The title isn’t figurative, it’s quite literal. Two years ago Sara and I attempted to climb Pikes Peak in Colorado Springs along the Crags route. Only about 700 feet from the summit, we had to turn back due to near white-out conditions, hail and lightning. It was a wild ride. I wrote about the hike here and here and actually wrote about the adventure on my personal blog here.

Well, Sara and I have made plans to visit Colorado Springs again this summer and I’ve got the itch to conquer a 14,000 foot mountain. Because Sara is pregnant, she obviously won’t be hiking with me. Because she’s not hiking, I’m not going to attempt Pikes Peak again, that’s something she really wants to do with me again. However, I’ve set my sights on a new mountain… or should I say mountains.

In mid-July I’ll be attempting to summit both Gray’s Peak and Torrey’s Peak. The two mountains are joined at the waist, so after we summit Gray’s (depending on time, weather and how we feel), we’ll make the traverse over to Torrey’s before descending to the bottom. It’s a slightly longer trek than what we did on Pike’s two years ago, but only because we’ll be hiking up and down. We’ll actually be on the summit much quicker on Gray’s than we would have been on Pikes Peak.

So, two weeks ago I’ve began training. I’m on the treadmill 4-5 days a week for an hour at a time. 4-5 MPH at a 4% incline. Each day I’m either raising the incline a small percent or raising the speed. I’m very excited about being in the hills again this summer and doing everything I can to stand on the top of one. So, there’s my fitness goal for this summer (only 6 weeks away), so if you see me being lazy and getting thirds for desert, you have my permission to punch me in the neck.