Training for an Everesting attempt

Come on, stop messing about.
It's riding up a hill, lots.

A blind man on a galloping horse could see that the best training is riding up a hill, lots.

joe2008 wrote:

I didn’t train for it specifically, aside from living on Exmoor and climbing hills on every ride I've ever done.

It will help if you have confidence that you can climb in a fat burning zone.

It's as much, if not more, a test of endurance, and mental fortitude, than climbing.

My advice would be (a lot of this is obvious, but easily overlooked):

Start early, getting a big shift in before breakfast time really helped me.

Make sure the wind is prevailing.

Spin an easy gear from the first ascent.

Pick a hill with virtually no traffic.

Pick a hill to suit your style of climbing. Steeper equals less miles, and probably time, but the gradient will take it's toll; shallower, get ready for an extra long day and loads of time - and maybe some effort - descending against the wind.

Take a HRM and ride as much as possible in zone 1, pace yourself, from the first climb.

On your first climb take time to look for hazards, oil, glass, potholes etc - when you're really tired you will be glad you know where these are on your many descents.

Take your car as a base camp and fill it with things you will fancy consuming: for me that was pasties, scotch eggs, sausage rolls, coke, and loads of water, not just what you think you should be: energy bars, gels etc.

Make sure your Garmin battery will last out.

Make sure you know how many ascents it will take, and write down the height of Everest. In a fuzzy state of mind all I could remember was 29,000 and something feet.

Don't underestimate it!

https://www.strava.com/activities/170874610

Wow! looking at your figures, that is a 'hell' of a challenge. Your VAM is excellent (nearly 1000) on the early climbs but it's still taken you approx 15 hours.

It looks like you've chosen a very good climb from a grade and length perspective to complete this challenge. It's an interesting question though, what is the best climb for this. It needs to be steep enough that you can get a good vam on but not too steep that you're having to go into higher power zones. Same with length of climb, what is the ideal length. Very interesting and a big well done. 8)

Strava link:

http://app.strava.com/activities/156428659

This looks dull as f***. Good luck.

cyclingAdi wrote:

I am myself going to do this soon on a climb near to me: https://www.strava.com/segments/2134487

It's intended to raise some money for ill children in the city, something I feel strongly about but anyway...

The ride itself I am not too worried about - I am feeling fit and have already done some good rides this year, the highlight being 520km in one day (fun but tough).

My main issue I see, aside from bad weather but that's not my choice, is eating enough - when you are climbing this is not so easy and am a bit worried about getting the carbs in, but liquids will probably help me out as I start to get really sick of Clif bars and peanut butter sandwiches.

Anyone else who has everested and has any general advice, much appreciated. Thanks.

I've done one Everesting and one 6500 fail.

-I'd say 6% average is a good sustainable grade.
-Cat 2 is a good hill, but I think straight up and down cat 4s are easiest.
-Think about doing a practice 6000 meter 12 hour 6am-6pm rehearsal.
-Bring lots of food, especially your favorite savory dishes, maybe pasta and rice (works for me). Don't rely on sugary food, your body will hate you later.
-Unless you are ridiculously talented an Everesting for most people takes 20-24 hours total time incl breaks. I find it best to start at between sunset and 10pm the day before. This is because at sunrise you've done the night part, and could be halfway through. For me if you start at 5am-6am this is bad because you might have a sunset at 6pm but you've still got a third or more left. This makes your brain play tricks on you and you likely to quit.
-Lift your mood when you get to 6000 meters, a cold beer, a friend with a coffee and your favorite loud music is great.
-Make a camp with your batteries, drinks, water and food. A van or motorhome is ideal, a car is good, but a hammock or tent hidden in the woods works as an alternative.
-Run 11-32x34 compact gearing or easier.
-Be careful with bike computers, some Garmins die after 8 hours if they are old, maybe bring two GPS computers if you can or a good phone as a backup.
-You don't need to stress out over the bike too much, so long as the drivetrain and brakes are fairly new, well adjusted and maintained. You could bring a spare bike, even a XC MTB with slicks would be fine if you are near the end.

I did one two and a half years ago, on Boxhill. I think 18 of us started and 12 finished, we held the team record for a while I think.
I would put your base camp at the bottom of the hill. If you have it at the top, when you start and after every time you stop for a rest or to eat, you roll back down the hill, which means you get cold.
If you have spare shoes, take them. It's the one thing I overlooked, and we got rained on after about 5 hours. It was the kind of rain you ignore for about 10 minutes, but it gradually got heavier and heavier, and some people actually stopped to let the worst of it pass, although I was so wet by this point it didn't seem worth stopping. I had several changes of clothes though, so once it had stopped, I changed them, but had to put the wet shoes back on. The daytime weather wasn't warm enough to dry them out, so I had to ride through the night with wet cold feet.
Try not to think about how long it will take. It will take a lot longer than you think. I kind of hoped for 16 hours riding time, but it was 27 in total, with 5 hours of that not riding.
Tracking the number of repeats will get hard; ours was 67 reps and I took a pen and paper and wrote out the time to climb and descend after each rep. It was a pain in the arse doing it that way, but I could not have dealt with losing track. It makes for interesting reading now!
We started at 5 am, which meant getting up around 3 am. So you completely mess up the sleep you get before you start, and I ended up riding through the night anyway. Unless you are really strong and can climb fast, you will probably have to ride through the night. Not only do you need enough lights and chargers to do that, you need someone of fixing the bike if you have a mechanical. A head torch is good for this, but it is something else you have to think about.
+1 on the food, savoury stuff for me on any longer ride.
I'm thinking of doing another one next year, which will be a very different kind of hill. Hopefully 5 reps will be enough, might do 6 for the High Rouleurs Sociery if it goes well. Been thinking a lot about it lately!