Saturday, June 27, 2009
Off to Elbrus: TA's Weekly Update 6/27/2009
Happy Saturday Night,
"It's Saturday night and I don't got nobody…I got some money because I just got paid, oh how I want someone to talk to…" Writing a bit early this week because I'm home alone, laid up with a sore back, and want some company. So I imagine you're sitting on the other side of the table, we've got a luscious cup of tea and a spot of angel food cake to share and its time to chat about our weeks.
First off, thanks to everyone for making this birthday one of my best. Special thanks go out to Marian, Nadia, Natelle, Wanda, and Joan for spending much of the afternoon on the hill with me. Thanks as well to Heather, Charlotte, Stacey, Katie, Tina, Talisann and her niece for coming along for a few climbs. Way big thanks to Wilma for the awesome cake and to Deb for bringing along her entire staff of Applecore Interactive. The sea of blue shirts was terrific and made the last ascent go almost effortlessly. I couldn't wipe the grin off my face the whole time we shared cake at the top. See the Applecore blog for some pictures: http://bit.ly/5wnok
Some near and dear friends gathered that night to share a few drinks and stories and I loved the whole day. My dad called and left message that evening wishing me happy birthday and letting me know that they had gone ahead with his chemo treatment that day…something like his 43rd treatment or such. He says all the staff at the chemo centre know him very well and appreciate his upbeat and humorous attitude towards it all. My dad joked that I must be getting to be an old lady by now. The funny thing is that I think my body is going through an aging spurt and various parts ache and pain in new and interesting ways every morning.
I was pleased that throughout the ten ascents I was able to maintain the same pace. Each ascent is about 1.6 kilometres and we were doing each one in just over 19 minutes. I was carrying 35 pounds and we gained about 150 metres each time for a total of about 16 kilometres and 1500 metres of elevation gain. Joan facilitated a speedy descent by driving us down the hill so we climbed steadily for nearly four hours. I was surprised to be ahead of schedule so we actually walked down the ninth one to which my body doth protested.
Friday I was back on the hill training and to plant a birthday letterbox made by my dear friend Karen. Karen called the letterbox, "To the Summit and Safe Return." This is a quote from Ed Viesters that he sets as his intention before each climb. (http://www.edviesturs.com/) I liked the sentiment and adopted the practice as well. Karen carved a beautiful stamp of Mount Everest for the letterbox and also send up a Vanilla Dip Hitchhiker Letterbox for me to plant as well.
Letterboxing is a great activity that combines art, treasure hunting and getting outside for some adventure. Check out www.atlasquest.com for more information. As I topped the hill for the second time that morning, my lower back was a bit edgy and has since progressed to down right cranky. So I am stiff and sore and have been using ice and ibu through much of today. It's not unlike my body to have some injury/ouchie before a climb. Something about making me continue to decide to go I guess. So I'm hoping it settles quickly…fortunately if it doesn't, I already have an appointment with my chiropractor on Tuesday for my foot. Yes indeed, it does seem like my body is giving me a hard time these days. ☺
I presented at the Canadian College and University Food Service Association conference this morning. I was surprised when I looked out in the audience and saw some folks wearing Tim Hortons clothing. I hadn't anticipated that though I probably should have. I had great fun preparing for the presentation thinking of all the ways food is so critical to climbing…especially at high altitude. I loved watching their faces as I began to profess my love for the Vanilla Dip and likening it to an edible prayer flag. It was so fun. The audience was appreciative and I'm 26 books closer to Everest!
There is a pile of gear and clothing ready to be tamed tomorrow morning after a training hike (if my body permits one). I'll go through my gear lists and start to package things up. Cameras and sat phone are charging. Good-byes are starting to be said and life takes on that sweet tender-heartedness of departure. Seeing and noticing my own impermanence while at the same time planning for safe summit and return. I plan to blog daily from Elbrus as the adventure unfolds so I hope you will follow along!
I leave on Canada Day arriving in the late afternoon of the 2nd in Moscow. I have three nights there and then we head to Terskol via plane and van to begin acclimatizing. We hope to be summitting around July 9-11.
I hope the summer is finding you well. Drop me a line and let me know what you are up to. Thanks again for all your wonderful birthday wishes and support of Wear Blue and Climb and the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network. Donations can still be made throughout the climb. To donate to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network,
please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp
Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad (Heinz Loeffler)." Fill in your contact info and viola you've helped folks living with this awful disease.
