Of meat and leading

So I came to a realization today: eating meat and lead climbing are actually quite similar experiences. As I put it to a friend: suddenly there's a wealth of choices that weren't there before, and at least once between starting and finishing a meal/climb, I have a surreal moment of "oh shit, I can't believe I'm doing this."

Today was my first full day of climbing since getting my lead card, and Tor and I were back on home turf at Ironworks. After the spectacular failure of the 10B last week, and keeping in mind that this is supposed to be recovery week, I resolved to keep the numbers fairly low.

L10a(o), L10a/b(o), L10a(2f), L10b(o), 10b(o)

The first two climbs were quite straightforward, and I tackled them with deliberate movements that belied my inner "oh lordy." The third 10a, however, was the long, LONG and extremely overhung 10a in the cave. It's just ridiculous calling this climb a 10a. Yes, there are nothing but big buckets the whole way, but it's also entirely upside-down and insanely pumpy. I had to take two rests, and when I finally came down, I landed 20 feet behind where I started. After that, the shorter 10b's seemed both easier (since they were short) and harder (because my arms were pumped). The last 10b was toprope, and the entire time I had this sense that A) it was SO easy! and B) I was forgetting something important.

Tonight's WOD was simple 5x5 shoulder presses. At my strongest with these I managed 95#, and I did not do that tonight:

95x3 - 95x2 - 90x4 - 90x5

It was partially weakness from being sick, I think, but mostly just being out of practice with the movement (and, likely, not quite as strong). I didn't really go at it 100%, anyway, since it's half-volume week.

Oh, and we did bottom-to-bottom tabata squats, which was (I think) the first time I've done this. I played conservatively and scored 10. I think I could have done 12, but it would have been much, much more painful.