I've been bad... No posts in a long time!

It is now 20th of November and haven't posted anything since week 5... There's been a few things going on, but I'll keep it short:

- The following two weeks after I stopped writing I finally started my campus (maximum recruitment) phase. This, as always, resulted in huge gains. I can now campus ladder up to touching the last rung of the medium size rungs, which is a lot more than I could do on my last campus phase. Previously, I could do a rare maximum of touching the third rung. This training in turn reflected itself on my bouldering, since I could finally send that V5 that had elluded me. This pretty much opened up the floodgates and started bouldering V5 again, with a couple of V4 flashes.

- We went to Page's Pinnacle a few times in all this time period, where I finally got serious and sent Green Room (25), and started working on another project, Meter Maids (26), which I was close to sending on my second try, so I was thinking it was going to be about a 25, but after another session of failing on it I realized that linking all the moves (a highlight of 2 big moves) was indeed about a V5 boulder, and therefore a 26. Still in progress...

- After the second week of campusing, Igor invited Jin and myself to Adelaide, and we went down to South Australia and had a lot of fun. Here's the trip vid (DON'T FORGET TO SET IT TO HD 1080p):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eG4LQJDgheY

- After coming back from Adelaide, my climbing gym pretty much closed down (closed down training facilities and much of the boulders), so I felt compelled to suspend my membership there and do an impromptu start at my power endurance phase, which I did by going to another climbing gym, The Rock, and doing lead climbing on quality set routes in Walltopia walls. This is where I'm at right now. I try to just project things that I can do in a few sessions, although I've been doing things between grades 22-26, with the exception of a monster red climb, which is about grade 29 and even though I've done all the moves (thank you, bouldering!) the link seems near impossible for me at the moment... I got a lot of satisfaction last week, because on Maria's birthday I got to do the "first ascent" of a grade 26(ish) climb at the Rock.

Me on the FA of a gym climb! Thanks for the shot Tony!

- A huge big highlight was Maria's 28th birthday on November 14th. Thanks to my friend Josie, we got free passes to Sea World and went up close and personal with the dolphins and their trainers, which was an amazing experience and we really envied the trainer's jobs! We then went to The Rock and had a lot of fun- Maria, despite recovering from a wrist injury from the bouldering comp earlier this year, has been onsighting "hards" (grade 18-21) in the gym. Looks like Trina (our friend and Maria's physio) has been giving her good advice. It's really too bad that she works in the evening and can't come to this gym that often... Anyways, I also took her to Sakura (a Japanese restaurant whose owner is the very talented chef and also a former sumo wrestler), which was a surprise for her because the original restaurant had closed, and I looked this guy up in case he had opened another one, and sure enough, located at this obscure location (Runcorn, QLD) there it was, and sure enough again, the meal was great! Last Saturday we also had a little get-together for Maria's and Webb's birthdays at my friend Steph's house, where we brought some panuchos (tradicional Yucatec dish) and had some good times.

Maria and I on her birthday reunion.

So right now, it's only 15 days until MEXICO! 10 for Maria. I can't wait!

Weekend of Week 5

So I'm posting this pretty much out of discipline- 'cause I said I would, so it's gonna be brief (some effort was put into editing the video of last post, so...)!

Last weekend we headed to Page's Pinnacle, over at the Gold Coast hinterland. Page's is a really beautiful crag, located right at Springbrook National Park, famous for its lakes, waterfalls, and glow-worms. Page's Pinnacle is a shark's fin of rock at the top of a big bushy hill with great views of lakes and other big hills, and the long, kind-of-gruelling approach keeps the I-don't-climb-for-anything-other-than-climbing/gradehunting/not-the-whole-experience/etc climber away, which makes for a really special social ambience (so far for me at least!). It was Maria, Kimberley, Igor, DRyan and myself. The people that go to Page's strike me as the kind that just give it absolutely all they got and also the kind that really "feel" your effort when climbing and encourage you with heartfelt cheering! At the same time, they're really laid back and keep things honest and funny, so a really comfortable environment to just hang around, even with the horse flies buzzing and that sweat-filled hour-long approach!

Some from a while back!

Anri falling from Strip Clubs (22)

This outing was a special one, as Maria got to toprope a 17 and an 18 cleanly, which marks some progress in her wrist's recovery, and Kimberley also lead that 18 (onsighted it), which means she's getting some lead-climbing confidence back. DRyan was just crazy! He arrived the day before to Australia after spending roughly two months away in Europe visiting his partner and her family in France (I'm actually surprised he wasn't out of shape after all those French dinners!), and decided it was a good idea that in order to beat jet lag, he would go out climbing that day! Igor and I decided we were going to focus on practicing multi-pitching, so we did two 2-pitchers; the first's second pitch was terrifying to say the least, as there was a lot of loose rock and I hadn't brought a helmet with me, so belaying Igor was scary, and seconding after him even more so! The second mutli-pitch went better than the first, mistake-ridden one. I thought the line was pretty good apart from the fact that once more, there was a lot of loose/hollow rock (about 75% of the good holds), and we cleaned up our act a lil' bit more. Another thing that stood out was that I got my first 23 (5.11d) flash/onsight! I decided to try Yule Tide and after a first cruxy section, it was just pumpy climbing to the top! To be honest, I felt it was a mid-22 (especially after last week's onslaught on Mr. Middle Man, you sandbag, you!), but people there and on thecrag.com seem to think it's legit, so I'll take it! I also managed to flash Bombay Rock (22 or 5.11b/c), a real beauty of a line! I must add that now that I am eating more protein I have gone down almost 1 kg and have been cranking a little better... But perhaps it's too soon to tell!

