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!

Climbing Training

I'm training for a trip to Kalymnos, Greece in a little over a month.  In preparation, I got a membership to the Denver Bouldering Club, and have been several times.

My current method of operating is the following:
- Climb (or attempt) every E-, E, and E+ bouldering problem and downclimb.
- Do some random core stuff

The DBC doesn't use the V rating, so I really have no idea how hard these climbs are.  I think that as long as I can do M+ by the end of December, I should be in a good position for Kalymnos.

However, I need to start doing some top-roping and lead climbing to keep my endurance up.  I also need to get outdoors, moreso than just the JTree trip with Minwah in December.

WOOT!!!

New Things

I haven't posted in this blog in a long, long time.  But, I want to start again!
I moved to Denver, Colorado in fall of 2011.  I stopped posting on here because it's "Cambridge" Exercise, and I'm no longer there.  But I suppose I'm an Ex-Cambridger, so it still works?

In any case, it's been a long, long time since I posted.
Some things that happened:

Running
Half Marathons
- Bay State Half Marathon - 10.17.2010, 1:59:00 (pace, 9:06)
- Pikes Peak Ascent - 08.18.2012, 4:29:43
- Boston Half Marathon - 10.12.2014, 1:55:00

Fun Runs
- McAdenville Christmas Town USA 5k - 12.01.2013
- Bolder Boulder 10k - May 2014

Biking
- MS Cape Code Ride - 2010, 175 miles in 2 days
- Courage Classic - 2013, 2014; big mountain passes

Climbing
- Red Rocks, NV - Dec 2011, 7 days
- Colorado: Shelf Road, Boulder Canyon, Clear Creek, North Table, Eldorado Canyon
- I lead 5.9 sport and 5.7 trad now!

Hiking
- 260 miles on the AT - April 2011
- Sarek National Park - June 2012
- 32 Colorado 14ers

Skiing
- Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, Loveland, Brekenridge, Vail, Beaver Creek
- Alpine -> Telemark; 1 day of snowboarding, ew.


In summary, I got a *lot* better at climbing, running, biking, skiing, and hiking in the past 3 years.

metrowednesday (03.09.11)

It's a shame I haven't posted in such a long time, because it's really fun to look back and watch my progress as a rock climber.
I've been consistently going at least once every two weeks since I started back in the fall, and more recently, I've started going multiple times per week because I have a monthly membership for March (thanks Groupon!!).

Today, I climbed with Eddie and his roommate Lisa. Having a 3 person rotation was nice, since I'm still a little sore from yesterday.

5.9, pink, back corner near crackwall. Too easy.
5.10a, orange, overhung. Took a lot of breaks on the overhang. I avoid overhangs because they're hard... but I'm going to try and do this climb everytime I'm at MR until it comes down. It's just challenging enough, but gives a tough work out.
5.10, white, corner by the pullup bars. Super balancy, but totally did it!
5.10b/c, green, in chimney corner. Stemmy, tricky, fun. Hard, but doable... I could stem all day!!!

If I can climb 5.11 before leaving Boston, I'll be SOHAPPY.

metromonday (10.25.10)

Eddie's turning out to be a great climbing partner by making me climb routes that I'm uncomfortable with, and being incredibly supportive while I do it. If I keep climbing with him, I think I'm going to get much better quickly.

5.9 purple, "Stemming 101": Tricky route in a chimney that, as its name would suggest, has a lot of stemming.

5.9 orange, "DNA": Route I couldn't finish a few weeks ago but nearly climbed clean this week.

5.11 black: Route I pretended to climb after Eddie climbed it. Got to about the 3rd hold before bailing.

5.10c neon yellow. Made it about halfway up before giving up. Felt pretty good about getting the first move and was amazed it worked out.

5.9 green, "Mantlepiece": In the "Crypt Ticket" corner. Great stemming/mantle-ing route. The trickiest part is the beginning; mantleing upwards from there.

5.10b Black/Pink, "Berry": Would've gotten through this one if I had unlimited time.

Went to Border Cafe afterwards with Christie, Martin, and Eddie.

It's been a long time

It has been a long long time since I posted anything in here. Climbing has happened so much, that I stopped documenting my progress!!!

Ultimately, I kept climbing more or less every Monday until mid-June when Christiane went back to Germany for the summer, and then started back up in late September after my play concluded, and just before she went back to Germany again. In mid-June, I was climbing 5.9s regularly, and did a 5.10a and a 5.10c (both clean, actually). After not climbing for a long time, my skills aren't quite up to speed, but I'm able to do 5.8s and 5.9s without completely blowing.

Metro Monday, the absolute LAST time I'll ever climb with Christiane at MetroRock...
5.8 on main wall
5.9 on short wall
5.8 (blue) on center wall; overhangy, not clean
5.9- pink; couldn't do the final moves

We got in pretty late (8:35), and I wanted Christiane to get a lot of climbs in; we also joked around a lot and didn't take things to seriously.

Afterwards, we went to RedBones with Mike and Jeff, and I bought Christiane a drink and food, because really, after belaying my ass all this time, she deserves it. Mike made us laugh basically nonstop with his stories of Burning Man. Incredible.


