Wednesday 28 May 2008

WAITING FOR GODOT AND SESSION # 4

I'm really excited about Tom's and Rich's visit. I can picture them right now in their flats, arranging stuff, deciding whether it's possible to shave some weight from the luggage, choosing one last stilish, psyching item.
As it's said, "anticipation of pleasure is pleasure itself".
This kind of waiting teams up for another kind of waiting: I'm waiting to discover what I'm really capable of climbing. It's been a long time since my last serious trip in a place to crush (october 2007 in Ticino): I've been to Meschia in late march, but in hot temps sandstone wasn't the best choice. To be honest I've also been one week in Font, with great success, but I think I missed a bit of a chance there: I should have tried something hard that suited me more than what I've tried, and maybe climbed a bit less in terms of quantity: I came home without having tried Fata Morgana and Le Toit du Greau, two problems that I really want to do, and also I should have dedicated myself more to Salle Gosse, the sit start. It's very very important to choose the right problem for the moment, the mindset, the feelings, when you don't have much time and you're not Keith.
Definitely I learnt something there.
Anyway I had a great time and was pleased to climb some Fb 7b first go after finding the sequence. I often skip other climbers' suggestions about sequences, because it often detracts from the joy of the full discovery process, slowly understanding that it's going to go, finally realizing that you thought according to the rock, that you morphed yourself in order to climb that rock.
I have been training alot in the last 7 months, I have done hard problems, but still I'm not aware of my absolute limits, bar on the fingerboard. I need to apply 100% to something hard that will take everythig from me to be climbed. I need to invest more time, and definitely to climb more and more wisely.
An athlete doesn't do 4 sets of 100 meter sprints before an Olympic 100 meters final. He takes his time, warms up slowly, precisely, scientifically. Ok, without making parallels with Olympic level athletes, I have to be more focused on what I want to achieve as my maximum. I will try to do this with Tom and Rich here.
Session # 4.
It was a brief, power oriented session.
Usual warm up, then assisted one arm max deadhangs (no crimping) on 1 cm edge, x 5, 1 minute rests.
Max deadhangs on the jibs, x 5, 2 minutes rests: this pleased me alot, 8 seconds now!!!
Assisted one armers on the slopers, x 5, 4 minutes rests.
Max deadhangs on bad crimps (full crimped as hell), x 5, two minutes rests.
Curry, shower, bed.
YO.

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