(October 12th – 18th: <10 mins read)
TL;DR:
– ⚖️ Body weight at its lowest in over 5 years
– 🤹 Slacklining really coming along
– 🧗 A brilliantly fun climbing competition
– 🪨 My first 8er route: downgraded to a 7er 🥹 🤷
< music I’m listening to as I type / exercise >
< This is Simple Minds >
Milestones (click to collapse)
| WK52 | Milestone / Significant Event |
|---|---|
| D-1 | ⚖️ Weight dips under 63kg / 139lbs 🥳 🤹 ‘Shuffled’ a couple of steps in ‘exposure’ |
| D-2 | 🪨 My 3rd 7er route done 💪 🧗 Lead climbing w/ complete overhang – S shows complete trust in my belaying 🤹 Jump-starts / drop-knees getting smoother |
| D-3 | 🤹 Bad night’s sleep – seriously notice it! |
| D-4 | 🧗 A few easy routes for a warm-up 🤹 Well slept -> 90 mins slacklining goes well – several steps in ‘exposure’, good balance |
| D-5 | 🪨 My first 8er route: downgraded to a 7er 🥹 🤷 🧗 Flashed a VII (5.10d) in prep for Sunday … 🤹 … since route-setting blocked the slackline |
| D-6 | 🧗 Final competition route-setting, sooo … 🤹 … the gym owners kindly moved the slackline – outdoors, walked a complete line in exposure 👏 |
| D-7 | 📆 The first year post-ATR comes to an end … 🧗 … and to finish it, I entered a climbing contest – and get 3rd place in my ‘seniors’ age-class 😎 👣 52 weeks / approx 11k steps per day |
< Note: For a list of milestones click <here>.
Real-world exercise (& movement)
A short note on my weight: I haven’t dropped under 63kg (139lbs) since I got badly hit by CoVID in 2021. As far as I can tell, it’s the daily 60-90+ minutes of slacklining (probably burning around 400-600 calories) which is slimming me down – the last 1kg has been burned up in just over 2 weeks!
Tbh, it was only on Monday that the scales registered under 63kg, but the trend is definitely there (BTW: I’m only recording weights that are lower than the last recorded weight … the iPhone does an odd kind of ‘averaging’ and rounding, so this helps to keep the trend clear).
Going forward, I think I’ll perhaps even end up under 60kg – when I moved to Germany in 1999, I was around 59kg … at a height of 167cm (5’6″) this means a BMI of 21.2 which is around the average of high-level climbers.
It’s a loooong time ago, but there was a time where I was doing martial arts twice a week, plus cycling every day, keen on push-ups and other circuit-training methods … and the belt I still wear today, since I was about 14, shows clearly where my waistline used to be: the 5th hole.
At the moment, it’s at least back to the 4th hole, without any kind of ‘sucking-in-my-breath stress’ 😅 … and believe me, I notice this almost permanently; my partner says a six-pack is almost there … without this even being something I was aiming for. A nice ‘side-effect’ of the rehab, I guess!
Walking / Hiking (empty)
Still haven’t made time to actively return to pushing my hiking strength.
Running (empty)
Similar here – the weather is hardly inviting, the slacklining (indoors) in comparison much more so 😬 … got to get my arse back in gear here!
Climbing
Apart from my slightly-nagging right elbow, which is sometimes a little better and sometimes a little worse, things are going from strength-to-strength: I cracked another 7er boulder, probably around 6c level … and, even though ‘my first ever 8er’ boulder was downgraded to a 7er (making a total of 4 now), it’s just super fun.
On top of that, Sunday saw me participating in a climbing competition at my local gym. Now, I’m really not the kind of competitive guy … I found the atmosphere to be somewhat unsettling; when it came to the final route, where I was the only one climbing and EVERYONE was watching … and then I screwed up the figure-of-eight knot 🙈 🤣 … holy cow, was I feeling the pressure, and then you’re supposed to climb the hardest route of the day! Inevitably, with a long route with permanent overhang, despite plenty of good grips/steps, I fell out at around the 80% mark. The falling, however, leaves me absolutely cold in the meantime – not even a slight feeling of ‘ugh’ in my tummy.
Slacklining
Figured it makes sense to open up an extra section for what has definitely become a firm fixture in my life – I just love it; having one at the climbing hall permanently installed inside is a real plus-point … it’d be too much hassle to rig one outside every day and I have nowhere I can leave one rigged, unfortunately.
No real fancy tricks to mention, though … these will come, I expect, but probably next year as and when I get the chance to rig outside. Until then, it’s practise the basics, improve my balance … and part of that is getting used to ‘exposure’ (standing side-on to the line): this week saw me managing to ‘walk’ my way from one end to the other for the first time, as well as actually being able to stand in place for getting on for 10 seconds (albeit still horribly wobbly).
