Ready, Set, GO!

Just like out on the mountains you have to stop and take stock of where you are if you want to get where you want to be without any wrong turns. It’s not pretty but it has to be done. So here is where I’m at in January 2012. I’m 84 kgs (87 at Christmas!). I've been running most mornings now and am building up to the bouncy, upright, feel-good feeling that comes with regular running. Unfortunately it’s all been on road but with a stretch in the daylight due to happen I’m going to try and get out onto grass or sand more. Running down to the coast road and back before the commuter routes come alive with traffic is a great way to start the day.  I've been bouldering outdoors once, into Gravity 3 times and the Arch twice and have noticed a few specific weaknesses (other than just generally feeling shit and wimpy).

·         Lock off power is nonexistent. By that I mean the shouldery static lock that seems to prevail in indoor bouldering moves.

·         Finger strength is ok (not great) but of more concern is the complete inability to squeeze or pinch plastic blobs and slopers. Again, this is a very indoor specific strength that I’ll have to develop over the coming months. Not too worried about this one though as I've rarely found it necessary on rock.

·         Core strength. It’s a healthy dose of L-sits and leg lifts from the Beastmaker for me from here on in. Whenever I do any specific core work I always have to be careful to balance out the lower back with extensions or fit-ball work.

·         And Lastly but not leastly – flexibility. I've been really impressed lately but some peoples bendiness and I’d like to develop some of my own. This ties in nicely with the running actually as I click back into a post-run routine of warming down and stretching.

Great! So plenty to go at. My target weight is 78kgs. I want to boulder V11. Sport climb 8b. And headpoint Divided Years. Just as well I like a challenge, huh? Haa!

Heres some insane, mind blowing, standard defining footage from Font that has been doing the rounds on the web lately. Plus a V14 FA from everybody’s favourite, Dave G – word!

Back to Scratch

 

I'm living in Ireland again!! Woo hoo! Had an epic drive home from Spain in the trusty white van before Christmas and have been on the go ever since. From a climbing point of view not much has been happening. I'm at an all time high (weight wise) and at an all time low (power wise) but my psyche levels are off the chart! Plus there is light at the end of the tunnel - I'm in the thick of my biggest ever project and have begun running again in the mornings. 2012 is a year for meeting and smashing targets! So I'm gonna aim to go large. I'm looking forward to things to come...

Bouldering... on actual boulders! Really!

Lets talk some numbers shall we? 1 half-day, 2 people, 35 degrees, 6 litres of water, 13 cairns built, 2 pairs of gloves, 1 saw, 2 secateurs, 1 hatchet, 1 block cleaned, 5 new boulder problems, 3 problems climbed, 2 projects remaining, 0 pads, 20 or more blocks left to tackle... hmmm.

The obligatory before shot. Our first target was the arete block that Caroline spotted a few weeks ago. Fist we had to negotiate the 3m or so of prickly shite to actually get up face to face with it.

And the after shot. A couple of hours worth of ripping, cutting throwing and stomping followed by a fair amount of brushing dirt and muck off the boulder and it sat ready to be climbed on.

Heres a more telling view of the main act - the arete. I'd describe it as feeling like a frictionless, harder, limestone version of Rhythm and stealth in Glendalough with an equally worrying landing. The ground below the arete falls away in a mess of rocks and (now) some bits of trees partially filling a hole. The smooth nature of the rock means you have to bear down on the edges or verdonesque closed pockets that are there and simply do the moves between them. The obvious horizontal break is slopey too leaving some burl for the finish. I couldn't do it. Not without pads or more spotters anyway. To me it's a classic line. Location, angle, obvious feature and the right difficulty for me to work on. Definitely the hardest 6a I've ever laid my eyes on.

Heres what we got done. Caroline got the ball rolling by climbing the first problem. She pulled on from sitting from a knee-height sidepull and then balanced her way up and left. It was cool with a real slopey top move. Problem two starts as for the first but follows features rightwards getting higher and higher above the deck before having to use some slopers and small but positive footers to reach for safety. Problem three pulls on using a steep crack and then moves left on slopers before balancing back right and up to finish. The yellow arete project is worth obsessing over. The green project is an obvious line breaking out left from problem three and finishing up problem two.

