Rock Climbing Training

Season 01

Workout No. 003 ~~ JAN/10

Base Fitness Phase – Week 1

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There goes Wednesday, Hans.. After an absoloutely flat-out busy day at work, I went to the gym with my buddy @somebuttstuff, ate some perogies made by @caitycat, and now I've got a bit of time to sit down and think out loud at everyone. But... I still wasn't quite feeling it... I need something... more... I needed some spiritual guidance, courage, and creative inspiration.

Enter the quintessential hero. The one and only John McClane. It's time to watch some Die Hard... Specifically, Die Hard 2 - Die Harder. I would watch the Original (that's right, with a capital O) Die Hard, but since it was just Christmas, I OBVIOUSLY just watched it two weeks ago, and I haven't earned the privilege to watch it again yet. Which brings me to my point:

Like Die Hard, climbing glory must be EARNED.

With that, lets get right in to DAY 3. If you weren't paying attention yesterday, or I suppose if you're one of the many new people here, you might not know what I'm talking about, in which case, you should know better and you should be ashamed of yourself. Today was DAY 3 of the first season of our journey on the never ending pursuit of climbing excellence, which as per the training calendar below, was our 2nd ARC training day of the season.
Check out how the calendar for the rest of January looks!

January 2018 - Season 1

Click for fullscreen version

Damn.. I forgot to put checkmarks on the calendar above still.... I wouldn't be myself if I wasn't forgetting things and procrastinating, so it can wait for a while. So like I said above, today is ARC day 2!

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The Workout:

The Plan (The Good):

ARC Workout #2.

• Two sets of 25m uninterrupted climbing at easy grade on auto belay. 10 Minute break.
• Moderate bouldering for 30 minutes. (OPTIONAL)
  Skillwork: Finding Balance. Try climbing with only 2pts of contact when reaching.

Objective Review (The Bad):

Set #1 went down like:

• 8 laps on the first auto belay, climbing a mixture of of 5.9~5.10b with a little 5.11c thrown in to keep it exciting;
• 2 laps on the second auto belay (5.10a/b), because I noticed someone waiting to get on the first one after lap 8;
• Not rigidly following any routes -- kind of all over the place to keep it interesting, and to make it harder / dial it back a bit, to stay in that sweet spot in terms of arm pump.

Set #2 went down like:

• 6 laps on an auto beay, climbing a mixture of 5.9/5.10c. 20 minutes
• About 5 minutes of V2~V3 bouldering

Subjective Review (The Ugly)

Boy oh boy. The gym was pretty freakin' busy today when we rolled in. Not as busy as I've seen it, but almost a person on every rope. That being said though, there was a bit of wiggle room, and people were trying hard the whole time -- maybe it was the rain. Scared all the gym rats back in.

Set #1 went really really well. The time flew by, and I was riding a pretty solid pump the whole time. Again, there was a copious amount of sweat, but that's just kinda the way I roll. I sweat a lot, and people know this about me.
Super happy with how things went today.

Set #2 was less successful. Played around with some "left hand blue, right hand yellow", "left hand yellow, right hand blue" kinda stuff when I was on the auto belay, which was going well. But I felt bad hogging the auto belay after about 20 minutes so I jumped off and let someone else on that had been waiting for a lap or two, then took a couple of tries at some V2~V3 bouldering but I was pretty bagged by that point.

Generally, I'd say it went down smooth and I felt like I belonged on the cover of a magazine (not necessarily a climbing magazine, maybe Home and Garden?) the whole time. Flagging and back-stepping like a wild man and climbing strong. Hands felt strong, core was strong, breathing was steady. Keeping 'balance' in mind was interesting, and I feel like I got a pretty decent core workout out of it.

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This is the part where I'd like to try to share something with each post. Since today also happens to coincide with the last call for #colourfulphotography posts, I thought I'd share an image of the colourful climbing holds at the climbing gym I go to.

This is CragX in Victoria, BC.

This place is pretty great as far as climbing gyms go. There's no extra fluffy stuff. If I wanted an espresso or a DJ, I'd go to a cafe or a nightclub. Lots of space, and they have a good schedule for swapping out the routes to keep things fresh. The route setters have good style too -- climbing in the 5.11b+ range is usually super interesting.

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That's it for now -- I'll see you on Day 4!

Be well, stay safe, and I'll see you on the sharp side (once it dries out around here).

On the rocks!

Rock on!

Be advised -- I'm working on a picture for the saying above... and while on that note -- lots of people say "Climbing!" and reply with "Climb on!"... but I find that boring, so I say "On the rocks!" and "Rock onnnnn!".