Everesting: Geiger Grade in Reno, NV

 

http://www.strava.com/activities/162271386

I don't remember how I heard about Everesting. I may have seen it on CyclingTips or perhaps I stumbled upon a file on Strava. What I do remember is that I immediately fell in love and had to try it for myself. The basic idea is to ride 8,848 meters/29,029 feet (the height of Mt. Everest) of repeats on one climb. Half of the fun was deciding which climb to do.

Comparing Climbs

The first climb that came to mind was Geiger Grade, the first climb I rode on my first visit to Reno and the climb I do most often. It's 7.7 miles at 5%, and I would have to do 14 repeats for a total of 215 miles.

Mt. Rose (East) was my second thought. It's essentially Geiger Grade times two- 16.6 miles at 5%. It would take 7 repeats for a total of 232 miles. The bad news is that there's construction going on on Mt. Rose highway right now, so I ruled it out immediatly. I doubt I would have chosen Mt. Rose if not for the construction. I like the sound of only doing 7 repeats, but it can feel like a long climb even with fresh legs. I can't imagine what that 7th one would feel like. I felt like I could stay close to the 1-hour mark on Geiger Grade, even on the last few climbs.

On the short end of the spectrum, I considered Gold Hill, which is 1.8 miles at 9%. That translates to 34 repeats and 123 miles. 34 may sound high, but check out the Everesting HOF and you'll see that others have done much higher numbers than that. I liked the idea of only riding 123 miles, but I was afraid that I wouldn't have much time to recover on the descents. Again, I compared it to Geiger, where I would have 15 minutes of rest on each descent.

I also considered Gold Hill's less steep counterpart, the 341 Truck Route. It comes in at just under 5 miles at 5%. This climb isn't as steady as Mt. Rose or Geiger. It's steeper in the middle and eases off for almost a mile towards the end. It would take 23 repeats and 225 miles. Traffic is very light out there and I love the 341 descent.

A few other options crossed my mind. Kingsbury (13 repeats, 205 miles), US 50 (14 repeats, 254.8 miles), and 6 Mile Canyon (19 repeats, 224 miles). There are tons of other climbs around Tahoe and I could even head towards Markleeville and do Monitor or Ebbetts. However, Geiger Grade just felt right to me. It was in the Goldilocks zone- long but not too long, steep enough but not too steep. On top of it all, Geiger Grade has that sentimental value to me. When I want to know where my fitness stands, I go as hard as I can up Geiger. I've tested myself there so many times. It was only appropriate that the biggest test yet should happen on the same road.

Training

I was already in training mode for the Alta Alpina Challenge (200 miles, 20,000 feet), so the timing was perfect. I was up to 130 miles with 16,000 feet, so I was looking for a ride of ~150 miles with at least 15,000 feet. I decided to try 10 repeats of Geiger to both prepare for the AAC and see if I was Everesting material. That ride went pretty well for me. I finished in just under 12 hours and learned a few things along the way. I don't do many repeats when I'm training. I don't know why, but that's just never been my style. So most importantly I think I was training my mind of how to make it work. I know it's cliche, but you really have to take one climb at a time or things get overwhelming.

Here are the Strava links for that ride: Part 1, Part 2.

Here are the times for all 10 climbs:

My interpretation was that I started out too fast. 38.5 minutes isn't a fast time on a normal day, but I'm not doing 10 climbs on a normal day. As you can see, there was a big jump between climbs 4 and 5. I wanted to start a little slower next time and see if that would change anything.

After the 10 repeats I took an easy week, then two weeks later was the Alta Alpina Challenge. I didn't ride all that well at the AAC, but I did finish. I guess the good news is that I learned how to climb with dead legs. At a certain point I felt like I was going in slow motion, but I just had to keep moving. Put the ego aside and just finish. I had to do a lot of that when I was Everesting.

After the AAC I planned to do the same thing- take an easy week and try Everesting two weeks later. I didn't have the patience to wait. I felt good by the middle of the recovery week and decided that as long as the winds weren't in the 15-25mph range, I was going to give it a shot.

Everesting- The Ride

(Strava Link)

Let's start with a weather report: temperatures in the mid 90s with 10-15mph winds. I don't mind the heat. I worry more about the wind. 10-15mph is a normal day around here, so all in all it was a beautiful day to ride.

I started the ride at 3:20 AM. The temperature was about 60 and I had my leg warmers on and a jacket in my pocket for the descent. My two goals were to (1) take it easy on the first few climbs and (2) be sure to eat and drink early on. I was able to accomplish both goals.

As you can see, the first climb was slower than last time. I'm not so sure if the strategy paid off or not. I'll get into that more later, but for the first 4 climbs at least, everything was going to plan. I was really enjoying being out there in the morning. Obviously my legs were fresher, plus it was just so peaceful out there, especially on the first two climbs. I felt like I had the whole mountain to myself. When the sun started coming up, I had a great view of the alpenglow on Mount Rose.


