WTF? Is this a climbers blog….
The following is a news article I wrote about the occupy wall street movement happening in NY, across the country and in your city. I’m a climber. I’m a guide. I am a working class goil from Brooklyn. Sometimes I blog about climbing and sometimes there are more important things than climbing.
Drawing inspiration from Occupy Wall Street: October 1
Commentary by Carolyn Riccardi |
New York, NY – In a city of nine million people, protesters aren’t supposed to shut down a major traffic artery on a Saturday afternoon. But on Saturday, October 1, Occupy Wall Street did just that, blocking the Brooklyn Bridge and sending a loud message to the bankers and politicians from Wall Street to Washington D.C. to California that a new day is at hand.
Saturday was Day 15 of Occupy Wall Street, a 24-hour living protest in the shadow of the World Trade Center, surrounded by City Hall, One Police Plaza and the headquarters of banks and finance. Thousands of people have been gathering every day despite a persistent rainy September. What started out as a call by radical youth has steadily given rise to the participation of the transit workers union, Black nationalist organizations, grandmothers, students, teachers and other forces. Many question what the heck Occupy Wall Street is. With the claims of being leaderless and without demands, I can relate to that question.
It seemed part street theater held together with duct tape and crazy glue. Yet a funny thing has occurred on the streets of New York. Inspired by political uprisings in Cairo, Greece, and Palestine there is a rising politic that is pissed off at our rising unemployment rate, the burning awareness of the boot of the NYPD on people of color communities, endless expanding wars, and the execution of Troy Davis. While the effects of the festering economic crisis brought people to occupy Wall Street on September 17, that and many other injustices keep more people coming.
If the call to occupy lower Manhattan was heeded by youth first, the state murder of Troy Davis by the state of Georgia shook many to the core who were already frustrated by conservative policies coming from the White House. Many peoples’ hopes rose with the election Barack Obama, only to have hearts grow twisted and heavy as now he rallies the forces of US imperialism and corporations like JP Morgan since taking office.
In a dreary rain I was pleased to see hundreds of people grow to a couple of thousand as the day progressed. This is impressive on the 15th day of a round-the-clock protest action. The people’s loud speaker announced a march in the afternoon with an unclear direction or goal. But once people began to move up Broadway towards City Hall it didn’t seem to matter.
After going to political protests for a couple decades it’s easy to wear a skin of cynicism, but the pure energy of the crowd inspired all of us. People on the street smiled and cheered. Horns honked from every side street, and as we marched the rain stopped and the day got crisp our voices got louder. We arrived at the mouth of the Brooklyn Bridge and many marched legally onto the walkway while others began to block traffic and head towards the roadway. Police were ill-prepared to handle the growing militancy of the demonstration. And as a cop gave warnings over a loudspeaker, you could tell people were marinating over the heavy choices at hand. One. Two. Ten. Twenty. 100 people began to chant, “take the bridge, take the bridge!” And we did.
After protesters marched strong and blocked the road, the police regrouped and eventually arrested over 700 people. As people organized support for their jailed sisters and brothers, news of protests actions in many other cities were also on people lips.
Work needs to get done. It’s time to step up and into the fray. Occupy Wall Street. This is now.
Here’s the link to the article: www.fightbacknews.org/2011/10/2/drawing-inspiration-occupy-wall-street-october-1″>
WARNING
WARNING: for the next 6-7 months I will be posting blogs, status updates, poems, gear reviews, trip reports, photos, stories, and articles about WINTER. Winter, Ice climbing, snow climbing, new hampshire, the catskills, the daks, etc. Winter climbing here, there and everywhere. Now, now I’ve been very disciplined ’bout summer-all frakking summer long. time is coming. T minus 7 weeks and counting.
