I Will Return to Mt. Everest, but Not in 2015

I didn't think it would take me five months to make this decision, but it did take that long. Why you might ask? I'll give you a list of reasons.

1. Money. There is no way around it, Everest is the most expensive 8000 meter peak, and most expensive place, mountain or otherwise, to expedition, outside of either pole. I put off paying off my debt, buying a newer car, having nicer clothes, or a nicer apartment so that I could get to Everest the first time as soon as I could. Frankly, I'm tired of being in debt.
2. An expedition in 2015 was never part of my plan. The plan was expedition in 2014, then spend two years chasing the delusion of getting to the 2016 Olympic Marathon Trials, then another expedition in 2016, my dream expedition for the record. I know it sounds crazy for someone who runs as slow as I do, but I have planned around the Olympic cycles. However, not getting much above 21,000 feet in 2014 does nothing for my confidence to attempt my dream expedition, because without more high altitude experience the proposal coming from me sounds naive. I highlight that idea in bold because it would be an incredible accomplishment, and in some ways, the culmination of a mountaineering career, more satisfying than Everest.
3. On every mountain, in every season, that I know of, you can climb in whatever style you want, and it is usually respected, although expect a few experienced people to think you are legitimally crazy if you do something difficult. They might offer advice, they might report you to authorities, they might even yell at you, but I've never heard of it getting physical. Everest, especially in the spring, is not like every other mountain. The 2013 incident scared me, especially when I saw the video last month. Mistakes were made on the side of the Europeans, I won't deny that or condone it. However, I can't condone the reaction either. I learned in Nepal this spring that many people, both westerner and Sherpa show up at Everest every year, with less than one year of climbing experience, and summit. Before I went, I respected the local "guides" immensly! However, I learned that Sherpa does not equal 8000 meter mountaineering guide, in the same way that a Kenyan does not equal a sub 2:10 marathoner. Of course, some are absolutely the best, great people, skilled individuals, yet on the other hand, I am faster than many Kenyans, and similarly have led more ice climbing pitches than many Sherpas. Many people die on Everest because there is a delusion about the skills and fitness needed to safely go up and down. Before an expedition I imagine myself at the top of the mountain, in a white out, alone, without a radio, or any of my own rope, as night falls. I must have the skills and fitness to descend all the way to basecamp, otherwise I could become a statistic. That does not seem to be a pervasive attitude on Everest. To be completely honest, I may change my mind in the future, and never return to Everest. Yet there is only one highest mountain in the world, and the people I interacted with were very nice and supportive through the whole endeavor. 

That's it. For those people that may have started reading this blog because of Mt. Everest, I want to say Everest is not the be all end all. It is simply the highest chunk of rock on Earth. There are other objectives, more interesting, more demanding, and still incomplete more than 60 years after the first ascent of Everest. 

Because I Have So Much Opportunity...

Because I have so much opportunity I need to do the best I can, otherwise I am wasting the resources presented to me. I was reflecting on my experience in Rwanda last night, and it almost brought me to tears again. There is more economic opportunity within 100 miles of me in Dubuque, Iowa, than the whole of Rwanda. That might be a lie, but considering Madison, the quad cities, Iowa City, and Cedar Rapids areas, it may very well be true. 

It's not just economic opportunity, I can run, I can travel, I can climb, I can cook, I can do so many things. I feel the responsibility that because of these gifts and talents I have, I must use them as best I can. Opportunity, which is a form of authority, is a responsibility, not to be neglected or taken for granted. 

Rosetta and Philae Spacecraft (The Coolest Thing in Space Right Now)

Check out this image, taken only 16 miles from a comet last week. Definitely the coolest thing happening in space right now is about to happen in November, we are landing on a comet!

We land on Mars and even moons of Jupiter, and of course our moon, however, in some respects, they are all easier than a comet. Something that is only 1.5 miles long and 2.5 miles wide has very little gravity. That means it's difficult to get to and stay on. Honestly, you might be able to jump off of it. Your legs might have that much delta V that you could launch yourself off the comet. For humans to walk on a comet would be incredibly difficult, that's part of the reason a robot can do this mission so well.

It is going to be interesting!

I Live in Iowa: Week 172

Honestly, this was not a good week. It wasn't all bad, but certainly not all positive. However, below average weeks are a given and something that I feel we (and myself included) don't appreciate. I mean bad weeks make the good weeks that much better. Bad weeks help us to realize that even when things aren't going well, the truth is, they could go a lot worse.

Work… Work is not play. So I am responsible, or at least I have committed myself, to a variety of parts,   probably in excess of 400. Several of those parts are complex pieces involving multiple process to manufacture, let alone assemble the complex assemblies with those parts. Well, over the course of the last week, one part had a design error, a modeled interference that was not supposed to be an interference. Another the supplier reported was out of spec according to their measurements. Finally, a third part broke. All three issues, are significant. At least, in my eyes these are not the kind of issues we want to be having at this point in the program. So the stress level goes up. However, that's why I am there, to fix issues, to design better parts, to work through the problems that don't have a simple solution. Plus, some work that I did in the last two weeks had to be redone because I was not very accurate, within a inch, but an inch isn't close enough, so don't trust me a tape measure.