After that we hiked back to the car and went for an exploratory hill run. Oh my God! More quality rock and this time we found a trackside overhanging wall - ideal for bouldering/training - not the mention the miles and miles of undeveloped single and multipitch rock, crazy!!

Happenings

In the past two weeks I've turned 29, climbed a few 7c's, a few 7c+'s, an 8a and an 8a+ all in single sessions of work (after work). I've fallen off my nemisis 8a at the Wildside a total of 18 times from above the same bolt, but thankfully, from progressively higher and higher holds. I have now accepted that it just doesn't suit me for lots of reasons but I'm sticking with it to the end - it's working me so hard that it has to be good for something, even just mental toughness. It's been raining here and heating up which is playing havoc with the rock conditions too. I also had confirmation that a route I climbed in October was in fact a first ascent and was considered a "hard eight" project - so 8a+? I want to activate some power again so I've started a bit of light fingerboarding after the crag. I've been doing more running lately too - keen to get fit before the summer. Thats about it, heres some cheese...

A Muerte!

Today we went for a nice run (have a look at the Garmin profile) and then hit the crag. Los Pinos again. After yesterdays success i was keen to try the other dubious 8a, Jog jog. This is an essential piece of climbing if you want to climb Gaz's Ex Jog 8a and Jordon's Jog Pat 8a link ups. And if they can be done I'll have climbed all the moves on Gaz's Ex Pat 8a+. Got it? Didn't think so. Anyway after warming up by placing the draws, i toped it out again to work the crux hand match. After a short break spent belaying Caroline i gave it another go only to realise that i hadn't thought about the clips. Unsuccessful but i learnt something. Last go of the day i made no mistakes and redpointed it. Thrid 8a in a week! Again, this one has had 10 ascents on 8a.nu and 5 give it 8a while 5 grade it 7c+. I suppose the bouldery nature of this ones distinct crux section acts to split opinion. Felt harder than all the 7c's i've done at Dinbren but again, maybe thats just as a result of my style. Of the 3 this week i reckon Gran Fuma at sombre del Leon was the hardest but with each route I try i'm noticing something new in my climbing. I'm bouldering with a rope on at last! I don't think about or even notice the rope anymore and that lets me give every move of every attempt 100%... something i've never really managed before. There is something to be said for having access to sports climbing on your doorstep...

Siurana

Right so… lets lay the cards out on the table. October’s trip to Font marked our re-introduction to climbing – we’d been doing feck all before this and Font marked the starting point. After Font we made a decision to start doing a little and often through the winter. Training indoors and making as many forays out onto real rock as possible to keep the psyche high through the dark months. Around Christmas we decided a trip to Siurana was well overdue so we booked flights of Easter and began making our weekly trips to Awesome walls in Liverpool to get some leads in. All this time I wouldn’t say our training was hard, it was just a gentle way of letting our body’s know they were in for a lot more climbing this year. So Siurana was always intended to act as a kind of introduction to sports climbing and give us a benchmark of where we stood in the scheme of things. Once we had this information we could work on some goals for the summer and really keep the pressure on for making progress. 3 years since out last sports climbing trip! Jeeze!!

Anyway, we arrived in Siurana late on the Tuesday evening exhausted after finishing up a busy term in school and travelling to Spain. It was great to be back and catching up with Toni while flicking through his new guidebook and being shown his latest mountain running trophies. We hit the hay and had what felt like the best sleep in months – the holiday had begun!