Think I’m too early: http://neice.com/2010/11/right-on-schedule/
Winter friends is coming. So say we all.
summer lovin’
Did I suggest I am lovin’ summer? Impossible. Summer suxs. SUMMER is NOT WINTER. It’s hot, humid, hot and humid, wet and gross, its well….summery. Somethings gotta be different. New tattoo? New Anthrax cd? New Mastodon cd? What, what ? The big news I’m guiding full time. And I am lovin’ it. This spring and summer I transitioned to working full time as an EMS Climbing guide. In the past I split my time between the office, or the box as we affectionately call it and the cliff. But in practice I was in the box far more than the cliff. This summer I am out on the cliff 3-4 days per week and it is awwwwwwwwwwwwwwesome.
What’s great about guiding I can think of two things. One introducing people to the world of outdoor climbing and the magic of the gunks. Show ing folks the best climbs and watching them challenge themselves, face fear and succeed. From children to seniors, lil kids to cynical Manhattan hipsters – put em’ in a harness, get an orange brain bucket on there heads and some (somewhat) uncomfortable shoes and off we go. Noobs aren’t cynical. they aren’t obsessed with only climbing 5.10s, 3 star routes or High E….yet. The other thing that I’m loving is teaching technical climbing courses. This summer I’ve taught top rope set up courses, learning to lead and glacier skills and crevasse rescue course. I feel incredibly lucky to be teaching at this level and to feel competent and solid instructor. And it’s a great balance between the total noob in the Rock Climbing 101 course and the more advanced climbing looking to summit Rainier or Denali. I am getting to use my brain, the work is physical and emotionally satisfying too.
The other great thing about this summer has been crossfit. After training off and on at crossfit the past 2 years I’ve tried re-dedicated myself this spring and summer and the results have been steady. First I have to say I feel lucky to have a fantastic coach Peter Nathan. Peter is an experienced athlete and coach drawing on decades of training and competing most recently in the national crossfit games out in cali this past July. But what I have also found at my gym is a sincere cadre of goils and guys who show up and do the work. And do they work. We grunt, sweat, cry, suffer and dream crossfit. we, together, are trying to better ourselves as atheletes and as people. the sincerity and commit at my gym is remarkable. its a low drama results oriented gym and I can’t recommend it enough.
Now there’s some criticism out in the interweb. Some of it more thoughtful than others. Folks jokingly call it cult-fit and speak of group think, etc. Most of this is easy to debunk once you get beyond the hype. One thing that is striking is people who join crossfit – to loss weight, advance in their sport, try out a new kind of training – if they make it past the 3 month mark kinda love it. Its a good program. A very good program. Its accessible. You COULD do it at home. It’s not about secret formulations, weird machines and gyms that are really meat markets for the socially awkward.
And it kinda transforms many people who walk through the door and stick with it. It becomes a revolutio of the body and mind. People stop wearing overpriced sneakers and buy 20 pro keds. folks change their diet. they go paleo, primal, zone or just start eating right. the experience change and start thinking and start wanting to be healthy ALL THE TIME. Should you have a critique of crossfit? Should you think outside the box? of course and I’ll have to write more about that at a later date. Things I would like at crossfit: longer workouts, more running, more running, more strength training AND a greater emphasis on endurance training and more cardio work. Crossfit does have sealfit and crossfit endurance but neither has turned its methods to the climbing community like Gym Jones and others have.
I have work to do myself. I am in the shallow end of the pool and have much more work to do. I need to link my training more clearly to my sport goals of being a strong climber with great endurance. I would like my workouts to build towards trying to peak as a climber once in the late summer and again in mid- Feb during the height of ice season. I’d like to devote all of my training towards those two points. further developing workouts that reproduce some elements of the climbing skills and form. Most often climbers particularly rock climbers suggest MORE CLIMBING as the answer to everything. But that’s not my sole focus as I am drawn to the larger mountains and particularly winter snow and ice climbing. And there are programs like the Alpine Training Center in Colorado, Mountain Athlete in Jackson Hole, Wy and Gym Jones in SLC, Utah that I am paying close attention to and trying to learn from as well.
