Sometimes it can take a while for the body to recover from a climb. When I got back from Everest in June of "11 for example, I didn"t get back to normal until at least a month after. It took a huge toll on my body in every way imaginable. This time around, even though I was only gone for about two weeks, I"m still trying to get back to normal. It doesn"t help that I got an intestinal infection (which I"m still fighting off, believe it or not). Anyways, I"m on track....it"s just a slow process. I started my Crossfit training again a few days ago. It"s amazing to see how my strength has diminished and how my stamina and cardio has gotten so bad. I mean, it"s not bad at all, just worse than before my trip.
Part of my recovery process is figuring out the goals I want to build up to next. Obviously Everest/Lhotse 2013 is the big one on the list. I have 7 months to prepare. I"ve been training hard since this past February (with a small dip this month because of my health), but will be pounding it online casino out even harder for the next 7 months. In 2011, I trained hard for Everest only starting 6 months in advance. I have no doubt that this time around I"ll be way stronger and more prepared. Also, with having discovered Crossfit I honestly don"t think there is any better way to train for the climb. When I was feeling healthy on Alpamayo I was zooming up the mountain and barely breathing hard. It was pretty incredible. All those squats payed off, haha.
Aside from physical goals, there are the mental goals. I was initially planning on entering numerous memory competitions around the world (UK, German, Swedish Memory Championships), but decided to focus on fewer, namely the World Memory Championships in London this December and the USA Memory Championships in NYC next March.
The goal at the WMC is to gain Grandmaster of Memory status (more on that another time, but it"s a real title....and a big one) and to try and break the top-10 rankings. I can definitely do it, I just need to perform solidly in competition. Then the USA competition....my goal there is to win it for a 3rd time, to become the 3rd person to win 3 times in a row (Scott Hagwood and Tatiano Cooley from the early days are the other two people). If I win, I have a feeling that it might be my last competition as a competitor. I think I"d prefer to just work on things from the other side of the competitors after that.
Anyways, that"s all for now. Alpamayo pics are up HERE!