Monday 30 January 2012

Hope springs eternal

At last a decent weather forecast that coincides with my days off.  Its been a while all December and most of January in fact.  The return from training sessions to good days was about 2% and that has been pissing me off.   I have one project that was within 3-5 mm of being done at the end of November which has been wet ever since.  Another that is proving too hard in an annoying way, (flexibility not power) and the desire to climb Malc's Start has been coming on strong again in recent months.  For the last few weeks not a lot has been happening, had a trip to Stanage with James the highlight was doing Deliverance again, what a stunning problem that is.  He got all excited about Big Air as it was fully padded out, unfortunately he didn't commit to the last move instead jumping off a couple of times.  Round this way as i said I have been on Malc's a couple of times and think its getting ready to go, a bit less mincing and a bit more focus now.  The wall climbing is slowing down to try and take advantage of whatever good days come along and hopefully I have done enough to make a difference.  


You know you read various bits and pieces about these wads training routines, it struck me that virtually the only thing they all had in common was they do pull ups lots and lots of pull ups, being a great one for over simplification and given the fact that I probably haven't done 1000 pull ups in total in the last 10 years, I decided that it couldn't be that hard.  Error it is, about 2 hours and 500 in I gave up, which brings me to an interesting point, that being I GAVE UP, now I made up reasons like...


  • I don't want to hurt myself 
  • It might be sunny tomorrow 
  • My skin hurts
  • Better to break in gently


But the fact is I GAVE UP.  Word has reached me from on high that it is piss and I am right, I am being a wimp.



I guess weakness like strength is 70% in the mind.  Must try harder,  I am sure when Caff was coming into the Mill and campusing and doing pull ups after a session at LPT this summer his skin was shit, but his eyes were firmly where they should be on the prize.  So 6 days of no wine now, 1.5 kg down, eyes on the prize...

Monday 9 January 2012

New Year New Psyche Old Problems

Its been a while, mainly due to the fact that its been wet so nothing interesting is happening.  Mainly I have been climbing in the Indy and the Mill, occasionally between the showers I have headed down to Jerrys roof, and a couple of trips up to the top of the Little Orme. 


At Jerrys I finally managed to stop falling off the end of Wurzel Gunnage and compleated the second asscent.  Gradewise I think soft 8a+, very similar to Mr Fantastic, however it seems that Mr F is probably going to be downgraded to 8a, so once again I am wrong/disagree. 













 The little orme spanked me on Weirdo and the broken Grass Moustashe, it was a little frustrating as I was really close to the Moustache this time last year, utilising a high foothold. This year I failed to even get the foot on and pull in, which made the move to the sloper too wild to hold. Should have tried more last year I guess, only thing I can think is I was doing about an hour of Yoga a day, cos I had quit smoking and stopped sleeping, guess this helped.












A couple of days ago a big team headed down to Porth Ysgo with a basket load of psyche to get on dry rock. Given the fact the day before I had driven down with Chris only to end up not popping out the grey into dry nice weather as so often happens but starting to walk down as raqin fell harder and harder so we just did one and went back to the Mill. Anyway I tried the little slopey prow on the far right of the beach, and it haad magically gone from no foothold to a big shelf, this made the previously nails slap far more ameanable and more 7 than 8 which was a nice suprise.
    Picture Si Panton http://www.northwalesbouldering.com/





Like I said though mainly it been the mill.  I am about 5-6kg heavier than when we got back from Austria, I feel like my bodys adapting to this now and the only real diffrence is in catching holds, I can lock deeper, train more (13 days on and still feeling fine) jump futher and my feet dont come off as easily.  So at present I am attacking my fingers with a vengence, using the weight vest on the 30 board and starting a bit on the campus board.  If I can just trick them into getting some contact strength I can stay heavy if not I will have to start cutting down the vino and eating less which always sucks.