Everesting Five Times in Seven Days with Kent Ohori

What it Takes to Prepare for an Everesting Attempt with the Bloke about to do Five in Seven Days

By Black Sheep Cycling

April 22^nd, 2022

What does training for not one but five Everest attempts in seven days actually look like? How do you fit in 25-28hrs of cycling per week? And 16,000m of elevation, while still working full time? How much do you need to eat? What do rest days look like, are there any?

Kent Ohori shares how he's preparing for his monumental week-long Everest challenge while raising awareness and funds for the mental health education program LIVIN.

Since 2016, Black Sheep has been on a mission to shift the way people think about men’s mental health through our annual Man Ride. Starting with just eight riders in Australia covering 1000km in four days, the Man Ride has grown into a global movement.

It now includes official and community-led events across the world, supporting initiatives like Kent’s. The Man Ride is unique in that the goal is not simply to raise money. The goal is to get people talking. To form communities and support networks. To end social stigmas. We continue to do this by sharing the experiences of our riders across many walks of life, who cope with their own mental health problems in unique ways.⁠ ⁠

Read Kent’s motivation behind the upcoming challenge here and how he’s preparing below:

Everesting Five Times in Seven Days with Kent Ohori

This isn't your first rodeo - You've completed a few other epic versions of the Everest Challenge before - tell us about those:

The first epic Everest challenge was the one on the Brisbane city cycle bike last April up the backside climb of Mt. Coot-tha. I did 46 reps on a 28kg commuter bike which took 23 hours to complete.

Next would be the three back-to-back Everest challenges I did late last year to test if I was capable of challenging myself to the upcoming East Coast Everesting Challenge.

The next one is definitely the most epic one to date which is the ‘Everestman’ challenge. A combination of an Everest challenge and the three disciplines of a triathlon. 8848m swim followed by a bike Everest and then a run Everest. All were completed one after another in the time of 40hours with only 30minutes of sleep. Only one other person has completed an Everestman challenge and I beat his time by 30 hours.

How has completing each of them lead you to this next challenge? What are some of the lessons you learnt through those experiences that you take with you into this next challenge?

The biggest lesson I learned from each challenge is that we are all capable of so much more than we can possibly imagine. Keep working towards your goals no matter how unrealistic they may seem at first. You’ll be surprised what you can accomplish if you put the work in.

I still remember the day when I did my first 8 consecutive reps of the backside climb of Mt. Coot-Tha on the city cycle bike. I told my friend who I was riding with how adamant I was that an Everest challenge on the 28kg commuter bike was impossible but three months later, I obviously did it. If you also asked me a year ago if I could ever complete an Everesting style triathlon, I’d say you’re bloody dreaming. Now I know anything is possible.

Strength-based training has not only been key to ticking off each challenge but coming away from it all injury-free. Huw my P.T has been writing my strength program for the last eight months and I know how valuable this is in improving as an endurance athlete. I wish I had included a strength program in my training when I first started out. Climbing a lot both on bike and foot also helps incredibly with building strength. The most common response when you mention anything relating to hills or climbing to people is negative, but I don’t think people truly understand how incredibly beneficial it is for building your endurance base. Most often the things we don’t want to do are the things that are the most beneficial.

Training:

How many hours a week are you riding and how many km/elevation are you covering in the lead-up?

For this last block of training, I’m averaging around 25-28hrs of cycling per week with around 12,000 to 16,000m of elevation. Not actually covering too much distance as there’s a lot of climbing but it's been sitting at around 550-700kms. This is also with the addition of 2-4hrs of running and two gym sessions.

Did this load come from building on the fitness from your last challenge or did you take some time off to recover?

I took a week off to recover from the Everestman challenge but I was pretty much straight back on the bike. The last two years have been a slow build-up to my current fitness level.

How do you incorporate recovery into your training and what does that look like?

I stretch, foam roll and trigger ball on a regular basis. Stretching first thing in the morning and almost always after every training session. Some people never stretch but I’ve always done it and I’ve rarely been injured. Even if it's just a placebo effect, I’m not going to stop as it's always worked for me. I have compression shorts and socks which I use after every session as well. I basically live in 2XU compression shorts at home. Compression socks are most often used when I’m running a lot.

