Sport Update
My blog has been pretty quiet the past while with my own news so here's the update.
I'm snowboarding as much as I'm willing to. The snow is still pretty lacking here at present so I've only been boarding a few days a week and this is purely to keep me sane (and justify my season pass ;).
I came away with three aims for my snowboarding this year
1. Improve my switch riding (i.e. riding with right foot forward) as I'm only average in this position.
STATUS: in progress
2. Ride powder. Lots of powder - what I love on a board!
STATUS: there's currently 40cm (about 13 inches) of a base on the hill and about 3 or 4cm on the pistes. Meaning no powder :(
3. Learn jumps (180's, and hopefully start trying 360's)
STATUS: bits of progress although the lack of snow means jumping hurts. I'm currently landing backside 180's (where you rotate so that you lose sight of the direction you're going) about 2 in 10 times. Which means I'm crashing out 8 in 10 times. Ow..........
So all in all, I'm surviving! At least I know by the time I leave here, my technique will be awesome :)
Other than that, I've been following a 10-week hill training program (it's all based on running for time, not on distance which for some reason I feel more motivated to run by) on the side as much as I can considering I'm also boarding which is also pretty abusive on my knees. Progress on that is going along nicely, and getting at least a one-hour run each week (max time). Wanaka is wonderfully hilly meaning there's lots of variation to just running on the flat.
And, of course, where would I be without my climbing? :) My fingerboarding has been progressing along nicely - I've dropped another rung size on the Metolius fingerboard (which just happens to be the same one back in my house in Ireland which is great for benchmarking off) so finger strength has gotten better (again ;) but my shoulders are as weak as kittens. I've the physique of Dave Graham at present - strong fingers but the shoulder definition of a 5.10 climber :) Working on sorting that out. The local climbing gym, Basecamp Wanaka, is really interesting - a 9 meter vertical wall into a 8 meter horizontal roof. Basically, pumpy and not ideal for getting mileage on! So, my one night a week of routes involves doing almost all the routes in one night. It's a weird quirk of climbing that the harder grade I climb, the less I find myself doing routes indoors and doing more specific training like fingerboarding. Just the way I like it though, indoor routes get repetitive, and the outdoors has much better views....
Along with that, I've been doing some training with the kids up at the climbing gym also. Some of them seem to be getting very good but get unmotivated (it's not an ideal wall for training as the roof is so extreme) pretty easily, so we've a game where they'll try a route and some new techniques out in return for me attempting something daft on the fingerboard. The last one was pull-ups on single-knuckle monos so thankfully I don't have to play that game very often =)
I'm snowboarding as much as I'm willing to. The snow is still pretty lacking here at present so I've only been boarding a few days a week and this is purely to keep me sane (and justify my season pass ;).
I came away with three aims for my snowboarding this year
1. Improve my switch riding (i.e. riding with right foot forward) as I'm only average in this position.
STATUS: in progress
2. Ride powder. Lots of powder - what I love on a board!
STATUS: there's currently 40cm (about 13 inches) of a base on the hill and about 3 or 4cm on the pistes. Meaning no powder :(
3. Learn jumps (180's, and hopefully start trying 360's)
STATUS: bits of progress although the lack of snow means jumping hurts. I'm currently landing backside 180's (where you rotate so that you lose sight of the direction you're going) about 2 in 10 times. Which means I'm crashing out 8 in 10 times. Ow..........
So all in all, I'm surviving! At least I know by the time I leave here, my technique will be awesome :)
Other than that, I've been following a 10-week hill training program (it's all based on running for time, not on distance which for some reason I feel more motivated to run by) on the side as much as I can considering I'm also boarding which is also pretty abusive on my knees. Progress on that is going along nicely, and getting at least a one-hour run each week (max time). Wanaka is wonderfully hilly meaning there's lots of variation to just running on the flat.
And, of course, where would I be without my climbing? :) My fingerboarding has been progressing along nicely - I've dropped another rung size on the Metolius fingerboard (which just happens to be the same one back in my house in Ireland which is great for benchmarking off) so finger strength has gotten better (again ;) but my shoulders are as weak as kittens. I've the physique of Dave Graham at present - strong fingers but the shoulder definition of a 5.10 climber :) Working on sorting that out. The local climbing gym, Basecamp Wanaka, is really interesting - a 9 meter vertical wall into a 8 meter horizontal roof. Basically, pumpy and not ideal for getting mileage on! So, my one night a week of routes involves doing almost all the routes in one night. It's a weird quirk of climbing that the harder grade I climb, the less I find myself doing routes indoors and doing more specific training like fingerboarding. Just the way I like it though, indoor routes get repetitive, and the outdoors has much better views....
Along with that, I've been doing some training with the kids up at the climbing gym also. Some of them seem to be getting very good but get unmotivated (it's not an ideal wall for training as the roof is so extreme) pretty easily, so we've a game where they'll try a route and some new techniques out in return for me attempting something daft on the fingerboard. The last one was pull-ups on single-knuckle monos so thankfully I don't have to play that game very often =)
My big ones were:
ReplyDeleteTail riding - springing off the back onto the tail and holding it there for a few secs while at speed.
Nollie at speed - springing off the back and onto the nose and holding it there for a few secs.
180 Clip - Catching the nose of the board at speed on a diagonal so it flicks you around 180 without you doing too much.
Your snowboarding goals make me smile as they are very similar to mine. Mine are always:
ReplyDeleteRide [x] amount of days (usually in the 40 - 50 range).
Attempt 3 180s each day.
Attempt 3 wall hits.
Become comfortable with switch.
I still suck at the jumps and wall hits, but started to feel pretty good with switch, even on the black diamonds. However, I might skip on a seasons pass this year in order to climb more.
Keep on rockin' on H.I.P.!