The Zwift Everesting Report a.k.a. yes some of us are nuts

by Adam Zimmerman, as told to Barb Blakley Millott

It all started with a bet...

A friend of mine posted in an online chat that he would give $100 to the first person (about 30 riders) if they completed the Everesting challenge. I have a hard time turning down most challenges whether it has to do with cycling or not especially when it's for money! I laughed it off for a while thinking it was crazy to attempt.

Over time however, the idea started to grow on me. Ever since my son was born a year and a half ago my life has completely changed. I learned what it meant to be truly sleep deprived while caring for a baby (and now toddler). At the same time I was trying to keep my fitness up by racing on Zwift one to four times a week. I'm also creeping up towards forty and I'm noticing changes in my body as an athlete. Sure I can still ride hard, sometimes harder than I could ten to fifteen years ago. The one aspect I notice the most is how my body recovers from a given effort. Hard, short, fast races on Zwift take a lot more out of me than say a climbing race.

Recently, in the past six to eight months I noticed I felt better racing a 90 minute climbing races with 2,000-4,000ft of elevation compared to a thirty to forty minute sprint race. In this eight month time period I began climbing a ton. If I couldn't find a climbing race I would climb 2,000+ft before doing a flat race. I was averaging 10,000-20,000ft in climbing elevation a week, although my total hours per week wasn't considered high volume as my schedule only allowed for 8-10 hours of riding per week. Everest training in disguise?

I'm a full time dad. From the moment I wake up to the moment I go to sleep my toddler is priority number one. He is my everything, but also takes everything out of me! Two weeks ago I started to commit my mind to doing the Everesting challenge. The biggest issue I had was finding 8-10 hours to ride without watching him. With my wife working full time the only possible solution I could see was to start when he went to bed around 7PM and finish when he woke up in the morning. This would allow me to ride through the night without any distractions, all the while crossing my fingers he wouldn't wake up crying. So this was the plan, for about a day. I then quickly realized I would be a complete zombie the next morning having ridden my bike for 8+ hours and on no sleep. How could I safely take care of him? Luckily a few days later my wife told me my in-laws would be coming to town. Perfect! This will give me the time I need to complete the ride.

Virtual Everesting (vEveresting) Rules

Everesting.cc is the known website for compiling a list of outside and virtual Everesting attempts. You can check out their website for a detailed list of gules and guidelines. The main gist was to do the attempt in one ride, trainer difficulty set to 100%, recorded on Zwift or RGT, posted on Strava, and completed on the same climb.

The Ride

I wish I had some thoughtful worked out plan I could share with you in regards to food prep, overall time goal, etc. But I didn't. For my first go at this my only goal was to finish. I bought a bunch of food I thought would be good on my stomach. I made sure to eat some extra carbs the night before and had a nice craft IPA before catching a buzz and falling asleep.

Matti (my kid) woke up early that morning and with my wife out on a run and the in-laws still sleeping I was on dad-duty. I fed him breakfast while eating some oatmeal and drinking a cup of Starbucks with an extra double shot thrown in. I brought Matti down into the basement (my pain cave) and tried to get everything set up. Once my in-laws woke up they scooped him up and I was on the bike around 8:00AM.

Let's do this.

I decided to use the Alpe Du Zwift climb for my attempt. The climb is 7.59 miles long (12.2 Kilometers) and approximately 3,900ft of elevation gain (1188m). I first had to figure out how to get to the climb. The shortest route to the base of Alpe Du Zwift is the course "Road to the Sky". But that is a 20+ minute ride. Might not seem like a lot but I wanted to minimize extra saddle time at all costs. I looked at people to "ride with" on the introduction screen when you sign into Zwift. I searched for someone who had ridden a lot of miles (100+ miles). This usually means they are doing an Everest attempt. I got lucky and found someone who was climbing the Alpe and was on turn 5 close to the top. I turned my avatar around and descended to the bottom. Unfortunately based on the rules from Everesting.cc the time I spend descending before the attempt would count towards my overall Everesting duration.

I didn't have a plan per se on pace. I really didn't know how fast I would ride. I also didn't want to set myself up for failure by trying to have some pre-planned w/kg or time goal in mind. I took it conservative the first time, riding 50:25. I didn't want to be overzealous and I also didn't know how 100% trainer difficulty would be. I swapped my 53-39 crankset for my wife's compact 52-36 and I'm glad I did. 8%-10% gradient wasn't bad. I found myself riding between 55-62 RPM which I could handle. When the road kicked up to 11-14% it hurt like heck and totally threw off my momentum.

