The Climbing Project

I've decided that I've gotten sloppy with my climbing and so I'm getting worse at it, rather than better. So, I'm embarking on The Climbing Project (which I came up with after reading the book The Rosie Project) which will be designed to improve my climbing technique, and lead to me getting more joy out of climbing. I was listening to this podcast on climbing, climbing beta, and they interviewed this climber John Kettle, who went from climbing V7 to V9 in like 9 weeks by improving his technique, and then wrote a book about it. Which I bought, and am going to follow.

Step one was to work on climbing with your legs more and your arms less. Yup, really need to do that. My first exercise was only moving a hand when I had two feet on the wall. Which was really hard!  But, as I practiced it today, I noticed was really helpful, and something that I hadn't been doing well. I also practiced keeping the arm that was still holding the wall straight, keeping the weight on the bigger muscles of my back, instead of using the smaller muscles in my arms. That got especially hard when I was in a scary place, and it was hard. Third thing that I practiced was not just doing slab, but also climbing overhang.

I climbed only 5.8 and 5.9, with a 5.7 at the end. My best climbs were one 5.9 that I did a good job with moving my feet up before moving an arm, and an overhung 5.8 - same thing.

My friend Lynne decided that she wants to go with me sailing in Myanmar!  I'm psyched because it's a small boat, and it will be nice to have a friend on board. She was looking at tickets today, and got overwhelmed and didn't get one. When I looked this evening, the trip was gone. I was so upset because I thought it was sold out, but then it turned out that there was something weird with the website, and now it's back. OK, now we both know that this is the plan that we want :)

Also, even though when I booked the trip they told me it absolutely wouldn't go on sale, it went on sale. I contacted the company and was like "WTF?" and they gave me the sale price!  Go me - I negotiated something!!

Mayor Pete

 Not an exercise post, but today I went to "Meet Pete" in NH! I wasn't feeling great and took a personal day to recoup, plus I had a doctor's appointment. Yesterday I saw that he was in NH, and I know he's been doing well in the polls, so I was curious to hear more from him. So, I signed up to go to his rally. I went right from the MD appointment, and got there about an hour early, before doors opened. It was really cold out, but fortunately they were letting people hang out in the lobby; when I walked in I ran into a friend from TKD!  It was pretty cool! We wound up catching up and, when the doors opened, sitting together.

Since we were there so early, we were able to get seats in the front row.  We were feeling pretty good about ourselves.  I guess we were looking pretty happy and enthusiastic, because one of the campaign managers came over and asked us if we wanted to sit on the stage behind the mayor, as his human props.  We were like "Hell Yes!"  I mean, I don't know if I'm going to vote for the guy, but it just seemed so fun. And it was :)  I was really impressed with Buttigieg - he's very articulate, I like his policy ideas, and he seems like someone who could be "presidential." If there's one thing that trump has taught me, it's that we need a leader who represents the ideas of everyone in the country, and so many people are opposed to Medicare for all (which I don't understand), that I have a hard time with Warren for that. Buttigieg is doing well in the polls; he could have a real shot!

It was a fun morning, definitely better than sitting on the couch and feeling sorry for myself for having a cold, which had been the plan. I'm going to have to stalk his website to see if I find myself on it anywhere.

Balboa Twist

I went back to BKBX again for class #3!  I did something to my shoulder, so I wasn't sure it was a good idea, but on the other hand, I really wanted to get a work out in this week, and I'm going climbing with the old people tomorrow, and I wasn't sure I would be into it on Friday. Also, the workout was called "Balboa Twist" which I was thinking related to Bilbao, Spain, but just realized was of course after the movie rocky. And, there was boxing! There were three stations, one that was cardio with an ardyn bike, jumping rope, and then running back and forth with a partner punching a pad. The second station was the heavy ropes - which is something I never did at crossfit, and found was hard. And one with punching bags that you pushed forward and caught from hand to hand, which I couldn't do well because of my shoulder. And the final one where your partner held a pad and you used bands and punched.

It was really fun to punch things, even if we really weren't punching right. I was laughing to myself a little because my partner was this pretty buff guy, but he did not know how to throw a punch. I could have given him a few pointers.

It was a really good workout - according to my heart rate monitor, at one point I was at 102% heart rate, which I don't think is really a thing. I did feel a little bit like puking, but not like dying.

I had my meeting with my interim supervisor. I had been loosing sleep, and having dreams about teeth falling out, about how she was going to "help" me get along more with others, and be more of a team player, and she had apparently forgotten all about it. So, we ended with her saying "you're awesome" and I was like WTF lady??

I Bouldered!

Now that I've finished my 4000 footers in NH, I need a new fitness goal, and I've decided to work on my climbing. Over the last several years I think I've been slowly de-proving in my abilities, due to two factors. #1 I've put on a lot of weight (though I have lost 10 pounds, thankfully!, but I am still about 25 pounds overweight, and #2 I've gotten sloppy. Loosing weight is a slow and somewhat unreliable process. But, I can get less lazy and sloppy with my climbing. And, I think the best way to do that is bouldering. So, I am resolved.

I've done bouldering 3 times so far. The first time I was going climbing with Greta, and I got there early and she was caught in traffic. I think I was there at the same time as the kids climbing team which wasn't really a good time. I did 2 V0's and left. The second time I got there early for climbing with the old people's metope (which I've decided to do more regularly) and did five excellent attempts  and a few crappy ones. I did a couple of V0's all the way up - one where I had to down climb and then drop down which was scary, and one where I climbed over the top and went down the stairs, which made me feel cool, but was also a little scary because it was super high. And, I did a V1, not quite to the top.  Then, Sunday I got to climbing a little early and did some bouldering for about 20 minutes and did mostly V0's. I tried some overhung ones, but didn't get far. But, later in the climbing day, on top rope, I felt like I was doing better.

