Wed., October 15 (really--I somehow tweaked my dates, fixed now for recent entries...)
Savage workout. Limbed some trees, bucked them up, moved them to truck, unloaded. Helped out with some more bucking up of trees also. Eight hours of wrestling chunks of wood ranging from light to 150+ pounds, chainsawing like mad, wicked workout. I think this sort of thing is a real test of how "real world" fit you are; climbing fitness is very specific and that's great, but old-fashioned manual toil is just good for you.
A note on chainsaws: I have a "purse-sized" Stihl (my friend Margo loves to mock it), but it has a short bar and a thin chain that allows it to wail through wood as fast as many bigger saws. Keep the chain sharp and the saw in tune and there's not much that saw won't do with some creativity. I was cutting 24-inch spruce with it yesterday, kinda cool to get a big job done with a small saw. I'm just too cheap to spend $500 on a more manly saw when this one gets the job done well. Yeah, a bigger bar and more power might be nice, but I don't burn out on moving my saw around either, and mostly what I do is cut up logs up to about 12 inches in diameter, often in awkward positions, a small saw is just easier for that. Unless someone wants to send me a big old new saw, maybe I'll get into those timbersports comps, those people are nuts....
Tuesday, October 14th.
-Spoga between sets/exercises as usual.
-Warmup with easy movement.
-Climb up and down slightly overhanging wall locking off as low as possible on good holds, hold lockoff for a few seconds with the other hand over head before grabbing hold, repeat until flamed...
-Boulder with tools in cave, focus on accuracy and swings. Good deep pump several times.
-Tool pegboard, big offset pulls, one per side until can't do anymore. Wicked.
Monday October 13th
-Spoga as usual.
-Long traverses to warm up (cold!)
-Front lever training. Nasty and short but good. Getting better at these.
-Enduro training hanging on tool shafts, odd Figure 4 thrown in just to keep it interesting... 20 on, 20 off, you are pumped up! Let go with one hand occasionally if this is getting easy, and grab the tools above the grips so that you slide down onto them when you're too pumped to hang onto just the shafts anymore...
Sunday October 12th.
Good walk in the woods, nothing too major but good to get out.
Saturday October 11th.
All-time lousy workout. Got sucked into a boulder problem I couldn't do, tired, unmotivated, basically went through the motions but into mentally into the workout. Did my best.
3 comments:
Hey Will
How many sets of 20 on/20 off are you doing? Till failure?
Thanks again for all the posts!
Your push for winter fitness is inspirational. I'm moving to Ottawa in January. I've only ice climbed twice before, but your enjoyment of it is definitely making me consider focusing on it :)
Keep up the hard work.
Also, thanks for the tips on lat/back strength for overhangs (from a few posts back). Somehow that wasn't connecting as well as it should have.
Do 20/20 until you can't hold for 20 just gripping the shafts, then let your hands slide onto grips but let go with one hand occasionally to keep it real, when you can't do that anymore rest for as long as you can hang on (so 10/10 or whatever). You're done when the idea of grabbing the tools again makes you want to puke, or your fingers are too sore. Gloves are important so you don't get blisters or rip calluses.
Get your core strong Andrew, yeah!
Train hard,
wg
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