Other news

And in other news, I had to take an unwanted rest day today. I showed up at the gym as usual for a workout today. The plan was interval training followed by strength training. But I had to bail just over halfway on the interval because I had no energy. It felt like I had not eaten for hours, even though it was only just over an hour since my usual breakfast.

Since I didn’t have the strength to finish the intervals I decided to postpone the strength training as well, and went for a nap at work instead. I had the same feeling at work, even though I ate more than usual, so I decided to rest the entire day. Maybe the rain was ok after all, that way I didn’t waste a day at the crag.

But I hope tomorrow will be better in every way.

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First day on real rock!

Gorm and I headed out to Hvalsberget for some familiar surroundings for the first day of outdoor climbing this season. Weather was good, nice but not too hot on the wall. I felt good. Gorm had a bit of a cold and didn’t feel that great.

So I strolled up a 5.7/5.8 for the warmup. It was so easy it was almost boring. But a good warmup, and I was able to focus on my footwork, which is always good to do on easier ground.

Next up was a 5.10b I did many times last season, as it was one of the 3 coolest routes at Hvalsberget (not counting the 2 I have not done yet). But I have no memory for moves, and I forgot a crucial foothold and took a fall. But I was very happy that even on the first day of outdoor climbing, I still climbed until I dropped. No hangdogging when it’s not necessary ’round here!

After the fall I noticed the foothold and cruised up until the upper third, where things got wet and slippery. I usually skip several bolts on this route, but not yesterday. I clipped every bolt, and on the wet top part, I wanted more bolts! But I pulled through with some slow and methodical climbing void of sudden movements. Good mental practice!

I will post a couple of pics from the day as soon as I remember to bring my camera back in from the car, or when I am not too lazy to run out and get it…

There was supposed to be climbing again today, but it rained away. Forecast is good for tomorrow, so hopefully a good session will be had. And on Thursday I will climb my first 5.11. I will it so. Even bought a pair of new shoes for the occasion. My first Mad Rocks. Hope the science friction can deliver…

Outdoor season, here I come!

Spent Saturday sorting my crap into three piles. “Trash”, “give away” and “keep”. The “keep” pile was by far the smallest. So I am very pleased with that. A little sad when Manchester United where completely outplayed by Barcelona, but it was a rather enjoyable game even so. Xavi is by far the best player in the world, and I cannot believe how underrated he is. Anyway…

Today I walked up the slalom track (sans much snow) at Varingskollen to see how that felt, and it was steep at times, and patches of wetness from the remains of melting snow, but it felt good to walk up. Going to try to push a little harder next time.

Then I took a long nap and went to the gym for interval training and a strength workout. It felt great!

And weather willing, tomorrow I will kick off the outdoor season at Hvalsberget with Gorm after work. And I will do a long cardio session before work to wake up properly. 😉

Hope Wednesday will bring some climbing as well.

Rest day today

I’m having a well deserved rest day today, after a gruelling few days. Intervals, strength training, long cardio sessions on treadmill and on the bike. Nackered last night, so today I am doing nothing. But back to working out tomorrow.

I have also been thinking about this 4 weeks of hell project, and after a while of doing it, it really is not hell at all. It feels more like a hard, but good training regime, as long as I take a rest day after every 4-5 days of training. So I will be continuing it until I go to Vancouver in August.

But starting Monday, I am adding outdoor climbing to the rotation. I won’t remove anything else, just make the cycles longer, and possibly adding more rest days to make sure I am ready to climb hard.

Another good week for working out

Been strong this week as well, needed a rest day but will still finish with 11 sessions in the last 7 days.

Cardio is going very well, my fitness is increasing steadily and now I intend to start throwing in an interval session here and there. I will see how it feels but 2-3 interval sessions per week should shake things up nicely, as I have not been losing much weight lately, in spite of working out a lot. I am hoping it is partly because of added muscle from my strength workouts, but I fear my body has adapted to the demands. And so I change from 1 hour sessions to alternating between 35 minute interval sessions, and 90-120 minute low intensity sessions.

Strength training will continue as is, since it feels good, and I feel stronger all around.

And later today I am going bouldering again at the gym. Hopefully I will crack the blue problem I tried last time. But no pressure, it’s just to get back the feeling before Gorm arrives and the outdoor season kicks in.

Qualified for the next round

I am one of 300 qualified for round 2 in the Mammut challenge. 150 will be selected to be part of the Peak Project.

Stetind is my choice of destination. Ascent in july 2012. 3 man team including me leaves 2 spots for someone else. Gorm and Nigel, are you up for it?

It will be hard, but beautiful. Man I hope I can get through!

11 sessions in 5 days

When I got back from the funeral up north I hurled myself back into training, and did a whopping 11 sessions (7 cardio, 3 strength and 1 bouldering) in just 5 days. Then my body said “Dude, take a break!”. Which I did. Rest day on Wednesday (if you can call 4 hours of walking at work and then shopping at IKEA a rest day…). Felt great again on Thursday and did 2 sessions, one cardio and one strength, before work.

And this morning (friday) I had a huge cardio workout. 90 minutes! Average pulse of 140 which is 75% of my max pulse. It was 60 minutes of hard uphill walking followed by 30 minutes of running. And I felt good throughout.

This weekend I am going to do a bike ride in the morning (Saturday and Sunday), and garden work (!) on Saturday. Sunday will hopefully yield a bouldering session as well.

Things are looking good.