Flow

A comment was made on the last post that I should be working my weaknesses. Amusing timing as I got sucked into an Interval session at the Foundry tonight with Dave, on undercuts. I hate them, they make my wrists hurt, and I can't use the damn things when it gets steep. But, as part of this new found love for attacking weaknesses and (as Chalkbag emphasised) "maintaining strengths", it was a case of getting stuck in. And of course, after a period of time, I was suddenly linking much of the sequence I'd been given (it's a training lap on the woodie that the locals use for training for Malham). Sometimes it's not that you're not strong enough, but that you don't know how to use that strength.
Many years ago, I attended one of Neil Gresham's coaching courses. I didn't find it overly beneficial (mainly due to the huge ability difference in the group I was with which meant that it was hard for anyone to get time with him - but I can't recommend coaching enough) but one thing stuck with me at the time. He'd asked me to demonstrate a steep drop-knee on the UCD 30-degree board. Then he asked to me do it without just pulling on my arms! It was a good point - all your core and feet can do a huge amount to keep you attached, but all I was doing was pulling in and gripping with both hands.
It seems somewhere in the past (unknown time) while I've gotten out of this habit a bit again - and especially with undercuts, if you don't push with your core and feet, the only direction you're going is towards the matting (or pad or airtime :). So, some practice and some regular repetition will hopefully fix this. It's like dynamic pulls, the campusing should start paying of soon.

Why the dolphin photo? Wouldn't be awesome to be able to move like one of those, like they move in water? And as another analogy, I took this photo as the dolphin rode the wave off the boat I was on in New Zealand - a creature that is ridiculously powerful, and yet still has the smarts to use anything at it's disposal to move forward. Nice analogy eh? I must still be ill to come up with that one ;)

One of those weeks. Some sort of flu, throat infection, and I seem to have tweaked a finger at the comp (nothing new there - haven't left a comp in years without an injury. sigh) so crimping is out. Ironic considering I was focusing on crimps right now! At least I had the amusing experience tonight of realizing that I can comfortably out-hang quite a few strong people at the wall on an open-handed edge - but it does mean I can't work on the weakness now!
What can you do but keep the head down and remind yourself of fun times you've had (and will continue to have) - Naomi and I stuck in the hut in the Fjiorlands in torrential rain in NZ on this day last year :)



New Zealand (Country Guide) on Amazon

CWIF2010 - the positive refresh

Well, yesterday was the disaster review - today is the find-the-positive-review :)
Firstly, technically, I see problems immediately how they are meant to be done which is huge - something that transfers really well for real rock progress. Secondly, my static crimp strength is solid but when it comes to dynamic moves, I'm a ship lost at sea - I just couldn't pull or throw moves. This was a fascinating visible lesson, something which I used to be excellent at. So that's a learning experience of what I need to do more of (I was starting to realize this in many ways a few weeks ago by the lack of campus power and this is a direct correlation). Thirdly, the obvious one is that if you're not rested, you suck. I was worn out from work and what turned out to be illness (easy to realize now after two days off from flu!) so a good reminder that if you're not fresh, you don't go well either!
All positive learning experiences though, and it'll be a good reminder in the forthcoming weeks as I continue to work and adjust to this crazy new career I have right now - perhaps I'm going to have to be smart about my training more and really prioritize what I'm training - I just can't sustain lots of hours at the wall so I might have to consider pure power and interval work. The sessions are short from this, and I'll be able to fit in really focused training!

In between all that, Siurana is canceled (fecking Ryanair!) but we'll be making a tour of Portland instead for the Easter break - bring it on, hopefully I'll be able to perform a bit better on real rock! psyche!!!!! :)

CWIF10 - a smack-down

From The Usual Suspect

Name the camera-man :) some of the Irish readers will! answers in the comments...


Firstly and most importantly, Nigel Callender made the semi finals of the comp and while ran out of steam on the burly problems, made a truly inspiring effort so serious kudos my friend! He joked he was the token Irish guy in the finals, but if he was the token Irish, what was I?!?!

