We are about 12 months into our never-ending training regime to climb the pesky 5.13 grade, with no end in sight! We have made progress still, but slow and steadily. Mondays and Tuesdays are reserved for endurance training, while Thursdays and Saturdays are power. Initially we would sort of kill ourselves on Mondays leaving us pretty trashed on Tuesdays, thus leaving workouts lackluster and less successful. So we discovered that instead of treating these days as two individual sessions, we would gel them into one training evolution period.

A few weeks back, we climbed about 800 feet with an average difficulty of 5.10b. We certainly got through it but those last couple of hundred feet we really had to dig down deep. Then tuesday, we both rode or ran, and then sailed in the afternoon, which is a perfect combination/continuation of our endurance workout day(s).

Only now are we really starting to get close to this goal. Jilly recently bought a new pair of VERY high-tech climbing shoes, that are rediculously aggressive, and also very uncomfortable for long periods. BUT, she can CRUSH in them. She has been climbing through 5.12C (only 2 more grades to 13a) almost to perfection. I have also been dominating; leading 5.12C and 5.12D with only one or two moves that shoot me down. I can work through them, though after 1 or 2 good burns, I’m pretty much finished!

So the question still remains, will we ever climb 5.13a? The truth is we have no idea. We keep staying focused and positive with hard training, but I don’t think either of us actually cares about that “end goal”. It’s really more about the process, which is the best part (journey over destination), plus if we ever DO get there, it will only make it that much sweeter knowing how truly hard it has been. We have been climbing more and more outside, though the weather is still a little schizophrenic, but with Summer in tow, we will be everywhere we can be.

On a completely different note, we’ve been doing a ‘nearly vegan’ diet for 5 months now. 9 out of 10 meals are vegan, giving us the liberty to still indulge in things like meat, bacon, BBQ, etc. We discovered “Native Foods Cafe” and have now been there twice in the past two weeks. While we were chomping away, I mentioned we were out of oatmeal at home, Jill responded by saying “I think we have some hemp granola” and I said “wait a minute, are we hippies?” Well lets break it down: We don’t get involved in politics, we don’t use drugs, we don’t have dreadlocks, we aren’t “freeloaders” as we both work super hard and have great jobs. I think our ideals simply stem from a health and performance space as we want to live a very sustainable life. So then why does the term ‘hippy’ have such a negative connotation?

Either way, we don’t really care. It’s all about feeling great, working hard and trying to accomplish goals; whatever they may be. Jilly wants to start getting back into mountain biking again, though her knee has not (and probably never will) fully heal without full-on physical therapy. She decided that regardless of the limitation, she refuses to NOT do this thing she loves, because it’s just not who she is…and I think if everyone felt/tried/worked this way, the world would be a better place!