I try to rest my legs as much as possible and if I’m working from home, my office is set up on the couch. I would be lying if I said I get enough sleep. Balancing such a big training load with work has been a constant struggle but I do what I can.

I eat really healthy which I’m sure also helps. I very rarely drink if I’m training for an event and if I do, it’s a mid-strength beer. I save all the drinking for after the challenge but even then, the less I drink on a regular basis, the less I want to at all.

What has been the biggest challenge of training so far - nutrition, fatigue, boredom?

To be quite honest with you, the biggest challenge has been to maintain motivation during the last month of training. It’s been difficult to fit this all in alongside work and personal life. It’s taken every bit of willpower I have to motivate myself to jump on the bike some mornings.

Riding 4-5 hours most days without the perks of being a professional athlete definitely takes a toll on you. It has gotten to the point that music and podcasts have no effect on my boredom. Motivation has been quite low at times but I know it's all going to be worth it.

I’ve been sneaking some running into my weeks to break up the riding and when it’s been really tough, I’ve been splitting longer rides into double sessions. As a triathlete, I’ve been rewarding myself with a short run off the bike. Sounds crazy but it worked for me. I’ve also been trying to get friends to come along with me on rides even if it's just for a portion of it but it’s hard trying to find people who are keen on mid-week long rides.. I’ve also rewarded myself with snacks during rides. Rewarding myself with a snack at certain checkpoints definitely worked a ‘treat’…

I’ve tried anything and everything and I’ve finally completed my last big week of training so I’m really looking forward to the event.

Nutrition & Fuelling:

What does an average day's food look like for you? Similarly - what does your training fuel look like?

The average day looks like two breakfasts, one before and after training. Always Mayvers peanut butter and banana on toast before training and oatmeal with blueberries and yoghurt with chocolate protein post-training. This is followed by your standard healthy lunch and dinner. I rarely have dessert, but I do eat yoghurt and frozen blueberries with choc protein and granola as a substitute to satisfy my sweet tooth.

I used to make the team Sky rice bars but with the lack of time, I’ve steered towards easy to make sandwiches for mid-ride snacks.

You recently completed a Zwift Everest at the Brisbane Cycling Festival - what did your food throughout the day look like for that? How similar will this approach be for the Everest Challenge?

I used to get so caught up with what solid foods to eat but now I keep it very simple and easy. I originally thought I’d go rice-based because it would give me superpowers being half Japanese but now I just eat Nutella and banana sandwiches for a sweet option and chicken or ham sandwiches for savoury. I always thought that minimising gluten would help with digestion but I never really had any issues so I just go with the most convenient option which is sandwiches. I also have some sort of muesli bar as a snack and lollies for the later stages of the challenge. I have a can or two of Redbull or coke throughout the event for an extra kick. An Everest challenge can be a complex and incredibly difficult challenge so I try to keep everything as simple as possible.

The main focus of my nutrition is getting in at least 50g of carbs through electrolyte mix with water and making sure I’m taking in enough sodium to keep me hydrated. The more I sweat, the more sodium I consume. Sometimes up to 1000-1500mg p/hr.. I currently use Tailwind nutrition which contains a decent amount of sodium p/serving and the precision hydration sodium tables are also amazing as they contain an incredibly high amount of sodium per tablet. They have tablets that contain 500/1000/1500mg p/tablet.

One thing that will be different for this upcoming challenge is that I will have to minimise the amount of caffeine I consume in the later stages of each Everest challenge as I need to be able to sleep well to recover for the next leg. We most often increase caffeine intake in the final hours as we fatigue but I’m going to have to resist the urge. I had a bit too much caffeine during the Zwift Everest at the Brisbane cycling festival and I struggled to get to bed that night.

The biggest factor between completing this challenge or failing is going to be how well I can sleep in between each leg. For example, I only have four hours of sleep time in between the first and second leg so I’m going to try and do the first leg on Mt. Wellington without consuming any caffeine to help get a decent sleep.