Other Stupid things...

Since I completed the Triple Bypass with no issues despite super minimal training, I decided to go ahead and attempt one of my goals:
- Complete an Ironman before turning 30

So, foolishly, I registered for next year's Ironman Boulder, which takes place on August 7th, 2016. I have no idea how I'll even work this into my med school schedule, but basically I just need to make sure I'm on a hella easy rotation with weekends off during that time.  Super bonus points if I don't need to walk/stand on the Monday after. :D

As far as training for that, I have no idea! I looked into a few training plans, and honestly, it doesn't look that bad.  It's just exercising for an hour or two most days, with a long run/bike/swim on the weekend.  Honestly, it's not too far fetched from my normal life, except I throw in a lot of things other than run/bike/swim into the mix (skiing, climbing, hiking, soccer, even yoga sometimes). In any case, for now, I'm just going to keep my fitness level up by running and bike commuting and stuff.  Starting next year, I need to learn how to swim efficiently and actually spend some time doing it.

Climbing Training!

Christie + galpals and I are heading to Red Rocks to rock climb in November, which means I need to get back into climbing shape!  I reactivated my DBC 24/7 climbing membership for the next two months to accomplish this feat.

Today was my first time bouldering since I killed my membership in January.  And wow, what a fun time!

Purple: 3 E, 1E+
Blue: 6 E
White: 1 E-, 3 E, 2 E+
Green: 1 E-, 8 E, 2 E+
Total: 2 E-, 20 E, 5 E+ = 27 routes!

I climbed those 27 routes in 45 minutes, and for nearly all of them, I also down-climbed completely. This might be some sort of record for me?  Mostly it just felt *really* amazing.  This is somewhat surprising to me, since I also biked today (13 miles roundtrip), and ran two days ago (5+ miles).  But you can't fight bodily happiness!  Climbing is like dancing to me.  The feeling of my body moving gracefully (or sometimes not-so-gracefully) up a wall is just so liberating.  I was born to climb, I've always climbed, and I'll keep climbing as long as I am able. :D

Can't wait to track my progress.  From the looks of it, I was flashing E+ when I left off in January, so I haven't lost any ground.  I didn't attempt any M- today, but will do so on my next visit.  Wonder if I'll actually make that initial goal from last year of getting to M+? Bouldering a V7, which is a 5.13a seems a little absurd to me, but who knows.  I'm already flashing these E+s without effort, and I haven't climbed in forever.  Anything is possible!

Back to Cycling

I (foolishly) signed up to do the Double Triple Bypass.  Not just the Triple Bypass, the DOUBLE Triple Bypass.

It's basically so mindboggling hard that I'm not even telling people that I registered for the Double Triple, just that I registered for the Triple.  The triple, that's acceptable, that's not too crazy.  People say, "ah, yes, of course you did that."  But the Double???  That's insanity.  240 miles and 20,000' elevation gain in two days.  AHHHHH.

Except.

I know I can do it.  I've biked all of these passes separately, and of the directions I've done--juniper and loveland west to east are not included here--the only shitty parts are less than a mile each on juniper from east to west and Vail from west to east.

Now it's just a matter of will power and determination.  Part of me is like "whyyyyyyyyy," and the other part is like "BRING IT ON."  Ah, being young.

In any case, now that I registered, my car decided to implode and the weather decided to be spring-in-January, as Colorado is apt to do.  Which means tons of biking!  On the plus side of this particular adventure, I don't need anything else for training.  Holla!

Last day of bouldering

Yesterday was the last day of my bouldering membership at the Denver Bouldering Club. It's been an amazing time, much more so than I anticipated.  I initially joined to train for climbing in Kalymnos over the holidays due to the 24/7 gym access, low cost, and close proximity to my apartment.  I discovered a nice community, and a place that honestly started to feel like home towards the end.

I lay on a mat last night, blasting M83--my climbing music of choice--and reflecting on the feelings of happiness and bliss that come with seeing something in life progress, even if it is something so small as the ability to climb up a few holds on a wall.  The first time I ever bouldered was in college when I went with my friend Yuki and could literally do nothing.  The wall was in this tiny room of an MIT building and had maybe 30 routes on it, many of them from sit-starts.

I've never been too thrilled about bouldering since then, but I wanted to get better for Kalymnos.  It's the first time I'd ever thought about "training" as anything other than just "climbing a bunch and getting into good shape."  As it turns out, an hour at the bouldering session is equivalent to at least 3 hours at the gym top roping, just because of all that tying in and belaying and walking around you end up doing.  By climbing and downclimbing every single route doubles the effort, and it's easy to attempt 15-20 routes in an hour.

