The demons we chase and that chase us

It's been awhile since I last wrote. Today I see Scott Zannini wrote about a recent injury and it got me thinking about training for the mountain. So I posted a comment on Scott's blog Aconcagua 2011. Scott and I have climbed together and know about the challenges we face in the mountains. Although mine are a bit different than his, training is always a challenge and as we both know it's about what we do down here that makes a difference up there.

Like everyone who trains for whatever, it's nice to get a nudge every once in awhile that encourages us to get our training back on track. That is the purpose of this post, how to mentally get your training back on track. Here is what I wrote to him.

Zee-Jay:

I thought about this last night on the walk around the Raccoon River Complex. It seemed simply. So now I know why you tried to injure your foot in this "race". You see unconsciously you really don't want to summit. See you in your head you can hear this song playing over and over and over again.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qpfhcljJ9bQ

Training is the easy part. The difficult part isn’t yet in your face or inside your head; but its there. You and I both know it’s there. On the way up it's all about what you didn't do down here. That is what adds up. Because in the end - at the very top it's what you didn't do down here that will keep you from getting there. It is in those moments when you're feeling the absolute crappiest ... that it's all about the demons you can chase away when you're on the mountain. Up there it's about the demons who are in your face, screaming at you, playing tricks on your mind, bugging you about how a nice comfortable mattress feels and how nice shiny porcelain looks and feels. I know you know all about those things ... The mountain demons will be there throwing rocks, laughing at you and dropping rocks in your path; you may stumble or fall down, but in the end you and only you will or won’t have the fortitude to pick yourself up and crawl if that's what it takes.

And whether you can crawl that extra inch is all about what you didn't do back home, this weekend, next weekend or the weeks that follow. The past is the past – and nothing you can do will change what you didn’t do then. But you control the now and the future now’s.

Here look at this one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDK5qGlLT8s

Like Al says it’s all about the inches, six inches in front of your face...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO4tIrjBDkk

My biggest fear in training, besides injury, is that I get bored with training. The mountain likes it when you get bored or distracted or just want to do nothing. She loves it. Because she knows later she’ll make you pay the price and save the top for the better mountaineers.

That little boo-boo on your foot isn't a reason not to train. The pain when walking or running is good pain and will remind you that Mother Mountain cares not that you are there and need to get to the top. She sends climbers packing every day and it's only those with the will power to train with pain down here - no matter how painful - that let's you slide by her up there.

If you want it bad enough ignore the pain, the blister, the rawness of the feel and go the extra mile. With every sting of pain in your foot smile and remember you’re beating back the high altitude demons.

Babu'