Pull and Grass

Yesterday was this year's annual Yank 'n' Yard climbing comp at ye olde rockgym. That was good clean fun, that was. i didn't climb anywhere near capacity, cuz m' hands were tired when i went in the door, but i did get second place in my age category (31-36 y/o). Guess i was pretty happy about that. And i won an Access Fund t-shirt, and a "Women of Climbing" 2009 calendar (which has so far failed to make Steph as happy as it made me.) i'll be curious to see what some of the grades on those routes end up being, but i felt like i was climbing a lot of v2. i might be surprised, but nothing i got felt much harder than that.

Well, i hope you guys are still in one piece, and you had a good weekend of it. Happy bachelorism, and i'm sorry i missed the party, B. Hopefully i'll get up there with you guys one of these times. Peace out.

...a mind to rhyme and two hyped feet...

Yeah baby! Daddy's like some kind of rabbit's foot or something for me. Snagged two v4s yesterday. That one i sprayed about last week i went up to and yanked first try. Got a bunch of other stuff, and then settled into working another 4. Ended up not getting it before i ran outta time, but i linked through all the moves. Just couldn't hang on long enough to put it all together. Then Mama and Daddy showed up, and i sneakily took him back to the gym with me on an "errand run." He jumped on it and sent with the yoga-gorilla beta, but i didn't have that kind of game. Finally got it old school cuss-at-it-till-it-falls style.

It's amazing how much the rig work takes out of my arms. It's different muscles than i typically use for climbing, but it makes for some weird failures. i get two weeks off of using my crimpers, so i've gotten strong as hell on crimps, but the huge "easy" buckets and pinches i find myself totally juiced on. i have ongoing tendonitis from my shoulders to my palms.

Funny note: last thurs. was the filthiest day of my life so far. i swam for eight hours or so in drilling mud. we were tripping joints out of the hole, and every time we'd break a connection mud would spew out all over the place. i had the luxurious job of holding a piece of plastic over the connection when this happened. The other guys had on rain gear, but i had no warning. i was so covered in mud, i'd stop between connections and slick the crap off of me. we're talking every orifice on my body was crammed. There've been some times when confronted by public toilets that i've layed down some prophylactic toily paper to save me from Hep-C, but this was the first time i've ever felt compelled to put the paper on the seat to protect it from my ass.

On a brighter note...

The fam and i, along with the bro-in-law et familia, went to Las Conchas on sat. we got there a bit late ('cuz one of the dogs kept puking in the back of their car every 15 mins.), but we got some climbing in. Annie got that 5.6 we started out on. Just before we left, i insisted on doing that 10d/11a just to the right of that route. It was so cold i couldn't feel my hands, but i got the route with a couple of hangs. would'a got it onsight, 'cept for the cold i think. It definitely isn't 11a. i'd guess it's a bit closer to 10b/c. Still a nice feeling that i go fairly hard on real rock. After floundering like a fish on that 9 with you guys, i wasn't sure. The day before that, i went in to the gym. Couldn't even start that v5 i've been wanting. The first move is reeeeal shouldery, and my week on the rig pretty much decommissioned my left shoulder for a bit. But i did send a nice handful of v3s, a long string of 2s, and i nearly second-tried a v4, but i ran outta gas for the final throw. The one seriously joyous facet of rigwork is that i came home an easy 5 lbs. lighter than when i left. i just live on high-cal breakfasts, turkey sandwiches, and granola bars. Gotta be burning 3,000 cals/day, and i'm eating around 1,800. Skoal, it turns out, is low in saturated fat. If i can just hold my decrepit body together, i might come out of this a better climber. Solanjy var.

