First off. Woah! That was something else. This past week I had the idea to complete a virtual everesting, which was live-streamed to the Facebook page for the world to see. A virtual everesting is climbing the height of Mt. Everest (29,032 ft) on an indoor trainer using the platform called Zwift. To make it clear, you can accomplish a normal everesting attempt by choosing a local hill, and literally, ride up and down that same hill until you reach the elevation gain equal to the height of Mt. Everest. The only difference between an everesting and a virtual everesting is the use of the indoor trainer, which works perfectly for someone (like me) who lives where hills are sparse.
(SEE VIDEOS BELOW FOR AN ON-THE-BIKE EXPLANATION AND EXAMPLE)
You might ask how accurate it is to riding outside. My answer would be VERY accurate. I will explain more later, but Zwift uses your weight to determine how much your power affects your in-game rider. So keeping your weight updated in Zwift is very important. Utilizing the Wahoo kicker smart trainer also ensured that a 12% gradient felt like a 12% gradient. I also had the Wahoo Kickr climb attached to the front of my bike. The Kickr Climb adjusts the tilt to the front of the bike to make it feel like I was riding a gradient as well. Some really cool technology!
That segment of the live stream was taken very early in the attempt. You can still see a smile on my face! I had a smile on my face toward the end but it was a very delusional one. So hopefully if you haven't heard of Zwift or veveresting you understand the concept now before I dive into the details of the attempt.
The morning of 6/29/2021 I was feeling great. Two weeks prior I had attempted the Race Across the West and unfortunately had to cease our efforts early. You can read about that adventure here. I was ready to use all of that unused fitness and put it into another effort. So it felt right to knock off the bucket list item of virtual everesting. I woke up at approximately 6:00 AM. First thing first I weighed myself. For Zwift and the achievement to be fair, accurate weight is needed. This weight is inputted into Zwift. If I were to lie and say I was 150 lbs, rather than the 181 lbs that I weight that morning, I would FLY up the hills. I barely passed physics class, literally got a 60% not kidding, but this even makes sense to me. 150 lbs is a lot easier to move up a hill. So with my 181 lbs entered I had some breakfast and suited up. Today was going to be a long day. I was hoping to accomplish the effort around the 12 hr mark, with my goal to be under 16 hrs.
With my water bottles, SiS nutrition products, and other various snacks in hand, I jumped on the bike at around 7:23 AM. After a few technical difficulties starting the stream, I was off! I had chosen one of the steeper climbs in the world of Zwift called the Alpe Du Zwift. It resembles the real-world climb Alpe Each repetition up the Alpe D'Huez with its iconic switchback climbs, and its participation in the Tour De France.
Each climb up Alpe Du Zwift was equal to around 3,400 ft. of elevation gain. This meant that I needed to climb it approximately 8.5 times. My largest number of attempts in one day prior to this challenge was two. My fastest time up the mountain to date was 56 minutes thirty-two seconds. I knew that I wasn't going to come anywhere close to the sub-hour effort I did on 10/17/2020 and that I needed to pace myself for the marathon effort I was about to endure. 1 hr 15 minutes and 44 seconds later I was atop Alpe Du Zwift with my first attempt done. I managed to average 6.0 mi/h and 205 watts. My heart rate was consistently around the 135 bpm mark, and I was feeling great! I knew I needed to keep up on my caloric intake and hydration. Even though I was inside the somewhat climate-controlled garage rather than the 90-degree heat outside. At the start of my ride, the garage temperature was hovering in the mid-'70s. Thankfully the rules state that when you start the descent, you are allowed to hop off the bike and take care of any needs ie: bathroom, filling water bottles, getting any food, changing kits, and changing shoes. This was about a 10-minute break. I took advantage of these breaks perfectly each time, returning to the bike before reaching the bottom. The bike never stopped moving and I was very proud of this.
Each subsequent attempt up the mountain became more exhausting and tedious. Each 1k of elevation gain brought me closer to the 29,032 ft mark and that is what kept me going. My wife Emily was a huge part of the success as she brought out sweat towels, food, and water as needed. She also brought a lawn chair out to give me company at one time. The good news is that I never lost my appetite and was continually eating. I enjoyed not only Cliff bars and SiS nutrition gels/products, but things like chicken quesadillas, burritos, chicken dumplings, and an assortment of other foods. It wasn't until around the halfway mark when I felt my first feeling of defeat. With the climb being as steep as it was, an average of 8% gradient in most spots, and the trainer difficulty set to 100% as required by the rules, I couldn't spin my cadence up as I had wanted. I was average around 60 rpm. I normally spin at a minimum of 90 rpm. I also had the kicker climb attached and was working my climbing muscles hard. I was developing a small tic in my upper quad, and some wear above my knees, something I haven't felt before. Between sessions up the hill, I would use our Theragun to knock loose some knots. I was able to push past this and once I hit 20k of elevation gain things started to look up. I had a TON of supporters logging onto our live stream giving me encouragement and most importantly taking my mind off the effort. So many thanks to you all!
Here are each of my attempts up the mountain broken down for you.
Attempt One: 1 hr 15 min 44 sec 205 watts
Attempt Two: 1 hr 18 min 10 sec 198 watts
Attempt Three: 1 hr 21 min 26 sec 190 watts
Attempt Four: 1 hr 33 min 51 sec 164 watts
Attempt Five: 1 hr 38 min 44 sec 156 watts
Attempt Six: 1 hr 33 min 13 sec 165 watts
Attempt Seven: 1 hr 36 min 55 seconds 159 watts
Attempt Eight: 1 hr 46 min 27 seconds 144 watts
Attempt 8.5 (Not completely finished so no data)
After a grueling 14 hrs 48 minutes and 16 seconds, I had finished the virtual Everest challenge! I went a bit over the required number just to make sure I got the achievement. A total of 29,121 ft of elevation gain was achieved. 130.63 miles was ridden, 7,666 calories were burned, and I averaged 151 watts of power for the ride. This was a 1.83 w/kg average. I'll take it!
What did I learn you might ask. Well, I learned that I never want to spend over 14 hrs on a bike trainer again. I learned that more than one fan is needed. Kit changes are a must! I went through a total of 3 kits that day. Even after all the food I ate, I was still short on food and water. I lost a total of 8 lbs, weighing in at 173 lbs the next morning. But the feeling of accomplishment was amazing! Especially after coming up short at the Race Across the West. I had become one out of only 5,412 in the world to virtually Everest on a bicycle (And submit my ride).
What's next? To be honest I don't have anything set on the calendar for the rest of the year. But if someone has a suggestion, I would love to hear them! Take care everyone and RIDE ON!
-Mathew Wollmann
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