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!