New leaves, corners, 180s, thumb screws, etc.

i climbed yesterday, and it encouraged my soul. It shewed me a few things: 1) Taking a month off from the iron wasn't necessarily the best idea, 2) taking a couple o' days off from climbing now and again is a fabulous idea, and 3) i haven't lost as much as i'd feared. Somehow i've managed to seriously damage a ring finger. Funny thing was it didn't hurt me till the day after we put that building up. Don't know what i did, but it hurts mucho to crimp now. i climbed ok last monday, but it went steeply downhill from there for the following two days. So i finally took a few days off completely from total failure. It was kinda depressing. Wasn't like i just felt down or non-prime; i was falling off of v1s and 2s. Anyhow, yesterday was mo' betta. i sent that 4 that'd tossed me many times first try. i guess that was the last of my list of projects, so it was kinda freeing. So i went in and re-sent a 5 i'd done before. Then i got another thing that's prob'ly 4ish. Then i finally got another "v3" on the 8th or so try. Definitely the hardest 3 i've ever seen. As in, i got frustrated and went in the cave and nearly flashed a v5 in between burns. So: good climbin' day.

Today (and kinda as a result of yesterday's revelations) i skipped my chubby butt to the iron. Wasn't sure where to start, so i maxed on pullups, and did sort of a hybrid all-around light workout just to remind my skeleton that something will again be demanded of it in the near future. i think i'm gunna do heavy p'lups in place of heavy deads, and do straight-leg deads also. There's no skin left on most of my fingers, and i have a wrecked tendon, but once i taped all my fingers to their requisite degrees of immobility, it worked out to be a reasonable workout. Main thing, i got 100lbs on pullups. Just don't know what i weigh these days. But i was pretty happy with that after having not done a serious weighted pull for most of a year now. Don't know whether to calculate the 5/3/1 thing off of 100# or off of (?) 300#. Guess i'll do 300#.

Then i did a 32min run. Been a few moons since last i ran. Need to make a habit of that.

Saddle, the swing, etc.

Thought I'd screeble about my feeble out-workings. Climbed yesterday. And I didn't drink heavily. I'm plumper than I've been in the recent past. But I still got a project. No grade on it yet, but it felt v5ish...in other words, it'll get very soft 6, or sandbagged 4. Anyhow it was a good climb even if it only scores a 4. Don't think I've lost too much power, but I've gotta get back on the wagon and back in a rhythm.

And speaking of saddles, you didn't get yours outta my car.

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Then:

Snuck a climble in this ev'nin'. Total waste of time. i've done something evil to my wi'l pinger. Looks like it's time for a detox and a change of plan. i'm exhausted. And feel like doo. Tired of this. Gotta start back to lifting 'fore i lose any real strength, and i gotta start running again. Prob'ly do my climbing more good for now than climbing. But: bleh. i hate not climbing.

Tagup

Tiny action report here. I climbed yesterday. Interesting all around. First of all, I think I climbed way harder at the comp than I thought. My hands were still destroyed yesterday. I looked at the score sheet and two guys from the 20-29 age group beat me. And they beat me by less than a climb. I mean, I scored something like 8,400pts on 6 climbs, and the top age-grouper beat me by about 150points. In other words if I'd gotten any of the stuff I was piddling on at the end I woulda had the top score before the advanced category. I beat all the femmes except 1st in the advanced. That was a li'l surprising. So I went in yesterday and got one of those projects first thing. It was worth 1500pts which woulda replaced my lowest score of about 750, and I'd have tagged nearly 10,000pts. But I can hardly complain.

And I think I've finally got a direction for my stoopid paper. I'm really hoping to have that basically done before friday. We'll see. Tiny bit worried.

I've otherwise only done unhealthy harmful things.

winning

So. i got 1st in the Fat Old Guy category. And i'm pretty happy 'bout that. Definitely not my best day of climbing ever, but it sho' weren't my worst. Amazing how bad adrenaline and nerves can suck a brutha dry. So here's how it went: as usual the problems were assigned points on an arbitrary scale, that (very) roughly corresponded to the route's grade. You could climb as many as you wanted, but you only got to add up yer top six scores. i was foraging in the 1,000 pt range (which i suspect would sorta correlate to the v3-6 range). So i was hoping to break 6,000 pts. Long story short, i ended up with nearly 8,500 pts. Thing was, if you got into the top 10%ish of scores, you were automatically bumped up the the Advanced category, and were competing with everyone else in that category. i was not bumped up. So i cleaned up in the 30-39 age groupers. i'm super curious to see how the point spread fell. Anyhow, i got a handsome solid steel trophy (thing weighs at least 10#) and a li'l ego boost for the trouble.

Now it's on to my thesis, and i could use some supplication on my behalf. First draft's due next monday, and i've got no time and a serious writer's block going on. i need to poop something convincing out pronto. Prayers please.

Yank'n's Eve

As per usual, i've trained for this year's comp by getting strong then "tapering" for the two weeks prior by sleeping not at all, deconditioning, and drinking nightly. Ah well: i've been pulling down right mightily, and it'll be fun no matter the outcome. And there's another teeshirt for me if i score no other shwag. And it don't start 'til 1330, so i'm hoping to sleep in a bit. Only regret is that i haven't lost a few pounds. i blame that on not sleeping. Mattereth not! Yea, hark: i'll have fun if i only manage to climb ten or twenty v2s. Should be some good energy flowing there. i'll post pics, even if i shan't manage to get fully muddy, and though there may be no keg tossing involved.

Infinitesimal

Just signed up for yank'n'yard. i'm doing it for the t-shirt. Although if i can heal fast enough, and can put healthy vittles in my skull (which i'm presently not doing), i might just throw down the Serious.

Against Sapientia, i clumb yesterday and the day before. Really not particularly effulgent sessions, but they had their highlights. i was climbing like basest shadoodoo on saturday. Then at the very end, i found some tryers and i started working this v6 that i really thought was absurd. Only i ended up working out all the moves. Just couldn't link. Too tired. So i went back yesterday very motivated, expressly to send that route. i didn't get it. i bounced off the finish at least three times. But i missed it by molecules. i mean, i truly do not know why i didn't send. Literally a matter of friction. Absolutely maddening. i did get a hole in my hand where i tore off a very nice callous. i'm hoping i re-epithelialize before saturday. But i know they're gun' tear that climb down in the next few days, and i know i missed it by thiiiis flippin' much. Staying away is like a meth head about-facing at the pipe. But i'd sure like to feel good for saturday.

On a happier note, i was warming up yesterday for climbing, and i was doing some pullups, and i was pulling up to the bottom of my rib cage and generally feeling fairly gorilla-like, so i let go halfway up a pull, and hung there in a solid one-arm lever for a good long while. Then i switched hands and dead hung in a lever on the other arm for a while. One-arm pullups are not that far away. And that's at 200lbs. And i spent the day in the cath lab today, and that's just good clean fun.

toozdy

Haven't worked out on iron since coming back, and i'm still wasted tired. Can't seem to catch up on sleep. But i did go to climb tonight. Got a hard v6 i've been gunning for. That was a serious shot in the arm. m' projects are all gunna be pulled down for the comp coming up, and i hadn't been making much progress. So it was nice to snag that one. And it was a cool climb too--cool movement.

Spent my first day in the cath lab today. Very cool watching caths under fluoro, and i got to scrub in for several of 'em. But it's amazingly tiring standing there for hours with 30lbs of lead on. And it's even more tiring being right in the middle of everything, and having absolutely no idea what to do. Anyhow, very cool learning experience.

And i got a v6. So not a bad day.