In the meantime the results:
Spring/Summer 2011:
1) Deadlift PR: 326# – july
2) Deadlift PR: 331# – aug
3) clean and jerk PR: 113# (2x) -aug
4) backsquat PR 200# 2 X – aug
5) front squat PR 139# – aug
5) Local personal benchmark run: 6.6 mi @ 59:58. – july
6) 500m Row: matched PR of 1:39 – may
7) 2000m Row – 7:53 (first attempt at the 2000m row) – june
8) unmeasured: I am not longer doing modified pull ups. my pull ups aren’t great but they are soooo much better. And I am getting better every day. Ditto I don’t have a bench press max but I can do 2 sets of 5 @ 105# which is an advance too from last year.
If you’ve been following my progress this is week 23 OVERALL. But it is in the past 12-14 weeks of solid training – 3-4 days of crossfit per week plus guiding f/t that I have made most of my gains.
Finally thoughts: I still miss winter but this summer’s been pretty cool.
Where do you find out more about GUNXCROSSFIT: Gunxcrossfit
more on training at gymjones: friehjournal.blogspot.com, station515.blogspot.com, simpleirontruth.com, www.projectdeliverance.com
and of course: www.gymjones.com
mandatory reading for alpinists on training methods and volume : 18_What’s_in_an_Hour.html the-great-circle
It doesn’t “get better,” you get stronger
Listen and learn
Bite Me: health, diet and all that
“exercising to burn calories is like driving your car to burn gas.” – gunxscrossfit
I have never been on a diet. I have never owned a scale. Since I was a kid I was tall and skinny and everyone always admired my apparent lack of body fat and thin frame. When I was growing up my mother hated her body. She was on weight watchers for as long as I can remember. She was always trying the latest fad diet and failing at it. Every weekend she would get drunk and go off on her body and how fat she was. She’d stare at the mirror for hours yelling at herself. I watched this go on for decades and it…fucked me up. Maybe that’s why I can’t fucking stand it when elite athletes put down “fat people” and act so self righteous. It’s also boring, focus on the positive and celebrate people that works better in my mind. Celebrate diversity and different body types. Love yourself and others. There’s more to life than climbing 5.11s, races, PRs, first ascents, time trials, sporting events and other bs. Still I am going on 43 years old and I’d be lying if I didn’t acknowledge my body has changed. I don’t burn cals like I used to and I can’t literally eat whatever I want. This winter I got injured and one of the things I found myself doing is eating for pleasure. Making big yummy meals and treating myself well. Good self care I thought but it wasn’t. Always a fan of desserts I found myself eating a bit more than usual. I was depressed and unable to run, climb and xfit so I ate, I watched movies, and I ate.
This past week I decided to keep tabs on all the food I eat and figure out if I could tweak my diet a lil bit so here it is:
Some Guidelines I am working at:
1) take athletic recovery seriously.
recovery means eating a healthy meal w/in 30 minutes of all climbing/workouts. I am also utilizing recovery drinks immediately after my workouts. Currently Progenex More Muscle.
2) Recovery means good sleep 8-9 hours every night. It means disconnecting from technology long before bed and letting my mind rest too.
3) no muffins (torture)
4) no pints of ice cream – desserts are allowed but only single servings.
5) cut out oatmeal/cereals for breakfast
6) no post-climbing/workout bad treats/snacks
7) cut 2/3 of sugar consumed w. coffee
8) lean proteins twice a day
9) coffee is in fact a protein so we’re good there
10) Hydration: I’ve always been pretty good w. water in take. I recently read where the night before a race cross-country skiers should have to wake up and go to the bathroom 3 times.
