My shortest climb took 69 reps. Dont like very much the descent part or better the restart of the climb after the descent so I prefer longer climbs.
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Sounds good.
I did the Dragon Gran Fondo last year as well. Are you in Wales, what climb are you looking at?
We’re looking at the Bwlch from Treorchy side (the climb that is part of the Dragon route). It’s pretty consistent and would be about 38 climbs. I’m half tempted to aim for 42.5 to make it a 10km climb. We know the total distance for 8848 would be around 320km. Long old day!
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I used to live in North Wales (many years ago) and am now in Hampshire. The climb I’m targeting is a local short climb (a third of a mile with 139 feet vertical ascent at around 8% average grade).
The Bwlch is a great climb 
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Anyone working on an everesting or ridiculous climbing related goal right now? I’m considering a 32k vert effort in late February. I think i’ve found the local climb i plan to use… 1.4 mile, 419ft climbed at 5.3%. 76 reps… This gives me 24 weeks of structured training until go time.
What resources have folks used to forecast performance for this kind of thing? I’m looking at best bike split and its time analysis feature, though havent played with it much yet. I’m certain losing weight would help this goal, but where is the sweet spot of weight loss and power preservation?
I’m around 2 weeks away from my first everesting attempt.
My focus has been putting together as many back to back 10-15 hour weeks as possible, alternating between threshold and base. Ive also put in a number of sleep deprived and fatigued reps on my chosen hill, which I’ve based my projected finish time off, with a margin of error.
I’m not sure of your background, but your hill does seem rather shallow for an attempt. You’ll be riding over 200 miles and spending a lot of time going forwards rather than upwards.
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Best of luck! Good recommendation on the training. 15 hours is the where i feel fatigue and fitness start to balloon, so its a delicate balance at that volume for me. Longest ride to date would be 209ish.
Climb selection is actually the difficult part especially considering the weather at the time i’d like to attempt. Most long climbs are covered in snow around here.
Yep, I’d almost settled on a 1km, 10% climb, but after descending it fatigued I knew it’d be to dangerous in the dark. Settled on a 3km @7.5% as a sweet spot between recovery during the descent and efficient vertical gain.
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I think about 7.5% is a good sweet spot for everesting for ‘average’ athletes like me:
- don’t need special/extreme gearing for the climb to keep to reasonable cadence/power
- Descent speed is manageable at night and when tired
If the descent isn’t technical and with the right gearing I’d do steeper, but shallower makes for a very long ride.
Good luck and it sounds like you have done some good preparation. If the weather is cold think about having some hot food options for the middle of the night. I did one where it got pretty cold at night and it was a very long night - I would put on several layers and ski gloves at the top, then take it all off at the bottom, and still was chilled and shivering in the morning. I spent the last 3 or 4 hours counting the hours until the local coffee shop opened and I could get a hot coffee and a hot breakfast.
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I’m happy to report that I knocked over an everest on my first attempt last week. Pushed it back a couple of times due to weather and illness but landed on the perfect day weather wise.
I’ve never been so nervous before a ride, but a 2am start (and only 30mins sleep that night/morning) meant that my mental battle played out in the first 5000m.
The last 4000m was just about breaking it down into manageable chunks, and taking consistent but short breaks in between sets of reps. Pacing was perfect, and my last few reps were some of my quickest.
Finished with a riding time of 14:20 and elapsed of 16:20.
Everesting was something I was always in awe of, and considered somewhat out of my reach for many years, so it feels great to finally tick it off.
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Well done 
Its a superb achievement to complete an Everest
Respect!
What were your times on the climb and VAM on the climbing section?
Thankyou!
Average rep time was around 15 minutes, with a VAM of around 800 on a 6.6% gradient. Last 5 reps average VAM was 871… really happy with pacing.
I lost time on the descent due to quite a few corners, but descending for around 4 minutes gave me enough recovery without the legs going cold for the next rep.
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Congrats! Care to share a strava post if you have one? curious what your route looked like and the total distance covered. Any stats on weight and NP or advice for other first timers?
NP 184, FTP 305, Weight 65.5kg
Link to activity below. Will work on a mega post with my advice/learnings.
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I wish you had said you were 85kg 
Well done
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Alright, here we go… apologies if I break the forum with this post/essay.
Firstly, the below website/blog has some of the best advice you will find anywhere. There were some key points that I took onboard from Guy’s experience that made a big difference in the execution of my Everest.
Training
I have been training with this in mind since around Feb this year. I did not do any structured training (and never have) leading up to the Everest. My training focused on the following points.
