Hit the wall

A quick check of my blog tells me that my last workout in the climbing category was November 20. In other words, i probably haven’t climbed in almost two months. boy could I tell. I have to admit, I took some of the time intentionally, I was frustrated with trying to divide my time between everything. We’ll see how it goes this time.

Showed up and jumped into the mix with three other, much better, climbers. I attempted a 5.6 (I was told it was a hard 5.6 and I would agree), 5.5, 5.4. I didn’t complete a single one cleanly. My forearms pumped early and often. I wasn’t standing nearly as strong or tall as i know I need. Last, my footwork was nonexistant.

Ah well, no where to go but up (pun intended).

I was gonna jump rope for cardio but the room I planned to do it in was carpeted in my absence. I decided I had enough cardio for the day.

Tomorrow, strongman.

Just climbed in….

and boy are my arms tired (laugh track)

Seriously, they are. That longer climbing on Sunday smoked my forearms. I was gonna do deadlifts today but I think that is right out. So I guess it’s squats today. No big loss there. As it’s my first day back in the gym in a long time, I’ll simply be testing myself today. I’ll be limited on the amount of pulling I can do but I’ll try to work in some straight legged type stuff. I’ll also be testing myself on my pressing movements. Last I’m gonna work in a couple areas that need so rehab or have been neglected in past gym routines. Afterward a kettlebell workout is on the list but that is gonna hurt big time. So we will see how that goes. I can tell you I will be sticking with the 16K bell.

Tomorrow I fill in the details of what I did and more importantly, what I am gonna do between now and about February or March..

Back at it

First, I want to say that this last week has been really good for me. I obviously took things a little too far, I was overtrained. I wasn’t sleeping or waking up well. I wasn’t becoming rested and there were other signs. Toward the end of this week, I got comments from multiple people that I seemed more awake and on top of things. It just doesn’t pay to keep pushing sometimes.

That said, I’m glad to be back at things again.

Today I went to the climbing gym. I met with someone I have climbed with before and got to meet a few more. Before they showed up, I played about in the bouldering area just to get warm. It was a bit more than I should have been doing. By the time I got around to climbing I had already started to tax my arms. I stil got five or six climbs in but only one was clean (no falls). I was working with only 5.5 and eventualy 5.4s. Fortunately the guys  I climb with are very understanding about letting me hang out (literally) and refresh the arms.

In other news, during the break I have been trying to rework my program. I’m looking forward to some heavy gym lifts. I still want to keep climbing but I would also like some element of aerobic workout in my training. It is a weakness of mine that I think takes from my overall fitness. Through the help of some very smart guys I have ended up with a program that encorporates two days of lifting, one day of climbing, one day that is either climbing or strongman, one day of jogging and two days of down time. Probably the most important thing is to be more attentive to my body than I was for the last round of training.

Last, you may notice Ihave workedthe blog around a bit. I like this theme but had to spend some time in the code to get it validated. So it is now “technically” correct. Which doesn’t neccessarily do what I want, that part will remain to be seen. So if anyone sees a flaw or annoyance, let me know. Just pop in a comment to any post, I’ll be notfied. I also added feed blitz. This is supposed to allow you to recieve and email when I update, that way you don’t have to come back and check every day. Also, feedburner is up and running so if you use a blog aggregator, use the link on the left above my validations.

Going Up

Made it to theclimbing gym yesterday. Climbed 2 5.5s, then the 5.6 that smoked me last time, smoked me again. After a while I wrapped up with a 5.4.

It’s pretty amazing how tired my arms can get. This time I barely felt the pump, but my arms quit anyway. They were strong during the first time, I think my technique was real strong too. In the second climb I felt myself getting a little tired and I think that’s when I started puting the weight on my hands. By the third, I had increased difficulty, was getting tired and was losing technique. There were times on that third that I would question getting to the top. I could see what needed to be done, my hands were so blasted though that anyweight bearing would throw me off the wall.

Close to the ground

Went to the gym yesterday, no chance to get on top rope so I hit thebouldering area again. That went really well. I got sone problems I hadn’t gotten before. Tried some new ones as well. I spent a fair amount of time on the walls upstairs trying to do traverses for my own sake.

Running was sprints for last night, on the soccer field, each segment is half a length:
jog, sprint
jog, sprint
jog, sprint, sprint, jog
jog, sprint, jog, sprint
jog, sprint

I had planned going a little longer but my left hamstring was tightening up pretty bad.