I suggest 3.5. to 4.5 liters of water per day more on hot days. Here’s one of many charts to help you figure out how much you should be taking in:
http://www.starinternationalsoccer.com/CALCULATING%20WATER%20CONSUMPTION%20FOR%20ATHLETES.htm
Day 1: tuesday june 14
breakfast: 2 eggs on fresh garlic bread and cheddar cheese
lunch: cereal w. wheat germ and 2% milk
post workout: progenex w. water
dinner: salad w. shrimp
dessert: yogurt
Day 2: wednesday june 15
breakfast burrito: cheese, eggs and bacon
lunch: peanut butter on garlic bread
snack: carrots
pre workout: banana
post workout progenex w. water
Dinner: salad w. shrimp
snack – popcorn
Day 3: Thursday june 16
breakfast: soy protein shake w. banana and blueberries
morning snack: 1 seaweed rice cake and some carrots
lunch: sandwich w. salami and turkey
snack: carrots
pre workout: cookie
post workout: progenex w. water
dinner: steak burrito w. guacamole
Day 4: Friday june 17
breakfast: late breakfast, veggie omlet w. whole wheat toast
snack: orange and rice cakes
lunch: carrots
dinner: pizza
dessert: HD choc. ice cream 1 serving
Day 5: Sat. June 18
breakfast: protein shake
snack: half cliff bar and an orange
lunch: sandwich – turkey and salami
snack: carrots
dinner: local farm burger and onion rings and 1 beer
Day 6: Sunday June 19
breakfast: protein shake
lunch: sandwich, carrots
dinner: roasted chicken w. mac n cheese.
dessert: gelato
Day 7: Mon June 20
breakfast: protein shake w. banana and blueberries
lunch: sandwich
snack: cereal w. milk
post workout: protein shake w. water
dinner: roasted chicken w. steamed broccoli, 1 beer.
Day 8: Tuesday June 21
Breakfast: protein shake
lunch: sandwich and an orange
post workout: progenex w. 10oz water
dinner: roast chicken, broccoli and some cheese ravioli w. gravey
dessert: pop corn
WORKOUT UPDATE:
week 12
1) sat – holiday fam time, short hike
2) sun – holiday fam time, short hike
3) mon – may 30 – xift “murph” 1 m run, 100 pull ups, 200 push ups, 300 squats, 1 mile run. I did the team murph in 53:05
4) tues – may 31 – trail run @ duck pond/glory hill – ran for 58:41. first mi uphill I completed in 9:41. very please.
5) wed – june -1 – ran loop very hot 23:05, 49:40 total
6) th – june 2 – climbed w. Bill and Dara. 4 leads, 5 climbs total
7) Fri – june 3 – xfit
totals: 1 day of climbing, 2 xfit, 2 runs, 2 short hikes = 5 and 1/3 blocks of activity.
week 13
1) Sat – june 4 – ran 40 minutes on the carriage roads. approx 4 miles.
2) sun – june 5 – out w. friends
3) mon – june 6 – rest
4) tues – june 7 – 5 climbs on TR 5.7 to 5.9 followed by 3 rounds of 10 pull ups and 10 kb goblet squats
5) wed – june 8 – xfit in the am
6) thur – june 9 – xfit in the am
7) fri – june 10 – ran over/under 22:13/48:18
TOTALS: 1 day of climbing, 2 xift, 2 runs and 1 mini workout. 5.5 blocks total
week 14
1) sat – june 11 – guiding
2) sun – june 12 – guiding
3) mon – june 13 – climbing – 5p total. 2 leads.
4) tues – june 14 – xfit and after 1 mile run. Note: 500m row in 1:39 tied my PR set over a year ago. back on my regime.
5) wed- june 15- TR solo 5.8+ 3x. Xfit in the evening.
6) thur – june 16- Xfit (3rd day in a row). DL 305 2X, Fran: 11:30 (66pds, assisted pull-ups)
7) fri – june 17 – rest
TOTALS: 2 days of guiding, 2 1/2 days of personal climbing, 3 days of xfit and 1 run. 8 blocks of activity (back at Xfit for four weeks now).
May workout update
May is coming to a close and all I can say is hallelujah!!!! Here’s hoping for a drier June. Still working through my foot injury. It’s been about 6-7 weeks and I still have some issues. It’s a process. I am ramping up my activity and workouts slowly but surely. One of my main goals being stacking 2 activities in a day to build endurance. So climbing and afterward a run, xfit and a bike or xfit and a run. Here’s what the last 3 weeks of May looked like:
1) may 7 – sat – ran loop 47:29 total
2) may 8 – sun – ran loop 48:20 total
3) may 9 – mon – rest
4) may 10 – tues – TR solo 8 and 8+
afterward I ran loop 49:46 total.