Bigger picture about work, it's going exceptionally well. Seriously, the problems are not easy, and I am often frustrated by the time the afternoon rolls around, but we are fixing things and making the quality better.

Running went fantastic! Seriously, I ran 49 miles, with a day off. Plus, on Thursday I ran a workout with AW and BH and it went great! We did 4 x mile with about two minutes jogging rest and my splits were 5:48, 5:39, 5:37, 5:35, and I was only aiming for 5:45. To do this kind of workout a mere 11 days after running the North Coast 24, I am simply stunned. I mean I know that running high mileage my body recovers faster than normal, and I did just finish two 400+ mile months, but to throw down three sub 5:40 miles within two weeks of not being able to walk, or drive with my foot, is amazing.

As for injury of my first ultra, still had a lot of top right foot tendonitis above my first and second metatarsals, probably due to not adjusting my laces in 24 hours of running and my shoes being too tight. My hips near the front still had a little tightness later in the week, but it has cleared up. My muscles are all fine, and my joints are too. I had a little trouble with my left knee early in the week from the race, but wearing different shoes, hitting the trails, doing my lateral motion exercises, and seeing the chiropractor early this week cleared that up. In short, I'm back at 100% healthy two weeks later. Or at least close enough, to pretend I am 100% healthy.

Saturday I went up to Madison for lunch with my parents which was nice. We ate at Graze, a farm to table restaurant across the street from the capitol. I always enjoy picking a restaurant to eat at with my parents in Madison, I am not a local so it's always a little bit of an adventure. Saturday night I closed out the week celebrating a friend's birthday. I went out on the town and was reminded why I don't go out very often. I'm too old for that nonsense. It was fun for awhile, but seriously, I fulfilled my bar visiting and staying out past 10 PM quota for 2014. People are always inviting me to come out and I am always saying no and just staying home reading, watching DVDs, resting, not spending money, not drinking alcohol, but instead tea. I feel like my social life is so boring because I go out so rarely to the typical places 20 somethings go, but I enjoy my life. I think I have the best life in the world.

Post Exercise Night Sweats

About half of the nights over the last two weeks I have woken up in the middle of the night with sweat on me. Not a fever, or 90F degree day kind of sweat, but certainly a damp, uncomfortable situation.

The first few nights post ultra I am sure it had to do directly with my recovery. White blood cells working to rebuild me and my blood trying furiously to flush out the free radicals. One night in particular it was especially damp when I woke up. However as time goes on this is becomming less of an issue, unless I exercise moderately hard. In that case, the cool damp skin returns.

Not sure exactly why this happens. Certainly it is a biological response to exercise, but is it thyroid, blood, muscles, metabolism, or all of the above? Regardless, definitely not my favorite part of hard exercise.

Fruit Juices and Other Drinks as Running Fuel

Gatorade is ubiquitous. It works, for the most part. Drink too much and your stomach can't handle it. Drink too much and your teeth will hate you. What else is one to do?

Good question. At the North Coast 24 I had a few drinks that went over really well.

I drank everything in the above picture, except I had Starbucks Double shot 6 ounce cans instead of the 11 ounce bottle shown above. The coconut juice, POM pomegranate juice, and Bolthouse Farms Mango Protien Plus smoothie, I did have. Frankly, those three juices worked wonders. I had a liter of each one and they all tasted good, digested easily, and had a variety of the salts and sugars, and even proteins, my body was looking for. I found that about four ounces was convenient to drink in any given minute, but I could down a 17 ounce coconut water in about five minutes of walking. The mango protein smoothie was quite a bit more thick.  I probably started drinking it around mile 60 or 70 and then drank the last half of it after mile 100 when I took a few minutes to walk. 

For sure one of the challenges of ultra running is how to take calories. In other words, do you take a few sips and keep running? Do you walk to get a few ounces or a cup or two of liquid but risk drinking too much in a few minutes? Do you actually stop and eat, maybe even sit down? I am actually pretty stunned how well my stomach handled this first ultra race. My trails runs have always been much more low key than any race, just walk and eat, or sit down for awhile to figure something out. I just wanted to share specifically what worked for me. I assure you the four drinks I mentioned, plus Gatorade, will make an appearance at the next ultra I run. Of course, I am open to other drinks.

My Training Philosophy Reiterated

1. Stay Motivated.
2. Stay Healthy.
3. Train Hard.

It's pretty simple, but you are not going to train hard if you are not healthy. If you aren't motivated, what's the point of being healthy to even train? Of course, this applies to homework, grown-up work, and a slew of mental tasks, just replace the train verb with some other action.