Week 22 Update: November 12th, 2013 - finally getting off the couch and charging back into action

Week 22 Update: Nov 12, 2013

Life got in the way of everything last week. I worked out after I finally started feeling better only to find myself slowly slipping back into misery. This darn chest cold will not go away. I even took 3 days off from tent sleeping and still managed to cough myself to sleep every night.

Workout Progress

I was all over the place last week. My swimming is starting to wane now that I am focusing more on my legs and the final touches on my base conditioning. Once I finish with this 15-week cycle, I intend to ramp up to a bigger day each week and maybe even cut back to a 5-day training week. At this point, I am experimenting with distances and hypoxic training. More on that later. The up and down week was largely due to fatigue and sickness but all my recovery indicators said I was OK.

Another off week for some training, however, I hit my goal of 19.5 total hours. I continue to train in my zone 2 to establish as much cardio base as possible before I begin my hypoxic training in earnest.

Nearing the end of Phase 2 and fast-approaching a full week off. I believe I will take the entire week off - no training at all and just pure relaxation. Yeah right. I have so much work to do before I start increasing my workout time that I better get these things off my plate during my off week. Since starting, I cannot recall a week I had no workouts. Might be a nice break. At any rate, I eclipsed 350 hours (now at 366.5) and plan to be over the 450 hour mark by the time I rest in 4 weeks. Come meet me at the Auld Shebeen for a pint during my week off. If you show up, I will buy the beer.

Weekly Summary

No more 4am wakeups! We talked Patrick out of morning swim practice sessions save for last Friday. Kathy stepped up and drove him. I wonder if anyone would object to an unlicensed driver (age 14) driving himself to practice at 4am. Heck, nobody is on the road at that hour. What harm could possibly come from that adventure? Just kidding folks although the thought occurred to me the other morning.

Mood

I am finally started to turn the corner. Last week was tough but I knew I was getting better. Skipping out early on Thursday's swim practice and swimming easy on Saturday helped me recover a bit. I did attend two practices but I just swam for fun, coughed my lungs clean (sorry Stu, Elaina, and Bob), and recovered from a few longer days of running and indoor leg work. All in all, I was pretty happy with the week - particularly after the miserable week I experienced the previous week. Life on the mend feels great!

Hypoxic Training

Kathy and I skipped sleeping the tent for a few nights. She was starting to feel crappy and I was just coming out of my rough patch. The few nights of sea-level oxygen felt great and I think those nights helped me shake off this bug. I recall - albeit a somewhat fuzzy memory - that Brian Oestrike recommended I take a few days off if I am trying to recover. Kathy might be the best person to keep me from pressing too hard forward. She was the sane one last week and I give her all the credit.

Updates for the week

Back on track and feeling great today. I skipped swim practice tonight because I am concerned about getting another ear infection or rather not recovering from this one. Had a great visit with my brother in Baltimore on Sunday. He was here for a conference and invited me to the conference to meet some colleagues and chat about climbing. I enjoyed hanging out with him and meeting his fellow docs. Thanks to Sean (my brother), I got a new peak flow meter with some pretty awesome software. The term “pretty awesome” is a technical term, of course, and should be used in accord with any newfangled device. I intend to post more stats on my breathing or, perhaps more accurately, the lack of my breathing over the next few weeks. Here are a few other noteworthy events from last week and things I look forward to in the upcoming weeks.
1. I am almost done with my multi-post response to “what does a typical Everest expedition look like?” question. The research and reading I did to cobble together the long-winded response really helped me visualize every step of the prorcess; hope you found it helpful. One thing that dawned on me while writing the posts was how that research mimics my own work in data analysis. You see, data analysts and statisticians work on two sources of data - expected and observed. The posts I cobbled together gave me an opportunity to fully flesh out what might be expected. While on my trip, I intend to post about what I observed and, upon my return, I can describe what differs (i.e., the residual for those of you who know/like/tolerate/understand statistics). Maybe those differences or residuals might help add more color than just a raw recount of the adventure. Who knows but it sure sounds like a novel approach.
2. Every so often, I feel so exhausted that I do not want to workout, work, sleep, eat, or do much of anything at all. That experience is rare but when I was feeling my lowest a week or so ago, I remembered how hard mountaineering is and what sacrifices a person must make to reach the summit. I read through several mountaineering books to boost my spirits and found that those accounts by Ed Viesturs, Steve House, Fred Beckey, Nick Heil, and Mark Horrell really picked me up. Thanks to those authors, I found my drive and kept pressing forward. Training to climb can be more challenging than climbing. I prefer being outdoors and living in Fairfax just eliminates most outdoor training without long drives in traffic.

