Another set of four night shifts has been consigned to history and the countdown to my brothers wedding starts - I have the basis of the best man's speech written down and so once I have finished rambling here I have got to crack on with that.
I woke up last Thursday in what can best be called an absolutely foul mood - quite what was causing it I have no idea but I needed to do something so I went down to Rubicon to have another go at the traverse. I have now managed to complete the second part once which is kind of good in some ways, slightly depressing in others but the reality is that it got me out of my mental state of hubris which was all I really wanted from the day. Started off by throwing a beer mat on the ground a couple of moves past my highpoint (surely a contradiction with a traverse) and made that first time which I was pleased about so moved it down to the red streak as my next aim. Cue lots and lots of failure - I just kept getting swamped with a tsunami of pump once I hit the second section and while I knew it was over gripping that was causing it knowing this doesn't actually mean that you can stop it. Time for a change of plan - I knew that I had the first section pretty much wired so decided to eliminate that and start at the end and work the second section. I also admitted to the fact that I have got no stamina at the minute and so I sat about for ages (think along the lines of epochs here) getting my feeble arms to a non-pumped state and then put myself on timed burns at it. The plan was to have an attempt and then give myself five minutes recovery time before the next go - it says a lot that five minutes wasn't enough for my forearms to recover but the only way to get better is to push a bit harder outside of the comfort zone. Somewhere in this torturous set of attempts I managed to get past the beer mat to the end of the second section proper - it was just agonised slapping from one good handhold to the next with the sole aim of making one more move, moving feet and repeating until failure but it felt good all the same. Nice setting with a bit of a breeze and sunshine followed by a fantastic pint of Barnsley Bitter and some Sheffield tapas - welcome back to humanity.
Yesterday I watched the finals of the Bouldering World Cup on the internet - I wanted to be there in person but stuff got in the way so had to settle for the streamed experience instead. All in all it was good - the only real criticism I had was that they really should have the clock showing so that you know how long the competitors have left to attempt the problem but it worked well other than that. Some of the comments on the "chat" function were also amusing - various comments abounded about the first men's problem as it featured the ignoble art of chimneying and a lot of people just couldn't get the fact that you can set a good problem on something that is not 45 degrees overhanging minimum.
Seeing the beast that is Adam Ondra casually dispatch the first three problems was equally dismaying and welcomed as it meant that full attention could be transferred to Natalija Gros instead who in her own way is equally beastly. The way she did the crux move on the second (I think) problem was a sight to behold. While all the other competitors went for leaping across in various states of gazelle like grace she just did the splits across the two holds, got what looked a less than ideal handhold, crushed it and rocked over somehow - a fine effort indeed.
The other huge surprise was Ondra falling off the last problem not once but twice - the crux was reminiscent to the start of the crux to Tody's Wall (the move onto the block) but a bit harder and then getting a huge hold out behind your head. Once you figured out that you had to be facing the huge hold and dropping onto it then the rest of the problem was "easy" in comparison but seeing Ondra fail to flash it after the ease with which he dispatched the other three final problems was somehow shocking.
Right - better crack on with the best man's speech. Back to Rubicon tomorrow to see if progress can be made on the traverse and try a few other problems I think and then Pleasley on Thursday as it is only a short diversion from there on the way back South.
I woke up last Thursday in what can best be called an absolutely foul mood - quite what was causing it I have no idea but I needed to do something so I went down to Rubicon to have another go at the traverse. I have now managed to complete the second part once which is kind of good in some ways, slightly depressing in others but the reality is that it got me out of my mental state of hubris which was all I really wanted from the day. Started off by throwing a beer mat on the ground a couple of moves past my highpoint (surely a contradiction with a traverse) and made that first time which I was pleased about so moved it down to the red streak as my next aim. Cue lots and lots of failure - I just kept getting swamped with a tsunami of pump once I hit the second section and while I knew it was over gripping that was causing it knowing this doesn't actually mean that you can stop it. Time for a change of plan - I knew that I had the first section pretty much wired so decided to eliminate that and start at the end and work the second section. I also admitted to the fact that I have got no stamina at the minute and so I sat about for ages (think along the lines of epochs here) getting my feeble arms to a non-pumped state and then put myself on timed burns at it. The plan was to have an attempt and then give myself five minutes recovery time before the next go - it says a lot that five minutes wasn't enough for my forearms to recover but the only way to get better is to push a bit harder outside of the comfort zone. Somewhere in this torturous set of attempts I managed to get past the beer mat to the end of the second section proper - it was just agonised slapping from one good handhold to the next with the sole aim of making one more move, moving feet and repeating until failure but it felt good all the same. Nice setting with a bit of a breeze and sunshine followed by a fantastic pint of Barnsley Bitter and some Sheffield tapas - welcome back to humanity.
Yesterday I watched the finals of the Bouldering World Cup on the internet - I wanted to be there in person but stuff got in the way so had to settle for the streamed experience instead. All in all it was good - the only real criticism I had was that they really should have the clock showing so that you know how long the competitors have left to attempt the problem but it worked well other than that. Some of the comments on the "chat" function were also amusing - various comments abounded about the first men's problem as it featured the ignoble art of chimneying and a lot of people just couldn't get the fact that you can set a good problem on something that is not 45 degrees overhanging minimum.
Seeing the beast that is Adam Ondra casually dispatch the first three problems was equally dismaying and welcomed as it meant that full attention could be transferred to Natalija Gros instead who in her own way is equally beastly. The way she did the crux move on the second (I think) problem was a sight to behold. While all the other competitors went for leaping across in various states of gazelle like grace she just did the splits across the two holds, got what looked a less than ideal handhold, crushed it and rocked over somehow - a fine effort indeed.
The other huge surprise was Ondra falling off the last problem not once but twice - the crux was reminiscent to the start of the crux to Tody's Wall (the move onto the block) but a bit harder and then getting a huge hold out behind your head. Once you figured out that you had to be facing the huge hold and dropping onto it then the rest of the problem was "easy" in comparison but seeing Ondra fail to flash it after the ease with which he dispatched the other three final problems was somehow shocking.
Right - better crack on with the best man's speech. Back to Rubicon tomorrow to see if progress can be made on the traverse and try a few other problems I think and then Pleasley on Thursday as it is only a short diversion from there on the way back South.
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