Goal: V7 by September

I’ve been avoiding writing in this for a couple weeks now. It’s been sitting, patiently waiting. And I’ve approached it with the apprehension one would likely find staring down the barrel of a gun.

After my first two rapid succession posts, I started a new job. Had several filming jobs and opportunities, and was going on only a few hours of sleep a night. The result was the complete and utter loss of my desire to train. Dropping from 4 trips to the gym and doing some non-climbing related training on the off days for around 2-3 hours a trip, down to 1-2 days a week for about an hour (just at the climbing gym).

It was mental. I couldn’t see the wall, which was inches from my face. I went from starting to pull down v5’s and v6’s with ease to fumbling on v3’s. I couldn’t see the sequence and I couldn’t feel how my body should move. A lot of foul language followed. My mind was everywhere but in the moment.

I was defeated before my shoes were laced. And it’s not that I had negative thoughts ruining my night. It was just sheer absence of attention. I could recognize the issue, but I couldn’t fix it.

The clock continued to tick. Days passed and I could feel my v7 getting away from me (enter negativity). Doubt crept in like some infection in a cut, poisoning everything. I did what has always been my (terrible) response: push my body through the mental block, or until something breaks. This meant fingerboard workouts until muscle failure, high repetitions with more than bodyweight exercises, and hyper-gravity bouldering well beyond exhaustion.

Finally, I felt my spirit give. At least somewhere inside I still recognize that I do this for fun. I took a couple days to rest and recover. I invited my friend Chris to join me, he had also been suffering from a lack of motivation, I played some “Pretty Lights” which, if you watch many climbing videos, you’ve probably heard before.

I don’t know why, but that music gets me amped. And extremely focused. Plus, the addition of a good friend helped make it a fun trip. No pressure. No desire to crush new near-maximal climbs. Just… fun. And then the crushing happened on it’s own.

While I was struggling, it wasn’t that I was afraid to make big moves, I just had no desire to commit to them. But this night was different. Big moves, technical moves, funky risky moves… didn’t matter. They were mine and they felt effortless. This was also my first night pulling a V5 (overhang) in a couple weeks.

We ended our session on that note. I felt like I was back, finally. I’ve had two more trips to the gym since and I feel like that V7 is a completely REASONABLE goal.

I even had the balls to call a flash on a V5 (meaning that… I was completely certain that I could do this particular V5 on my first attempt, called it, then proceeded to attempt the route.). I didn’t flash it. In fact, I smashed my knee on a hold while falling and rolled around on the ground for a while doing the “Peter Griffin.” Since then, the route has been too busy to finish. But soon…

Sorry guys, I’ll aim for one of these posts a week.

P.S. Kyle might be coming down and we might be going climbing outside! BDT (That means “Bout Damn Time.”).

Oh Yeah… The Bad News: :(

172 lbs

That is +5 lbs since my last post. And +12 from my goal. Diet starts again September 1^st.