Everesting Monitor Pass (West)

Strava File: Everesting: Monitor Pass (West)

This is my 5th successful Everesting attempt. Here are links to the other 4: Geiger Grade, Monitor Pass, Nevada 844, and Under the Freeway Climb.

The Climb

Strava Segment

This side of Monitor Pass is 8.2 miles at 6%. It starts off easy, then there is a tough section that's 1.3 miles at 10%. This part is long and straight, so it doesn't look as steep as it is, which can be very demoralizing. It's also exposed to the elements and heat can be an issue. Luckily, if it's windy it's most likely a tailwind. (Don't worry, I had plenty of headwinds when I did the other side.) After the steep part the road levels off for a bit, followed by a short downhill. Then the road kicks up again. There are more curves and some trees, so this section doesn't seem as bad as the first steep part. Around mile 7.5 you'll reach what looks like the summit, but you have to go down a short hill and back up again to reach to true summit at mile 8.2.

Factoring in the downhills, it takes 11 repeats to cross over the 29,029 mark.

The Ride

Total time was 17:01:58. Ride time was 14:57:43. I was really hoping to cut down my off-bike time, but as you can see I failed at that goal. I did stop for 11 minutes to help a guy fix a flat tire, so let's just round off-bike time to 2 hours. I don't know what it is with the off-bike time. I always hit a bad patch (this time after climb #6) and take a long break to recover. Then on the later climbs I feel like I can't get enough food in me unless I stop to eat. I'm always battling not being able to eat enough. You'd think I would have learned my lesson by now. Every since my first Everest I've wanted to cut down my off-bike time. I've failed every time.

My other goal for today was to try to keep my climb times more consistent. In the past (and also on some failed attempts) I have tended to ride a little too hard early, which I pay for later. I made an effort to take it easier early on.

Did it work? I'm not so sure. Someone way smarter than me would have to go over all my old charts and compare them to this one. Here are the other ones I have.

NV 844

Under the Freeway

Geiger

Subjectively, I didn't feel like it really made a difference. It's not like I was feeling fresher than expected towards the end of the ride. It felt like a similar pattern. I started off well, then gradually got slower. Then I hit a bad stretch that made me want to quit, which was climb 6 this time. (Strangely enough, it doesn't really stand out so much on the chart like climb 6 from Geiger or climb 16 from NV 844.) I recovered and rode better for a while, then eventually fatigue set in towards the end.

I always have a bad climb somewhere in the middle. I'm convinced that this is mostly (perhaps completely) mental. I think my mind is trying to give me an excuse to quit. "Look, you're going slow. It can only get slower from here. How can you possibly continue for X more hours of this? You're already in your easiest gear."

I've quit at that point a few times before. If today was my first Everesting attempt, I wonder if I would have quit. I was fortunate that I had the experience to know that I would hit a rough patch, but if you just try one more climb you might be surprised at how quickly things can change for the better. That's Everesting's greatest lesson.

I like to think that cycling can teach life lessons, even though I'm not always the best at putting those lessons into practice. There are so many more lessons to learn. I'm eager to set new cycling goals and to learn from new challenges. I've had this feeling for the last few months that I need something new to focus on. I'm not sure yet what that something is.

Week 29

Date
July 18, 2017

Distance
105 miles

Strava Link
Week 29

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 

This is the same route I did for Week 26, but I went clockwise instead of counterclockwise this time. It's a good route, but today there was construction on Luther Pass and Kingsbury grade with flaggers on both sections. It wasn't too bad on Luther. I didn't wait very long and the pilot car went nice and slow, so I could keep up with traffic and not have to worry about the flagger sending oncoming traffic my way. Kingsbury was a different story. There was a huge line of cars and we all had to wait there for a pretty long time. It wasn't even road construction, really. They were getting rid of some trees by the side of the road. I made it through that section without the flagger sending on coming traffic at me, so I guess it was a good day.

I'm thinking about an Everesting attempt next week.

Week 28

Date
July 16, 2017

Distance
106 miles

Strava Link
Week 28

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 

This is a beautiful and difficult route. I went over Monitor and Ebbetts and kept going on 4 until I hit 50 miles, then turned around and did the other side of Ebbetts and Monitor. 4 is great. It's super scenic and there are some pretty steep sections of road. I should ride the rest of it one of these days.

Week 27

Date
July 9, 2017

Distance
103 miles

Strava Link
Week 27

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 

I drove to Phoenix this weekend, so I stopped along the way in Big Pine to do some climbing. There are a ton of great climbs in the Bishop/Big Pine area and I've never done any of them. That's pretty stupid considering how close I live. I drive through at least once a year during the winter or early spring on my way to Death Valley and I always say to myself that I should come back during the summer. I've never actually done it.

I focused on 3 climbs that are very close together: Glacier Lodge (9.6 miles at 7%), White Mountain (19.4 miles at 6%), and Waucoba Canyon (13 miles at 5%). In total it was 103 miles and 14,000 feet. I'm pretty sure that's the most climbing I've ever done in 100 miles without doing repeats. I also rode at 10,000 feet high for a short while, which I don't think I've ever done before.

