Monday
Climbing @ Movement 2+ hours
A relatively “short” session with Nolan. After a quick warmup, all on lead, I tried the 5.11d on the lead wall. Got a move or two higher – just two more holds to grab onto! Maybe next time. Pumpy.
Tried to climb up the finger crack in the corner of the gym with open feet. Seemed practically impossible for me to do at the moment so, hmm: more learning to be done. If one of my goals next year is Pervertical Sanctuary, I’ll have to figure out how to climb finger cracks. Got my La Sportiva Katana Velocro’s back. They didn’t ever fit me too well in the heal, but they’re a lot flatter than the Mirua VS’s I usually wear, so I can continue working the hand/fist crack the next time I’m roped up.
Moved onto my 5.12c project, and after one failed attempt, finally topped it without falling! Whoo. Now, time to try it on lead before it gets taken down! I have about a month.
Finished the day with a few 5.12’s on toprope, then got lunch. Would have perhaps climbed longer, but the skin on my fingertips on my left hand are still need some solid healing time. Probably the worst I’ve ever seen them! I’m sure the cold, dry air isn’t helping.
Tuesday
Spin Bike, 2 hours
Wednesday
Bouldering @ Movement, 3 hours
After warmup, my sess. was fairly unstructured, somewhat bobbing around different areas looking for something to work on. The new set on the 45 overhanging wall wasn’t really catching my interest except for one V5 I figured out in just a couple of tries (probably should be downgraded to a V4). Tried a very balancey, tensiony V7 on the far end of the area on a slightly overhanging section, but the last hold was just too problematic with me, and I never topped it.
Finally stuck around the cave area, which has two V6’s I could theoretically send, given enough time. One clocks in at over 20 moves (if you don’t skip over holds) and as such, is more about power endurance than straight up power. Working that route and ultimately the power endurance gained could help me on routes, so I gave it some burns. Not completely successful, but I’ll come back to it fresher. To fit that many moves in such a small area does require some weird, contrived traversing, so skipping holds/moves is one the strategies in sending it.
The other V6 is a more normally set boulder, with one crux I’ve never been able to figure out, until today. There’s another cruxy move a few moves after I’ve yet to unlock, but it doesn’t seem impossible (as cave route cruxes often do to me), so it could potentially fall, too. I don’t believe I’ve ever done a V6 in the cave area, so that would be a nice thing to do. My powerhouse legs do become somewhat of a liability for these powerful moves, but it wasn’t so long ago I said the same thing about the 45 overhanging wall, and now V6’s there aren’t impossible (just merely “pretty difficult”).
Afterwards,
Core Work
Thursday
Spin Bike, 2 hours
Woke up with that not so fresh feeling sometime past noon. I’d say it was because I was hung over, but I hadn’t had anything to drink the night before, and I usually cut things off after a nightly splash of whiskey in my nighttime tea. May have caught a bit of a bug. Since my lungs and nose felt clear, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to ride indoors, so that’s what I did. Gotta keep up a bit of the ol’ consistency. Happy I went out.
Friday
Bouldering @ Movement, 2+ hours
After warming up on the 45 degree overhanging wall, I moved down to the cave, to work on the V6 problem I’m somewhat projecting. Made good progress, but wasn’t able to send. At the end of my session, my fingers just started hurting too much to climb with. Calluses in back of the last knuckle of my fingers have built up and are causing quite a bit of pain when pressure from holding onto things is applied. D’oh! I guess I’ve advanced my climbing to the point where finger health is critical. Off to buy sanding block. Maybe next time, I can finish the problem up.
Saturday
Spin Bike, 2 Hours
Sunday
Bouldering @ Movement, ~1 hour; Climbing @ Movement, ~2 hours
Terrible session. Place was busy, and for some reason, though it best to warm up, and work on the V6 in the bouldering cave. Got really nowhere, so when the cave got busy, I worked on another V6 in a different sector. Something felt off… so I was happy to see Nolan, and get on a rope, but things didn’t get much better for me.
I thought I was over whatever it is that was wrong with me this week, but it just seemed to be still lingering (or even: worse). Had trouble even on a 5.11b, needing to take > 4 times on one climb. Just couldn’t mentally keep it together. Hopefully, it’s just a passing inner ear infection, or I’m massively dehydrated, or something like that. Ugh!
