The Balance

Its tricky this climbing business. At present I am caught up in the idea of trying to get fitter. This means I have been doing lots and lots of circuits hundreads of moves, this is fun, I like being tired and feeling like I am putting the effort in. I am quite lucky to work in a climbing wall where my boss is not a cock, so if its empty I can climb. Then I have my four days off, this is where it gets tricky see. My ego wants me to rest so i will climb better when I go outside. Last week I really wanted to red point Stark, chatting to Doylo he recommended a rest day, then crushing would follow. I could see his point but thought wouldn't it be better if I could train and still crush. Cocky see. Anyway I wasn't sure to find anyone to hold the string, the weather was dubious, it may be seeping, blah blah so resting wasn't part of the plan. In the end I found Joe and he was keen, I halved my training day as a compromise. Arriving at Pigeons it was half dry if optimism is your thing, mostly damp if you like reality. Dogging up to get the draws in and check the holds reality set in the top section was shit and slimy and one hold was just plain unusable, I came up with another sequence so I could do it without that hold and set about the link. Five times up to the last throw but no joy, at best I had the boss in my hand but too low so I got a handfull of slime for my troubles. Leaving I was dissapointed, my over convidence had convinced me that basicly I would be able to overcome the adverse conditions by being stronger than I needed to be, in reality I wasn't. I might have been but not on the seventh day on a few thousand moves down. Hey ho, the pre Diamond goal wasn't going to be done, but at least I stuck to the plan.