After a great day out, we headed back to Brisbane to get our fix of Kookaburra Party Pizza, which was glorious to say the very least! We caught up with Jin, who ditched us that day to go do a multi-pitch with some douche. Laaame Jin!

Weeks 4 and 5 (minus the weekend of week 5), AKA deterioration...

Well, because it is so late to be posting about week 4, I decided I might as well merge weeks 4 and 5 together (even though week 5 is not up yet, as today is Friday- I will make a post of the weekend of week 5 later). Another reason to merge them is that in terms of training, nothing much happened in these two weeks. I guess the highlights would be that I achieved a 12 second hang on the crimp grip, the fact that because my climbing gym started renovations to include a lead climbing arch (about time!), they had to restrict access to the bouldering because of which I had no choice but to do something else, and a couple of other realizations, which I will talk about later. On those 3 (or was it 4?) days where I didn't have a bouldering wall, I did the following:

1. went toproping with Maria (she went to the physio and she can officially climb slowly and progressively to her level again!)- never toproping in the gym again, it just makes me angry because of the really low quality routes,

2. went to the city of Brisbane's local crag, Kangaroo Point, with Paul after fingerboarding in the gym- some might think it is pretty fortunate to have a crag 5 minutes away by car, and these people would be right in a way, but the disadvantage here is that because it's a former quarry, the fact that it gets so much traffic and the sun hits these walls pretty much all day, and the routes have very high first bolts and/or are poorly bolted makes this crag a rather unattractive option for most. Here we first tried the start of a crimpy route, Bufo Marinus (25), and since it was slippery and I had just done a fingerboard session, it felt like it was going to take a while, so we moved on and I re-sent a route I did about a year and a half ago that Paul was trying (and sent, well done Paul!), Bouncy Castle (23), and tried quite unsuccessfully and onsight of Chip-a-Holdway (22), which not only did I not onsight, but I also couldn't even dog to the top because of headspace issues- I wasn't trying my best and was constantly blaming the slippery quality of the rock (which, to be fair, is significant, but not significant enough to be a valid factor). Paul then got to the top to retrieve the quickdraws! In the next training session, after fingerboarding,

Paul pulling some moves at Mexico City's KP 

equivalent: La Escuelita at UNAM (much better than KP).

Miguel pulling the crux of "El Techito" (21 or 5.10d).

Webb slacklining.

3. we (Jin, Paul, Igor, Jason, Alyssa, Jeremy and Kimberley) went to our other sort-of-local lead climbing gym, "The Rock", where I was unpleasantly surprised that I couldn't do the start of a route I could previously do when tired, so I tried another cool grade 26 route which I dogged a couple of times, and Igor showed us that his endurance training has paid off well, as he sent back-to-back a steep 15 m route (grade 23), and two steep 13 m routes (grade 20)! And,