Nutrition is always a challenge on long rides like this. I find that I can get away with almost anything up to 6-7 hours, but once I go past 7 or 8 I find it difficult to get enough calories in. Today more than ever I wanted to be on top of things. I'm a small guy (5'7", 136 pounds on the morning of the ride), so I have a hard time digesting anything more than 200 calories per hour. On a short ride I eat almost all of my calories, but on a long ride I try to eat half and drink half. For the first two climbs I was drinking water and eating fig bars. For climbs 3-6 I was drinking Gatorade or Heed and eating fig bars. After climb 6 I was sick of fig bars and started drinking more calories. I would eat whatever sounded good at the moment when I got back to the car. I had a mixture of bananas, Doritos, Wheat Thins, Skittles, and Sprite. Not exactly the health food of champions.

It was a hot day, so I was taking in 1-2 Endurolytes per hour. Placebo or not, I find that they work for me. I was drinking about one bottle per hour, which is about as high as I can go without getting sick to my stomach. I was switching between Gatorade, Heed, and plain old water. I know a lot of people hate Gatorade, but it works for me. When I was having a long break (after 6, 8, 10, and 12) I'd drink Sprite. I don't know why, but I really love Sprite during a break. I went through more than 2 liters throughout the day. Again, not health food of champions. As much as I tried to drink, I still went from 135.6 pounds in the morning to 127.8 pounds after the ride. That's a 5.75% weight loss. I'm not sure how avoidable dehydration is on such a difficult ride. I couldn't have had much more to drink without upsetting my stomach.

Back to the ride. The first 4 climbs were relatively uneventful. I told myself that after climb 6 I'd take a longer break at my car (at the bottom of the climb at 341/Kivett). For some reason I felt like crap on climb 6. I experienced a similar thing when I did 10 repeats, but that time it was climb 5. You can see the big spike on climb #6 on the graph above. I took a long break, ate some Doritos, and bounced back. Climb 7 was better, and then on climbs 8-10 I settled into a consistent pace (slow, but consistent). At this point I was taking a long break after every even-numbered climb.

Climb 1: The Geiger Summit sign in the dark

Alpenglow over Mt. Rose. Pictures don't do it justice.

I knew I could complete 10 climbs. It's what came after the 10th climb that worried me. I had no idea what to expect. Would I keep riding at a similar pace? Would I really hit a wall and get super slow? Doubt started to creep in. 4 more climbs may not sound like a whole lot, but I knew it would take 5 hours at the very least (it ended up taking 6).

Climb 11 was the most difficult of the day by far. I'd like to say the wind picked up or the heat was getting to me, but I was simply doubting myself. Part of me wanted to quit. My mind wanted my body to give it an excuse to quit. The main thought in my head was, "I didn't come this far to give up now." I've quit a few things in my life, and I'm not just talking about bike rides. Quitting sucks.

Once climb 11 was over, I knew that climb 12 was the make or break climb. If I had a solid climb 12 I knew I was going to finish. If I didn't, who knows? Luckily for me, I had a solid climb. I was starting to settle into a rhythm. It was a slow rhythm, but it was a rhythm.

I continued the positive streak into climb 13. Climb 13 felt like the last climb in my mind. Once 13 was over I knew I'd do anything to finish climb 14. The rhythm continued. I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you look at climbs 12-14, that's what my body was capable of at that moment. Climb 11 is what happened when my mind interfered.

I had a rush of energy at the beginning of climb 14. I shifted into a gear that I would have been using 12 hours ago and said to myself, "I'm going to ride this one hard." It was a fun little moment, but it didn't even last 5 minutes until reality set in and I had to settle back into the pace that I was using for climbs 12 and 13. The good news is that I didn't ruin my rhythm and I was able to find that pace again. I wasn't in celebration mode quite yet. I was focused on the task at hand.

The feeling at the top of climb 14 was more relief than anything else. I was too exhausted to do any fist pumping or shouting. I just stood there at the summit trying to catch my breath and trying to make sense of it all. As I write this (3 days later), I'm still not sure what to think. I'm just grateful that I'm healthy enough to enjoy the beautiful sport of cycling. I'm grateful that there are groups out there like Hells 500 who have the spirit that embraces a good challenge. I never would have thought about doing this on my own. I'm inspired to find the next challenge and I hope it will be as fun and rewarding as this one was.

If you've ever done a long ride you probably know that feeling towards the end when you say to yourself, "I'm never going to do this again." You're also probably familiar with changing your mind. I'm not ready to commit yet, but I'm kicking around the idea of trying a shorter and steeper hill. We'll see what happens.

Once again, thanks to Hells 500 for the inspiration!