Anyway, what a fun event! 30 problems, run in the same format as the Irish Bouldering Leagues (i.e. 3 goes) but without the, depending on my mood, good or bad option of resorting to a B version and winning on strategy. Here it was all about just how good you were. The route setters were amazing, a ton of problems that basically just didn't involve pulling hard, your technique had to be up to scratch also (the photo below gives an idea) and some big names were left floundering in the aftermath.

as taken from CWIF2010 Picasa page

Myself, I let myself down on both. I could throw out a few excuses but at the end of the day, none matter, I just wasn't good enough - even by my own expectations. But as always, from a beat-down comes some revelations and realizations.

• I seem to have lost all dynamic power - I just don't 'give' 100% on moves. That'll be sorted quick - will start setting some problems at the wall.
• My crimping is still letting me down - that's going to take time, I can only hope to get this up to an equivalent pocket-pulling level by next winter. Something I knew about, but boy did it show at the comp. Tweaking a finger at the comp won't help this right now but lots of icing will hopefully get me back on track soon.
• I don't have that mindset for comps that you really need to do well (even if not excel at the comps) - I jus don't pull hard. It's that stoopid, have-a-laugh-mindset that kicks in when I'm at a comp but it's just daft. When you see how seriously (even while having a laugh) all the others, especially the foreign contingent (I'm still Irish so that means anyone outside of here) were taking it, it was a good reminder to focus! case in point, three problems I didn't even complete on the day, but not from being tired/weak/jaded - I sent the next morning as warm-ups. This full-on mindset is what is required on routes, I floundered on my project in Turkey from the exact same let-down.

So in the end, I finished up with a deserved average result, but should have ended up doing better. Not much better, but better. The comp really opened my eyes though, I really need to be spending more time climbing with people stronger than me, I feel like I've stagnated and it showed. A lesson that I let myself hide behind a little bit - I got comfortable at my level and got complacent.

From the overall comp point of view, it was super-inspiring to see the top-level guys and girls. Jeebus, they can pull hard all day. Interesting insight of the day was watching the world-cup champ, Ernst, just not get tired at all as the day went on. On the mens side, just watching some of them really fight on problems was an inspiration in itself. Watching them start the 3rd final problem with a handstand into a foot-jam and obligatory sit-up was crazy! One point of note that a lot of them were seriously burly climbers, something I will never really be so I'll have to see how I can work around that as I go on - it's probably not as much of an issue for routes.

On an amusing note, I had a funny couple of conversations on Sunday. I ended up going back to the Works with Naomi as wanted to tick a few more problems. I knew I'd get more of out it than playing around on the gritstone. The grit is fun, but a lot of days I feel are just spent floundering on some slopers, not really getting an benefit. And my goals are for limestone, and European limestone, so I took the indoor option for a few hours (followed with some time wandering around down in the Peak). Some people took some serious offence at it, but when it comes to the summer months and when I'm pulling hard on the routes I want to be doing and feeling as strong as I want to be, I'll be the happy one. I'd rather give up a few days indoors for the longer-term benefits! (see this comment: "she has a really fantastic attitude towards training, she is so dedicated and is prepared to sacrifice a sunny day to the climbing wall as she targets the bigger goals." from Alan Cassidy's blog in Spain for a comparable idea). I'm coming around to the idea of making smaller sacrifices for the bigger gains myself......

On a side note, does anyone know a good trainer for grade-8 climbing? Interested to have a chat, even if it involves cash.

CWIF10 - The Climbing Works International Festival 2010

The Internal Works comp is on today, competing with Naomi, Dave and Caroline as part of Team Paddy - thanks Smacks for registering under this name :)

Anyway, for anyone interested, they're streaming the finals live this evening here. Don't expect to see me in it, I'm not even expecting to make the semis to be honest, but there's some big names (the Austrian World Cup team with Johanna Ernst) coming over and it should be a good event so give it the support it deserves by turning on the stream - more viewership means more publicity for the wall and the sport.


Have a good day all!

