Vienna WC

I had a good World Cup in Wien and felt strong after my finger strength intensive.

I was the penultimate climber out which gave me plenty of time to warm up. I started well with a flash. The second bloc with chunky holds gained via heel hooks was not so successful. I messed up placing my hand incorrectly on the bonus and hung around for ages trying to correct. By the time I did I was wasted. I should have let go and repeated as the move was actually ok. I didn't have enough left to finish the problem but I believe I could have topped it if I hadn't hung around. The end moves looked totally do-able. Grr


I recovered well in the rest period to be faced with a really awkward double handed dyno from bad holds on the 3rd bloc. I caught it on my 7th go and topped with seconds to spare. Super - chuffed and somewhat surprised I moved on. Jon caught my leap on camera.


Only 2 others topped this bloc.

I went on to top the last two blocs to get 4 tops in 14 and all 5 bonuses. Angelica was congratulating me on making the finals, then the results were finalised... I was the only one with 4 tops not to qualify and only one other had all 5 bonuses. Unfortunately I had too many attempts placing me 11th in my group, 21st overall. I needed bloc 2 then I would have been 2nd in my group!! What a difference a couple of holds make.

Dave and Stewart crushed coming 6th and 8th. Dave 'won' the semi. Nice one.


I had a look around Vienna with Jee. I wanted to go on one of the Segways. Instead we went on foot, but saw most things. It's quite a compact place with lots of nice buildings, horse drawn carriages, tons of statues and several large gold balls.

DIY

I'm resting/tapering for the next comp. We decided to do some DIY in the lounge. We are now proud owners of some handcrafted shelves.

Plywood Masters '09

I had a very enjoyable trip to Blackburn yesterday. There were a lot of faces that I hadn't seen for a while Audrey turned out with a group from London, Naomi and Jordan were both looking strong. There was also some good local talent with Gill Peet making the finals in her first comp.

I came second behind Leah. We both topped all the final blocs, but I had a couple more goes. I think this is the first time I've topped all the final blocs in a comp so I'm really chuffed, especially as I was up against the very imaginative setting of the Boulder UK crew.

Finger beasting

I'm on an intensive fingerboard 3 weeks.

I feel that I've come full circle since first starting full training. I started with strong crimping fingers, but lots of other things to work on. Now I feel like my finger strength is holding me back, especially open hand strength. Hence the intensive.

I have never done much fingerboard work am really noticing the difference already after the second week of three 1.5hr sessions a week. Each session comprises of encores of increasing difficulty, warming up and then working my fingers up to back 2 (see the beastmaker site for explanation). I'm doing these sessions on days I do not climb.

I'll taper my training in the 4th week ready for the next comp.

World Cup Hall, Austria

Here are some sideways videos of me on the blocs in Hall for you to watch whilst stretching your neck.

The first bloc was frustrating being easy to the last move. A pop on a slab where I could get the height but not the trajectory. I dropped two other blocs, topped 2 and got all the bonus holds to come 31st. I was a bit disappointed as I felt I should have got further on a couple of the blocs.

Central Tokyo

Just playing with the lights in the dark

Better late than never. Some more photos.

We liked the plastic food in the windows showing you what you can get. Fish, unless its me trying to buy raw fish. Then its deep fried pork. Good job I was really enjoying the deep fried pork.

We also like the skyscrapers - especially the one with the free lift to the 46th floor.

World Cup Kazo, Japan

Kazo was good. With a huge cherry tree and a handy shops. The street was lined with IFSC WC flags and streamers with disc pictures of climbers stuck to them, prepared by local school children.

Lots of fish flying (carp) for the the comp and childrens day on May the fish-th. I found a good big fish, little fish, cardboard box scenario.

The comp - it all felt so hard... and it was. A hard set of quali blocs. I flashed the first and got a second bonus to qualify joint 20th. In by the skin of ma teeth. I felt I climbed slightly better in the semi, apart from on the first block where I felt like a sack of spuds. I came 18th - my best result to date.

Leaving Kazo was the hardest journey as the map was in kanji only. Spot that town you want to go to? Easy if you know its the chest of drawers followed by the fat man with three legs rather than some now useless latin characters. Engineering logic took over that its still the same map. Alternatively buy the cheapest fare and adjust on arrival. All the systems are so very well thought out.