August 14, 2013

I thought it might be a fun idea to write a journal of our activity level for one week. This is not a new thing for us, as we’ve kept training journals in the past, but we always slack off on maintaining them for more than a few days.

Why is this a good idea? Because we can look back and see what we’ve done, to amp it up for the next round. We will also be able to see trends on how diet/sleep/stress-levels effect energy and performance. Ultimately this will help to keep us operating at a very high level. (note: there are always those crap days where you just can’t perform to your optimum level no matter what, and that is okay…its just how it goes sometimes)

My hope is that writing everything down will motivate us to work harder, and give ya’all an idea of what it takes to stay at the top-level of fitness AND continue to improve. It is essentially a part-time job. Thursday is an odd day to start this journal, but since I had this idea last night, that’s how its going to roll out.

Thursday Aug 8, 2013

I Started the day with a 12.5 mile bike ride to work; it was a muggy/foggy cool morning and the ride was really easy. It took about 45 minutes with a 10 min stretch-sesh after…because flexibility has and always will be an issue for me.

After work, I rode about 4 miles to meet Jilly to go up to Boulder Canyon to get a few routes in before the bad weather came in. We hiked with 40lb packs across the creek (which was nice and mellow today) and up to the climbing crag (about a 10 minute hike from the car).

We managed to climb two warm-up routes: a 5.8, which Jilly lead, and a 5.10c, which I lead, before the crap weather started rolling in. I attempted to climb a 5.12a before the weather turned its ugly head. I got about 3/4 of the way before the crux (the hard part) shut me down 5 to 6 times, meaning falls. Then a huge flash of lightening lit up the sky, which was our sign to bail and head back down. It was a little exhausting going up and down to clean the gear and the rope, but we managed to get back down before the worst of the rain came in. All-in-all, a pretty good day with about 4 hrs of activity.

Friday Aug 9, 2013

This morning I, Jake, had a nice 12.5 mile bike ride into work. Its starting to stay dark (leaving at 6am) and cool in the mornings. I guess fall is coming. I don’t really like driving to work because makes me feel a bit disconnected from the natural world, so biking is perfect for me!

This morning’s ride was followed by a very nice mid-morning 90 minute massage. Massage is very important for me to decrease recovery time and get out all the knots and tight spots, to prevent overwork and injury. The workout commenced with a 10 mile jaunt to the gym for a Yin Yoga class. Yin yoga focuses on slow, deep movements, staying in supported postures/poses for up to 5 minutes at a time. It is really great for keeping the body nice and limber. Then the 4.5 mile bikeride home will finish me off for the day.

About 2.5 hours of activity today, which sounds like a lot, but it’s actually a very low-intensity day. To avoid OVER-TRAINING, you have to take days like this; I call them “active recovery” days, and I think your body benefits more from these then full rest-days. (I try for a full rest day once or twice a week if my body needs it). Ha, I laugh at myself because I am calling riding 27 miles and an hour and a half of yoga an easy day…but once you see tomorrow’s workout, you will understand (mad laughing).

Jilly’s workout started with a 4.5 mile bike ride to the gym, followed by an hour of cardio (running), 20 minutes of abs, stretching and then another hour of light bouldering. She had to run some errands, so she rode around town and back home for a grand total of 12 miles on her bike.

In the normal “Jill” fashion, she biffed it on her bike in the driveway, going less than 1 mph, (those darn clipless pedals don’t always unclip when you want them to) and got some wicked-cool cuts on her ankle and knees (although she may not agree). But as our motto states, you’re not hardcore unless you live hardcore…bruises, cuts, bumps; its all part of the game.

Saturday Aug 10, 2013

Saturdays tend to be the hardest and longest workout days in our weekly regiment. This is mostly due to time…we have lots of it so we use it. We were a little lagging because Jill required a few extra hours of sleep (since she went to bed super late). We rode to the climbing gym (4.5 miles), and began our warmup routine…this is basically just light bouldering for 20-30 minutes. Jill noticed that her ankle was bothering her from the bike fall yesterday, so she took it easy this morning. Funny enough, it was NOT the ankle that got all hacked up by the bike, but the other one which seemed perfectly fine yesterday…but I digress.

I bouldered medium-to-hard problems in the V5 – V7 range. Actually that’s pretty hard…a V7 is equivalent to a 5.13A. Thus, bouldering is a great training tactic to achieve my ultimate goal of leading a 5.13A. The thing about bouldering is that it requires a lot of power. The climbs are really short, only 4-6 moves, but all of those moves are VERY VERY VERY HARD. This is essentially what we did for 2 hours:

I, too, was not operating at my highest caliber today, especially after I bashed my knee really hard on a fall, but managed to shake it off and keep on truckin’.

