Breakfast and Weigh In

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With my recent purchase and use of the Tacx Neo 2T and setting Zwift at 100% trainer difficulty, the vEveresting challenge has gone up drastically.

This week I went to a local bike store to purchase and upgrade my 11-28 cassette to a 11-32 for both my road and tri bike, 32 teeth adds more gearing for climbing. Since the road bike is more comfortable for climbing and overall trainer rides, I have decided to complete and train for the vEveresting challenge on it.

Yesterday’s original goal was to complete 5 x Alpe Du Zwift in an estimated 8 hour goal. Also the intension was to start early at 4:30 am so I could wrap up around 12:30 to continue family day, however despite waking up early it took me a while to setup and get on the trainer. I started the ride at 5:30 am.

Pain Cave

Estimated laps and times

Lap 1	~ 255 watts	~ 1hr 15 minutes
Lap 2	~ 255 watts	~ 1hr 15 minutes
Lap 3	~ 255 watts	~ 1hr 15 minutes
Lap 4	~ 255 watts	~ 1hr 15 minutes
Lap 5	~ 255 watts	~ 1hr 15 minutes
Estimated finish time		~ 8 hours

The hardest parts of the ADZ course were when gradients got to 12%+ and I had to spin at 60 rpm or less using 39-32 gear ratio, this by no means is a comfort zone I am willing to endure for event day as this is way too much grinding than I am use to, for a shorter ride sure this has no effect but attempting Alpe Du Zwift 8 times having to be at 60 rpm for some efforts will surely bring in much unwanted lactic acid way too early in the ride. This was the exact scenario yesterday. By the third lap of ADZ my legs were feeling the pain of the hills of low cadence work.

Mental

Mentally I had decided to just complete 4 laps at that point and call it a day. However upon the 4th descent and some more nutrition I opted to complete half the vEveresting distance (14, 514 feet) by climbing ADZ again and doing approximately 1000 feet of climbing before doing a U-turn back down.

For the last climb I definitely felt much better and knew I had what’s needed to complete a 5th lap if I had to, but I needed to end the ride then as I didn’t want to away any more of the family weekend time.

Nutrition

On this ride I took 5 gels, 2 red bulls, 2 bottles of mixed (gatorade and maltodextrin), 1 banana and 1 coconut water as sources of Nutrition. I anticipate more solids during event day. Also I took in 3 salt tablets every hour.

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Actual laps and times

That 4th lap caught my stopping on Alpe Du Zwift several times just to stretch an flush out lactic acid. Stopping on the climb does continue the clock as opposed to stopping at the bottom 🤣

Lap 1	245 watts	1hr 16 minutes
Lap 2	236 watts	1hr 19 minutes
Lap 3	217 watts	1hr 26 minutes
Lap 4	198 watts	1hr 35 minutes
Lap 4.3	n/a	n/a
Finish time		7 hours

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Entertainment

My entertainment setup included a selection of Apple TV movies which included The Banker and Greyhound. Apple TV has great offline support so I’ll be adding several movies to it for event day.

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Calories Burnt

Strava Ride

The complete ride took 7 hours. Total elevation was 14,547 feet.

Basecamp Everesting Badge

everesting.cc:

To get to base camp you need to climb half the height of the largest mountain on earth: Everest – a total of 4,424m (14,514ft). Whether it’s a stepping stone to the summit or your final destination, hit between 4,424m and 8,847m and you’ll earn the Basecamp badge.

This Basecamp everesting ride has been approved by everesting.cc and is now on the Ride Hall of Fame.

Next Week – Taper begins

Next week I will be entering into taper week so my longest ride will be on the weekend where I plan to complete at most 2 x Alpe Du Zwift. Also on the radar is swapping my compact crankset from my 2015 Scott Plasma 10 tri bike over to my 2010 Specialized Allez road bike. This will give me a 34-32 gear ratio that will hopefully increase my cadence on 12%+ to an ideal 70+ rpm.

Facts

Fact: vEveresting challenge will be 8.5 times up Alpe Du Zwift in order to complete the 8848 meters of climbing or 29,028 feet.

Fact: Fastest Alpe Du Zwift climb to date 53 minutes averaging 336 watts.

Fact: Slowest Alpe Du Zwift climb to date 1 hour 35 minutes averaging 198 watts.

Fact: Alpe Du Zwift climb in 3398 feet. 

Fact: Alpe Du Zwift descent takes approximately 10 minutes from bend #1.