I continued to grind away for climbs 1-4. I was on autopilot. My times were 50:25, 48:03, 48:04, and 47:30. I didn't have anyone to ride with for those four times up the Alpe. Anyone on the climb seemed to be riding either much slower or faster than I wanted to go. But since it was early on I didn't mind too much. During laps 1-4 I fell into this natural groove riding 3.8-4.3 w/kg. I tried to keep my HR below 170 as I knew I would be eating into precious energy stores.

It took approximately eleven minutes for my avatar to descend from the top to the bottom. This gave me a solid ten minutes of rest between efforts. I would hop back on during the last kilometer of each descent and spin my legs so they weren't too stiff for the next time up the climb. My routine was the same for each rest period. I would go pee, eat some food, change my socks and bibs, and do some light stretching. The stretching really helped. My glutes and piriformis were super tight.

Lap 5

My two friends Sean and Neil paced me from the bottom to the top. Having them with him at this point was monumental. I was not at a low point but any physical and mental fatigue I had was an afterthought while climbing with them. I just followed their wheels and listened to some music. They did an amazing job of taking turns pacing me up to hit 49:09. My friend Jake also came on for a bit and it was nice to see him. It was also around this time that I started to live stream.

The Low Point

Things started to take a turn for the worse on lap 6. After Neil and Sean left I went from this amazing high riding with friends to starting my next climb alone. I was tired, my legs were heavy and screaming for me to stop. About half way up climb six I started having some serious groin pain. It hurt to pedal out of the saddle and in the saddle. This was around the time my friend Brain joined me. It was great having him but I was in so much pain I couldn't even handle staying on his wheel let alone pedal. I felt bad we couldn't ride for a while together but I had to get off and stretch my groin hoping it would help. After what seemed like a while of stretching on my basement floor, I climbed back on the bike to finish climb six. It still hurt the rest of the way up and I hit 60:07.

How bad do you want it?

The 7th time up wasn't any better. My groin felt better but I was starting to mentally crack. I went from autopilot for climbs 1-5, to riding a 60 minute climb for the sixth time. Would I be able to ride faster than 60 minutes up this climb again? How much longer is this going to take me? These were the questions coming into my head. I didn't want to listen to music anymore. It felt like a distraction. I took my headphones out and listened to the noise of the trainer. My trainer gave off this humming sound so I tried to keep the noise as consistent as possible. My brain didn't want any other outside variables other than the sound of my breathing and the noise of the trainer. My neck and back were sore and I couldn't find a comfortable position to ride in the saddle because my cadence was so low. I would say I rode 75% of the time out of the saddle for nine hours.

This deep into the ride you really start to question yourself. Why in the world am I doing this? I've already climbed over 20,000ft, maybe I should just stop.

Aside from the friends I had riding with me at different times, I had a live audience cheering me on. Having my live stream really helped. I kept chatting with people there and their words of encouragement felt good. It gave me this accountability to finish. My 7th climb up was finished. My time was 53:08. I knew I was starting to fade. But I was ok with it. I didn't have any time goals so there wasn't this pressure. I simply wanted to finish.

I was now so close. I had to climb the Alpe 1.5 more times to complete the total 8848 meters. I rode in some type of melancholic haze for the eighth attempt up. I knew where I was but I didn't feel all that human. My mind started to drift a bit. It was almost an out of body experience. I didn't feel all that much I at times I was starting to believe my avatar was real.

Approximately three kilometers from the top my friend Angela popped onto the screen and knocked me out of this hazy funk I was in. Riding with her was so pivotal getting me through this last bit. I was really starting to slow and seeing her reignited my mental state. It was perfect timing to have a friend there. We rode to the top together. I only had to climb about 600 more meters (2,000) ft on the 9th time up.

My final time up the Alpe was icing on the cake. I knew I was going to finish and grew excited as I clicked off the last hundred or so meters. My time recorded on Strava was 9:03. I pushed myself hard and was happy with the effort. If you want a true mental and physical challenge you may want to try such an endeavor.

Thinking about giving it a go? Here are some tips from my experience:

• If this is your first attempt I wouldn't worry too much about a time goal unless you are trying to break a specific record.

• You might have a W/KG pace in mind but be open to adjusting it on how you feel.

• Have a mix of different foods you think you might eat. Your stomach and mood can change from sweet to savory.

• Change your bibs and socks at least a couple of times and wear chamios cream!

• Make some music mixes of different genres.

• Tell your friends and family about it and ask them for help!

• Having teammates or friends to ride with makes a huge difference.

• Have fun and stay positive!