I'm going to work on quiet feet, straight arms, and no death grip. And breathing.

My current boss went out on maternity leave today. I had my first meeting with the interim person last Wednesday. I told her about what I do, because really she has no idea. At the end, she was like, "next week I want to talk to you about how I can help you work more with other people." And I was like WTF are you talking about?  I don't think it's going well so far.

PS. Forgot to mention that falling from the top or during a climb is super scary (or maybe just reiterating) and that I have bruises all over my knees which I think are from dropping down to the mat. Will have to work on falling too.

BKBX Redux

I decided to go back to BKBX again already, even though my legs are still a little sore from all the squats in the last class. I have plans for the next two evenings, and my class pass month is ending and I had 8 points left. Which was perfect for one more class.

It turns out that they run the same class a few days in a row, or Thursday/Monday at least (different from Crossfit for sure). It was not bad to do the same workout again, though, because this time I think I did it better and that I will be less sore (though no promises). I was also partnered with a class mate who wasn't as hard core as the Thursday people, so I did fewer reps. And, I remembered some of my crossfit skills for sure.  I'm definitely going to keep doing this!

I've also planned a vacation to Thailand and Myanmar!  I'm super excited about it!  I'll be going sailing around the islands of Myanmar on a yacht. Which will hopefully be fun given that:
1. I could get seasick
2. The bedrooms are very small and may make me claustrophobic
3. I don't know how to sail

What could go wrong?

BKBX

I went to BKBX with class pass to try their "upscale" program. I was nervous and skeptical before going; I'm usually more of a gritty gym kind of a person, but I have to say I really liked it!  I can see myself going there more often. When I got there, the front desk guy was all friendly (and cute) and showed me around and explained the heart rate monitors that you wear in class. And I didn't mind it! I went to a Foundations - Grip and Rip class, which was a tabata sort of thing, with four rounds at three different stations, and then burpees (why? Why burpees?)

For their classes, everyone wears a heart rate monitor and the results are projected up on this screen. I was about to die according to my monitor for most of the class - I was at like 98% cardio - you should work out at like 85%. But really I was fine.  And, it was kind of cool to try and breathe and watch my heart rate get lower.  My end number was 131 - not completely sure what that means.

For the stations, we had one with weights were we did one hand lifts, one with medicine balls, and one with boxes for box jumps. They have these lovely soft boxes that you wouldn't hit your knee on. But the one I used was like 6 inches, so it wasn't a problem. After each round you had to do 3 burpees and they measured something - efficiency, skill, speed?  IDK, but I hate burpees, and I wound up doing a bunch.

After the class, I got to go to the Recovery Room and sit in this compression leg thing and watch climbing videos while my legs were squeezed. It's supposed to help recovery. I'll be interested to see if it works. We did so many squats, I'm sure my legs will be killing me.

Some of the classes include the bouldering wall. Definitely will do again!

48!

I can't believe I finally made it!  I hiked Carrigan today for #48. It was a beautiful fall day, perfect temperatures and fall foliage.  I was pretty impressed with myself because I got up at 5:16 (according to my fitbit) and was out the door at around 5:30.  We're at about 12 hours of sunlight right now, and Carrigan is a 10.6 mile hike with a book time of 5-7 hours, and it's almost a 3 hour drive to get there. So, I knew I needed to be early. (It's a long drive, but I listened to The Rosie Project on the road and it made the drive much quicker - highly recommend). I got to the parking lot at 8:30 and headed out at 8:45.

Carrigan is one of those mountains that starts out with a long walk to the mountain. The first 1.7 miles was this beautiful saunter in the woods, by a river. The leaves were changing colors and there were enough on the ground for some good crunching. It was a nice start. At the 1.7 mile mark there's a sign to either go up, or off to Lake Nancy.  Things got real fast at this point. The next 3.3 miles were pretty unrelenting uphill.  But, there were switchbacks!  On the one hand it was easier, but they kind of messed with my head - I thought I was at the top at least a dozen times before I was. Once I got up there, it was so worth it!  There's a false summit with an amazing view, and a fire tower on Carrigan itself. I was feeling kind of pooped (possibly because of only 4 1/2 hours of sleep) and had to sit and eat for a bit, but then I really wanted to get to the top.

The view from the fire tower was amazing! I told this guy up there that it was my #48, and so he took my picture. This other woman was finishing hers too. I took a bunch of pictures, but it was so windy up there, and it was one of those sketchy fire towers that you feel like could fall over at any time, so I just stayed for like 5 minutes, and then walked back to the false summit to eat.  From the top of Carrigan you can see the most 4000 footers - I looked at all the mountains that I'd climbed, and I have to say I was pretty impressed!  Then I ate a cheese sandwich on healthy bread - but it was saved by avocado! I spent about a half hour at the top before heading down - I knew traffic would be awful, and I wanted to beat it a little if I could.

It took me 4 hours up and 3 down from the false summit.  I practiced planning one step ahead, and did pretty well at it, except I still have to say "one step ahead" out loud, which maybe is a little weird.

I plan to do the 5 mountains that I haven't soloed yet next year, so it doesn't feel like my project is done. But until the bugs are gone next spring, maybe I'll just do some like 6 mile hikes or so???

Now that my hiking project is done, I'm thinking about getting a little more immersed in climbing. Can this become a climbing blog too?

Last weekend I finally got to see my adoring audience!  Haha, well, that is to say that I got to see Kit, and a couple other friends from college. It was super fun to see them - we will do it again before another 15 years pass :)