I was battling with the idea for a couple of weeks and spreading the word that I might have a crack at it, hours were spend on seeking sufficient gradients, distances, elevation profiles, average ascends and descends. Felt like I was doing a maths degree rather than attempting a cycling challenge.
Then, one day in May, myslef, my newly met girlfriend Emila and two of our friends Karen and Gordon went for a gentle ride to Monmouth. Stopping at the usual garden centre 'Red Door' the subject of Everesting came up in conversation, all of a sudden I was actually made to commit to a date. Imagine your partner and two of your friends sitting with phones in their hands trying to coordinate diaries and waiting for the exact date of my immense suffering. Friends, eh?
I refused to make an entry in my diary, thinking, perhaps theyll forget, I change my mind.
None of the above were an option, so the climb was picked and date looming I started to nervously consider how many things can go wrong on the run up to the what was known 'E-day'. First, my legs were going to scream in pain and I wont be able to make one more pedal stroke, weather, mechanicals, nutrition, traffic, mental attitude and 101 more things that could possibly ruin the attempt.
I read plenty of previous 'Everesting' reports and got to know some very useful tips, I had to change my way of thinking and look at all the positives rather than negatives and simply prepare as much as possible. From the day when the date was set in stone, I received an immense amount of good luck messages, words of advice and general interest in my preparation. As well as an odd 'You should go to the doctors and get your head checked' comment.
In terms of training I wanted to get at least 2500meters or 120miles in a single ride once a week. Until the day of the challenge I have done 6500 miles this year so I knew that my general fitness was at a reasonable level, however I have never spend so many hours on a bike or cycled for that distance and reached that amount of elevation, but records are meant to be broken.
So last week before the E-day came around far too quickly, more mind battles about the amount of training, what to eat and when? which socks to wear how much beetroot can one ingest in one week and how pink can urine get? Thought to myself in the end that its far too late to think about it all anyway so just go about my prep as usual.
I only rode out once, a short ride that incorporated a bit of intensity and a couple of roller sessions to keep legs spinning
Calm before the storm
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| Also got slightly preoccupied with all the food and nutrition preparation. |
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| 1/2 |
Car packed the day before, checking the list, double checking and triple checking, nervously looking at the forecast and keeping my fingers crossed for good conditions. Evening before we watched 'Top Gun' to get my mind in the right place.
4am came far too quickly, porridge on the hob, banana in the bowl and the smell of coffee spreading across the kitchen, If it wasn't so early in the morning I could tell myself that its just another early ride, but I couldn't trick my mind.
4.20am Emila picked me up with the usual cheerful smile on her face and composure thats so much needed.
Coffee in one hand, phone in the other ready to hit the road, emotions inside? Apprehensive as hell and wonder what I signed myself up for.
5.45am Parked up by base camp and I accidentally managed to wake up the neighbours by shouting 'Epic' full blast, the lady living in the house was very quick to point out that we were waking them up so it was all whispers until about 8am. Did she know that I was about to embark on the longest/hardest ride of my life? How inconsiderate!
5.55am good luck from Emila, last pictures and Im setting off to descend for the first time
5.59am get to the bottom, Garmin ON and off I go.
Plan was to do six repetitions within 2hrs and have 10 min break. To complete challenge I would do 42 repetitions which is 7 blocs equalling approx. 14hrs riding time and over 15hrs including breaks
6.20am Gordon joins me and we ride at my pace, Im holding about 150BPM and watch my Garmin as If it was going to tell me the lotto numbers any minute. We chat and Gordon tells me about his recent trip to France, in the meantime Emila and Karen are busy setting up base camp at the top.
First two hours fly by and I actually manage to do the set 14min quicker then expected.
8am starting second block and settling into the rhythm, Gordon is still riding with me, more for the company and safety than anything else as I don't think there is much benefit from drafting at 7-8mph.
We spot a spark plug embedded in the corner of the road, shouting 'Spark plug' each time as we pass can greatly lift the spirits.
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| The descend was pretty straight apart from two sharp bends so descending was my recovery time. |
9.50am manage to get another 10 minutes saved up on my calculated times, although the legs are getting a little tired. First visitors start to show up and soon I have some more company, first laughs and jokes I am on my 13 ascend and we hold a reasonable tempo heading up.
I see some of the first banners and signs prepared by Emila and Karen, they really added some motivation to the whole day and were additional pointers for future visitors.
12 o'clock is hitting and I am not even half way through, core starting to ache a little so I am getting a menthol based cream rubbed in, change of jersey and socks never felt so good. Had a piece of cake to lift my mood.
