Wow, great stuff Rich. Can you post a sceenshot of your power file in WKO+ ?
Yeah, I took a few pictures also...very few. The last 15k of Day 1 I was seriously considering pitching the camera off the mountain to lose the weight.
Since I got the Joule I've just been downloading my rides into PowerAgent, as my Mac really, really bogs down these days when I start up Paralells and WKO.
I'd be really interested in the work required to get you to this level. What kind of TSS were you putting up on the last two months? Biggest couple of weeks?
I did Death Ride, a one day event with 15K of climbing and was really burning out near the end. I've been gleaning pacing information from your report. Just thinking about the kind of prep to finish two days. Can't quite imagine!
Tom, to be honest, I can't say I did any crazy training, though I did start out pretty motivated, and riding like I was, in the spring. A couple other guys were thinking about doing it and Sawiris was training for his mtn bike stage race in BC so it was easy for me to hook up a 4+hr climbing ride on both weekend days.
My weekly routine for a while was:
Tues: FTP repeats up Chantry Flat, my 3k @6% hill right outside my door. I would usually get 3x up, about 18-20' each, depending my fitness, how I felt, etc.
Wed: some flavor of hard 1.5-2.5hr ride. TT out to Pasadena, ride hard with my tri club, ride home...or climb in the AM, etc
Thurs: 1.5-2hrs climbing
Sat: ~3.5-4.5hr climbing ride
Sun: 2.5-3.5hr climbing ride
As training partners came and went, my motivation came and went, I went back and forth from IM and training camp travel, I had some weeks better than others. It got difficult after June because Sawiris fell off the wagon and was less interested in the long stuff and when he rode I would smoke him. Hard to motivate yourself for another solo 4hr climbing ride, so I had a few Saturday rides where I would ride to the bottom of Glendora Mtn Road, 8.5mi @ 6%, TT up, descend, ride a roadie route backwards until I saw the group (about 80-100, very fast) then hammer myself at the front all the way home. 3.5hrs of VERY solid work.
What I can say though is that when all you gotta so is ride a bike, you can ride a bike a LOT, and HARD, and recover fine. With that schedule above, I really need Monday and Friday off. But on weeks for, whatever reason, I had 3 days off it was very, very managable.
In the end, I'm very fortunate to have climbs out my door that are 6-8% for miles and miles, and I can find some very steep stuff at the end of that stuff, so my training was very efficient, and I wasn't skeered of the terrain at Everest. But, like I said, pacing and fueling are more important for this race than pure fitness. You can make up HUGE time on the competition and your stoopid twin by showing up to the last 15k of each day in a position to actual ride or race vs just survive.
Your experience at EC mirrors mine during brevets, especially the longer ones (400k+). EVERYONE would hammer the first 4-5 hours then we would steadily shell riders out the back, often leaving them behind at controls, never to be seen again. The biggest fall-off occurred after 200 miles; previously strong riders would be reduced to limping shells. I'd slow down too, but nowhere near to the extent of the hammerheads; I'd often finish hours ahead of guys I was riding with right through 200 miles. They laughed at my stubbornness at sticking to my PM, but not so much when I was showered and fed just as they were finishing...
Tru dat, Bill. It's a pacing thing for sure and the pm is the boss.
And I would not do Everest without personal SAG set up. I think Rich and Marg benefited greatly from their sig others on course SAG presence on the crunch time climbs.
As nice as the folks who put it on are, it's very loosely run and someone as it grows in popularity, someone is going to have a baaad wreck. Roads are open, local drivers don't like us and there are riders descending at 49-50 mph with inexperienced, shelled riders ascending.
Tru dat, Bill. It's a pacing thing for sure and the pm is the boss.
And I would not do Everest without personal SAG set up. I think Rich and Marg benefited greatly from their sig others on course SAG presence on the crunch time climbs.
As nice as the folks who put it on are, it's very loosely run and someone as it grows in popularity, someone is going to have a baaad wreck. Roads are open, local drivers don't like us and there are riders descending at 49-50 mph with inexperienced, shelled riders ascending.
