Aeryn Dials in the Details

[Aeryn]

So I took last challenge off for sanity reasons, which was a highly useful break to let me see what I do when I'm not chasing specific goals that may or may not actually help my bigger goal. With some newfound clarity, here goes my twelfth challenge:

 

Big goal: climb a 5.11 route at my gym. This isn't a thing I'm trying to do by the end of this six weeks, necessarily, just the reason I'm doing the other stuff.

 

Goal 1: Add a morning strength session to Wednesdays and Fridays. Wake up at 6:15, do the workout, get on with the day. 12 sessions gets me full points, and the days don't have to be set in stone, those just work best around my other workouts.

 

Goal 2: Try 4 new recipes. I've got the weight/calorie setup pretty well dialed in, but my food has been getting repetitive. I'd like to experiment with some new stuff.

 

Goal 3: 3 juggling sessions a week. I've got a festival in early June that I'm really wanting to feel competent for, and more time with the clubs in my hands is the best way to get there. Standard juggling club meetings count for this, but more is better.

 

So that's it for this challenge. With the added strength workouts, that makes my schedule look like this:

Mon: lunchtime swim, evening 3-hour climbing session.

Tues: lunchtime bouldering, evening juggle

Wed: morning strength, lunchtime swim

Thurs: lunchtime bouldering, evening juggle

Fri: morning strength, lunchtime inner tube water polo (or swim, if not enough people)

Sat: juggling club

Sun: rest day!

[KB Girl]

Hey welcome back! I missed your eye avatar.

That's quite a schedule. Ohoh, I'll be juggling this challenge too! Just to try it out But with kettlebells.

[Aeryn]

Thanks! Glad to be back to blinking at you.

Okay, what is kettlebell juggling? I have to assume it's not just standard juggling but with 3 kettlebells- that sounds way too heavy to work.

[Twilight]

Fabulous schedule!!

[Paradigm]

Welcome back! The assassin's missed you!

[Mad Hatter]

Welcome back! What a fun schedule you got going there! Juggling, food and climbing = so much awesome!

[KB Girl]

Thanks! Glad to be back to blinking at you.

Okay, what is kettlebell juggling? I have to assume it's not just standard juggling but with 3 kettlebells- that sounds way too heavy to work.

Hehe no, just the one kettlebell, but throwing it and catching it after it does a couple of flips or something. 

[Aeryn]

Fabulous schedule!!

Thanks! I'm hoping it'll work out.

 

Welcome back! The assassin's missed you!

I missed you too! The break was good, but I did have moments where I wanted to come post an update...

 

Welcome back! What a fun schedule you got going there! Juggling, food and climbing = so much awesome!

Thanks! I'm psyched about this challenge!

 

Hehe no, just the one kettlebell, but throwing it and catching it after it does a couple of flips or something. 

Oh wow, that is super-cool. And scary-looking, when it's above his head!

[PaulG]

I'm a fan of your goals, particularly the recipe one... I'm in a similar spot, getting tired of greek yogurt being half my fridge. I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

[Red1263]

Hey hey! Welcome back to the Fray, Aeryn! You have been missed! I look forward to your success!

[Sea Level]

Hey, welcome back, blinky eye!

I also like the recipe goal. Will you share some with us?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[Aeryn]

I'm a fan of your goals, particularly the recipe one... I'm in a similar spot, getting tired of greek yogurt being half my fridge. I'll be interested to see what you come up with.

 Haha, yeah, Greek yogurt is a large part of my fridge, too. It's so useful as a snack with the right protein/calorie balance. But more variety is good!

Hey hey! Welcome back to the Fray, Aeryn! You have been missed! I look forward to your success!

 Aw, thanks! Looking forward to this challenge! 

Hey, welcome back, blinky eye! I also like the recipe goal. Will you share some with us?

Thanks! Yes, I'll definitely share recipes - successes and failures, as they happen!

[Nymeria]

Welcome back! I'm trying to become less boring with my cooking, too. I hope you post some food porn of the new recipes, so you can help inspire me with my cooking goal.

And of course I'll be vicariously living through your climbing exploits. I'm sure you'll either get the 5.11, or you'll get a few steps closer to being there!

[obax]

Hey, glad to see you back! 5.11, that's crazy, at least by my standards. I'm so afraid of heights that I've yet to complete anything more than 5.8.

 

I've got a cooking goal too, though mine is less about trying new things than it is about just doing it. But I'm happy to share recipes, and steal them too!

[thatgirljj]

Excellent! Was wondering where you'd gotten too.  Love the juggling goal.

 

And what do you like for food?  Maybe we can do a recipe swap. I've found the family regulars are getting a little boring and repetitive too.  

[Aeryn]

Welcome back! I'm trying to become less boring with my cooking, too. I hope you post some food porn of the new recipes, so you can help inspire me with my cooking goal.

And of course I'll be vicariously living through your climbing exploits. I'm sure you'll either get the 5.11, or you'll get a few steps closer to being there!

 Thanks! I'll definitely be posting the new recipes I try.

 

There's one 5.11 that I'm SO CLOSE to getting - it's likely the easiest one at the gym, but I'm counting it.

 

Hey, glad to see you back! 5.11, that's crazy, at least by my standards. I'm so afraid of heights that I've yet to complete anything more than 5.8.

 

I've got a cooking goal too, though mine is less about trying new things than it is about just doing it. But I'm happy to share recipes, and steal them too!

Oh wow, I can't imagine climbing if I were afraid of heights. I've got enough to worry about on the wall!

 

Yay, more recipe-sharing! Awesome!