Take good care and I'll catch you from Moscow!
TA
--
*******************************************************************************
Please support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad July 2009
To donate to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network,
please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp
Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad." For the acknowledgment card, please use my address (I don't want to beam out my parent's address for all to see in cyberspace). I'll forward all the acknowledgments to my dad.
TA Loeffler
7 Wood Street
St. John's, NL
A1C 3K8
Thanks in advance of your support of this worthy cause.
TA Loeffler Ph.D., Professor
3M National Teaching Fellow
School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
www.taloeffler.com
Phone: 709-737-8670
Fax: 709-737-3979
Office: PE 2011A
Email Office: taloeffler@mun.ca
Email Home: taloeffler@gmail.com
Those who lose dreaming are lost.
Australian Aboriginal Proverb
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.
Amelia Earhart
Remember that the most difficult tasks are consummated not by a single burst of energy or effort, but by consistent application of the best you have within you.
Og Mandino
*******************************************************************************
Sunday, June 21, 2009
This Little Light of Mine: Weekly Update June 21, 2009
Happy Solstice,
As we were eating breakfast yesterday, we heard a siren. And then another. And another. One more. Hearing this much action on Duckworth drew me to the window and I saw four police cars round the corner. Behind the black and whites came motorcycle after motorcycle. They were riding in staggered two abreast formation and they kept coming. And coming. Big cruiser bikes. Harleys. A few dual purpose bikes. Bikes. Bikes. Bikes. They were riding for dads. My dad. All dads. Hundreds of bikers riding to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer. I stood by the window and shed a tear as each bike passed.
My dad rides his motorcycle when he can. He's offered to give it to me me as I am a newly minted Class Six driver (motorcycles). It's a 1986 Yamaha Midnight Maxim. My dad and I always talked about riding motorcycles across Canada when I was a teenager. Now that I have my license it's finally a possibility but I'm not sure his health will allow a ride of that magnitude. But that dream still crosses my mind from time to time and it came sharply back into view as I watched bike after bike head down Duckworth to begin the ride.
Besides thinking of my dad, I was tearing up at the sight of people coming together in community to make a difference in the world. Using an activity they loved, these bikers were both having fun and making change. Each one of us has the power to instigate or propagate or support change in the communities that surround us. I had the sense yesterday that when we join together with others in service that that power is magnified, or indeed more likely, multiplied. The power of this collectively can be witnessed every day if we open to its presence.
This is why I so appreciate your presence in my support community for my climbs. I do truly believe that we can achieve in community that which we can't alone. When I first started training for Denali, I didn't tell a soul because I wanted to back out with no shame if I decided I quit. After a month of training in solitude, I knew I wanted to have people support me in both times of joy and difficulty. I asked a few friends to form a cyber community of support of me and began to write them weekly with the lessons I was learning along the way. The list grew over time and continues to grow. I usually don't plan ahead what I'm going to write, rather sit and wait for the words to emerge.
So today I sit and muse and share about community-you-me-us and the work/play we can do to make the world a better place. By tapping into our passions and by supporting those who we love, we find our way. Thanks again for coming along on the journey.
I had a good training week. My hypoxia numbers are improving and the leg continues to heal. I learned there are two other women on my Elbrus team and that's always a gift as I'm often the solo woman. The countdown has begun and the lists, at this point, are getting longer rather than shorter. I finished teaching this week and have a mountain of grading to do before heading off.
Plans for my birthday party are shaping up. It seems like there may be a few more folks joining me on the hill than I expected because my party made the Scope's List for the "How to Have the Best Freaking Newfoundland Summer." (http://bit.ly/cvIj5). I was a bit startled (to say the least) to see it there and found it interesting to be called the local adventurer and eccentric.
I did find this quote I liked by Dame Edith Sitwell, "I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish." I'm heading off to Value Village to see if I can find something in sky blue for Wednesday that's befitting of an electric eel. ☺
We'll be climbing Signal Hill ten times on Wednesday June 24th starting at noon and the last ascent will likely start around 4:30. I'm being joined by the staff of my long time sponsors, Applecore Interactive, and we'll have birthday cake on top at 5:00 pm. Come join me for one or more ascents up the hill. If you're coming by car, please park at the top and walk down to join us. If you're willing, we'll use your car to run down the hill before starting back up. In lieu of cards and gifts, please consider making a donation to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network. Here are the directions:
Here's how you can support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad. Please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad (Heinz Loeffler)." For the acknowledgment card, please out your contact info. If you've already donated, thank you very much. If you followed the directions I had previously sent out, please drop me an email, as you'll need to submit your contact info to the CPCN so that they can send you a receipt.