Beyond climbing, my athletic abilities have really changed a lot in the months since I've written in this blog. It seems like overnight I've become an endurance athlete. This weekend, I ran 10 miles on Friday, biked 74 miles on Saturday, rock climbed on Sunday, and climbing again today... my body is sore, but happy.

Morning Run

Did a run/walk around the Charles this morning
3.5 mi. route

Ended up running into Semmi Kim, who I haven't seen in about a year. And, I believe the last time I saw her was when I ran into her running on Mass Ave. She's adorable. :-)

On an unrelated note, I bought a basketball, and have spent a few hours already just shooting around at the local court. People in the neighborhood are suuuuuuper nice!

metromonday (03.22.10)

It's been 5 days, so I can't remember the exact routes I did, though I was climbing a lot of 5.9s.

5.8 - red with two overhangs
5.9 back by the bouldering wall.
5.8 - orange, overhangyish one. success!
5.8 - black. really tricky for some reason?
5.9 - crazy split one, lots of fun
5.8 - long one, right at the end, bailed before finishing.

maybe some other stuff.

trying to work on the 5.9s. mehmehmeh!

Surfing roadtrip

Tomorrow morning, I'm going down to DC to meet up with Bryan, a long time friend from middle/high school. We're going on a SURFING ROADTRIP from DC to Florida. And, I don't know how to surf.

More stories/details in the future.

For now, packing list:
- Wetsuit
- Ridiculously cool 80s shades
- Neoprene socks/boots
- Rainjacket :-(
- Undies x8
- Socks x3
- Sandals
- Running shoes
- Bras x2
- Sports Bras x2
- Shorts x2
- Jeans
- Skirt
- Capri army awesome pants
- Long-sleeve shirts x 4
- T-shirt x2
- Short-sleeve shirt x2
- Jacket (wearing)
- Camera & charger
- Kindle & charger
- Cellphone & charger
- Toothbrush/paste/floss
- Shampoo/conditioner/bodywash/hairgel
- Deodorant
- Earrings, of course!!

metromonday (03.08.10)

I failed to post the last time I went to metrorock (02.22.10), and failed to go last week! (03.01.10)

So... here we find ourselves at another juncture.

5.9 - Face. Part of the route-setting contest. Not clean, but practically clean.
5.8 - Route setter contest, orange. Almost on the arrete, but not really.
5.8 - Route setter contest, red. Zigzaggy one; one that I intended to do last time.
5.9 - Route setter contest, yellow. Not clean.
5.9 - Blue, right beside Wet Feet, set on 02.23.10. Couldn't finish it.
5.9 - Route setter contest, red. A little overhangy; didn't finish. This is the second time I've attempted this one... still can't do it.

Biking Running and such

Goddamn, what a beautiful day!!!

Biking: Total of 11 miles, in a few discrete trips: route
Running: 5 miles, walked some. route

metromonday (02.15.10)

cooooooooookies everywhere!!! christianne is a cookie-eating machine, to say the least!!

she secretly ate 6 snickerdoodles at the gym, and i never saw it happen.

5.7+ - short blue one

5.9 - red one (i think?) closest to the chin-up bar. not clean, but managed more or less.

5.8 - new-ish blue one. sucked my way up, but finished. should be easier now that i know the route

hands-free climb. AWESOME.

5.7 - blindfolded

5.7 - yellow one. i wanted to do the zigzaggy red 5.8 on rope 30, but my broken toenail was like "fuck you," so i went down a grade. probably my easiest climbing day in awhile, but fun.

oh metrorock, how i love thee

Snowpocalyse '10 averted, but snow nevertheless

List of things that 5 years ago I thought were impossible:

- Going cycling in a snow storm for an hour, for fun.

Temp: 28 F

w/ windchill: 15 F

Windspeed: 22 mph, gusts at 31 mph

Clothing: Puma boots, gym shorts + goretex pants, blue wicking shirt + blue rain jacket, balaclava, ski goggles. had on mountaineering mitts, but they were too warm, so i mostly just had bare hands. Balaclava also got too warm/difficult to breathe, so had a bare face most of the time.

Route: 12.1 miles

Ok, so only the first 8 miles were from my hourish bike ride. But I wanted to see how much I biked today.

Also, 8 miles/hr is super slow... but with all the snow, and a crazy head wind, pretty hard. :-)

Harvard Stadiums

I've always heard stories of people running stadiums at Harvard Stadium, ie, running up and down the stairs, all around the bowl. Today, I gave it my first go.

Temperature: 23

With wind chill: 13

Apparel: Running tights, wicking shirt, purple fleece, fleece gloves, fleece/acrylic hat with ear flaps.

Route: 3.9 miles

The gates to the Stadium were open, however, I couldn't find easy access to the stairs. I ran around the stadium 1.5 times to find an easy way, but just ended up using my climbing skills to scale the cement wall with the aid of a metal pipe fixture. I ran up and down the stairs, making it about 1/3 of the way around the horseshoe before I needed to catch my breath, then proceeded to finish up the rest of the half. No need to kill myself on my first stadium attempt, right?? Climbed back down, walked a little to cool off, then ran back home and collapsed on my couch for some amount of time.

All in all, a great workout that will definitely be repeated!!!