4. spent last Monday (Labor day in Australia) in Brooyar (the day after I went to get my fingerboard fix), a sandstone series of crags about 2.5 hours north of Brisbane. We went with Andrew, with whom we hadn't really gone climbing since about a year ago when we went to Thailand! It was great to spend a weekend with him camping and climbing and catching up. He has this foot injury since a year ago, and because he hasn't properly treated it, it may have become a chronic problem... It was sweltering hot in Brooyar, and because most of the crags face the sun most of the time, it was very, very exhausting. As per usual this time a year, there was the token infestation of insects, and this year it was an infestation of small black beetles! Super lovely to have those guys getting like, EVERYWHERE. With regards to climbing, Maria got to toprope about 4 climbs in 2 days, including a 40 meter one, which must have been a very welcome change after a couple of months of not going outdoors! Andrew did the same, his approach to climbing needing to be limited because of his foot. Me, on day 1 I got on a couple of (according to thecrag.com) sandbagged routes: Dreaming of the Blueys (25) and Lithgow Layback (24, but thecrag.com says 25). In DOTB, the crux was at the bottom, and it seemed like it was the most significant crux, so it was a hard boulder problem that consisted in a campus throw from a one pad edge to full lock off on my right arm and full extension on my left to catch a decent edge, but it felt outrageous for me! After a few tries and being scorched by the sun, I decided to come down and try LL instead. There, similar to DOTB, the crux is at the bottom. This consists of getting both your hands on a slopey but decent rail, raising and extending the right foot at head height to full extension, and pushing up while locking the left hand off to reach a good gaston, on which you layback to match. This was the crux, and I got it first go. The problem was that I was pretty confused as to where to go next. The first bolt suggested that I had to charge up this holdless feature somehow to get to easier ground, but there was an alternative to the right, significantly easier, where you go over a roof by grabbing a jug on the top and using a cool toe-hook on the gaston, but because this alternative seemed pretty dirty, I half-assed it and didn't really try hard. After a while of really trying the direct method and finding it even harder than DOTB and feeling really heat-exhausted, I decided to come down (I later read on thecrag.com that (a) DOTB is much much harder than 25 and (b) the right variant over the roof of LL is indeed the right path- lesson learned: if unsure of the route, check thecrag.com!). On day 2, after being humbled by those two climbs, I decided to try an easier route that I had tried a couple of years ago that had defeated me completely at the time: Mr. Middle Man (23), a boulder problem start followed by a small roof followed by dirty grade 15 climbing. It was good to see that I worked the start with relative ease (not on my first shot, mind you), as it's always great to come back to things you previously couldn't do and then do them. The problem with this climb is that all of the (good) holds face vertically, so there are little to no footholds, which made for interesting oppositions and drop knees- followed by a throw to a jug where a wild kicking cut-loose goes on. After that, you clip the second bolt and have the option of resting on a good knee-scum (or bad knee-bar, whatever you wish to call it) before the last hard throw to a good edge, after which it's pretty much over. At least I got that on the weekend! Oh, that and the onsight of my softest 22 ever, Prima Donna, a really nice line that has a jump-start!

Because I'm lacking pics from the weekend, here's

and oldie from Easter 2012, where Anri demonstrates

her "liberal" belay technique on Barry, who is well 

past the first bolt!

A shot of Barry at the aesthetic Point Pure buttress 

at Brooyar State Forest.

Aaand just in case Andrew (or Pe) shows up here!

Yesterday when I went to the gym to do my last fingerboarding training session I discovered that not bouldering for about 5 sessions diminished my power and recruitment! I went to the gym after a long day at work excited about finally sending the red V5 I keep talking about, only to not even reach the same highpoint I had achieved before... Even though I realize that getting frustrated and disappointed given I tried my best is not going to make me stronger, better, or more focused, it's hard to stay motivated when you train so much and not only do I not improve, but I have actually gotten worse (measurably so, as I return to the same exercises/climbs as a baseline)... So naturally, I was pretty frustrated about this anticlimactic ending of my hypertrophy phase (fingerboards), and I communicated this to Maria, who wisely pointed out what could very well be my problem: even though I am leaving different muscle/tendon groups more than enough time to recover, opposition training is not being neglected, cardio and flexibility isn't either, and motiviation is high, she thought I was neglecting one very crucial aspect: she observed that my protein intake may have been insufficient. After getting on an online body fat calculator that also gives you a few other data according to certain body measurements (I don't know how trustworthy it is, but here's the link: http://www.scientificpsychic.com/fitness/diet.html), I found that I need about 85-105 grams of protein per day, of which I was consuming around 50! Is it possible that this deterioration was due to a protein deficiency? I think it's very likely. Because I am allergic to soy, I am allergic to the vast majority of protein shake powders, and this is the reason why I don't take said supplements (unlike Maria, for example). So we found a feasable alternative which we got today (actually tastes good!) made out of egg whites, and here it is:

I know, I know...

Having pointed that out, I have to say that this was what we found that was at hand here in Brisbane, although back in January this year when we went to Boulder, CO, we found not only the richest in protein, best tasting shake that is soy-free, but it is also just the best protein shake EVER (MIX1 from Boulder, CO)! Sadly, though, people are retarded and this company has gone bankrupt... I was really stupid not to buy a lot of these when we were there, but we figured we could always order them and we took a bunch of junk food back home instead- DUH!!! To think that those beauties were for sale right there, in the fridges of the Spot bouldering gym for under 1.15 USD...

So anyway, hopefully this hiccup in my climbing is due to that shortage of protein, an issue that is now being addressed.

So 5 weeks of training are up! After this period of time, the highlights are:

- 12 s. on the crimp,
- 3 s. on the 45 deg. sloper,
- 8 s. on the one arm hang on a two pad edge,
- 8 s. on the pinches with 5 kg. of added weight,
- 6 s. on the two-finger pockets with 5 kg. of added weight,
- being able to touch the ground in splits attempts on both sides (still need to have a perfectly "straight line" with my legs),
- being able to pull once on a one-arm pull-up with both left and right arms,
- V4 boulder flash (both best flash and best boulder in these few weeks...),
- sending up to grade 23 sport climbing,
- jogging 45 minutes, with a peak of 10 minutes at 12.5 km/h at 5.5% incline.

Hopefully the next phase, maximum recruitment (4 weeks of campus boarding) holds more promise... It's been a month for me at age 30, and it sure does feel like it! At this stage, faith is all I got!

