In tandem with nutrition, while this can and will make or break you, it is not the be-all and end-all.

What is?

The mental aspect.

My 3rd Everesting took place in late July. I broke 2 ribs on an aborted Everesting attempt at the beginning of the previous November and was off the bike for just over a month, coming back slowly and only resuming full normal riding deep into January.

I rode the annual Chinese New Year 100km spin in early February, covering a total of 101km in 3h30. That was my longest ride in terms of distance and in terms of moving time (3h31m) until the 172km 11h12m Everesting.

I’d ridden for 151 hours on 54 days and had covered a total of 3,388km in the nearly-7 months, with the highest climbing ride being 2,155m (which was most likely iPhone-recorded hence erroneous) and a total of 72,012m or 8.1x up Everest.

I am the proof that you don’t need to smash out the ks week in week out, in fact my advice is not to: overtraining is one of your biggest enemies.

Train wisely and do what you can when you can: you’re not a professional cyclist and we all have work/family/social commitments off the bike which prevent us spending the time we’d like to on the bike.

Here’s a snapshot of one week of my training:

Monday 35.3km

Tuesday No Ride

Wednesday 28.6km

Thursday No Ride

Friday No Ride

Saturday 47.1km

Sunday No Ride

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