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