The start of the Intervals

I had my first flirtation with doing an interval session on the Foundry board this week. Dave, who I was with in Malham and is generally a super-strong climber (notably on crimps!) had been talking about it and I'm definitely one for following the ideas and thoughts of someone who has climbed hard (he ticked Mecca - 8b - last year which is on my to-do list). That's one of the awesome benefits of the Foundry right now - I get to watch, and get ideas and advice from a bunch of people who have climbed a few notches above me and it can only motivate. Here's some of them below.

- Justin: "I do all the problems, including my warm-ups using features or screw-ons for feet. It's something I learnt from one of the strong-men who now happens to own the Works" (climbs all problems up to 7c this way). I've been a big believer in this for a while, but hadn't really considered my warm-ups also - I've found already that I'm pulling a bit harder, probably more of a psychological thing as I'm getting prepared in the warm-up for to grip harder.
- Stuart: "Change my interval problem every session to stop me just learning how to get all the moves - I never repeat the same sequence every week" Not completely sold on this one just yet as there's a psychological benefit to seeing gains over a couple of sessions on one specific lap. E.g. I repeat a 90-second long lap of the woodie every 3 minutes for a maximum of 10 times. Can barely do it 4 right now, so there's a nice mental and I'm sure physical gain to be made by repeating this fully 10 times. I'm going to compromise and change the lap I use every two weeks.
- Steve McC: All you have to do is just watch him to see how good his core and his technique is. I've spend a lot of time working on lower back and getting core strength sorted. Again, paying off on steeper problems.

These are just an example but I love the idea and quantity of new thoughts I'm being given. It's easy to get into a rut after climbing for so long with the same (good and bad) habits so these can help refresh. Notable ones this year are that when I first started climbing, I only really focused on crimps, it's now mainly pockets so I'm having to get into the habit again of crimping things - Writing it down as a goal-of-the-night to just crimp everything is surprisingly satisfying, even if I fail on lots.

Anyway, back to the intervals. Dave set this lap so it's super-crimpy and with loads of undercuts (on the 45-degree woodie). All those undercuts are killing me, so I have to fight from the second I pull on. I didn't even manage a full loop on Tuesday (neither did Dave thankfully!) but I put in several burns and will start doing it twice a week now for the forthcoming month of so. progress progress progress........

Malham - invasion of the 'Peakies'!

Malham as you walk in - a pretty inspiring and random piece of rock!

The 'Peakies' term is how anyone known from the Sheffield/Peak District area is known, and considering I recogized over a third of the people at the crag on Saturday, it pretty much said it all! (Malham is a 2-hour drive from Sheffield).

Myself, Dave (not the usual Dave)and Judith hit up Malham for our first trip of the year. It'd been a few years since I was last there - link to TGU post here. My memories were hard to read limestone (as it's all largely white), slightly steep and super technical and crimpy. Not much had changed in the intervening years as it felt much the same! We warmed up on the 'easiest' route on the crag, a short 12metre 6b+ which was fun and pumpy for the grade. Myself and Dave then set up camp on one of the local 7c's, not out of preference but mainly as there were so many other people there that we were limited for choice! The image below doesn't really do it justice, but I'd guess that every 2nd or 3rd route was taken.


Looking across the lower tier

Anyway, I got a refresh of one of the important tools of UK climbing, the clipstick. I know you can use them anywhere but the only place I ever really see them in use is here - I guess it's because the rock is so technical to climb, and the holds are usually tiny. With the routes being so short, it means that all routes feel intense so working out moves while placing the quickdraws can be massive effort - it seems common to place all bolts using the clipstick as you pull up the rope, then top-rope the route until you've got all the moves largely dialled. Do I agree with the practice? Not 100% just yet, I still have a thing for going up and working out the moves on lead, but I also see the benefits - it saves a bit of time, and also probably some reduction of damage to the rope as you're not just wearing the point near you as you fall continously on the bolt.

