The Journey

The price of being prepared

 

 

Often times any great achievement is preceded by a time of mind numbing training, pruning, seasoning, and instruction. To be prepared we have to endure the mundane often lonely routine of conditioning.   Many of us have been training now all our lives for the "great goal" we now face.  this repost from Fabrizio Zangrilli http://fabriziozangrilli.blogspot.com sums up the process well.

 

 

 

 

 

“The journey is the destination” and all the other trite sayings about being in the moment, forcing us to be excited about the process of training, about the pain and effort of repeated movement, of practice making perfect movement and eventual execution of routes has always bothered me. Bothered me because I always felt it somehow belittled the need to have a huge end goal. Would I train for the sake of training? Would I run just to run? I have needed and used big goals as good motivators over the years. Would I be happy without the passion of heading towards a big goal.

 

 

 

Something clicked with the process recently; I have been stuck in the process of everyday life for the past year, the grind of house building, of moving, of work, of films, of love and of injury. All of it combined to make life full and eventful. But all of it forced me to get excited by small incremental achievements on my home wall, or a longer distance run faster or a steeper slope skied better. 

Somehow I managed to find the joy in the process without a clear goal in mind. Those small gains made me happy. I thought that not having a clear goal would make with train without passion. Trapped in a white 12’ high x 20’ long carport tent on a wooden home built wall has turned out to be a small oasis. I took great pleasure in setting routes and then failing to finish them at first, making a move or two closer to completion ever few sessions. Finally I have completed all of them and can now link them.

 

 

 

I have big goals again and somehow the day to day gains seem more important; I finally have finished a cycle of training that coincides with an alpine climbing trip to Canada.  I have a strong and motivated partner that was just in Chamonix and in the swing of things. Lets hope conditions are good.

 

About the Author of this post

 

 

Fabrizio Zangrilli

 

 

Born in 1972, I live in the Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado and has been climbing for a very long time. I have been fortunate that climbing has taken me around the world, attempting and putting up new routes or speed ascents in the Himalaya, Alaska, Patagonia and Queen Maud Land, Antarctica. I have guided and or led expeditions to Everest, K2 (5 times) Makalu, Cho Oyu and the Gasherbrums, Nuptse South Face, Ama Dablam (5 times), Pumori and Cerro Torre. Life, business and injury have kept me sidelined for the past year, but I am back at it with more passion than ever!