Had a great climbing session yesterday!

Yesterday at the climbing gym was great, especially after going to the dentist!  I found some things out at the dentist’s that are going to cost some serious money – money I don’t have – and it kind of bummed me out.  It was a good thing that I had already made plans to meet Emily at the climbing gym after my appointment with the dentist, because it gave me something to look forward to!  When I got there, Emily was warming up.  She’s decided to do some endurance training and she was upstairs when I got to the gym.  I got my wallet and stuff all stashed away in my locker and then got my Skwamas on.  Emily came down and joined me on the main floor.  We sat on the bench next to each other, facing the bouldering wall, and she discussed her game plan with me.  My game plan was to project on that Green Cloverhang V1 that I’d been working on and to climb a few V0 problems if possible.  I would at lest attempt them!  As soon as I got on Green Cloverhang, I realized that my shoulders were very sore, and my right one was tender, from the day before when I attempted it seven times and was getting in some great progress on it.  I have to remember that I was sick for a long time and lost a lot of strength in the process!  I forget that and go too hard sometimes.  My body lets me know, that’s for sure!!!  I attempted a purple V0 that I named “Purple Cling”, a red V0 that I named “Red Mushroom Flames”, and a green V0 that I named “Green Vine Edge”.  I think some cool names come out of this process of naming my projects to make them more of a personal challenge.  Really – who comes up with “Red Mushroom Flames” without being high on something, haha!  The climbing gym was really calm compared to the day before, so climbing was something I could do the way I needed to – as a stress reliever.  I didn’t have to worry about anybody trying to get at my things or taking my spot on the wall right in front of me.  It works better for me if I go to the climbing gym early in the morning during members-only hours during the week, but even when alpine-start hours are over at 1000 hrs, the gym is pretty calm for until early to mid-afternoon.  From about 1500 hrs on, though, enter at your own risk!  The after school program starts at 1600 hrs every weekday and the youth climbing team meets on Tuesday and Thursday nights immediately following that.  Then there’s the after-work crowd and the college folks who come in after classes get out, etc., etc.  It gets busy!  Evenings and weekends are just plain packed!!!  I like to avoid that situation because I’m not good at dealing with crowds.  I find crowds, even if I know everyone in them, to be very stressful because there’s activity everywhere – all around you, above you, below you, literally everywhere!

Emily was doing a circuit-type workout yesterday, and trying to do at least four sets with four problems each in them.  She ended up with a series of three problems instead of four for a set as she had originally planned, though, and she’s just starting out with this endurance workout, so that’s fine.  It needs to be challenging, but not to the point of injury.  She already injured her shoulder, and she doesn’t need to re-injure anything, especially while training!  That’s what I have to remember, too!  No injury!!!  It’s not worth it!  Injury is best avoided, but you certainly don’t want to get injured while climbing indoors, for heaven’s sake!

Today, I hope to have a good climbing session as well.  I’m not meeting up with anybody, but I always see people I know and I often end up learning from watching them climb while I’m resting from my own climbing.  Climbing is such a unique sport – it’s collective in that you need a partner and a community of climbers, but individual in that it’s you vs. the rock (or the wall), and everybody around you celebrates when someone succeeds and mourns when we lose someone to an accident or injury.  We push each other, and we push ourselves.  It’s a really awesome dynamic.  I’m thinking of getting my Ph.D. in Performance Psychology so that I can study this more.  I’ll have to wait until I get better – if I get better – with managing my PTSD, but a Ph.D. is on my bucket list!  I love learning, and since I’m a climber myself and I understand the mentality and some of the factors that go into it, I think I would be an asset to the sports and performance psychology world.  Doing some climbing-specific studies would be a blast!!!