Pyramid

A quick post before my very good friend and former college roommate James (http://v10orbust.blogspot.com/) comes to Seattle from Vancouver, WA to watch the ABS Divisional Championships (http://usaclimbing.net/rockcomps/comps/schedule_region_results.cfm?region=101). My workout was a pyramid starting at 4 v2s and moving up to 3 v3s, 2 v4s, then finally 1 v5 and back down again. I've found that these workouts are another great method to track my progress. This time around, I was able to finish all the problems except the v5. It was an onsight attempt and I got to the last move before falling, so I felt fairly good about it. I also don't usually climb two days in a row, so I'm very content with my performance. Last time I did this workout I remember falling on one of the v4s and even one of the v2s at the end of the workout. I saved the hardest v2 in the gym for my last and it was a breeze. I felt more collected and smooth throughout every route this workout. I feel an improvement in my endurance for sure.

Yoga

I've decided to aim for doing yoga twice a week. I've contemplated which activity would be most effective for cross-training, and have decided that an intensely physical yoga is definitely the most beneficial thing I can do. For the most part, my forearms get to rest, but I still get to work on body control and precision movements. The class that I attend usually puts a great deal of emphasis on leg strength (however, this could be my weak legs lagging behind my strong upper body). It's a great activity for me because I'm highly goal motivated. Yoga allows me to make a goal out of advanced poses. It also clears my head. I manage to have focus when I climb, but since I mostly boulder, that focus period only lasts a short amount of time. Yoga keeps me focused for the entirety of the lesson. *I'll have to delve deeper into what I receive from the mental and spiritual aspect of yoga in a later post.

First Workouts of the Year

Project Workout: 01/03/12

I started the year off strong. I came in expecting to project v6s all session, but a few new friends happened to be there, so we hopped on some harder stuff. I ended up pulling down two v7s that night. Happy days. Both forced beautiful movement, but offered a few modifications within the style and size of the climber. I climb harder when people are watching--especially people I know and respect. I'm usually introverted, so most of my friends have been the ones to initiate the first interaction. *I'll have to make a point to branch out and meet new people. There seems to be a large population of people whom take climbing seriously in Seattle. I'd love to join the club.

4 x 4 workout: 01/05/12
(climb four routes back to back with no rest. stop. wait about 10 minutes. repeat 4 times. Intensity should be high. You should be out of breath. Grades should be your highest onsight ability.)

I did well. I formatted each set as follows: v4, v3, v4, v3. I fell on my third set on the last v3... I don't think I allowed myself enough time between the second and third set. My last set seemed too easy, so I threw on another v4 at the end and made it about half way. This workout is a great way to build power endurance. My next step will be to add a v5 in a couple of the sets.

Hangboard and HIT-board: 01/07/12


No routes today... just board training. I want to test the benefit of devoting an entire workout to boards. For the hangboard, I strapped on the 20lb weight belt and hung for 3 sets of 5 reps. Each set was a different hold: sloper, crimp, and rotating shallow crimp + two finger pocket. *If I had thought to use the HIT-board, I would have done pinches as well. Hold for 7 seconds each rep. Rest for three seconds between reps. Rest for a few minutes between sets. The last set was too intense for my ability, so I only made 4 reps on each hand.

After the fingerboard, I gave a meager effort on the HIT-wall at best. With the weight belt still attached, I managed to get a single send on easy pinches, two on hard pinches, two on easy crimps. I failed my attempts on both hard crimps and slopers. I took the weight belt off and managed to pull a couple ugly sends on slopers (alternating sloper-jug-sloper-etc.) and only couple moves on hard crimps.

Project Workout:


Again, I came in expecting to project some v6s... Unlike the 3rd, no friends tonight :( When I come in to project I'm hoping to work on and send anywhere between 2-4 routes that are near my threshold, but easy enough to get within the session. I was climbing horrible until I brought my phone out to film myself. Knowing there would eventually be someone watching my performance, I had to step up my game--another v7!

Nutrition

I formed my dietary guidelines through several different theories too numerous for me to care to number or reference. Basically, I try to adhere to a "whole foods" diet (or at least my idea of whole).

Guidelines:

Raw or cooked, whole, mostly organic, mostly local vegetables and fruits.

Raw or roasted unsalted nuts.

Cooked meat with an emphasis on fish (simply because it's my favorite). I also hope to add local game meat to my diet: elk, deer, rabbit, etc. 