And so, I got better.  Kenneth taught me some training techniques like "hovering" above a hold with your hands or feet for 3 seconds, which trains you to find a more optimal balance.  He also encouraged me to think about precise foot placement on holds, even holds that were way way bigger than they need to be.  He gave key pointers about climbing on inverted routes, namely to be stable before reaching for a hold.

And so, while I was a V1/V2 climber when I started at DBC, I finished up as a sometimes-V4-and-that-one-V5 climber.  (I did a total of 4 V4s and 1 V5.) Pretty awesome.  I'm tempted to continue my membership and get up to the multiple-V5 level, but I need to save that $$ for other the thousand other things I need to buy right now (telemark bindings/mounting, aspen trip, orizaba, liz's wedding, burning man).  I'm very fortunate that I'm in graduate school and not something paying me a lot of money... if my funds weren't limited, I would probably get myself into deepdeep trouble.

In any case, it's been a good run with DBC.  I'll hopefully be back next winter to hone my skills even further.

Climbing skills, revisited

When I posted that climber conversion chart, it wasn't quite right.  It's accctually:

E- = V0 = 5.9
E = V1/V2 = 5.10...
E+ = V3 = 5.11
M- = V4 = 5.12a/b
M = V5/V6 = 5.12c/d
M+ = V7 = 5.13a

So I can already do a few V4s with a very specific sequence of stemming-heavy climbing, heehee.

Today I went to DBC to check out their competition climbs.  I flashed all Rec climbs 1-9, but couldn't do Rec #10.  I flashed Intermediate climbs 1-3, sent #4 on the second try, and couldn't finished #5 or #6.  Rec #10 and Int #5 I will eventually be able to do if I come back a few more times, but Int #6 is definitely beyond my skill level and makes me feel extremely uncomfortable!  I can do all but the last 2-3 moves, and I don't know that I'll be able to get comfortable in that space with any sort of quickness.

In any case, I sent 13 bouldering routes and attempted 3 others at least 3 times, all in the course of an hour.  Not too shabby for a girl who only bouldered for two months, I suppose.

I wish I'd entered the competition!  I would've definitely entered in the "rec" level, and maybe could've won a prize of some sort.

Telemark

Ever since moving to Colorado, I've been quite intrigued by telemark skiing.  What is this crazy free heel business that a rare subset of adventurers is doing??

When my alpine skis were stolen a year ago, I eventually sucked it up and bought a crappy telemark setup from Craigslist ($100 for skis and bindings that were a little too old, $40 for boots that were a little too small (resold!)) and joined the Colorado Mountain Club ($107) to get telemark lessons ($50) and avalanche training ($240).  Then came some newer skis ($200) and some skins ($100) and leashes ($20).  Then, eventually, new tele boots with thermomoldable liner ($120) and thermomolding ($10).  All-in-all, about $1000 for the gear and knowledge to TELEEEEEEEEE!!!

And, I'm just having the best of times doing it.  I've been up 4 times this season so far (not too shabby for earlier season), and while the first few days were just sort of getting my feet wet, yesterday Charter and I skiied a solid 16,000' at Breck!  Lunges are coming in, and tele is sort of starting to make at least some sense!  :D  I'm planning to go at least once a week for the rest of the season once I'm back, and at that point, I should be a pretty solid telemark skier.  Can't wait, can't wait!

Climber Training

Well, I was definitely a bit ambitious with my "climb M+ before going to Kalymnos" plan!!!
I found the ratings conversion chart at the Denver Bouldering Club, and it turns out that would be pretttty insane!

E- = V0 = 5.9
E = V1 = 5.10
E+ = V2 = 5.11
M- = V3 = 5.12a/b

That's as far as I got.  I can flash most V2s in the gym, unless they are overhung.  For overhung, I can do a subset of the V1s, but more than 45 degrees overhung, and I can make it maybe halfway.

Importantly: for the first time EVAR, I did some V3's yesterday!  Two, in fact.  Stemmy/balancy ones, sure, but V3's nevertheless.

I'd definitely like to get to the V5 rating, but that was never going to happen in the 2 month time frame during which I was pseudo-training.  Still, I got significantly better, and I've learned way more climbing technique in these two months than I learned over my previous 5 years of casual/recreational climbing.  Huzzah!