Long term goal - Mount Washington - advice/stories etc...

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I'm looking at a long term goal of riding up Mt. Washington. Looking for advice, stories, tips - anything to do with this.

http://www.tinmtn.org/mwarbh/page.cfm/About-This-Race

Why? Mostly because I like difficult long term goals & the accomplishment of reaching them. Also because I gave myself a kick in the butt and decided to get back to a healthier self after years away from competitive endurance sports.

What better way to pronounce being back to a high fitness level than a challenge like this?

To give you a better idea of my experience:
============================
5'9, 37 yrs,
190 lbs now, took off 15 - 20lbs this summer.
Present fitness level- Riding 20 miles / 30KM at about 17 - 18 AVG - with decent hills, no Mountains but some rolling hills, quick and steep climbs, but nothing climbing for more than 3 minutes.


The bulk of my endurance experience is with running / racquetball. After several years away from competing in both, I got out of my chair and started riding regularly this summer.

My goal for Mt. Washington '08 is pretty simple.
- get as much knowledge about the climb from experienced riders as I can
- put together a decent indoor training program for the winter
- join a club (looking for North Shore of Massachusetts)
- prepare myself as best as possible through the spring and summer for all conditions of the climb.
- Anything under 2 hours would have me happy, but more importantly I want to feel prepared for the climb and hopefully lower that time goal by next summer if my training is beyond reasonable for that time.

Any information you would like to share about your training program, or what you have for wisdom would be helpful. Any climbers from other areas of the country who have done similar events would also be great to hear from.

Dave

I'm looking at a long term goal of riding up Mt. Washington. Looking for advice, stories, tips - anything to do with this. Not the same climb but similar event here in Australia - the Alpine. I helped my friend come from no-where (post surgery) to riding the Alpine with confidence. Here is the story in two parts:

http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2006/11/planning-comeback-with-performance.html

http://alex-cycle.blogspot.com/2007/02/second-coming-back.html

The main thing to take from this is the nature of the training approach rather than the specific circumstances.