Juggling Sea Urchins (or, I suck at recovery week)

I should really post about yesterday's workout, though it's kind of embarrassing. I found I had a couple hours to spare before having to go back to the theatre for opening night, so I took BART over to GWPC and rented some shoes for some (cue dangerous music)...bouldering.

You see, I don't boulder much. Like, at all. It makes me very, very nervous. Not the climbing, really - I do that all the time. It's the falling onto the GROUND that I dislike. You see, when you fall on toprope or on lead, you don't hit the ground (at least you shouldn't, if you're doing it right). The rope catches you. So, if you have chronic patellar dislocation issues, you don't need to worry so much about your knees blowing out if you should happen to land at a bad angle. Even though bouldering doesn't go very high and the ground is very padded, it still freaks the shit out of me. The upshot of this is that I suck at it. Max, who showed up early for his own workout and so had a little time of his own, joined me and basically held my (figurative) hand up some V1's and even a V1+. I discovered that I really like working the hard cave problems because they're low to the ground, so there's nowhere to fall. This is great, except these kind of problems are very strength-intensive and hard on the hands, so I was pretty pumped and handsore after a couple hours of it. But at the end of the day I'd done 3-4 V0's (basically all of them), and had either tried or completed or pieced together all the V1's. If fear were not an issue, I might be a V2 or V3 climber, but it is, so here's yet another thing I need to do more to get over my mental blocks about it.

Then I did my "strength" workout, which was just silly, and it felt even MORE silly because GWPC only has one cage, and it's in the CrossFit area, and class was going on. So there I was, with the whole gang busting their butts on some clean-and-press variations, but I WASN'T doing that. I was diligently putting up a 95 pound squat. Rawr!

Back Squat x 5: 65-85-95
Back Squat x 21: 65
Bench Press x 5: 65-75-80
Bench Press x 21: 65



This morning I met Tor at Ironworks for some climbing, and my hands were already feeling quite beat up. So I thought I'd try and take it easy. Yeah...that rarely works out, for some reason.

10a(o), L10a/b(o), L10b(DNF), 11a/b(F+), 10b(F)

First 10a felt kind of burly. I switched to leading, which may not have been a good idea. I had a bad case of the freakouts on the bottom of the first climb - about 10' off the ground, just before the first clip, the move called for a traverse on an undercling leading to a fairly small throw up over an overhang. I'd done the climb before, on toprope, without any trouble. But for some reason (probably the bouldering), I lost it a little. My grip felt sketchy, and I started thinking about what would happen if I fell (basically, I'd just fall on Tor, spotting me below). This led to jitters, which led to me downclimbing and coming off the wall to gather my shit. After calming my nerves, I did it again without any trouble (I just skipped the fucking undercling). Then came the horrible 10b. Easy up to the first clip, the next section was so negative as to basically be a long roof. The move was a big jug on the right hand, a two-finger undercling on the left, and a HUGE throw with the right up to a solid jug over the roof, during which time you're keeping yourself on the wall with that two-finger undercling. It's a bitch of a move. On toprope, I'd just go for it and either fall or not, but on lead I felt the need to be more conservative, which basically just wound up burning gas as I tried and backed off twice. I finally just went for it on the third try, and did manage to catch the hold...and then failed to CLIP THE FUCKING ROPE because my left hand was trembling and completely messed up from the strain of the undercling. I swear, I hung there and tried to clip that thing five, six, seven times, all the while my right hand is slowly slipping and I'm 3' above and 2' behind the last draw (ie, falling will pendulum me right into the wall). I didn't make it. Tor took up as much slack as he could and I got my hips as low as possible before letting go, and it was awkward and I did slam into the wall a little and got a little nasty rope burn on the back of my calf somehow. Ugly, but not disastrous.

After that I moved to back wall where I toproped an 11a/b slab, one move at a time with a healthy number of falls on practically every move, but at least it wasn't overhang. The last 10b WAS overhung, though, and I was out of gas. I had to take a rest shortly before the end.

