Climble

Too cold to ride today, in my humble opinion. So i climbled. i says to Steph on the phone, "Don't worry...it'll be a short session. Just a bunch of v2s." But v2s are mostly very boring, and i did laps in the pool yesterday. So i worked all the moves out on a 6 (but i didn't send. Yet.) Did go get a new 4. Worked all the moves on another 4, but didn't link. Got a 3 or so, then did some 2s. One of 'em actually was really cool. Took me maybe six tries. Very neat sloper problem; very balancy. Then i put on the harness and got on the auto-belay. Got a few 5.9s, then got my butt handed to me on an 11 and a 10 i think. Hands were opening up on everything except the kind of stuff i could wedge my bones into and lever off of. i actually wore a hole in my thumb flesh. First time i've had to tape my thumb, methinks. Now i've officially had to tape every digit on my left hand within the last two months. Makes me feel like i've accomplished something.

And i brought my pig's feet home along with some suturing materials. i'm gonna teach Annie to sew. Then i'll feel like i've done something useful as a parent.

Saturday continuance

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Yesterday i got a call from a climbing bro who's moving to Maryland this week. So i climbed again. i only went to see him; veeeeery low expectations, climbing-wise. But we did an extensive warm-up. That was very in order. And it went surprisingly well. Toproped a 5.9, then downclimbed it, and jumped on a 10. Then did another 10, lowered, and sent an 11. Got 'em all with no falls (and, in fact, i downgraded all of 'em.) Then we bouldered for, like, 2 hrs solid. He was working a short v7+, and interestingly, i got it mostly worked out. i actually think it could go. i failed on a 5 that i felt like i should have flashed--pinchers did not show up for the ride after thrashing 'em to meatloaf the day before. i did flash a stiff new 3 though. i was ready to go home after that, but he wanted to go to the upstairs cave and show me a problem. i got obsessed with this roof problem that they'll probably call a 4 or 5. It involves tensioning yer whole body against a toe-hook on one edge of the roof, and a huge sloper on the opposite edge of the roof, maybe a five feet span. i got it by keeping the toe-hook on and heel-hooking beside my hands with my right foot--kinda an inverted front/back splits. Got some "holy craps!" from the spectators for that one, and i was mighty glad i'd stretched. Then i did it again to try a different sequence. Then he started wondering if it could be sent as a running jump start. So it turned into a pissing contest, and generally felt more like a skate park than the gym. That was some sick fun jumping off the vertical wall and hanging a five foot wide compression move. i definitely would not have thought that was possible if i'd been by myself. i left 'cuz i was starting to feel like i might need surgical intervention on my biceps. Raging -itis. i'm s'posed to do back today, but it ain't gonna happen. Gunna go do chest instead. That, i expect, will go exactly like it always does.

...And abs, as it turned out. There's some progress in just one week. i think if i worked chest more than once per month, i'd see maybe even bigger gains.