Gerdies (and another one)

Brad, Amalea, Phil and I headed for the Gunks on Saturday. We expected it to be packed and hot: thus the plan was to hit the Nears. Once we arrived around 8, the parking lot was fairly empty and so we changed plans and headed for the Trapps. We wanted to find climb that I could lead, leave the gear, and have Amalea and Brad lead with the gear in place.

We setup on No Picnic (we were using the Swain guidebook which rates it a 4+). The lead went well (except for the yellow cam I almost lost because I overcammed it), I took my time on the way down to double or change any questionable piece to make sure things were safe for the other leaders. Amalea went second and might have been too comfortable with my pro because she did not stop once to look at it... but she sure made it look easy. Phil went next on TR getting his height jitters out of the way. Brad led it and cleaned it.

Next we did Herdie Gerdie (our guidebook had it at 6+). I led it, I must say I felt some of the pro was small and marginal (I used multiple C3s, including the 000 and one ballnut). At some point (about halfway) I wondered too far right, but I came back on track. The crux was particularly difficult because the feet (friction only) were super greasy. Again, Amalea led it on my pro, then Phil went on TR, and Bradley led it last. Still seemed easy for Amalea and Bradley, but they did not stop much to study the gear placements.

Leaving the anchors in, we TRed the next two. First Dirty Gerdie (rated 8 or 8+ - can't remember - in the guidebook). That is a very interesting climb, involving a balancy mantel about 15 feet off the deck with nothing to grab with your hands until you are completely up (except if you are Amalea, in which case there's a tiny feature you can crimp... nasty I tell you). We all had fun on this one, but Amalea would need to come back later to do it clean.

Finally, we attacked Nurdie Gerdie (5.10+, the new Grey Dick has it 11-). Amalea gave it the first go, fingering out the tricky beta and displaying great footwork. There are at least 3 difficult move, but the 10+ one involves a one finger dish less than half a inch deep (right hand) from which you get your body up (hips in close to the wall) and then explode with the left hand to a ledge. She could not link it on the first go. I went second and had to take one. One of the moves is almost a dyno for me (with very bad feet), which I found quite enjoyable. Bradley tried it but quit when he realized his bad finger tendons might not survive the finger move. Phil went next and did the variation that uses the arete (rated a 9). He really pushed himself hard on this. Quite an impressive send for someone who'e going outside only for the second time. Bradley went back to it, using the arete only at the finger move, I would say that make it a 9+. I was then capable of sending it clean, which really felt great. Amalea did one more time, and then went back to do Dirty Gerdie clean and she cleaned the anchors (something she had never done before).

I am a bit surprised that I had lead Dirty Gerdie a few years ago (see http://www.themonkeyclub.org/2009/04/let-it-snow-let-it-snow-let-it-snow.html), but I can see why I wrote that I was sketched...

Really a great day, very few people (I guess they were scared of the heat). We followed it by delicious marinated pork chops on the grill and some great local beers.

Cindy

'Cindy'

AMRAP of

5 pull-ups (AS sub jumping pull-ups)
10 push-ups (AS sub knee push-ups)
15 squats

SS: 12 rounds + 3 pull-ups
AS: 8 rounds + 10 push-ups

Meh, better showing than last time, but I was able to do kipping pull-ups so I'm not sure it's a fair comparison. Went home and made myself some sweet & sour chicken and some meatloaf. Adrienne had a pretty good showing on the Coles roof today. They had some plyo boxes up there so she was able to get her jumping pull-up on. I tend to think that the jumping pull-up is much better to train the actual pull when compared to the machine in the weight room. I initially thought that because 'crossfit said so' but when Adrienne's tired she can scrunch her torso and then extend on the machine to let the weight push her up. No such luck with the jumping pull-up :) Seriously though, she really rocked it tonight. She's even got the knee scrapes to prove it!

Cleanin Up

CFWU x3 (no back extensions, Adrienne pull-up assist 70#, knee push-ups)

5x3 cleans

SS: 135 (1st power), 135 (3rd power), 145 (3rd power), 2x145
AS: 2x35, 3x45

Tabata stationary bike (level = 13):
SS: 1.34 mi
AS: .78 mi

Man, I forgot how much the stationary bike burns. We actually did ten rounds instead of eight, but there was a long period of rest between the first two and the third. Somehow Adrienne's meter had reset, so we had to stop and fix it.

As an aside, my knee has been really killing me lately and hurt significantly following the workout. It's been off and on for the last few months, and I'm thinking of having it checked out. I'm pretty sure my form is fine and I'm not doing anything unwarranted to my knee, but it is a little disconcerting. I'll probably go see someone at the health center. I'll let you know if anything comes up.

Frannihilation

3 rounds of
22# OHS
sit-ups
push-ups

'Fran'
21-15-9
thrusters (SS 85#, AS 2x8# dumbbells)
pull-ups (AS 80# assist)

SS 10:17
AS 5:50

Went light on the weight this time since it's been almost three weeks since any sort of physical exertion. On the upside my knees feel tons better, but my stamina was pretty well shot. I actually thought my time was going to be much longer than it was; it felt like all I did was rest. Adrienne did really well, no sets were broken so she could probably use some more weight on the thrusters and less assist (maybe) on the pull-ups. Good effort pushing through!

squat!

warm-up:
3 rounds
OHS (12#)
push-ups (AS on knees)
pull-ups (AS assist, 80#)

workout:
5x5 squat
AS: 45, 65, 3x75
SS: 135, 155, 3x165

cooldown:
1000m row
AS 5:29.1
SS 3:28.2

Got some squattin' in. Adrienne's form is improving already; notice that her 5 rep squat is only five pounds below her one rep max from the CFT as few days ago. Also, the row wasn't much of a cooldown, but I thought we should give those legs muscles an extra tweak.