Eager to get out on rock, we got up early and headed straight down to L’Olla in the valley to warm up. I jumped on a fingery 6c and due to the early morning chill I was numb by the top – but saying that I couldn’t remember ever finding it that easy before – Caroline followed by leading it but without any sports climbing like this in the last three years or so she took a while to get into the required mind set to climb above the bolts and took a rest above the crux before leading on to clip the chains. I felt curious so just tied in and tried a neighbouring 7c, Ya Os Vale – a few minutes later I was at the top, having totally missed the last bolt in my sprint for the chains! Sweet!! Before long Caroline was in full sports climbing mode and had lead a rake of 6’s onsight and felt ready to tackle a few 7’s. First to fall was an epic long 7a in El Flaco. With a low technical crux and long runouts at the top it wasn’t a route I would have expected Caroline to onsight but before long she was near the top and stuck in a layback position. Out to her right was a large hole but it was out of reach and footholds were sparse – I hadn’t even noticed the reach but it stopped her dead in her tracks! I was thinking about shouting up to try and reverse the layback to a rest nearer the low bolt but before I could say anything Caroline just swung and dyno’ed across to the large pocket, feet swinging out! The locals erupt with “Venga, Venga!!” as Caroline finds something for her feet and clips the draw – the rest of the route was a plod by comparison and Caroline had onsighted her first 7a in 3 years – super nice! A few hours later we headed back to L’Olla and Caroline, fresh from the onsight, wanted a go at a shorter and harder 7a – the fingery and technical “Cargol true banya” was on the hit list – dispatched 1st redpoint. After my early success on the 7c I began to play on Anabolica, 8a. I had played on this with McQuaid 3 years earlier and knew I could do every move but also knew that it was at my limit. Well this time if felt cruisey! The crux under the roof felt solid – But throughout 9 straight days of climbing and with failing skin and strength I just couldn’t do the bleedin thing in one go! The best was two overlapping halves – psyched! Stubbornly I decided not to try another 8 in that sector before I send the classic. Every morning we got up, I had 3 redpoints on Anabolica, we had breckfast and went onsighting, back for lunch and a siesta and out again in the evening for more climbing. I kept to my aim of trying an 8 a day – some 8a+’s and an 8b but I never committed time into any – this was just testing the water for later in the year. Somewhere in there we managed to fit in some running again too. It felt brilliant to be running again such a relief after something like 6 months off due to my back injury. It was also the first trip ever where I never fell of a 7 – altogether I lead over 20 pitches from 7a to 7c, some onsight, some repeats but zero falls or rests! Awesome!

One major landmark for me was a rematch with an old nemisis - 8 or 9 years ago I had my first trip to Siurana and was full of stories of this awesome 7b+, Bistec de Biceps. I couldn't even dog it! I basicially had to Aid up the bolts just to retrieve the draws - it was horrible! People were laughing, my harness was leaving fleshwounds, an English bloke even filmed it and played in back at the restraunt - oh the shame! As a result of those non-to-minor mental scars i had avoided the route ever since - well this time Caroline fancied a go and i duely tied in to clip up the draws - And a Flash! Whats more, it felt EASY!! Whoop! Caroline began working it and really enjoyed the steep powerful style - similar to some of the north Wales bouldering. One for next visit!

And ontop of all the climbing we had our lovely little room, Toni’s Mam’s cooking, Ciabatta bread, fresh fruit, Sunshine, chilling out by the river, reading the backlog of books and just finding some space and time away from life back home – perfect!
Leaving Spain never felt so wrong…

Races and Comps

Last saterday we headed to Nottingham to take part in the UK athletics Cross challenge final and European trials selection race at woolaton park. The biggest Cross country race of the year in the UK. We've both ran the race in previous years and it's such a cool day with the Sky sports TV camerac stationed at various points around the 12km course. Some on quad bikes, soem up in towers, some under bushes and one cool one an a big boom that sweeps over the runners charging down the forrest avenue. We were both selected to race for North Wales. Proud to be selected but feeling worse for wear after the week of disrupted training and also afraid to take part in such a competitive race on the mucky terrain incase my sciatica flares up again (long story...) i bowed out and Caroline raced.

Sunday we did something different. I dislike climbing comps.... probably because i'm too weak to crank and i've never really liked indoor climbing. But seeing as how our local wall had organised a comp and we wanted to support the organiser we showed up and climbed - we won. I came in 1st with 595 out of 600 points (lost 5 points for 1 failed attempt at a running jump Dawes style problem) over the comp's 40 boulder problems and Caroline trashed the other female competitors and was thrown into the Men's comp where she thrashed all of them to finish second behind me! we won a cup and 6 months free climbing (on the condition that i could flash the hardest problem in the comp in my trainers at the end, which i did). Just as well coz now i don't feel too bad about dismantling my training board before selling my house - i've unlimited use of the wall with it's moon board :)

