cgm

Sorry, I'm still alive and well. Busier than I thought I would be... I signed up for Yoga 101 and have been getting a formal introduction into yoga. This is fantastic, and I'm excited to have some fundamentals. I definitely see more yoga in my future. I'm still climbing 2-3 days a week at our local wall. Nesting is in full swing since we realized we are at 30 weeks and time is getting short. And planning for a gym kicked into high gear when we found a great space in a great location. We are working on getting a deal in place and then everything will start to fly! Obviously I have failed at staying in touch with the nerd fitness community... I'll try to do better. Make it so!

Climbing for a little over an hour last night. Our little wall got a Christmas present - new holds and a makeover. They stripped all the holds and are in the process of putting them back up. It's nice to have some variety since this is the first time they have done anything like this in a long time. And I get to head to a real gym tomorrow for a full day of climbing! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm actually excited to find your prehab, surgery, rehab thread! You had a nasty fall, and I'm glad to see sharing your way through it. My wife broke her collar bone in September. She couldn't sleep in bed so I spent around four weeks sleeping on the floor beside the couch. And doing everything for our 18-month old. And doing all the household work. I know she was frustrated that she couldn't help, but I made sure she knew that I wanted to do it all for her. She needed time and space to heal and that's what I could give her. While her collar bone only took about six weeks to fully heal, I would do the same thing if it took her six months. I hope the next 9 days go quickly for you.

First check-in. I did 15 minutes of stretching yoga during a break at work today. It's a little strange doing yoga in dress shoes and jeans.

Well well. Guess who showed up fashionably late? My main quest for this six-week challenge is to stay involved in the Nerd Fitness community. My first goal is to increase yoga from essentially zero to at least two times per week. My second goal is to continue to climb at least a couple days per week. And finally to do at least one body-weight workout per week. If I those all happen on separate days I'll be up to five days per week of activity. For these goals to support my main quest, I will post my activities when they happen -- okay, maybe the morning after. There are several things happening in my life right now that will take up a considerable amount of time. My wife and I continue to try to find a balance between ourselves and raising an active two-year old. In the middle of winter. We are expecting our second child in April and nesting is kicking in -- easy things like reorganize the entire house, paint some walls, clean out our bedroom to make space for a cradle, etc. etc. And on top of all that (and working a 40-hour job that I am thankful for but occasionally causes stress), a friend and I are seriously looking into starting a climbing facility here in our town. We are still in exploratory phase. While I keep saying that, it keeps moving forward and one of these days i won't be able to say that anymore. If anyone out there has experience starting a gym, running a gym, working at a gym (or even things they like/dislike about going to a gym), and has advice they want to send my way, send me a PM! While there is a lot going on in my life right now, I still appreciate and value the community here at NF. It may seem like I don't have time to do these silly little games, but they are more than just silly games; they are a way of living better. I tried to make my goals pretty straightforward, and my main focus will be to continue to engage in this community. Thanks for everything. Happy hunting!

Sorry, folks. It has been a busy couple weeks. I did some exercising and some climbing, but too much traveling and colds. To sum up my challenge: Goals: Weight below 187. Body Weight Workout three times a week in the morning. Create a new boulder route.I did get my weight down to 189, but it popped back up above 190 with the holiday eating. I did pretty good at not stuffing myself -- just not the healthiest meals and not enough working out. Early morning is not my friend. I managed to do some workouts early in the six weeks, and yoga a couple times later in the challenge. This will take a family effort to make this happen, and I did not use my wife's support at all. It's still a goal of mine because I feel great after working out in the morning. We'll see if I can find a different approach to make this happen. New boulder route -- check plus! I created one and a lot of people enjoyed it. Our little local wall got a bunch of new holds before the college workers left for Christmas break. There will be plenty of new route crafting in the weeks ahead, and I'm looking forward to it. My primary goal was to finish Detritus, but as I mentioned before it was a killer route and my elbow hated me whenever I tried to work on it. I gave up on that, but kept pushing myself with other routes. So I am reluctant to give myself a level on this round. The goals were not very well thought out and I didn't really complete enough of them. Unless someone has a different opinion I am going to stick with Level 1 and give it a more concerted effort during the next challenge. Happy holidays, everyone!