5) may 11 – wed- visited NYC.
6) may 12 – th – ran loop total 47:27.
7) may 13- fri – climb w. friend. 5.7+
after — ran the loop 47:43
totals: 2 half days of climbing, 5 days of running (23.5 miles).
1) may 14 – sat- rain – rest
2) may 15 – sun- ran loop 22:26 47:28.
3) may 16 – mon- company dinner
4) may 17 – tues- work, co. event
5) may 18 – wed – guided
6) 19 – thurs – Crossfit (1:54 row). first time back in….6 plus weeks
7) May 20th – fri – xfit
totals: Rainy week: 2 crossfit, 1 guiding day, no climbing, 1 run
1) May 21 – sat – super sore – rest
2) May 22 – sun – ran loop. 48:09 total.
3) may 23 – mon – crappy weather. ran 65 minutes on trails, starting at duck pond. hilly, single track, rocky
4) 5 mile hike. afterward TR solo
5) may 25 – wed – climb w. friend
6) may 26 – thur – mild workout @ home. 3 rounds of 10 pull ups and 10 KB goblet squats
7) may 27 – Fri – xfit
totals: 2 climbing days, 2 crossfit, 2 runs, and one mini home xfit. 7 workouts
Best of the Best of the Best Blogs in the climbing world
Far superior than any gear reviews happening in the climbing mag world, a must must read gear year in review: http://coldthistle.blogspot.com/2011/05/best-gear-of-20102011.html
My go to spot for ice gear repair. Jason is a jeweler in past life. He does exceptional work.
http://www.anicescrew.com/
http://bigfootmountainguides.com/
Climb for a Cause
Four mountaineers are climbing Mt. Logan for Planned Parenthood Montana. Follow the story. Make a donation.
http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/mtlogan/mtlogan
It All Falls Down
“I live my life like there’s no tomorrow
All I’ve got I had to steal
At least I don’t have to beg or borrow
Yes I’m living at a pace that kills”
– Van Halen
I am Brooklyn breed badass bitch
Born to be wild
In denim and leather
Rock n roll sex machine
I can pass at a party filled with PHD
Wax poetical on the struggle of the Irish and give you Jenna Jameson’s blowjob tips in the same breath and back again with a breakdown on the role of white supremacy in suburban school districting and teach you how to fire a Glock
And I am a good shot
I am confident
I can do anything
And I am one step away
I am one step away from falling and never getting up
My mother did
I was ten years old on a November night
The wind had a hint of winter and my mother had hit the bottle hard that night
It was like all the other nights but different
We had a new house
A new house
In a neighborhood with neater lawns and houses with this Italian pride I was starting to see in all the elaborate Christmas displays out in front of people’s houses announcing the holiday with an electric shout-out like one of the DJ’s on KTU
No one knew that we were different
We was coming home from our cousins house
Not real cousins like old school family cousins from Crown Heights who hadn’t escaped Brooklyn yet just dug deeper away from the neighborhoods with access to subways. Where realtors spoke in language codes to keep out the bad elements
Keeping it clean for GOOD
Solid
Irish and Italians families
My new neighborhood was called New Mill Basin Flatlands really for uppity Brooklynites who though they were superior because they had unattached houses they could light up like Macy’s window displays.
We was coming home from the cousins house when my ma fell and never go up
Fell
and never got up
Well not exactly
See there I was. On my boney knees in this hand-me-down jacket I had gotten that night from my cousins Pat that didn’t fit me. Whining and crying like my ma said I always was until these big boys dragged her drunken ass back to our new lovely home propping her up on the wrought iron gate of our new door
Our new home
New neighborhood and school.
Me on my boney knees in November
1978
And on this day I knew my Ma would never get up
Now it’s not like that alcoholism flipped into critical and she died on a park bench or dive bar barstool singing some Irish standard out of tune til her ticker flickered and faded and that was the end
No that’s just too easy
It’s not that cinematic and simple
No
this fall fucking dragged on
This fall took a long time for me to face as she faced me the next day with her head propped up with pillows in bed her lip swollen. Her face bloated.
