HOW TO CONQUER EVEREST ON YOUR BIKE
The cycling phenomenon of the Covid-19 era has been ‘Everesting’. We reveal how to prepare for climbing 8848m – the height of Mount Everest – in a single ride
Within a year of taking up cycling, Alice Thomson pedalled to the height of Mount Everest - by riding up Naish Hill near Bristol 89 consecutive times. The 26-year-old veterinary student is one of thousands of gritty riders who’ve tackled an ‘Everesting’ challenge, clocking up 8848m of vertical gain, the height of the world’s most famous peak, through repetitions of a single climb, in one gruelling ride. She has a few regrets (“I tried to eat some fancy mushroom ravioli mid-ride but they were disgusting and I felt sick”), while locals thought she was insane (“A guy in a car pulled over in the evening and said, ‘I saw you at 8am! You’re still here!’”). But Thomson battled through to set what was then the women’s world record of 12 hours and 32 minutes.
“I would thoroughly recommend giving it a go,” she says. Thomson tackled the challenge in August 2018 while doing office work that left her dreaming about wild adventures. “If you like Type 2 fun – miserable at the time, but fun in retrospect – you’ll love it. There are many different ways to do it: a full Everest climb, an Everest ‘base camp’ climb (half the height of Everest), solo or with friends. And now is a good time because… what else is there to do?”
With travel complicated and the sportive calendar torn asunder in 2020, the simple and socially distanced format of Everesting has made it the cult challenge of the Covid-19 era, with amateurs and professionals getting involved.
Alberto Contador set a men’s record of 7:27:20 at Silla del Rey in Spain, on 7 July, before ex-pro Ronan McLaughlin cut it to 7:04:41 at Mamore Gap in Ireland 13 days later. Emma Pooley set a women’s record of 8:53:00 at Haggenegg in Switzerland on 8 July; Thomson’s time is now eighth fastest. But many amateurs take 24 hours to finish. “Don’t be put off by the fact some people have done it in seven hours because it’s your own challenge,” says Thomson. “All you need is a bike, some snacks and a hill. It’s just a cool thing to shoot for.”
The first known ‘Everesting’ was completed by George Mallory – the grandson of the British mountaineer of the same name – who did eight reps of Mount Donna Buang, Australia, in 1994. Melbourne rider Andy van Bergen and his Hells 500 cycling club later launched a private Everesting event in 2014 and they remain the custodians of the global challenge,
listing all the rules online (everesting.cc). The challenge must be done in a single ride (no sleep, but rest breaks are allowed) and on the same hill (not multiple climbs or different routes up one climb). You can also now try an Everesting challenge on Zwift.
Choose your poison
You can select any hill but if it’s too long the mileage will drain you, and if it’s too steep your muscles will burn. The top recordholders have opted for average gradients of eight to 15 per cent and covered overall distances of 121-227km, so it’s a highly personal choice. Thomson chose a steep 14.6 per cent gradient, allowing for a shorter 121km ride. “I chose it because I was trying to go fast, but the dream hill would be nine to 11 per cent so it’s efficient but doesn’t wear your legs out. Choose somewhere quiet with good scenery. A few people chose a hill with a cafe or a pub, which is a good idea – if only for the toilets.”
Three-time Everester Mike Gluckman, 37, from London, opted for longer climbs. “I’ve done two at Box Hill, which is a gentle four per cent average and 2.5km long, so my 73 laps took eight to 12 minutes each, for 360km overall. I also did a 13km, 40-minute climb in Tenerife, so I only needed 12 reps, which really helped with the boredom.”
Gary Hand, a former Scottish road race champion and coach at Espresso Cycle Coaching (espressocyclecoaching.com), suggests choosing a gradient that suits your strengths - but on a short climb of 1.1km: “This is about the length riders can produce a good climbing output wattage, yet it’s short enough that, due to ‘cardiac lag’, the rider wouldn’t reach the higher heart-rate zone until the end.” Because your heart rate takes a while to shoot up – the ‘cardiac lag’
I WOULD THOROUGHLY RECOMMEND G IV ING IT A GO . AND NOW IS A GOOD T I ME . WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO DO?"
ALICE THOMSON
Hand mentions - if you do a 10-minute climb in power-zone three (76-90 per cent functional threshold power, FTP; the average power you can hold for an hour), for fit riders you should only tip into heart-rate zone three (75-82 per cent maximum heart rate) near the summit. At that point on a 1.1km climb, you’ll get to descend, allowing your heart rate to recover.
Hand also suggests using a straight climb to speed up your descent and minimise dangers. “The turn at the top should ideally have a steep section so you can collect speed without pushing the pedals,” he adds. “Remember, you don’t need to use a full climb, just the bit that suits you.” Wherever you choose, the Everesting website has a handy online calculator to help you work out the ominous reps required.
Train for the pain
Everesting is a gruelling challenge and riders need to train accordingly. Alice Thomson trained by riding the 180km between Bristol and London to visit her friends, signed up for a 300km audax and performed regular hill reps. “I’d only been cycling for a year so it was just about building up time in the saddle,” she says. Mike Gluckman insists long rides help you to manage your body, too: “You learn how to stay comfortable as the miles tick by and how to avoid chaffing by adjusting your key contact points like your saddle, shoes and handlebars.”
Hand suggests you tailor your training to your climb, including the length of the ascent, the downhill recovery time and the gradient. “There’s no better preparation than on the actual climb - or at least one that matches those three components,” he says. “We suggest one hill-rep session per week on your hill at event-day pacing for familiarisation of the demands.”
