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!