She pulled me close and talking and talking all contrite with that sick alcohol breath. She said enough is enough and I believed her.
I was ten years old
She was my mother.
I wanted everything to be new
I often wonder if my ma coulda held it together a little longer who knows what coulda happened. Maybe she woulda got a job as a school secretary at St. Mary’s Queen of Heaven instead staying home everyday feeling like life was drifting away and the only thing steady was the assurance of equilibrium brought on by a bottle of booze.
The night my mother fell it wasn’t funny like all the other times when mommy’s drunk and acting funny when your five and your aunt says mommy’s acting up like a little bitty baby and you THINK you forget and its enough to keep up the illusion that everything is on the up and up and its okay that Mommy and daddy let off a little steam and party and forget what they say and its all okay
I am one step away
I am one step away from growing up
Watching Joey split this Russian kids head like a cantaloupe and him crying like a baby with the blood slipping steadily between his fingers.
Joey said the fucking pussy trying to ride his bike away as Joey winds up with his stick ball bat.
I was right there on the corner of Ave J right by the Chinese liquor store that sold me my first quart of boons farm when I was 12 years old. And it was not the last time I saw tough boys draw blood
This wasn’t the movies boys and girls
This was real life
And this was fucking hot
To be around big boys who smashed heads and took trips and touched me in dark spaces when no one else was around and they came all open and undone
Who was I? Who was I?
I was nothing
Nothing special
I was tracked for failure with
The sluts with red lipstick and sun in burned hair
The Irish wheeler-dealers, burn outs and metal heads
Smoking weed and drinking anything we could steal in the trails behind Roy H. Mann
And it never ends up easy
Being the badass from Brooklyn who never left home
I’m still there
It’s all right here
Hmmmm
Wanna hear a good one?
Okay see after high school me and all my friends would rent out a bus and take “ski” trip weekends where none of us ever made it skiing
my friends: Little Tony, Tony the lover, Tracy Ann and me
We’d buy 8 cases of beer and a bottle of whiskey for boiler makers
Knowing full well that Every single night we would go drinking and dancing at some ski bunny yuppie bar
See all the alcohol we was bringing was for all the other times
One weekend
I’m not exaggerating
I got pictures to prove it
My mother was so proud of me she took the photo of us posing in front of Tony’s truck right before we loaded her up
8 cases
1 gallon of whiskey
We would wake and take a luggage rack down to breakfast with an igloo cooler strapped up and drink our buds over breakfast
One weekend
Two
Two and a half days
Yeah we don’t fuck around in Brooklyn
Bar fight after bar fight
After car accident after accident
All this ain’t accidental
In one year I was in 8 car accidents
Where we lost control of our car
Most of the time we just hit parked cars
Most of the time
I am one step away from falling
Nobodies gonna pick me up and save me from ghosts that are quiet alive and barnacled to my belly ready to birth to some untamable animal alive and alone as Brooklyn becomes revitalized and our accents become extinct saved for TV shows and good ol’ tall tales told in the bar
I’m not better than anyone from my old block.
I’m not better than them
Is it luck? That I’ve been drinking for 24 fucking years and counting
So I try and keep my head up and ride high, staying true to my roots and being tough but this badass Brooklyn bravado that’s been my survival may end up bringing me down
There are only so many second chances and choices
That all I can think to do is order another round and get the party started and wax philosophical about the meaning of Brooklyn
Who am I?
My mother would say who are you? Who do you think you are? Thinking your better than me? You think you’re better than this family? Who do you think you are?
I’m not better than my mother
I’m not better than Brooklyn
People think I am a success story
I’m a success story
Ya think I got it all going on. But this is just fucking street corner bravado. This ain’t real it’s a fucking show.