Solstice occurred this morning at 05:45 UTC. On this longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, I invite you to spend a moment or two contemplating how you can bring some light into your community, a small ray of hope or a dazzling beam of possibility–we need it all!
Have a good week,
TA
--
*******************************************************************************
Please support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad July 2009
To donate to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network,
please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp
Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad." For the acknowledgment card, please use my address (I don't want to beam out my parent's address for all to see in cyberspace). I'll forward all the acknowledgments to my dad.
TA Loeffler
7 Wood Street
St. John's, NL
A1C 3K8
Thanks in advance of your support of this worthy cause.
TA Loeffler Ph.D., Professor
3M National Teaching Fellow
School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
www.taloeffler.com
Phone: 709-737-8670
Fax: 709-737-3979
Office: PE 2011A
Email Office: taloeffler@mun.ca
Email Home: taloeffler@gmail.com
Those who lose dreaming are lost.
Australian Aboriginal Proverb
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.
Amelia Earhart
Remember that the most difficult tasks are consummated not by a single burst of energy or effort, but by consistent application of the best you have within you.
Og Mandino
*******************************************************************************
As we were eating breakfast yesterday, we heard a siren. And then another. And another. One more. Hearing this much action on Duckworth drew me to the window and I saw four police cars round the corner. Behind the black and whites came motorcycle after motorcycle. They were riding in staggered two abreast formation and they kept coming. And coming. Big cruiser bikes. Harleys. A few dual purpose bikes. Bikes. Bikes. Bikes. They were riding for dads. My dad. All dads. Hundreds of bikers riding to raise awareness and money for prostate cancer. I stood by the window and shed a tear as each bike passed.
My dad rides his motorcycle when he can. He's offered to give it to me me as I am a newly minted Class Six driver (motorcycles). It's a 1986 Yamaha Midnight Maxim. My dad and I always talked about riding motorcycles across Canada when I was a teenager. Now that I have my license it's finally a possibility but I'm not sure his health will allow a ride of that magnitude. But that dream still crosses my mind from time to time and it came sharply back into view as I watched bike after bike head down Duckworth to begin the ride.
Besides thinking of my dad, I was tearing up at the sight of people coming together in community to make a difference in the world. Using an activity they loved, these bikers were both having fun and making change. Each one of us has the power to instigate or propagate or support change in the communities that surround us. I had the sense yesterday that when we join together with others in service that that power is magnified, or indeed more likely, multiplied. The power of this collectively can be witnessed every day if we open to its presence.
This is why I so appreciate your presence in my support community for my climbs. I do truly believe that we can achieve in community that which we can't alone. When I first started training for Denali, I didn't tell a soul because I wanted to back out with no shame if I decided I quit. After a month of training in solitude, I knew I wanted to have people support me in both times of joy and difficulty. I asked a few friends to form a cyber community of support of me and began to write them weekly with the lessons I was learning along the way. The list grew over time and continues to grow. I usually don't plan ahead what I'm going to write, rather sit and wait for the words to emerge.
So today I sit and muse and share about community-you-me-us and the work/play we can do to make the world a better place. By tapping into our passions and by supporting those who we love, we find our way. Thanks again for coming along on the journey.
I had a good training week. My hypoxia numbers are improving and the leg continues to heal. I learned there are two other women on my Elbrus team and that's always a gift as I'm often the solo woman. The countdown has begun and the lists, at this point, are getting longer rather than shorter. I finished teaching this week and have a mountain of grading to do before heading off.
Plans for my birthday party are shaping up. It seems like there may be a few more folks joining me on the hill than I expected because my party made the Scope's List for the "How to Have the Best Freaking Newfoundland Summer." (http://bit.ly/cvIj5). I was a bit startled (to say the least) to see it there and found it interesting to be called the local adventurer and eccentric.
