Keeping Athletes Engaged During COVID- Everesting MTB Adventure

With no races on the immediate calendar, it is more important than ever for coaches to keep their athletes motivated and engaged. I have been getting creative with my workouts and asking my athletes to reevaluate their goals outside of racing. Now is a perfect time to get out there and cross off some of those big rides you’ve always wanted to do but didn’t fit into your race schedule. One itch I’ve been wanting to scratch is this challenge called “Everesting”. The concept of Everesting is simple- Pick any hill, anywhere in the world, and complete repeats of it in a single activity until you climb 8,848m – the equivalent height of Mt Everest. This is considered the most difficult climbing challenge in the world with 95% of most Everesters doing it on a road bike on pavement. I decided I wanted to do it on my mountain bike on dirt on the steepest climb in town. What a perfect way to engage some of my athletes and give their training more purpose. As a bonus, we can do it together since it’s up and down the same climb all day and doesn’t involve any major travel.

Sunday my alarm went off at 3am and I stumbled out of bed straight to the french press. Everything was prepared the night before so all I had to do was scarf down some food and drive my truck 5 minutes up the hill to the Lower Gold Camp/ High Drive parking lot. I pulled all the way up to the gate to get the closest spot to the start of the climbing segment. We would have to climb this segment 26 times to reach our goal. I’ve been training 6 of my athletes for this event for the last month and now it was time for 5 of us to try and reach our individual goals (one lives in Dolores and is doing it this Saturday). 4 of my athlete’s goals were to complete the Full Everesting (29,029 feet vert) with 2 of them doing the Half Everesting. We strapped on our lights, started our Garmins, and headed off into the dark and cold (30 degrees). We all rode together for the first couple of laps as we watched the sun come up over Colorado Springs. A nice and easy endurance pace was set since we all knew what was in store. I did a specific training ride last week of almost a Half Everesting on High Drive and my other guys had done at least 5 laps to prepare. The pacing would be key and making sure to closely monitor your heart rate and power. A Z1/2 heart rate and power would be the prescribed dose of the day.

On the 3rd lap, I and one other rider slowly slipped away from the other guys as the legs and temperature started to warm up. On the 4th lap, I got a small gap on the descent which put me off the front. I stuck to my same power and heart rate zones and continued to maintain a steady climbing cadence of 80ish RPMs. I got into a rhythm of eating at the top of each climb as a reward. I pre-made some sticky rice bars with bacon and eggs mixed in and a sweet potato/date/chia seed puree, both extremely easy to digest and wash down with Carbo Rocket. I ate these two things for the first 10-12 hours. Eventually, I got tired of them and incorporated slices of bacon, muffins, and a turkey/avocado sandwich. When it was cold I was drinking about 1/2 a bottle a lap but as it warmed up to a high of 70 degrees I started drinking almost an entire bottle a lap. I also ate some electrolyte pills since I got a bit dehydrated around the 12-hour mark. I ate 1 energy gel with 75 mg of caffeine around lap 15 which gave me an instant boost of energy and had me pushing 240-250 watts which were 20-30 watts more then I was pushing normally. I held this power for the next 3 laps but then paid the price for the effort as I burned more calories than I ingested which lead to a small caloric deficit and caused a bit of a bonk with some dehydration. I noticed the drop in power and ate a muffin, some more bacon, and got some electrolyte drink in me and the fat helped bring me back to life and return to a normal power profile. At this point, I’d been riding for 12-13 hours, mostly in my fat burning zone, but had been eating more carbohydrates than fat. From my experience racing the Colorado Trail I know how important it is to get a balance of fats, carbs, and protein during these all-day slogs.

At this point, I was approaching lap 20 which was a huge milestone and I told myself that once I made it to lap 20 I would reward myself with 5 minutes of yoga, a 2nd dose of Amp PR Lotion, and allowing myself to listen to my headphones. After a quick stretch, I put on some uplifting beats and jammed out the next two laps. The high energy electronic music gave me another burst of energy and I cranked out another 2 strong laps with a 5% increase in power. I also paid for this effort as the last 2 laps it got dark, the temps dropped, and my stomach didn’t feel like eating or drinking much of anything. This is when survival mode started to kick in and it was just about getting the job done. I went into a deep meditative state and don’t really remember much from the last 2 laps other than being super stoked at the top of the last climb. I took it slow on the final descent to make extra sure I didn’t crash or do something stupid due to fatigue, being super cold, and the shadows messing with my vision. I rounded the final corner and bombed down the last pitch and saw my wife and dog waiting for me. I stopped my Garmin and hit the save button and knew I was officially done. 16 hours, 55 min, and 29 secs. 31,646 feet of vert. More than 15,000 feet of climbing than I had ever done in a day. I got out of my wet and cold clothes and ate some warm pasta w meat sauce and yelled words of encouragement to the other riders who each had a few laps to go. I’d been dreaming of that post-ride beer for a few hours now but when Natalie offered it to me it didn’t even sound good. I guess there’s a first time for everything.

After doing this event there are a few things worth noting from a training/pacing perspective-

Every time I went harder than my predetermined pace I paid for it with an almost immediate loss of power. I recommend avoiding large doses of caffeine (25mg or more) to maintain a more balanced pace with more stable power and heart rate.
Fueling and proper hydration are so important in events like these. All it took was missing one feed and it would lead to a mini bonk and loss of power. Keep the tank topped off at all times.
Events like these require a strong mindset with motivation and a positive attitude is crucial. Setting small goals like eating, drinking, stretching/yoga, listening to music, and even checking off each lap by marking it on my handlebar gave me something to look forward to when motivation started to drop.
Community inspires energy. Seeing so many other trail users and mountain bikers going up and down the course gave me an extra boost of energy each time someone cheered for me or found out what we were doing. Knowing that 5 of my athletes were out there going through the same thing and that we were all in this together really helped me to keep turning over the pedals when things got hard. Also, raising money for a good cause is the perfect way to combine doing what you love and giving back to society. Knowing that you’re helping others is a great way to stay positive and push harder when the going gets tough.
At multiple points throughout this ride, the amount of steep climbing (avg 9.2% grade) gave me pain in both knees, my right hamstring, my arms, and my neck. I was able to avoid using any NSAIDs by rubbing large amounts of Seven Points CBD Balm on whatever body part was hurting. This is much safer since NSAIDs can be toxic for your kidneys especially when combined with dehydration.

All Strava stats can be found here.

Training Peaks Data Set-