Chutes and Ladders

For those of you that remember the childhood game, Chutes and Ladders is a game where you roll dice and based on the block you land on you can jump ahead (ladder) or drop down (chute). The game invokes a particular amount of irony about how much it really does resemble life. Sometimes you are amazed at your good fortunes and how lucky you are and then without any real understanding, wham...you are back a few steps looking up at where you just were. More on that in a moment.

This weeks training has been awesome. The weather has been prohibitively wet as the mid-atlantic has been hammered by severe flooding which makes hitting a trail with already soaked ground an ideal combination to blow out a knee or wrench an ankle. So, no hill work. But spring is clearly coming with daytime temps to near 50 degrees.

The streets and treadmill have been getting really good workouts...6-8 mile runs, some slow hills and all in all a good week of feeling stronger and well prepared...but then there is....welcome to a chute.

While trying to be proactive about anything health related stuff before the trip, I took care of a little Derm thing that required a couple stitches. No big deal. Decided against getting the colonoscopy done ahead of time (at 50 a mans gotta do what he's gotta do) so I have something to look forward to when I return (NOT!).

Any way, haven't done any backpack carrying because of waiting for the stitches to heal (have used a weight jacket that provides even pressure) and 4 days after having the stitches pulled, half the incision opened up as in wide open. Turns out I blew out one of the deep stitches and so now I have a dime sized deep wound that needs to heal. Can't be reclosed because of how long after the first stitches went in and not something you can dismiss out of hand as ANY open tissue is a real risk in a developing country with NO access to healthcare available. So here I am feeling pretty stupid for having done this ahead of time and having to deal with simple wound care and telling my body...HURRY. But it does look as if I will have much less backpack carrying training that optimal for this trip. Hopefully wont affect things too much.

Other big thing is that I am trying to pre-altitude train. On the east coast there is no place that you can really altitude train, but I am trying to fake it. I found a group that rents altitute tents/canopies and am trying to sleep at progressive altitude. Up to 7,000 feet so far with no noticeably effects except that I must sleep really well earlier in the evening because I am waiting up refreshed but noticeably earlier. Even with the daylight time change, I woke up at my normal hour. I'll be progressing 1,000 feet a night to see how I respond. According to the group I got the equipment from, my running speed may take a noticeable jump in a couple weeks. Gee I hate when I feel like hercules unleashed!! LOL

That is pretty much one of the last variables I can account for. If I can get sleeping at 15,000 to 16,000 foot altitudes I should have no problem aclimatizing to Base Camp.

Chutes and Ladders. Yup, good lessons from age 7.