Before climbing Mt Everest, Fiona and I have climbed several other large mountains, but training for a mountain like Mt Everest is quite different.

What's Different about Climbing Mt Everest?

Our experience in 2006 confirmed that there are two things that make Everest different to most other mountain climbs -  the height of the mountain and the length of time that it takes to climb it. 

The effect of the height of the mountain is obvious.  Most people need oxygen to climb it (I think less than 100 people have reached the top of Everest without supplemental oxygen) and having the right system is paramount.  Unless you are a Sherpa and have lived for generations at over 10,000 feet, then in my opinion training hard is your only option.

The length of time it takes to climb is also a really significant factor because it affects you both mentally and physically.  Living and working at over 16,000 feet for 2 months takes it’s toll, so you need to make sure that you are well fed.  We heard through the Everest Basecamp medical team, that if you loose more than 6 kilos of weight on the trip, you won’t make the summit (based on their experience over the years).  However, I think that it's being away from friends and family that can have the greatest impact.  This makes people want to rush their climb so that they can get home soon, which means that the first weather window can often be crowded and therefore dangerous.  For us, having a website linking us to the outside world was invaluable (see our 2006 website here).  Receiving everyone’s messages of support was extremely encouraging.  It was like we were being temporarily transported out of our little tent, stuck on the side of the mountain.

Our Training for Everest in 2006

In training for our 2006 climb, we focused exclusively on improving aerobic fitness and we did this through road cycling.   This is the training regime that we followed for the best part of 12 months:

• Monday: An easy recovery ride for one and a half hours.  If we had an easy weekend, then we would go on a 3 hour ride.  HRmax 120-160 depending on if we only did a recovery ride.
• Tuesday: Fast 1 hour ride at 6am, and then a 1 hour race in the evening.  HRmax 180+
• Wednesday: 3 hour ride through hills.  HRmax 180+
• Thursday: Fast 1 hour ride at 6am.  3 hour hill ride in the evening.  HRmax 180+
• Friday: One and a half hour easy recovery ride.  HRmax 120
• Saturday: 2 hour ride, fast pace HRmax 180+
• Sunday: One hour race in the morning. HRmax 180+.  Every few weeks on Sunday afternoon we would go and ride through the steepest hills we could find in our local area for about 2 hours.

For more specific training we did some long bushwalks.  We wanted to get reacquainted to being in a small tent for long periods of time and also carrying a loaded pack.  Between the middle of December and March we did 30 days of walking, comprising two eight day hikes, one ten day hike, several day hikes and then several days where we camped at the bottom of the highest hill in Victoria, Mt. Bogong, and climbed up and down it twice a day carrying loaded packs.  I think we did 4 days in total of this.  We found this last part pretty mundane, but I do think that it was good specific training.

How did we feel doing all this training?

We found the going pretty tough.  We were constantly tired, and often irritable.  Were we over-training?  Quite possibly.  At the start of December I felt very weak and had no energy.  At the time I thought I had the flu, but looking back I think I had over-trained.  I took 3 weeks where I did nothing and then I felt better again.

This time around I am focusing more on the quality of training and how I feel, and varying the program accordingly.  There is no point in going out and pounding the pavement just because your program says you have to.  However that’s not how we viewed things last year.  In September we purchased new Polar watches which logged the details of your training session and allow you to upload these to your computer.  The software then creates a training diary, which is really useful for recording the details of your training.  It also means that if you miss a session, it really stands out.  In particular I found that it made me want to train harder and increase my stats - which is great if you need that bit of extra motivation, but I was probably already at my limit.

So were we prepared enough in 2006?

Yes.  Were we the fittest in our group?  Not by a long shot.  There is nothing like a potential life and death situation to motivate people to train hard, and there were a number of people who were much fitter and stronger than us.  I would say that we were about middle of the scale.  When myI realised that my oxygen tank was completely empty on the South Summit (8750 metres), I can tell you I was glad of all the aerobic training that I had done.

By the way, the strongest people in our group were the people that were mountain guides of one type or another.  These people are regularly climbing decent mountains and some of them didn't do much else.  So mountain climbing is really the best training for mountain climbing.  No real surprises here but it doesn't help a lot if you live in an area that's relatively flat.  (Also, it's difficult to assess whether they were strong climbers because they were mountain guides and climbed regularly, or whether they were mountain guides because they were strong climbers!)