I did find this quote I liked by Dame Edith Sitwell, "I am not eccentric. It's just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of goldfish." I'm heading off to Value Village to see if I can find something in sky blue for Wednesday that's befitting of an electric eel. ☺
We'll be climbing Signal Hill ten times on Wednesday June 24th starting at noon and the last ascent will likely start around 4:30. I'm being joined by the staff of my long time sponsors, Applecore Interactive, and we'll have birthday cake on top at 5:00 pm. Come join me for one or more ascents up the hill. If you're coming by car, please park at the top and walk down to join us. If you're willing, we'll use your car to run down the hill before starting back up. In lieu of cards and gifts, please consider making a donation to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network. Here are the directions:
Here's how you can support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad. Please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad (Heinz Loeffler)." For the acknowledgment card, please out your contact info. If you've already donated, thank you very much. If you followed the directions I had previously sent out, please drop me an email, as you'll need to submit your contact info to the CPCN so that they can send you a receipt.
Solstice occurred this morning at 05:45 UTC. On this longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, I invite you to spend a moment or two contemplating how you can bring some light into your community, a small ray of hope or a dazzling beam of possibility–we need it all!
Have a good week,
TA
--
*******************************************************************************
Please support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad July 2009
To donate to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network,
please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp
Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad." For the acknowledgment card, please use my address (I don't want to beam out my parent's address for all to see in cyberspace). I'll forward all the acknowledgments to my dad.
TA Loeffler
7 Wood Street
St. John's, NL
A1C 3K8
Thanks in advance of your support of this worthy cause.
TA Loeffler Ph.D., Professor
3M National Teaching Fellow
School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
www.taloeffler.com
Phone: 709-737-8670
Fax: 709-737-3979
Office: PE 2011A
Email Office: taloeffler@mun.ca
Email Home: taloeffler@gmail.com
Those who lose dreaming are lost.
Australian Aboriginal Proverb
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.
Amelia Earhart
Remember that the most difficult tasks are consummated not by a single burst of energy or effort, but by consistent application of the best you have within you.
Og Mandino
*******************************************************************************
Monday, June 15, 2009
Wear Blue and Climb Birthday Bash on SIgnal Hill and Weekly Update
OK…perhaps dancing on Saturday night wasn't the smartest move given how sore my leg is today. But it is such a rare event that I feel comfortable enough in a setting to dance that I couldn't say no. I made my yearly pilgrimage to the Becoming an Outdoors Woman workshop to lead a session on Wilderness First Aid and do a climbing presentation on Saturday. I really wanted to clone myself because I was doing the final workshop in my Shambhala Warrior Training program at the same time. I sat meditation all morning then jumped in the car with Marian to share the secrets of staying calm in an emergency with 15 newly minted outdoors women.
After showing them how to construct splints out of outdoor gear, I gobbled down the traditional turkey dinner and got the room laughing with stories from the "Ring of Fire" (the strange exercises I take to practice being outside of my comfort zone). So, it only seemed right to accept Lucy's invitation to two-step. Once I relaxed enough to let her lead, it was fun to fly about the room in beat to her sister and nephew's beautiful voices. I can count the number of times I've danced in the last decade on one hand.
In keeping with my belief that it's important to practice being uncomfortable sometimes, I went for it and danced much of the time the music was happening. And yes, my leg is pretty sore but it was worth it as I want to begin the process of life in the ring of fire once again (actually I'm not sure I ever got out of the fire). I'll be looking for opportunities for new and challenging things to do…I know I want to learn to fight, perhaps ballroom dancing…maybe some belly dancing-now that would be a stretch! Any other ideas out there? Send 'em in and I'll consider them!
I had a good "stretching" experience this week when I spoke to over 1000 folks at the Operating Room Nurses Association of Canada National Conference on Friday. They were a wonderful audience and I felt like I'd hit really hit my stride! I'd asked a surgeon I play hockey with about how working in an operating room was like climbing a mountain and she gave me some good points that I used in personalizing the presentation. I've really felt a new comfort and new abilities in my comedic timing coming along of late and a new passion in my message since I committed to going back to Everest.
I had my nerve conduction tests done today and they confirmed that I do indeed have carpal tunnel in both wrists. So, even though I've had less symptoms of late, that's likely due to not stressing them by ice climbing or pulk pulling. I'll be researching treatment options as I wait for my appointment with the surgeon again in September. The neurologist today said that my wrists were likely to continue to flare with any heavy exertion and the testing showed that the nerve has been damaged…so I'll keep you posted.
I'm leaving for Elbrus in two weeks on July 1 (Canada Day). Soon I will begin to migrate climbing equipment into the living room and lay it lovingly into piles. I'll make lists. Many lists. I'll begin to transform the inevitable pre-climb nervousness into checking and re-checking gear, probably giving into the incorrect notion that if I can just select the perfect gear nothing bad or uncomfy will befall me. I have one more week of teaching and then I'll be able to give my Elbrus prep and training my undivided attention. Until then, I sneak moments of planning in here and there.