My beautiful wife Maria! This author's source

of inspiration. Also, since there's snow in the pic,

I'll take the opportunity to brag about the fact that

we now have ski passes for CO! Woo!

Now I leave you with this vid I should've posted ages ago!

http://youtu.be/PscY36wXSEg

Week 3

Sorry about the delay, it is now close to the end of week 4 in my training program, yet only now am I entering what came down in week 3!

Training continued as usual, with the highlight of my gym training being holding on to the small crimp for 9 seconds, with consistent 6-7 second hangs, and also the fact that I managed to pull off one of those dreaded moves that we consider "impossible for me" (and these moves differ from person to person obviously), on a V5 boulder in my gym. Without going into much detail (hopefully I'll post a video later with the send) I was trying repeatedly to do it in a different way to most people, but my way wasn't getting anywhere either... It was getting to the point where my mind was convinced that I would not be able to do the problem in the near future, no matter how hard I tried. Then, something changed in my mind. I decided to try this problem the way most people do it, but this time, I would have to try my absolute hardest, and very importantly, with great enthusiasm. I personally find enthusiasm to be really essential in any pursuit in life that we really care about. This may sound a little obvious to many, but I often see people that, even though they care about what they're doing, repress the feeling. Perhaps these people were educated to control or repress certain feelings, such as anger and frustration, which is OK to a certain point I think. But is it OK to extend this repression to other feelings, such as enthusiasm or joy? For me, it's not. I find that in this particular case, enthusiasm brings me back to the moment, to the fact that I enjoy climbing and its movement, and not only does that give me an extra bit of explosivity (essential especially in bouldering), but also gives me a sense of trepidation, a good sort of eager giddiness, like the one that one feels when/just before achieving something they didn't think was possible or was unlikely. It was this enthusiasm that made me forget that this move was "not my style". It made me forget all those failed attempts and the predisposition of not getting the move. Ultimately, it allowed me to latch the hold and take it all the way to the top (starting at that move, not at the beginning, though!). I felt very very psyched about this little accomplishment, not because it is meaningful to do a boulder problem in some gym, but because it reminded me that not only do unlikely events become possible in one's life if one tries, but also we get to enjoy life more by being enthusiastic even if we don't achieve our goals (provided the path to this goal is what's the source of the enthusiasm, not the goal itself). So that was good. It felt great! I came out of the last gym session in week 3 feeling like I would send that problem the next session, but unlucky for me, this construction started in my gym of this new lead climbing area which lead to me not being able to access the problem in all of week 4...

Check it out! I got a fan! Sort of...

The weekend was, as usual, quite fun. Socially at least! Barry, one of my first climbing friends re-incorporated himself to the outdoor climbing scene once more, after a 3-month absence due to renovations that he and his girlfriend Lauren did for a house he owns. Due to his long time in climbing, experience kicked in and he wasn't in bad shape considering the long absence, onsighting 16, 18, 18, 18, and a 19, including the 18 and 19 at Owl Pillar. Jin kept on trying that dreaded 19 at Owl Pillar. Our friend Steph caught up with us with some random friend of hers and she climbed for a little bit too, as she lead the 18 at Owl Pillar, which is unusual for her. Once more, after spending time in Andromeda Wall at Mt. Ngungun doing a couple of climbs I hadn't done before (some 16 and an 18) we headed to the project where I had one not-great burn at Idaho Sunshine. My headspace is not good. I didn't commit enough. I didn't move with confidence. I didn't reach a highpoint at all. I need to relax, enjoy, and breathe easy. Need to let go of expectations and let the enthusiasm take over.

Here's another (pretty sh*t) video of my training and attempt at Idaho Sunshine (keep it private guys!):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCFYpIhe71k

See you next time!

