Around the beginning of July Paul mused that before he went for an Everest attempt he wanted to have already knocked out 30,000ft of climbing in one week. Seemed reasonable enough, considering we were aiming to do just shy of that in one ride with the attempt.
This year my biggest week had included just over 25K, the week I did my half Everest at the end of June. At least, that’s what Strava told me when I looked at the week by week breakdown one afternoon. But, a few days later as I cycled up yet another lap on Sunshine one morning, I had the thought that maybe, MAYBE, I had done already 30,000ft over a 7-day span but that span didn’t happen to correspond to the Monday-Sunday timeline Strava has. I went home and raced to the computer, certain I must have already achieved this milestone. Alas, my biggest week was still about 25K. Paul, however, HAD done 30K over a seven day period (which included his half Everest).
No matter. The following weekend I rode up 13,000ft over two days, so I decided to just keep pedaling hard for the following Mon-Fri and finish off my 30,000ft that way. Who cares if it didn’t show up as a 30K week on Strava?! I’D know I’d done 30K in 7 days.
Yeah. Nope. Who was I kidding. I still wanted to see it show up in my Strava timeline as 30K in a Mon-Sun week. So, after completing my goal I decided to keep riding, and put up two big days the following two days (Saturday and Sunday). And there it was:
When you add the Saturday and Sunday prior (July 18th and 19th) I totaled 44,727ft of climbing in a 10-day span. That felt really good.
All that to say, July had proven to be a BIG month of climbing. And on July 30th I realized I was just 1,150ft or so away from capping out at 100,000ft of cycling elevation for the month. Even though the 31st was going to be a planned rest day, I couldn’t resist hitting that milestone. I really don’t think I’ll likely ever do that much elevation gain in a single month again. So, on a steamy, rainy, humid afternoon I pedaled my bike up the nearest climb to top off my biggest cycling month ever.
On August 1, I decided the taper would begin before my Everest attempt! And that essentially brings us to today. One week into tapering. Itching to do the actual ride (if not actually excited about it, ready to just attempt it already!). But the weather does not look promising. Highs in the low 90s for the next 7 days. Too hot. There’s one day that’s suppose to be 86, but the cloud cover doesn’t look promising. I know myself well enough to know that 86 and full sun is going to be brutal.
But now I’m in a challenging spot. Keep tapering/resting but risk losing fitness? Keep riding at my usual pace but risk fatigue? Something in the middle? What is “the middle” at this point? I don’t know. I’m going to keep trying to balance riding, elevation, time, and distance, and hope that I might have a window as early as next weekend.
On the plus side, Paul’s ride is at slightly higher elevation, and we’re currently tracking a potential Monday night/Tuesday Everest go for him this week. I’m very hopeful for him (and maybe a wee bit jealous that he’ll have the ride behind him). Fingers crossed the weather plays in our favor.