Before each of my big climbs of late, I've made it a tradition to do ten Signal Hill ascents. Signal Hill dominates the St. John's skyline and has been a focus for much of my training. Climbing from the harbour at Temperance Street to the top nets me a gain of about 450 feet. With cars parked above, we climb up and drive down and climb up and drive down. Etc. Repeat. Etc. Repeat. Until we get to ten. This brings me to Wednesday June 24…one of my favourite days of the year. My birthday!
To celebrate turning 44 on the 24th, I plan to do my ten ascents for Elbrus starting at noon at the bottom of Temperance Street. It will take about five hours and I'm looking for folks to come join me for an ascent or two…or six. In lieu of gifts or cards, I'm asking for folks to wear sky blue that day and to consider making a donation to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network. Sky Blue is the colour of the awareness ribbon for Prostate Cancer. I was thinking the Blue-Helmeted Super Hero may have to make another climb of Signal Hill (weather dependent-the lycra might cause heat stroke if it is warm!) Please come on out and help celebrate! You can always do a drive by and honk! Let me know if you can help drive a descent or two as well!
Alright…time to get this sent out! Happy Monday. Have a good week!
TA
Here's how you can support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad
To donate to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network,
please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp
Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad." For the acknowledgment card, please use my address (I don't want to beam out my parent's address for all to see in cyberspace). I'll forward all the acknowledgments to my dad.
TA Loeffler
7 Wood Street
St. John's, NL
A1C 3K8
Thanks in advance of your support of this worthy cause.
--
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Step by Step: TA's Weekly Update June 09, 2009
Greetings to All,
Thanks to all who jumped aboard my Facebook Group! (http://bit.ly/TAEverest2010) For those that don't do Facebook, have no worries, I'll continue to send out weekly updates via email as well!
I backpacked to the summit of the Avalon Peninsula today with my outdoor recreation class. It was the last challenge of their three day backpacking trip and most were very exasperated when I mentioned that the top of the Picco's hill (at 925 feet) needed to be multiplied by 300 to reach near the summit of Everest.
I was exasperated too! It's been too long since I carried 45 pounds up a hill! My ankle, which I injured in late March, did pretty well but I'm aware both of how much fitness the ankle injury cost me and how far I still need to go to get my leg back to one hundred percent.
As I was breathing hard going uphill, I had to remind myself that I still had three weeks left to get ready for Elbrus (the highest peak in Russia) and that I have a great reservoir of mental strength to draw upon. I'm guessing there will be tremendous learning in not going in as fit as I'd like to be and as fit as I was last time in 2006. I'm hoping my team isn't a bunch of speedsters…I know I can climb for hours as long as I climb slow enough.
I'll be putting in lots of time on the hills around St. John's in the next three weeks. Signal Hill will become my second home as I climb the front side, back side, and the road many times in the coming weeks! I gave a talk in Prince Edward Island on Thursday morning. The co-chair of the conference did the closing after my presentation. She'd grown up on Mayor Avenue and spoke of standing at the bottom of the hill wondering if she could ever walk to the top and marveling that I'd climbed it over 300 times.
I guess, similarly, I now stand at the bottom of Elbrus and wonder the same thing. Fortunately, I know from past experience that it's about putting one foot in front of the other. Sometime for hours at a time.
There is such a joy standing where I can go no higher whether that spot is the top of the Avalon or the top of Russia at 5642 metres and I get there the same way. Step by step. It's funny how I have to learn the same lessons over and over again. The top of Elbrus is just a bit higher than Everest base camp.
I confirmed that it is possible for folks to trek in with my Everest team. If you'd like to receive more information about that possibility, drop me a line and I'll send you out the beta.
I just googled "quote and step by step." This quote by Og Mandino popped up first…so I'll close with that.
"You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day / not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal / to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished."
Have a good week!
TA
*******************************************************************************
Please support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad July 2009
To donate to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network,
please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp
Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad." For the acknowledgment card, please use my address (I don't want to beam out my parent's address for all to see in cyberspace). I'll forward all the acknowledgments to my dad.
TA Loeffler
7 Wood Street
St. John's, NL
A1C 3K8
Thanks in advance of your support of this worthy cause.