Afterwards, my hands felt tingly and painful - opening car doors was wince-inducing. I definitely need to build up some more endurance on my climbing volume.

Tonight's WOD at CrossFit was a good one. New bumpers and bars at GWPC means we can finally do overhead work, so Max whipped this one up:

AMRAP* in 20 minutes:

15 Overhead Squats 95#/65#
Max Rep Pull-Ups

2 rounds, 29 pullups, OHS at 65#

Not much to say about this one. Feeling beat up from all the climbing and, I guess, the ardurous recovery week I'm going through, I approached this with something less than fire in the belly. I did manage 15 consecutive OHS in the second round, though, which I'm proud of. It hurts my wrists like nobody's business - I take a very wide grip due to shoulder flexibility issues. If I can squat with my torso more upright, I wouldn't need such a wide grip, which would be nice. Something (yet another thing) to work towards.

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.

Carded

I finally got my lead card!

This is cause for great celebration and personal satisfaction. No longer will routes mock me with their empty toprope pulleys and "lead only" warnings. Now I can finally play in the cave! Where things are REALLY hard! It is my passport to climbing adulthood, like a driver's license for the wall.

I took the test at the Power Company with Tor. They were setting in the cave, so at first the guy behind the counter, Mike, wasn't going to test me - but he relented when I asked if he couldn't pick a route somewhere else. He chose a stemmy 10b that I think I've done before, and truth be told it was very easy - plenty of opportunities to rest, easy clipping stances, etc. The end was a bit scary: after I clipped the last draw and kept climbing I was trying very hard not to think to myself, "every foot I climb I'm going to have to fall past in a second." I made it to the top, took a quick breath and just let go - less thinking the better. My heart was pounding, but Tor caught me (of course) without any trouble. The belaying portion went very smoothly, though (keeping in mind the notes from last week) I intentionally kept more slack in the system, so when Tor fell he generated a good amount of momentum and pulled me up about 3 feet.

Mike passed me, and confessed that he had been hoping to be able to fail me, but couldn't find anything wrong with what I'd done. Apparently his pass ratio has gotten too high, which reflects badly on him as a tester, so he's looking to get a bit more strict. But not me!

ML10a(o), L10b(c), L10b(dnf), 10d(f+)

So, after my triumphant ascent of the stemmy 10b, I chose as my first real lead climb the 10b across the way, with a tricky-looking roof about halfway up. Clearly, I am not yet fully proficient in analyzing climbs from the ground. What looked "tricky" on the floor turned out to be "really fucking pumpy" on the wall, and leading is a different animal. It was about 10' off the ground that I came to the realization that I was really actually leading this climb, and there was no safety rope, and no instructor, and if I fell, it would not be a comfy toprope fall. This rattled me somewhat. I failed spectacularly getting over the roof, and took a small dive into thin air. Untying at the bottom, Mike came over and graciously informed me: "that's the worst 10 lead in this gym. It's a bitch." I thanked him for not testing me on it.

I decided to call it quits for leading after that, and toproped a very crimpy 10d on GWPC's "slab" wall with two falls.

The evening was simply deadlifts, which I'm always happy to do:

Deadlift 30-5-5-5-5-5

135-205-225-245-255-265...275 x 1-295 x 1-300 x 1 (PR!)

I was lifting with Gita and new guy Aaron, and we were having fun so we opted to keep going with singles when we were done with the 5's. 300 pounds is a PR by 15 pounds for me, though it's been a long time since I've tested my 1RM deadlift. I felt like I could have done a little more, but my form was starting to fall apart, particularly on the first third, and I didn't see any reason to push it. In general I feel quite solid with my deadlift form these days. I wish my squats were anywhere near as good.

Happy Birthday to Evelyn

Morning:
The gym is always deserted on Friday mornings, so this morning I decided "what the hell" and took the lead test. Despite the fact that it was at Ironworks, which is notoriously difficult.

I failed. I fell off the climb.