Plumb beat the hell out of

Just got home yesterday evening. Worked eight 12 hour shifts in a row. Nothing in me works the way it's supposed to. i managed to fall in the cellar of the well twice (once from a ladder), and i ended up cutting off a chunk of my own ear with scissors.* If i leave my arms in one position for more than a couple of minutes they'll both go to sleep. And two days later i still can't fully close my hands. 96 hours of good, clean fun, that. The upshot is that, well, it's over. But i think it won't take me long to be running my own rig. Turns out ain't nobody on these things what've been there more than a year or two. i've been told i'm grossing a bit over 70K as a swab, but drillers edge the 6 figure mark. i think you should both come work with me, and we can take over a rig. It's long hours, but you get 6 months off per year. Not too bad if you don't mind working your ass clean off and collapsing at the end of the day. i don't think i'll be hurting this bad once i get used to the work, and a week off every other week is some extra fine road-tripping time. And seeing's you likey the strongman schmidt, G, you'd get to spoon with 1,000lb. chunks of steel on a more frequent basis than you ever have before. Whaddaya say?

*I'd appreciate it if you don't mention any of that to your coworkers, g.

Perfectly gravid

Didn't get m' wee v5 today. On the other hand, i did get all the moves and linked through the crux. She'll fall if i can get back in with 90% or better in the tank. It's very pumpy, you see. Wed. i thought i'd overdone it on my right bicep. Wasn't sure, but there was a funny twinge. Today there was no doubt. There was an innervated piano wire running down me arm preventing the lock-off i really needed to do. At any rate, assuming i ever get back to the climbgym, i'm pretty sure it'll come down.

i start in Springtown on mon. Bought me some steel toes today. Steph's last day at work was today. i guess i'm ready to just get on with it. i think we're gonna leave tomorrow (i.e. sat.) to head that way. Pray for us, eh.

Muy Thai

There's a funny myth in professional medical circles that food takes at least 12-24 hrs. to be processed and passed through one's digestive tract fully. i can't, in all honesty, speak for the remaining constituents of last night's green curry, but i can say with authority that Thai chiles have the preturnatural ability to bypass most intestinal decomposition like Teflon, and can move faster downward therein than the same chile would move under the mere influence of gravity, were you to, say, pick it up and drop it on the floor. In fact, i have vivid memories of such chiles threatening to exit my colon before i'd managed to put 'em in my mouth (quite in defiance--one's intuition is apt to assert-- of several important physical laws.) Let me be the first to posit the nexus of cosmological physics and culinary art: The Thai Chile Wormhole. Just remember that you heard it here first, folks.

Even More Entertaining...

With no power to stop it from happening, i was drawn back to the climbgym yesterday. i taped my ring finger, then i taped that to my pinkie, such that it was practically splinted. i warmed up thoroughly on ye olde hangboard on two-finger pockets. i did some routes. Finally jumped on a v3 i'd done at the comp (turns out much to my delight that i snagged a little handful of 3s in the comp), but i needed my crimper. i detaped, but it hurt a lot to put the crank down on the ring finger. So i figured out how to crimp with two fingers, and i sent. Then the guy i was working with and i went to the route i hurt myself on (as misery loveth company and i wanted him to hurt himself too.) He couldn't get it all linked up before he had to go, but we were fiddling with sequences and he says, "Hey, isn't that hold over there on? That's green tape." And i stare at this foothold in disbelief and loathing. i says that i bet that stupid foot would make the whole thing go static. So i jump on the damn thing, drop a knee on that hold, and reach up calm-like and snag the finish. If i'd just seen that stupid lump of plastic i wouldn't'a nearly popped a tendon.

Sigh

But i am thankful to God that the damage doesn't seem to be anywhere nearly as bad as i thought it was going to be. By the end of the work session i was working a new 3 and yarding on a three-finger closed crimp, and it wasn't bugging me much at all. i still have to baby it a li'l, but i really thought i wasn't gonna be able to even bend it for a month.

i did your green taped problem in the corner straight across from the boulder. (i think it was the first one you guys did.) It's a v1, but Don and i independently agreed that it was about as hard as v1 gets. It's a little thin and crimpy for v1. i was very impressed. That was a cool problem, and v1 doesn't usually have cool moves on. Then i went and looked at the results for the comp. i'm guessing you didn't turn yer paper in, G, but Bryant was on there and decisively clinched 27th place out of 27 males, with 25 points racked up. Heh heh... Yeah, there were some 7 y.o. girls that beat you, bra. ('Course, there were some 7 y.o. girls that beat me, but who's keeping score here anyway?)