TA Loeffler Ph.D., Professor
3M National Teaching Fellow
School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
www.taloeffler.com
Phone: 709-737-8670
Fax: 709-737-3979
Office: PE 2011A
Email Office: taloeffler@mun.ca
Email Home: taloeffler@gmail.com
Those who lose dreaming are lost.
Australian Aboriginal Proverb
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.
Amelia Earhart
Remember that the most difficult tasks are consummated not by a single burst of energy or effort, but by consistent application of the best you have within you.
Og Mandino
*******************************************************************************
Thanks to all who jumped aboard my Facebook Group! (http://bit.ly/TAEverest2010) For those that don't do Facebook, have no worries, I'll continue to send out weekly updates via email as well!
I backpacked to the summit of the Avalon Peninsula today with my outdoor recreation class. It was the last challenge of their three day backpacking trip and most were very exasperated when I mentioned that the top of the Picco's hill (at 925 feet) needed to be multiplied by 300 to reach near the summit of Everest.
I was exasperated too! It's been too long since I carried 45 pounds up a hill! My ankle, which I injured in late March, did pretty well but I'm aware both of how much fitness the ankle injury cost me and how far I still need to go to get my leg back to one hundred percent.
As I was breathing hard going uphill, I had to remind myself that I still had three weeks left to get ready for Elbrus (the highest peak in Russia) and that I have a great reservoir of mental strength to draw upon. I'm guessing there will be tremendous learning in not going in as fit as I'd like to be and as fit as I was last time in 2006. I'm hoping my team isn't a bunch of speedsters…I know I can climb for hours as long as I climb slow enough.
I'll be putting in lots of time on the hills around St. John's in the next three weeks. Signal Hill will become my second home as I climb the front side, back side, and the road many times in the coming weeks! I gave a talk in Prince Edward Island on Thursday morning. The co-chair of the conference did the closing after my presentation. She'd grown up on Mayor Avenue and spoke of standing at the bottom of the hill wondering if she could ever walk to the top and marveling that I'd climbed it over 300 times.
I guess, similarly, I now stand at the bottom of Elbrus and wonder the same thing. Fortunately, I know from past experience that it's about putting one foot in front of the other. Sometime for hours at a time.
There is such a joy standing where I can go no higher whether that spot is the top of the Avalon or the top of Russia at 5642 metres and I get there the same way. Step by step. It's funny how I have to learn the same lessons over and over again. The top of Elbrus is just a bit higher than Everest base camp.
I confirmed that it is possible for folks to trek in with my Everest team. If you'd like to receive more information about that possibility, drop me a line and I'll send you out the beta.
I just googled "quote and step by step." This quote by Og Mandino popped up first…so I'll close with that.
"You will achieve grand dream, a day at a time, so set goals for each day / not long and difficult projects, but chores that will take you, step by step, toward your rainbow. Write them down, if you must, but limit your list so that you won't have to drag today's undone matters into tomorrow. Remember that you cannot build your pyramid in twenty-four hours. Be patient. Never allow your day to become so cluttered that you neglect your most important goal / to do the best you can, enjoy this day, and rest satisfied with what you have accomplished."
Have a good week!
TA
*******************************************************************************
Please support Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad July 2009
To donate to the Canadian Prostate Cancer Network,
please click on the following link: http://www.cpcn.org/honour_form.asp
Click the "In Honour" button and please fill out "Elbrus: Climbing for my Dad." For the acknowledgment card, please use my address (I don't want to beam out my parent's address for all to see in cyberspace). I'll forward all the acknowledgments to my dad.
TA Loeffler
7 Wood Street
St. John's, NL
A1C 3K8
Thanks in advance of your support of this worthy cause.
TA Loeffler Ph.D., Professor
3M National Teaching Fellow
School of Human Kinetics and Recreation
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1C 5S7
www.taloeffler.com
Phone: 709-737-8670
Fax: 709-737-3979
Office: PE 2011A
Email Office: taloeffler@mun.ca
Email Home: taloeffler@gmail.com
Those who lose dreaming are lost.
Australian Aboriginal Proverb
Courage is the price that life exacts for granting peace. The soul that knows it not, knows no release from little things; Knows not the livid loneliness of fear, nor mountain heights where bitter joy can hear the sound of wings.
Amelia Earhart
Remember that the most difficult tasks are consummated not by a single burst of energy or effort, but by consistent application of the best you have within you.
Og Mandino
*******************************************************************************
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