Glacier Lodge wasn't as difficult as I expected. It's long and steep, but I was still fresh and there weren't any ridiculously steep sections. It reminded me of the east side of Monitor Pass because it starts off relaxed, has a long and steep section in the middle, then finishes off with a flatter section. The road surface is pretty good and I didn't see much traffic up there at all. What more could you ask for? I highly recommend this one. There are some campgrounds near the top that looked like a nice place to stay, especially considering that it got over 100 degrees down in the valley today.

White Mountain is really 2 climbs in one. You start out on 168, which is 10.5 miles at 6%. Again, the roads were smooth and there wasn't much traffic. It's not a steady climb at all. The road is always changing from steep to not so steep, with a few short downhills thrown in for fun. That's good because it keeps your mind focused on the task at hand and the miles go by quickly. It's bad because it's hard to find a rhythm.

There's a little downhill, then you turn on to White Mountain Rd and begin the second portion of the climb. That part is 9.3 miles at 6%. It's even more of a roller coaster and the last 3.5 miles are the steepest. I found it very difficult. A lot of things were working against me at that point. As mentioned, I'd already been climbing for 16 miles or so and couldn't really find a rhythm. On top of that, you start riding over 9,000 feet, which is something I don't do that often. Was I feeling the altitude, fatigue, or both? It's hard to say for sure. What I can say is that the scenery was fantastic on this portion of the climb. Again, there's hardly any traffic out there. The road was in good shape, but the descent was pretty tricky on that 3.5-mile steep section near the top. There were a lot of tight corners, the roads were narrow, and there was some gravel on a few of the turns. You know me, though. I'm a wimpy descender even on the best roads.

Waucoba Canyon was the last climb. It was "only" 13 miles at 5%. It was also a fairly steady climb, so it was a good one to finish with. I had 3 issues, though. 1. I was tired. 2. There was a headwind. 3. It rained a little bit near the top. No serious problems, but it made for a long, slow grind. There was hardly any traffic on this road. Notice a theme? This climb had the worst road surface of the 3 (cracks), but I wouldn't call it bad. This was a fun climb and the scenery was pretty good. Anywhere else in the country and it would probably seem like a great climb. However, compared to the other 2 climbs (and the many more reasonably close) it felt a little less exciting than it should have. Or was I just tired and in a bad mood by then?

I need to head back to the area again to do some of the other big climbs.We'll see how it goes. I have a lot going on this summer. I'm trying to get my house ready to sell, plus I still want to ride across NV and get an Everesting done before the summer is over.

Week 26

Date
July 2, 2017

Distance
105 miles

Strava Link
Week 26

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 

I'm back in Nevada and things are back to normal, I guess. With the rough winter, the weeks I spent trying to do 400-mile rides, and RASN, I haven't done much climbing this year. Now it's July, the weather is great, and all the passes are open. That means I can do whatever I want. I just need to get my climbing legs back so I don't kill myself in the process.

I did 3 climbs today- Kingsbury, Luther, and Monitor. It wasn't too crazy of a route (just under 10,000 feet) and the climbs were pretty well spaced out with flat sections in between. Still, I'm not used to doing multiple climbs in a day and I could feel my strength fading away on the last climb. No big deal. That's exactly what I expected. I'll do more climbing next week and hopefully I get just a little bit better every week.

If everything goes well I hope to make an Everesting attempt by the end of July. Then I'll probably focus back on riding across Nevada in August. Meanwhile, I'll be doing a lot of work on my house and I hope to sell it by the end of the year. I'll have plenty of things to keep me busy this summer.

Week 25

Date
June 20, 2017

Distance
212 miles

Strava Link
Week 25

Route Map/Profile

Weather

Ride Video

Ride Report 

Day 9 of RASN. After what felt like a year of headwinds, I actually had a tailwind today. It was already blowing hard at 7:30 AM and I did my first 100 miles in about 5.5 hours. It calmed down a little during the middle of the day, but I still made it to Williston (the day's planned finish) after about 8.5 hours.

The tailwinds had me in a good mood and the quicker pace meant I was still feeling fresh, so I decided to just keep going all the way to Canada, which was only about 58 miles away at that point. Why waste a good tailwind? The wind actually picked up again towards the end of the day, so the last 58 miles went by pretty quickly.

It always feels good to finish a ride on a positive note. It was especially satisfying for this ride, because I had my rough moments out there in the wind, but those are mostly forgotten thanks to this ride.

As a whole, I was very happy with the ride. The route was solid. The plains were more interesting than anticipated. I rode pretty well, all things considered. I didn't have any flat tires. I didn't have any problems with motorists. I didn't get lost (except for trying to find one hotel). As much as I complained about the wind, the weather was pretty good. There were a few sprinkles here and there, but I only got rained on for real once. I did well with my nutrition. I never ran low on water. I kept up with my stretching. It just seemed like all of the little things went well. It was a great 9 days.