POST ORGASMIC CHILL

Yesterday truly was great. The Amiata top is the shit. I did my usual problems, nothing special per se, but I made them special, the air made them special, the pristine rock with not a single atom of chalk on made them special. Despite my friday night hard session in the gym I was feeling good, so I skipped my usual Theraband warmup and threw myself at every line, from very easy to, well, easy. I finished with another retro flash of "Il Motorino di Mario", as static as it can be done. Eric, if you read this, beware. When you'll be back here you bastard, I'll take you there, and if you can't static that move I'll keep on kicking your ass for the rest of your stay. (I miss you, come back.)
Anyway, fueled by desire I wanted to do again "Il Traverso del Cinghiale", but I found out it could be linked to another problem that is at the right end of the same boulder. After sussing out the moves and spending all my energy trying to use a stylish but useless dropknee, I discovered a much better heel hook, but at the time I was hit by a massive pump from both the gym and the day, so full of happiness and lactic acid I went home. Video to come.
Now, today I wanted to go to the roof to do some filming, but it was raining and I didn't fancy another drive on my own with the risk of not climbing, so I came back to Florence to hit the gym, but the idiots were closed. Fucking idiots.
Next week will be an easy one, training wise, with some much needed overcompensation and just one session; but a very hard one, working wise. Seven hours of teaching almost every day, luckily it's only a 4 days week. I also have to make a mini conference about a few famous Tuscan monuments, and I'm very psyched. I want to climb over the next weekend, with Chironico and Brione clearly set in my brain cells.
Last but not least, I finally recovered the data in my old hard disk that had expired past autumn, pics, videos, my novel, everything, so I will please you with the footage of power monster Michele Caminati doing the roof direct past september.
Been there, done that. Heh.

EXCITMENT!!!

I just got home from the gym, made some progresses on my infamous problems (one has already been dismissed, as I may fall on just one move so it's worthless) so I'm quite (very) happy because I had great vibes.
I have checked the forecast for Amiata: sunny tomorrow, overcast sunday, but both days with a 10° temp, and an even better 5° wind chill.
The season is not over!

A LITTLE UPDATE

As I'm not getting much real climbing, this is basically a training blog now. How boring this could be, noone knows.

Anyway, I've had a couple of good sessions, setting three new problems, all at the end of the training. No wonder I was struggling on them, I've tried them yesterday when fresh and the result has been alot different. Miracle. I'd like to get some footage because I think they are nice problems, they climb well (unlike me) and they are hard.
I wanted to go tonight but something stepped into my way, so tomorrow.
The weekend brings some rain and south west winds, but not enough to score my re-entry in the world of surfing, so the plan is to go to Amiata, film the moves on the roof direct for you all to drool on, and then cruise to the Amiata top to try the amazing line. I still have another project that I cleaned and tried last summer, there: a roof (not again!?) with sharp crimps and horrible feet, five moves, none of which I've done.
Finally, an old scan (click on it for the full frame) of a tanned myself when OOS Assis was still a dream, before years of dedication.

SILENT IS SILENT

Silent and lethal, may I add, since the most notable thing from my last blog entry happened the other day in the hall of the school, when I let go a stealth fart that forced Danielle, the school's secretary, to open the windows. Needless to say, being a true bastard I turned towards her and with a swift look managed to give the blame to the Japanese girl that was using the computer next to mine.
Heh.
Climbing wise, I managed to destroy my fingers in Sasso two weeks ago, with a new PB of three different flappers on one single finger from a nasty problem with finger locks in pointy bidoigts.
Training wise, I went back into it with some motivation. Constant training but less volume. Did some fingerboarding, some system training and some little bouldering. All in all good fun and good results:
1 cm edge, 4 pullups with 30 kg, 4 sets; system boaring on pinches, same routines as in the past winter but with 5kg on.
I may go to Chironico this weekend. Why? Because even if the season is over:
it can't be warmer than here;
there are 1000+ boulder problems;
good conditions are for the weak of body and soul.
"Rejoyce o young man in thy youth."
P.S. the sentence is in the beginning of which famous film? A pint for the right guess as soon as I step in UK, hopefully next late autumn-early winter.

GROUND ZERO

I have hit my lowest the other night at the gym. Surprisingly, to be honest, given that I was coming from four days off.
As soon as I touched the first hold of the first warm up, I realized I was going nowhere. Then it only got worse.
When I finally cut my losses and realized I had been burnt off by every punter of the gym, one of the gym owners told me "Lore, go home, eat a steak and get some sleep, I've never seen you in this shape."
Also, I feel quite depressed. Yesterday, having another rest day, I spent two hours waiting before having my shoulder visited at the orthopedic E.R., only to be sent home with antiinflammatories and not even an RX. Probably the constant flow of new patients straight from car accidents did something to make my visit shorter.
I really, really, really need to climb outdoors, something that recently has become a very serious issue. I have done what I was supposed to do, that is destroying OOS Assis and the Amiata Roof Direct. Still, I can't treat myself with a couple of days somewhere new. It's the old story. At least two hours to get to the closest boulders (you all lucky Sheffield bastards, can you imagine this? two fucking hours to the closest destination!!!???) that also happen to be in areas where I've cleaned, sent or repeated almost everything. Everything I cared about.
Apparently for Easter weekend the weather could be fine around here, so plans are to climb a couple of days on home turf, again.
Maybe I'll go back to the roof to put some footage together, then I'd like to go to the Amiata top (snow permitting) to clean something that I had briefly scoped and fallen in love with past summer.
I don't know why this still doesn't make me happy.

FALLING TO PIECES

I got to the point at which I really need to rest.

My shoulder is aching again, luckily (???) in a new spot.

My right middle finger is aching too.

My left thumb (???) is very very painful at the itersection with the palm.

Luckily again, I don't have anything scheduled, training wise, until thursday, so I'll kick back and enjoy the rest, if I can.

The last two weeks saw a glorious return under the campus board. I did some new routines, like long moves starting with a hand on 1 and one on 3, then throwing to 7. The first week I could latch 7 with the right hand, but not with the left. Last session I latched it with both hands every try, then I did the same with 4 kg on. Improvement.

I have also done 1-5 two handed on medium rugs (2,5 cm), and the cool "active" deadhangs of the last video. They work, 4 kg on again!!!

I am generally feeling good, and I know as soon as this new shoulder problem will disappear (it would have already, hadn't I trained on it, idiot) I could perform well.

I am relaxed, I enjoy training, especially the system excercises, and I have fun setting my own problems usually under the 45° or 60° walls.

Lately I am very happy about the vibes at th gym: I often train with a couple of friends (each one of us with different routines, but then we share them and we set and try new problems) and I rediscovered the joy of the good old abuse between friends. When I get to the gym I am usually greeted by a loud "Goddammit we will kick your ass so bad today", or by Cristiano (one of the gym owners) handling me a squash ball and racket with a grin on his face, saying "Try this". I play the role of the cool, and give my best on the walls. It's very cool and a good habit.

Finally, I found out why it's been worth going to the comp last week. A friend of mine was climbing in the second round, some guys were trying a problem that involved a dynamic start, and they were discussing various possibilities, when one came out and said "It can be done static. I saw one doing it static".

Guess who the one was? Heh, I just climbed three easy problems and this was enough to give me fame!!! Success!!!