I finally got the chance to go back to Red River Gorge in October. My first trip at the Red was in my worst shape ever!

Now this time I made sure to be in the best shape possible. With a few hard lines in mind and my top shape after training for the Atlanta world cup, I was pretty confident I would crush!! Little did I know, all that hard work for the Opening of our new gym in September and all of my non-stop training was a little much for my body! I could feel myself going downhill on my way to Atlanta but of course I kept training even harder for the next 2 weeks before my trip to the Red.

So here I am at the Red, feeling a little exausted. I took the first few days of my 2 weeks to get on some harder routes that I had in mind. It felt good but I didnt feel top shape. The 5-10 minutes approaches felt harder and harder. I knew something was wrong. 3 days later I ended up at the hospital with pneumonia!!!

This is when I accepted that we all have our excuses and its what we can do about it that counts. So I forced myself to take two days off for the antibiotics to kick in, then fought my way up the approach and tried to climb anyways. Of course I had to change my goals to easier routes and I would cough myself to death on my way up routes. But the important thing is, I still got to do a few climbs in the madness cave!! 

Next time I go to the Red, maybe I will be in shape!!