a little bit of climbing, a little bit of running

With the days being a bit shorter, drearier, and colder, I've been finding it more difficult to motivate myself to stick to my training regimen. Stacey and Felix had invited me to meet them at the Belmont climbing gym Sunday morning, and my plan was to try to get in an 8 mile run before meeting them. After several skipped track workouts, and wimping out on my weekend, I decided it was time to get back on track, so I set my alarm for early Sunday morning.

And slept in. :)

So much for that idea. Luckily, Stacey called and said they were running late, so I had time to at least eat breakfast before I met up with them. We had a pretty laid-back session of climbing... actually, I think we might have done more socializing than climbing. Hee hee. It's all good, since I have that pesky shoulder to worry about.

Anyway, yesterday was the day I accidentally climbed a 5.10d on a tall wall. You may be asking how I "accidentally" climbed a 5.10d, especially since these days, I tend to stay in the 5.10b and under range. Last week, the route setters had put up a couple of walls of new routes where the rating was hidden underneath a card that said "Peek-a-boo". In going with the spirit, I thought I would just pick a climb that looked like it might be doable, and then look at the rating after I finished the climb.

So there was this route with black holds, and most of the holds looked pretty good, although the route zig-zagged a bit at the bottom. I knew from looking at it that it was harder than 5.9, but wasn't sure by how much. About 1/3 of the way up, I looked down at Stacey and Felix to announce that this climb definitely wasn't a 5.9, and they both laughed. I was able to stay with it until I hit the roof, and found that my hands had gotten out of sequence to make it over the roof without being taller. My forearms were getting pumpy, so I took a little rest on the rope. When I switched my hands, I was able to get over the roof, and just needed one more rest between there and the top. When I finally got a chance to look at the rating, I was surprised I was even able to finish. Especially considering that I wouldn't have tried it if I knew the rating!

Besides my accidentally climbing a 5.10d, Felix also finished his first 5.12a, and Stacey floated up all sorts of crazy hard climbs.

So after the climbing, I was still on the hook for my 8 mile run. I mentioned to Felix that I was going to head up to Woodside for the run, and managed to rope him into joining me. Sucker, hee hee. :) He said he hadn't run in a week, and maybe that was more of a taper than we wanted for the Chicago Marathon next Sunday.

I picked him up from the Caltrain station in the afternoon, and we drove to Woodside to do my regular 8 mile loop at Huddart. It's been a while since I've run that loop, so I was a little worried about how much pain I would be in for. Luckily, I had company to keep my mind off how much the run would ptotentially hurt. We kept the pace nice and conversational, though, and we were able to get to know each other better during the run. I have to admit, I forgot how much harder it is to run up a steep hill while trying to talk at the same time!

Anyway, good luck to Felix at the Chicago Marathon next Sunday!