We were going to do some routes since Jilly was injured and couldn’t pull hard movements on the boulder problems without aggravating her ankle, but we both forgot our belay devices. Normally, this wouldn’t really matter, because bouldering can definitely work us, but it made it impossible for Jilly to do anything worthwhile. So she called it a day and rode back home another 4.5 miles. I stayed until my circuit training class, which was 30 minutes of TORTURE, but very effective; high-energy, fast-paced excercises focusing on strength, endurance and power.

That brought us to a grand total of 9 miles on the bike, 2 hours of climbing and circuit training class (for Jake). Not bad for a Saturday workout, even when feeling subpar.

Sunday Aug 11, 2013

Today’s activity was simple enough; go to Boulder Rez, set up ‘Bosco’, and spend the morning sailing. I think we were out there for about 3 hours. The wind was pretty mild so we took turns manning the helm/jib…solo-style, while the other kicked back and relaxed.

 
This was a VERY mild day; sort of like a rest-day, but a step above that. We just wanted to get out and be active…oh yeah and have fun.

Monday Aug 12, 2013

Today was all about endurance-building. We drove to the gym together (with my bike packed in the trunk) and spent the early morning hours climbing routes. We climbed 8 routes each, roughly 400 feet, of 5.10b—5.11b grade. I lead all of my routes (but didn’t climb as hard today since I was pretty tired and sore from last week), and Jilly top-roped all of hers, since she was still nursing her ankle; though she did climb harder routes and did pretty well considering. It was basically a grind-fest; no moves were extremely hard, but they wear on your body, especially because we weren’resting between climbs…back-to-back climbs make the workout go faster and force us to push our endurance-skills.

After 1.5 hrs in the gym, Jilly drove to her meetings and I finished my commute (aprox 10 miles in 35 mins) via bike. The end of the day ride was a casual 12.5 miles home. I didn’t push myself too hard, but got it done. BOOM BABY!!!

Tuesday Aug 13, 2013

I (Jake) did NOT ride my bike today; my legs were totally smoked and needed a break. When working out this hard, and this much, it’s really important to listen to your body. I know the difference between being a little stiff/sore vs. being completely worked and risking injury if I overdo something, so I took a little break.

That doesn’t mean we didn’t work out today. The original plan was to do some fun and easy multi-pitch climbs that we’ve had on our tick list for a month, but like always, we were rained out. So, we ended up in the gym again today. We started with a 3-route warm up each, climbing back-to-back and leading (Jake 5.9, 5.10a, 5.10b),(Jill 5.8, 5.10a, 5.10a). Next for me was a 5.11b, just to make sure my arms were nice and warmed up.

(note: many newbies to climbing, or excercise, think that their bodies are tired quickly after only a couple of routes or whatever excercise they are doing, and that is NOT the case. This is just your body warming up; pushing that lactic acid out of your system. So next time you go to the gym and try to run on a treadmill for 20 minutes, or climb a couple of routes, and feel ‘worked’, that is just your body warming up, and you are actually fully capable of going MUCH MUCH farther and longer than you think/realize. Give yourself 5 or 10 minutes to rest and get back to it — you’ll see!)

Jilly was feeling risqué and decided to try leading her first 5.12a on the gray wall. The gray wall is the big overhanging wall that only has lead climbs on it. This is also the most intimidating wall, where all the pros climb. The climbs start at a much higher grade and contain the hardest routes found in the gym, so only experienced climbers get on this wall.

 
We climb on it a lot, but Jilly is terrified of heights, so its more daunting to lead routes on this wall, because there is a high potential that you will take very large, swinging falls. She managed to lead her way all the way up with only a few takes (controlled falls), but did a really great job, especially because it is 2 grades harder than her hardest lead. I tried this climb today and struggled with it, so mad props to the Jill-meister!

I finished my workout with two more 5.12c routes. Jilly climbed the 5.12a again on top-rope, a 5.11d (that she also wants to lead) and one of the 5.12c’s that I climbed. So all-in-all we did 7 routes each but spent over 2 hours in the gym. We were both WORKED by the end.

Wednesday Aug 14, 2013

This is the last day of the “weekly journal”. I chose to end out the ‘week’ with a nice bike ride to the gym this morning. I did a level 2 vinyasa flow yoga class for an hour, then rode to (and fro) work. Today was my active-rest day, but Jill decided to take a full rest day, mostly because she had to catch up on work and needs another day to recover for the rest of our training week.

And that concludes our journal, but it does not mean that we are done. We will continue to train every week in this fashion; climbing, biking, yoga, sailing and resting here and there. Whatever we can do to stay active will help us to get closer to achieving our goals in climbing. Next week we will be posting a weekly diet plan showing when, what and how we eat to stay fit, healthy, lean & mean and energized. Until then, stay classy [insert your town here].