Recovery climb at the Depot Nottingham

It is safe to say that I didn’t really get up much of any note on Sunday. I was pretty wiped from cycling on Saturday – my legs didn’t feel that bad, but my core was pretty tired. I also wasn’t that psyched, even though we were going to a new wall. And I broke my trusty Contigo thermal mug so I was also coffee  deprived.

Anyway, I decided to try the league problems (the pink circuit) in the Depot Nottingham and got up to problem 21 before they go rather difficult. I’d like to think that if I was a bit fresher I would have done at least a couple more. However, I found that the foot holds were very slippy  (maybe because the Depot doesn’t have any carpet down and the chalk dust grinds into the plastic holds?) and often my foot pinged with no warning. My back was very sore as well, so I was reluctant to take many hits on it. That said, I did practice some dynos (probably not the best idea) and I really enjoyed the problems that I did try.

After about an hour I was pretty wiped so I decided to stop working the pinks and move onto some easier stuff. I did a couple of reds, some blues and some blacks. In the end I was just too tired so I packed up and watched Diane and some other people climb strong stuff.

 

Where I nearly drive into the back of a tractor

I’m not a confident driver. I learned late, as I didn’t see the point until I moved to Sheffield and even then, I didn’t have a car for a couple of years after I passed my test. However, it became increasingly clear that the OH loves to drive, and loves taking road trips. This means that I really ought to suck it up and get more confident on motorways. They’re most definitely not my happy place. To this end, we’ve been taking occasional trips to see the folks and popping here there and everywhere. I suggested that we go to Nottingham this weekend, so I can become a bit more confident.

We picked up others who were coming with us and set off in the direction of Nottingham. It’s very different driving with a full car than just me, the OH and a couple of bikes on the roof. One of our friends was in a particularly good mood and was a bit distracting. So much so, that I really didn’t click that there was a tractor pulling out to overtake a cyclist. On a dual carriage way, in the middle of a Sunday. The OH shouted brake!!! I braked. That was probably the only noticeable slip up on the way there.

Nottingham Depot is a great place. I love how they’ve kept the old tiles and some of the heritage of the place. It’s really open and inviting, although I found the music a bit boring. It was also wonderfully clear as well – something to do with the rather nice weather outside.

We warmed up and enjoyed playing on new problems. I wasn’t feeling as great as on Friday, probably because I’d only had one day recovery, and my fingers were feeling a bit tweaky. I completely powered out on a long roof problem – all jugs – but loads of them! And I got the sequence wrong the first time around.

After recharging with coffee, I then tried some of the harder problems and got shut down on two in quick succession. The first was a pink competition one (in case anyone is going there soon) and was on a kind of stepped slab (starts as a slab, then steps out and becomes more overhanging) where the starting crimps were. You had to use the crimps to stand up and go for a bobbly sloper (see below) thing that you had to guppy with your left hand. Then stand up, and rock over on your right foot to reach for a massive jug with your right hand. I couldn’t reach. I really tried to rock my weight over and then give a little pop or hitch to get that extra 2cm, but it didn’t work. I didn’t feel like I could really get any momentum going to get a dyno or a jump involved. In sum, it made me grumpy.

It looks a lot like the one in the top right.. Pretty easy to hold, but not quite good enough. Source: Holdz Climbing

The next problem was similar. Two small crimps, some small foot holds and a jump to latch onto a not great, but good enough hold. The OH and others could  just stand up and flash it. I could jump, but do the usual thing of not latching. After getting more height and improving my jumpy technique, I stopped and went to work another problem that I flashed.

I worked some harder problems after that, but was definitely tired. I also started to trying to figure out how to shoot a photo ‘looking down’ for the august break challenge. After a couple of tries, and getting incredibly pumped, I got a shot I was happy with.

After playing on some more problems, I finished off with some core exercises. I’m trying an app by Caynax called ‘Caynax A6W’ which contains a workout schedule and different core exercises. Surprisingly, the first session was actually quite tough and I definitely felt the burn! I was thinking of putting ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures up, but I’m not sure I can face doing that. I might tomorrow.

Here are some screen shots from the Android app:

 Some stats:

Climbing:

• Good number of blues, purples and blacks to warm up
• Topped a couple of the competition climbs
• Worked some reds, yellows and pinks

Core:

• 6 x Series 1 A6W
  • 6 x single leg lifts
  • 6 x double leg lifts
  • 6 x single leg crunch
  • 6 x double leg crunch
  • 6 x single leg crunch hover
  • 6 x double leg raise

 

#augustbreak2013 #lookingdown 18.08.2013

Looking down from the top of the bouldering wall at The Depot in Nottingham. It was surprisingly difficult to get this shot! I was very pumped by the time I had one that I really liked. Photo: CanadianKate