Back

Yesterday i did some back work. Still keeping it fairly basic. Did deficit deads, good mornings, and weighted pullups.

Deficit Deads (all with 25# plates): 21 toe touches, 21 with the bar, 12 x 145 (SL), 8 x 245 (SL), 5 x 345 (not SL), 3 x 395 (These were hard), then 1 x 445 (strapped the Inzer on for this un). Very pleased to lock 445. That was my basic warmup for real lifting 4 or 5 months ago, but after limping through last week barely above paraplegia, i was a li'l nervous about hanging 445 off'n me spine. Surely am sore today, but not like last week.

Might just keep 'er simple and stick with deficits through the season. I know i lost a bit of strength in my back, but i can't say it's noticeably affected my climbing in any wise whatever. On the other hand, i can't say that having shed the mass and glycogen, etc, saw me divested of a net gram. So if i'm gunna stay the same basic weight whether i'm strong or weak, i'll take strong, thankyouverymuch. And something that remains a question mark is whether i'd have found it easier to shed some ballast with the sprinting, dieting, etc, if i'd'a' had the extra metabolism in my backstraps revved to the redline. Not sure. I am hanging around the 195 mark, which is about 5 lbs of loss from the beginning of the season.

Insgesamt

Ok... This time i'm really (seriously (fer totally reals)) calling it a season. And i can do so with a smile and a goal. Saturday i went climbing with a friend and we put some serious effort in on a Golf Wall .12a. Didn't clip the chains, but it felt very doable. Golf tends to be sandbagged, and they say of it it's the biggest holds you can't hold onto. And by "they" i mean absolutely everyone. You get on these heinously overhanging problems and eventually you find yourself saying This is so huge...it's all there...Why am i so friggin' pumped??!

At any rate, it was a fabulous way to stop climbing for a coupla weeks; and i'll come back into next season with a serious and (i think) very realistic goal. Three Roofs felt like the sort of problem that'd fit just very neatly after a solid month of hangboarding. I will (GOD allowing) get that one. Very psyched, and very impatient to start a new season.

Over the last few weeks i've squeezed in several sessions in the gym--some good and some very bad. That's all i'll say about that: Definitely time to take a couple o' weeks off climbing.

Saturday before last i finally got back in to the irongym. Did deficit deads... First time since maybe end of June. Only did a "warmup": think i worked up to 345 for 5. Then did some Good Mornings. And then i walked like a very old man for the following week. Did also get in some weighted pullup a coupla days later.

Really want to get some general strength back to start a new season. Gunna try to keep the full-body strength training up and better integrated this next go-round.