Week 29 Update: A tad bit late but not much to report. A full recovery in PDX

Week 29 Update: posted on Jan 11, 2014 but for the week beginning on Dec 22nd, 2013

I made it back and rested up after a nice break. This post is a brief summary of my relatively light week while in Portland. Not much to add other than my back finally started feeling strong enough for me to begin running again. I did not lift much, however, just to spare my back of any undue strain. It was great to be in Portland. I ate, drank, climbed, and relaxed. What a break! Here are a few thoughts from that week:

• I was concerned how a week off from the tent and hypoxic training would affect my training. After careful consideration, I figured it would be best for me to fully recuperate before my final push of full hypoxic/cardio training.
• Gaining some extra weight - not a huge amount - became my new focus. If my Denali climb is any indication of my potential weight loss on Everest, I could stand to be at my normal weight of 175 before I head off. Right now, my weight hovers around the low 160's - way too low for a long expedition.
• Eliminating hypoxia from my training routine increased my appetite. Thankfully, I was able to eat without much prompting. I lost my appetite on Denali and, in particular, lost my taste for most sweet foods. Salts and fats just went down easier. I found the same effects during my last few weeks of hypoxic training/sleeping.

Workout Progress

As you can see, the week was rather light. We traveled on Monday and I took my usual break on Wednesday (Christmas). Friday was a 6-hour climb with my son. Expect a full post on that climb with pictures and description later today.

Whoa! What a mess below. It now looks like a pick-up sticks game. Tough to discern the latest week but you can see that the peak on Friday was my longest Friday yet. Note the 8-hour Tuesday peak was my last day-climb with Dan Mazur and my son. Two climbing days in the past four months - need more and plan to get in a few long days and two long weekends before I head out in April. Those long days help me get ready for the long summit push day that is ahead in mid to late May. The more times I get in a 8-12 hour day followed by a 3-5 hour day the more I get my body ready for the long climbing days on Everest.

I planned to climb twice this week but only got out for one long day. Oh well. Just as well so I could fully recover from the one day and my sore back.

Weekly Summary

It was a relatively easy week. I spared my back and recovered well enough to return back to Virginia fully restored and ready for more. We slept at sea-level because I was not going to haul my hypoxic equipment across the country. The sea-level recovery along with a ton more rest really helped but I couldn't wait to get out on the glacier with my son. We had a great day and that day energized me for at least a month.

Mood

The figure below includes all the current (Jan 2014) data so you can see that from early December to late December, I was on a good trajectory for all measures except for soreness.

Hypoxic Training

Like the figure above, my hypoxic figure below includes all the most recent data. I opted not to edit it but to direct the reader's attention to the time that was most relevent. Since I did not train or sleep in hypoxia, I did not enter any data. The figure just smoothed out the curves and do not indicate the missing daily values. I have not much to report other than sea-level offers a much better recovery environment than any hypoxic level. Thanks to the change of environment, I was able to get back on my feet. It felt like I got a new lease on my body.

Recovery (Restwise Data)

No restwise data entered this week but I am providing my full figure. Here it is….

Updates for the week

My first post of the new year. Sorry for the delays. I got back to a ton of work and too little time to fit in my workouts, work, and blog posts. Something had to give so the blog posts took a back seat. Expect another post in about an hour with the most recent week's summary.