Stay on Offense Climb Mountains

Attacking Adversity

Go Hiking And Don’t Hurry?

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No, it is not possible. When you are hiking, as I have said over and over again, you go to beat your personal fastest time to the top. There is just no other way. Is there?

Well, maybe. You could slow down once in a while. How often? Say every three months take your time. No!

Rhythms

With hiking, you are going to follow the natural rhythms of life. You don’t need to purposely slow down. You will know when your body is overstressed or overly tired and adjust the day’s hike. Find a smaller mountain. Still, you want to go as fat as you are able.

Then there is the rhythm of the hike itself. Some areas are not as steep as others so you go faster. Then on the steep stretches, you naturally go a little slower.

Life

Life itself will slow you down on its own. You might get sick and need to cancel the hike. That is one reason why you never miss a hike because you are going to miss one for some reason anyway.

Consider the situation we are in now with both the State and National parks closed due to the Pandemic. Nothing you can do. No hikes.

Alternatives

How can there be an alternative to a hike? Nothing can replace it. True, but you can be creative when for reasons beyond your control you can’t hit the trails.

Design an “at home” training schedule for yourself. One that will help you go FASTER when you get back on the mountain.

Adapt

One of the things Navy Seals discuss is their ability to adapt to circumstances. So let’s say, like me, you live in a small apartment, you’re broke, and have no “home gym” equipment. What to do?

First, you can use that backpack for weight-bearing exercise. Fill it up with water bottles. It can get pretty heavy. Then progressively add a bottle every week. You can do light squats (better than air squats), curls, shoulder presses and even push-ups with the pack on your back. Do everything FAST!

Then use those big multi-gallon jugs of water to do Farmer carries. They have nice handles on them and they weigh about 50 pounds.

Make It Harder

When you design a workout for yourself keep in mind that a hike is four to five hours long. So make your workout at least three hours long. If your gym is closed you are doing daily workouts as well. Those should be at least an hour and a half. Do multiple rounds with Burpees, Mountain Climbers interspersed between shoulder presses or squats.

The idea is to make it harder than the gym workout. It won’t be harder than hiking but do your best.

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Eight

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John Mark Comer’s book, “The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry,” is a tough one for me. On the book cover the word “Hurry” is crossed out. Gone. This kind of goes against my philosophy. I am always saying, go fast up that mountain.

Actually I am always rushing through things to the point where they are incomplete or shoddy (maybe even this post). I am not sure if I am hurrying toward something or away from something. But never mind that, let’s take a closer look at this book.

Level Seven

In just the first few pages the book taught me something about myself that I didn’t know. I am a “Level Seven.” That must be from these video games that the young whippersnappers play twenty-four hours a day. Ok, I confess, we even had levels back in “Space Invader” days. Anyway, Comer sounds a bit alarmed that he just hit thirty and that meant he was a level three. I am halfway into my seventies so I guess that makes me a level seven and maybe even a seven and a half.

What could be better than being a level seven? The higher the level the more of a master at whatever game you are playing, right? Thanks, Mark!

Hurry Hurry Hurry

Comer or should I respectfully say Pastor Comer, alarmed himself when he realized he was rushing through life. His mentors (maybe level sevens, you think?) told him that he should do everything he could to eliminate hurry in his life. One of the mentors, Dallas Willard, is quoted: “There is nothing else. Hurry is the great enemy of spiritual life in our day. You must ruthlessly eliminate hurry from your life.” Sounds good on the surface.

Being a Pastor he says Jesus was unhurried and therefore if you follow his “Way” you should strive for that as well. Sounds good to me. Even below the surface. Hurry is the great enemy of the spiritual life as Willard says above. Well, can you imagine the current Dali Lama running someplace?

The Evidence

He goes on to make a real case for how unnecessarily hurried our society has become. Smartphones, crammed schedules, rushing here and there.

