What's the Hardest Thing You've Ever Done?

[HankScorpio]

trekking from Lhasa, Tibet to Kodari, Nepal. Surviving on dried yak strips and raman for the last week. Then going to do the long Annapurna circuit 5 days later with an 80 lb pack.


...................... and recovering from a current injury.

How ya holding up TC? On your feet yet? You got plenty of time before ski season.

[spook]

a different kind of hard, but hard for me nonetheless:

2 7-day fasts, one water only, one 2 cups of carrot juice per day.

10 day vipassana meditation retreat: 10 days of no speech, no eye contact, no physical contact, and many hours of intense daily meditation.

[Patches]

Funny all my good memories are physical, and many are filled with "misery".

But whats really miserable is working. Honestly, for me its way harder to motivate to get a bunch of paperwork or do creative (marketing) stuff when I'd rather be outside. I work alone so there's no human interaction at all to take the sting out of it.

I'd way rather bushwhack through tick-infested scrub with blisters and sunburn and no water or food than do my businesses' 2009 tax return.

[Platinum Pete]

a different kind of hard, but hard for me nonetheless:

2 7-day fasts, one water only, one 2 cups of carrot juice per day.

10 day vipassana meditation retreat: 10 days of no speech, no eye contact, no physical contact, and many hours of intense daily meditation.

I've done 2 of the lemon/cayenne/syrup fasts for 14 days and also did the Vipassna 10 day. Those are absolutely a different kind of hard, but in the 4 years since doing the Vipassna I've found that it paid me back for the work way way more than those fasts or many other hard things I've done. I'm don't practice the Vipassna stuff much, but I draw on the teachings and basic technique all the time. Feel de bret.

[BigDaddy]

...................... and recovering from a current injury.

I would think this has got to be very tough. Especially considering you went through it all last summer. Demoralizing to say the least... It's one thing to survive such an ordeal, but to be made to go back and do it again is just plain cruel. Hoping for the best and that you enjoyed the early Santa visit!

[archer]

I was looking for inspiration with this thread. Your guys shit was mostly much harder than mine.

But...I just did a 200 mile "double Century" bike ride yesterday. Solo. It was hard enough. I feel like shit today.

Lolz. Good one Downbound Train. I think a lot of people expected this to say Downbound Train was found 200 miles away from his halfway house in his underwear, eating leaves, and running over 7th-graders in a stolen Yukon XL.


But if an elderly [ame="http://www.tetongravity.com/forums/showthread.php?t=195240"]out of commision[/ame] overweight non-skiing shut-in unemployed dude with diabetes and ganglion cysts, a history of hanging around airport bathrooms, and an uncontrollable urge to “troll” TGR is consistently called the dumbest intwebz poster of all time when really, Downbound Train is the idiot savant political asshatery then it makes sense that Downbound Train would start a thread like this.


Sure, Downbound Train gets a little rambunctious and overenthusiastic at times when it comes to exposing Herr Comrade Ayatollah Obama X, but it’s easy to go overboard in the heat of the moment. So show some sympathy and restraint for Downbound Train when he’s doing the Lord's work or else he will have to continue making up stories about riding two hundred miles unsupported in one day just to try and fit in around here. It really is unfair that the libdopes are making him create these sorts of alternative internet realities about his life and that other conservatives like me are forced to defend him.

[wcf3]

Don't know if it's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's up there:

Paddled the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in one day. Usually a two day trip, but done occassionally by people who know the river well in a single day. Lots of class V and lots of mandatory portages around death sieves. A couple of the mandatory portages that are very long and arduous (over boulder fields and scree slopes).

Hadn't done the run before and wouldn't have signed up for it normally first time out as a one day trip, but two of the other three guys in the group had done it before, one of them a bunch of times. (It was his idea to do it in a single day). Get up at the crack of dawn and the guy with all the experience had to back out, but claimed that the other guy who had been down could lead it OK.

Once we get a couple of miles into the canyon, the guy who has been there before doesn't recognize anything => I become de facto group leader. We now have to run this thing in 'first descent mode'. Due to the nature of the rapids, what boat scouting is possible (lots of blind horizon lines) is pretty risky. (Lot of places where door number one has the lady and door number two has the tiger, or all doors have a tiger).

So every couple of hundred yards, eddy out, boulder scramble for twenty or thirty minutes until a line is selected, I then go probe the line while the others watch, then follow me down. Occassionally have to do a mandatory portage.

Extra credit:

-The guy who hadn't been down before is at the edge of his skill set and swims at the bottom of a mandatory 20 ft waterfall drop. Just barely manage to rescue him and his boat before they are swept into a sieve.
-Due to all the extra scouting required we are pressed for time to get out before it got too dark to continue (at which point a rescue would have been triggered by our shuttle driver, something we really, really didn't want to be responsible for). We therefore don't stop for more than five minutes during the entire 16 hours we were on the river.
-All the portages are covered with poison ivy.
-I was paddling (and/or portaging) a big, heavy C1.

Easiest part of the day was hiking the boats out the chuckar trail in the dark (~600ft of vertical in a mile).