For your entertainment

On fri., after a morning of bi/tri GVT, i thought about climbing all the way home. So instead of going straight home, i went to the climbing gym to send my proj. Warmed up with a stiff v2 onsight, shook out, and jumped on the route (it's the one from the comp that involved the big throw up to the bucket). Got up to the penultimate hold, threw for the final jug, which is a 3-finger suitcase handle kindof a thing, and didn't get my fingers in right. Instead, i hit the edge of the hold in a three-finger, half-pad crimp. But i was determined to stay on, and before i dropped i managed to nearly rip the tendons in my right ring finger off the bone. i found that a bit too confusing to be real, so i assessed the damage, jumped back on the route, and sent. Anyhow, i won't be climbing for probably a month or two all 'cuz i didn't take the time to warm up correctly.

Did get an hour and a half in on the bike yesterday, and'm hoping to get in a 50 min. run today. S'posed to swim to today, but the pool's closed down cuz someone pooped in it.

Degloved

Woooo-whee! i needs me some sleep. i do wish i'd ha' thought to bring m' camera to Las Conchas. That rocked, and i'm in favor of doing it again before we're old and grey. my hands are still sore, and i could use maybe 24 hrs. of continuous sleep to feel 90% again, but that was fun. Hope you'uns got home safe. God bless.

Intervals

Yesterday i got m' first session of bike intervals in. Not really intervals like i'm used to 'em. Did an hour long ride, with 6 x 20sec. max effort pushes in the highest gear possible with 2 mins. rest between. The 20 secs. felt really short, but i could hardly walk afterward. It was like weight lifting with the bike. Very cool. i feel faster now.

Momentum

Today was pretty good. Got two v4s back to back. i think that'll be m' last day of climbing till yous guys get here. So make sure you get here, eh. Aeon and Katja were with me. Katja thought i was pretty cool, but Aeon wanted chicken nuggets. Ah well... can't please 'em all.
Plan is to taper off the climbing and heavy drinking till fri. i'm historically bad at staying on both of those wagons. we'll see.

Weaken'd

As predicted, it's been a thin weekend on the workout front. Did get an hour in on the bike on thurs. Good ride. i can tell i'm getting a li'l more fit, cuz it just doesn't hurt so bad to push it. And the ol' trans-ischial ligaments don't scream so loudly or so soon. Yesterday i spent an inordinate chunk of the day applying for a job with p ason in Canadian, Tx. i did this because the permian basin recruiter wrote me. However, they also have an opening in Rifle, Co, which i plan to apply for today. While i have some apprehensions about moving to Teenylonelyflat, Tx instead of finishing school and becoming a PT, i have no such apprehensions about moving to Rifle for just any reason whatsoever. i think i could move to Rifle and be happy driving a school bus. But Canadian wouldn't be too bad, i think. There's a river there (as i understand it), and there're some rocks over the border in Oklahoma. According to daddy, "It's kinda' pretty," and it'd put us a bit closer to them and you texans. And it'd probably pay twice what we're making now. Anyhow, we could use prayers for some direction here. i guess i'm to a point that i don't care much what we do; i just wanna get on with it.

The power of sleep

Yesterday i put down my best numbers day of climbing so far. Snagged a new v4 and two more 3s. (It's a rare goal to get two v3s in one session, so to stack a 4 on top of it is some nice thick icing.) It is very motivating to know i can have a really good day, and especially the third day of climbing this week. It'd been so long since i'd actually gotten anything, i was resigning myself to just being over the hill. This next week i'm gonna taper and stick to easy stuff early in the week-- maybe do some routes and get some blood flowing if i can find a partner to rope up with. Then just rest and cardio... see if i can cut a li'l fat before fri.