I don't feel too bad - everyone fails the first time, and I feel pretty confident to try again (at the Power Company) next week. My tester was Peter, and he gave me the option of a 10c on the third pillar (short but technical), or a 10b in the cave (long and pumpy, but straightforward). I chose the 10b, which was perhaps the wrong choice - I wasn't expecting him to pull out a 10c! I thought it was going to be either a 10b on the pillar or a 10a in the cave, and I haven't mock led any c's.

The climbing went well, until the fall. I made it about 2/3 of the way up, and slipped off a lateral move that required me to use a small off-route hold (my route's hold had snapped off). I fell about 15 feet, and pulled Tor off the ground, but it was a clean fall into empty air, and happened so quickly it was over before I knew it. Peter said that his only comments were that I looked a little shaky (the route was nearly entirely overhung), but that my beta, footwork and clipping were fine. I then belayed Tor, and apparently was erring on the side of a TOO-tight belay, which I thought was interesting because I was freaking out about how much slack was in the system - apparently slack in lead climbing isn't such a bad thing. So I need to work on smoother, longer pulls to feed slack, and not worrying so much about keeping the rope tight.

So, the tally for the morning:

ML10b(c), L10b(DNF), ML10c(clean, but UGLY), 10d(f)

Next week you will be mine, precious. Oh, yes.

Evening:
Today Evelyn turns 37, in celebration of which fact we at CFEB got to do a special workout in her honor...one that bears a suspicious resemblance to the Filthy Fifty.

"Evelyn"
I did them in this order:

• 37 Box jumps
• 37 Pull-Ups (Men C2B)
• 37 Push-Ups
• 37 Deadlift 185#/135#
• 37 Jump Squats
• 37 Sit-Ups
• 37 Superpersons
• 37 KB Swing 1 pood/35# dumbbell
• 37 Double-Unders
• 37 Reverse Burpees

33:54 nonRX (subbed regular burpees for inverted)
(splits: 1:47 | 5:16 | 3:18 | 7:07 | 2:08 | 1:44 | 1:24 | 2:18 | 3:46 | 5:02)

It was a good chipper - quickly ramping up to medium-high level of misery and then just stayed there regardless of what you were doing. Evelyn, of course, smoked it in under 27 minutes - Max likes birthday WODs to play to the birthday person's strengths, and Ev is very strong at these sorts of workouts. Of course, to do it in TRUE Evelyn Rodas fashion, we should have started 15 minutes late and then done something unexpected and even harder immediately afterwards, but I didn't point that out to Max. The class was pretty chaotic - it was really crowded! - but once he lifted the restriction on what order to do things in, the workout was surprisingly fine.

Afterwards we had a really nice party at Alex & Rebecca's, overflowing with healthy, sugar-free food. I really like hanging out with our CrossFit friends for many reasons, but one of the strongest reasons is that I can EAT with them. Parties and restaurants with family and friends is such a pain, as there are so many things I won't eat there, but last night's food was perfect: fruits, nuts, cheeses, meats, THREE guacamoles, simple chips, sparkling water...Polly even made a sugar-free pie out of dates and coconut that I really want to get the recipe for. Delicious!

Pushup Nicole and the Lead Clinic

Sunday dawned soggy and cold, but Max had clearly stated the WOD would go on rain or shine ("NO WHINING"), plus a running micro-clinic with Gita, so I couldn't resist.

The clinic was actually really useful. Gita is a ultramarathoner, and definitely knows his stuff when it comes to running. He taught us the very basics of POSE running, and had us try it out during the WOD, standing outside in the rain to coach us. I knew about POSE from the CF forums, and had tried it, but without any feedback I didn't know if I was doing it right or just setting myself up for injury, so I've just been running however my body tells me to. Gita placed the emphasis on posture for all of us, touching on the ball-strike but not focusing on it. At first, I found the ball strike excessively tiring, as I was kicking my feet into the ground and dissipating a lot of energy uselessly. As I worked with it, though, I started figuring out how to take longer strides to lessen the scuffing - Gita told me I could probably take even longer strides to really quiet it down. He also sketched out some cadence work for me on one of my runs - that I should take three strides for every time I throw my left elbow back, but at that point I was so tired that trying to focus on that just threw me totally off - I would focus entirely on my left arm, and find that I was flailing around with that one trying to get the rhythm right while my right arm stayed essentially still. Must've looked pretty dumb. However, I'm sure I'll have ample opportunity to work on it more in the coming months.

