A BIG shout out to this mad fella!
Hailing from Australia’s Gold Coast, Simon Enger has just completed his first ( and perhaps only?) indoor Everesting attempt.
Yes, I did just say ‘indoors’…
Located strategically in his bed room (I assume so he could collapse straight onto it as soon as he hit the summit), Simon rode 223km and ascended 9470 meters all in a very handy 15 hours and nine minutes, which was 51 minutes faster than I’d anticipated.
Lots of respect for this great ride, and then some, as Simon has Chron’s disease, which causes inflammation of the digestive tract and can lead to all sorts of issues, such as severe abdominal pain, weight loss and fatigue.
But f**k you CD, cos Simon just gave you a good old kicking…
Simon’s training programme was designed by me to take all this into account, and despite a few ups and downs along the way he really was very consistent in his efforts. The key to making gains in form, strength and recovery time is not to be able to suffer spectacularly every once in a while, but to be able to suffer consistently over an extended period.
Add to that a good diet and intelligent training along with good rest periods and those gains will come.
As with many of my clients, Simon has limited time to train in the week so once we got him up to speed with some basic foundation training, I got him on a mix of shorter HIIT and medium intensity workouts mid-week, and combined that with longer (and specifically hill) work on the weekends.
On the run up to the actual EV ride, I had Simon do a half-Everesting ride on his chosen hill, which is something I recommend to all riders setting out to take on this huge challenge. First of all, you will learn a great deal by doing these ‘mini-EV’ rides in terms of refuelling and hydrating, and also about your kit, whether you’ll need gloves for instance, or whether your favourite bibs really are suitable for 15 hours plus riding time.
In Simon’s case, he learnt that the hill he had initially chosen wasn’t actually ideal for him. So, he scouted out another and we again did a half-Everesting ride on that, and this climb turned out to be a much better fit.
The rest was up to him. My job is to advise and guide, and then these guys do all the hard work!
So, to Simon, chapeau sir, chapeau!
Simon does actually ride outdoors sometimes too…
