Aeryn

Just got back from a juggling festival, worked on a few passing patterns with interesting site swaps - 576 is kind of the bane of my existence at the moment, but it was getting better by the end. Haven't done any handstand time yet... ah well. Week 3 begins! Still on track with pull-ups, upping my numbers to 15 a day this week. Allergies are messing with me, I'm thinking I may try out an over-the-counter antihistamine.

Yup - true nerdiness, it's always bigger than it looks. Pull-ups are going well - I've done 12 each day this week, feeling good. Occasional sets of 4, mostly sets of 3. Juggling festival this weekend - looking forward to learning some new things!

Ah, siteswaps. They're a numerical representation of a juggling pattern. The simplified explanation is that each number is one throw, and the number tells you how high the throw goes. A 1 is just handing a ball across from one hand to the other. 3 is a standard throw, the height you would juggle 3 balls. A 4 is a throw that goes to the height you'd juggle 4 balls. 5 is a throw that goes to the height you'd juggle 5 balls, and so on. Odd numbers cross, even numbers stay on the same side. 2s are weird because you can either do a very low throw (like you're juggling 2 balls in one hand), or you can just hold the ball - since it comes back to the same hand, holding the ball is effectively the same as a low throw. So 531 is a pattern with a high throw, a medium throw, and a handacross. 6424 is a really high throw on one side (the 6), a medium height throw on the other side (4), a hold (2), and another medium height throw. What it actually looks like is I'm juggling 4 balls and then throw one really high. I hope that vaguely makes sense! Did 14 pull-ups yesterday, plus 3 hours of climbing. My fingers are sore today!

Haha, I may have you beat at pull-ups, but I'm pretty sure I have no idea what to do with a kettlebell. Yeah, the food thing started in May when I went on vacation and didn't want to try to track a lot of unfamiliar foods, and has been working well all summer. Sometimes I miss having the data, but I don't at all miss the little counter in my head that was constantly doing math to figure out what I "should" eat. Thanks! yeah, NC's got some climbing - I've only been to one outdoor area, but it's pretty fun. Did well on my pull-ups this weekend, plus moved my rings upstairs, so I ended up doing 20 pull-ups yesterday because I kept walking past the rings and doing a set. Worked on 6424 as my juggling pattern for the weekend - 6s are a lot higher than I'd thought. Need higher ceilings!

Did my ten pull-ups Wednesday and Thursday, I'm at 3 so far today. Bouldered at the campus gym yesterday evening and got three moves farther on my project route, so that's exciting. Also did a traverse all the way around the room and back, which was great endurance training.

Following! Love your super-focused challenge, and go you for sticking to it so firmly!

Yay climbing! Can you watch someone else do the routes you're stuck on? I tend to find that helpful, even if it's just to discover that they're stronger than I am and so can do a move I know I can't (yet).

Rings are awesome, you should get some. Glad to be back! Swam at lunchtime today - got to race a coworker for a couple of laps, which is always awesome motivation to go fast.

Day 3 - so far so good on the pull-ups, though I did all 10 of yesterday's after 9:30 at night - gotta think about it earlier in the day! So far I'm doing them in sets of 2 with the occasional set of 3 when I'm feeling strong. Haven't moved my rings yet, so I'm still running down to the basement for pull-ups. Little bit of lat soreness, nothing major.

Excellent! Those crow/handstand times are awesome.

Indeed I am! It's good to be back... though I clearly need to go through the assassins and figure out who else is still here - and meet some of these new people. Y'all have done great things with this guild in my absence!

Yay shiny object chasing! Love seeing what you're working on and accomplishing.

Hey Nymeria! Thanks for the welcome - great to see your recovery from the ACL surgery! We'll have to share fun things to do with rings. I got mine a while back - somehow they seem more like playing than the pull-up bar does.

I took a while off, but I think I could use a little extra motivation and focus for the next six weeks. Been keeping up the climbing/swimming/juggling regularly, eating what I want when I want it and discovering how awesomely that works for me. Came back today on a whim, only to discover it's the beginning of a new challenge - and it's my thirteenth. AWESOME. Goals: 1. Pull-up power. I've let this hang out at a maintenance level of 4 pull-ups while I've focused on actually climbing - time to build some more muscle, get some more reps. I also want to move my rings upstairs from the basement - having them more available should mean using them more. Ten pull-ups a day, every day for the first week. We'll see where it goes from there. 2. Core strength. While I'm hanging out doing pull-ups, might as well add some skin the cat/lever/toes to bar work in there. 3. Juggling math. I love club passing so much, my ball juggling skills have been atrophying. Now that I understand siteswap a little more, I'm going to work on at least one new pattern a week. Learned 531 on Saturday, so that's my first step. 4. Bonus points for handstand work, which I've entirely neglected for months. Looking forward to getting back on the challenge path!