Anri's Last Days and Week 2

It was a week filled with fun, but at the same time, pretty sentimental. Anri is a good friend of mine. She is, in fact, my first climbing partner. If I remember correctly, I started climbing just before the Brisbane floods of early 2011. I had returned from Mexico early to get ahead on work in my PhD, and Maria was still going to stayin Boston for another two months. I quickly got bored and when I went to the supermarket I saw the advert for the climbing gym, and I thought "why not?". I told my office buddy Adam to come check it out and I got really hooked on that first toproping session, and even though I actually struggled on yellows (easiest climbs in the gym, probably easier than climbing ladders) and got super-scared of heights (anything past 2 m) I knew that this was an activity I really wanted to continue doing. Adam obviously didn't think it was that great, 'cause he never went back. Me, on the other hand, I got back from the gym, scoped good offers on climbing gear on the net, and skyped Maria that night, telling her to outright order her harness, chalk bag, chalk and shoes, as "there' no way you won't love it", plus I'd already ordered mine, a pair of Mad Rock Con-Tacts (or was it Con-Flicts?) and an inadequate CAMP USA skinny mountaineering harness (I think it was the Alp 95). But at this point I felt that there was really no need to climb outdoors, as I figured indoors was fun enough! Unfortunately for a lot of people and other beings, the Brisbane floods hit the West End kinda hard, and among the affected was the climbing gym which closed for a period close to three weeks (I wanted to climb bad!). I was also out of power for 8 days, but I was compensated with unique days of pretty much swimming in the streets and walking along Melbourne Street with water at about waist height, not to mention people kayaking through the lower streets of the West End, a few of which I helped out and it was a lot of fun. When the gym finally opened after the floods I was confronted with another problem: I had this gear to climb with, but nobody to do it with. I had to shake off my natural introvertedness and start talking to people out of the blue- which I discovered was easier in this environment because of all the cheering that goes on (something I found to be really nice)- and discovered that people can be really nice. I met a couple of people that I know to this day those first days, but mostly I had to boulder, which was really hard and I found sit-starts annoying because mostly I couldn't even lift off the ground. So I would wear my harness while bouldering to signal other people like me that I was ready to ditch that lame activity and go toproping. One of the friendliest people I met this way was Anri, who had taken a friend to the gym that day (I think it might've been her first time there) and I guess felt pity for me and asked me if I wanted to join them, to which I said yes. At the time, I didn't want to take any rest days, so I blasted something like a streak of 14 climbing days in a row, by the end of which I was peeling off jugs, and I would boulder unless she turned up, so she officially became my first climbing partner. She was also the one that suggested to me to enroll in the intermediate climbing class that the gym offered (I remember that my first reaction was to say that I wasn't at intermediate level), which turned out to be one of the best pieces of advice ever! I got to meet Barry this way, nowadays a very good friend of mine that actually came to Mexico for mine and Maria's wedding. I also massively improved and got some technique guidance and encouragement (mostly from the climbers I met). Anri was also there in my first lead climb at the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, and was very present in my life in general since. Every time we needed help, she was always there. We were lucky enough to have her around the house on her last week here, her "semana de fiesta", and we had a nice farewell dinner and she had a few big nights out. Anri is nothing if not generous and thoughtful, from the first time she felt sorry for me and invited me to climb with her to numerous car-related help she gave to us. She is leaving the Sunshine State for arguably the gloomiest place on Earth, to take up a job there. Right now she's in Sydney, and flies to the other part of the Globe tomorrow. I'm sure I'm not the only one that will miss that hasty, vibrant, sometimes-care-free-but-sometimes-really-neurotic, funny, compassionate, good-listening, frantic-clipping and above all good friend. A lot.

Anri at her goodbye dinner :(

In terms of training, this week went way better than last! Back to 9 secs in the small crimp, and "graduated" to 2.5 kg added weight and graduated to 5 kg added weight on the two finger pockets and pinches- not a lot of progress on the slopers, though. I could, however, on my second gym session, pull off clean one-arm pull-ups from the ground (arm at about 135 degrees open) with both arms! Front lever getting a little closer too. Bouldering? Well, I still couldn't do any V5's, but I did flash a V4... And got some moves on problems I hadn't gotten before. I also found a way of breathing that psyches me up and gets me filled with adrenaline, a method I used while trying another V5 dyno problem which will feel amazing once I get it! Cardio was also really good, as I finally pulled off 10 straight minutes at max intensity on the treadmill (12 km/h at 5% incline), so next time I'll up the speed of the max intensity! On Sunday, Igor and I did a baseline fitness test by running 3 kms on track, which he did on a blazing fast 11:12, while I did mine in 14:26. I guess my goal for Mexico will be to improve that to 14 flat. Flexibility is as good as ever- splits on both sides! Fingers are feeling nice and strong too, definitely feeling less tweaky. Opposition training- pfff- that feels harder than ever, even more so after eating cod pasta. I think for next week I'll add a vid instead of a parragraph like this one, as that should make the blog more entertaining. Like this one of this boulder problem I did last year, but with music and just a little better in general:

