That said, Levine's not skimping on muscle power as it relates to an Everest summit attempt. Her training regimen includes a date with her Stairmaster at 4 a.m., three mornings a week, wearing a 40-pound pack. She takes a 10-mile trail run once a week; goes to spinning class twice a week; does 80 push-ups twice a day; and weight trains three times a week. All this in addition to snowshoeing up ski slopes with her boyfriend and climbing Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks with teammate Lynn Prebble.
"I do wall sits (where you have your back against the wall and your legs at a 90-degree angle) every morning while blow-drying my hair," she says. "I tell myself I have to stop blow-drying when my quads burn so badly I can no longer stay in the position, so my choice is to either suck it up and take the burn or go to work looking like Kramer."
Levine describes her 80-hour-a-week job as an investment adviser as high-stress and demanding: "It's not the norm for someone who works here to take two months off," she says. "But the firm is encouraging people to stretch and step outside of our comfort zones and take risks. To take reasonable risks."
How "reasonable" is Everest?
"The deaths and accidents are well-publicized," Levine says. "But there's a lot more people who die of cancer every year than die on Everest. My goal is not the summit, but to bring some awareness to the V Foundation and to encourage women to step out of their normal, everyday roles to try new things."