3. I plan to add more thanks to those who continue to support me. The most obvious one this week is to my brother Sean who took off an entire day from a busy meeting to hang out with me, enjoy a beer, and support me on my quest to get better. Sean, you rock and your support really helps. Thanks dude. Thanks also to my students who are enjoying great success - with and without my help. Those students include

• Julius Najab who is on the cusp of finishing his Ph.D.
• Simone Erchov who is managing a load of tasks and still getting things done
• Dan Blalock who always seems refreshed and ready for more
• Jessica Yarbro who amazes us all with her writing and clear thinking
• Sam Montfort who is one of these sneaky productive guys that just gets things done
• Fallon Goodman who constantly strives to get better even though she is already pretty awesome
• Kevin Young who remains the most positive guy through thick and thin
• Lisa Alexander who rebounded after childbirth to get back into the fray after only 2 weeks off…after her first two months in a new doctoral program
• Jake Quartuccio who dreams big and rises to those dreams every day
• John Graybeal who presses forward with more irons in the fire than I could handle at his age…

None of my current efforts would be possible without their dedicated efforts and fantastic self-reliance. I appreciate you all every day. Oh, thanks is well overdue to my colleague and friend Todd Kashdan. Without Todd, I am only half a scientist. Todd is my other brother and I look forward to many years of productive work. Of course, Todd needs to come out climbing with me but his injuries and young family keep him at home more than either of us prefer. Thank you all for the great support….and sorry for being grumpy the last two weeks.

What does a typical Everest expedition look like? Post 8: Climbing Everest - ABC to the North Col (Camp 1)

Climbing Everest - ABC to North Col (Camp 1)

Total distance:  12 miles (22 km)

Approximate Time for Route:  2 days 1st time; 1 day once acclimatized

As I mentioned in the previous post, we spent almost 3 weeks getting to the point where we might be ready to start climbing.  The first two weeks were bus rides and waiting around after short day hikes.  Most of us will be itching to start the climb but starting the climb before being fully acclimatized is a dumb move.  Here is a map of the entire route up the North Col to the summit (courtesy of Alan Arnette who is one of the finest chroniclers of Everest climbing - go see his site for more information on climbing Everest):

The image above does not really show the route but it does provide some perspective on the general locations of each camp or geographically important point on the climb.  Provided we are ready, we press on at about 18 days for our first functional day hike to Camp 1 on the North Col (7,000 m / 23,000 feet).  Here is a picture of Camp 1 from above, courtesy of Everest News:

North Col camp (aka Camp 1) from above (picture courtesy of Everest News).

Camp 1 is higher than any peak in North America.  In fact, ABC is higher than Denali (20,322 feet or 6,194 m) so before today's hike, I would have been higher at ABC than I have ever been before.  The day hike to the North Col, Camp 1 takes us up to a point where we can begin to acclimatize to higher altitudes and lower oxygen levels.  How do we get up to this camp?  Easy, sort of.  We climb the North Col wall (photos courtesy of Mark Horrell) with a few relatively steep points to get from ABC to Camp 1 located on the North Col.  Here is the wall:

See those little dots?  Those are climbers all lined up to get to the top of the wall.  Those lines are what makes Everest a complicated climb - not because of technical difficulty but because of congestion.  The traffic jam down here is less of a problem than higher up.
Here is where the little dots tend to cluster:

All it takes is one slow person who does not let others pass to hold up the whole show.

