In the last two weeks I've done a good amount of training, mostly in terms of quality, rather than volume.
I've gained a lot of psyche - the most precious thing - from testing myself. Despite not being satisfied with some of the results, especially the one armed 90° lock off, I think I am at a good point.
These testing sessions have been very short and very very intense, but they surely spiced me up.
With a small drop in the temperatures, finally below 35° for the first time in weeks, I managed to sack the system training and do some bouldering, which to my surprise felt quite good. Despite not doing anything hard, I found myself with good core and good feet: something that had been a real negative shocker in the last sessions of a few weeks ago.
For sure filing down the edges of the footholds changed my board radically. As you know, following Unclesomebody's theory, that he revealed to me in Font a few years back, that "You cannot slip off 1 cm footholds", the only footholds available on my board are 1 cm; their surface is flat, square to the board, that is 53° overhanging, so they are quite nasty. Some time ago, I had a great session, I was bolted to the board, and my core felt amazing, as much as my feet. In awe for my progress and while dreaming about my first 8c+ boulder problem, I checked my shoes. The holds edges had dug into the rubber, creating a sort of hook in the sole, that obviously made them - and me - capable of sticking to the footholds as magic. It's not fair!!! I yelled, and proceeded to file down the gap in the sole to make them flat again.
Then everything felt as hard as usual. I kept filing down the shoes at regular intervals, because the hook kept reappearing, when finally I decided to stop filing the rubber and file down the edges instead, making them a bit rounded...
On my first session, I could not repeat even the first two problems that I climbed on the very fisrt day of my board. Shock horror.
It's all good, I thought, but when success on anything kept eluding me, I thought I'd been too keen, and had transformed my board in a useless thing. I want it to be hard, but if you can't do a single move, it's not training anymore.
Anyway, now I am a bit more confident, after having three pairs of shoes resoled. With good edges the fooholds are hard but enough to be used.
So these last sessions brought some psyche back, and a renewed obsession for undercling moves, as the video below clearly shows:
Then, yesterday. Yesterday I had a great session at the gym. While trying to take a power nap after getting back home from school, I starded thinking about the training for the day. I didn't feel like doing the tests, and climbing didn't appeal much also, with thin skin. As soon as the thought of deadlifting appeared, I jumped out of bed, took my supplements, packed and left.
I got there super early and had the gym all for myself. I started my warm up, and then the lifting warm up. I had also brought my i-Pad to tape myself for the correct technique.
While I started pushing things a bit more, suddenly the gym got packed. I mean, packed. People had to alternate at the machines. A guy started talking with me about lifting, asking me a lot of questions, and my replies "I don't know, it's only my third time" did not help him, but he was friendly so no problem. The problem was that he stood there, watching every single lift that I did. When I went for the last two sets, I started feeling very uncomfortable. Each time every single person in there, would stop and watch me, while I was in front of the bar, trying to get some concentration.
It was really hard, because it made everything harder, and I didn't need it. On top of that, my sick ego wanted to pull out a strong show, and my mind felt that this was a potentially dangerous situation.
The best thing of this all, is that I did it: I managed to block them out of my mind. I stopped thinking about what they'd think, I did my thing. I relaxed, I dried the bar and my hands, and I stepped to the bar. Feet under. Then I closed my eyes and did the pull in my mind, once, twice, feeling the grip on the bar, feeling the effort on my abs, back, arms. Then I checked my position in the left mirror, then head up and pulled. I was alone. There was only me in the gym. I still feel as if the music stopped and everyone left. The next thing that I remember is locking my gluteus muscles and seeing myself in the mirror in front of me with the bar up.
I immediately dropped it and everything zoomed in again: the noise, the chatting, the glances, the music, my heartbeat, the pain in my muscles and the usual thought: "I am the greatest".
I did it. I mean not the pull, that felt fantastic of course, but I got a full, complete concentration in a chaotic setting.
This is truly a great gain that I am proud of.