Sunday's outdoor climbing would be Anri's last in this chapter of her life, and Mount Ngungun was the choice. It was also Igor's return to climbing after being 5 weeks out due to tendon injury. Maria, Jin, Kimberley and even Jeremy decided to come too! This time we skipped Andromeda and went straight to Flat Battery Wall, close to the Owl Pillar, where Igor and Anri both lead some really sandbagged 14 called "Where's Marty?" (or something). Jeremy then toproped it being top-belayed by Anri (who was closely supervised by Igor in turn...). Kimberley wasn't climbing that day because of her never-ending flu, and belayed Jin on the Owl Pillar's Dawn Raid (19), but the climb is still elluding him... While Anri got on Midnight Makeout (22) I went into the Ravine to get burnt on Idaho Sunshine again, and while it was pretty gratifying to move a lot more smoothly than last week, Igor was more than a bit disappointed because of the lack of big falls of which there was an overabundance last week. I managed to get a tiny bit further, to the point where I dog to where my face is in front of the last bolt before the anchors, but have not found a clipping hold yet- bouldery as all hells that last bit, slapping compression with heel-hooks and all, I have a feeling that this is going to be the second coming of Vampire Master (my first 24, which took me a countless number of attempts and many months to send), complete with an awkward belay stance on slippery dustland. At least Maria wasn't on the receiving end of the falls I took- because of her wrist injury (still on, yes) she was on camera duty all day (all of the shots here are hers) at the mouth of the ravine. I then belayed Igor on the first half of Acid (22), which he quickly sussed out with minimal rests on the second bolt- a pretty good thing considering he hadn't climbed in 5 weeks and gotten a pretty intense run that morning! Because Anri wasn't feeling her climb, she decided to have a go at Acid, and even though she got the crux at the beginning, her headspace wasn't too good and after a slight panic attack, she came down. I then had a second go at IS, this time, I got past the first three cruxes clean from the ground, and dogged the next two cruxes with not too much effort. Sussing out the last crux is still in progress, though... So I had to backjump the whole thing (hello, 7 m falls!). All in all, a bit of progress. Even when I do dog the whole thing it really seems moronically pumpy, true power endurance style; one boulder problem after another with no real rests ANYWHERE. Jeremy had a go at Acid too, but the climb had him doing the dust dance every time he fell at the beginning... Igor then proceeded to send Acid pretty smoothly, complete with backjump clean. A pretty good end to a great day out.

Why not?

Igor sending Acid (22)

All that backjumping...

Jin on Dawn Raid (19)

Anri on Midnight Makeout (22)

Kimberley belaying Jin

Cruxin' on Idaho Sunshine (28)

Jeremy trying Acid (22)

 
After climbing, we did our usual thing of going to Quan Thanh in West End to have, this time for good, Anri's farewell dinner, a nostalgic but enjoyable night out after which we said our farewells, wished her safe travels, and thus, she rode to the sunset, er, pitch dark night.

Check out them EVIL EYES!

Training Plan and First Week of Training and Climbing

Hey everybody! Well, it's Tuesday Sunday night right now, so it's early into the end of my first week being 30, and I don't know whether age just kicked in or something happened in my brain, but certainly at least physically, it hasn't been easy for me.

Mexico trip training kicked off after work and driving Maria to her job, and I gotta say it was disappointing to say the least. It's really the first time I feel significantly weaker than I've been before- I have so far always made upwards progression and not only not having that but to be at a low point in 2013 at this stage is downright making me angry (strangely, I'm still psyched to continue training...).

Before I write about my failure, I'll describe my training plan that I intend to follow until we take off to Mexico. I'm not a specialist, so I'm not sure how it'll all go, but it'll be fun to see the progress in this little experiment for me. It's certainly not as intense as, say, this guy's (http://vimeo.com/66473915) or as gruelling as this other guy's (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gMIUb4fb04), but it will certainly be a challenge for me as well as being a really enjoyable process. Also, before I describe my training, I must point out that my weakness in climbing is pure power (i.e. the ability to engage maximum strength really fast), and finger strength (being able to hold bad handholds) i.e. bouldery moves on bad (for me this means crimpy) holds, and therefore that is what my training will mostly target (within reason). This will be carried out in a periodized manner (loosely based on this good read: http://www.rockclimbing.com/Articles/Training_and_Technique/The_Making_of_a_Rockprodigy__258.html). I'm not worrying too much about endurance, as this has come rather naturally to me in the recent past (maybe I'm becoming one of those marathonic 80-year olds that swims lap after lap like a torpedo?) and I feel there is an obvious connection between endurance and technique (after all, good technique is just the ability to save as much energy as possible during climbing), so I feel that if I focus on technique, endurance shouldn't be that much of an issue. Another thing to point out is that I feel I often overindulge in the food department, and even though being 72 kg and 1.75 m isn't bad, I really feel like I can comfortably get a little bit lighter, and this goes hand-in-hand with improving at cardio (i.e. running), which should keep me in shape for the altitude climbing that we'll do. Flexibility is one of my advantages, being a little more flexible than the average person of my size, so I intend to take advantage of this by taking this asset as far as I can in these 3 months before going on our trip. Opposition training (working the antagonist muscles to those we use the most during climbing) is something I perhaps don't do enough, especially in the forearms, so to prevent injury, I will try and make sure that's taken care of. Rest is another biggie. I'm going to experiment with this one these 3 months, gonna try something newish. So there you go! I've posed the issues to be tackled: periodization, finger strength, power, technique, weight management/cardio, opposition training, flexibility, and resting. I'll describe my training as a function of these:

PERIODIZATION: Simple stuff, 5 weeks focusing on hypertrophy (finger contact strength, see FINGER STRENGTH), 4 on maximum recruitment (explosive power, see POWER), and 3 on power endurance (again, see POWER). All sessions in the gym are the same: 15 minutes of warm-up via traversing non-stop, 15 minutes of resting, 30 minutes of hypertrophy/maximum recruitment/power endurance, 15 minutes of resting, 1.5 hours of bouldering at my limit with roughly 4 minutes rest between decent attempts, and 15 minutes of stretching for a (hopeful) total of 3 hours per session. These sessions take place twice a week, Monday and Thursday.