Yesterday my new video Swim Power came in. i expect by next week that i should look and swim like Phelps (except my ears are sexier.) Hopefully there'll be something in there about how to make yer hands and feet larger. Mum and Da' are coming up today for the weekend, so have no hope of getting much working out done 'til Mon., but i do usually get to sleep in a bit when they're here, and that's priceless. Slainte.

Correction

Today i did nothing whatever. i didn't precisely intend to do nothing, only it ended that way. i'm certain it ended that way because i'm presently imbibing an Old Chub (the only good beer in a can, b.t.w.), and that's a pretty sure sign that the Fat Lady's sung for the evening. But it doesn't matter. i'm so knocked-down tired from stress and climbing and triathlon that my old sinews are perfectly effulging for the Old Chub and Nothing More. Climbed on mon. and yesterday (tuesday). Didn't get anything worth sleeping well over, but i put a dent in some hard problems-- stuff i was sure last week'd be over my head. Either tomorrow or mon. i'm pretty sure i'll latch the finish on a 4 that i couldn't properly do the first move on last week. Then i almost snagged another stiff 4, but i was too tired to link it when i worked out the crux. At least i feel like i'm getting a li'l stronger. If i can just hold on to the motivation to keep on losing weight whilst getting stronger... Had m' first day of Pre-Cal and Chem II yesterday. Good clean fun, that is. i just wish i knew i was gonna be around for the entire semester. This not knowing is cracking my psyche. Sorry 'bout cussing in my last post: it just felt somehow better than punching a hole through the wall that i'd just have to fix later. Anyhow, i'm amped that you guys are still planning on coming down. i look really forward to seeing yous. i'm gonna try to climb tomorrow, but next week's gonna be a taper with lots of blubber-burning, just in case you wanna do the comp. The weather's getting perfect for some outdoors rock though, and i have some very nice beer recommendations... Peace.

Vegetative State

Monday's an off day for the tri work, but i clumb at the gym anyhow. Haven't been pulling down any big numbers lately, but i do feel like i've been climbing pretty well. The bathroom scale says i'm down in the 190-192 range, but i think it weighs in kilotons, converts, and wildly guesses to the sixth or so decimal place. Tues. i swam my first set of intervals in years. Did 5 x 100s fairly hard, with 5 sec. rests between sets. Weird how fast that 5 secs. goes by. Then i did kick sets (where you hang on a float and just kick across the pool) and that was worse than the swimming. Need some work on that. Yesterday i climbed again, although again nothing impressive went down. Then i ran fartleks last night, which are like hard intervals, but less structured. Within a 35min. run, took off for thirty sec. hard sprints with whatever rest interval i felt like for 6 intervals. That was surprisingly fun. Didn't know how my fat self would handle the full-bore acid bath, but i consistently overran the 30 secs., and felt pretty good at the end.

i bought a notebook to write my workouts in, so's not to bore you guys with it, but Steph found it, so it disappeared into the aether. Unlucky you.

On a more personal note, it looks like i'm gonna hafta drop school to get a job so Steph can stay home with the kids. That means we'll probably be moving. Not many jobs 'round here that'll replace her income with no related education. Looks like i'll be working on an oil rig, or the like. i'm supposed to start school on tues, and i'm kinda looking forward to it, so i'm having a li'l trouble wrapping my head around the thought of dropping out when i'm this close to grad school, but them's the breaks. It's more important that she keeps her sanity, as there's no real risk to mine: i lost it a long time ago. Anyhow, if you hear of any good-paying jobs about you, i'd appreciate the referral.

