(June 29th – July 5th: <10 mins read)
TL;DR:
– The volume runs are creeping up towards 10k
– ‘Easy volume’ / ‘Speedy paces’: good combo
– An uncontrolled but injury-free boulder fall
– Playing with my dog without restrictions
Milestones (click to collapse)
| WK37 | Milestone / Significant Event |
|---|---|
| D-1 | 🏃 ‘Easy volume’ run: 7k / 121 avg. pulse |
| D-2 | 🧗 VIII- (5.11b) project: – From bottom thru crux to 3rd last grip |
| D-3 | 📆 this is 255 days / 36w 3d post-injury |
| D-4 | 🏃 ‘Easy volume’ run: 8k / 124 avg. pulse |
| D-5 | ☀️ A fun Summer-Fest in my town … |
| D-6 | … that goes on for 48 hours 😎 🕺 🍻 |
| D-7 | 🥾 6km hike / 240m ascent / 30kg pack 🧗♂️ Uncontrolled fall from top 😬 🙈 37 weeks / approx 17k steps per day |
< Note: For a list of milestones click <here>.
Real-world exercise (& movement)
The main things worthy of note here were the following:
- My partner was on holiday with her youngest daughter, her dog, Fini, stayed with me whilst she was gone. This meant 3 dog walks a day -> approx. 10k steps just for that. It also meant I discovered that I am completely unrestricted wrt playing and running around with her – noice 🥳!
- In addition, whilst out taking Fini for a walk, I thought I’d try a bit of running up short hills – this was also absolutely fine;
- During the Sunday climbing session, I managed a repeat send of a 6er boulder that I’d found fairly challenging; one of my boulder buddies M hadn’t been watching though and asked me if I could repeat it. I made a (too short!) break then attempted a re-send … and screwed up the last move – it was a mix of over-confidence and muscle fatigue. I crashed down, taken by surprise, and was pretty lucky that nothing happened – dreadful that I don’t seem to have learned from my rupture that I need to be more present and always ready for a fall. On the upside: nothing happened, despite an uncontrolled fall and landing on both feet equally.
< Note: For my physio protocols click <here>.
Walking / Hiking (click to expand)
My plan was to do increasingly long hikes on a Saturday morning, where I can get up early (avoid the midday heat) and don’t have any time restrictions like work or school runs. Thanks to staying out a leeettle late on Friday evening, however, Saturday morning was a non-starter; instead, I pushed it to Sunday.
This had a hitch, however: between breakfast with my partner and the start of the Sunday climbing session, I just didn’t have enough time. Solution: as Chris has frequently said, he preferes heavy loading to lots of reps … so I figured I’d load my backpack up to 30kg / 65lbs. And maaan did I feel this! Already on the first round, before I’d even hit the top of the steepest bit, the outside of my upper thigh muscles was feeling it!
This time-effective training seems like an idea to alternate this with the lower pack weight and more km … 🤔.
Running
This week it became apparent that I had to switch the volume and speedy runs, simply due to logistics and time required for the run on a Monday. This led to me doing 2 volume runs – not terribly well paced, striving for an average of 120 BPM as an easy run at a pace I could hold a conversation:
Climbing
On the bouldering side, not much to report other than an uncontrolled fall from the very top of a repeat of a 6er boulder (a black grip set on the ‘tower’): one of my boulder buddies missed me sending the route, asked if I could repeat it; I short-cutted the break, got to the top and only just got my fingers onto the last ledge grip instead of around it … badly planned, badly executed, a lucky fall on both feet, all good.
Auto-belay wise in the sport climbing hall it was of a bit different story: having solved one of two cruxes on one of the VIII- (5.11b) projects I’m working on, I now put pretty much everything together, going from the bottom, thru that first crux, and then up to the last one, with just two moves missing. So, next time I’m in good form, I know it’s going to be up the easy V route parallel to it and work on those last two moves 🤞 🙏.
