7

It has been a long time since I last lead-climbed or in the words of my baby, "high walled". Well I got the fix that I needed yesterday and boy was it amazing to experience freedom and dexterity while at the same time remaining in control of every muscle on my body.

Things didnt start off that smoothly though. I had to hang dog 3 times while working on a white-green route what was supposedly graded 6c+. I managed to get all the moves programmed into my muscles and after a 20 min rest, I went on my red-point attempt and literally threw myself off the wall, totally not what I expected. Frustrated, I came down, retied my rope and finished it without a glitch.

The next route was an orange route, graded 6b+ which I flashed with plenty of time watching other people do the moves beforehand. After doing that, the white-green route doesnt seem like a 6c+ anymore... more like a soft 6c because the holds are just too good.

Tried another brown 6b+ which felt even easier. Juggy though it included a short overhanging section. Finished up my climbing session with 2 easy 6as.

Gone were the days where I used to be able to somehow push my way into onsighting 6cs. I'm also still fighting the battle to onsight 7as. I know that I am not far away from it. Persevere!

On a sidenote, I am glad not to grab on to any quickdraw when I was gonna fall.

Improvement?

Over the past 3 months, I have been putting time and energy into training. I was, and still am very focused on getting back my strength for climbing. I must say that having a 3 months season pass to Climb Asia totally rocks! Almost feels like climbing for free! Even if I do pay for it, I will ensure that i get the most out of it. After climbing with the strong people, I do feel that I have upped my game by a few teeny weeny notches. Power 1, weight 0

Over the past 4 months, I have also been training like a mad dog to pursue 3 goals that are related to running. Number 1: IPPT GOLD before my birthday. Number 2: IPPT GOLD after my birthday. Number 3: Complete a Full Marathon (28 May 2011) in 5 hrs. Ultimately, I just wanted to see for myself if constant running helped at all in reducing my weight because my primary concern is still POWER to WEIGHT ratio.

Running did help to reduce my weight a little. But it has never gone down to my ideal body mass 55kg and below. My weight hovers between 57kg and 59kg. Personally I know that I have quite a propensity of putting on muscular mass without actually work that hard. But with all the climbing related training I have been doing, I realised that I need to work on my opposing muscles as well. In doing so, my body has bulked up quite a bit that I dare not step on the weighing scale. My guess is 59kg at least. Power 1, Weight 1.

Honestly, I'm at a lost. What kind of training suits me? I am doing too little or too much of something? Or am I just completely wrong? I am definitely improving, but is it cause I have been climbing at the same place for a long time? Will I fumble if I go back to say, NUS to climb? So many questions. Probably a million different answers.

Last

After 4 months of procrastinating, I've finally set up a new blog. Why? I have no idea actually. Just inclined to start writing something. Would be cool if i can gain constant readership but that can wait. Writing itself is quite a challenge for a language klutz such as myself. So here goes nothing. Not my first, but definitely my last.