I woke up on Sunday with a bit of a sore head. It was our 7 year anniversary on the 14th February (such a cliche, eh?), so to celebrate, we did the usual Saturday night routine: cook some really yummy food and watch Take Me Out (mainly to annoy the OH). I was a bit fuzzy headed the next day, so quite pleased that my aim for Sunday had changed somewhat from my training plan and my aim was to do a more endurance/volume session. Even better, the Works was quite quiet for a change.
I warmed up traversing and doing some one-legged climbing on some of the reds and greens towards the back of the Works. I’m finding the little kiddy play area great for easy traversing and luckily there weren’t any kids around, so I could play to my heart’s content. After starting to feel somewhat more the thing, I started at problem #1 of the Pinkles (graded F5+). It was lovely and straightforward, but also highlighted that I really hadn’t quite warmed up yet, so I threw in a couple more reds and greens for good measure.
I zoomed around the Pinkles as much as my head and the other climbers would let me. I had a couple of rests because I really wanted to do the problems in order as I often forget which numbers I have missed out on and then fail to complete the circuit. In the end I did all 36 problems, and only failed on 4 (#2, #7, #29, #14(?)), one of which I had done on Friday. A few of them took more than 1 go, but no more than 3. I was working quite hard during this session, and was in Zone 3 for most of it. For Sunday that was exactly what I wanted – something to make me work, but not to expend too much energy as I wasn’t feeling that great (self-induced, I know!).
I also aim to climb on Monday at the Foundry as it is the last of the Winter Bouldering League, so once I finished the Pinkles circuit, I cooled down, had a bite to eat and chatted with my friends. Running around doing endurance does not lend itself to social climbing, so it was nice to catch up with people at the end of the session.
By the end of the session I felt that I had accomplished my aims. I probably should have warmed up a bit more before starting my training proper, but I was keen to get cracking and I could warm up as part of the endurance circuit. I don’t think that I climbed particularly efficiently – I think I used more strength and thuggery to top some of the problems than body position and finesse. Diane said that she often climbs easy problems again when she thinks that she hasn’t climbed them particularly efficiently. I think I might start doing that, as it would force me to use better body positioning, balance and grace than simple thuggery. Maybe I’ll integrate this into my training plan too.
My general aims for the next week are quite broad. We’re going away for 4 days, so I’m aiming to climb Monday, Wednesday and Thursday. There is a comp at the Foundry on Monday, and I’m tempted to go and have a play on the new problems, or if not that psyched, go and do a steep terrain session on the 45 degree board instead. On Wednesday, I plan to do another easy circuit which means climbing all the L1s at the Foundry. On Thursday, I’ll be playing around on insecure holds again. Not a bad training week eh?
Here’s the grading of the new Pinkles:
Work Hard, Think Hard and Train Harder 