Just another Sunday

Well another week has flown past and i've not really had a minute to myself! Really busy with school and work, Government inspectors are in next week observing teaching and learning standards within our school so everyone is wound up with that. Managed to make it to a climbing wall on thursday though and even found a project - a wall that has never been climbed features only - sad but it kept me busy! While there the owner, Ian, was telling me of a rockface he's found and wants to develop with routes up to E3 or something so i'm interested in checking it out with him sometime. Caroline was climbing well too and is ramping up climbing activity for a summer full of Goals on rock for both of us - looking forward to it already. Yesterday we had planned on making it out to Dinbren again and working the project but it was not to be - had to content myself with a fore-arm bursting session on the wall - just thinking about the project till i peeled off the small rungs, fingers twitching....Aaaaahhhh, it hurts sooo good! Today we've got another 10km race so we'll be hitting the road in about 30mins or so... i'll update on the results but to be honnest i'm kinda not feeling the flow this morning - tonnes of marking and planning to do for the comming inspection week!

Oh, plus i'm selling the house.... like i said it's been a busy week!

Oh, and i've set up the schools Duke of Edinburgh programme!

.....and i'm helping to organise and run the School's ESDGC (education for sustainable development and global citizenship ) day next week

.... and co-running the eco-council (involves setting up a recycling scheme etc...)

.... and i'm going to the Welsh assemby government in cardiff with a colleague and 4 school kids to attend a forum on sustainable development the following week!

Really busy!

Sunday

Was due to hook up with some friends for some easy trad cragging at a local limestone spot today but they backed out due to dodgey weather... no biggy. We are just back from Lostock, Bolton (north of Manchester) where we just competed in a good 10km race. Caroline and myself ran each other round to an almost half decent 36 mins and Caroline even picked up 3rd place in the female category in the process and a 30 quid voucher. Not a bad day at the office :) The 8b is well and truly in my brain! Arraagghhh! I love it! :)

Goals 2008

Well it's been a while in the shaping - the years in the title are irrelevant as it's not a purely annual thing - it's just time. I began 2007 with some fairly hefty challenges, namely:

climb 7c at Dinbren - Try an E8 this year- Run a sub 2min 800m this summer- Run a 16min splash 5km this summer- Try an 8a - Take more pictures- Phone a friend

Now it's time to review things...

• I managed to redpoint 2 8a's (one at Dinbren)
• I lead routes of 7c both here and in France (2 of which 2nd go, narrowly missing the OS)
• I played on a total of 6 different routes up to 8a+ in both Spain and France and could lead them in sections fairly quickly, although I never redpointed them.
• I onsighted up to 7b+
• I flashed a V8 and a V7 boulder problem
• I've onsighted E6 and toproped an E8
• I have maintained a weekly running mileage above 55 mpw since August

What does all this translate to? Well firstly I can see I have progressed a bit but I really have to work on my redpointing tactics if I am going to get the most out of myself. Spain was a prize example - I was trashed from the sheer volume of climbing 7's that I’d no skin or energy left to redpoint an 8! Although I could lead it in two sections within a days work. I need some projects, and I need the time and stability to afford me the chance to work them - hard! Regarding running I’m taking a different approach - volume of miles and focusing on middle distance road races - I just want to get fitter and faster - simple.

So now, what do I want to try and achieve this time around?

• Redpoint 3 more 8a's
• work an 8b
• boulder V10
• build up to 15 finger tip pull-ups on my board
• Increase the weekly mileage to at least 70 mpw and maintain it there

This may not sound too concise or well thought-out but it's all I’ve got. I just need to get my teeth into something and then plough away at it till I send it... I’ll update as and when I feel the need but for now I’ve made my mark in the sand as it were :)

This weekend

Well it's snowing here and i've a 5 mile road race tomorrow near Crew. Er.... other than a tonne of work and training that has to get done thats about the sum of all my plans for this weekend :) Not bad really. Theres loads going on in school that i think i'll blog about in more detail in another post (coz it's worth it!) and the running training has resumed with gusto after the rocky start we've had between illness and weather this year - last week saw us clocking up a considerable mileage between 5am 6/7 mile runs and some grueling pm fartlec or threshold 10 milers! I'm tired but feeling good coz i'm back training! It is a drug. I'm finding everything in my life seems to be strongly connected with my ammount of focus at the time - I'm really trying to get things done and it's showing through my running, climbing training, work, finances, sence of well being, everything! Lets hope it lasts...

