Slopers

Well,  last night I went into the gym and climbed around.  It went petty well,  but I figured out something about myself.  I am terrible at slopers.  People always joked that I would be more likely to crimp a sloper than to hold it properly but I never realized to what extent. 

If the sloper has a thumb-catch, I am typically okay, but big, exposed slopers with nothing but sloping surface really get me.  Even slopers that you can kind of "meat-hook" aren't too bad, but something about them is really hard for me.  It also doesn't help that I spent the last 3 years climbing at Hueco Tanks where slopers are not as common.

Here is the problem I was having trouble with.  It's probably about a V8 and I kept getting to the last move and not being able to get to the finish.

One thing that was nice, however, was that I was working on a problem that one of the guys there made up which involved two of what I previously thought were my weaknesses, and did very well.  The first was a very dynamic move to a small crimp, which was much harder than I expected it to be.  Then I pulled up from there with just one hand on the small crimp past my shoulder rotation reach, relying solely on my left bicep.

It is really great to be seeing results from my workouts.  I hope they keep coming.

Staying With It.

Well, I am still training regularly and I have taken my Metolius Rock Rings to work now.  This should help with the plan I have in place since I can't mount my hangboard right now in the new apartment I am moving into next week.  Hopefully I can fashion something out of my "perfect pull-up" bar.  I am sure I'll put up pics when I do.

Setting at Metro Rock

Well, I am going to start setting as a volunteer at Metro Rock. To complete this task, I bought my first grigri. I have always been old fashioned about belaying and the most advanced thing I bought was an ATC Guide when I though I might do some multipitch stuff. It is nice to get one though. I feel like I can get back on rope legitimately now. Speaking of getting on rope, I did get on yesterday and almost flashed a 5.12d. That was pretty nice for my confidence considering I haven't been on rope for 4 years. Also, here is a video Alex took of me on a V6 last week at the gym.

More training and Alex visits the gym.

On Friday, Alex and I went to Metro Rock.  I feel safe saying that she thoroughly enjoyed it. We both bouldered the whole time and ended up climbing for about three hours.  It was a lot of fun and Alex was pretty fearless.   If we can get into the gym more often it would be really great to see how she likes getting on rope too. 

Also,  I have been continuing my workout regiment at work during lunch and is going pretty well.  I don't know what the total gains are but I can pull down 120 pounds with one arm,  which means I am only 25 pounds from doing a one arm pull-up.  Tonight on my computer I will add some content.   Thanks for reading!

 

 

Serious this time.

Training has always been a big obstacle for me.  I get really motivated, start climbing all the time, get to training, and then some major shift happens in my life and I stop.  I have realized though, that I am only getting older and will eventually see decreased gains in performance and so now is the time to act.  I want to send a V14 before I am maxed out and that is going to take some serious work.  Right now, since my break from June 2013 to about March 2014, I have dropped down to about V9-10 and I need to build it back up.  I can get the moves in V11s, but I don't have the endurance to complete a V11 if my life depended on it.  I get through most 8s and am completely spent.

Therefore, I have dedicated a good bit of my lunch break to training, as well as getting into the gym more often and training at home.

I now keep my powerballs at work and use them on the lat-pull-down machine.  It works really well to focus on specific muscle groups and gets me a pretty good sloper workout at the same time.  It's not too bad.  I am measuring my progress on a one-arm pullup as well from these workouts and I am getting closer. 

I intend to keep this up and update you all as I go.  Maybe I'll discover something wonderful.

Back at the Gym

I haven't posted in a while, but I have been climbing.  For the first time since last June, I have been into a gym.  I bought a two-week pass to Metro Rock Gym, which I reviewed in an earlier post and it was great.  I have lost a lot of strength, but I am really motivated to climb hard again.  I am down a few grades, but I can feel the gains coming back, and my finger injury seems to have completely healed.  I probably won't buy a pass quite yet, as I am not sure how much I will be able to get to the gym between school and work.  During the summer for sure though.  Hopefully all the time.

Also, as a very small milestone, this is my 100th post on my blog.  Whoopeee!!!

Cold Cold Cold!

Well, I finally bundled up and went out to climb in the cold.  I have to say that if you start out warm, and have a bit of a hike in, it really isn't that bad.  My problem with the cold is that I usually don't start out warm.

I didn't get on but one problem, but it felt nice to be on real rock.  It was maybe a little V2 at most but I played around on it doing different variations for about 30 min.  It helped that my back was to the sun, so I really stayed warm.  Unfortunately, to take these pictures, I stepped in the snow with my climbing shoes and my feet got very cold very quickly.

Regardless, I think that I may be able to get out to Farley Ledge and do some stuff on a particularly warm weekend.  That would be nice.

But since Mass is so cold, I have been confined to climbing in my basement on my hangboards, rock rings, and powerballs.  As the picture a few posts back has shown, I do have a small piece of plywood that has 5 t-nuts in it for switching out holds.  However, not being satisfied with that, I decided to put up more holds.  Being out of t-nuts and having a box full of broken holds, I decided to drill holes in the holds and make them screw-ons.  They worked beautifully and I successfully set a very difficult training problem across the length of my basement.  Most of the holds are pretty small and don't need much in the way of fasteners, so they now have two screws each.  I have worked the whole problem and when I get it I will try to snap a video to show how it goes.  Until then.

Even robots wear 'em!

This could be affirmative proof that 5.10 makes the best shoes out there.  This is a short video of the Atlas robot making its ascent up some stairs.  They wanted to make the robot have the best traction possible, so of course they went with 5.10s.  They appear to be spires, or similar. 

Just a random fact of the day!

Trying to train.

So I put up my hangboards and rings and powerballs, along with a short board to bolt holds to, in my basement.  It's nice that it has natural rock walls for feet to practice moves and the roof should allow for a good bit of climbing area.  Just have to get some plywood up and see what goes down.

Gate Fails

So, I don't normally post non-climbing things on my blog but this is really interesting.  There is a gate at some location in Europe, judging by the longer license plates and Lithuanian delivery company that people continually fail at.  Hit in the head, hitting their car, or just running straight into it.  I don't have a clue where it is, but it seems that the security people get a kick out of people running into this gate.  If you have seen videos of this gate or know where it might be, comment below.

Links
1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pAIp5tPFcbQ
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFoq8-Xszjs
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-8H6dkPTfc
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMBkxZ2ooQg