Island Peak - 287 Days to Departure

Back to hard work - half hour on treadmill alternating between fast running with incline 2 and slower walk/run with incline 15.

Island Peak - 288 Days to Departure

Capturing moments and creating memories is an essential part of any adventure so today we took off to the pre-Christmas city to practice night photography.

Island Peak - 289 Days to Departure

After a long weekend of sweet laziness – yeah pub hopping does not count as exercise, and nor does ascending mountains in gondola or chilling in hot tub – it’s back to training.

It is always tough to bite through the initial resistance, the urge to procrastinate just a day longer, when your body is still in a vacation mood but the treadmill won in the end and off I went for another intensity session – 15 minutes at speed 6.5 for warm up, then 4 minutes of 20 on 10 off intervals at speed 9 and after that 2 minutes of 15 on 15 off intervals at speed 11.

Pretty decent kick back into the training mode.

Island Peak - 294 Days to Departure

One positive thing about the treadmill is that it has a small TV attached to it so that I can watch the news while running for which I would not have time otherwise.

10 minutes warm up at 6.5 speed followed by 5 minutes of interval training at 9.0 speed. My legs could definitely feel that.

Shorter but intense training day – one day down, 293 to go...

Island Peak - 295 Days to Departure

Rest day - after Vesper Peak attempt, two 5k runs and another day of running in between, it was nice to take one. And considering that Feathered Friends store held a presentation by David Gottlieb and Chad Kellogg featuring their ascend of Pangbuk Ri, 6716m, never before climbed peak in Nepal, the rest day could not come timed any better.

What can be more inspiring for hard training than a great story and a slide show full of amazing photos!

Island Peak - 296 Days to Departure

I never liked running, especially running in circles - imagine school yard tracks - or running from nowhere to nowhere like on a treadmill. As a matter of fact I dislike running so much, I would often pretend I was being sick to avoid the compulsory 1 mile run we have to undergo twice a year while in elementary school.

Running; however proofed to be the the most effective way for me to deal with high altitude. I remember clearly my first hike to Camp Muir in 2008 when after reaching the elevation of 9000 ft the air seemed to disappear and I had to work extremely hard to make any progress. And I remember just as clearly how much different my experience was during my second hike to Muir, or the climb of Mt. Adams - after I implemented little bit of running and interval training in my workouts.

With our upcoming Nepal trip in mind, I knew I will have to find way to embrace this dreadful activity. I started with short, 10-15 minutes sessions of jogging, and slowly increased the time and speed over the last few weeks. Then at the very end of last week, I tried something I'd never thought I would have the slightest desire to ever do - running little longer distance - and I finished my 1st 5k run. And Just two days later, I did it again with a time of 30 minutes 45 sec.

Note: I still can't say I like running, but for the sake of training I can definitely tolerate it.

Island Peak 2012

Ever since I remember I had a photo of Mt. Everest sitting by my bed and every night I would fall asleep imagining that one day I will fly to Asia to see it on my own eyes. I carried that dream in my heart for years, and kept it alive through times when for various reasons such adventure seemed beyond the bounds of all possibility.

Then year 2011 came and as the calendar pages rotated toward the second half of the year, the door opened for me to start considering a trek to the Everest Base Camp more seriously than ever before.

Embracing the newly born opportunity I dove into the bottomless world of internet and with a help of Google navigated through it until I had the most useful pieces of information on hand. I always liked this part of a trip planning, the initial research, during which a tiny piece of information can mean a huge turn in the original plan.

And that’s what happened when I curiously clicked on a link “Climbing Expeditions below 7000 m” on one of the trekking agency web sites. Among many other options featured there, Everest Base Camp trek combined with Island Peak climb immediately caught my eye. Unlike the other also amazingly sounding choices, this one claimed to be accomplishable in only 22 days (conditions permitting) which I could see fitting into my vacation schedule.

I e-mailed Dave to let him know that my ambitions shifted from a relatively simple trek to an actual climb that would bring us above 20,000 ft. He eagerly accepted the challenge and it did not take long to get things rolling.

So now here we are, 297 days away from our departure, ready to train hard to make our Island Peak 2012 Expedition a success and a lot of fun.