But it’s not just about fitness

Dan Griffiths, the Canadian climber who climbed with us this year remarked on the trek into base camp when he saw some people heading off for a long day hike on one of the rest days, that “The training is over guys, it’s only downhill from here.”  I think he is right.  The effect of the altitude is such that it’s very hard for your body to recover from exertion, let alone improve your fitness.  It’s paramount that you arrive at base camp in good condition.  By this I mean that you have not overly exerted yourself, are in good health, and don’t have any coughs, colds or diarrhea.  Avoiding getting sick is as important as training.  If you followed our climb in 2006, you will remember that I got a bad chest infection while at base camp and it took me at least 3 weeks to recover.  We used face masks for most of the time during the trek in, but I think that one of the main causes was that our group was too large.  There were 16 western climbers for Everest, plus others for Island peak and the icefall.  The medical staff at Base Camp were often commenting on the fact that our group was visiting them so frequently.  Once one member catches an illness, then it’s easy to spread to others, especially if your immune system is a bit low.  Several people didn’t get sick at all, but more than half did.  It doesn’t matter how much you train and how fit you are, if you are sick you will find the going very tough.  I count myself lucky that I was able to recover.

Training for my 2007 Climb

While we were on the mountain last year, I'd often talk to others about their training, listen to their rationale for doing what they did, and assess this against their strength on the mountain.  So, for my climb this year, I've taken what I beleive to be the best of all this and put together a program that is practical for my particular circumstances.

After Fiona and I got back from Everest in June 2006, we had a couple of weeks off all training and then started back in a lighter form of the same training we were doing the previous year - quite a lot of cycling.  We then had about 2 months of travelling overseas where we would run for about an hour every second day - so that we didn't completely lose our fitness base.  When we returned in September, I started a much more rigorous training program and have been sticking to this ever since.

• Monday - Hiking
  I hike up Mt Donna Buang 3 times carrying about 20kgs of weight.  This climb gives me about 900 metres of elevation gain each time so doing it three times is a pretty big day.  I only hike down it once though as Fiona drives me down to the bottom the other times (to save time, my knees, and boredom) and she hikes it once with me.  I do the first climb in the dark on my own using a head torch to simulate what it's like on summit day when you climb through the night and feel alone (even if there are people in your vicinity)
• Tuesday - Fast Ride
  6am ride for about 1 hour (the North Road Ride for those that know it)
• Wednesday - Long Run
  Run for a bit over 20kms which takes me about 1hr 50 mins.  I've never considered myself to be a good runner which is why I didn't do any running training last year, but I do think that it's closer to mountain climbing than cycling is because its a slower, load-bearing movement.
• Thursday - Hilly Ride
  This is a bunch ride that goes for about 3 hours (the Tour of the Suburbs ride for those that know it)
• Friday - Running Intervals
  Fiona and I jog for about 10 minutes to our local park and then I do 3 sets of 6 intervals.  Each interval takes me about 70-80 seconds and I have 40 seconds recovery between each.  The area I run also has a small hill, which really gets me working.  This session only take a bit more than 1 hour but it's extremely hard work and I believe it's a very valuable part of my training - it's the only session where my breathing feels like it does when you're at altitude.
• Saturday - Long Ride
  I ride for about 180 kms - most of it on my own.  For those that know the area, I usually start out with the Hell Ride and then continue onto Portsea and back on my own.  Often by the time I'm heading back there's a reasonable head-wind and I think this is good physical and mental conditioning - experiencing that feeling of having so far to go and everything being against you.
• Sunday - Rest Day

In addition to all of this, I also train my respiratory muscles every day for about 1/2 hour using a breathing device called a SpiroTiger.  You can read more about this here.

Like last year, we've also done a bit of overnight hiking, but not nearly as much.  Why?  Because on Everest, you spend so long away from home in a tent, that I don't want to be sick of this before I even start.

So how do I feel compared to last year?

This year I feel a lot stronger than last year.  Doing some of the same rides as I was doing last year gives me a bit of a benchmark and I'm usually up there with the top handful of riders.  When I have a couple of days off training beforehand, I can be in the top few which is a great feeling because there are a lot of really good cyclists in Melbourne.  I've also done a couple of A-grade rides (criteriums) and I'm stronger in these than I was last year - although I don't do them regularly because of the risk of an accident jeopardising my climb.

I think that part of my improvement is due to a smarter training program, but also a big part of it is due to having a better fitness base.

From now on, I'm just aiming to maintain my fitness to ensure that I arrive at basecamp extremely fit, but not run-down.  Time will tell how this goes...