Simon Moulton‘s Peaks Challenge Falls Creek Ride Report

Hi David,

First of all thanks for all of your blogs, posts, webinars etc. what an amazing experience it was. 

I trained for 12 months for this event and I stuck to your 12 week plan leading up to the event and it was a god send as was your comments about building base. I do most of my training around the Kinglake area and on your advice practiced my nutrition and hydration as the training ride kms built up. 

About three weeks out from 3 Peaks I decided to ride Hotham from Bright to get a feel for the climb, well it smacked in the face big time and I struggled for the last couples Ks after running out of water and realising I had not eaten enough leading up to the ride and also whilst on the ride. My Garmin said I rode Hotham on average at 87% max heart rate and topped out at 105%, I totally cooked myself. 

This threw me into a total nervous panic especially when I was reading all of the Peaks Facebook posts about everyone’s preparation ….. instantly I thought I had not trained enough and I could not complete the 235km.

However I was able to regroup my thoughts and pay particular attention to eating and drinking leading up the 3 Peaks. By the time I headed out of Falls on the Sunday I was probably 2 kg heaver being fully loaded with carbs and fluid. I rode within myself and paid particular attention to my heart rate the whole way and I felt like a moving smorgasbord as I was constantly eating and drinking. The new (and wiser) strategy worked as I completed the ride in 12 hrs 11min, with my average HR sitting spot on 75% max (not even 1 cramp). Even WTF and back of falls was not as tough as I built them up to be in my mind (don’t get me wrong it was brutal – but manageable). 

My longest ride up that point was 150km with just on 3000m climbing so to finish under the 13 hrs was an awesome feeling.

This event is by far the best run event I have every done and Bicycle Network do an amazing job. The support, safety and marshalling is beyond compare. I also want to thank all the riders on the 3 Peaks ride as the comradery and encouraging words amongst the cyclist was a real highlight, as was the amazing scenery (when I was not just looking 50m ahead of my front wheel). I am committed for next year and aiming for somewhere near 11hr 30min.

Thanks,

Simon Moulton