- 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!