Comer asks if you think you might suffer from any of a number of things like irritability, hypersensitivity, restlessness, workaholism, emotional numbness, out-of-order-priorities, lack of care for your body, escapist behaviors, slippage of spiritual disciplines, and isolation. Guilty?

The Answer

Comer provides you with a solution to all these problems. They are being silent and solitary once a week. It is called the Sabbath in religious terms. He makes a great case for it if you are Christian and I like to think I am one so of course, I feel guilty for not practicing it. We call that being “convicted.” Simplicity is the second. Have you heard of minimalism? Slowing is the third.

All these practices make sense for everyone, not just Christians. You all know about minimalism so I don’t think I have to belabor that. Sell or give away what you don’t need and don’t buy what you don’t need. Slowing is more interesting.

With “Slowing,” he suggests some practices. They include driving the speed limit, getting into the slow lane, get into the longest checkout line at the grocery store ( I tried, I really tried), get a flip phone or ditch your phone altogether, kill your TV (got that one right), walk slower (NO), and journaling (of course).

I left out a lot, but you get the idea. It may take me a while to implement more of these, but I think it will be worth the effort.

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Eight

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“You Matter,” is written by Matthew Emerzian and is an attempt to persuade you of three things. First that you indeed do matter, second that others matter too and third, that all of us together matter. I thought it was well presented with some fun stories in it as well.

You

It is basically the idea that you are unique and as such can have an impact. Your uniqueness means you matter. Everybody can make a difference in the world just by being alive. He puts it this way, “You matter because you are unique. You matter because you are a gift to the world. You matter because you are one in some eight billion. You matter because you are a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister. You matter because you belong here.” Nicely said, Matt!

He says that you should find a song that is “your song” and play it all the time. I liked that. He calls it “your official song.” That is a good idea. Do it.

He also asks you what matters most to you. He has you make a list. He says, “What matters most to you is what you spend most of your time and resources on. Are you spending most of your time and resources on things that bring you joy and feel authentically “you?”

Others

“Life is not meant to be done alone.” That is a real kick in the butt for me. I have been alone for over thirty years. Oh well. He goes on and makes a case for this and he is right I am sure.

He discusses being creative and doing things for other people. Writing to them. I liked his idea of writing a note to people that are most important in your life. A little appreciation note. Great idea. He also suggests you write a letter to yourself.

We

Emerzian tells the story about how he was afraid of flying and what ultimately got him past that was internalizing the idea that his “mission” to help others was more important than his fears. One significant event that helped him was having a woman tell him he prevented her from committing suicide. That would certainly do it for me. Then he asks what fear you might have that prevents you from being of service.

He tells you to ask your self these questions, “What is the one thing you hate about your community? Great. What are you doing to change it.”

This was a decent book. I think his attempt at helping people realize that they matter didn’t have much heart in it. His passion it seems is with helping others and that’s good.

Go Hiking Because “Everything is F*cked.”

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As I write this all of us are quarantined. We can go out of doors alone to exercise or for a walk as long as we stay ten feet away from people. I am not sure who determined ten feet as the magic number. I thought that a sneeze traveled much farther. Anyway, here we are waiting to see if we are going to die. I am 74 so the experts say there is a good chance I am a goner if I get this Covid-19 sickness. So I would say that everything is indeed fu*cked as the title to the book I reviewed says.

What To Do

So go hiking!! Just be sure you are alone. I go early enough that nobody is on the trail. If I encounter anyone I go by them pretty fast except for one woman and she blows by me even faster. They have closed the campgrounds, but I do not think they ave closed the trails.

So what better way to relieve the stress of waiting to die that getting out into nature. Getting some good exercise and letting the elements beat you up. You will come back refreshed and ready to take on the next week of being quarantined.

Walking

If for some reason your health will not allow you to hike go walking. Walking by yourself in a park with trees is in some ways even better the hiking. Did I really just say that? Well, think about it. It is less stress on the body and less stress means you will probably last longer over time. Hiking can beat you up pretty bad. It is bad on the knees, but even if you have bad knees or hips you can do a little walking.