· Long rides – multiple 100-mile rides, mix of hilly and flat, mix of intensity. Most important, I believe it’s critical to do at least one ride where you go over the 12hr riding time mark. For me this was a 350km/4300m ride in April, which really helped me understand where I could push myself both physically, and more importantly, mentally. In hindsight of both events, the 350km was mentally tougher than the Everest.
· Double days – E.G. 100-mile ride in the AM, followed by 3 hours of reps in the PM. I also used these fatigued reps to determine/validate goal rep pace.
· Volume – Consistent 9+ hour weeks, with 2x 15hr weeks in the months leading up to the Everest. These long weeks are very important to determine how you body feels with the kind of fatigue the body goes through when riding for 15+ hours straight.
· Gut training – More on fueling later, but I found training to take on 120g/hr of carbs across 3-5hrs meant I had no issue sustaining 80g/hr over 16 hours on the day. 6 months ago I couldn’t take on 80g/hr without GI issues.
Planning
Failing to plan is planning to fail. Fortunately, I love planning an event and will plan to the smallest detail to make the execution as brainless as possible. For an event like an Everest where your capacity to think in the last few hours is limited, the prior planning becomes critical.
· Schedule – I formed a schedule based on sets of reps and rest breaks. I thought of this as more of a guideline and gave myself the flexibility to adjust faster/slower as needed on the day. I based my 2hr/7 rep sets (44 reps req total) off my planned water consumption of 1 500ml bottle an hour and goal rep pace. This was adjusted on the day to 2hr/6 reps based on a slightly slower rep pace than planned. I allowed for 20 minutes of rest per set, split as a 5min break every 3 reps, and a 15min break every 6 reps.
· Kit list – I drive a van, and set it up with 3 buckets, and an esky/cooler, easily accessible via the side door.
1. Cooler – Real food, pre-mixed bottles x14, extra plain water, post ride recovery drink, ice
2. Bucket 1 – Sports food/nutrition (bagged and numbered for each rest stop so I could grab and go), variety of crisps and other snacks (for the event of palate fatigue, didn’t use any of it), and a small bucket with paracetamol (not ibuprofen… important!) chamois cream, sunscreen, and electrolyte caps.
3. Bucket 2 – Extra clothes. 2 spare bibs, 2 extra jerseys (L/S & S/S), lots of socks, spare HRM monitor, vest, jacket.
4. Bucket 3 – Tools and parts. Everything from torque wrench and bike pump to extra electronics to sealant and valves. I pretty much prepared for any mechanical/electronic eventuality. Even included a foam roller in case my body started locking up.
· Head Unit Setup – I set up a simple screen on my head unit showing time of day, laps, heart rate, elevation gain. I estimate I spent 90% of the 16 hours on this screen. I also recorded on 2 head units, an Edge 540 and an older Edge 530.
· Electronics – I did not have to re-charge any electronics except my phone during the Everest. I used 3x front lights, 3x rear lights, 2x AXS rear derailleur batteries. My main Garmin device, the Edge 540 still had 60% battery at the end of the day. Simply swapping the above parts out was much easier than worrying about re-charging anything. I still had a few power banks as a backup though!
· Pre-ride – Get as much quality sleep as possible in the week leading up to the chosen day. I averaged 9hrs a night which is 2hrs longer than my average sleep time. I cut caffeine in the afternoon to give myself the best chance of switching off at night. The night before my Everest I only got 30mins of sleep due to nerves (never had this issue before a ride!), so this is when my sleep bank became crucial!
· Bike – Make sure your setup is dialed! Get a bike fit if you haven’t already. New shoes with molded innersoles were a gamechanger for me a few months before. Strip whatever weight you can, saddlebags, pumps etc. I shifted to the front little chainring the night before and ran my bike as 1x, meaning I could remove the front AXS battery for a spare (and save another 25g). Service your bike, fit fresh brake pads, wax/lube chain etc. My prep in this area still didn’t prevent my headset bearings from seizing literally the day before, which resulted in a dash to the LBS to replace the bearings!
· Support – Enlist a support crew of some kind. 1 person helping you out and keeping you accountable could be the difference between finishing and failing. Enlist people you know will encourage you. You won’t need any extra doubts entering your head! I was fortunate to have a relative ride 3 reps with me, at 2 points during the day, and another drive past twice, and message throughout the day. I found this gave me a massive boost and left me feeling that I owed it to them to finish the ride, in return for the time they had given me.
Nutrition
Im sure anyone that is even considering an Everest knows what their body tolerates for fueling, but I recommend spending a few months of training pushing the limits of what you think you can handle, particularly carb intake. I went from GI problems at 80g/hr on a 3hr ride to 120g/hr on a 5hr ride with no problems, in around 3 months. Based on this increase in ‘gut strength’ I set a target of 80g/hr for the Everest.
