Kingston Hill - Training

 Kingston Hill - Training.

More good weather and a chance for a longer ride.

I'm intrigued by Everesting, which is to cycle up and down a particular hill as many times as it takes to equal the ascent of Everest. It's nearly nine thousand metres  - 8848m to be precise.

Finding the right hill is important. If it is very steep, you do not have to ride up it as often. If it is shallow, then the miles will be longer. Perusing the Hall of Fame shows a large variation - from 200km to 400km.  All the ascents have to be done in one riding session, and 400km in a single day is a pretty big feat in itself, even without any hills.

I do not think I could actually do it. But if challenges were easy why would they be called challenges?

I'm intrigued enough to start work on it, to test the water so to speak, and my first idea was to go and find a particularly popular hill and see how it feels.

Kingston Hill is nowhere near Kingston, being in the Chilterns near Stokenchurch. It's less than two hours from my house and I checked the maps and headed over. The climb is around 1.3km in length, and 110m of climbing which makes an average gradient of 8.5%. 

It was a hot day, and I climbed a fair amount before I got there. My idea wasn't to try to go up fast, but to see how it would feel with already tired legs.

I arrived at the top and cycled down to look for the start point. My first impressions of going down were that I needed to brake quite a bit. I was unsure of the road surface, and the corners. I didn't fancy it in the dark or if I was very tired. (subsequent descents went better as I got used to it - I didn't brake at all on the final one and caught a car which was being more cautious than I was).

When I reached the flat at the bottom I went too far - there is a long straight section and I went all the way to Chinnor Road, about 0.5k too far. I turned back. My Garmin bike computer was already complaining anyway - as I'd programmed the climb, and it had also detected the climb from my course map, and wanted to start the segment.

1st ascent. It starts easy, 5%, 7%, 8.5%. Then there is a sustained harder section. My Garmin was telling me 18%, and though I did have to stand on the pedals a few times, I know it was only 12.5%. This is still pretty hard. Things ease off eventually. There is a corner at the top where the 'official' climb finishes, but I went a bit further and stopped for a drink. 

2nd go. Back down again, faster this time, I found the start point more easily, and a small place to turn my bike just beyond it. Even though the sun was strong, this climb goes up through trees and is completely shaded once the gradient really kicks in. It is hard work. The road surface is fairly good, but my front wheel hit one of the few potholes, and as my speed is so low I wobble a little. There are not many vehicles, but I was overtaken at that precise moment, and so couldn't pull out to avoid the hole.

3rd and final attempt. Really fast down this time. (times went 1:49, 1:43 and 1:40 for the steep part of the descent). I had already decided this would be the last, so I pushed a little harder. I'd seen someone cycling up as I went down and vainly thought about chasing them. This also made me think that maybe Everesting would be easier and more fun (and more likely to succeed) as a team effort. I did go up a little faster, and got my heart rate to a new record!

My three times were 6:52, 7:00 and 6:46. (I climbed here once before, back in 2018 and did 6:49 - so my final effort was a new record for me. These are not fast times, and all were done on tired legs.

So why only three ascents? I decided it is just too steep in that middle section. My bike's gearing is already pretty good for hills ( I had it 'upgraded' to do Hardknott Pass) and I couldn't sit the whole way up. My current thinking is that if cycling for say 15 hours, I'd prefer to be able to stay sitting, only maybe being forced out of the saddle for very short sections. So I eliminated this hill fromm any possible Everesting attempt. The descent is also a bit too fast. I can see complacency and tiredness causing a fall.

I was hot and drinking far too much of my water so decided to turn back for home, another 2 hours ride away. I did run out of water, and get very hot and tired because of that.

I've almost completely decided against Everesting in general now. Almost. I will look for other hills. It would mean a whole day cycling the same place, maybe a bit boring Even if I never do it, the training is great anyway :-)