Monday is my one definite day a week to climb. Sure, I sometimes may be able to get a sneaky bit of extra baby sitting in one evening or even bring little person with me sometimes but it’s not reliable. Not like my reliable Monday morning climb when littlie is at nursery and I can relax knowing that she is happy and I am not going to be needed for a few hours.But guess what? Today is Monday, and did I train? No, as littlie had a party. Did I train last Monday? No- we went to Devon camping with the Zhota, and it rained on the day we could have climbed! Did I train the Monday before that? Yes! Hooray!
It is all just circus skills and priorities. A juggling act every day deciding what can give a little and compromise so that everyone gets the best. Climbing; I love, succeeding at the climbing challenges I set myself I crave. For example, a 7b route at the local wall that I have not yet managed to hang the cross over/ undercut/ sloper-mono crux yet is annoying the hell out of me!! But I will do it! My point is, that as much as I love climbing and as much as I want to train and compete and pull the hard grades, sometimes I give up time to climb for other options/ people. Climbing tends to come before studying and housework though (-may regret that during next year’s exams!).So my Monday climb, is almost definite.
This is not to say that training has been going badly! It has been a definite improvement on training once a quarter like last year! At the moment I am (mostly) climbing once a week plus one other form of training. In the last 3 or 4 weeks, I have had a session doing the traverse at Willersley (albeit not for long), a bouldering session at the local wall (I was not feeling too strong this day but did about 20 problems from V0 - V5/ 5b-6b), had a solo session at Harborough, a run to Burbage, another 2 or 3 bouldering sessions, a leading session (darn that 7b!!!), a weighted hike up High Tor (little person again!), a little sports climbing in the sun, swimming, yoga and sporadic door frame pull ups! In June, I even entered the first round of a local bouldering comp; the first time in quite a while! This round went pretty well for me as I managed to scoop 1st place somehow! Clearly, I did something right in my ‘June Training Programme’!.
So, the training is happening! It’s not perfect and not as regularly as I would wish, but it is a positive start!
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