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2011: Over a Million Vertical Feet
As of today, my yearly climbing total stands at 1,003,346 ft for 2011. With 13 days to go, I expect to hit about 1.05 million feet by the end of the year. My legs are a bit tired though, perhaps I’ll take an easy day tomorrow.
A good portion of the ascent was on a mountain bike, and I should probably get extra credit for that, since a mountain bike on rough surfaces is at 10-15% less efficient (heavier bike with low pressure tires + suspension slop).
The annualized graph shown further below shows just how aggressive I had to be later in the year to make up for the relatively little vertical ascent for the first 5 months of the year, climbing at a rate of nearly 1.4 million vertical feet per year for the last 6 months.
Serious cyclists will find it helpful track their ascent, mileage, calories, weight, body fat, personal bests, etc— it provides an objective view of the training load, and a valuable perspective over time as to how one is doing in terms of absolute performance over time and progress towards objectives.
For 2012, my goal is to win the Everest Challenge (M45). The climbing must continue for 9 more months.
Click for a larger graph, and see other graphs of my 2011 ascent.