Went the distance with a CFT, now including Adrienne!

Crossfit Total, 3 max attempts each of:
back squat
shoulder press
deadlift

												SS	KL	AS
Back squat												225	225	80
Shoulder press												115	105	35
Deadlift												335	345	125
Total												665	665	240

Welcome Adrienne to the wonderful world of strength lifting! Kenway did a little worse than last time, and I dropped to my lowest shoulder press weight in awhile, but found gains in the other two areas compared to last time. Adrienne learned how to squat and deadlift. Her squats were looking pretty good towards the end, but for some reason when deadlifting she tends to kick the bar out in front of her, throwing her balance way off. She still gets the weight up there, but I think she'd be able to lift more, easier, if she could halt the kick. She went to failure with the other two exercises, but not deadlifts, so maybe the solution is more weight?

More fun at the track

burpee breathing pyramid 1:5:1

Tabata squats
AS: 9 (9,9,9,9,9,9,9,9)
SS: 12 (15,14,14,13,13,12,12,12)

4 rounds, 1 minute planks, 1 minute rest
(front, Lside, Rside, front)

Brought my rings to the track today to see if there were any good branches to hang them off of; I figured I'd get Adrienne working on jumping pull-ups. I found something that was almost good enough, but not quite, so we opted for burpees and tabata stuff instead. I think Wednesday we're going to hit up the gym and do some lifts.

Running Intervals

warmup: 3/8 mile run

workout:
8x 30/60 interval runs (run/rest)

Total distance ~ 1 mile

I've always wanted to try out the track next to my house so Adrienne and I went and did some interval running. Checked out the nearby playground for possible pull-up locations as well. Seems like an ok place, though it is immediately adjacent to the projects. Also, the track was super crowded with people just walking around it. Kind of like a big community thing. Crazy!

Bikram Crossfit

5 rounds for time:
15 medicine ball (FULL) squat cleans (AS 6#, SS 20#)
15 push-ups (AS subbed knee pu)

AS: 10:00 (11 push-ups in last round)
SS: 10:45

Went to the crossfit beginner class at the Black Box today, which was a scaled version of today's WOD. MAN it was freaking hot there. They just moved in and the A/C hasn't come online yet...

It was definitely worth it to go today. I learned how to do a proper clean (which kills). It seems like my problem in getting under the bar had less to do with my dropping speed and more to do with the point at which I stopped my pull. I was definitely left gasping for breath at the end. Adrienne put in an awesome showing. She was in the first round to go but the instructors cut them off at 10 minutes, otherwise she would have been able to finish. So, these classes are going to continue to be free, and I'll probably continue to go, so you guys just let me know if you want in on it.

Idiotarod 2008

Ran 7 miles today for the Idiotarod.

Pictures to follow, but you can see our course here

The first part of the course from Lincoln & Nostrand to the southeast corner of Fort Green park was us running to get to the start point in time. Funny thing though, the official start was in Chinatown. Ah well, we did pretty good anyways, considering. Definitely ranked in the top 20 and didn't fall for any other teams sabatoge. Also we instigated a totally sweet dodgeball game at the end of the race.


--edit 080127--

Here's the link for pictures.

Be warned, one of the shots is a moon.

Climbing at Palladium

Tried out climbing and bouldering at Palladium with Kenway, Eric, and Adrienne. It was fun, but there aren't as many routes, and there's no chalk allowed on the top-rope. I bought some climbing shoes though and they seemed to work fairly well. There are some nice boulder problems. I definitely couldn't do most of them but I finished two. Kenway was a monster as usual. Kenway belayed Eric so I didn't see his climbs as much, but Adrienne was doing very well.

A gem in Jersey

An awesome day of climbing at the New Jersey Rock Gym with Scott, Adrienne and Kenway. Scott and I learned how to belay so that Kenway could finally climb. Tons of routes, incredibly nice staff and it was air-conditioned. We'll be back!

They host competitions there, you can check out some great pics here.

Climb on...

Good day to start climbing today! Two hours at City Climbers for Brian, Scottle, Adrienne, and me.

And to whet your appetites, here are a few pics from the Gunks, a mecca of world-class trad climbing (protected with hand placed equipment on lead, as you climb), just a few hours north of New York.

top - High Exposure (5.6)
btm - The Dangler (5.10a)

High E, the 5.6, is actually a much easier climb than it looks (it's on the low scale of difficulty at the Gunks). The Dangler's more physically challenging, but the hardest part is the mental aspect of placing the pro on lead - someday soon...

More info:
gunks.com
rockclimbing.com
supertopo.com (Yosemite info mostly)
Climbing magazine
Rock and Ice magazine
Black Diamond equipment
Metolius equipment (check out their hangboards)
Petzl gear (e.g. GriGri autolocking belay device)
Mad Rock shoes

The long haul from tip to tip

Whew, so today we decided to walk from the northernmost tip of Manhattan (Broadway and 220th St, technically the Bronx, since it was across the river) to the southernmost tip, down in Battery Park. Here's our route. It was a total of 14.3 miles, and took about 7 hours (with lots of breaks, like maybe 1.5 hours for lunch and another hour of goofing off). Anyway, my feet are tired.