glee, wonderful glee!

[sixbeforelunch]

Post your stories of climbing glee here. Anything is welcome as long as it made you happy. :)

Comments

[rydra_wong]

I did the V3 that I had developed a mental block about!

And I nailed the overhanging V2 that had been taunting me for weeks (because it combines all the things I'm worst at) the day before that section of wall got re-set.

And my "new" shoes are breaking in and I managed to wear them for a whole session.

(Ironically, these are the Vipers I mentioned here that I got ultra-cheap in an online sale and had written off as Too Small Full Stop. I forgot them at the back of a wardrobe for a year -- kept meaning to sell them but never got around to it -- and evidently during that time either they grew or my pain threshold changed a lot. I decided to see if I could break them in as my current shoes are wearing through, and it looks like they're shaping up nicely.)

[pellucid]

I finally have climbing glee again!!!!!!!!!!!!! In the form of I WENT CLIMBING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to give it up about six months ago in the throes of dissertation-finishing: I just didn't have time to make it to the gym. And the six months before that were really sporadic. Fortunately, though, it looks like I'll be able to settle back in to a regular climbing schedule for the foreseeable future.

I was SCARILY out of shape--I haven't been doing weight training of any kind, and not a whole lot of cardio, either, for the past six months--so 5.7 and 5.8 was totally my level, but it was also really encouraging to see how much you don't forget, even if your muscles need some time to catch up. The technique is still all there, and even as I got progressively more tired through my (brief) climbing session, my body got increasingly more relaxed as it remembered how to do this.

It'll take some time to get back to form: not only are my muscles out of shape, but my shoes hurt, and my hands have lost all their callouses. I could also stand to drop 10 pounds or so of what I'm calling "dissertation weight." But the important part is that I'm BAAAAAACK!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!