 

Excellent! Was wondering where you'd gotten too.  Love the juggling goal.

 

And what do you like for food?  Maybe we can do a recipe swap. I've found the family regulars are getting a little boring and repetitive too.

Thanks! I do a lot of grilled chicken in different marinades - teriyaki, lemon, or general stir-fry. Steak is one of my fall-back easy meals with all the protein ever, but it's expensive. I'm not paleo, but I've been doing less pasta as I've started paying attention to protein intake - it's a lot of calories for very little protein, so tends to throw my numbers off for the day. Which sucks, because I like pasta and it's easy.

Swam today, and got inspired to push a little more than I have been recently. I've been doing most of my workouts at what I think of as "cruising speed" - I could basically swim that speed all day and be fine. So today I kicked it up a notch and worked a little harder, which felt good. I'll have to see what it does to the climbing tonight, too.

[Twilight]

Hey, another swimming assassin! Excellent.

[Aeryn]

Hey, another swimming assassin! Excellent.

Heck yeah, swimming is great. 

 

Climbing last night was good - I did more belaying than usual, since we had some new people, but I got 6 good top-roped climbs in, and finished a V3 bouldering route I'd been working on. Made it 3/4 of the way up my 5.11 project, and I know what I need to do for the next move, it's just getting my body to actually do it. The pistol squat work we're doing as the skill challenge may actually help with this, since my current sticking point is where I'm basically in the bottom of a pistol squat with only one hand on the wall, and I have to stand up and reach for the next handhold all at once.

 

Also played Pick 4 with some of the taller guys, and got a hint of how it feels to be a short climber - moves that were reachy for them became really balance-y dyno moves for me, since I couldn't quite reach otherwise. I need to work on dyno stuff in general - I'm really uncertain about it, which means I don't commit, which means I don't succeed… which makes me more uncertain. Vicious cycle.

[obax]

I know how you feel about dynos, they kinda scare me a bit. There was a route at once point where there was a big power move, not quite a dyno but I had to explode up from my legs and fully extend my body to reach the next hold. It took me a long time to get it but when I did I felt pretty badass.

 

What is Pick 4? I feel like I've seen it described around here somewhere at some point but can't remember...

[KB Girl]

You have to jump for a dyno move?

[Aeryn]

I know how you feel about dynos, they kinda scare me a bit. There was a route at once point where there was a big power move, not quite a dyno but I had to explode up from my legs and fully extend my body to reach the next hold. It took me a long time to get it but when I did I felt pretty badass.

 

What is Pick 4? I feel like I've seen it described around here somewhere at some point but can't remember...

Yeah, I'm just not quite willing to fling myself at it with that much force. There's a little voice in my head that tells me not to throw myself at the wall. Silly self-preservation instincts. Something to work on!

 

Pick 4 is a bouldering game - pick 4 handholds - you have to start with both hands on 1, end with both hands on 4. Open feet, and you have to touch your 4 handholds in order, no going back to handhold 2 to get to hold 4. Everybody tries the sequence. It can be really easy or really hard, depending what holds you choose - and if you pick while just looking at the wall (instead of starting on the wall and choosing as you move), you can end up with really interesting moves.

 

You have to jump for a dyno move?

Yup - dyno is short for dynamic - so anything where you have to jump for it. 

 

Bouldered at lunch today - my hands are always a little tender after Monday night climbing, so now they're feeling pretty shredded, but I solved two V2+ problems that I've been working on! One of them I'd done everything but the start, because it was a sit-start with only one foothold and a massive sloper for your hands - you had to smear with you left foot and and reach high with your right hand, and I kept sliding off the sloper or losing the smear before I could get stable on the next hold. But it worked today! And then the other was a series of crimps and a really high foothold that you just had to trust. I'm very psyched about both of those.

[Mad Hatter]

Yeah! Nice work!!

 

I often wish I had more of that jackass gene that a lot of guys seem to have. That self- preservation instinct really is silly.

[Batwoman]

[Nymeria]

Great job with the new bouldering routes! You've improved so much over the course of the last few challenges. Keep it up!

[Aeryn]

Yeah! Nice work!!

 

I often wish I had more of that jackass gene that a lot of guys seem to have. That self- preservation instinct really is silly.

Thanks! Yeah, I just want to be able to turn it off occasionally. I like that it keeps me from doing actively dumb things at times (No, don't lean over that incredibly rickety railing), but in controlled situations like a climbing gym? It's just getting in the way.

 

Anyone else feel like they're being watched?

 

Great job with the new bouldering routes! You've improved so much over the course of the last few challenges. Keep it up!

Thanks! It's kind of amazing for me to realize how much better my climbing has gotten - I always feel like wherever I am is where I've always been, but then I look back a few months and notice all the changes. 

 

First early-morning workout of the challenge - actually convincing myself to get out of bed was the hard part, once I was vertical, everything was good.

 

Warm-up with jumping jacks, leg swings, arm circles

Push-ups, diamond(regular): 4(6)/2(6)/2(6)

Pole-assisted pistol squats (each leg): 5/5/5

pull-ups (negatives): 2(3)/2(3)/2(3)

hanging leg raises: 10/10/10

Lock-offs: 3/3

Cool down and stretches.

 

It has been a long time since I've done a structured workout like this (like, since November. Ack!) - I've maintained fairly well, but my push-ups and pull-ups have both dropped a bit. Not sure how much is from having climbed yesterday vs. actually having lost some strength. Either way, I'm hoping to re-establish the habit without overdoing it, since that's why I dropped the bodyweight workouts in the first place.