Also (aka Stinkin' Slopers V5)

 Big shout out to Jessa, the latest diehard fan of WW@BS.COM. I hadn't REALLY planned on sharing this blog with too many people, but Jessa is someone I trust with my work, aka musings, aka drivel.

So big shout out. 

Also shout out to CORINCE if you're out there, though you're probably not. Derd.

Shout out to Kevin Smith.

Shout out to Sam Kidder.

Shout out to Dan Stewart. 

Shout.

Out. 

It's been over a month since I've had caffeine now. 

YESTESRDAY I WENT TO GOLD BAR TO TRY STINKIN' SLOPERS V5 and one the hand I felt super weak and discouraged because I still couldn't do the start move and on the other hand I now feel like I could possibly send this bloc in the next couple sessions. 

I think the "weakness" comes from not climbing at all while I was in Mexico (which was a good thing), not eating quite as good now as I did maybe a couple months ago, and lastly from climbing a little too much right now. For me the hardest thing in climbing right now is NOT CLIMBING TOO MUCH. When I had just started my job and was taking an evening interpreting course it was super easy to not climb too much. But now that I'm essentially not working again it's hard to not just climb EVERY FUCKING DAY. 

So yeah yesterday I drove out to GOLD BAR, got there about 1pm, did the three-mile hike up, warmed up a  bit on Tetris Right and Tetris Left (two V1's), and then went up to look at and try some moves on Stinkin' Slopers, a low V5 sloper traverse. This was my first REAL session on the boulder, since I think all I really did last time was try the start move and MAYBE one or two of the middle moves. 

I started by doing the top out from the rail AFTER the slopers, which is basically V0 but has several moves. So, sick. Because once you've done the top out you can basically hack that section of the boulder off and start imagining that the boulder ends at the beginning of that topout. 

THEN I tried the first move, got close but pretty shut down, tried some of the middle moves, kept warming up the fingers, tried some of the sloper moves, went back to the start move, etc etc, just kind of cycling through, getting warmer and warmer and not overdoing it too much on one move. This is what works for me when projecting, both to keep the psych HIGH and also to not develop overuse injuries, since there's nothing worse for an overuse injury than trying one move over and over and over and over again. 

THEN I focused on one move I really wanted to do: moving from right hand on the nose sloper and left hand on the bad sloper to right hand on the high RIGHT sloper, followed by left heel hand match, etc. After a couple tries I was able to go up and right with my right hand, and also felt like I could do the heel hand match but stopped. Another very popular option is to do the left heel hand match FIRST and then go to the high sloper with the left hand, and I'll definitely have to try that next time. I also did the first couple moves after the start more successfully, and by the time I got home and watched some videos I realized there's probably only really TWO MOVES that I can't do right now. In one of the videos I saw a girl cheating and getting a kneebar in before evening pulling off, aka NOT a sit start, but that made me realize I could probably get a kneebar or at least a knee scum in JUST AFTER pulling off, which would make the first move way easier. Which would then mean I'd only really have one move I can't do, but that I'm sure I can puzzle out.

Long story short: I went from feeling like that boulder was WAY TOO HARD for me yesterday to now feeling like it could go in the next few sessions.

And honestly, I'd be sort of surprised if it didn't.

Also the weather is brilliant for the next week. 

Also I'm drinking mint tea with chia seeds. 

Also.