Still gotta write about some goal setting...hmmmm

Oh, and almost a year to the day since i began this blog thing..... made some interesting viewing to skim back through some of the older posts - can't believe all that was in a year!!! and over 4000 visits to the blog since i added the counter - don't know if thats a good or bad statistic but it's supprising all the same :)

Overdue Running update

Well I’ve been running up to 60 miles per week now for months and it’s feeling good. I’m seeing new PB’s for training runs on courses I now well and have been running on for years and the recovery required for each run is seeming less and less. A circuit that used to take up to 37min I ran last week at 5:30am in just under 32mins! I am likeing it! Saying that, good or even great training is no substitute for regular racing as I’ve found out. The first race I’ve ran in a long time was the Wicklow Town 5km race on St. Stephens day. All excuses aside I felt I ran well but was lacking the race sharpness and the ability to push myself through pain that you build up from regular races. I had more speed and fitness than ever before and I felt fine afterwards but couldn’t really give it everything as I was fairly congested and coughing up all kinds of snot and corruption along the course at every opportunity – I even had to stop at one point against a wall to clear myself out! All that said I had a great first 3km and was up there with the pack running through in under 10 mins before the problems began. I know theres a good 5km time in me this year! Once back in North Wales I hit the net checking for any and all local road races. I found one in Manchester that takes place every month and went to it. The course records suggest that it’s a hard course and they weren’t wrong. The course takes in 6 tight hairpin bends which effectively slow you down to near walking pace in order to get around them , making the race feel like a series of 800m interval sessions requiring you to build your speed back up to race pace again from scratch! After the first lap I knew I wasn’t racing this for a good time anymore, it was now just a race for position and with that in mind I finished 2nd and put 30seconds between myself and the 3rd finisher. Happy with that but more happy with the extra bit of toughness the two races had awoken in me – I felt I could fight a bit harder in this race than in Wicklow – it was less of a shock to the system. Since that race the running has taken a backseat due to illness, torrential rain, snow, and schoolwork. Ah well, life goes on… we’re still training.

Tough Team

So thats me finished my teacher training – woohoo! Now back to the real training! A few motivational words later from Neal in the outback and I’m dangling off the fingerboard and running to beat the band! Its been a great training week. The weather has been dire – literally non-stop rain for the entire week! But im not too bothered as we’ve had a few loose ends still to tie up around Chester and Bangor Uni before we can begin our 10 week summer holiday for real – did i mention that already? 10 weeks of training and climbing! Ahhhhhh! :)

This week saw us clock up a healthy 55+ miles of running to include the 9 mile Tattenhall Tough Team Challenge on Friday. Basically, 2.5 miles of hilly road into 4 miles of forrest and off-road steepness, back onto another 2.5 road miles to the finish. Must be ran in teams of 3 with the slowest runners time counting as the team result. Myself, Caroline and Mike ran together. Having done it last year in 70 something minutes I was keen to let the legs loose and try and beat my time. Turns out the training must be paying off as I ended up leading the race through the forrest and back to within a mile of the finish when I relaxed and waited for the rest of my team. The eventual winning team contained runners who all run sub 16min for 5km and sub 33min for 10km! These guys were good… and I was beating them! Finished the race in 60 mins and was only 1 min 20 away from the course record! Not bad considering I took it easy coming in and the conditions were horrendous after all the rain… I’m still not quite sure how it all happened. Anyway – will keep an eye out for any pics if they get posted online and link to them here....

Update

I am noticing a pattern here …. Dave makes it to sanctuary of weekend and manages to post prolifically on Monday – life sweeps Dave off again – blog remains untouched – Dave makes it to another island of peace and cycle repeats.

Well here is what happened last week – it’s been another one of those! Again! YES, I know – I’m beginning to think I’m just making it up aswell!

After my fix of climbing last weekend I was set for a good week – I managed to get some long needed trad climbing in and even got to check out two new venues while doing it. Resulting in me having dusted off the trad rack and tested the systems on routes up to and including E5 – results? All systems are go – everything felt easy and more importantly, it felt good!

Right then – Monday…. Cant really remember Monday other than I was a bit tired.

Tuesday – Tuesday morning began with the usual 6am 5 miler before work – feeling good. Work passed as it does – then I got home to find 3 missed calls from an unknown number – I return the call and get through to a school. A school looking for a maths teacher! I have been head hunted – sweet! They want me in for a tour of the school to see if I would consider working there so I hesitantly agree before rushing out the door to the Athletics track for a Tuesday night lung bashing. I swear that was the closest I’ve come to heaving on the track – perfect conditions just make the training harder! I get home and call my university mentor about this school thing and she informs me that another school had gotten intouch with her asking about me! It was a head hunted double whammy! Grand!

