Peloton Haleakala Climb — A new year, new cycling challenge
I’ve had my Peloton bike 18 months and I do many PowerZone challenges which is great for structure and training. However there has been on challenge that I’ve been wanting to do for a while. That is climb the Haleaka Volcano, based in Maui, Hawaii. If my memory serves me right, I cycled (well mainly freewheeled) down this back in 2006.
It’s the start of the year, so I thought why not get it done and out of my system. Roll up Sunday 2nd January and my aim is to get the climb done in one sitting. Five hours in the saddle. I didn’t want to do it over a few days, just wanted to accept the big challenge. Now I’m at my heaviest weight I’ve been for a long time, so it’s also an effective way to kick start my new year routine of not eating everything in sight.
Here are the rides for reference and Christine D’Ercole does an excellent job in coaching you through the journey. She completed a few years back on the road, so decided to recreate it on the Peloton platform.
Ride One | Ride Two | Ride Three | Ride Four | Ride Five
Was it easy? Well not really. It wasn’t hard on the heart rate; it was tough on the legs. They did hurt for around 36 hours after the ride but were fine afterwards. I’m so pleased I managed to push myself and achieve this. The other tough bit is doing this on your own too. I was updating my subgroup on our Carry on Bonking 3–87 PowerZone team on progress, so that also helped with pushing through. Thankfully for the last ride, a fellow teammate from our admin team joined me and the high fives kept me going. Thanks again Chris.
Obviously, padded shorts are necessary. I also changed a few times, swapped shoes as well to keep fresh. I also had a fan on next to me keeping cool. Don’t forget some sweets, nuts and bananas for energy during the cycle.
Here are the stats from my Huawei Smart Watch. What is very odd is that the recovery time isn’t that high. I can do a one-hour PowerZone Class and have a 72-hour recovery. As mentioned before, this is a task for the legs rather than the heart.
Will I do something similar again? Yes, for sure, it’s a great challenge, both mentally and physically.
If you’re thinking of getting a Peloton, feel free to use my referral code HP5MVU. You will get £100/$100/€100 off accessories when ordering a Bike/Bike+/Tread and I’ll get £100 voucher for apparel.
Originally published at Graham Walsh [ Blog ].
