5 rounds of fun.The big beat down of the year looms less than a week away. The Alyeska Climbathon takes place next Saturday, September 8. Starting at the base of the Alyeska tram, competitors will ascend the 2,000 vertical feet of the North Face hiking trail as many times as possible between 9am and 7pm. The descent will be via the tram which will be running a 10 minute schedule. Last years winner finished 12 laps for a total of over 24,000 vertical feet and about 26 miles of hiking, all uphill.
I know this is going to really suck at some point. But the fact that I will be sharing the trail with a bunch of other chuckle heads on a mission of self-flagellation some how makes it attractive. I've done a couple of similar events on skis that lasted 24 hours. I did them as a team of two. Similar deal, though - up and down the same course all day and all night. Actually, really fun sharing that experience with everyone else. Still, by the end you're completely wasted. This race is shorter but since it's just me there will be no breaks. I've also never done more than 16,000 feet in a day on foot. That included the down, of course, but this will still push me hard.
Last Saturday I went and did my second go at 5 laps hoping to get a handle on pacing and nutrition. My goal is to complete 11 laps. On my recon, I was able to finish 5 laps in 4:30 exactly. That's with the tram on a 15 minute schedule. I had to wait a few times, having missed the timing on the tram. Once I heard that they were going to the 10 minute schedule for the race I realized that this timing will be less critical. Using my HR monitor, I tried to keep the revs below 160 BPM. I think spending anytime near threshold will guarantee implosion somewhere between hours 5 and 10. Even keeping it in the low 150s I felt a few twinges of cramping during my foray.
The first 5 minutes of the course are on a low angle cat road. Once on the single track there are a couple of flat benches and even some downhill. But the business is a steep, rocky single track in the middle. There are some rail road tie steps that will be painful once fatigue sets in. The final 10 minutes are on friendlier, well-graded single track up to the tram dock.
Competitors will be allowed to have their feeds up top in order to take advantage of the ride down to get calories. In my usual masochistic fashion, I'm keeping in simple with Gu Roctane and electrolyte mixes, gels and Chomps. I know this sounds unappealing to the uninitiated but it'll keep things straight forward. It'll be an interesting experiment. I don't anticipate any problems besides flavor fatigue. I might throw in a bag of chips just in case. But honestly, I've done all my outings this summer with Gu only and have been hugely satisfied. The only thing I miss is getting back to the car craving food of some sort. I have none of that if I keep the stores in order during the effort.
I found an interesting write up on the subject by a like-minded cyclist who had a great ride at the Leadville 100 this year. He Gu fueled for the duration of his sub-9 hour effort. Check it out here.
Well, it's all conjecture until 7pm next Saturday evening. Hopefully, I don't suffer some sort of gastrointestinal crisis during the event. It's possible. Either way, I'm going to take one for the team and tell you all about it next weekend. - Brian