Where the hell have I been? I'm not really sure. I can tell you I've been reading your blogs (if you've got one you've told me about), despite not having blogged myself. Before anything else, I do want to extend a huge congratulations to an awesome woman for her very first powerlifting meet! I'm freaking impressed... Hauling over twice your bodyweight off the floor is something you should be damn proud of. I bloody well would be!
I went to Rumney and climbed with Lola again, a week after the first time. I want to extend congratulations to her as well (even though she doesn't read this), for doing her first 5.7 sport lead. And, might I add, she cruised it like it was part of her morning routine rather than the hardest lead she's done to date. I have got to say for Lola, she gets into the zone. I am awed and humbled by her ability to focus. I just do not have that talent, nor do I have any idea how to create it. I think about midway through the climb I stopped shouting encouragement at her, because I realised that she wasn't even aware I was talking, let alone what I was saying. Lola also did her first onsight (climbing a route clean on lead despite never having tried it or watching anyone else on it before), but that was so way below her normal climbing ability it's not worth writing more about. Lola's been good about pushing me to get on at least one 5.10 every time I've got to go out with her, but honestly, that weekend was a relatively weak one for me, so I won't bore you with the details. I also won't bore anyone with the details of my day climbing at Farley this past weekend, because again, I was climbing poorly.
I also haven't been to the climbing gym for about 2 weeks, which is something I'm pretty pissed at myself about. I have no reasonable excuse. I've been keeping up with the lifting, though, so I'm not a total loser.
I think the past few weeks (even time preceding, and between, Rumney trips) have had work-related stress. The boss is anxious and intermittently pissed off at the lack of work that has been getting done in the lab of late. I've been chasing after non-existant orders and arguing with financial people and sales reps and doing a lot of hurry-up-and-wait kind of work where I can't show off successes. Other people, well, I don't want to speak for them, but suffice it to say I share some of the boss' anger. Oddly, this work stress just makes me quiet, and hence, so is my blog. No worries, though, there's verbiage a-brewing, and in the meantime I'll leave a photo of myself looking pensive (were one to crop it appropriately) from my first weekend in Rumney, shortly after my very awesome lead fall.
oh wow, thank you for the mention!!! This first meet was honestly one of the most intense experiences of my life, and I am seriously looking forward to the next one. My father told me, after seeing pictures from the meet, that the smile on my face in those images was bigger/brighter than any smile he's seen from me in "fifteen years" (I'm 26). It was awesome and even though I didn't do quite as well as I'd hoped, I'm going to seriously bust butt for my October meet and try to make up for what I missed at this past one.
ReplyDeleteGet through the stressful times you're having right now and know that lifting/climbing are always there to turn to as solid parts of your life YOU have control over. I look forward to further blog posts when you're feeling up to it!
I can't say I've anything to compare to, but I noticed your smile as well. After every lift, failed or successful, in the video you posted it's there. It was my favourite part.
DeleteOh, I love that. Yeah, I've noticed that too...I think this just comes from a sheer joy of navigating the bar/having it become an extension of myself. No matter how the lift goes, it included an activation of my body and I revel in that above all else. I am so picky with how I lift that when things DON'T go well I've worked with myself to be amused by it and then move on. I think that's what happened on my failed squat attempt--I just felt like I had tried it and my body just wasn't able to manage it. I have that understanding with my body. I will ask things of it, and they will be difficult, and it's allowed to fail without censure when it truly can't carry out the task I've set for it. There's a kind of joy even in that exchange. I guess it comes out at meets quite a bit.
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