From Sea Level to 14,508 ft: Part 2- Community

I have heard many people tell me that they have started training and after a week or two fail to follow through with their plans. So before I get into the specifics of my training, I'm going to let you in to my secret to training: Community.

You need friends. You can't do it alone.  You'll make it for a time, but without sharing in it with others you will fail most of the time. We need people, we need each other, we need accountability.

Megan (my wife) and I started P90x together last year about this time. Now I can be a bit of a gym rat, but not her.  She hates the gym.  So Megan really needed something at home, and wanted to do it with someone.  We had heard good things about P90x and she seemed excited about it. We found it from someone locally who bought it and said it "looked hard" so he never tried it.  Score- bought it for half price!

When I knew I needed to prepare for the Mt. Whitney trip I started asking my friends who would be willing to drive out there with me.  I had two friends commit to going (community) on the trip.  One is a firefighter and he started Crossfit. The other one has a desk job and knew he had work to do on the fitness level.  He and his wife started coming over to our house Sunday though Thursday nights at 8:30 for P90x.  This allowed Megan and I to put the kids to bed and then get ready to work out.  The bonus was, they knew we were expecting them. Our bonus was, we were expecting them.  So at least 4 nights of the week we were working out together in our living room (community).

Megan started running last year as well, and signed up for a half-marathon back in March.  Again she inspired me to join her in running (even duping me into running a 12 miler with her).  We ran the half-marathon together with a couple of other friends (community).

Are you getting the picture yet?  I would have been in OK shape doing my 3 days a week in the gym by my self.  But by adding P90x with friends, and running with my wife, it took my fitness to a whole new level.

We need people in our lives. We need close community. You can't do it without them. With whom are you sharing your workouts or runs? Do you realized your need for people in your life?  Who are you sharing life with today or this week?

I'm thankful for those who shared the journey with me!

From Sea Level to 14,508 feet- Part 1

I live in north Houston elevation around 220 ft above sea level.  I have to travel 5-6 hours to hit any kind of "altitude" training, and more like 12 for anything worthy of "climbing".  So I have a lot of people asking me how I prepared for my Mt. Whitney climb, the highest peak in the lower 49 states (outside of Alaska).

Over the next few days I'll give you some of my training and some of my trip...interspersed a bit so you don't get overloaded with training advise or with "boring stories" that no one cares about except me.

Here's your first training segment:
I already had a base line of fitness, I was working out 2-3 times per week.  Simple jog for a warm up and 7-8 strength training and ab exercises. Nothing super vigorous, just maintenance.  So keep that in mind as I explain what I began in January to prepare for this trip.

1) I knew I had around 90 days (closer to 15 weeks) before I left for the adventure. That gave me just the right amount to start a cycle of P90x.  I have modified P90x in order to fit it into a 5 days a week schedule rather than a full 7 days.  I find that I do better if I have a weekend off from it.  We also invited a couple of friends to join us every evening.  That helped keep all of us accountable.  They thought we were expecting them to come over, and we knew they would come knocking on the door, so it kept all of us coming back.

2) I intensified my morning workouts at the gym on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. I know that means some days I was getting two workouts in a day, but lets be honest, a good hiking trip is in the 4-8 hour range.  Just working out for 45 minutes wasn't going to cut it.  In my work out I always start with a run to get my body pumping blood to all of the extremities.  Then I hit the weights for about an hour.  More specifics on this in a later post.

3) Running...not my favorite or most others, but very necessary.  I began with a simple mile run and increased from there.  Early on I could do this along with my workout, but as the miles increased I had to add specific running days.  My goal was to add about 1/2 mile each week, culminating at around 8 miles.  Again I'll give more specifics later but it was an important piece of the training.

Here's a little taste of what I was able to accomplish...through dedication and a discipline.

Preparation

How do you prepare for your day? What is your morning routine? Most of us get up out of bed (after only one or two snoozes right?). Then shower and get dressed, maybe eat breakfast (most important meal of the day some say). Is the remainder of your morning spent rushing around trying to get to work or school? Did you take the time to check facebook? Did you watch or check the news? Then all of a sudden you are sitting at work wondering where the morning went.

Where was your relationship with God in the midst of all of that business?

Did you take the time to pray? Did you take the time to read from His inspired Word? Did you turn on some worship or listen to an audio Bible on your drive?

Spiritually we function just like our physical bodies: garbage in, garbage out. When I am disciplined with my body; eat right, work out, run, get plenty of sleep, not too much caffeine, my body responds and I feel so much better. More seems right with my world than wrong. However, when I don't do right by my body...well you know the feeling.

Spiritually when I am in relationship, spending time with, making it a priority to be with God...everything seems better. Life circumstances may be just as good or bad, but my attitude and how I approach them is completely different when I am connected to the Father.

Are you connected to the Father? Are you allowing the Holy Spirit room to work through your life? What does this look like in your life? Are you spiritually regular? What spiritual disciplines are you learning right now?

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. (Philippians 4:8, 9 NIV)

Put it into practice and may the God of peace be with you.