Another broken Monday

This will be short and not so sweet...

Climbing at IW: 10a(o), 10c(f), 10c(dnf), 10b(f++)
Sprint-8 on rower: 3,030m

It was clear pretty quick that I was just too tired to climb effectively. I'm surprised I made it up that first c with only one rest, considering how long a climb it was. The DNF was due to a pincher hold that I just couldn't sustain long enough to move my other hand up, and the last b was one of those laughable rest-every-two-feet climbs.

I debated whether or not to do Sprint-8, but I had a lot of time before I needed to be at work, so figured it would be stupid not to. I had a relatively easy time keeping it below 1:40 on the sprints, but my rests were insanely slow - like 2:45 or something. Whatever - I got through it.

I <3 Rest Days.

Climbing and Push-up Nicole

Morning workout:

Sprint-8 on rower: 3,030m
Climbing: 10a(o), 10c(o), 10c(f), 10c(f)

I made it up the 10c in the back corner that eluded me the other day, which was satisfying - I really did just need fresher arms to make it over the crimpy arete portion. Would've been clean, too, except for a misstep further up the climb. The fall on the last c was just from being tired and stupid - once I fell, took a breath and analyzed the situation, all I needed to do was stabilize with a higher foot instead of jump (as always).

Feeling pretty sore and burnt, I approached the evening WOD with some trepidation, telling myself that it would be OK to take it easy if it was too hard.

Complete as many rounds in 20 minutes as you can of:
Run 400 meters
Max Rep Push-Ups

100 RX (5 rounds: 30-20-20-15-15)

Turned out to be OK. My pecs were sore from the 5x5's and so my push-ups were not super-high in quantity, but I was very careful that they were all high quality (ie, chest touching the ground on every rep). I spent a lot of time in downward-facing dog. The runs all felt pretty fast. I liked this workout - I have yet to do a real Nicole for whatever reason, so don't have a comparison - but I liked the combination of metcon and strength-endurance.

Shattered

I am in shit shape today, man. Wiped. Exhausted. The last two days have totally fried my banana.

So, I probably shouldn't have done this:

Sprint-8 on rower: 3180m
Climbing: 10a(o), 10c(f+), 9(o), 10b(o)

But what the hell.

A bit backwards

This month's Mondays will not go according to the regular schedule, due to a work thing requiring me to show up early and thereby preventing me from climbing with Tor in the mornings. While at first I was highly annoyed at this, if the next three Mondays are like today, then it'll be fine: I can just go climbing with Rebecca in the evening!

So, this morning's HIIT:

80 burpees, sets of 10

I wanted to do 100 in celebration of tomorrow's ending of the burpee challenge, but I ran out of time.

And this evening:

3x10 weighted incline sit-ups (25#)
climbing: 10a(o), 10c(o), 10d(f+), 10b(o), 10b(f+)

The climbing felt good, despite some strong residual soreness from Tabata Cindy. The first 10a was laughably easy. The 10c was a good climb, vertical with a little bit of dihedral action in the middle, and only challenging in a mental sense as the end goes WAY off plumb, so a fall would be...dramatic, and probably impossible to get back from. It felt really good to be back on a 10d, even if it was probably the most insanely crimpy arete climb I've ever done (damn you, Jim!). Many of the holds were too small to use the pads of the fingers, requiring me to pull off my fingerTIPS, which got pretty painful pretty quick. I followed that with a 10b that looked a lot more challenging than it was (big 10' roof, but massive jugs). The last 10b was harder than it looked, and I was tired and doing all sorts of stupid shit trying to muscle my way up it. When I finally stopped, took some breaths and asked myself, "what is the most efficient way I could do this move?" I usually found an easier, more controlled method than the big dramatic jump-n-falls I was perpetrating.

It was really nice to climb with Rebecca again - the past few times we've climbed, it's been with friends and we haven't partnered with each other, so it's been a long time. Tonight felt like old times, when we first started. Too bad the gym was so damn crowded.

Rowing and climbing...and climbing again

This morning at IW:

Sprint-8 on rower: 3200m
15 minutes jump rope practice
3x10 weighted (25#) incline situps
Climbing: 10a(o), 10b(o), 10c(o), 10b/c(f++)

The rower was tough today, for some reason - had a hard time keeping the sprints below 1:40 pace. That said, I went the furthest distance I've ever done, so I probably had the damper a little bit higher.

For my easy cardio post-HIIT, I realized last night that jump-rope practice is a good option - better than running, anyway. It's not super-tough because I can't do double-unders yet, but it does keep the heart rate up a little. I'll do more of this, and maybe someday get a DU.

Climbed mostly on the back wall, slab or vertical, and they were all quite easy. The b/c, however, was a nasty little bitch of a difficult climb on the center column, all overhang and deep slingshot moves. My falls were all just muscle exhaustion.

