Momentum: Bodies in Motion TA's Weekly Update 8.23.09

>Howdy,

Sitting here typing with blue stained finger tips having picked and processed 15 litres of blueberries. Marian, Nolan, and I had a fine time wondering through the Tilton Barrens on a dual mission of checking out an orienteering map and picking blueberries. When I looked at the upload of data from my new Garmin Forerunner 305, I noticed that blueberry picking got much more of our attention. The Garmin is a training tool that is a combination of heart rate monitor and GPS. It tracks how far, how fast, and how fast my heart beats. It is already giving me new windows into and understanding of my training. Using a heart rate monitor allows me to work out in a specific heart-rate zone to give my various energy systems an opportunity to grow stronger and more efficient.

By uploading the data to the Garmin Connects site, I can view the terrain I covered. If you'd like to see the berry-picking track, you can click here. http://bit.ly/4h103p If you zoom in (by pushing the plus button) you'll see the little squiggles that I made when pursing the almighty blue antioxidant and breakfast staple. In just a few days of having it, I can see that I'm going to use the new toy (tool) when teaching students about backcountry navigation. It's both invigorating and a challenge to keep current with all the technology that exists for outdoor recreation these days. What in the past may have been ten essentials may have grown to 15 or 20 now.

It was a bit of a post-partum week after Camp Glow, the valley after a peak experience. Fortunately, I knew that was likely so did my best to wait it out. The house renos made big leaps forward this week and I think the summit ridge may just be visible through the clouds ahead. I got a few long standing house projects done and that felt good.

Training is moving forward. My running distances are slowly growing and the ankle mostly does pretty well. I get some soreness and stiffness with it and on occasion, the other leg hurts in the same place for solidarity even though it's never been injured (bodies are funny things).

I notice that training begets training. As I get back to a more disciplined approach, it gets easier to be disciplined. As my training schedule becomes more routine, I find it easier to get it done. As I begin to sense training and strength gains, I get excited to do more. Momentum is key. I see that more and more. I am a creature of momentum. I like to create it and use it to keep things moving forward.

If I (or a project) lose momentum, I notice how hard it is to pick it up again and get it going once more. Sometimes things go on the wayside for weeks, months or years, half done…just waiting for a hit of energy to see them through. With this insight of late, I'm more choosey. I don't start things if I don't have the time or energy to see them through. I try to not split my attention too many ways. I am simplifying my existence so that I can focus my momentum on nurturing the most critical tasks through to completion.

Inertia is hard to overcome…both personally and in training but once I have some of that momentum I've been talking about, I tend to remain in motion. I like to use the "body in motion" trick to manage all the things I need to pull off but also have learned that sometimes "a body must remain at rest." My life as a science experiment!

Not feeling all that articulate today so I'll sign off knowing that in almost seven short months to the day, I will be arriving in Kathmandu to start another Everest adventure.

Take care,

TA

Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Climbing Everest, I Learned at Firefighter Camp TA's Weekly Update August 16, 2009

Hello to All,

After a full and intense week, it's good to sit a spell and reflect on all the rich lessons I received this week. In the course of my climbing training, I've opted to pursue "Ring of Fire" challenges as I've called them; tasks and experiences that require me climbing outside my comfort zone into the heat of an uncomfortable place. I believe it's critical for me to practice being uncomfortable since life at high altitude is so frequently filled with discomfort.

This week I stepped directed into some rings of fire, ones that were actually burning, in fact. Thanks to the Women Resource Development Committee and the Marine Institute, I had the great privilege of attending Camp Glow. Camp Glow (Group Learning for Outgoing Women http://www.mi.mun.ca/campglow/ ) is a five-day firefighting camp for women that introduces many aspects of firefighting. Our group ranged in age from 19-50 and was lead by Krista Parsons Butler and Mary Clarke.

We began the week learning to don bunker gear and finished it fighting a twenty-foot wall of flames. Along the way, each of us faced intense moments of fear invoked for some by being lowered over a 40 foot wall, searching a dark and smoke-filled building, or crawling through ever diminishing tunnels. Each woman had her own way of navigating the maze of emotions and thoughts that arose along the way. Some got quiet. Some cracked jokes. Some cheered loudly and others charged boldly forward.

My younger brother, Mike, is a career firefighter with the Edmonton Fire and Rescue Services. I have always harboured a secret dream to follow his footsteps into the firefighting profession. This week I got to spend five days in his boots and now have even more respect and appreciation of the work he does. Mike is on the high angle rescue team and it's very evident that we have expressed our shared love of high places in different ways but I was glad to spend the week thinking so fondly of my younger bro. Seen together, we are often asked if we are twins. After this week, I would answer…twins separated at birth by six years. Thanks Mike for being my inspiration this week.

