Saturday, February 27, 2010

I Don't See Any Camels

A smile hit my face and spread from ear to ear when I read Patti's e-mail saying that her trip had been canceled and that we could go climbing on the weekend.

Patti pulled a muscle doing the yoga portion of P90X. She would normally start out on a 5.8 to warm-up but started out in my neck of the woods on a 5.6. We played monkey see, monkey do for awhile. She climbed Truxton or Bust then I climbed it. I even attempted a 5.9 (Patti's neck of the woods) and made it half way up. When it was time to warm down, Patti asked me if I wanted to down climb the route. I did. When I came back down, Patti asked me if I wanted to climb the route again. I did. And I down climbed again. I went up. Down climbed. Patti looked at me with wide eyes.

Me: This might be the last straw...

Patti: I don't see any camels.
I went up again but this time I asked Patti to lower me because I was fatigued.

Down climbing was good though. I was much more aware of when my body wasn't squared off or when I wasn't properly balanced. It was a nice challenge to do laps on that route and I felt like I got in a great workout:

5.6, Truxton or Bust (Warm-Up)
5.8, Bright Idea
5.8, JW
5.9, One Liner (Attempted)
5.8, Face Plant
5.8, A Savage Salvage Project
5.6, Unnamed Yellow Route (Ascended 4x's & Down Climbed 3x's)

Here's a video with some tips on down climbing.

How to Down Climb a Rock Wall - Courtesy of Trails.com

4 comments:

  1. all of that makes my shoulders hurt... but fascinating.

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  2. midlife_swimmer,

    Actually my whole upper body was on fire today. I seldom climb back-to-back and I take care to stretch afterwards.

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  3. I find the warm-up on the P90X yoga dvd to be inadequate - it has you stretching right away, and I don't stretch cold muscles! I do a warmup from one of the other DVDs instead. (that being said, I rarely do the P90X yoga anyway because it is the MOST TEDIOUS THING in the universe; I do a different yoga instead)

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