dress myself up in tin plate armour
Sep. 24th, 2008 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hawkwing_lbAchievements:
Study: About fifty pages of the Mattingly book.
Writing: Planning. Which is unglamourous, and does not feel like work.
Running: 13 minutes continuous running, 2 miles in under 20 minutes, 3 miles in 31.5 minutes, 3.5 miles in 38 minutes, 4 miles in 44.5 minutes, and a grand total of 4.25 miles in 50 minutes.
Not a bad running night, really.
Miles treadmilled since 10-09-08: 27.25
Climbing:
A very good night. Andy and Alex are a couple of really great guys who are completely generous about sharing belays and giving advice - even if they are scarily better than me.
Improved the red 6a that involves a hold-and-a-half on the roof: I'm on to the next hold up, now, and I tell you, there is something freaky about clinging to that hold with two hands while your feet dangle in mid-air, seven metres above the ground. Very fun, but freaky.
Improved the black 5+, the one that's been thwarting me for weeks: still haven't managed to get past the crux, but it'll come. I also attempted a different white 6a (let's call it #2, as distinct from the other one I've been working on), and got most of the way up the overhang, which is still only a third of the total height. And on white 6a#1, I got stuck at the same damn move I did last time, which involves smear-step-reach with really only the right hand for leverage. It's not exactly the world's best hold.
Still. I am improving. It's kind of scary how swiftly. (Note: going to the gym and climbing for a combined time in excess of three hours four days a week? Apparently scares one's body into getting very fit, very fast.)
Although a funny thing happened. Andy (a great guy, as I've said) was teaching me to lead belay again tonight: he was leading the red 6a on the roof, and had Alex spotting me on the ground. So he was on the roof, and I was doing my best to pay attention and not get him killed, when an officious-type gym staff person wandered over and demanded to know if I'd done my lead belay test.
Since I haven't, I said, no, not really (I was trying to pay attention to belaying). So the officious-type staff person, he says to me, "You know you're not supposed to do that if you haven't got your test."
I allow as how that is reasonable, and I'll get right on that. (Still trying to pay attention to not getting Andy killed dead: it's not like you can let another person take over from you halfway through belaying.)
No, he insists, it's not allowed. I'm not supposed to be doing that.
Fortunately Andy was nearly done, because the guy kept hovering and telling me I had to get my test until I'd lowered Andy down.
And I'm standing there, thinking, Man, can you wait until I've finished doing this thing I'm not supposed to be doing before you tell me I'm not supposed to be doing it? It's not like I can stop halfway and immediately let someone else take over, so why don't you stop distracting me and let me get my climber back safely on the ground?
A good dozen people who lead in that gym learned in the gym from fellow climbers, and waited a couple of months to get their tests. A couple are still leading and belaying without having taken their tests. And I understand, perfectly, that this is not good for the gym if an accident should occur -
But really, man. You don't need to contribute to the possibility of such an accident occuring by keeping at me a) after I've already acknowledged you, and b)while my climber is hanging off the roof.
*sigh*
In moderately optimistic news, my grandmother has had her operation, has woken up, and is doing, by all reports, quite well for a woman of eighty who's just had non-trivial surgery.
So I will practise optimism.
Study: About fifty pages of the Mattingly book.
Writing: Planning. Which is unglamourous, and does not feel like work.
Running: 13 minutes continuous running, 2 miles in under 20 minutes, 3 miles in 31.5 minutes, 3.5 miles in 38 minutes, 4 miles in 44.5 minutes, and a grand total of 4.25 miles in 50 minutes.
Not a bad running night, really.
Miles treadmilled since 10-09-08: 27.25
Climbing:
A very good night. Andy and Alex are a couple of really great guys who are completely generous about sharing belays and giving advice - even if they are scarily better than me.
Improved the red 6a that involves a hold-and-a-half on the roof: I'm on to the next hold up, now, and I tell you, there is something freaky about clinging to that hold with two hands while your feet dangle in mid-air, seven metres above the ground. Very fun, but freaky.
Improved the black 5+, the one that's been thwarting me for weeks: still haven't managed to get past the crux, but it'll come. I also attempted a different white 6a (let's call it #2, as distinct from the other one I've been working on), and got most of the way up the overhang, which is still only a third of the total height. And on white 6a#1, I got stuck at the same damn move I did last time, which involves smear-step-reach with really only the right hand for leverage. It's not exactly the world's best hold.
Still. I am improving. It's kind of scary how swiftly. (Note: going to the gym and climbing for a combined time in excess of three hours four days a week? Apparently scares one's body into getting very fit, very fast.)
Although a funny thing happened. Andy (a great guy, as I've said) was teaching me to lead belay again tonight: he was leading the red 6a on the roof, and had Alex spotting me on the ground. So he was on the roof, and I was doing my best to pay attention and not get him killed, when an officious-type gym staff person wandered over and demanded to know if I'd done my lead belay test.
Since I haven't, I said, no, not really (I was trying to pay attention to belaying). So the officious-type staff person, he says to me, "You know you're not supposed to do that if you haven't got your test."
I allow as how that is reasonable, and I'll get right on that. (Still trying to pay attention to not getting Andy killed dead: it's not like you can let another person take over from you halfway through belaying.)
No, he insists, it's not allowed. I'm not supposed to be doing that.
Fortunately Andy was nearly done, because the guy kept hovering and telling me I had to get my test until I'd lowered Andy down.
And I'm standing there, thinking, Man, can you wait until I've finished doing this thing I'm not supposed to be doing before you tell me I'm not supposed to be doing it? It's not like I can stop halfway and immediately let someone else take over, so why don't you stop distracting me and let me get my climber back safely on the ground?
A good dozen people who lead in that gym learned in the gym from fellow climbers, and waited a couple of months to get their tests. A couple are still leading and belaying without having taken their tests. And I understand, perfectly, that this is not good for the gym if an accident should occur -
But really, man. You don't need to contribute to the possibility of such an accident occuring by keeping at me a) after I've already acknowledged you, and b)while my climber is hanging off the roof.
*sigh*
In moderately optimistic news, my grandmother has had her operation, has woken up, and is doing, by all reports, quite well for a woman of eighty who's just had non-trivial surgery.
So I will practise optimism.