So what better way to spend the evening, than to....go climbing again? This time at Mission Cliffs.

Climbing: 10b(o), 10c(o), 10a/b(o), 10c(f)

The b was long and vertical and too easy for a b. The c was AWESOME - a long chimney/crack climb that Jim set, with holds INSIDE the chimney, and a good chunk of some brutal lieback. My right arm was wiped after that, so I went to the slab/double-overhang wall, where the b I wanted was taken, so I did the comp route a/b instead. Fun climb. The last c was a LONG-ASS climb on the main lead wall, negative for ~40 feet and then vertical for the last 15. I sprinted up the negative as quickly as I could, since a fall would entail some wild tarzaning, and rested once I got to the lip where the line would be plumb. Sadly, I found there was an excellent rest two moves later, so I could have done it clean with a little more perseverence, but it was the end of a long day of climbing so I don't feel too bad about taking the break off the wall.

And now, bedtime. I'm quite wiped.

More climbing, more rowing

It's getting difficult to come up with post titles for Monday and Friday mornings, since they're always the same thing...

* 16 hour fast*

Climbing: 5.9, 10c(o), 10c(dnf)->10a, 10c(f+)
Campus pull-ups: 4 sets of 2 (leg-assisted)
Sprint-8 on rower: 3,115m

Tor brought his little rugrats with him today because of the holiday, so we were limited in our climbing to the section of wall that allowed us to keep an eye on them while they filled their brains with Elmo and his gang. Not a particularly good climbing day - that first 10c went well, a nice vertical climb with a bit of stemming at the end. The second c started bad and went nowhere - the start is a crazy two-block gaston thing that we just couldn't figure out WHAT was supposed to happen, and even after skipping it I couldn't get past the roof, so I just switched to a 10a that was on the same rope. The last c started well, but got iffy up at its little mini-roof.

I've resolved to spend some time with the campus board each week. My grip strength is not good, and frequently is what spits me off the wall. I currently can't even hang off the board, but after messing about a bit today, I figured out how to step up on the ledge underneath it with one foot, thereby modulating how much weight I have on my fingers. It's still REALLY hard, but in this manner I'm currently able to knock out two pull-ups before my fingers fail. I figure a few minutes, twice a week, and maybe eventually I'll actually be able to hang from the damn thing.

Sprint-8 was tougher today. Tried to keep the speed under 2:20 while resting, and under 1:40 while sprinting. Got it as low as 1:35 a few times, but that seems to be my current bottom limit.

Rows and ladders

Another deceptive ladder workout today, this one from Max's fiendish brain. I was tempted to try running, considering how much better my ankle is feeling, but ultimately decided to drag a rower outside and use that instead. This was probably wise, as I would have been tempted to push harder than I should have in a race mentality running with others. Despite its not being a 1:1 effort, to keep things easier I just rowed the same distances as the runners.

* 17.5 hour fast *

Run 1000 meters in 10 minutes
Run 900 meters in 9 minutes
Run 800 meters in 8 minutes
Run 700 meters in 7 minutes
Run 600 meters in 6 minutes
Run 500 meters in 5 minutes
Run 400 meters in 4 minutes
Run 300 meters in 3 minutes
Run 200 meters in 2 minutes
Run 100 meters

3:37, 3:20, 2:57, 2:37, 2:14, 1:49, 1:25, 1:04, 0:41, 0:19
Total time: 20:03

As I said, this was deceptively difficult - on paper, it looked like there would be a LOT of resting - and there was, 35 minutes of it - but that only let you push harder on the efforts, and they really started to burn after the first round or two. It was a good HIIT workout - my heartrate got noticeably higher than it does with Sprint-8 - but the downside is that it takes a lot longer.

An interesting thing about rowing: it's easier to sustain top speed, but harder to get there. So my times were inverse to the fastest runners - in the first rounds I finished ahead of them, but in the short sprints they were faster than I was.

HIIT and climbing

Surprisingly sore today, considering I was at half-weight for last night's WOD. Mainly in the traps - I suspect it was the cleans. Anyway, due to the recovery week, I resolved to stick to vert and positive climbs, and avoid any big overheads and negatives. Unfortunately, at Ironworks that leaves...about 4 climbs.

* 16 hour fast *

Sprint-8 on rower: 2,990
Climbing: 5.9, 10b(o), 10c(f), 10b(f), 10a/b(rp)

Climbing felt pretty good, actually. Ankle didn't really bother me, which was great, and my shoulder only twinged a few times. It's become an angle thing - effort at the wrong angle hurts, but if I relax and shake it, something kind of clicks into place and the pains stops. I really don't know what that means.

I think I need to work a little harder during my recovery minute. 26SPM is probably too low - I should try to keep it above 30, I think.