Liability anyone?

Went to MurMur with Muriel. It is on the opposite side of town when compared to Antrebloc. We were trying to figure out where we were when we cam outside of the Metro, when someone said: "are you going to MurMur?" Thank God, he saved us as this is another place we would never have found.

Very nice gym, with some uber long overhanging routes. At the entrance they asked us if we were autonomous. Autonomous? Sure we said, so they make us pay and in we go. You can lead anywhere in the gym. There are ropes on the ground everywhere for you to grab. There are orange ones (for the shorter walls) and blue ones (for the higher walls). So there we are, and Muriel doesn't know how to lead. No problem, I just taught her. She did great. She climbed a 3, a 4, and a 4c/5a; as well as some 5s on top rope. I climbed some 5s and 6s on lead, and I finished with a great 6c super long slab on TR.

BTW as if its not dangerous enough already, the ground is like in a school gymnasium, not mats, hard as rock... Its a miracle there's not one death a week at that place.

Jardin du Luxembourg

Went running for a little over 30 minutes around the Jardin du Luxembourg. Its a nice place to run, with plenty of space. Here's the map.

It felt much better than my last attempt at running on Wednesday.

C'est Nul

Back to the gym. The plan was to try and do must of the climbs I had done in the previous two visits (hopefully all on the first try) within one hour: not. Warmed up on a yellow and a green. Then I did two blues. On the third one, I failed repeatedly. Same on the fourth. Things were not going well. In the end I did 4 blues successfully, I repeated 1 purple, and I tried a new purple slab and fell on the last move. This took about 55 minutes.

Totally depressed, I headed for the weight room, did a bit of benchpress (I must say I get nervous without a spotter so I did not push much). I did a few leg raises, and then went running. I set the machine at 11 KM/H, 0 incline, with a goal of 30 min. After 1.5 minutes I had a cramp, after 7.5 minutes I knew I would fail. After that it was hard not to quit. I managed 20 minutes, but barely. My heart was at 175 at that point.

Seems like my overall fitness is terrible, and my climbing is getting worst... hard to see the glass half full.

C'est Nul / C'est Genial (Deuxieme Partie)

Went back to Antrebloc (see here for part 1). Worked the blue problems. I probably did 5 of them. One was a purple, the best one of the bunch. Start left hand to a crimp, then right hand to a big open hand pinch kind of thing. Left foot way high inside. Then cross (left hand) to a huge texture blob with a slight pocket, followed by a right hand to the top of the blob (where there's another slight pocket). Left foot to a terrible small piece way to the left, then left hand to a small crimp, and finally a bump far out left to a handle that requires moving your weight left and trusting the bad foot.

C'est Nul

- I am easily in the bottom 20th percentile of climbers there. It sucks. There were 4 girls tonight, only one newbie was not better than me, and the strongest made Big M's arms and back look small.
- I have said before but I'll say it again. Their identification of problems suck big time. The pieces used for feet are the worst. They are so black that you can only distinguish the color from the hue at the base close to the wall where less rubber hits.

C'est Genial

- The front where there's the cash register is a bar! Yes, a bar, and they serve one of my favorite beer (Leffe blonde).
- They have a slack-line in front (outdoors) over the asphalt (no pads): full on dudes.

C'est Nul / C'est Genial

Here I am, in Paris, and on day 2, I decided to go and look for a climbing gym. I found a place which is mostly bouldering: Antrebloc. On my way there the guy standing beside me in the subway was wearing a climbing sweatshirt so I asked him if he was going there by any chance. Since he was, I asked to follow him which was the best idea I have ever had because the place is completely hidden. I would have never found it.

The problems were tough, a lot of overhanging stuff. I stayed for maybe 3 hours, working very slowly. I hope to go back tomorrow or Monday. Below is the list of what's good and bad about the visit so far.

C'est Genial

- The apartment I am renting. It is well located (here) and having an apartment is so much nicer than a hotel room.
- Found a climbing place.
- The climbing gym has big chalk dispenser. They look like trash cans, and at the top there's a box that could hold about 3 to 4 liters filled with chalk for everyone to put their hands in.
- Had coffee at a bar this morning. It felt like a scene from French movies that I would see as a kid.

C'est Nul

- The climbing gym uses color coded holds to mark routes. Combine this with the free chalk and you get problems that are almost impossible to figure out because you can't distinguish what is what. As a result I have been working their blue colored problems (3rd hardest) as opposed to the purple (4th hardest) because there's always a red (5th hardest) beside the purple which makes it impossible.
- I am constantly lost. It took me 90 minutes (instead of 30) to get to the office yesterday.
- I am not paying enough attention to prices. I just bought a deodorant for 10 Euros and a pen for 3.80 Euros...
- The coffee I just made, tasted like bad (weak) American coffee. What's wrong with me?