Lough Dan

Blogging about training is boring, so have given that up as a bad job. Might do a pull up spread sheet, but probably not.


Anyway,  today was looking good and Jules was working away, so decided to head back down to Wicklow for a bit more bouldering. With everyone else either running or still in bed, I went off on my own to Lough Dan. I haven't climbed much on the right hand side of the boulder field, so decided to give it a go.

Warmed up on the Wave boulder, which was a nice but I found myself wussing out a bit without a spotter. There was a blunt nose behind the Wave, which looked like a bit of fun if easy.

The right hand side of it was fairly handy, I think it goes maybe at 4?

 The left side goes as well, maybe at 6a+ starting sitting on the block in the photo. It was kind of hard to judge without a spotter - I wasn't sure if it was difficult or if I was just wussing out, plus it needed a bit of cleaning. It was definately harder than it looked though!

It feels like the block beneath the start could be moved out of the way as well, which would give a much better and harder start - I wasn't strong enough to move this block fully out of the way though.

If these are new, given the season that's in it, I thought it would be good to call them "Due Date" and "Baby Boom"

I played around on a few other problems, which were srittly and not great, but still nice in the sun.

I wandered on further, to Driving Seat, which was as nice as always. There looked to be a nice problem just above the top out from  Driving Seat, which again felt like a 6a+ and quite nice. I videoed my self climbing it - I hadn't quite realised what a heavy breather I am, I'm almost as bad as Dairmuid!

Again, if new then maybe call it Booster Seat?

Finished the day on the problems around Ped's Patio and Beef to the Heel. Beef to the Heel is a great name, and I'd always wanted to go over to the problem just for the name. It's a nice traverse, and there looks like there is some more do to on this side of Lough Dan. The Quartz Face by Ped's Patio looks fine in on the right hand side, but I didn't fancy trying it without a spotter.

Tired by this point so wandered home, still nice, sunny and warm so a good day  out

Looking to the meet...

Day 3 - 2 x 10 pu in morning, that was it - 8.30 finish in work left me too tired to do anything else
Day 4 - 3x10 ampu, 3x10 pmpu - 8.00 finish inwork

Haven't made it down to the wall this week, and it looks like I won't make it now. Looking forward to the bouldering meet on the weekend though, should be a bit of fun. It will be interesting to see if the limited pu this week will have helped me maintain any strength

Day 2 - 5/3/2012

Hmmm, a bit weaker today. 10 x 2 pulls ups in the morning, and 13 x 1 and 10 x 3 pulls ups in the evening, 30 push ups inthe evening.

Must warm up for pull ups - 13 straight away left me pumped for quite a while.

Shoulders are feeling fairly tight so must learn some stretches - tried some basic ones last night and pulled the right shoulder slightly.
 

First blog... (and Glenmac)

 First blog, ever.

Why?
The idea behind this blog is to help me train a bit more, as I always intend to do so but then laziness gets in the way. Ideally, I'd like to tick a Font 7c+ and E4 at some point, so I need to get a bit stronger and more focused.

Training
At some point soon I'd better read a bit more about training, but in the mean time I'm going to start off with sessions outdoors, indoors and pull ups and push ups at home, together with some hanging off the door frame for finger strength.

Climbing
 At the same time, I may as well keep a log of my climbing so that I can see how much climbing I actually get done and what I've been up to. Made it down to Glenmac for the first time this season for a solo session. Sent a group text last night but Trish was the only taker, and she slept in ( I called and texted her this morning but didn't want to keep calling as it seemed too stalker-like).

There were beautiful blue skies in Dublin, but it clouded over a bit in Wicklow. I had some second thought about Glenmac with the risk of rain, but kept going as I'm quite bored of Glendo by now and I had a hankering to give the 7a sitter on the Rasher boulder a go.

I'd kind of forgotten how long the walk in to Glenmac is, and with the wind blowing against me it made it seem longer. Despite its relative length for a bouldering approach, it's a great walk-in as Glenmac is quite impressive in its own bleak way.Following the cold snap last night, the snow/frost was coming down the hillsides around the valley and this added to the atmosphere.

Got to the rasher and worked the full irish for a while. Topped out before the nose, but I think this may be too early. Tried going further a few time but bottled out of the rounded top-out.

Moved on to the 7a sitter to the left, and was glad to have the tarp. Took a while to figure out the moves and to remember to ignore the tempting looking jug to the left - too far off route, just made life more difficult. Remembered to try the top section so that I would know how to do it when/if I got there. Finally linked the bottom moves by figuring out the feet/ holding the cut-loose, got to the easy top out moves, forgot how to do them and fell off. Worked the top moves again and remembered them. Was afraid at this point that I'd spent too lon on teh problem and wouldn't have the strnegth left to do it. Gave it another go and topped out, felt so easy!

It always feels like an anti-climax to me when I work a problem for a while that feels hard, and when it finally goes it feels easy. It's as if I should have sent it earlier, and not wasted so much time. However, I think I've finally accepted this as part of the process and to enjoy the send anyway, as often when I  come back to what was eventually an easy send I can't do it again anyway!


Moved on after this to the easy circuit around Le Joker, then felt like heading back so that I could also get a walk in with Jules. Good day in the hills!

Days Training
To get off to a good start, I also did 2x12 and 2x10 pull ups, and 2x30 push ups (no finger boarding). The plan is to 50 pulls ups each morning and 50 each evening, and 100 push ups. We'll see

Blog editing
Must write shorter blogs. This one is long, rambling and pretty boring I'm sure. Plus, it's way past my bedtime.