The last few days.

Holy crap, a weekend without climbing something, I did manage to get in some running however.
Saturday evening was spent in Evanston at "Tapas Barcelona" celebrating Reese's birthday. In short, the food and company was exquisite, and fun times were had by all. (Couldn't get everyone in the picture (sorry ya'll)). Talks of climbing, work, school, and life in general went on as plate after plate of yummy food was brought our way.

Sunday I woke up with a head cold, being stuffy I opted not to run and spent most of the day shopping and cleaning the house in hopes to beat the damn cold. Monday morning I woke up feeling a bit better and opted to run. I did a quick 2.15 miles...that turned in to ugh...I had a hard time breathing and kept hocking up all sorts of crap, which I think might have been good in the end. Tuesday evening was spent in the climbing gym. I felt ok, because it was the evening and all that mucus crap was out of my system. I finally did yet another climb (cleanly) that I have been working on for a few weeks, a 1.5 foot wide pillar that runs the full height of the wall. It's was bear, you need both strength and technique for this one. I wish I had a picture, but for those of you that have been to the Sport Complex you know which one i'm talking about. Here's hoping to feeling better by Saturday since i'm going to Devil's Lake again.

Also, a big congrats to Matt for his success. Keep going buddy, it only gets better!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/matthewmichael/1408961843/

Tradin' in Soill:

This last Sunday was a sunny day. I met up with Jeff and Andy at Drapers Bluff around 10Am for some climbing. These guys both frequent Drapers so they were so kind enough to let me lead everything first :)
"Dental Bill" was the first climb. There are a number of different ways to get up this section of rock. I chose the 5.9 way which contains a very "lovely" off-width crack. (An off-width crack is a crack that is too big to "hand jam" and to small to get your whole body into stem.) My arms and back (which I only found out about later that evening) got cut up something fierce. There were a few groups of people out just hiking around that day so every now and then we'd get a "Hi, how are you". Pausing only to stop and look up at these people climbing up the bluff and wonder just how sane they where.
Up next was "Dust Doctors" The roof it the hardest part of this climb. (See photo to left) The rest of the climb fun with great protection. I think I was able to place a piece every 5 or 6 feet., after getting to the top and running the rope though my own lockers. I cleaned when I be being lowered.

Up next was "C" crack (see photo at right), I have been wanting to do C Crack since March 07 if even it was just to second it. However, I was gonna lead it. The climb is broken down in to two sections, the first a lovely 5.8 crack with great pro all the way up. The second is a 5.8 10-15 foot traverse with two horizonal cracks, one two shallow to use for protection, the other crack was at an awkward height to place anything and only 1 foot hold (a small pocket about the size of a half dollar). Guess which part was really humbling. Judging by the amount of old gear left right before the traverse...I knew I was in for a treat. I placed a cam, as well as used a cam that was over cammed and the trigger wires cut (this thing was not going anywhere...) as my anchors. I started off across the traverse...."TAKE" Took a whipper right there. That was my first fall on gear. The sounds were something else. All the gear held.

I decided to lengthen one of the runners to give the rope some more play. When I went for a second go across the traverse, I made it to the end....Oh....SHIT Z-CLIP! (I believe those were my exact words) When I had gone to adjust the runner length from one of the cams I had re-clipped the carabiner to the wrong side of the rope. "TAKE!" my second whipper. This time however, due to the Z-clip, two of the nuts I had placed about 5 and 10 feet below my last cam "zippered" out. (Note: there was a sold #2 C4 below the nuts) While I was falling I remember just watching the stems of the nuts go 180 and then made an awful sound as they where ripped from the rock. The two cams I had above me were still solid. I fixed the Z-clip and climbed the traverse and belayed Jeff and then Andy up. I for sure learned a lot from this one climb.

Weekend Report:

Saturday morning started off with a 1.5 mile mile run at a fairly easy pace just to wake up. The afternoon and evening was spent climbing at Vertical Endeavors and out for dinner and drinks with Kristen, Reese and Dave. Climbing for 5 hours was something different. I can comfortable climb an indoor 5.9 now, which makes me happy. They opened up a few new routes on "The Thumb" (5.10a and 5.10c, which were a blast to climb even though I only got about half way) to Top roping that had only previously been Lead Only. (Still can't Lead, but i'm working steadily up to it!) those were some fun routes i'm hoping they remain this way for the next time i'm down at VE. With 2 or so more months of winter, chances are good i'll be back down that way before spring kicks in.

We also made a quick trip to REI, just to pick up the basics, more chalk, latest issue of Rock & Ice, I tried on new rock shoes, but because of my Hobbit feet, it's hard to fit in to most shoes. I also now fit it to some Parna cloths, however, as the girls were so kind to point out...a shirt that $50.00 on sale.....not worth it :). Also made as stop by a local sports shop to pick up Burton Snowboarding mittens.

Sunday was spent snowboarding, I missed last season due to mostly the midwests' knack for crappy unsure winters, but I have a feeling i'll be able to get a few more days in this year from the looks of it and who knows...maybe a trip out west!

Clean!

Saturday Kristen and I picked up our Christmas present to ourselves. a brand spanking new Dyson DC17 Animal. This thing rocks! I spend Saturday night vacuuming the house. I swear by the time I was done I swear the carpets looked brighter! If you have pets and carpeting...this is seriously what you need. Though I gotta say....I think the "wand" looks more like a light saber.

