29029 Everest Endurance Challenge Turned "Virtual" During COVID-19 Pandemic

In late Summer of 2019, a motivational speaker that I had come to really connect with talked about a recent 36 hour endurance challenge that she and her husband had done, together. They spoke, in detail, of how hard it was, what the experience was like and how it was something that pushed them outside of what they ever thought they could do - mentally, emotionally and physically. It really spoke to me and I realized that it had been a really long time, since the marathon, that I had challenged myself to do something so difficult that I might fail. Quickly, I had no doubts that a challenge of this magnitude is exactly what I want in my 40th year of life. I want to lean in, dedicate over 6 months to training, both physically and mentally for something like this. When I approached Blake about it, I wasn't surprised yet totally relieved, when he was up for the challenge, as well. We ran the marathon, together, in 2011 and I was glad that we both have this growth mindset to do something even harder, nearly a decade later.

We had 3 mountains to choose from since they added a brand new location for 2020. We could do Stratton, Vermont, Snow Basin, Utah or Sun Valley, Idaho. Initially, all 3 locations were equally tempting but we stating really thinking about the pros and cons of each one and confidently came to our pick. In October, on the day, that registration opened we registered for Sun Valley, Idaho for 5 reasons. Mainly, because we had never been to Idaho and don't really have plans to go in the next 5 years - so it's a new state to explore. Southwest flies there, so the companion pass, makes it nice, it's the first event of the year, in mid June, so we liked that the 2 older kids would be at LLYC while we are there and that the 4 months of training prior to the event would be February - June in Texas, much more pleasant that peak training in July or August for the other 2 events. Having this huge event past us, by Summer time, also means we didn't have to be focused on training during the remained of Summer time!

The official training portion of the program didn't start until 20 weeks out from the June 18 event, but starting in December, we started preparing by Blake signing up for Orange Theory and for us both joining Planet Fitness, primarily for the large stair stepper machines that will be integral in our endurance training.

January 23 - Almost 20 weeks out and Blake was already getting serious with his stair climbing training, in addition to Orange Theory. 

During the 20th week, Blake and I went to Planet Fitness on Sunday afternoon and knocked out 150 floors in 30 minutes. It was my very first time and Blake's 10th, but due to Orange Theory, I was able to push myself and stay up with him exactly. For 2 months, I have been steadily building my Orange Theory base to be a 5 incline at about 5.5, my push at a 7-8 incline and my all outs are anywhere in-between 10-15 incline.

On February 10, we met to do a quick 30 minutes of stair climber. I had done Orange Theory in the morning, so we are trying to increase our cardiovascular time at least a day or 2 a week.

Feb 23, 2020 was just about 17 weeks until 29029 and I ran my first 4 miles out doors while in College Station at Addison's soccer games. I felt strong and great during the run, but surprisingly was super sore for the first time the following day. I think it was the impact on the ground compared to the OT softer treadmills.

Then, it was normal Orange Theory 4-5 times a week until March 1, when I left for my National Sales meeting in Boston and straight to Spring Break in Phoenix and Palm Springs. I looked for every opportunity to walk and hike in both places including our incredible training opportunity at Camel Rock near the Boerckel's home March 7. Lots of hiking at Joshua Tree and the day we hiked the Arial Tram, Blake and I really found an opportunity to walk a couple of times up the zig zag walk way to get on the tram at the very top. 

Once back in San Antonio, life became very different on March 13, 2020, due to COVID-19 and we headed to the beach and it was fun to jog on the beach and make creative workout opportunities with the kids doing obstacle courses. We remember feeling very very sore running on the sand for several days.

We came back to San Antonio, primarily for Orange Theory, and the night we returned on March 18, they closed our location completely. That was a very hard night for me. One of the top 2 saddest moments in the entire 60 days of quarantine. I didn't know how I would keep motivated without set group exercise classes since I had relied on them for 4-5 days a week for 11.5 years. But, the following morning, Blake snapped me out of it and said, "We start following the 29029 in-depth plan together and we will be okay." So the following morning, on Friday, March 20, we became Fossil Ridge Road Warriors with our first 3.6 mile run at an 11:08 pace! Honestly, I was sore after those first outdoor runs, it seems much harder on the joints, hips and knees. But my body adjusted pretty quickly.

March 29, 2020 - we intentionally headed to Enchanted Rock for Blake and I to get some incline hiking it. We each hiked the summit 2X before hiking for 3 more hours with the kids.

The time it took us to climb Enchanted bottom to top.

In March, we ran a lot in just a 10 day period.

In early April, we started doing our 29029 strength and mobility training with the kids.

A couple of times in early April, rain came and we still ran.

McAllister Park morning hikes.

8 miles in the steady rain at the lake!

