Part two of my monthly countdown for Denali. Read about what I did last month to get ready for my Denali expedition. Part two of the series: Prepping for Denali: 5 months to go.

Physical preparation

Training is hard at the moment! It’s still dark, wet and cold outside. Beside that, days are really short, making it nearly impossible to do any training while it’s still light outside.

End of December, both of my tibia were painful when running and my calfs were stiff almost all the time. I could barely walk and this was annoying me badly. I really need, and want, to be able to run smoothly. But if this injury keeps coming back, it will never happen.

I decided to cut down running. Instead, I started a 2 month Bootcamp program. This program mainly focuses on core stability (again!). As soon as my tibia aren’t painful anymore, I will pick up running again. Somebody recently told me using compression socks might prevent injuries. I might try that!

Another thing I will do, is try to get some more structure in my training program. Right now I’m too depended on other (non climbing experienced) trainers. Without doubt they are giving me the best advice they can, but I think I need a little more guidance on training more specific.

To get this guidance, I ordered the book Training for the New Alpinism. I have read some very good reviews on this book!

Equipment

Well, not much news in the equipment department! I’m pretty close to having everything. I just need to buy some ‘small things’, and expect to order these pretty soon. Currently, I’m searching the internet to find them.

The expedition

Some great thoughts on this! First of all, recently I got the names of my expedition members.  This does feel like another step closer to the expedition! It’s also time to pay the final deposit for the expedition. Not the most fun part ;).

I’m 99% sure I fly Iceland Air to Alaska. Iceland Air offers a free stopover in Iceland. This would be an excellent opportunity to have to time to get to myself again after (probably) a demanding time at Denali.

So now I’m considering to lengthen my trip for four days in Iceland. The Landmannalaugar trek looks like a beautiful hike to me. But, there is a huge chance it isn’t open yet. It probably opens around June 16th, which is 2 days too late. I have to give this some more thoughts!

The project

Progress on the overall project “Climbing the 7-Summits in 7 years” is pretty good! Last December I launched this blog and my Facebook page finally is deduplicated. Going steady on this!

Last couple of weeks I have been talking to some interesting people about what do to next, to make the project work. I need to work more on the concept of the thin line between pleasure and pain. What do these words really mean to me? How can I help other people to achieve their goals using these words?

Expect some blogs on this very soon!