Monday

Bouldering @ Movement, 2.5 hours

Strange day, felt like a Saturday but was a Monday. Lots of families and babies at the gym. Thought about how strange climbing gyms are: they’re also a social hub. Not in a good, or bad way, but musing to myself.

Finally, finally topped the final V5 on the 45 overhanging wall, after climbing the other three V5’s without much trouble today. Just grinding it out, and perhaps focusing on my breathing just a little bit made it all come together. Afterwards, did a small tour on the other more vertical walls and topped four V6’s, one being new for the day. Felt pretty good in my intermediate-ness. It’s someone else’s warmup, but four, V5’s, and four, V6’s in a day is one of my strongest days. I seem to be stringing those together.

I used to skateboard quite enthusiastically – although I was never very good. I do enjoy still watching skate videos. I’m still lured in by the physical creativity of the hobby. A good quote from this video:

“Hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.”

which succinctly explains any of my outdoor adventure endeavors.

Core Work

Tuesday

Rest. Woke up with an honest to goodness head cold, rather than some mysterious brain fog.

A pretty lackadaisical session to be honest, due to recovering from a cold. When my balance is impacted, say: from a head cold, I just can’t climb as well.

Did get up a V6 on the 45 degree wall, which I was psyched about. Felt a bit soft and took less time to top than many of the V5’s on the same wall, so who knows. Mostly just a crimp ladder, with a difficult, and reachy start. I was working on just the hard bit in isolation, which I needed to cut feet, and it just wasn’t working out well. Found an alternative that was much easier. Without that alt. I’d say it’s possible V6; the alt. just feels like cheating.

Tried to do a different V6 in the cave. Got farther than ever before, but more work is needed, which I may/may not invest myself into.

Left middle finger feels a little tender between the PIP and MCP joint, so I may take a little time off. I’ve made a lot of progress in hard boulders, I’d hate to lose it all with an never-healing injury.

Core work

Added Cliffhanger Planks, which I could only honestly hold for 30 seconds at a time with good form, so I did 2x of them.

Frenchies

Felt my bouldering session was kinda mild, so I supplemented with perhaps four sets of Frenchies. They feel good to do, too.

Balance Board Work.

Lots of one-legged balance board work to try to tighten up some stretched-out tendons on my left ankle. I may take a few honest weeks up from running and focus a lot more on bike riding. Hmm: like I have been for the last few weeks.

Thursday

Rest.

Friday

Climbing @ Movement w/Zach

Good sess. – lots of steep, hard (relatively) routes for me. Finger was a bit tender, so I kept it steep and juggy. Really easy terrain for me to pump out on, though. Nothing to do about that, but to climb more routes!

Saturday

Rest.

Sunday

Bouldering @ Movement

Woke up feeling less than ideal, so kept a chill sess., mostly on a new set. Did some V5’s and some V6’s I guess, than tried a ~V7 (none of the problems are rated, yet).

Spin Bike, 2 hours

Core Work

Was kinda running out of time… so worked on some hard things. Ended the sess. trying L-Sits, which amazingly to me, I can now do! Never had been able to in the past, and I’ve never focused to much in trying to do them. Nice little party trick, perhaps I won’t be trying them on every photo-op-worthy rock outcropping I find in the next few months.

A pretty chill week, especially in running/cycling. Not feeling the greatest, and perhaps better to take ‘er easy. Happy New Year!