FINGER STRENGTH: Like the aforementioned article by rockprodigy suggested, I'm roughly following his/her guidelines to get stronger fingers, i.e. deadhangs on the gym's fingerboards. This is my present stage. On each gym session, I chose 4 grips: a crimp, a sloper, a two finger pocket and a pinch, and I hang for 50 seconds in total in each in as little hangs as possible with minimal rest (like I said, it's supposed to last 30 mins.). The idea is to progressively get stronger fingers by hanging on to holds that you can at least hold for 2 seconds, but no more than 10. I "graduate" from a hold type when I can complete all 50 seconds in 5 hangs or less, so the next session I would add 2.5 kg on my harness on said grip type. This lasts for 5 weeks.

POWER: Again, following rockprodigys advice, on each gym session, I choose two campus exercises: a hard campus ladder that I do 4 times, 2 starting with the left/right, and another easier campus ladder with longer moves, which I do twice, leading once with each hand. Between these exercises I rest 3-4 minutes due to their intensity. After resting about 5 minutes, I then try to do one (or as many as possible) pull up on each of the 4 chosen fingerboard grips (with the last best extra weight hung with at the end of the hypertrophy phase) in the hypertrophy phase. This lasts for 4 weeks, and is typically when I expect results to show the most (at least that has been the case in the past).

TECHNIQUE: This aspect is taken care of whenever climbing, but especially in the 15 minute warm-up in each gym session, when the intensity is low and the most attention can be paid to technique. Also, because Sunday is the outdoor climbing day, the warm-up climb/s will serve this purpose as well, climbing in as diverse styles as possible.

WEIGHT MANAGEMENT/CARDIO: Tuesday and Friday are cardio days, consisting in running 5-7 kms outdoors followed by 15 minutes of stretching. Weight management is basic, consisting in having 3 meals a day, avoiding trans/saturated fats and snacking on healthy foods.

OPPOSITION TRAINING: Wednesday is opposition training day, consisting in 15 exercises performed 1 minute, 10 seconds each followed by 15 minutes of stretching: burpees, "clock" jumps (hard to explain and didn't find a video), forward and back jumps into a surface about 50 cms above the ground, 20 kg weighted lunges, 10 kg weighted squat holds (like this, but on a wall and with weight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5BFpmzzLbs), "spider man" push-ups (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKBeHALPsSU), lifting 8 kg weights with the shoulders by lifting the weights laterally and towards the front alternating with arms straight, dips, "bowls", 5 kg ball lifting with straight legs, leg lifts while hanging, 10 kg weighted ab crunches, front levers, human flags, and "supermans" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVpQizrTPKs).

FLEXIBILITY: My flexibility is developed by stretching and one day a week of yoga (Saturday). My stretching consists of 20 seconds holding each stretch, starting from the neck, working my way until the achilles tendon, too many stretches to describe here, but nothing out of the ordinary. For those that have been in the adult squad in Urban Climb, you know what it is.

RESTING: So, on one hand, I am now experimenting with 2 (climbing muscles) rest days between the first and second gym day and between the 2nd gym day and the outdoor climbing day, but no rest days between the outdoor climbing day and the 1st gym training day. The idea is that the most intense days will be Monday and Thursday, so I want to be as "fresh" as possible, and at the same time I want to be as rested as possible before climbing outdoors, but because climbing outdoors is often not very intense, I decided that to follow the outdoor day by a gym day... I'll see how that works out soon enough! But really, there are no total rest days! Every day I'll be exercising something (hopefully!). I know this is not really related to resting, but I will also incorporate omega 3, glucosamine and chondroitin (dunno if that's spelled right!) tablets every day for tendon and joint recovery. Icing my fingers each rest day for half an hour has proven fruitful in the past, so that's also something I'll do.

The first week of training went so-so. The focus was on fingerboards, of which I chose the following (sorry about the crappy iphone pics!):

Smallest campus rung in the gym:

I went from being able to make solid 9 second hangs on these to getting down to a maximum of 6, and struggled to get those. Bummer.

45 degree sloper on the beastmaker 2000:

On the other hand, I was surprised that I could hold on to these guys at all! 2 seconds FTW!!

Shallow 2 finger pocket in the beastmaker 2000:

These used to be my forte, and used to be able to hang 15 seconds with 15 kg extra weight. No longer! Back to square one, with a max of 9 seconds.

Flat wooden beam (pinch):

Again, another pleasant surprise, I graduated from this hold right off the bat. Normally I would have to flex my biceps to 90 degrees to compress, but now I can get these in 5 hangs with straight arms. Woo!

Bouldering went sh*t as! Started trying V5's but made little to no progress (this from being able to pull them off in one session), and at first I thought they may have been sandbagged, but when I saw a bunch of people sending them, I realized that the problem was me. I even struggled on V3's, which is typically my flash grade... I think I totally forgot how to flick the "on" switch in bouldering, that psyche that gets you all aggressive and explosive. I feel that my body is in a very very mellow mode right now, very Bob Marley-like (when I actually need to be Bruce Lee-like...).