The next day some wheeling and dealing takes place and the result is I view the first school on the Thursday and go to the second school on the Friday (prior to an interview 10 days later) – a nice short week! Both visits went well with the schools being at opposite ends of the spectrum regards finances and achievement – but saying that I could happily work in either – I’ll post agin when I have some concrete news on the job front.

Thursday track training was another killer but it marked the first full weeks worth of training I have done now in just under a month as a result of interviews, deadlines, assignments and people visiting. 55 miles, 2 track sessions, 1 UK fell championship and a long Sunday hill run (15miles). Back on track!

Sunshine!

I love the way sometimes the smallest things can have the effect of picking you up all of a sudden. Not but a few hours after typing my last wallowing moan I arrived at the athletics track in Deeside in beautiful sunshine after opening some birthday cards that had arrived from home. It must have been weeks since I had completed a decent track session between interviews, rest weeks and assignments so needless to say I was restless. I know myself well enough to realise that in situations like that I’m prone to going ballistic and trashing myself. To combat this I had a strategy in place – Run on Mikes back, don’t lead the session, don’t get in front no matter what (anyway the head cold should take care of that). I felt brilliant – we just did 5 x 800’s after the usual 1600 warmup – finished the lot and felt great. A good evening!

I’ll only briefly mention the fact that we were up literally ALL NIGHT until 5:30am working on a presentation for Caroline! 55mins of sleep – yes – 55mins and it was up and out to work on my Birthday – I am now officially 25! I must say I do fell more tired than usual – does that happen to everyone when they turn this age? Haa!! It’s gonna be a big year – loads of goals need achieving and there’s always plenty more where they came from once they’re done!

UK Inter-counties Fell Championships

Sunday morning myself, Caroline and Mike hit the road for the Peak District – Just north of Glossop to a place called Cowden – Venue for the 2007 championships. Caroline and Mike were selected for the North Wales team and I entered the race as an open runner – didn’t make any difference – we all ran it together. 8 miles and a few thousand feet of ascent over open peat bog, marshland, dozens of rivers and crags.

Over 300 fool-hardy idiots charging down a farm road and over a wooden bridge from the start line. The sound as we charged over the bridge was like a battle charge. The early nervous banter from the runners soon dies out as we run off the end of the road after only 200m and straight onto a steep muck track leading up to a dry stone wall and the first bottleneck of the race. Chaos ensues – I nip over the wall and charge up the steep grassy bank that followed, depositing me onto a well used but pathetic trail known as the Pennine Way. This was little more than a sheep trail with deep rutted grooved warn into the peat punctuated by sharp angular rocks jutting out of the ground and the sides of the rutts. Perfect for twisting ankles and gashing legs.

We contour around the valley, gradually gaining height all the while with the occasional steep climb until we level out above a small grit stone crag known as Laddow Rocks. To the non-climbers in the throng the proximity of the cliff top forces them to slow down but it’s not a bother to most with a healthy love of heights. After a while the terrain changes again to marshland and theres half a dozen river crossings before the race runs onto stone paving slabs to the summit.

Up to this point I figure Caroline and Mike and all the county runners have blasted off ahead of me and are on their way back down – Wrong – Turns out I’m in the top 50 to the summit and have beaten a load of Championship runners (nice!) – No time to enjoy the moment though – the decent – off the flagstones and onto bog again – this time it’s wet and claggy. The uneven ground and consistency of the bog slows everyone down but we’re on the downhill now so things are feeling good. Then it happens – Glass ankle syndrome! I land awkwardly a couple of times on my right foot and think I’ve come close to injuring the ankle again (Not another Cankle!!!) so I have to slow down. The ankle gives a pang of pain with every impact but theres nothing I can do now but slow down and finish it. I was about half way down from the summit when this happened so only had to keep it together for 2 miles or so. It’s only now that I can appreciate how Nuts dedicated fell runners are! They cant run uphill for peanuts – but they can sure as hell throw themselves downhill! They’re nuts!!

