This year, ultrarunner Hillary Allen is tackling her fifth Unbound. What started as a post-injury rehab project has evolved into a mixed-discipline journey. In the last few years, Hillary has broken the mold of what's expected of professional athletes.
As we approach the king of gravel, Hillary joined us for a brief breakdown of her training, the experience of Unbound over the years, and what she’s learned from embracing the dual-sport athlete life.
It's been a “cool progression”.
Hillary: I started cycling about four and a half years ago from a running injury just for fun because it was a way to explore and just not lament the fact that I couldn't run, [plus] you could go pretty far, which is awesome. But I was super uncomfortable on the bike. I never grew up really riding bikes. I was always walking or running around and playing ball sports. So last year I was forced actually to get pretty serious with cycling and use it to challenge myself.
By that, she means she continued to gain fitness and even began racing on the bike. Last year, Hillary was able to start in the elite wave for Unbound and even raced her way into the elite crowd for Leadville 100 later in August… which was her first mountain bike race.
I had won a couple of bike races last year, which was really cool because I wouldn't describe myself as a cyclist, or really that I even know what the hell I'm doing on a bike. It's really hard and race tactics are insane – they're way different than running. I'm used to just keeping a steady pace for forever and bike racing is not like that.
It's been really cool to challenge myself as an athlete. So I've still kind of been carrying that on this season by doing a lot of [cycling]. My weekly training schedule is mixed with a lot of bike intensity and running and then long rides and adventures. This whole season I've set up a series. It's like my version of a Grand Slam ultra year combining ultra races on a bike and then running [ultras].
Q: Now that you've done this for a few years, are you seeing any crossover benefit to –or from– Ultras with this type of racing and training on the bike?
With any sport specificity, if you're going to be doing a bike race, you need to be riding. I noticed there was a huge [increase] in not only my technical skills, but also my efficiency on a bike just because I spent more time on it. That's the same thing with running. If I'm going to be doing a running race, I need to spend a lot of time running.
I do think the endurance, my ability to be able to just be a diesel engine for days or long periods at a time, has [helped me on the bike]. I just recently did a 50-mile race and noticed my legs were not sore after it. I think it is just because I'm so well-trained from a cardiovascular standpoint.
So [the blend] is building my aerobic engine and my base. I can go for a five-hour run one day and the next day I can get on the bike and go for equally as long, if not more. I think that can break the body down if I was doing back-to-back runs like that, so I think it's kind of a superpower that I've discovered to be able to keep training.
The other thing is just from incorporating more mountain biking and more climbing, I love climbing on a bike and it just translates so well to running. It's great for building strength and power and that's the biggest thing that can translate to mountain running.
Not only does Hillary benefit from the crossover from a physical perspective, but I’ve got to imagine that some mental aspects translate. With some of these longer mountain bike and gravel races that push well over 7, 8, 9 hours or more (ie. Unbound), one of the biggest limiters to performance is the mind.
Honestly, the hardest part of a race for me is the first one to three hours. I remember at Leadville 100 it hit the three-hour mark and I was like, “I'm not really having fun”. Then we hit this big climb and then was like, “Oh, okay, I'm starting to feel better”.
I'm such an alter-athlete. It's by hour nine that I'm ready to keep going for nine more.
Q: After four years of coming to Unbound now, have your expectations or goals with it evolved?
Last year, I was pretty scared to start with the elite women and I ended up finishing ~20th. So pretty good for my standards when it's a really competitive race. My goal is always just to finish. It's going to be a hard day out.
Being able to start in the elite corral again and push myself to hopefully another top-20 finish would be amazing. I've started another running-specific block, so honestly, Unbound is now taking a backseat to some of my bigger goals that are happening later in June, but I'm still using it as a long, hard training day.
A long, hard training day..?
Anything can happen out there. It's like an eating and enduring contest and I'm usually pretty good at that when shit hits the fan of just being like, “Alright, let's pivot and just keep going.”
Q: Comparatively to ultra races, what's your recovery experience from Unbound usually like?
As she begins, I can tell that she doesn’t want to come off sounding pretentious...but we won’t fault her for that.
Last year at Unbound was the first year I was actually sore from a bike race. I know this sounds so awful, but running is really hard on your muscles and your joints. So for me, at hour 10 of an ultra on a bike race vs hour 10 at a running race, a bike race feels like a massage. It just feels different.
Because I've been doing a lot of these longer rides followed by runs or other things, my body's gotten used to it. But still, if it's 12 to 14 hours on a bike, you're still going to be pretty sore.
To put it in perspective, I'm a pretty high-volume training athlete. So if I am putting in 25 to 30 hours a week on average, and during a race week I do a 14-hour Unbound, it’s actually adding up to be similar to either a 25 or even a 30-hour training week if I don't completely taper. To me, it's a pretty average week.
Let’s dig into fueling. How has she adapted to fueling across disciplines?
Before I was still like, “How do I eat for this long? Or take my hands off the handlebars”? Especially with the movement towards high-carb and having more calories per hour, I’ve realized I respond really well to that on a bike.
Especially for something as long as Unbound, mixing some gels, some high-carb gels, and some real food [is important]. I love the Fraiche cookies. Those are awesome. I'll probably make my own little rice cakes, but I'm kind of mixing it up with some new things. I like the Precision Fuel and Hydration Chews and the Maurten Gels. Even though I think I can get away with eating more real food in a bike race, just because there's not the jostling there is with running, it's still really important to keep your blood sugar higher on the bike.
Q: This year, what are your expectations for –and plans post– Unbound in the bigger picture?
It’s a special year for me because it's going to be my fifth Unbound. Every year it's a long grueling race. I started my first Unbound as a northbound year, which is notoriously more technical and bigger gravel and harder, so it's only fitting that now it's another northbound year.
I just really want to get the thousand-mile mark (5 x Unbounds). I think it's a really cool milestone to get. So overall, I would just like to have a good race, eat well, fuel well, and use it as a good endurance day out there… and hopefully my tires stay together. I'm just so happy to be in the elite corral and see how well I can finish. It'd be nice to have a PR since I feel more comfortable on the bike now, but not doing anything silly to compromise the other races that I have.
My biggest next goal is going to be La Sportiva Lavaredo Ultra Trail. It's an 80k running race in the Dolomites at the end of June.
Unreal. Follow Hillary Allen on the socials and check in on The Feed | Insider to keep up with her throughout the season…if you can.