I envy you

Yesterday was odd to say the least.
I went to the climbing gym with the intent of climbing a real route rather than a bouldering problem. Unfortunatly, during my belay test I tied in through my caribener rather than the two loops on my harnass. Embarssing but I can retest next time. So back to the bouldering area I slunk. I honestly was not terribly into it but I had some successes. Did the usual intros, a couple V1s and my V2 that I like. I continue to fail on a couple that I really feel like an extra inch or two of height would make a whole lot easier. I wore out pretty quick and after an hour was pretty much done.

Last evening, I decided that my run for the day would be with the tire so I opted to run around the park. The entire park is probably about the size of three full soccer fields so I guesstimate 660 – 780 yards. I took one full lap with the tire, walked a half lap then ran another full lap followed by walking half a lap.

When I was done I put my tire away. I had said I wouldn’t do any sandbags but I couldn’t resist. So I opted for a quick 3 C&J with the 100, 150 and then tried my 200. I can get it to the zercher position but no higher, yet.
It was during the sandbag portion of my day that I got the title for this post. A middle agish woman walked by and said “I envy you” to which I gave her a confused look. She said “You’re doing it all”. We had some polite banter and that was it. It was just a strange sentiment. Later, as I thought about it, it made sense.
I have met a lot of people who I could say I envy for their workouts/training/goals/life. Typically, it’s not that I envy the workout but that I envy them for doing something I never thought I could. In most cases I could or still can but I envy them. the only thing that changes this is taking the initiative to do it for yourself.
I envy some of the amazing trips Chris has gone on. I have the rest of my life still to do them though. I have ample time to take trekking trips all over the world and in the case of trekking, although demanding, it’s not a technical and a big wall climb. There is no reason to envy without planning.
If I’m gonna envy someone but don’t have the guts to pay the price, I just have to put that envy aside. Envy is just another tool to get it done or to torture you for as long as you don’t. With any luck I can turn any envy I have into inspiration and hopefully someone else will envy me and then be inspired in the same way.

Seneca rocks baby!

I took a little road trip to Seneca Rocks over the last weekend. On the way down it started raining, the weather report: rain clearing over night, 20-30% chance of rain tomorrow. I pulled in and met Chris Rice, the rain stopped long enough for me to set up my tent.
We woke the next morning with high hopes of climbing. Instead, it was raining. We headed off to the climb shop to hang out. While there we got the forcast, rain clearing over night, 20-30% chance of rain tomorrow. So we hung out, talked, met a lot of climbers.
The next morning we woke up to more rain. Off to the climb shop again for the hang out and forecast, rain clearing over night, 20-30% chance of rain tomorrow. Chris and I both decided we had seen enough of the shop and it was time to head off to the rocks one way or another. Chris and I took a walk up the hiking path to the observation deck to take in the view. On the trip up, it started raining on us. Up top we were standing in the rain cloud where it was barely drier than below it.
We opted for one more day to give it a try. Once again we woke up to rain. Ah well, we had a great camping trip. I’m still gonna climb Seneca Rocks.

Short stuff

Short post, I returned from a 3 day camping trip. We were trying to climb but got rained out. It was a great time anyway, I got to hang out with Chris Rice for three days. I’ll fill in more about that later.

Last practice

I got in my lst gym climb before I go and try for real this weekend. It went pretty well. I spent a solid hour challenging myself. No doubt, it core that was giving out on me primarily today. It could be because I haven’t been doing my yoga, that seems to strengthen my core more than anything else I do.

So I’ve spent money and gotten all the things you need to climb and camp and survive the process. I think I’m ready. It should be fun. Oh and Dan, I’ve got gear for camping now. You let me know.

Climb on

Yesterday I was feeling prett sore from the last park workout, I’m still feeling it a bit but not as bad. Laura and I had planned some light tennis but rain set in shortly after I got home from work. For a while I debated what workout I would do but after a while I decided it was a fine night to hang out.

Today, I decided to carry on with the schedule and climbed (clumb) again. It went better than expected. I was concerned my hands would be worn out and sore. They often are when I climb twice in three days. They seemed to hang in there alright.

When I was done, I purchased a harnass, so I guess this means I’m in for some legit climbing.