He recommends one long but lowintensity ride per week, ideally of around five hours but upping the time by 30 minutes each week. “The goal is to build more mitochondria [energy factories in your cells] and to become more effective at utilising fat as a fuel source. You want to have ridden 75 per cent of your estimated ride time before the big day.”
To boost your power and pain tolerance, add in some ‘over-under’ threshold efforts.
"THERE IS
NO BETTER PREPARAT ION FOR AN EVEREST ING CHALLENGE THAN ON THE ACTUAL CL I MB ITSELF"
GARY HAND
Alternate between 30 seconds at zone five (a VO2 max effort at 106-120 per cent FTP) and one minute of sweet-spot efforts (tough but sustainable, at 88-93 per cent FTP) for five or six reps. Aim for three blocks to start with and build up to eight blocks, with five minutes of easy riding between each block. Add 15 seconds to your efforts each week. “This will help trigger an adaptation in raising your functional threshold power due to the demands it places on your lactic response system,” says Hand.
He also recommends ‘over-geared’ zonethree (tempo ride, 76-90 per cent FTP) sessions. Do two blocks of 15-minute efforts in a big gear, at around 80rpm, with five to 15 minutes of easy riding in between. Add 10 minutes to each block per week. “This will build muscular endurance and improve your fatigue resistance,” explains Hand. If you have extra training time, do some zone two (steady state, 56-75 per cent FTP) rides. “It will give you a bigger engine to suppress the onset of fatigue.”
Weighty matters
Richard Tucker, a physiologist and nutrition consultant (humanperformancelab.co.uk), says losing weight in the weeks beforehand can really help your climbing performance. “If weight loss is a goal, then the number one rule is to create an energy deficit,” he says. “A deficit of 500-750 kcals per day should be the aim, without your training being compromised.”
Tucker also suggests a few adaptations to encourage your body to burn more fat for
fuel. Try a few low-to-moderate intensity rides on a low-carb diet (less than 100g of carbs per day) and some fasted morning rides when your glycogen is depleted, though monitor how you feel as both of these can stress your immune system. And eat more healthy dietary fats, such as avocados, nuts, seeds, fish and olive oils.
These changes will encourage your body to burn fat at higher intensities, thus sparing your glycogen supplies for later in the day. “Metabolic flexibility is the ability to switch from burning fats and carbohydrates,” says Tucker, “and it’s important for all cyclists on an Everesting challenge.” But he insists you should eat carbs before hard sessions to get the most out of your workout.
Staying fuelled during the climbs is a challenge in itself (see box opposite), but the secret is to have a wide range of snacks to match your moods. Thomson opted for loaf cakes, chocolate-spread wraps and Haribo; Gluckman ate cereal bars and nuts. “My mum even cooked some fried eggs by the roadside,” he says. “Fat has twice as many calories as carbs, so I included pork pies and crisps, which offered salt replenishment, too. Training your stomach beforehand to consume all these calories is important, so you learn what works for you.”
Extra gains
Everesting riders can use any bike, but the organisers recommend at least a 28T rear cassette to survive the relentless climbing. Ronan McLaughlin dropped the weight of his Specialized Tarmac SL6 to 6.2kg by using a three-speed drivetrain and cutting the drops off his handlebars. But Thomson rode her normal 8.3kg Genesis Zero 3 bike and simply added an 11-40T mountain-bike cassette. Gluckman used a standard 53/39 x 12/28 gearing for his challenges, but he also completed one Everesting ride on a single-speed bike with a low gear of 39 x 22. “It meant I had to control my effort far more so it actually regulated the pace well.”
During the ride, you’ll welcome some fresh bib-shorts and dry socks, and maybe a rain jacket, so set up a ‘base camp’ where friends can hand out your kit. The camaraderie will come in handy, too. “I had my club mates, my partner and friend there when I was having my low spell,” says Thomson, “and somebody even brought their kids to make a racket.”
When the big day arrives, try to follow a pre-planned timing strategy. Thomson aimed for six-minute ascents, 90-second descents and a 10-minute break every 10
I H IT A PHASE WHERE I WAS REALLY HOT , MY BUM WAS HURT ING I FELT S ICK AND MY LEGS WERE
L IKE SLUGS"
ALICE THOMSON
I KEPT R ID ING PAST THE SAME P INE CONE AT BEND TWO , SO I NAMED HM I PETER AND WE HAD A SER IES OF CONVERSAT IONS"
MIKE GLUCKMAN
reps. “I found it fun for the first three hours: ‘This is great, I am making progress, I have my playlists.’ And then I hit a phase where I was really hot, I felt sick, my bum was hurting and my legs were like slugs.”
Hand suggests you play around with your optimal pacing on a test run. “For most riders, a power somewhere on the line between low zone three and high zone two climbing lap averages would be great. Riding higher than zone three into threshold power would be difficult with the physiological demands of Everesting and the calorie intake required.”
Expect things to turn weird, warns Gluckman: “I was on my own at night for the single-speed effort and kept riding past the same pine cone at bend two, so I named him Peter and we had a series of conversations. I was crushed when I found him squashed by a car! But distractions can be helpful. Ricky Gervais podcasts were my solace.”
Thomson’s world record was fuelled by podcasts and playlists, too. “I enjoyed the Silk Road Mountain Race podcast in which they’ve all got diarrhoea and food poisoning or are stuck in a snowstorm, so it was inspiring to hear other people having an awful time. I had Radio 4’s Women’s Hour on, too. And when I got to a sad place, I put my turbo playlist on. I’d often say to myself, ‘This is the worst bit and if I can get through this I can finish it.’”
Twelve hours and 32 minutes after her 5.30am start, Thomson did exactly that. “I was super–happy at the end,” she says, “but I was so tired that I was in bed by 9pm.”
Now it’s your turn.