It’s hard to take people streaming past me but I felt happy with a good, strong run to the top (and half way back down) before I had to give in. After crossing the line it started to lash rain – didn’t matter – was soaked and muddy all over anyways! So scrambled down, under the bridge, to the river for a freezing cold splash around and washed the heaviest muck off before going back to the car and getting changed.

A good day out!

Christleton 5km

Well Friday’s race came and went – I was right – it poured down and I was disappointed – but I was also released. It well and truly marked the end of last week. I totally underestimated the toll the week had taken on me and I was close to dropping out and retching in a ditch plenty of times during the 5km. I finished in under 18 mins but I was a long way off my target time – Nuf Said. I was exhausted before the race and shocked at how quickly you get soft – only after one week of non-running I had forgotten how to go through pain. Getting freezing cold in the wind and heavy rain didn’t really help things either but hey, I got out and did it! Roll on the training again!

Heat Wave!

Saturday morning we got up early for an 8 mile road run around Airbus – it was beautiful! No cars, no people, just blue skies and freshness and sunshine! After breakfast we packed a lunch and hit the road for Dinbren again – actually on that note, I woke up with really tight and pumped forearms from the evening before! Weird! All that undercutting and what not really took it out of me – seriously, don’t think I regained full range of motion in my wrists until a good while after the run. Anywho, Dinbren again – this time it was packed (well, for Clwyd at least!) 3 other groups of climbers! Haa! It was beautiful and sunny so we warmed up in the shade on a 6c and 6c+…Caroline cruising both on a top rope before moving along to try some of the bigger lines in the sun. Not to be. The layout of Dinbren pretty much guarantees shelter – today that meant that there was not even the slightest breeze or shelter from the sun – it was searing!

I tried to plug another hole in my tick list with “Orgasmatron” 7a – the guidebook never mentioned that it was half Trad!! I pass the 3rd bolt and keep climbing – the onsight is going great considering the heat… but then I start to get pumped… looking down for better foot placements I notice that my last draw is a long way down – WAY Down infact! Actually, if I pinged off now I’d deck! Shit! The next piece of gear is either the top bolt on the lip of the capping roof at the top of the crag or a neighbouring line that doesn’t look the easiest to reach. Decision time – run it out through the roof into and beyond deckout-ville or downclimb – downclimb. Lee than come over – “Er, meant to put in the guide that wires are needed on that Route Dave – not too popular that one – Sorry, My Fault!” Haa! Classic… Epic avoided – down climbed the 8a to it’s right taking the gear out – holds felt good * Mental note: must get on that at some time*. After that Caroline had another go at her project making progress on the powerful roof undercut moves. Hesitant to go just yet I try a 7b on another of Lee’s tip offs. I make the initial crux span through to roof to a hot undercut but the heats too much and we pack it in for the day – yes, that’s right I have now been Sun’ed off a Brittish Crag for the first time! It was too hot to climb – it was almost too hot to breath, walk, anything!! Incredible!

I still have not been back onto “Cured” the 7c I fancy with the dyno to the ‘teeny’ edge – it’s not going anywhere… I’ll be back

Miles to go

After Sundays set back on the track i was happy with my decision to pullout of the race as i could get back into the running with a minimum lay off - although the easy miles at the beginning of the week had to be taken easy, i built up to testing a new 8 mile loop around Airbus on wednesday evening and then ran a solid session on the track on thursday - Six times one thousand meters. ran to time and felt fine... good, good.

Slight Set-Back

Sunday marked the official beginning of the track season... we went to Stretford for a Medals meet. Caroline and Mike kicked off the day with a 3000m and then we had a bit of waiting around for my 800m - knowing that my hamstring had been actingup a week earlier i made sure to warm up well but it didn't help - i lined up, set off on the gun and felt the repeated pang of pain from above the back of my knee. I relaxed after 100m or so and tried to not stress the leg but it wasn't going too well - i pulled out after the 400m mark and 59 sec - Hopefully i havn't done too much damage and by pulling out i'll be bale to recover, train and then race at full power later in the season.

The positives i took from the day include the fact that the first lap i ran fast and it felt EASY! Physicially i felt great - it's just a blip but at least i know the training has been worth it - i have improved.

Caroline and Mike then finished the afternoon off with a 1500m, while i watch on and sulked a bit ... Nawh, not really! i cheered them on as usual