I was actually finding eating at the stops very hard, I just wanted to sit down and do nothing but Emila was extremely patient and just kept prompting me to have something so that I don't bonk
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| Think this was taken after 8hrs in, approx 5000meters of up Don't actually know If Im smiling or its a grin of pain This picture illustrates the immense challenge of the whole task |
12-4pm I knew that these will be crucial for me as Ill be hitting the big milestones across these hours, more people came over and seeing my cousins wife Vali with little niece has put a massive smile on my face, they were visiting UK from Germany and as luck would have it they were here in time for E-day.
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| How do you explain to the little person that uncle is riding 42 times up and down the same hill? Adults have difficulty understanding this too. |
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| All of the supporters that came around the midday… Your presence was priceless |
4pm I started to shiver a little when I stopped although don't think it was seen on the outside so perhaps it was my soul telling me to stop this craziness.
I knew that I had about 5hrs ahead of me so I just made sure that I drunk plenty and kept on eating, the conditions were perfect, slightly sunny with a little bit of breeze, last 1/3 of the hill is shaded anyway so it helped me to cool down before descending down.
Emila, Karen, Gordon and Paul were joining me for various ascends. Legs feeling reasonably OK as I was on my 30 something ascend and crossing through 6000 and 7000 meters, although I was getting out of the saddle more to stretch out and use different muscles. On my last break I didn't even want to hold to the bike for any longer than necessary.
I knew that as soon as it goes into single figures Ill be able to get another kick of energy.
On approx 34th ascend saw a rider going up as I was 500 meters from the start of the climb with Gordon, did the U-turn and started to ride my usual 150BPM at about 80-90rpm, about 3/4 way up saw the guy in the distance and said to Gordon ' I can't believe we are catching this guy up', that was it!
As If I was shown a green light and knowing its my last rep before the break I started to speed up just to go past him. Managed to do it 800neters from the finish :)
Approx 7pm
I embarked on my final 6 ascends feeling reasonably energetic, drunk coconut water, some coke and ate some more, don't actually remember what I ate.
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| Pete 'Is he coming yet?' Someone had to keep the eye on the numbers. |
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| Two to go! |
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| One of the last ones. |
Approx 8.45pm I was about to go down for the last time and do the final repetition. The feeling that I've nearly done can not be described. Everyone present that cycled did the final lap of honour with me and I sprinted to the line with 300m to go, it was the most painful 300meteres I have ever road, especially after I realised that I was 7meters of elevation short so down the hill I go to gather another 40something meters just in case.
Chris came over in his car and he painted a KOM line at the top :) holding printed cards with motivational words.
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| Residents of the house at the bottom of the climb, they came out with a little trumpet when I was doing my final rep :) Apologies I didn't stop to chat with you |
As Paul mentioned on the NBCC forum to experience the thing you would have to be present and witness the event. I will repeat once more that the support, good luck messages, visits and cheering was really really appreciated and I honestly could not have done it without you all.
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| My vision was as blurred as this picture |
I was getting paranoid that Garmin will freeze when I reset it so plenty of pictures afterwards I held down the button.
Apparently in the car on the way back I sounded a bit drunk, probably from exhaustion. I was so full of emotion but so tired to display anything. I have definitely pushed some boundaries and tested myself to the limit, however now that I have done this what will be the next challenge?
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| It was one long day in the saddle... |
Distance: 312.2km
Moving time: 13:32:48
Elevation: 8,891m!
Average speed: 23km/h
Elapsed time: 15:09:42
Calories burned: 9,627
Link to the Strava file
My top 5 tips for any future Everesters would be:
1. If you are considering doing this you are probably insane and need a psychiatric assessment.
2. If after point 1 you still wish to proceed, pick the climb wisely the gradients and distances can make all the difference. You might want to have a few extra % gradient so that your total distance is shorter. Remember that everything is multiplied either by 10,20,30,40,50 depending on the amount of reps needed. Consider traffic, where you will be U-turning and how long it takes to come down it.
3. Ride the climb or any hill as often as possible and adjust your mind that its OK to be cycling slowly than usual and spin high cadence for long periods of time.
4. Organise your support team, let local clubs know what you're about to do, they will most likely come out to see a mad person do this.
5. Eat, eat and eat… Remember to have something to look forward to after each set and although you won't feel like it try and make yourself eat and drink.
Good luck! and I hope to see your name in the 'Everesting Hall of Fame'
Nice write up, great ride.
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