This morning, as I completed my long run, I reflected on the week and thought I might turn to Robert Fulghum (All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten) for the format of how I might share the lessons of the week.

Everything I Ever Needed to Know about Climbing Everest, I Learned at Firefighter Camp.

All I really need to know about how to climb Everest and what to do and how to be I learned at Camp Glow. Wisdom was not at the top of the mountain, but there in the orange glow of team spirit and firelight.
These are the things I learned at fire school that I will take to the mountain:
• Check and recheck your gear because your life depends on it. Shakedown is key–make sure all the pieces work together.
• Practice doesn't make perfect, instead it makes us faster and more confident. Time can be gained through fitness but also through putting all the pieces together more efficiently.
• Different fires are fought in different ways. Always use the right extinguisher and technique for the fire you are fighting. Using the wrong one can feed the fire and make the job of putting out much more difficult.
• Keep contact with the wall and your buddy–they are your safety system for getting out when you can't see a thing.
• Stay low–fire and gases will go high. Seek respite in safe pockets.
• Fire and smoke cannot penetrate a water wall. Use one to protect yourself, your teammates, and your retreat.
• Always know and plan the ways you can get out of a fire and get out before it is too late.
• Don't over-think it. Use the skills you've been taught to manage the intense feelings that arise when heading into a burning building.
• Our minds are our greatest tools and our greatest enemies. When donning bunker gear, just ignore how hot it is–just get the job done without paying attention to how miserable you are.
• Together we can achieve things we cannot on our own. Teammates are deep sources for inspiration, protection, perspiration, and shared joys and loses. Don't ever enter a burning building without a buddy and a team behind you.

Everything I need to know for Everest is in there somewhere: The Golden Rule and teamwork and basic guidelines for coming home alive. Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated climbing terms and it holds true and clear and firm. And it is still true, no matter how old we are, when we go out on a climb, it is best to rope up and stick together.

Thanks to all the sponsors of Camp Glow, the program volunteers, my teammates, and especially to the skilled instructors who guided us along the terrain of firefighting. I am sure there will be times next April and May, when I need a hit of inspiration that my mind will turn to the amazing week I spent learning firefighting (and climbing) at Camp Glow.

With gratitude,
TA

PS. The challenges of reno chaos continue…piles of stuff, coal dust, and building supplies block easy passage through the house. We think we finally have a bathroom vanity that will work with the unique space of our 100 year old bathroom and the drywall is back up…perhaps the summit ridge is in sight.

Flash Rust: TA's Weekly Update August 9, 2009

Howdy,

Catching a few minutes pause between coats of rust-inhibiting paint on our old claw foot tub. It got moved out on the deck on Friday and I've had intimate lessons in the concept of flash rust. Basically, one shouldn't sand or grind a metal object one intends to paint until just before you paint it. If you sand early and it rains say, you get a "flash rust" lesson and you get to sand and grind and wire wheel more than you did the first time. It was a little like making a carry at high altitude, I got to cover the same ground over and over again.

But now, there are two coats of paint on the tub and it only sprinkled some rain to bring up our heart rates (the paint said-it shouldn't have rain touch it for 24 hours) so the tub is doing a good imitation of an orange ghost or a rather misshapen pumpkin by hiding out under one of our camping tarps.

Speaking of camping, Marian and I have been "camping" in our house since Friday when they removed the main drainage stack and plumbing in the bathroom. No water, no sewer, no toilet. Frankly, it's easier to camp outdoors where you can go off and find a fine spot to take care of business. Instead we are making well-timed visits to local restaurants and schlepping our camping pee bottles with us to work when we head there for a shower.

Now that all the demolition has been done (and of course, it was more extensive than anyone had imagined-when planning renos double the time and triple the budget), they can start putting everything back together again starting tomorrow with the hope of water by Wednesday. So as you can see, my week was consumed by renos…either waiting for deliveries, making upteen visits to building supply stores, consults with "da guys," painting, sanding, cutting quarter-round (thank god Marian has more spatial intelligence than I or we might still be up in the new study…the new floor looks fab!), and collapsing our existence into every smaller and smaller spaces as the reno virus spread. Pockets of sanity in the house are harder to find-rather like taking a layover on a big expedition where a metaphoric bomb goes off and things explode from your backpack to be found, dried, and organized before the next big storm rolls through.

Apart from the urban adventure of renos, I've managed three runs this week. The ankle is doing well in taking on the new activity. It's been great to back at it and I've reconnected with old running/training routes in the early morning. It reminds me that I do know how to train. I feel rather like the new cork floor that got laid down on the third floor this week, that I am laying a foundation of gentle discipline.