The Revolution will not be televised

First, the weekend bundle: did an hour on the Dowel Rod of Torture on Fri. Didn't manage to get chest in (again.) Fri. night/Sat. morning we statyed up till 0300 playing Taboo. As a result, i did nothing whatever on Sat. In fact, i had to keep reminding myself to continue breathing. i was supposed to do another 1.5hrs. on the DRoT, but my swollen urethra won that one.

Yesterday (Sun.) however, i eked a good day out. A friend and i went bouldering in the foothills sorta early, and pulled down some spooky highballs up to probably hard v2. we wondered into this boulder field where there was just an ocean of boulders, and it didn't look like anything had been done. we found some really obvious, cool problems, and there was no chalk. There's a really popular bouldering area over the next ridge, but this place has easy access, good landings, just as good rock (read: it all hurts and requires a lot of tape), and no traffic (excepting the hot chicks out running trails that stop to watch you climb...who do not matter...only rapt focus on the route.)

Then i got in a 1600m swim, including my first 1000m continuous since the last time i trained to race maybe 2 years ago. Then i got in a li'l over 50mins. of "moderate aerobic intensity" running. The tricky part there was keeping my heart rate down. After the swim, and probably largely due to the heat, it was real hard to keep the ol' ticker in the low 150s.

Oh, and then last night we went to pick up Annie from a friend's house, and her dad says, Oh, bro... I got you a beer." He hands me a keg-in-a-can of Foster's. i'm all, "Well, i don't think i've ever had a Foster's before," and he says, "Well, you're in for a treat then."

Review: i made it to the bottom of the can, but it was a long, hard swim. And he's got me playing Grand Theft Auto at the same time (which i'd never played before), and Annie is like, "Daddy, why did you just run three stop lights?" And i'm all, "i'm sorry, hon, but i don't know how to drive this thing." Or she's, "Daddy, why did you punch that lady?" or, "Daddy, is that your car?" (then she fades out into introspective silence and sucks her thumb.) It didn't take too long to discover that it isn't really a children's game, nor why it leads semi-autistic inner-city junior high kids to kill each other over. Probably won't be purchasing a pack of Foster's or "GTA: Vice City" any time soon.

Knockin' the rust off

Climbed yesterday. Not much to talk about there. i think i just wanted to see what'd happen if i laid down three hard days in a row. Maybe i'll be stronger next week because of it.

Today i cracked open m' shiny new triathlon program, and there's to be no beating 'round the bush with it. Hadn't been on my bike in nearly a year, but i did an hour brick. 45 mins. of pink lining on the bike, and just over 15 mins. red lining on the run, with about 3 1/2 mins. transition time. Held onto an average of mid-160s h.r. for the duration. That made me 'member where i comes from. (And it kicked m' puffy white arse.) i have a feeling the squat workout tomorrow is going to be negatively affected.

i was reminded forcibly why i historically have had trouble hanging onto the gym workouts and the tri workouts at the same time: it sucks the very life out of my bones, and leaves me with the strong motivation to find carbs-- any carbs-- protein, and beer (which contains carbs.)

And exactly 4 seconds into the ride, my urethra was making promises it couldn't possibly keep if i would just please, please remove it from that saddle. i do believe i'm gonna save up and invest in a nice saddle before i do 3 hrs. on the Dowel Rod of Torture. (The one i'm on is 10 years old and was Steph's, so imagine where the gel might optimally be placed, and that's precisely where it isn't.)