Cardio was pretty average and so was flexibility, the one motivator I have right now is hope that things will get better!

On the weekend, Maria, Jin, Kimberley, Jason, Alyssa and I went to Mount Ngungun, one of the most underrated climbing spots in the Glasshouse Mountains here in Southeast Queensland. We decided to go there because it's a really chill climbing area where Alyssa would be more likely to have a better time than, say, Slider wall in Mount Tibrogargan (the approach alone gives you a bit of an adrenaline rush!). We did just that, went first to Andromeda wall, a cool little buttress with sport (read: Aussie sport, i.e. you need to place the bolt plates on the bolts) climbs of difficulty 11-18. It's a nice spot to chill and have a few climbs before the sun is upon you. Alyssa managed to top rope her first outdoor climb to the top and Jason got introduced to the featured trachyite of Ngungun by making the hardest climb in this buttress look like a walk in the park. After this, we headed to a crag called "owl pillar", so named because it is a free-standing 10 m-high boulder that is the shape of a sitting owl. It has three really cool climbs in it (22, 18 and 19, left to right), all of them bouldery at the start with really unique moves, all of them run out and a bit iffy in terms of safety, but when adequate precautions are taken they are well worth the risk, especially considering the view at the top of Mount Tibrogargan. Jin and Kimberley started trying the 19, called Midnight Makeout (or is it Morning Glory?), which starts on a series of slopers and sidepulls with lots and lots of heel hooks that you use for balance. Both made good progress, but Kimberley got a bit of a scare because of not taking an essential QD with her at an already run-out spot! Even Jin let out the token scared whimper when he managed to top it out! See Maria looking at the owl pillar:

Me, I decided to try my new project in the ravine close to the owl pillar, a gently overhanging line following a sloping crack (which you can see through the very distant other side out in the open!) called Idaho Sunshine, grade 28. I haven't done a 27 before, so I'm skipping that grade, and this may explain my tremendous difficulty I am having with this climb, definitely feels like another level, and mentally it didn't help that I had done so badly in training that week! I had already dedicated one try to that climb before, not going past the 4th bolt because of a tricky crux. I was really happy to get past that crux and the one after that, which only left one more bolt to go and then anchors, and this bolt I know I can do because it is also part of another climb that I've already done! This climb has 5 cruxes in 20 meters, two of which cash in in about V4. I found one of them was really original, involving a big throw to a 3/4 pad sloping crimp from a big sloper and bad feet, then matching the bad feet, and effectively "throwing" the left foot to a side sloping big crack where you can just wedge in a good knee-scum that allows you to throw for the only jug in the climb! It may be a really unique beta for me. I was really happy with this progress, and Maria was kind enough to take a few pics:

Crankin' through crux #1:

Crux #2:

At some point it'd be great to do a vid of this classic! BTW, I took numerous 7 m falls... It's run out!

Good times at Ngungun always deserve a good dinner with friends at Quan Thanh in West End! Makes me almost forget the previous week's groundfall incident involving Anri... But let's not remember that! Psyched about next week's training!

See you next week!

About this blog

Hi everybody! Welcome to my new blog. The reasons I'm creating this page follow from a few not-necessarily-new developments in my life:

• In case my family and friends (especially those not living in Brisbane) want to know what's going on in my life,
• to have this as a journal of our weekend adventures (otherwise forgotten by me because of my bad memory), 
• to have this as a (rock climbing) training journal and
• having recently turned 30, I wanted to start something new, even if it was small and only a couple of people read this.

Truth be told, if I am to continue to be motivated to write this, I will have to focus the content on the third and fourth aforementioned bulletpoints, i.e. mostly a rock climbing training diary.

Now for a few basic details about me: I'm a 30-year old Mexican physicist/mathematician (hopefully I will soon remedy that) married to the ever-so beautiful and versatile Maria. I love helping out other people, travelling and rock climbing (the latter two go really well with each other!).

I've been climbing for about 2 years and 8 months now, and I'm as hooked as ever! My current maximum level is V5 outdoor bouldering (a few V6 indoors), and Ewbanks 26 in outdoor lead sport climbing (5.12c in YDS). In December 2013, Maria, some friends and I will be travelling to Mexico to do some climbing (and exploring), and training for this trip begins tomorrow (Monday 9th of September 2013). I'm actually pretty psyched about that! Lately I've been pestered by this (A2) pulley injury of my left middle finger, which makes me afraid to crimp hard. After taking 3 weeks off it felt better for about 2 weeks, then it came back (in less magnitude). Hopefully after the 5-day rest I've given it (along with all that great birthday tamales that Maria and Vivi made) I should be OK to start training progressively. Details of my training will be included here (hopefully) tomorrow.

For now, I'll just leave whoever is reading this with a couple o' shots of my birthday surprise (Thanks Maria!) trip we did yesterday. Those guys were truly amazing!

See you guys soon!