· Pre Everest – I carb loaded to 8g/kg of body weight, consisting mainly of rice, and white bread and jam sandwiches. I have my carb loading routine sorted and do it most weeks for my long weekend rides. Experiment with what works best, but keep it as low fat, and low protein as possible to assist digestion.
· On the day - I used Maurten products both in pre-training and the Everest, which I truly believe are superior to a lot of other stuff out there… my advice is use products that work for you and that you have confidence in. I premixed 14 bottles of 40g carbs, and prepackaged my nutrition in small bags for each set of 6 reps. During each break in sets, I swallowed some electrolyte caps to hit my sodium targets, and I ate a good old Aussie cheese and bacon roll, which added a little fat and protein, as well as more carbs. Honestly, I couldn’t fault my approach, as I didn’t feel short on energy at all, and had no muscular cramps all day. Total Carbs consumed was just under 1200g, sodium was 12000mg, and around 10l of water. Calories burnt was approx. 9000, calories consumed was approx. 5500. I went from 66.5kg body weight fully fueled, to 64.2kg post ride.
· Post Everest – First thing I did when I finished is sculled 500ml of chocolate milk. Then I stopped at KFC on the way home for more carbs and protein. I consumed around 1500 calories in the hour after finishing! I ate around 7000 calories across the following 2 days, well up on my normal diet.
Mind Games
Be prepared to go through some big highs and lows.
I recommend reading Sir Guy Litespeed’s (SGL) section on this. The mind is where an Everest will be won or lost. 2 of his strategies I took away were:
· Most people will tell you that “an Everest begins at 6000m”, or “your legs will get you to 6000m, your head will get you to 8848m”. In his blog, SGL mentions that if he gets to 6000m, he knows he can finish the Everest. I thought, why not take that on board as my mindset? It honestly worked for me, as my self-doubts and mental battle was fought in the first 5000m. From there it was just a case of breaking it down into sets of reps, until I only had 2 sets left and I got a second (maybe third, fourth, or fifth at that point!) wind.
· SGL calls his nagging voice of self-doubt his ‘chimp’ and has named it ‘Pete’. I found that personalizing this voice helped me to quieten it. Halfway up my climb there was a snake that had been freshly run over… what better way to squash my ‘chimp’ than by personifying it as a dead snake, baking on the road? Consequently, this snake was known as ‘Pete’ for the duration of the Everest, and was given a hostile look on each of the 44 reps.
The nature of an Everest makes it easy to quit, as you are never far away from your vehicle/base camp. On the other hand, each rep is the same as the last, so it’s easy to break the total number of reps down into manageable parts and set mini goals to keep working towards. I had no real belief that id complete the Everest until around the 5000m mark, and up to this point I was pushing myself to complete various challenges. For example, I told myself there was no point pulling out until id hit at least 3000m, then I might as well push for a new elevation PR of over 4300m, then i might as well push for the round 5000m number, then I might as well push for Local Legend on the segment, around 5800m (I’ve never cared about Local Legend before and probably never will again). I also played some games to keep my mind somewhat disconnected from the task at hand, such as counting the number of littered bottles and cans on the side of the road, and calculating how much money this would be worth with Australia’s cash for cans scheme.
Learnings
· Recovery - I was on a high for around 2 days after the event, including working 7am-5pm the following day, and a 70km ‘shakeout’ ride on the 2nd day (not advised), before crashing and coming down with a flu on the 3rd day. It may sound obvious, but rest is as important after something like this as it is beforehand.
· Choosing a day - Don’t be afraid to postpone if the weather isn’t great on your chosen day, or you are carrying sickness. Conversely, don’t get stuck in a rut of postponing, which I very nearly did before finally biting the bullet.
· Clothing – Everything about my clothing choice was perfect for the weather on the day, except that I did not wear mitts. 2 fingers on each hand are still numb a full week later. I haven’t worn mitts for years but would consider it if doing another Everest in the future.
· Climb choice – This is a difficult one. My chosen climb 2.9km @ 6.6%, with a number of corners. It was good in the sense that I just wanted to complete the Everest, but a steeper and straighter hill could have chopped 2 hours off my effort. Logistically though, the nearest more suitable hill was around 1-2 hours from home, instead of less than 30mins. No regrets with the chosen hill, but something to consider for future.
I hope this helps a future Everester!
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I am screaming in laughter at this image. Thank you. Well done, love the advice/tips you shared as well
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I’m finally going for this in a couple weeks. Anyone else doing an everesting this year?
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