The Adventures of Franz » Everest Challenge

In 24 hours I well be racing for the Everest Challenge. The weather looks very nice, especially compared with last year. Saturday, 48 degrees when we start, high of 87 in Bishop, with zero chance of rain. Similar for Sunday, but a bit warmer.

Last night I went through my estimated times again so I have some benchmark to use during each of the days. This table compares my two back to back training rides last weekend, plus the 300 Warriors ride, plus the estimated best times for the Everest Challenge that I discussed in a prior blog entry.

My estimated best times seems about right considering the climbing in feet/mile is much higher. I will set my target to come in under 15 hours total for the two days. If successful that should put me midway amongst the Master 55+ field, which I would be very happy with. After I finish this race, then I can turn my attention to getting ready for the Furnace Creek 508, which I have coming up in two weeks from now.

Everest Challenge Training
Day	Miles (timed/total)	Climb	Time (rolling/total)	Avg/Max HR	MPH (rolling/total)
Training Rides on 9/13 and 9/14
104 feet/mile
Day 1	88	8,360	5:38/6:13	138/167	15.6/14.2
Day 2	86	9,900	6:39/7:54	125/158	12.9/10.9
Total	174	18,260	12:17/14:07		14.2/12.3
300 Warriors Race on 8/16/08
96 feet/mile
Race	99 miles	9,500	6:20/6:30	148/168	15.5/15.2
Everest Challenge Targets for 9/20 and 9/21
141 feet/mile
Day 1	100/120 *	15,468	7:48/8:33		12.8/11.8
Day 2	64/86 **	13,570	5:42/6:13		10.6/9.7
Total	164/206	29,038	13:30/14:46		12.2/11.1
* timed includes 8 miles neutralized start, race distance is 92 miles ** timed includes 3 miles neutralized start, race distance is 61 miles

I have stayed on my training plan for the last 17 weeks. I have also been getting in some speed work. I hope I am ready. I decided to take both bikes and use the one with a triple as a backup, or maybe ride it the second day, depending on how I feel after Day 1.