Heather Jackson is preparing for the 350-mile Unbound XL gravel cycling event after finishing fourth at the 2026 Cocodona 250 Mile. She won Unbound XL last year and set a course record. She plans to follow Unbound XL with the 2,745-mile Tour Divide self-supported bikepacking race across western Canada and the western United States. Two months later, she will compete in UTMB. Jackson aims to race major events across 200-mile ultrarunning, gravel cycling, bikepacking, and mountain ultrarunning. She chooses these races to see how she stacks up against the best. Her approach differs from predictable ultrarunning schedules, and she continues to excel in both trail running and gravel bike racing without abandoning either.
"Only three weeks after finishing in fourth at the 2026 Cocodona 250 Mile, American Heather Jackson is gearing up for a completely different event: the 350-mile Unbound XL gravel cycling event. It's a race she won with a course record last year. She's planning on following that up a couple of weeks later with the 2,745-mile Tour Divide self-supported bikepacking race stretching north to south across western Canada and the western United States. And two months after that? UTMB."
"Completing just one of these events would be enough for most athletes, but Jackson is trying to fit all of them into one season. Why these races? Between Cocodona 250 Mile, Unbound XL, Tour Divide, and UTMB, Jackson has chosen the Super Bowl equivalents in 200 milers, gravel cycling, bikepacking, and mountain ultrarunning. Jackson explains, "I am always intrigued by racing the big races where the best are there, and seeing, 'Ok, this is where I stack up.'""
"In an ultrarunning world where most top athletes follow reasonably predictable schedules leading up to their main race of the year, Jackson is choosing to do the exact opposite. With a seventh-place finish at the 2024 Western States 100 and fifth at the 2024 CCC on her resume, Jackson can be considered in the upper echelons of professional runners, yet in many aspects of her approach, training, and race preparation, she couldn't be more different."
"Jackson is perhaps best known in the ultrarunning world as an athlete who also excels at gravel bike racing, and she has no intention of abandoning one sport in order to specialize in the other. As a professional triathlete for 15 years with four top-five finishes at the Ironman World Championships, she's done the full-focus thing, she's optimized her preparation for the one big dance of the year, she's committed a full year of training to a"
Read at iRunFar
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]