(September 21st – 27th: <10 mins read)
TL;DR:
– 🪨 Crack my first-ever 7er (6c+ / V6) boulder
– 🏃 Sub-30min 5k trail time
– 🤹 Slacklining: juggling at the same time
< music I’m listening to as I type / exercise >
< “This is Spilif” >
Milestones (click to collapse)
| WK49 | Milestone / Significant Event |
|---|---|
| D-1 | 🏃 ‘Hill climbing’ run: 5.5k / 10 circuits – 32:50 / 5:58min/km / 143 avg. pulse 🧗 Day 26: daily PT and slacklining |
| D-2 | 🪨 Day 27: bouldering: – close to cracking a first-ever 7er route 🤹 Slacklining really improving daily 🏃 Got in a 2km easy jog: – at a park bench halfway: leg work! |
| D-3 | 🧗 Day 28: a couple of warm-up routes |
| D-4 | 🧗 Day 29: just a few simple rope routes 🤹 Well over an hour of slacklining |
| D-5 | 🪨 Day 30: PT / bouldering with S and J – cracked my first ever 7er (7a) boulder 🥳 😎 🤹 Juggled 3 balls (11 catches) on slackline 😮 |
| D-6 | 🧗 Day 31: climbing-wise just a VI+ route 🤹 Slackline juggling a bit firmer today – a running jump start is mostly doable too 🏃 Another 2km easy jog |
| D-7 | 🧗 Day 32: only climbed a IVer route … – today was about getting K back into lead – S n J gave me a wonderful b’day present 🫶 🤹 Just a short slackline session today … – tbh feeling a little under the weather 👣 49 weeks / approx 11k steps per day |
< Note: For a list of milestones click <here>.
Real-world exercise (& movement)
My ‘dedication’ (‘obsession’ ?) to daily slacklining gets upped a notch: my initial goal of juggling whilst standing on a slackline is already – at a basic level – done and dusted! This, of course, leads to the search for the next kind of goals …
I struggle with a reliable reverse-walk from the end of the line, regardless of what direction – the much firmer end of the slackline, which I originally assumed would be the easier part of the slackline to stand on (compared to the very movable central part) proves to be the toughest part; similarly, putting both feet on the slackline at the same time is likewise harder than having one foot off the line – using the hips is the obvious next-level thing, but easier said than done.
Turning is also super challenging – basically not doable, if I’m honest.
Walking / Hiking (empty)
This … ‘focussing’ on slacklining is throwing off the concentrated efforts to raise my hiking ‘game’ 🤷.
Running
At least on Monday I stuck to my general plan of 2 ‘proper’ runs per week: upped my ‘hill climb circuits’ to 10 complete ones -> 5.5km … at a sub-30min 5k pace, no less, despite the getting on for 200m ascent, which felt good!
And that was that for this week, other than a couple of easy 2km jogs with the associated short, simple leg units.
Climbing
Cracked my first 7er boulder this week! I mean, currently, my climbing gym simply grades the boulders from 1-8 with no claim to relation to the Font or V-grade scales … not really a V7, more like a V6, probably even a somewhat soft one … let’s call it a 6c+. At any rate, definitely my first one at this level … EVER 🥳 !!
With that, I can definitely say with absolute surety that I am back to better-than-pre-injury bouldering level. Just need to avoid injuring myself now 😅 !
Rope climbing took a bit of a back seat this week, at least wrt myself: what with some fairly hard bouldering and not wanting to ‘earn’ another case of golfer’s elbow, during Sunday’s session I stuck to belaying my friend K. We completed a lead climbing course years ago; he went as far as buying a rope, belaying device and other stuff … but we never really got round to using it – probably a lack of confidence / experience coupled with worries about screwing up and someone getting hurt.
Thanks to my trainer friend R’s help and support, plus the day ‘on the rocks’, I realise I’ve gotten to the point where I am beginning to be quietly confident (whilst recognising that I am still, most definitely, an absolute beginner). It is at least enough that I have no problem belaying, so K got to kick off with an easy top-rope route, followed by a couple of only slightly more tricky lead routes – the emphasis was definitely on him getting back into clipping. All went well – next week we’ll push on and build a bit further.
