Late

Bench presses 5x5: 135, 155, 165, 155, 145.
Squats 5x5, highbar: 135, 155, 165, 175F, 155.
pullups: 5 wide grip, 5 wide grip, 20 narrow grip.

Woke up late (alarm clock malfunction). Ran over to Coles to meet up with Marco and Ragan. Witnessed Ragan's first ever unassisted pullup (in fact she did 5, including some towel pullups).

This or that

While Ragan and Marco were taking their intro to rope climbing class; Carmen and I started bouldering in the front.

Carmen was on fire, onsighting 3 V0s on only her second time climbing: nice! I started with V0 and V2, and then we moved to the small cave area where they setup a bunch of brand new problems. I did a V3, V4, and a great black V5: no feet, two big hooks in sequence, one on the same piece as your hand.

Once Marco and Ragan finished their class, we did a bit of rope climbing. Marco did a 5.9 clean on the pillar, not bad for his first time. After a failed first attempt, I did a 5.10 on the pillar (some guy did it on lead after I failed and his beta was key). Carmen did three attempts on a 5.7.

We then went back to bouldering, M, R, and C working an interesting pink V1 (Marco managed to do it). I did a crimpy V5 yellow.

We finished with some board training. I think the training is finally showing its effects. My climbing is improving, but it might also be because bringing M, R, and C is motivating me. They are improving so much (Both R and M managed to climb a few pieces without feet during training: i.e. pullups) that its making me want to get better I think.

P.S. Some guy fell on lead on a vertical climb, flipped over after his leg got caught in the rope and came banging into the wall... he had a pretty nasty burn on his leg: ouch.

Slow Start, Strong End

Brought another newbie to BKB, Carmen who is visiting Columbia from Munich. Met Ragan and Marco. Started in the section we spent most of our time in last Tuesday (the section with the small cave near the front) because Marco wanted his revenge on the green V2. Carmen completed a 0 and worked on second one. Marco tried hard on the 2, but it would not surrender. Ragan climbed some 0s and tried some 1s. I did 0, 2, 3, 4; then I had a long stretch of failures. Finally I was successful on a orange 4+ right outside of the cave area where the wall starts getting taller. It mostly involved large pinches.

We moved to the back where Marco and Ragan worked a white 1 and a red 2 (they had also worked on those on Tuesday). Carmen did two more 0s. I did nothing for a while but finally found something to work on, on the little wall before the beast, a lime 5, that involves a one arm mantle at the last move. Really cool (to do without the arete). I also did a red 4 in that section that involved a bid mantle on the last move with a dropped knee, really cool.

To finish Carmen did a 0+, and Ragan and Marco broke the code of the white 1: success!

We finished with some board training. Good night, but we have some work to do to be as good as those guys: 2013 ABS Mens Highlights

Fast start, slow end

Headed to BKB with Ryan, met Marco and Ragan there. We started strong in the small alcove towards the front where there is an overhanging section. I did V0, V2, V3, V4, V5+. The 2 was a fun overhanging (green) climb going across the little cave with good hands and feet. The 3, 4, and 5+ were hard, each in different ways. The (orange) 3 has a difficult finish going left to right on a small foot which is a bit far to really rock your weight over. The 4 involves mostly small hands. The 5+ is the yellow I tried last week, after a few fails trying to use the last hand hold before the top, I decided to just gun for the end. It worked on the second try, its more a mental thing than a physical challenge.

Ryan got stuck on the tricky 3 and spent a long time working it. Ragan and Marco worked some 0s and 1s; except for that green 2 that Marco spent a fair amount of time on. By the end he clearly had made progress, but was running out of juice. Ragan is learning to swing sideways and twist her shoulders; however she showed us she probably has the most hand strength of any of us on a sideways start with a flagged foot: impressive.

We then went in the back where these guys worked the 2 red that involves laybacks. I tried many things but couldn't come close on any of them.

We finished with some deadhangs and pullup training.