Good company corrupts bad morale

Each tuesday i have a two hour lunch break, and each tuesday i start the morning out thinking to myself that i'll not climb, but will instead use the time wisely to do homework, etc. Each tuesday lunchtime rolls around and my studious resolve has been leached from my bones like calcium after a vinegar bath. Today was no exception.

And it's a good thing too, 'cuz i sent m' v5 project.

Crazy session, all told. Slept fairly poorly last night (which is becoming de rigeur with baby bagpipes reposing next bed over.) i'd failed at the send on sunday, and i was still feeling the pain, so i had very low expectations--so low, in fact, that i nearly did stay at school and study. But the warmup went ok, and i ran into a friend who's generally a stronger climber than i. He was having a subprime day and was working a v3. i jumped on and flashed. Then i got a pretty stiff v4 on 'bout the 4th try. i was feeling me oats, so we went upstairs and i sent the proj first go.

That made for a giddy, floating feeling.

So i went down to the freestanding boulder and hooked up with another friend who usually just makes me look bad. They were standing next to a new 4, and i asked 'im if he'd done it. Said he hadn't gotten the top bit worked out. So i laughingly told 'em to stand back so i could onsight the thing. Then i did.

The tendonitis in my left arm flared up like a fireworks display, but that was a good workout anyway. Mighty nice to have a solid, hard day of it after a really long dry spell. Now i'm gonna try to stay away 'til this weekend to heal. Peace.

Supert Weak

Finished midterms. (Hallelujah!) Still in school. Intense li'l week. i'm hardly ready for another week, but i'm glad to be done with that 'un.

Climbed yesterday. Wasn't gonna go in, but a friend asked me to teach her to lead, so i thought it'd be a nice easy day. Did end up doing some good toproping for a decent enduro sesh; then went up to the cave to boulder a bit. Put in a few burns on my project. i got the finish from the halfway point. i raced to the crux from the beginning--it's a bicycled heel hook to get to a li'l crimp match hanging inverted from the ceiling. i stuck it, but my heel didn't feel latched perfectly. i screamed my way to the finish, got one hand on, and my heel popped. One third of a second longer, and i would'a sent; but NO! Now i have to do it again. Ah well...it's a fun climb at least. But it does inspire me to lose a pound or two.

Also got the go-ahead to purchase a slice of plywood. i'm building a three-tiered hangboard wall. Got the idea from the gym, and it's a good one. Kind of an inverted staircase of hangboards/system holds. Also i'm gonna install a pullup bar. Then if i can score a set of gym rings for the birthday, i should have a right proper li'l workout setup. And this'll allow me to make my big wall into more of a campus/system wall like i'd originally intended. Now if i could just convince my lard-encumbered booty to go for a run, i might start shaping into a good climber.

Midterms

Midterms this week. This'll be the telling week, methinks: see if i've learned anything thus far.

i climbed pretty much all day yesterday. worked on m' wee wall at home for a long time, and played on it as i built. Then i went in for a fairly hard session at the climbgym. Good thing, really, 'cuz i don't expect this coming week's gonna readily lend itself to working out much.

Prayers please. It's going to be a furious one.

The Opportunity of a Lunchtime

Tuesdays turn out to lend themselves beautifully to a climb session o'er lunch. i get a two hour lunch, you see. For this reason, tuesdays do not lend themselves to not climbing--tendonitis be damned. i've climbed pretty much every other day for the last week; so it's a li'l bit surprising that yesterday's session went as well as it did. Didn't do much new stuff, but i did do a lot of stuff.

Didn't have any plans of working out when the day began. i really do have some raging tendonitis in the left biceps. The plan was to go move and do easy stuff, and basically not further damage myself, or otherwise chuck a wrench in the healing gears. i might not have accomplished that last bit so well, but i can say i didn't do anything particularly eyebrow-arching. "Easy" climbing notwithstanding, it was a high-volume day. Good workout.

Still have every intention of getting that iron workout in.

Being Lard

Right. i got the green light to have a long workout yesterday from La Jefe. i chose to climb. Did a protracted warmup. Stretched a bit. Contemplated some hard bouldering, and my left elbow benders erupted in a conflagration of inflammation. i climbed some stuff half-heartedly, but it hurt. i sat and moped a while. i bummed 600 of ibuprofen off the gym (i owe 'em a bottle). i moped more. i lay staring alternately at the ceiling and the inside of my eyelids. i was about to give up and leave, but i ran into a li'l group working a new v3. i watched them fall and fall and fall until i was interested. i sent their problem, and i felt better. i slunk into the cave, and sent a spooky sloper problem that'd spit me a few times on a stronger, less painful day. i think it'll probably go at hard v4. Then i got up another v4 i'd done before. Threw at a v5 several times, but didn't get it. i do think it'll go though. i'm gonna have to take a li'l time off to heal. This is irritating. i haven't worked hard enough to earn tendonitis.

Anyhow, i might be laying off of the puller/backwork this next iron workout; but there is still much to do. i've learned from digging through a cadaver that i might have muscles on the ventral portion of my body. i will try to find them and work them.

Squeaky Fed-Ex'd

Your Sleep Depriving Mouse done come fo' a visit. i've gotten me to bed long 'bout 12 for the last few nights to study, an Squeaky has a raw butt what's causing a superhuman decibel amplitude out'n his larynx.

No matter though: i clumb today anyway, four hours of sleep notwithstanding. i hurt ...i dunno, something in my arm--something that has henceforth constricted the radial nerve inexplicably and ferociously. This mattereth not also. i flashed a v5. Granted, it was the v-threeishest v5 i've yet been on; but the tape said v5, so i'm taking it. Haven't gotten in to the irongym this week. Having a baby has put a crimp in my available time, it turns out. But i think taking a single week off won't be the end of things. Oo, and i have had an epiphany for to turn m' wee Klettermauer into a mo' betta' gym. If any of you would like to donate some gym rings as, say, a present for the baby shower, you'd be contributing mightily to his future skill set and general manliness.