[Late Night Addendum]

There: i made it into the gym. It'd been about three weeks since i've had the chance/energy to lift, but after two hours of having the "Guilt Trip 'Cuz You've The Wrong Hormonal Profile" card played on me-- Lo and behold, i found the friggin' energy. Did back with heavy rows for a focus. Definitely not at 100%, but i have plenty of stuff to blame it on, so i don't feel too bad about it. Just felt good to move. i think it was Bodybuilder Night at the gym tonight: All these not-particularly-large people milling about spontaneously flexing in mirrors, and occasionally stopping to play with their own nipples. This one skinny bastard had all the 45s in the gym on the leg press machine so's he could do a couple of half reps. i'm pretty sure he got more gigantic and sexy from lugging all that pigiron to the machine and back... anyhow, i'll give 'im the Motivated Serious Guy Award: i'm absolutely confident i wouldn't do that much work for so few cool points. (Seriously, i was in the Bubble, and i was setting up a bar for some high rows and it slowly dawns that there're no plates. So i'm like, "Huh... whay da hell all da fo'ty fives go?" And i look around and notice this jackass, and i nearly guffawed. It was like seeing Jack from The Nightmare Before Christmas poised under enough weight to tether a 747 to the ground.) Mostly i stared at the ground a lot and assiduously avoided eye contact with anyone, but i thought of you, G, that you'd probably have had a good time of it.

Full Salad Bowl

Um. Ran a smidge over an hour on sun. That was nice. Climbed mon. Got a new v3 3rd try. Didn't have the chiddlers today, so i climbed again. Nearly flashed a "v3/4". Got it second try... well, third. i worked through the crux 2nd go, but i hadn't started on the start holds. Almost got two more threes. Now i have something like bilateral biceps tendonitis. So i will now go running. Tomorrow i'm supposed to climb again.

Oo, and i purchased Triathlete Magazine's Essential Week-By-Week Training Guide. i'm'a try to get back in shape for some racing. Hopefully, i will inadvertantly also drop 20lbs. and will find me accidentally flashing v6/7 by next summer. Piece owt.

Letzte Woche

ich machte fast nichts (activ, ich meine) in dieser letzte Woche. Actually, i climbed three times. Mon. and wed. i took Aeon and Katja with me. Fri. the parents in law kept the kiddos so we could get some talk time in, and i had a chance to sneak off and climb before Steph got off work. Can't say there were any inspired sessions in there, but it didn't go too badly. They put some new routes up, and i made some progress on a few of 'em. i guess i've been down in the doldrums lately with respect to the workouts: hard bouldering for every session works really well for little people who weigh 140lbs. It doesn't work so well for us clydesdales because the tendon damage is so much more extensive. Anyhow, inspired by Bryant, i hung 25lbs. on a chain belt and did some finger board work on slopers on wed. i didn't get in to the iron gym at all this week, and i didn't swim or run. No time at all. i've been exhausted with getting Annie ready for school. The irony is that i'm at the point where i'm pretty sure the most important thing i could do to move to the next level is whatever it takes to drop weight. i'm becoming inspired by Michael Phelps: if i can get to the point where i'm burning 18,000 calories a day, i'm pretty sure i could drop some weight.

Oh, and i found the Lewis tartan. Maybe we can just start our own clan. Wanna compete for Clan Leodhais, B? Damn, i wanna throw something heavy. And i wanna throw it in a kilt. And i wanna do so with no women around me, but with a dark malt lurking weightily within convenient access. Slainte!

Rundown

Perfectly miserable day of chest on thurs. Shoulders hurt, and i was really too tired to be there. Squats went ok, but i'm really glad i cut it short. m' butt still hurts. Swum sat. Put in 2000 m. there, including 2 x 500s. Not the best swimming ever, but i'm glad i got it in. Today i ran for the first time since Katja was born. There have been times in my strange running career when i felt like i could just keep on going forever, so long as i had enough food and water to fuel the machine. Today was not one of those times. The pain started in my knees, moved upward through my arse, and finally decided to settle down in the quads to punish me for the squat workout. Took me over 45 mins. to do a 30 min. run. Anyhow, it felt good to be out there.

Steph started back to work this next week, and Annie starts school (1st grade!) tomorrow. i have to have her there at 0800. The prognosis for continued workouts are grim, but i'm gonna shore's heck try to find a way (i.e., a regular babysitter).