How many of us have seen a movie where one of the characters is about to fall from a skyscraper, and a miraculous hand appears out of nowhere to save them at the last second?
What I experienced during my vEveresting’s 7th ascent of Alpe du Zwift on Saturday 29th January 2022 is proof that this sort of things also happens in real life.
Saved by Christian
As I was being swallowed by a mental black hole and ready to throw the bike off a Watopian precipice, Christian Wieland saw my struggle and decided to continuously write to me through Zwift Companion while maintaining a steady but affordable pace. It was just the time I needed to forget about the pain and rebuild some strength to overcome the last 2k of elevation. Christian stayed by my side until 8848m and created something bigger than just me against ADZ. From then I knew I had won. I just can’t thank him enough.
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Why vEveresting, again!?
Back in October 2021, as most IRL Gran Fondo events I was supposed to race were canceled because of COVID, I agreed with my coach to prepare for a new vEveresting attempt, this time consciously preparing it.
(Last year in January 2021 I joined a group of riders attempting the challenge together. Although I did finish, I could not help but think that with better preparation I could do much better.)
With tons of Z2 hours and tens of thousands of meters of elevation accumulated in the last three months, I had hope that this time, my legs would be good enough to continue up to 10k elevation once the Everesting completed.
We agreed on a target power (3-3.2 w/kg) and also a nutrition plan. Taking into account that following my bypass surgery I have a reduced stomach we had to adapt carbs, proteins, and liquid intake. To make sure I was not dehydrating I would weigh myself after each climb. I started at 79.5 kg (175.2 pounds).
The Figures
Saturday 29th January: here we go. I summarized everything in a table:
You can easily spot the crisis during the 7th ascent, which required me to rest for a while.
8.5 ascents of ADZ, with a sub 60 minutes average per climb. I could not be happier. I pushed to 10k elevation in “cool-down” mode at 2.5 w/kg 😂.
Started at 7h30 AM, finished at 21h30. 14 hours overall. By then a lot of people were congratulating me saying I should feel proud. However, at 21h35 I rather felt like s**t.
Throughout the challenge, I was never by myself. I received tons of cheering messages, thank you all. Special thanks to Coalition riders joining me on ADZ’s slopes (Nils, Francesco, Maxime), and of course Christian.
Post Mortem: Will I Do It Again?
Sunday 30th in the morning I am surprisingly in good shape. I can almost walk as any human being would.
Looking back at the key success factors, without a doubt the preparation made me enter the challenge with a very solid physical capacity. Having a plan to stick to definitely helps.
Second success factor: having a community supporting you is a winner.
Third item: after Amanda (Kickr V4 Smart Trainer) and Hector (Kickr Climb), Walter the Rocker Plate has now joined the paincave family. And Walter is a life changer on longer rides.
Despite the preparation and everything you can imagine, in the end this is still a freaking crazy challenge. The conclusion is therefore super easy: I am never doing it again… am I?
Great achievement Frerot ! PDSR
PDSR!!!
You did awesome, mate! And what a pace it was.
Was fun!!!! You launched me like a rocket!
Congrats! When I read stuff like this I wish I wasn’t so old and had a VO2max of a granite pebble.
Of course you will do again but make it an event! Group effort, charity ride, or something to make it a party! Because after doing it twice, an effort just to do will seem like drudgery.
Hello. Last year I accompanied during 3 climbs of ADZ the first +80yo vEverester. An incredible story.
I think that if I do it again it will be IRL and for a charity yes. With some IRL firends. Thanks !
Brilliant achievement. You should have told me you were doing it and I would have knocked out a few ascents with you. I still owe you from when you saved my VEveresting challenge.
I actually saw you on the Alpe as I rode it that morning but you were descending as I was going up.
Congratulations.
Congrats big time and thanks for sharing! Out of curiosity: How do you get the numbers in the chart? How do you pull them together? There is a Strava segment – but otherwise from that? Thanks
Thanks!
Climb time: from the strava segment
Climb avg power: Strava segment
W/kg: avg power from Strava segment divided by my weight (that’s obvious but just in case)
Climb HR: Strava segment
Total cumulated elapsed time: done manually from Strava activity, you slide the activity until the top of the ADZ, it shows perfectly in the map. Noted the time at the top of each climb.
Total cumulated Moving time: this one is from the snapshots taken at the top of each climb in ADZ chart. Zwift shows the cumulated Moving time. You can see all those snapshots in my zwift activity
Rest: difference between moving time and elapsed time per climb.
Weight: hahaha. Garmin Index S2 scale
Comments: from my own experience. You don’t want to know how those bibs looked like in the seventh Climb 🙂
Can you tell me more about Walter and why it made such a big difference?
See https://zwiftinsider.com/lucianotes-rocker-plate/
Congratulations on such a good time.
I also want to do a vEverest in the future but since I don’t have that high of a FTP I will most likely need about 75 minutes per climb (at the start). That means at least 2 hours more in the saddle than you *ouch*
Last year I did it at 70 minutes average per climb. In any case good luck on your challenge. When are you planning to do it?
I currently plan to do it in late March or in April. Finding the free time to ride the entire day is the hard part for me.
Then if you do it during the weekend let me know here or through Facebook or Zwift Companion and I try to share one climb with you
Thanks, I appreciate the company. It will be very likely on a Friday though as weekend time is family time.
An entertaining article; impressive riding.
Great effort! 👍 Very inspiring post to read 😀
I hope to be able to do both a vEveresting and an Everesting in the future.
You wrote: “With tons of Z2 hours”, does that mean powerzone 2?
Why is that important as training for a vEveresting?
Can you help to explain how I should do training to be best prepared for the challenge?
Hello. First of all I am no expert at all in training. I have a coach designing my structured program.
You have a Facebook group on Everessting with tons of advices from very knowledgeable people which helped a lot. Both for pre attempt but specially on tips on how to engage in your vEveresting attempt on D Day. If you don’t have a coach I would advise that you go to the fb group and ask whatever your doubt is. This is a great community.
My personal preparation was the following:
During October and November most of the workouts were 2hours+ Power Zone 2, most of the time with cadence changes during intervals (ie 8 minutes at 65RPM followed by 8 minutes at 95RPM at 265w, while my FTP is around 350). This was combined with IRL at least 3000D+ elevation sessions during the weekend.
Then all December and January, most of the workouts were about 1h20 per day with Sweet Spot intervals with microbreaks… for example 90 minutes workout with 10 minutes warm up, then 7 intervals of 10 minutes at 320w with 20 seconds microbreak and again 10 minutes 320w interval and so on….
7 weeks before the vEveresting I made a 3xADZ test with the first climb at 95% FTP, second and third at 90%.
5 weeks before everesting I did a 4xADZ sub 60 minutes test (my target was to vEverest at an average between 60 and 62 minutes per ADZ climb).
2 weeks before everesting I did a last test with 4xADZ.
By then I was super confident I would.be able to maintain 3,2wkg pace for the entire Everessting.
Last week before everesting was very softish with Z1 and Z2 1 hour sessions in order to get fully rested by Saturday (D Day).
I hope it helps.
If you have any question don’t hesitate to DM me through Facebook messenger
Look, this would be a typical session at 90-94% FTP intervals with microbreaks. Helped me a lot increasing my capacity to sustain efforts at 80% FTP
https://strava.app.link/3APH3JLpAnb
And this is the Everesting FB group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/everesting/?ref=share
Thanks a lot for your thorough answers! 🙏
Now I have a good start of where to begin.
I have joined the FB group so the road to sky is on 😁
It’s just to keep on climbing the Alpe then 😅 and some more..