Nymeria, I'm always amazed at the amount of stuff you do for an "unchallenge." I have a hard enough time getting my butt in gear when I have goals! So maybe I'll take a little inspiration from you this morning and get a good workout in before my son wakes up.

Now I want to find a movement class and learn how to climb with blindfolds and drainpipes. =D Was the class at your local gym? I'll have to look into that... Have you been to the Red River Gorge in Kentucky? It's a little farther than WV, but I have heard good things about it. It is apparently THE place to go to if you are a climber in IN. Keep up the good work.

I went to the wall last night, but didn't get a whole lot of climbing in. They had 18 people check in throughout the evening! Which is crazy busy for a small wall with three ropes. Instead of climbing I stood around and talked with my buddies that show up every time the wall is open.

Actually, Self-Coached Climber dives in pretty deep. If you are looking for a good entry book, I found that Learning to Climb Indoors by Eric Horst (http://amzn.com/0762739851) was a great primer where I learned some of the terminology, as well as trolling other Rebel climbers. I just started climbing in August, and I can tell you that a little reading might help, but spending time on the wall helps even more.

Just keep climbing! Dory had it almost right.

I recently picked up the Self-Coached Climber. I'm looking forward to some of the exercises toward the end of the book -- coming up with goals and a plan to work toward them. There will most likely be some level 10 achievements coming out of that. My goal for the previous six-week challenge was to finish a long, easy project (stamina!). I didn't quite complete it because I fell off the wall on the penultimate move which is a tricky one with tired arms. Well, last night I ran through the same project as a warm-up and had no problem finishing it. In fact, I approached that same penultimate move wrong since I hadn't done it in a long time, so I moved back a move and came at it correctly. Achievement unlocked. Feels awesome to see the improvement.

There is so much inspiration in these forums. I want to get out and conquer to world! You all also got me started thinking about level 10 and level 50 goals. Hopefully I'll have more on that at the start of the next challenge. For now, I'll work on a little climbing. Since deciding not to push through Detritus and make my elbow worse, I decided to take a different approach last night at the gym. I started out with a little warm up. Then on the slab section I worked on foot work and keeping hips close to the wall by limiting hand use. I used one hand at a time to check my balance, or to reach a little more with my feet. Spent maybe 10 minutes just moving around with my feet. Then I flashed a V0 problem with a tricky under cling crux. And then I spent some time on longer boulder problems. Felt pretty good. When I got home I did a few negative pull ups. Didn't count; just did a few as I was going in and out of the kitchen.

App purchased. I have been looking for something like this since the local yoga studio classes don't seem to fit my schedule. Thanks for the recommendation.

So the good news: I dragged my butt out of bed this morning and worked out! I almost sat on the couch and turned on the TV, but I didn't. And it felt good. And then exercise and sense of achievement made the morning awesome, which is why I want to do it more often. So the bad news: I am going to change the route that I want to complete by the end of the challenge. Okay, it isn't bad news, per se. And there is a good reason for doing it. On Saturday, I went up to the gym in Kalamazoo for about 5 hours. It went well -- I took it easy (more belaying, more time between climbs, trying the same level routes though) because my elbow has been bugging me a little. It didn't bother me after 5 hours at the gym. Then last night I was climbing for about 30 minutes at our wall. And my elbow was killing me by the end. Most of the routes, including Detritus, are set by two guys and I have decided that they make very arm/grip heavy routes. Nothing wrong with that. Unless it makes my elbow hurt. So I am switching to a general goal of climbing regularly and pushing myself without making my elbow hurt.