[Downbound Train]

Lolz. Good one Downbound Train. I think a lot of people expected this to say Downbound Train was found 200 miles away from his halfway house in his underwear, eating leaves, and running over 7th-graders in a stolen Yukon XL.


But if an elderly out of commision overweight non-skiing shut-in unemployed dude with diabetes and ganglion cysts, a history of hanging around airport bathrooms, and an uncontrollable urge to “troll” TGR is consistently called the dumbest intwebz poster of all time when really, Downbound Train is the idiot savant political asshatery then it makes sense that Downbound Train would start a thread like this.


Sure, Downbound Train gets a little rambunctious and overenthusiastic at times when it comes to exposing Herr Comrade Ayatollah Obama X, but it’s easy to go overboard in the heat of the moment. So show some sympathy and restraint for Downbound Train when he’s doing the Lord's work or else he will have to continue making up stories about riding two hundred miles unsupported in one day just to try and fit in around here. It really is unfair that the libdopes are making him create these sorts of alternative internet realities about his life and that other conservatives like me are forced to defend him.

I rode the ride as advertised douche.

Think what you will but don't question my integrity. It is bad form.

Oh, you got me on that troll Jer.

PS. I also killed all those chipmunks!

[half-fast]

gutting an 8 room plaster and lathe apartment to the studs. by myself. in 90 degree heat.

[archer]

I rode the ride as advertised douche.

Think what you will but don't question my integrity.

Take it easy old timer. It IS all about the advertising. Back in the eighties before retiring Downbound Train used to work in advertising as an account rep. Back then, an account rep like Downbound Train did what it takes to get the job done. Back then, creating fiction was like 90% of what Downbound Train did. Downbound Train was nobody's friend. If Downbound Train were a sandwich, he'd be fried egg and dick. Downbound Train was a winner.


All that talent is put to good use today with Downbound Train prancin like a tit, starting a thread to fluff his own image as Downbound Train the EXTREME athlete as just another useful conceit. It’s understood. You do not believe it, I do not believe it, but by God it’s a useful hypocrisy. That’s what makes Downbound Train so awesome, a lack of integrity and useful, willful, ignorance all in the same package, how efficient of you. Respect.

[AdironRider]

There was a lot of puking involved with the best average set. The first half or so isn't that bad, but at about #7, you want to kill yourself. I did the seat breaststroke once (I think average was about 1:03) and didn't walk for probably a day afterward.

Paddles seriously suck for long distance stuff. They'll tear up rotator cuffs with the quickness.

I could never do the english channel. I swam 3200m in 55 degree water once and actually developed mild hypothermia. It's really not pleasant. Two of my friends have done it in recent years. One guy gained 30lbs to prepare and was never able to take it back ff.

I was always a sprint guy, so english channel is out of the question for me.

Toughest set I ever did was 50x50 on 25 average. Maintained high 21 low 22 from a wall start for the first 15 then bonked. The remaining 35 was the longest 15 minutes of my life.

I remember in high school training trip the third week of winter break always was hell after 2 weeks of binge drinking, eating, smoking and other general laziness activities.

Just going through 6 months of no physical activity with a blown achilles sucked the most mentally though.

[The AD]

I was always a sprint guy...I remember in high school training trip the third week of winter break always was hell after 2 weeks of binge drinking, eating, smoking and other general laziness activities.

Typical sprinter. Us distance guys live clean!

I swam a 200 fly long course in a meet Sunday. Not the hardest thing I've done, but it did suck...

[Yonder_River]

Don't know if it's the hardest thing I've ever done, but it's up there:

Paddled the Black Canyon of the Gunnison in one day. Usually a two day trip, but done occassionally by people who know the river well in a single day. Lots of class V and lots of mandatory portages around death sieves. A couple of the mandatory portages that are very long and arduous (over boulder fields and scree slopes).

Hadn't done the run before and wouldn't have signed up for it normally first time out as a one day trip, but two of the other three guys in the group had done it before, one of them a bunch of times. (It was his idea to do it in a single day). Get up at the crack of dawn and the guy with all the experience had to back out, but claimed that the other guy who had been down could lead it OK.

Once we get a couple of miles into the canyon, the guy who has been there before doesn't recognize anything => I become de facto group leader. We now have to run this thing in 'first descent mode'. Due to the nature of the rapids, what boat scouting is possible (lots of blind horizon lines) is pretty risky. (Lot of places where door number one has the lady and door number two has the tiger, or all doors have a tiger).

So every couple of hundred yards, eddy out, boulder scramble for twenty or thirty minutes until a line is selected, I then go probe the line while the others watch, then follow me down. Occassionally have to do a mandatory portage.

Extra credit:

-The guy who hadn't been down before is at the edge of his skill set and swims at the bottom of a mandatory 20 ft waterfall drop. Just barely manage to rescue him and his boat before they are swept into a sieve.
-Due to all the extra scouting required we are pressed for time to get out before it got too dark to continue (at which point a rescue would have been triggered by our shuttle driver, something we really, really didn't want to be responsible for). We therefore don't stop for more than five minutes during the entire 16 hours we were on the river.
-All the portages are covered with poison ivy.
-I was paddling (and/or portaging) a big, heavy C1.

