Pardon the delay folks, if it wasn’t clear I spent much of December in Mexico so now I’m playing catchup. With this year being hell on a personal and mental front, I’d never been one to let life make me forsake my physical and fitness goals. I set out a target to climb Mt. Washington in winter in 2023 and “sent” it on 12/31. I started running again, and I went from climbing 5.8s to 5.10s. I’m still lifting like a fiend and consistently hitting 100+ stairs each session. Life can bend me, but I don’t break!
Trekking: Hiked the Cog Railway up Mt. Washington. While it wasn’t the “full send” up Lion’s Head or Tuckerman’s ravine, it was a great training hike as I wore mountaineering boots for the first time and had heaps of training weight. As a boy scout drop out, one thing that’s always stuck with me is to be prepared. I had a 65L pack with a full ice axe, crampons, microspikes 3x layers, 2L water, and 3,000 kcal of food. My climbing partner and I started off in overcast skies and within an hour or so climbed over the cloud layer and were treated with bluebird skies and an impressive “undercast” layer of clouds. I got a rare photo of the summit marker- hardly a line, and all at the summit were those who “earned” it, no day trippers up the auto road or railway passengers. The total moving time was 4:23 for 5.20 miles with 3,615 ft of vert. These are solid stats considering the weight and ample photo opportunities. Unfortunately the 2nd hand mountaineering boots are a bit too large so I had significant toe bang on my right foot- which is about a half size smaller than my left. I’ll do my best to experiment with foot beds and pack out the toe area. If they sitll don’t work I’ll have to sell em. Nothing worse than agonizing foot pain on what should be the easiest part of hike!
Climbing: More 5.9s and 5.10s and definitely seeking a belay partner. I’m finally “officially” certified as a belayer after being a renegade on the ropes.
Lifting: See previous logs. I’m staying consistent and actually moving up in bench and OHP likely due to my body weight at the moment. More important now than #s is keeping to a quick cadence at the gym, I try to finish my lifting in ~40 min except for back/leg day combo. This means minimal rest and a higher average heart rate. Quick lifting means I always have time for cardio, and I actually look forward to it since I play magic the gathering arena while on the Stairmaster 🙂
2024 Goals: Lose 20lbs (logging calos again), send a 5.11, take an ice climbing class, more winter summits, try a 14er out West, get average run distance to 10k, and more to come!