Haha, when I get to his age I hope I'm still going as strong as he is. And yeah, I know you are discouraged about your AdventX progress and abilities, but all I can say is, keep at it, keep doing things, and you build that strength and endurance. (Also, age (to some extent) helps with endurance. Look at the ages of Tour de France and marathon winners. Give it five years.)

I'm really feeling pretty good about my backpacking strength this summer - but that's because I've spent, hmm. Fifteen days backpacking and another 10 or so dayhiking, since May?