At this point in the climb, I am now higher than any training altitude I had at home.  Remember, I am simulating the low oxygen environment using the Hypoxico device.  All my workouts take place at 22,000 feet or lower so Camp 1 provides a new experience for me at 23,000 feet.  The North Col camp is a typical high alpine camp filled with tents on a bumpy glaciated surface.  Here is a great picture of the camp in 2008:

Notice how clustered the tents are together?  Well, the place ain't large and there are a few climbers vying for a summit push.  Remember that line we saw in the picture above?  Well, those folks need a place to crash and here is the next stop.  Everyone wants in and there is not enough room on that ridge to space the tents apart.  Looking up, we can start to see the objective or half-way point of our expedition (i.e., the summit):

Please be sure to thank Mark Horrell for providing these images by purchasing his book and reading his blog.  You can find his work at http://www.markhorrell.com.  Onward to Camp 2 after we descend to ABC after today's day hike and rest for two days.  My next post will show you what the climb looks like from Camp 1 to Camp 2.  We do this in 3 days after we return from today's hike to Camp 1.

What does a typical Everest expedition look like? Post 7: The Climbing Begins - to ABC

The Climbing Begins!  To Advanced Basecamp.

Total distance:  12 miles (22 km)

Approximate Time for Route:  2 days 1st time; 1 day once acclimatized

By the point, the expedition is probably about two weeks old (11-12 days is probably more realistic).  We have yet to start climbing.  The majority of our time was spent walking about and taking buses to our current location.  Today, however, the climbing begins in earnest.  We leave the confines of Chinese basecamp for Advanced basecamp (ABC) with one stop en route.  Here is the typical journey from Chinese basecamp to ABC listed by days.

1. Walk to interim camp (5,800 m / 19,000 feet).  The walk is a 2,000 foot (600 m) ascent that lies halfway between Chinese basecamp and ABC.  Interim camp leads us to the penitents or "ice pilgrims" as depicted in this photo:
   a
   and this video:
2. Camp at interim camp and explore the area.  As I mentioned previously while at Chinese basecamp, the reason we stop is to acclimatize gradually.  Each step requires some rest but also some activity.  Sitting in a tent the entire time makes for a stale and lazy climber.  We need to get out, help with simple chores, explore the area and stay relatively active.  
3. Rest and acclimatize more at interim camp.  Again, can't get enough acclimatization.  If we run up the mountain then bad things can happen - most notably HAPE (high altitude pulmonary edema) and/or HACE (high altitude cerebral edema).  More on those two outcomes later.  For now, we take our time at interim camp and adapt to the hypoxic environment.  
4. Walk to ABC (6,400 m / 21,000 feet).  The 2,000 foot (600 m) ascent takes us up to the staging area for our climb.  Advanced basecamp is where we complete extensive training as a group to ensure all members are ready to climb.  We also organize our supplies for this camp as well as higher camps.  Everyone lends a hand and we all make this time as productive and hassle-free for the group to maximize our chances higher up.  Not only do we train, organize, and acclimatize, we also rest.  Not much rest but enough to make sure we are not knackered for the next few weeks.  We stay at ABC for at least 3 days without ascending - provided all goes well.  At this point, the stage is set for our climb. Here is a great video by John Kazanas who posted his ABC video just prior to his summit push:

Next post - the start of the climb.  We are now about 18 days into the full trip.  Yep, time flies when you are enjoying the scenery.

Climbing Everest

As I mentioned in the previous post, we spent almost 3 weeks getting to the point where we might be ready to start climbing.  The first two weeks were bus rides and waiting around after short day hikes.  Most of us will be itching to start the climb but starting the climb before being fully acclimatized is a dumb move.  Provided we are ready, we press on at about 18 days for our first functional day hike to Camp 1 on the North Col (7,000 m / 23,000 feet).  Camp 1 is higher than any peak in North America.  In fact, ABC is higher than Denali (20,322 feet or 6,194 m) so before today's hike, I would have been higher at ABC than I have ever been before.  The day hike to the North Col, Camp 1 takes us