Quick challenge summary: added strength sessions were good. Tried 4 new recipes, 2 of which are getting added to my regular rotation. Didn't get 3 juggling sessions every week, but definitely did more than I would've otherwise. Calling it a success, based on that! Went to a trampoline park yesterday. Really fun, and for some reason my shoulders are incredibly sore today… maybe the effort of keeping my head over my shoulders? Weird.

Hee, so cute! Thanks! Thanks! Whoa, awesome! Busy weekend, with juggling, facing down the giant poison ivy patch in my backyard, and having dinner with my parents before they headed off to Spain for two weeks. Also, went climbing on three consecutive days, which means my hands are pretty shredded - but I made it up a new 5.10 route, and I've made progress on my main 5.11 project route, too! So life's good, though very busy.

Workout today: Push-ups: 12/10/10 Pull-ups(and negatives): 5!!!!!!/4(1)/3(2)/2/1 50 lb goblet squats: 5/6/6 Hanging leg raises: 10/10/10 Handstand holds (sec): 20/15 I GOT FIVE PULLUPS IN A ROW. WHAT. While I was on number 4, I was like "wouldn't it be crazy if I actually managed another one in this set and didn't have to do any negatives" and then I did it and hung there staring at myself in the mirror (yes, my gym is evil, you have to watch yourself make horrible pull-up faces). It was glorious.

Yeah, pain is not my favorite part of this whole "active lifestyle". I haven't done climbing for any length of time when not swimming, but I haven't noticed particular problems with my skin after swimming. If anything, the chlorine dries my skin out (like climbing chalk does), so I just do a lot of moisturizing. I do make sure not to peel my calluses when they're all soft and noticeable right after I swim, but once I dry out, everything pretty much goes back to normal. Thanks! I'm kind of losing steam right now - between no bouldering, random hip pain, and it being week 5, my motivation isn't doing so well.

Haha, there are SO MANY climbs that have defeated me. I am not actually that good of a climber. However, I got 3/4 of the way up this one last night, so that's progress! Workout today: 5 minutes rowing warmup Pushups, diamond(regular): 5(6)/5(5)/4(6) Hanging leg raises: 10/10/10 Pull-ups (negatives): 4(1)/3(2)/4(1) goblet squats, 50 lbs: 5/5/5 handstand hold against wall, seconds: 30/20/15 Streeeeetching. Haven't done handstands in a while - being upside down again is fun. I've been having ongoing hip pain for a while now, which I'm self-diagnosing as bursitis - feels fine when moving/working out, hurts when I get up after sitting still for a while. Treatment is rest, ice, anti-inflammatories, but I'm not so good about the "rest" part of that. It's not super-painful, just occasionally annoying.

Week 5 already? Eek. Gotta cook some stuff this weekend, or I won't make that goal! Did a huge stir fry last night, but that's not a new recipe, just an easy tasty one. Makes awesome lunches, too. I used to have Monday as a major cooking evening, but with climbing, it's become a cook-something-quick-and-go day - not a good time to be trying new recipes. So… maybe Friday I'll cook something new. Swam today - felt good and strong, though not particularly fast. Going climbing tonight, which I'm definitely looking forward to. There's a climb I'm working on that I got the crux of last week, but that's only a third of the way up the wall - this week I'm going to find out what's above it!

It was really great - appears to have used some muscles in my shoulders I'm not used to, but I'm not too sore.Of course it does. Juggled today, then mowed and gardened. My yard is a constant battle against ivy. It's winning, I fear.

Haha, so do I! Doesn't compare to a really great weekend with out-of-town friends, though. And there's always work and errands and general life stuff to handle. Went night kayaking last night for the first time, with a group of about 20 people - stayed together by way of glowsticks on the kayaks, and the light of the half-moon was enough to keep us on track in the lake. Gorgeous and relaxing. Had a really neat conversation along the way, ranging from relationships to space camp to how much size matters. That last was entirely in reference to kayaks, of course - smaller ones being faster and more maneuverable versus the more stable bigger ones. Anyway, it was a good night.

Aaaah, so many scary plants. Adding Florida to the list of places I have no desire to live in. Yay for feeling like Russian's starting to click, though - that's awesome! And upside down is lots of fun… just don't get eaten by the couch.

Lunchtime workout today: Rowing machine warmup Push-ups: 12/11/10/10 Pull-ups (with negatives): 4(1)/3(2)/3(2)/2(3) Hanging leg raises: 12/11/10/9 45lb goblet squats: 6/6/6/6 stretching/cooldown Gym was really crowded - students burning off finals anxiety, I suppose.

Haha, yeah, it's a little rougher on the hands. There may be another juggling video… I need to video one of my evening practice sessions. They're mostly me just messing around, though. Oh, that's cool! There is definitely a skill to finding handholds when they're not obvious blocks screwed into the wall. I definitely discovered useful holds after I was past them a couple times... Yeah, not having my bouldering time is sad! In a couple weeks, my choir practice stops being on Wednesday nights, so I may start going to the climbing gym then, but for now, I'm just enjoying getting a little more sleep and doing my morning workouts at lunchtime instead.