Yep...on Day 2, first climb I saw groups of 6-8 guys descending together at 50+ mph. Not, no thanks. Even with this guy Derek I made sure I was in front of most of time because I didn't know if he could descend. Me and Sawiris could do some damage on the descents on Day 1.
Yep...it gets bigger this guy really needs to step up his organizational game. I'd be more than happy to pay 2x my entry fee for bottle hand-offs vs filling at a table, safety radios at the aid stations, roving meat wagons, bike support with wheels, mechanics, etc.
Or, conversely, you can say that the kinda person who signs up for this likely isn't going to show up expecting much in the way of course support, or knows better than to plan to rely on anything but himself for too long.
Comments
Yeah, I took a few pictures also...very few. The last 15k of Day 1 I was seriously considering pitching the camera off the mountain to lose the weight.
Since I got the Joule I've just been downloading my rides into PowerAgent, as my Mac really, really bogs down these days when I start up Paralells and WKO.
I'd be really interested in the work required to get you to this level. What kind of TSS were you putting up on the last two months? Biggest couple of weeks?
I did Death Ride, a one day event with 15K of climbing and was really burning out near the end. I've been gleaning pacing information from your report. Just thinking about the kind of prep to finish two days. Can't quite imagine!
Tom, to be honest, I can't say I did any crazy training, though I did start out pretty motivated, and riding like I was, in the spring. A couple other guys were thinking about doing it and Sawiris was training for his mtn bike stage race in BC so it was easy for me to hook up a 4+hr climbing ride on both weekend days.
My weekly routine for a while was:
As training partners came and went, my motivation came and went, I went back and forth from IM and training camp travel, I had some weeks better than others. It got difficult after June because Sawiris fell off the wagon and was less interested in the long stuff and when he rode I would smoke him. Hard to motivate yourself for another solo 4hr climbing ride, so I had a few Saturday rides where I would ride to the bottom of Glendora Mtn Road, 8.5mi @ 6%, TT up, descend, ride a roadie route backwards until I saw the group (about 80-100, very fast) then hammer myself at the front all the way home. 3.5hrs of VERY solid work.
What I can say though is that when all you gotta so is ride a bike, you can ride a bike a LOT, and HARD, and recover fine. With that schedule above, I really need Monday and Friday off. But on weeks for, whatever reason, I had 3 days off it was very, very managable.
In the end, I'm very fortunate to have climbs out my door that are 6-8% for miles and miles, and I can find some very steep stuff at the end of that stuff, so my training was very efficient, and I wasn't skeered of the terrain at Everest. But, like I said, pacing and fueling are more important for this race than pure fitness. You can make up HUGE time on the competition and your stoopid twin by showing up to the last 15k of each day in a position to actual ride or race vs just survive.
Your experience at EC mirrors mine during brevets, especially the longer ones (400k+). EVERYONE would hammer the first 4-5 hours then we would steadily shell riders out the back, often leaving them behind at controls, never to be seen again. The biggest fall-off occurred after 200 miles; previously strong riders would be reduced to limping shells. I'd slow down too, but nowhere near to the extent of the hammerheads; I'd often finish hours ahead of guys I was riding with right through 200 miles. They laughed at my stubbornness at sticking to my PM, but not so much when I was showered and fed just as they were finishing...
And I would not do Everest without personal SAG set up. I think Rich and Marg benefited greatly from their sig others on course SAG presence on the crunch time climbs.
As nice as the folks who put it on are, it's very loosely run and someone as it grows in popularity, someone is going to have a baaad wreck. Roads are open, local drivers don't like us and there are riders descending at 49-50 mph with inexperienced, shelled riders ascending.
Yep...on Day 2, first climb I saw groups of 6-8 guys descending together at 50+ mph. Not, no thanks. Even with this guy Derek I made sure I was in front of most of time because I didn't know if he could descend. Me and Sawiris could do some damage on the descents on Day 1.
Yep...it gets bigger this guy really needs to step up his organizational game. I'd be more than happy to pay 2x my entry fee for bottle hand-offs vs filling at a table, safety radios at the aid stations, roving meat wagons, bike support with wheels, mechanics, etc.
Or, conversely, you can say that the kinda person who signs up for this likely isn't going to show up expecting much in the way of course support, or knows better than to plan to rely on anything but himself for too long.