The WOD today was push-up Nicole, which we did back on Halloween - also in the rain. Unlike that day, however, Max had us do the pushups upstairs in the yoga room, and added two minutes to the time to account for going up and down the stairs.

Complete as many rounds in 22 minutes as you can of:
Run 400 meters
Max Rep Push-Ups

100 reps in 6 rounds (20-20-15-15-15-15)

This is the same score as last time, but with one more round. I found the pushups much trickier in the yoga room, as my wet hands and feet slid around on the polished bamboo, and downward dog wasn't nearly as much rest as it was on the concrete outside. So between the WOD and the warmup run, this was almost two miles of POSE running. My calves are killing me.

The Lead Clinic

Tonight I took another step in pursuit of the coveted orange belay card: a lead clinic. Touchstone is apparently much more stringent and demanding with their lead test than other gyms, and though I've heard rumors, I think it just amounts to caution. So the clinic had some important information, but the most valuable of it was just exactly what was expected of us for the test.

We practiced clipping on some quickdraws they set up for us, with either hand and the biner in either direction. This was useful. We learned about back-clipping (clipping so that the climber's end of the rope (the "sharp" end) faces the wall, which in the case of a fall could result in the rope pulling across the gate and opening the biner. This is bad.) and z-clipping (pulling up rope from below your last clip and clipping that, resulting in the rope going up, then down, then up, effectively preventing you from climbing further. I've done this. It's embarassing, but not particularly dangerous.)


Then we did a three-way mock lead climb on an easy 5.8. The climber's job was just to mock lead, and to intentionally back-clip two draws for the belay team on the ground to try and spot. Then there was a top-rope belayer, and a mock lead belayer. This was when I first learned to dislike my grigri, which heretofore has been a great belay device. It's a pain in the ass to feed slack through the grigri, particularly using Petzl's required method. It's back to the ATC for me for lead belaying.

Finally, we did an easy version of the actual lead test, with the instructors watching us and giving us feedback as we led up a relatively pumpy 5.9. The instructors were to climb up above the fourth quickdraw and then fall. The fall was really the only new thing, and it's pretty scary. Once I got up there, it quickly became clear to me that the less I thought about what I was about to do, the better, so I just took a breath and hopped off the wall. Yipes! I dropped about seven feet and pulled my belayer about a foot up off the ground. It wasn't all that bad, but I'm a bit sad that that's the only element of the lead test I'll never get to practice again until the actual test.

Other things I learned (I'm sorry this is so verbose - I'm trying to cram in as many details as I can remember, so I can come back to this post to study for the test):

• Don't step behind the rope. The reasoning behind this is clear: if you fall, and some part of your body is behind the rope, it could spin you around or flip you over, making it harder to use your legs to catch you when you swing into the wall. However, it is a difficult fault to avoid on some routes, and something I need a better grasp of.
• Touchstone wants the lead belayer to stay directly under the climber until they clip the fourth draw, at which point they can move out a little from the wall. Other climbers I know grouse about this, because it prevents you from managing slack by moving back and forth. However, when I think about it, that's not a very wise method of managing slack: if the climber's fall pulls you up off the ground, there's however much distance of rope between you and the wall in the system. Also, the climber's fall will pull you into the wall, rather than up, which could be painful.
• Slack management as a belayer is tricky. I think I tend to feed too much, and need to work on keeping it a bit tighter.
• Clipping the chains at the top is the hardest part. I need to practice this.

Ironworks loaned me a small length of old rope to bring home with me, so I can set up a quickdraw here and practice clipping while watching TV, which is great. I'm thinking I might make my first attempt at the lead test next month.

This video covers nearly everything in under six minutes: