The Peak Baggers and Hyun
As mentioned in our last two posts, we are following the progress of the local mountaineering team “The Peak Baggers” and our local track cyclist Hyun friend.
We’ll start off with The Peak Baggers and specifically our friend Sujit. On the weekend of May 11th, Sujit and the team successfully hiked to the summit of Mount St. Helens.
Sujit on the summit of Mount St. Helen’s – with Mount Adams in the background.
In talking with Sujit he mentioned that the past two weekends punctuated the value of putting in the hard work, training and commitment. The team had a beautiful hike up to the summit of St. Helens the weekend of May 11. The beautiful day and preparation helped increase Sujit’s confidence. In spite of an upset stomach in the middle of the hike, Sujit was able to power through, recover and kept a strong mental attitude and a belief that he “can do this”. The lesson learned was to avoid trying out new food that hasn’t been tested during training. 🙂
This was Sujit’s second summit of St. Helens and the success made him feel extremely pleased about where he is in his training at this point of the season.
Feeding off of the success the prior week, this past weekend Sujit challenged himself to do the “Mailbox Peak Trail Loop” twice in the same day carrying 25lbs in gear to better prepare him for what it feels like to gain 8K in one day. He accomplished this without a second of doubt creeping into his mind. His thought process was to maintain a slow and steady pace and he knew he would achieve his goal. Words of wisdom from Sujit: “If you train and have a belief in yourself, it is then just the application. One step at a time and you will get to your destination. Never give any space to disbelief in your brain as it has no place.” It truly is mind over matter.
Nice work Sujit!!! We look forward to you continuing to achieve your 2024 mountaineering goals throughout the season!
On to Hyun and the Track Cycling pre-season at the Jerry Baker Memorial Velodrome in Redmond Washington is underway. The races occur on Friday nights and to quote Hyun, the past 2 weeks have not been a “walk in the park” for him. He is running up against a lot of young guns this year, and he has ~10 years on all of them. We are confident that Hyun will still pull together an outstanding season regardless!
Regular season of Friday Night Racing kicks of this coming Friday, May 24th.
Hyun will then transition to Masters Racing on Wednesdays beginning May 29th, June 3rd, June 10th and Monday night sprints on June 20th. After a much needed 2 week family vacation, Hyun will start back up again with the Grand Prix on July 19th. From that point forward, Hyun will primarily be racing on Wednesdays. There is a lot more to come, and with Hyun’s permission we may highlight some friends and family as well throughout the summer.
Good luck Hyun! All of us at The Mountain Exp are rooting for a successful race season for you, and regardless your story of resiliency has been a huge inspiration for all of us to “get moving!!!”
More to come!!!
