Based on a
session conducted at the Sabre India Leadership Offsite in March 2017
I used a good chunk of my 2016 December holidays to do the
Cycling Tour of Nilgiris aka TfN (www.tourofnilgiris.com)
- an adventure that was in the "scheming" phase for over 2 years.
Back in 2014 when my wife, Sahina, agreed to let me take 8-9 days off in 2016 to
go cycling, I’m sure that she was sure that I would give up cycling by 2016.
BUT I took the 2 years to really plan it out and become a stronger rider.
TfN in Numbers
- 7 days of riding – across the Nilgiris (Blue Mountains) through 3 states and 3 reserve forests
- Total distance covered = 901 km
- Total elevation gain = 11,164m! To put this in perspective the elevation of Mt Everest is 8,848m
- Total saddle time = 41h25m
- Number of riders who started the Tour = 107
Life Lessons
Goal setting
When I set my goals for TfN, I had to be realistic. I was
competing against professional cyclists – both current & retired, and
people who were much stronger than me.
I had to set goals that were difficult yet achievable given
my state of fitness, my potential and the time I was willing to invest. It had
to be exciting and something that I had to work for, something that would make
me want to wake up in the morning, jump on the bike and do those horrible
workouts! If the goals were too easy, then there would have been neither a
sense of anticipation nor a sense of achievement. And if I went in hoping to
win, I would have come back really disappointed.
Taking this thought to life in general, one should be
realistic about the goals one sets for themselves.
There are no universal goals. You have to find your own goals
taking into considerations your skills, limitations, potential, interest
levels, competition, location and most importantly the sacrifices that you are
willing to make to achieve that goal. Realistically not many of us can aim to
become the CEO of a fortune 100 company, can we?
You should also decide up front what you will reward
yourself with if you meet your goals.
Planning
The way I saw TfN, it required:
- Ability to ride ~130-160km per day for 7 days
- Ability to climb well on the bike – there were 3 days of serious climbing
- Ability to climb Kalahatti – 12km climb at an average 11% gradient, which is pretty long and pretty steep
- Climbing on a bike is all about power to weight ratio – so the combined weight of the rider and the bike should be as low as possible
- You must be mentally prepared for the torture of the climbs
- Nutrition/ hydration while on the bike during the long climbs
- To spend long days in the saddle 7 days in a row, you have to be very comfortable on the bike
Based on the above, I did my planning around 3 aspects:
Body, Mind & Bike.
1. Body
I had to really improve my endurance to be able to ride
multiple days at a stretch and I had to become much stronger on the bike to be
able to ride up Kalahatti. I had tried my hand at self-coaching and had mixed
results. But for something this serious, I did not want to take any chances and
I signed up with Bikey Venky’s Coaching Program (www.bvcoaching.in).
BV is a veteran of many TfNs and a revered figure in Bangalore’s racing scene.
Over the 6 month period before TfN, he really put me through the wringer.
2. Mind
For someone like me, the Kalahatti is a 1h45m climb. That is
1h45m of pure physical and mental torture. If you are not prepared, the mind
will give up long before the body does. I spoke to several people to come up
with strategies to Tame the Mind.
At the beginning of December, Vishnu (my partner in crime)
and I drove down to Kalahatti with our bikes in the car and did a recce climb,
to understand Kalahatty the Beast better. With all the training that we had
done, it was possible to complete the Kalahatti climb without any stops. That
was a HUGE moral boost.
We also figured out our hydration and nutrition strategy for
the climb during the recce. For example, on such a steep climb if you stop, it
is very difficult to get started again. And while crawling uphill it’s
difficult to take both your hands off the handle bar. So how do you open your
energy bar while riding? We figured the best way to do it was to open the
wrapper at one end and stash it into your jersey pocket and while riding take a
bite every 15-30 min. The catch is that when you are deep within yourself
suffering up the climb, the last thing you want to do is eat. BUT, if you don’t
eat you run out of fuel and you will stop. So you have to grab a bite every
20-30 minutes and a few sips of water every ten minutes.
3. Bike
About 12 months before the tour started, I started upgrading
various components on my bike. I spent quite a bit of time with the good folks
at CrankMeister (https://www.facebook.com/crankmeisterbicycleworks -
the Best Local Bike Store in Bangalore!) researching and bouncing off ideas on
possible upgrades and how to source the components.
Finally ended up with a lighter and crisper groupset/ gears,
lighter wheels, and a narrower yet more comfortable saddle among other things.
At the end of the upgrade cycle the only thing left from the original bike was
the frame and the fork and my bike weight was down from 9.5kg to 8kg.
To summarize, once you have your goal clear, PLAN, PLAN and PLAN!
- Identify all the pieces that are required to meet your goal
- Categorize them into different streams if possible
- Research to understand and evaluate options – talk to people/ read/ try out things
- Get outside help wherever required
- Try and eliminate surprises – for example, do a recce!
- Have a roadmap of activities
- Leave room for contingencies
Execution/ Adapting the Plan
Planning is easy, but execution requires a lot of discipline.
In my case I had to watch what I ate, complete all the really hard workouts, and
wake up really early every Saturday to head out to Nandi (a local 7km climb @7%
gradient about 45km from home) – that meant no more late night parties on
Fridays! By early November, the Tuesday workouts were life sapping VO2
sessions. Music really helped me through the Tue sessions. By the beginning of
the tour, the only music I could listen to was Iron Maiden (The British heavy
metal band named after the medieval torture device!). Songs like Die with your
Boots on, The Trooper, Hallowed be thy name, Powerslave and the Loneliness of
the long distance runner were on “repeat playlist” mode on my phone and iPod!
You can have the best plan in the world, but at the end of
the day it is all about discipline and execution. And life will throw curve
balls. You need to work around the disruptions and try and stick to the plan as
much as possible. And where required tweak the plan to factor in the
disruptions. You also need to find the things that help keep you motivated – the
reward, music, whatever else might work for you J
Nothing comes free in life, you have to be mentally prepared to make the necessary sacrifices.
Parting Thoughts
I got to meet a LOT of interesting and inspiring people during the tour:
- The oldest person on the tour was 72 years young and he was faster than most of us
- And the youngest was a 19 year old psychology student who went by the name of Dead Pool
- People with disabilities
- The Management Guru who gave up his comfortable life to become a professional cyclist at the age of 40
- And so many more….
Now that it is over, there is a HUGE void (the size of
Nilgiris) in my cycling world. Till I find another cycling goal, I will do the
local races and work on increasing my power output using the power meter I
rewarded myself with for meeting and exceeding my goals :-D
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