12 Climbs of Xmas aka Supercompensation Training

I love to climb and have always wanted to do the 7 Peaks Challenge so why not add another 5 classified climbs to the list to create my own version of the 12 days of Christmas, get some solid training in over the festive season and call it the 12 climbs of Xmas. I am not going to review each climb because that's already been done by the Climbing Cyclist, who breaks down each climb and has some very solid advice on how to approach these climbs. While Omeo to Dinner Plain does not have a climb classification, the  42km of staircase like climbing with 8 category 3 or 4 climbs over 2 hours, was one of the toughest assignments of the lot. Taking on this excessive load over the course of two weeks, provided me with an ideal supercompensation training block. In the process, I accumulated a Training Stress Score (TSS) of  2,072, about 25% above my 6 week average total and produced some record power number numbers, so there's a lot to be said for going a little overboard.

Supercompensation Training

In sports science theory, supercompensation refers to the post-training period during which the trained parameter has a higher performance capacity than it did prior to the training period. For a deeper dive take a look at the article by Nick Kanwetz, written for Trainer Road on The Science of Supercompensation and How It Makes You Fast.

The Bikes

Most climbs were ridden on my Trek Emonda with a set of Bontrager 35mm wheels, with 30mm Schwalbe Pro One tyres with latex tubes, Ultegra 52/36 chainring and 11-30 cassette with 36-30 being the easiest gear combination. For the four steepest climbs, I opted for my Cloud Adventure gravel bike with a set of Creative 40mm wheels, 32mm Continental GP5000 Tubeless tyres, SRAM XO Eagle 42 tooth oneby and 10-52 cassette. The 42-52 combinateion meant that I never ran out of gears and was able to maintain a cadence of at least 80rpm, even on the steepest of climbs. 

The Climbs

Climb	Class’n	Distance (KM)	Gradient	Metres Vert
1. Kinglake	2	7.2	4.90%	354
2. Mt Buller	HC	15.3	6.20%	942
3. Back of Falls Creek	HC	22.46	5.40%	988
4. Front of Falls Creek	HC	29.56	3.90%	1154
5. Mt Hotham	HC	31.22	4.00%	1347
6. Omeo to Dinner Plain		42.64	2.20%	935
7. Mt Buffalo	HC	18	5.90%	1018
8. Tawonga Gap - Bright side	2	5.82	6.60%	387
9. Tawonga Gap - Mt Beaty side	2	7.42	6.60%	485
10. Mt Baw Baw	HC	12.15	8.10%	990
11. Mt Donnabuang	HC	16.55	6.70%	1093
12. Lake Mountain	HC	20.53	4.50%	932

The approach

I treated these climbs as individual time trials as best I could, with the intention of attempting a personal best for each climb.  In doing so, I enlisted the assistance of Best Bike Split. If you are unfamiliar with this website, it is used by world tour teams and elite triathletes to calculate recommended power profiles based on intensity factor, gradient, road surface, riding position (cda), wind, weight and equipment. The result is a step by step guide of how to ride each segment of the ride or it can be condensed down to cheat sheet which looks like the chart below, which you can also get for speed if you don't have power. Cover with clear packing tape and stick it on your top tube or stem and away you go.

What I soon discovered is that pacing plans work well in theory, but executing it is another. Hotter than expected conditions can quickly send your heart rate soaring. Unexpected wind blowing in the wrong direction can help or hinder your pacing plan. Make the intensity too great and you can dig yourself a hole that's going to swallow you later.

The preparation

Taking my learnings from the past 18 months and getting stronger for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day, I adopted a pre-race day routine for my fuelling (a morning coffee, toasted raisin bread with peanut butter and jam, rolled oats with milk of choice, protein powder and 25g of sodium bicarbonate, a banana, then a juice (beetroot, apple, ginger, celery) with a scoop of beta-alanine and another shot of coffee) just prior to a 10-15min warmup.

Nutrition for the ride aimed for 100g of carbs per hour. I did run two bottles, one with drink mix and another with water to rinse my mouth out after the carbs. On the longer rides I also took in a homemade gel, which is just a reduced version of the drink mix with 5g of sodium bicarbonate or coffee.

In between ride nutrition

On four days I did back to back climbs on the same day and knew that topping up my reserves would be of vital importance. I purchased some tins of Creamed Rice pudding from the supermarket, which have 75g of carbohydrate and 14g of protein. This was the perfect quick recovery meal. You could make this at home, but you need to be careful storing it.

Post ride recovery

Once the bike was packed away, it was into recovery mode. First up I would finish off the carbs in my drink bottle and drink as much water as I felt like, followed by a protein shake with about 20g of protein. On hot days I then headed straight for the nearest river or creek to cool my core body temperature down, which was welcome relief from the heat. On my drive back to my accommodation I would typically eat a protein bar (8g), 100g of nuts (25g protein, 25g carbs, 50g fats) and eat a few lollies if I felt like it.  Dinner was a carbohydrate rich meal with rice or pasta.

Key learnings

Expectations are a burden - I had the lofty ambition of trying to ride a Personal Best (PB) for each climb, which quickly went out the window when the heat crept up to be warmer than expected on a few occasions and the additional volume of the second climb of the day was too much to bear. Many of those PBs had been previously set under race conditions and were hard to beat.  I did manage to come away with five PBs.  However, on the penultimate climb on Mt Donna Buang and the day after Mt Baw Baw, reputedly the 5th toughest climb in the world, I had a couple of wines the night before, had a great night's sleep and went in with the plan of riding with an Intensity Factor (IF) of .93 or 290W for gradients >6%. I ended up riding 10% higher than that number and rode my best ever one hour power with my heart rate barely touching threshold.

Preparation is key - I was very happy with the nutrition side of things, but my power meter dropped out on one ride because of lack of charge and the battery on my rear derailleur on my second bike died after only one ride. Both chargers were at home.

Rest and Recovery are vital - there were a couple of days when my Garmin said Peaking and it was right. Also listening to the body, having a proper day off and allowing easy recovery days for my body to absorb the load.

Shared experiences are the best - five of the climbs were done with mates who came along for the ride. On Mt Buffalo I just happened to bump into a guy I knew and that conversation took me out of the doldrums and into a better place. Kudos to my friend Roger who managed back to back days of record power numbers, which was an impressive feat.

Supercompensation Training Works - TSS for the first week was 1220 from over 22hrs of riding and week two was 850 TSS from over 14hrs of riding.  Prior to the 12 climbs of Xmas, my FTP was 312W and by the end it was 320W. VO2 as recorded by my Garmin devices was 60 on the 24/12/25 and 67 on the 11/01/25. The combination of training stimulus, heat exposure, mild altitude, rest, recovery and good nutrition gave my fitness a major bump.

If you really wanted to ace these climbs, you would take a day or two off between each climb, but then you might miss the training effect which comes with doing something extreme.

Conclusion

The 12 Climbs of Xmas proved to be a demanding but highly productive experiment in supercompensation, blending extreme training load with disciplined fuelling, recovery, and pacing strategy. Not every climb delivered a personal best, yet the overall stimulus—heat, altitude, volume, and intensity—drove meaningful gains in fitness, power, and confidence. The experience reinforced the value of preparation, flexibility, and recovery, while also highlighting how much easier the hardest days become when shared with others. Ultimately, the challenge showed that pushing beyond my comfort levels, even imperfectly, can unlock performance improvements that steady, conservative training rarely matches.