Last fall when I brought the bike inside and put it on the trainer, I set a Knighthood attempt as the goal to focus on to keep me motivated through the winter. I did storm the castle in April of this year, and is was one of the best terrible experiences I’ve had on a bike.
This year I’m going to set a vEverest attempt as my goal to keep motivated over the winter. I’m looking at either April 12 or April 26, but the exact date is still TBD. I know this isn’t strictly a Wahoo thing (I believe that I’ll need to get on Zwift for a vEverest attempt?) but I’ll still be training on SYSTM through the winter and I also wanted to post this to the forum for now so that I’ve said it publicly and I can’t chicken out.
I’ve seen a few threads on the forum with some excellent insight and advice so I’ll be checking those out, but if anyone has any words of wisdom they’d like to post here, they would also be more than welcome.
Something like that will truly bring out the best/worst in you. I wish you the best of health and consistent training while you prepare.
In terms of advice, all I can offer is that you need to be very selective about posting pictures of your effort. Nobody can afford lose (scare away) friends.
I’ve vEverested 3 full times successfully. There are a few Knights who have vEverested too as well as a few who have done it irl. My best irl was a 1/2.
Virtually, I have done:
Alpe du Zwift (I did 9 reps but you only have to do 8.5 and a bit if you want it to be recognized in the official Everesting HoF), do NOT stop when Zwift says you’ve Everested cuz they include the lead out, and Hells500 don’t.
Ventoux 6 reps (took less time than AdZ but was horribly horribly horrible and a boring AF relentless grind on a GOOD day.
Leith Hill (75 reps to get 10,000 metres of gain), twas a long day in the saddle and this followed a failed vEverest of the same segment where I bailed at just over 7000 metres ().
In many ways its a lot easier than Knighthood though both really are, at the heart of it, endurance events. You can take as long as you like. You can ride any hill you like (depending on your trainer). You can have as many breaks as you want for as long as you want. The only thing you can’t do on a single vEverest is sleep. Be wary of breaks that are too long though cuz they really add up over the course of a day.
There are rules like trainer difficulty must be set at 100% but virtual gears are allowed if you have them. If you don’t you gotta use what you got. My best ratio was a 34 ring and a 32 cog but I wished I’d had at least one more gear so I could have raised my cadence over time. You won’t regret having more gears, you might regret not having enough.
It doesnt have to be Zwift although it used to be. You can also use Rouvy, MyWhoosh and FulGaz. Edit: You do need to upload it to Strava though, and it has to be made public so when you make the submission to Hells500, they can verify the effort.
I’d be happy to DM with you if you wanna chat about prep, planning, food, targets etc.
I used the GG200 plan for prep (edit: but like most plans I’ve added, I never actually completed the plan and just went for it when I felt ready )
Hi Justin,
I did the vEversting at the end of June this year. I am a Sufferlandrian but I used Zwift for my venue. Specifically, Alpe du Zwift. Like Sir Glen says, it takes 8.5-8.7 times up the climb to accumulate the necessary altitude gain.
Key learnings are:
•Turn around (U turn) immediately upon topping out so as not to waste time on the flat loop at the top.
•On Zwift, once you are starting to descend you can get off the bike completely as it coasts downhill, but get back on when you’re at hairpin 19 or 20 cause you’re almost at the bottom of the descent.
•At the bottom, save time again by doing a U turn as soon as the gradient becomes flat. You’ll get used to the scenery where that happens.
•Use some drink that will replace electrolytes cause at 13 or so hours you are at a high risk of cramping.
•Find some friends capable of doing one of the eight climbs at your pace, for company. And, then assign them to which one of the eight climbs you need their company.
•Change your Zwift name to include “vEversting” so the people on the climb that you are passing/are passing you, know what you’re up to.
If you want more advice, or have more questions, feel free to email me.
Sage advice! A few friends saw a photo of me in the late stages of my Knighthood attempt and they would most likely be happy not to see any additional pictures this time around…
You could always do a vEveresting Roam, by riding every Kom Segment in Zwift! You know, just so you don’t get bored going up the same climb so many times
Although it was absolutely a challenge physically, I think toward the end it became the mental challenge that was harder to deal with. I don’t recall if it was here or on another forum, but I read someone say that your legs will get you the first 6,000m but your mind has to get you the rest of the way, and that was definitely my experience.
In a way, having the structure more open-ended than a Knighthood attempt was nice (being able to choose duration of rests, etc.) but I found that as things started to get tough near the end it took a lot more focus to not give in to the urge to take just a little bit longer rest, etc…
It felt really good to tick off the last meters of the climb, and I think last night was probably the best sleep I’ve had in my life.
And Sir @Glen.Coutts , the fact that you’ve chosen of your own free will to undertake this madness more than once is truly impressive.
(As an aside, I fully intended to reach out and get some advice from those who offered, but procrastination got the better of me. Thanks though, to everyone who gave advice and offered advice).
The mental aspect is definitely the hardest part. I knew the easiest way for me to get through it was to not think about rest beyond the AdZ descent time and treat it like a Knighthood. I did take 1 longer break of about an hour to eat more and that was the hardest point to get back on the bike for me. When I do it again, I think I would try and stick to short breaks all the way through.
Not sure when I’ll have time as I’m sadly working full time again and travelling a lot, but it will happen, it was a super fun day
Brilliant! That’s fricken incredible. An everesting of any type seems so daunting to me. So major kudos to you on such an amazing accomplishment! You deserve all the superlatives we can throw at you.
I have 53/39 which I kept in the small ring, and a 12-25 cassette. I alternated between the 19t, 21t, and 23t cogs, I found a little variation in cadence helped to break things up a bit.
Good grief!! I used a 34 up front and the 32 on the back and at times wished for a 34! No wonder your NP was near 200. I think mine was somewhere closer to 165 and my avg cadence likely low 60s
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