Sunday morning was spending running. I finally made it back to my pre-holiday mile time of about 8 minutes. With also the start of the new year I have also planed to modify my workout routine because I have decided to join the local fitness center.

Monday - AM: Run PM: Gym
Tuesday - AM: Run PM: Climbing
Wednesday- AM: Run PM: Gym
Thursday - AM: Run PM: Climbing
Friday -AM: Run PM: Running or Drinking.....
Saturday - AM: Run/Climb
Saturday - AM: Interval Run / Climb?

Only a slightly modified version of what I had before.

Also, just a note to the jack ass in the BMW that almost ran me over this morning... STOP signs are there for a reason as are speed limits. You are not the only one who is up at 5:00 AM. And if you can't see the big guy running in the blue reflective top under the street light, try more coffee or more sleep. Ass hat.....

With that said. Happy Day All!

Saturday morning:

The dogs got me up at 3:00, 5:00 and 7:00. After 7:00 I gave up on trying to go back to bed. Scout is still in recovery (she sprained her hind leg last week at the dog part) so I skip the normal Saturday morning game of fetch in the back yard. She is recovering well, she can put about half her body weight on it.
About 8:00 am I went for my run. 1.47 miles. Good time. I got a lot of funny looks from people because I only had on my Under Armour (which is light brown) and a t-shirt on over that, which from a distance, really looks like I'm running in short sleeves. And when the morning temperature was a lovely 36 F and 10-15 mph winds...You get some fun looks.
Getting back I cooked a breakfast of eggs and smoky links, which Kristen as excited that they finally have up here in the northern part of this state.
After breakfast I got ready to go climb Mt. Libertyville. I met up with Dave and Reid had decided to come out and join me. Such a fun morning. We climbed a lot...... Even met up with a guy named Patrick, climber from out in Colorado who was back visiting family for the holidays.
Granted I stayed there for almost 4 hours today and I still keep getting stopped by the second crux of the the route with two roofs......I'll fucking get it........

Merry Christmas!

A night at the wall:

Last night after cooking a dinner of grilled Johnson BBQ chicken and some sort of instant frozen veggies (eh...) Kristen joined me for a night of climbing at what I have dubbed "Mt. Libertyville". Climbing went well I would have to say. Kristen was getting back in to the swing of things after taking a month off because of coaching and the other stresses that teachers need to endure. I scaled up (twice) the right side of the front face (I need to come up with route names for these...) We'll call this one "Z cold nose". For months I had tried to climb Z cold nose a number of times, but kept getting shot down by it's crux. I found the trick for me a few weeks back. In involves the "one arm death hang" and the ability to lift your knees to your chest at about the same time. (Sounds fun huh?) After my warm up of climbing up and down* (which actually took place before I climbed Z cold nose) I had decided to give my two most recent projects a go. The first is a bitch, a mega-mini-crippy 5.9 (or so Brain has rated it ;)) i'll call it "The Crimpy Bitch" the biggest hold is about the size of your thumb. I have managed to work my way up to the crux, a 1 foot roof. Which is about the time my hands just recoil by themselves, my middle finger sticks it self up and I fall to the ground. (Note to self: develop more finger strength. )

"They are called Fingers...but you never see them fing" - Otto

The second (which there is a pic of me getting of the first of two cruxes on my flickr page) is a double roof route. I have just about mastered getting over the first roof, which involves a nice little dyno to a hold that is just above the second roof. That's about the place where I get stuck. Just gotta keep climbing it like I did with Z cold nose.

* Down climbing:
There are a few key benefits to adding down climbing to your routine.
1. Teaches you good footwork as you are constantly looking down as to where to place your feet next.
2. You might need to down climb a route out on real rock for one reason or the other.
3. Twice the workout!

Why I started this blog.....

The last few months I have really pushed myself to get in shape. Putting exercise a head of just about everything else, changing my diet, and focusing on portion control.

Why? I have realized that this will be the only way that I will ever get in shape. For as long as I have remembered I have always been....well....fat about 290-320+ lbs if I had to guess (44-46 waist). Never felt really good (physically), got made fun of a lot (and I mean a lot), and couldn't do the things that I wanted to do. finding cloths was a pain in the ass and so on and so forth.

In June, I was exposed to the sport of Rock Climbing. Granted my first time out, I couldn't climb up a 5.6 to save my life, my arms where so dead after 45 minutes that I couldn't open my own beer while at my 26th Birthday party later that evening. At that point I had started to see climbing as a fun hobby. I have enjoyed only a few other sports. Skiing and Snowboarding (I never cared for team sports even though I played Lacrosse for about 6 years though Jr. High and High School) With climbing...it's You vs. the Wall vs. Sir Issac Newton.

After climbing a few more times with in the following weeks I started to realizet that Sir Issac Newton was right about gravity. While skiing and snowboarding can be a workout, you have one allie, gravity. However, you learn very quickly when climbing that Gravity is clearly working against you. So I started to climb more and more. I joined a gym with a wall and have been climbing 4 to 5 times a week. Giving a day or so to rest my fingers.

About 4 weeks back, I had attempted my first 5.9/5.10 mix route. When I got to the 2nd fixed draw (20 feet up). I could not move, I was out of gas drained, not even resting while my belay held me could have help. It was after that climb that I decided to start running. Been running daily at least once (twice on non-climbing days).

That's my back story over the last 6 months.

Currently I weight about 230 lbs if I had to guess (38-40 inch waist). My mile time is around 8 minutes.

While my goal is to be a better climber, it is still second to my goal of being healthy.