I'm reminding myself and relearning about how to make training happen in my new life as part of partnership. When I lived alone, I could train just about any time but now I'm sorting through how to fit training in around all the other joys of life like sharing a yummy breakfast on a sun-drenched deck amid the basil and oregano. I figure August is foundation time–training in a summer pace–amid plenty of flower-smelling and reno-projecting.

I thought I would make another invite for folks to join me on the trek into Everest base camp. There is a trek at the beginning of the expedition that meets in Kathmandu on March 30 and last about 2.5 weeks. There are four or five folks already signed up to trek in with me at that point. There is also another trek leaving May 1 that will hit base camp right about summit bid time…more info on these treks can be found on the Peak Freaks website: http://peakfreaks.com/ebc_trek.htm and I would be happy to answer any questions about the experience as well.

I also have a friend who is considering trekking in sometime in May who is going to work with my friend Raj to create a trek and she is looking for a traveling companion as well. If you'd like to trek in a very small group, let me know and I will patch the two of you together. Peak Freaks has been holding spots for friends of mine, which they will release soon so I wanted to put one last invite out to join us on the amazing journey to Everest! I'm touched that folks are going to great lengths to come along and I can't wait to show them one of my favourite places in the world.

Finally, a climbing friend of mine, Alan Arnette has a mountain-sized ambition to climb the seven summits while raising a million dollars for Alzheimer's research. He's also hoping some folks will join him on some of the climbs. I'm thinking I will do my best to climb Mount Vinson with Alan in November of 2010 (a better length of time for raising the funds than this year I concluded). If you are thinking of climbing Kilimanjaro, this might be a great opportunity and great cause to support.

Please check out Alan's project at http://www.alanarnette.com/alzheimer/memories7summits.php

Have a great week. Time to give the tub another coat of paint and then log my training hours.

TA

Laying the Foundation: TA's Weekly Update August 2, 2009

Happy 214th Day of the Year,

How did it get to be August? How did it get to be Sunday evening? It was another rich week of settling back into post-mountain life both looking back and looking ahead. It seems I am often draw to doing home renovations either before or after climbs and Elbrus seems to be no exception. In a moment of sanity, I put the brakes on before the climb so since getting home we have been busy making lots of decisions and getting supplies at hand for when the contractor's ready to get to work everything will be in place. Working on the house feels a bit like core work–it sets the foundation and is the strength that everything else is built on. Having a home that works well supports me in the rest of my adventures.

It's a bit like organizing an expedition and sorting through what supplies need to be and when, which tasks need to be done before the next, and deciding on a route and seeking local beta. Along with multiple trips to the building supply store, I also returned to a gentle schedule of physical activity. It was too light a load to be called training but is starting to set the base. I'm cognizant that my Everest climb is at the same moment, far off and just around the corner. I know from past experience that I can hold to a hard schedule of training for five to six months before I lose drive and focus.

I'm trying to layout my training plan so I peak at the right moment next April. I don't want to start too soon and thereby peak too soon. I also am aware that I'm starting lower on the fitness scale than in the last several years because of this spring's injury. My commitment is to keep listening to my body, to train as hard as I can, avoid injuries, and get enough rest. I won't go to the mountain tired this time–that's a promise I have made with myself. So, I'm going gently at the moment–testing out the discipline I'll need to muster to get training in with everything else and reminding myself constantly not to go out too hard.

I know that as soon as I start training more seriously, the temptation will be to train very hard so I'm laying out the next eight months in phases that will have different purposes such as laying an aerobic foundation, developing strength, working on balance and technical skills, etc. I spent some of the weekend watching the second season of Everest: Beyond the Limit to start reminding myself of the huge challenge ahead and to look at the gear they were using. I enjoyed the show but could have lived without the TV dramatics and I don't recommend watching the shows before bed (it makes sleeping a challenge).

I went for my first run in ages. I wanted to see if my ankle was ready. I did some intervals run up the front side of Signal Hill and stopped in to visit my "Summit and Safe Return" letterbox but unfortunately someone had removed the letterbox. I was saddened by its loss but still took some time to express gratitude for my safe return from Elbrus. The good news is that my ankle did OK with the run. I was tender afterward and made sure to do some icing of it and I'll try again later today or tomorrow for another gentle foray.

In the end, after a week of mulling over the realities of finances, I don't think I'll be able to swing Mount Vinson this year. As much as it would be great to have Everest be number seven, I think the stress of having to have so much fundraising done so quickly, would be too stressful and too distracting from the my major project of the year Mount Everest. So unless I win the lottery (wish is quite impossible without buying a ticket) or find a big sponsor in the next week or so, I'll be hoping to wind up my seven summits bid in 2010. I did finally luck into a points ticket for Australia so I will be heading there in October with Marian for a climb of Mount Kosciuszko (which I both need to learn how to say and spell)!!!

Hope your week was great and you're having a good summer,

TA