Badge-hunting: Ven-Top done (and never again)

General Discussion
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First off: I’m glad I completed it, and I even got into a good flow while doing it. I took a break about 2/3 of the way up (around the 1000-meter mark), changed my entire kit (fresh, dry chamois and dry-wick shirt) and felt pretty refreshed for the remainder.

That said: holy heck that is a beast. The false flats are real. Just when you think you’re going to get a respite…haha sucker! Lather, rinse, repeat, about a hundred times.

I feel like even London’s PRL Full and Watopia Uber Pretzel will be “easier” in a way - instead of a single monster climb, it’s a bunch of up and down with variety - feels more natural to take a break between segments rather than just stopping halfway up a climb. (I’ll revisit that theory once I knock those off)

Data-points:

  • Consumed two 750mL bottles of water with a scoop of Gatorade powder each, plus about half a bag of Dare “Real-Fruit” gummies, totalling about 750kcal.

  • Had a Wahoo Headwind fan sync’d to heart-rate, using a Polar chest strap, listened to podcasts and watched a MasterClass for distraction, also had the Companion app up for game control.

  • I was using a Tacx tablet holder with an iPad & an adapted phone tray.

This is route badge #98 for me (of 107, or 112 if you count the 5 being added during the Tour of Watopia). Got me a lot closer to the Z1 as well. (about 5,000m left)

TL;DR: did Ven-Top, didn’t die, and you can too.

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Oh man, I have “Real-Fruit” gummies sitting there on my table staring at me. I should use those on my next ride - kinda worried I’m gonna accidentally choke on them when I’m having a hard time breathing :slight_smile:

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Water…LOTS and lots of water to wash those down!

More seriously though, I’ve been playing around with different ride snacks and find “disappearing food” works better - stuff like cheesies, Reese cups whatever - that sort of melt away when you chew them.

I love gummies but extra work to chew seems like a liability when sweatin’ it out on the bike.

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Yeah, that makes a lot of sense.

After reading how much of a grind Ven-Top was I decided to do it while on a workout for the badge, so got the badge, but didn’t have to deal with the grind of doing the same slope for such a long time (I mean, the workout was no joke though :)). Haven’t done those longer rides (Uber Pretzel, or PRL Full) yet.

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IMHO Ven Top ist Not a big Deal. The only Challenge (not yet achieved) for me ist, to make the climb under 90 Minuten :wink:

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Being Old-and-Slow, “under 90 minutes…to the halfway point” would be good enough for me. :wink:

Respect for the watt factories who can do Ven-Top sub 90, or AdZ sub 60.

Grüße aus Kanada!