Anyway, much to my amusement, one single solitary move beat me down. A singly under-cut crimp in the steepest part of the wall and I just couldn't pull on it. It's a lesson in not avoiding moves you suck at - I just don't do well on undercuts so really need to spend time practicing them! Still though, much to my amusement - and everyone else's! - I was giving up near the end of the day and for a laugh decided to give up using 4 fingers on the crimp, and just pull on it like an upside-down 2-finger pocket. And pulled the move first go! comical, I really need to improve my crimp strength :)

Anyway, Dave hiked the route on his first lead attempt, and I'll send it next go. I'm super-psyched to get on Raindogs (8a - which I touched the moves on previously) now, it's less steep and I'm climbing really well on that angle at present. Stay tuned, I've got my eyes on a few of the 8a+'s also.

Amazing moment of the day? A common practice at Malham is to finish a route by grabbing the chains, something that is seriously not kosher anywhere else. It's accepted practice here - Raindogs finishes with this exact setup. Anyway, a climber from Sheffield, redpointing his first 8c, climbed all the 25-odd metres of the route, put his fingers through the chains.....and then fell off pumped!!! how close can you get! Still though, positive news is that he returned on Sunday and sent it. Sick.

Oh yeah, Happy St. Patricks Day!


Malham tools - the new addition is the clipstick!

Spiderman de la India

O.k. - credit to my Dad for this sending me this one. Completely off the wall, but I seem to having one of those weeks. Check out the strength at the 20 second mark......I think I'd need to lose another couple of stone to throw my weight around like that!

Why do I blog, and statistics about this one :)

The first photo I ever posted - Dave's climbing wall! ha, coincidence :) And amusingly, that's the largest size of the photo - just shows how much it's progressed in 3-4 years

Some stats for y'all. I thought I'd compile some info on this blog as it's been going a while and I was intrigued to see some of them!

Firstly, I don't have original stats for 1st 21 months as I only moved to Google Analytics in late December 2007. I moved to this as was finding that all the other stat counters were too unreliable and liked to over-count the number of hits. Nice for the ego, but not so useful for real info.
What do I write for? I don't write the blog for any financial incentive (although I have brought in small amount over the years from some ad-clicks) or personal promotion (although I'd like to think that some of it inspires others which is one of the big reasons), it's more from the principal of mental stimulation and creative thoughts. to air my thoughts and ideas basically. I'm also sold on the concept of the web for sharing ideas and thoughts, it's of no use if anything I've learned is just stuck in my head!

So...without further ado:
1st post: 3rd April 2006, almost it's 4th anniversary!
Total number of posts (including this one): 475 (avg. 1 post every 3 days)

Currently monthly page reads: about 500 (peak was about 900 a month the 1st year I traveled)
Reads on the day of a new post: 40 - 50
Max number of reads in one day: 72 (march 17, 2007)
Number of subscribers: 114 (as of today)
Most popular post (you'll laugh at this one!): Burton Seven snowboard review with 791 views
Most popular post on what you'd expect (climbing, duh :): My old home climbing wall with 562 views.
top 5 countries for visits (from total of 77): Ireland, USA, UK, Canada, Netherlands


Technical:
Main browsers in rank: Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari
Main operating systems: Windows (85%), Mac 15%
Main screen size: 1,024 x 768
Main connection speeds: 1st place is unknown, 2nd is DSL

It's easy to forget that it's not all about indoors....

Nope, they're not mine. Naomi's hands show the wear and tear of the work she's putting in - yes that is a whole pad torn.....

[Update: yes, as some noticed, I had a moment and incorrectly wrote the title. Give me credit, it was 3am :) ]

...as I'm stuck doing so much of it right now. But it's all for a reason. Real. Rock.
Dave is showing the way this year, training and climbing really well and it's super inspiring this year, especially as every time I think my hours are going more normal, I'm slogging into the dark hours on something or other to do with work (see time of this post as an example......). Still though, everything has it's benefits so it's a case of putting in the hours now so that it pays off in the long run. I had that exact discussion with some pupils today - they're all sick and tired of school, but I remembered that (way back then) my dreams were to travel, and by college go climbing loads, and to do so I needed jobs for cash. They just have to keep the head down now and keep slogging away.
I'm doing the slogging myself right now - both in work and sport. It's an ongoing battle to try and pick off problems at the Foundry, big shoulders are the name of the game here. But the gains are starting to show with some sends right when I want them. After all the slogging. As the summer arrives. And limestone comes into play. Psyche.

