can you say a little bit more about that? For people who don't know, why that one's different?
HS:
One of the primary reasons it's different is that these are guys that were doing gravel before it was popular, and they have this dedication to making sure that gravel stays inclusive, that no participant feels othered. The organizers are at the finish line the entire day, celebrating with champagne and dancing and making sure that every single rider over the line is celebrated. And that's the kind of attitude that brought me to gravel in the first place. I love that. They love it. They're preserving it.
Pi:
What about the Leadville 100 MTB - any tips there?
HS:
The big thing with Leadville is to figure out how you feel at that altitude. You can’t physically put out the same amount of power at 10,000’ as you can at 5000’. Can you sleep at that altitude? And how fast can you get down after the race, because you’re going to feel better after and recover faster if you can get to a lower elevation.
But the best thing about Leadville, and what I remember from all these races, is once you get to the corral, and the race starts, the nerves are going to go away. And all you can think is “this is so cool.”
Keep up with Hannah at @hannahgshell on Instagram for lots of adventures, training advice, and snack tips. 👌
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