Walking is my plan for when I am not physically able to climb mountains. My goal is to be able to keep climbing mountains until I am 85. Of course with this new virus trying to kill me I am not so sure I will make it.

The bottom line is if you can’t hike then walk! But if you can hike the, by all means, go hiking!

Go Hiking And Go Faster Than You Think You Can

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Yes, it is always possible to get to the top of a mountain faster than you did before. You don’t need special technology as described in the book, “The Future is Faster Than You Think.” You just need to train harder and smarter?

Training Harder and Smarter

Sure, you can improve your time by incorporating step-ups at the gym, doing HIIT workouts, and pushing yourself beyond your current fitness level.

You can also take supplements that help you adjust to the altitude. You can take magnesium to keep you from cramping after seven or eight hours on a climb. It all helps, however, these things may not be the best way to improve times.

Lose the Fat

Here is the secret. When my time has improved significantly it was because of reduced body weight. Hopefully, that was just reduced body fat.

If you carry a backpack filled with weight to make things harder for you then you understand this. As soon as you lighten your load you speed up significantly.

When trail runners fly by me it is rainy because they are not carrying weight. So if you are 10 pounds overweight or more then dropping the extra pounds will result in much better times for you.

Hike More Often

This is huge! You can cut your time by climbing more often. If you can climb a mountain two or three times a week then you will have a big advantage over anyone climbing less. Volume is important.

The minimum should be once per week. Any less than that and you are just a casual hiker.

Why Should You Care?

Some might ask why it is important or necessary to improve your time to the top of a mountain. It sure isn’t for those on a nature walk, but for those that use hiking for developing their fitness levels, it is critical.

First, it gives you a weekly goal. Something to shoot at. Second, you will feel pride in beating your previous record. Third, it gives you a reason to train hard.

So set some target times on your favorite mountains and get busy. Go hiking!

Bookish Weapon Number Thirty-Six

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Does everything seem to be happening faster? In their book “The Future is Faster Than You Think,” Peter Diamandis and Steven Kotler make the cat that you don’t even realize how fast it is going. They say that it is not just in one particular area where we will see dramatic changes but rather the convergence of technologies will have the most impact.

Moores Law

You have most likely heard of Moores Law – that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit double about every two years. Think about how that has changed your life over time.

We can now carry cell phones around in our pocket that began as giant car battery size devices. Well, you haven’t seen anything yet.

Rose’s Law

Have you heard of Rose’s Law? This is the new one. It is that the number of qubits in a quantum computer doubles every year. The authors say it has been named “Moores Law on steroids because qubits in superposition have way more power than binary bits in transistors.”

Yes, quantum computing is going to change things a lot. These authors don’t even know what innovations will emerge once quantum computing matures. That is very exciting!

New materials, new chemicals, and new drugs. The future is going to be amazing and happening so fast.

Examples

Tree planting drones “that fire “seedpod” bullets into the ground, allowing a single, drone to plant as many as one hundred thousand trees a day.” Isn’t that something?

Virtual and augmented reality will kick in like never before as VR matures.

Flying cars! Uber already is planning to provide trips from atop of buildings in LA to tops of buildings in San Diego.

Very fast underground “trains.” How does 700 miles per hour sound? The authors use the example of someone leaving their home in Cleveland Ohio at 9:00 AM and arriving at their 10:00 AM appointment on Wall Street right on time.

Or how about the “spaceship” that gets people fro New York to Shanghai China in 35 minutes?

Increase in life span. The authors say, “We’re heading toward a world of long-lived, AI-enhanced, globally interconnected humans – a world far different from the one which we find ourselves.”

Supporting the previous example are the plans of a company called Neuralink. “Neuralink has a plan for a two-gigabyte-per-second wireless connection from the brain to the cloud and wants to begin human trilby the end of 2021.” So how do they get that link into the brain? They inject it!

There is much more in the book. You can read about how the retail, advertising, and entertainment business will be transformed. So get it and read it!