Inspiration of the day: Watching Steve McC walk up most of the problems tonight like he was walking. Jeebus.
Insight of the day: I take a long time to warm up for serious-power-problems. Don't rush!

Training update: Since Dave updated what he's doing for the one-armers, my current focus continues on crimps - I've realized how much of an off-set in strength there is. Can hang a 2-finger pocket one-arm but not even close with a 4-finger crimp. So, it's steady steady steady with off-set hangs (at different angles) like Dave, about two nights a week (on top of bouldering two nights currently, excluding weekends).
On top of that, it's projecting the hardest problems at the wall, and doing all the previous problems features only. Not sure which is harder!


Video distractions for a Friday....

Non-climbers and climbers, a good documentary on The Man and his motivations. Online junkies will have already seen this, it got it's push across all the major websites today.....


And for the folk thinking strong, an oldie from the CATS climbing site - a V12 being campused:

La Sportiva Campus from James O'Connor on Vimeo.

The Archway reset and some REAL rock - Glenmacnass

Firstly, I really need to get sorted out with contacting people before I'm back home for a weekend - I don't seem to be particularly adept at updating people that I'm back! Having said that, as usual it was still an awesome weekend and managed to hook up with a bunch of people in the end, although Naomi will take the credit for organizing much of it.


The Archway in all it's glory. Apologies for badly chopped photo, it's a stitch of 9 photos from my iphone so quality is pretty poor and missed the bottom of the wall


Gary contemplating whether to just give up and go home ;)

Saturday involved some highly boring (and insane considering the weather) work resetting the Archway, Dublin's 2nd best climbing and training venue (sorry, my allegiance still is with the Co-Op :) To anyone involved in a wall, reset the wall before the season indoors begins, and do it on a day when the weather sucks! Having said that, the wall badly needed a reset and as I was home, Naomi had asked me to give a hand and it seemed like a good idea as I could share some ideas from Sheffield. Rule number one of a wall from the strong folk I see, is use only crap footholds for problems and avoid hand-to-feet as it simulates real rock better thus putting way more load on your arms so gets you stronger quicker.
In the end though, I'd say slightly over 30% of the wall was reset and looks much more usable in general so it'll be worthwhile. I'm not joking when I say that the Co-Op and Archway are the two best facilities in Dublin for bouldering on. I know Naomi now has a few pockets in great locations for doing strength work on also so she's not complaining :)
After that, a great evening was spent chilling out with a bunch of friends, unfortunately I was having to drive home so couldn't get involved in the action of tasting these.....


Glenmacnass granite-ness. Awesome, beautful, skin-shredding granite :)

Sunday involved a nice run before breakfast, followed by a drive to potentially, the nicest area in Wicklow, Glenmacnass valley. Unfortunately, I've no real photos but the photo below shows how coarse the rock is, skin shredding is the name of the game here but it's all so worth it. I hear all of these reports that gritstone is God's rock, but we all really know where it's at…….
In the end, a shorter session ensued as some other commitments for the evening ended play, but Naomi sent her first 6b+ boulder problem in quick time and I admired the holds on one or two of the harder problems. Sometime I'll get around to pulling hard on granite….that Wow Prow is one of the few lines in Ireland that truly inspires me.

4 weeks to go to Siurana, have to keep the training up now - projects at the wall, some fingerboarding and bouldering to keep the power up, and some light running and core work for variation. Now that work has settled down and some shade of a routine is forming, hopefully it'll translate into more sleep and training time. This may be a trip early in the season for climbing but I'm hoping to make the most of it. Keep up the motivation, y'all - only 2 months to May and the Summer season. psyche!