No dairy (doesn't really agree with me too well).

No refined sugar. Minimal intake of honey, agave nectar, or pure maple syrup.

Little to no grains. If consumed, only whole grains with minimal processing.

No processed foods (with the exception of basic cooking).

No preservatives.

My daily meals usually consist of the following:

Breakfast: fruit (usually apple, orange, kiwi, assorted berries, pears), vegetables (wheat grass, broccili, carrots, spinach) maybe some nuts or nut butter and water blended into a smoothie. Occasionally I'll make an egg too.

Lunch: whole, uncooked vegetables and fruits and nuts along with a cooked meat (usually a sausage since organ meat content is nutritionally dense).

Dinner: Cooked meat with a side of cooked vegetables. 

I do drink coffee, beer, and wine in moderation... Although if I was entirely dedicated I would eradicate these from my diet as well.

Height: 5'11''

Weight: 162 lbs

Target weight: 157 lbs

My general experience is that the lighter you are, the easier it is to get your body up the wall. However, part of my climbing style uses the explosive power football and track have given me. I'd like to keep as much of this dynamic power as possible simply because I find this style of climbing most fun and, at times, most beautiful. I think 157 should allow me to maintain power while also taking 5 pounds of weight off my fingertips. 

Why Blog?

I hope to log different aspects of my climbing experience. I assume my main motivation will consistently be to track my graded progress as a boulderer. I will do this by describing (whether through words, videos, or pictures) each of my workouts, my adhesion to diets, etc. However, I also plan to post gear reviews, my thoughts on certain climbing subjects, and other climbing-related topics.

I hope that this blog will be a tool to keep me accountable for the skill I hope to attain:

With great responsibility, there will come great power.

Blog Title

The title "Wall-Crawling" is meant to capture several different aspects of this blog.

• I feel as though climbing has so much to offer and I have just begun to realize its potential. My place in climbing is insignificant opposed to its place in me. I feel like a wide-eyed infant in awe of the vast amount of experiences to be had and knowledge to learn--so unrefined are these that I'm still at a "crawl."
• Spider-Man is my favorite super hero. This is not an understatement. I own all 160 issues of Ultimate Spider-Man vol. 1 and eagerly await the newest issues of vol. 2 each month. There was a time when I owned over 50 Spider-Man t-shirts... Spider-Man's movements have, since I can remember, been a source of inspiration for me. Wall-Crawling is something he does with ease, beauty and flair. I am striving to create such movement.
• A pun on the act of slowly scrolling or "crawling" through the wall of my blog :)

Introduction

I started climbing in the winter of 2007 at Central Washington University's indoor climbing gym.

Climbing was just a fun activity I did every once in a while until that summer. 

That summer I joined Edgeworks climbing gym in Tacoma, WA and began to treat climbing as a sport. 

I climbed consistently for about a half year until I decided to join Track & Field for the university. 

When I stopped climbing in winter of 2008, I was climbing somewhere between v4 and v5. 

I picked climbing up again in the winter of 2010 to enter a contest at CWU. 

The contest tracked the feet my partner and I climbed. The goal was to collectively total the same footage as Mt. Everest from base to summit: roughly 13,800 feet of vertical climbing. 

We ended with close to double that amount. I scaled that 35 foot wall almost 400 times that month.

I'm proud of our accomplishment, but I'm more thankful for the experience with my climbing partner, Darrell. We had a blast.

--And we each won a rope! which I sold, because I didn't think I would ever continue the sport. 

Short lived was my second run at climbing.

She doesn't know this, but I eventually began to climb again after reading one of the "100 reasons why I love Kyle" my girlfriend gave me. It said, simply, "I love your passion for climbing." She had written it years before when I first started climbing. 

--I thought about what climbing had done for me and what kind of person I was when it was in my life. 

I hope to post more on those thoughts later, but for now I'll say that they were more than enough to inspire me to climb again. 

I've been climbing very consistently now since August of 2010. 

At my best, and by Seattle Bouldering Project's standards, I'm climbing v7. 

Throughout these periods, I've climbed mostly indoors. However, I've spent a good amount of time at Frenchman Coulee, Gold Bar, Exit 32, Exit 38, and Smith Rock.

My passion is bouldering, but I enjoy sport as well. 

I've never climbed trad, but am eager to do so.