Climbing!

This week Dave and I went indoor climbing for the first time. Well, we had a brief bash at it at The Ultimate High while on our holidays, but not a proper session. We went with our friend and PT Mike who is rather good at it. Dave and I hauled ourselves clumsily up various walls while he swarmed up and down like some sort of monkey on speed.

It was a lot of fun and I would definitely like to go again!

I am so happy and grateful to have discovered the joy of exercise. A few years ago I would never have dreamed of doing something so active for fun! My idea of a good day off would have been sitting zonking in front of the tv all day. I love that I am getting stronger all the time and am able to haul myself up walls and throw big lumps of metal over my head.

Here are Mike and Dave grinning cheesily:

And here am I looking perplexed about where I should be putting my feet next:

So, a great morning off, but what was I thinking arranging it in between ETK medium day and ETK heavy day? On the very first week that I was moving up to 4 and 5 rung ladders???!!!

Wednesday was medium day and I managed my 5 ladders of 4 rungs. I was very pleased with myself when I realised that meant I had done 50 reps. 50 pull ups!! from the girl who not so long ago couldn't even hang from a pull up bar let alone haul herself up!!! OK so I'm still doing them with a resistance band, and they are chin ups rather than proper tactical pull ups as all we have to do them on is a Doorgym - but still. That's a major achievement for me.

Thursday was climbing as I've already mentioned, and by the end of that my shoulders, fingers and wrists were oh so very tired.

And today, Friday, was heavy day. Great planning, Beth! Under normal circumstances I would have saved the workout until Saturday, but Dave and I are doing the 10-mile Great South Run on Sunday so really wanted to have a proper full rest day Saturday. So, we ploughed on with an attempt at heavy day. Oh wow, but that was hard. Everything hurt. You know you're in trouble when rung 2 of ladder 1 feels like hard work! I didn't manage the full lot - my muscles failed me on the pull ups. I did manage all of the clean & presses though. Here's what my ladders looked like:

1) C&P 1,2,3,4,5 Pull ups 1,2,3,4,5
2) C&P 1,2,3,4,5 Pull ups 1,2,3,4,4
3) C&P 1,2,3,4,5 Pull ups 1,2,3,4,3
4) C&P 1,2,3,4,5 Pull ups 1,2,3,4,3
5) C&P 1,2,3,4,5 Pull ups 1,2,3,3,3

Just couldn't keep up those pull up reps at the end. However, I'm pretty encouraged with that. That's 67 pull ups! The day after climbing! I'm reasonably optimistic that I'll get up to the full 5 x 5 within the next week or so.

..... Which brings me on to the question: what then? The AOS workbook advocates doing about 5 weeks of the same ladders. But Pavel, if I am reading ETK correctly, basically seems to say, as soon as you can do 5 x 5, move up to a heavier weight and start again at 3 x 3. Which to do? I'm tempted to say that once I've done 2 weeks of 5 x 5 with good form, I'll start again from the beginning using the 10 kg for presses and the 16 kg for swings (eeeeek!!). What do my HKC/RKC friends think? Does that count as completing the ROP or do I need to stick to the letter of the AOS workbook and do the same reps for longer before moving up? Any advice gratefully received :-)

In the meantime, I'm off to start my pre-race rest with a long hot bath and a glass of wine. Laters!