Bloc Party 2012

Training last weekend entailed 3 days climbing based training.  Friday was at the Foundry working steep hard sustained problems.  Saturday was at City Bloc for the Bloc Party competition.  Forty qualifier problems put me in second place behind Leah.  I topped 2 out of 3 of the final blocs to stay in second.  I was close to the other final problem, but couldn’t get past a volume to the last hold.  Leah showed me how it was meant to be done afterwards – so much easier when you know how!  I also found that I wasted attempts on one of the blocs choosing to do an easier move that left my feet in the wrong position to progress.  When I committed to the harder move (that went just fine, despite me thinking it may not) I proceeded to top the problem.  It was a valuable training session with endurance, technical, and mental elements worked on.
Sunday afternoon was spent at the Climbing Works attempting the new pink circuit.  It’s good to keep throwing yourself at lots of different problems sometimes, going for the flash each time, rather than working a bloc.  It can help to physically and mentally get moves correct first time.

I spent the beginning of the week preserving what little skin I had left.  I did some pull-up work on the bar and had a rest day.  By Wednesday I had enough skin back to do a power endurance session at the Foundry (although I was almost side-tracked by the new campus board).  I did 5 sets of 5min on/5min off, having little to no rest between attempts during the on time.  I was typically completing 3.5 problems per set on the elites/level 3, but had to slip in a level 2 at the end of the 3rd and 4th set as I was so pumped.  I tried to pick sustained problems, preferably requiring dynamic moves at times, and mixed up the terrain a little but mostly kept it steep.  I feel so much stronger than I did a fortnight ago.

Inspiration turned up on Thursday in the form of a delivery from Boreal.  Thank you so much.  Another pair of Kintaro climbing shoes as they are so good, along with some approach shoes and a pad.  I was bouncing of the walls with excitement to be honest.

Now go away rain.