No matter where we are, every single morning, we wake up and run or cross train. It's 1-2 hours a day that we come to love. Even our rest days on Fridays, I find myself find an opportunity to walk. The long runs started getting progressively longer in April, 6, 7, 9, 10 miles. We never thought about it, we just did them.

For our long runs, with it getting warmer, we had to start earlier and earlier!

One of my favorite traditions we started in April, high-fiving one another on every cue de sac. We did hundreds of high fives during training.

On the afternoon of Friday, 4/17/2020, the email that we had been dreading arrived stating that they had decided to cancel the Idaho event in mid June. Good thing we had run 10 miles that same morning. Although, deep down we knew this would happen, we felt there was hope since it was in mid June. I remember opening that email that Friday afternoon, finding Blake outside power washing and telling him the news. We were both sad yet I don't think I paused to process it and just moved about my normal busy afternoon. Within a couple of hours, I noticed a shift in my mood, how upset I was, short with the kids and just irritable. Reflecting back, that afternoon and evening has one of the few low points of the past 35 days. The next morning, we did 5.5 miles with included 10 More than likely, we will defer it to the exact same weekend in 2021. So this will end up being a 2 year commitment which in many ways is a good thing. Blake and I talked and he and I were both confident that we are moving forward with the intense training plan as normal because we have absolutely loved the past 5 weeks of training, the dedication of time together and the fact that we are in the best physical shape that we have been in in nearly 10 years. So waking up that Sunday, I felt much better, knowing that we are both committed to moving forward as normal. 

The afternoon that we found out both NEISD school and 29029 were canceled. Tiger consoled me.

We woke up and started our 29029 "Virtual Training Plan!"

For a couple of weeks, Carter has been joining us at least twice a week on our runs.

For the very first time, we started going outside the neighborhood doing a 6.5 mile loop.

So, so sore!

Cross training days include haling heavy rocks up our driveway!

Hiking Days in early May - 3 miles with the kids!

Wow, almost a half marathon!

I can't believe it is May 6 and I am just checking in. Training has been going wonderfully. We are in the middle of Week 8 of Corona Quarantine and it has allowed Blake and I to spend 1-2 hours nearly 7 days a week on training in one way or another. It has kept us in the absolute best mental and physical shape. In the 30 days in April - I can hardly belive I ran 105 miles and walked or hiked another 25 for a total of 130 miles.

Addison started going us in May a couple of times a week!

In early April, we started really ramping up our weekly "long" run.

4/4/2020 - 8 miles

4/17/2020 - 10 miles 

4/25/2020 - 12 miles 

5/3/2020 - 13.1 miles (Half marathon #1)

5/9/2020 - 13.5 miles (Half marathon #2)

5/15/2020 - 14 miles (Half marathon #3)

5/21/2020 - 14.5 miles (Half marathon #4)

Today, we are almost 4 weeks out from the virtual 29029 event and we ran 14.5 miles. For the first time, our goal is to run at least 6 more miles tomorrow and maybe walk a few more. So 2 days of significant work back to back.

The miles kept adding up in the last month prior to the virtual event, getting all the way to 21 miles that we ran and walked over 7 hours, 2 weeks prior to the event.

The final 2 weeks dramatically tapered down in miles and felt so strange after building up mileage for 18 straight weeks.

The weekend of the event approached and it had a busy week of work in front of it for both Blake and I. We were so happy and thankful to have Meme a few days in advance to help us out. People were asked if we were excited and I don't think that is how I would describe it. There weren't any nerves either. I wasn't scared as I knew we would do it but I was just cautiously focused on such an unknown. We knew that not running any of it would naturally allow us to go much longer, so that gave us confidence, but we had never gone more than 7-8 hours and had never replicated a similar amount the very next day. We set goals weeks in advance, which helped. We would try and do 12 of the 20 hours of exercise on Day 1 and complete the remaining 8 hours on Day 2. The week prior, Blake led  efforts on deciding where we would spend the bulk of each day - Day 1 would be Government Canyon State Park and Day 2 would be Mcallister Park. During the week prior, on one of our last 3 miles jogs, we made a packing list for the event and then the night prior and morning of when the alarms went off at 4:30AM, we just followed our plan.

What we didn't plan on and what we didn't train for was the heat. We were lucky to have temperatures that didn't break 100, getting to 99 on Friday and that we purposely choose very shady trails.

Day 1 was great, except for the toe pain for me starting at mile 6 and Blake's sudden chaffing issue. We spent majority of the day, nearly 10 hours outside at Government Canyon State Park and then moved inside Planet Fitness to do a couple of hours at the peak of the day inside before moving back home to get to 12 hours in our neighborhood.

After a 7 hour rest, it was Day 2 bright and early. Besides a 30 minute break to change and doctor feet, we went straight through today. The heat again was the hardest part come 1 or 2PM. 

A break at 4 hours to change socks. 

Our training program to look back on!