Easiest part of the day was hiking the boats out the chuckar trail in the dark (~600ft of vertical in a mile).

Sounds brutal, I can imagine the "fun" you were having. When you say C1, did you mean a kayak outfitted for C1 or just a whitewater canoe? I can't imagine portaging with that.

On a side note, it sounds like your communication on objectives/guide knowledge was not so good.

[DeeAre]

Take it easy old timer. It IS all about the advertising. Back in the eighties before retiring Downbound Train used to work in advertising as an account rep. Back then, an account rep like Downbound Train did what it takes to get the job done. Back then, creating fiction was like 90% of what Downbound Train did. Downbound Train was nobody's friend. If Downbound Train were a sandwich, he'd be fried egg and dick. Downbound Train was a winner.


All that talent is put to good use today with Downbound Train prancin like a tit, starting a thread to fluff his own image as Downbound Train the EXTREME athlete as just another useful conceit. It’s understood. You do not believe it, I do not believe it, but by God it’s a useful hypocrisy. That’s what makes Downbound Train so awesome, a lack of integrity and useful, willful, ignorance all in the same package, how efficient of you. Respect.

I'm laughing.

[grrrr]

^^ That was fucking awesome.

[wcf3]

Sounds brutal, I can imagine the "fun" you were having. When you say C1, did you mean a kayak outfitted for C1 or just a whitewater canoe? I can't imagine portaging with that.

On a side note, it sounds like your communication on objectives/guide knowledge was not so good.

Actually the boat was a dagger built specifically as a C1. Looks pretty much like a kayak but wider and longer (and heavier) than most modern creek boats.

Communication and objectives were clearly screwed up. I'd just met the crew I paddled with a week earlier and our plan was hatched the night before after running the a couple of local CB runs (OB, upper east) then downing a bunch of beer. Not the best prep for a serious run...

[stuckathuntermtn]

I was looking for inspiration with this thread. Your guys shit was mostly much harder than mine.

But...I just did a 200 mile "double Century" bike ride yesterday. Solo. It was hard enough. I feel like shit today.

Was it on a road bike? if so, you're a fag.
Oh and going to the gym sucks the big cock, but it's part of finishing shoulder rehab.

[Jer]

Oh, you got me on that troll Jer.

I honestly am not Archer. Most of my aliai got nuked in that last firefight with Splat.

[shroom]

Cycling or running?

running, still manage 7-8 a day but the drive isn't quite as strong

[PassTheDutchie]

Just because they mentioned the anniversary on the news yesterday...

15 years ago this week, Chicago was hit with perhaps its worst heatwave of all time: something like 100-105 for five days straight (lows of about 90), humidity levels of 80+%, something like 600 people died. I lived on the third floor of a hundred year old, shotgun (read: no ventilation) walk up... And all ComEds power transformers blew the first day because of the city's energy demands. No power, no fan, no AC, no relief for that entire stretch. I don't think I slept more than 15 minutes. I wanted to shoot somebody... Anybody.

This other time, I had a really nasty blister on my big toe. I popped it when I should have left it alone. That was rough.

[skiingsamurai]

since you said physically, I get to avoid a heartache story

Training and testing for my black belt.
This is no TKD bullshit. 1 full year dedicated to solely training 5 days a week, until I was too exhausted to stand.
The test itself was 48 hours, no sleep, minimal breaks between workouts running drills, doing forms, and fighting balls to the wall.
I ended up with 2 broken ribs, a few toes, a totally obliterated shoulder joint, tunnel vision, the respect of 60 higher ranks, and the right to stand on the other side of the line.
Id give anything to do it again

[tonghands]

Most physically painful was passing a kidney stone, but since that wasn't by choice it doesn't really count.

Back in the day we once had the whole team do fly non-stop, last man standing won. I gave up around 1100 yards or so, started the death spiral at about 950. That last 100 really hurt. Winner was around 1600 and he could have gone more no problem.

[samthaman]

since you said physically, I get to avoid a heartache story

Training and testing for my black belt.
This is no TKD bullshit. 1 full year dedicated to solely training 5 days a week, until I was too exhausted to stand.
The test itself was 48 hours, no sleep, minimal breaks between workouts running drills, doing forms, and fighting balls to the wall.
I ended up with 2 broken ribs, a few toes, a totally obliterated shoulder joint, tunnel vision, the respect of 60 higher ranks, and the right to stand on the other side of the line.
Id give anything to do it again

Dude, what? how are you ever out of shape. every time you post about skiing there is some comment about "getting in better shape" or w/e, if you've got any of ^^^^ that still going on, you should be fine.

[The AD]

Back in the day we once had the whole team do fly non-stop, last man standing won. I gave up around 1100 yards or so, started the death spiral at about 950. That last 100 really hurt. Winner was around 1600 and he could have gone more no problem.

There's a guy who swims the Big Shoulders open water race in Chicago (5K) every year doing butterfly. What a nut job.

[Downbound Train]

I honestly am not Archer. Most of my aliai got nuked in that last firefight with Splat.

Well whoever he is, he has a way with words and a low self image.