I am one show away from my mother watching TV day after day drinking away watching TV from 7 in the morning until midnight
I am one tattoo away from reminding the interviewer that I am too fucking Flatbush to belong in this institution or at some book reading where everyone assumes I was the over achiever A student without the Brooklyn accent who made it out of the white trash ghetto and never losses control
Radical slut, sex educator
I am one fuck away from staying a slut who is nothing but a slut cause in Brooklyn you are branded and stuck in a rut strutting your stuff in faux leather and cheap lingerie with a whiskey glass waving that never empties as long as some guys around in need of a good cheap fuck
I am one step away
One step away from falling
I am my mother’s daughter
I am Brooklyn.
*******************************
Edited 5/11 to protect the guilty
yo this is copy written stuff right here. please do not repost or steal my words. word.
Bumps in the Road
Life’s not a song. Life isn’t bliss, life is just this, it’s living.
– Spike, Once More with Feeling
If you haven’t noticed I haven’t been blogging as much. I spend an inordinate amount of time on facebook and reading everyone else’s blog but I have been reluctant to put things out there.
Where to begin? How bout fall 2010. Oy. Last fall was just a disaster on many levels. I fraked up some relationships and failed at romance. Seemingly having it all together and being a mature adult doesn’t always mean things are going to work out well. Turns out I am still distant when I should be trying to be open. I am open when I should be trying to play it cool. I still pine after the unobtainable. And I am still learning what I need. On top of all that my dog tore her ccl in her hind leg and for a few weeks I thought I was going to have to put her down or get her prohibitively expensive surgery to fix her up.
…..
Winter started well but then I got a bad injury in early Jan and that knocked me out off commission. I put on a brave face but it took a lot out of me. Still I bounced back fairly. Many friends came to visit and help walk my dog, get me good food and keep me company. I recovered and got in a fairly decent ice season climbing 20 days and again leading a few WI 4s while feeling solids on the 3s and 3+s. Not an advance from last season but back up to where I was before the accident.
Spring started slow and I went to New Hampshire for two weeks taking a Wilderness First Responder Course at the SOLO schools. An awesome course that left me empowered and more confident in my backcountry adventures. But while i was away I got zero athletic activity. I focused hard on my course and didn’t have much time to play or workout at all. Sure this is an excuse. But a damn good one. Then after getting back to NP I got another injury. A dumb one. I banged the heel of my foot, hard, 3 weeks ago after a small, small climbing fall. This just crushed me. It brought my head down in a big way. It was early in the season and I was pushing it when I should have been building my base. Leading easier stuff, toproping harder stuff and getting my rock climbing lead head and fitness together. Soooooo I haven’t been eating as well. My body needed extra rest to heal but that meant no working out. This meant no xfit community. No post work out highs. It meant no climbing. I have a great community up here in NP but without all my outdoor activities I’ve felt isolated.
And spring my friends is never my favorite season. I have allergies. I miss winter. But I also lost both my mother and my uncle in the springs of 2000 and 2002. Both from heart attacks. Both came as a shock. My uncles death meant I no longer have any immediate family. I am solo. I have friends. I have cousins and love ones but the family that raised me – for better or worse are all gone. These are older wounds. They have much scar tissue over them but every spring I feel an itching. A sense of loss.
In many ways I had a failed family. That sounds harsh. Cold. Whatever. But its the truth. They did their very best. They worked hard to take care of me and give me love. But they may have never loved themselves. Alcoholism runs deep in my family. I knew my mom was a drunk by the time I was 5 years old. By the time I was ten I hated my mom. By the time I was 15 I was partying hard to forget the feelings of watching her fall on her face, hitting the concrete hard was I was only a child. By the time I was 20 I understood my mom hated herself and nothing I was ever going to do was going to change that. But that is no comfort. I don’t have any keen insight. I am not going to leave you with some smart parable. It is what it is. It’s over now. We move on.
……………
So early spring there’s been A LOT of rain. I have been taking time away from the gym and the crag and trying to get in some volume on my bike. I got a cyclocross bike over a year ago and been slowly getting into the two wheel travel zone. Been doing a mix of road rides a nice loop through Gardiner and NP in about 16-18 miles. My goal is to do bike/run and climb/run on the same day.
Last I taught a two day Glacier Skills course for EMS. It was one of the most satisfying experiences I’ve had as a guide. I felt more than competent I felt like a real guide with a lot to offer my clients. It was an important moment. One I need more often. I had one personal day of climbing w. the ever awesome PL. I ran the over under loop at the Mohonk Preserve 5 runs @4.7 mi (23.5 miles total) and did a ten mile bike ride. It was a great week. And that’s all it takes one good day. One good week. All the building blocks are there. One day at a time. One day at a time.
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Past 2 weeks of training
week 7
1) apr. 23 – sat – road ride
2) apr. 24 – sun – trail ride on bike
3) rest
4) apr. 26 – tues – 18 plus mile loop RT to gardiner, to deli back home. (84 degrees 95% humidity)
5) apr. 27 – wed – 16 mi ride, 1 hr 14 min, avg sp 12.9mph (some rain, temps hi 70s)
6) apr. 28 – thurs – bonticou crag hike
7) april 29 – fri – out w. friends
TOTALS: 4 bike rides and 1 hike
week 8
1) apr 30 – sat – Guiding Glacier Skills course
2) may 1 – sun – Guiding Glacier Skills course
3) may 2 – mon – 4.7 mi run (21 min @ half way pt, 48:40 @ finish therefore 27:40 over). first run since foot injury.
4) may 3 – tues – 4.7 mi run (23:20 @ half way pt, 52:30 @ finish). hot and humid morning. first half 2:20 slower, second half 29:10.
B) After a couple hours rest I went out for a 10 mile bike ride. approx. 1 hour.
5) may 4 – wed – rest
6) may 5 – th – ran 4.7 (23:13 @ half way pt, chatting pace, overcliff in 25:07 @ finish, 48:20 total.
7) may 6 – fri – half day of climbing (frogshead, sundowner, apoplexy).
afterward ran 4.7 (23:57 @ half way point, tired, 25:39 overcliff, 49:36 total. 1 min and 16 sec longer than last nights time.
Totals: 2 guiding days, 1 climbing day, 4 runs @4.7 mi (18.8 miles total) 1 bike ride.
spring training: once more with feeling
week 1
1) mar 12 – Sat – daks climb 7 hour day. approx 600 ft of climbing. 2 mile snowshoe
2) mar 13 – sun – rest
3) mar 14- mon – xfit
4) mar 15 – tues – xfit
5) mar 16- wed – trail run – approx. 4 miles
6) mar. 17 – thurs – xfit
7) mar 18 – fri – light hike w. 30lb. backpack
=13 hours total
6 out of 7 days of working out. Ice season is more or less over. Catskills is done. Made it to the Daks one last time. My runs and xfit days are approx. 45-60minute workout was approximately 45-55 minutes. Missed and/or failed to take advantage of the nice weather window and go out rock climbing.
week 2
1) mar 19 – Sat – ran 5 miles
2) mar 20 – sun – 3 hr. climb – horseman, dennis, and jackie w. Jason H.
3) mar 21 – mon – xfit
4) mar 22 – tues – 4 mile trail run – w. hills.
5) mar 23 – wed – xfit
6) mar 24 – thurs – 5 mi. run
7) mar 25 – fri – 60:04 minute trail run w. hills.
= 8 hours and 10 minutes total
Second week 7 out of 7 days however I only worked myself for 8 plus hours, 5 hours less than week one. Emphasis on trail running with hills was intentional and fun to get out with friends. Happy to be back climbing though the weather has been a mix of rain and some dry cold days.
My Gunxs Xfit sessions have been great. Very motivated class. I struggle with the quality of much of my work during the WOD’s. I’ve lost some strength and power since my accident this winter. Though the quality issue is always there. It’s very difficult for me to focus on form when faced with a clock. I lose my concentration and want to finish. These are things to work on but overall its been great.
Weeks 3 and 4 are going to be a challenge. I am heading up to Conway NH to the SOLO Schools for the wilderness first responder course. I am hoping to continue running and doing some light workouts but my priority will be the course work. There is also a chance I’ll hit some alpine ice in the whites. To be continued….
as far as training blogs go Steve House is the man with important stuff to say to climbers: </em> </a>
