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| Pre-challenge |
Last
week marked my half birthday and I decided I couldn’t leave my 39th birthday
challenge undone any longer. My husband had Memorial Day off and my
mother-in-law comes on Mondays to watch Baby Z, so it seemed like the perfect
opportunity.
Being
a holiday, traffic was light, but the gym got busy quickly. I started my three-hour
timer and picked out my first V0 of the day. My strategy was to warm up on mostly
V0s and V1s, do a few V2s, and then knock out all nine V3s in a row. This
strategy worked well. After the warm up, I did three laps on a slightly crimpy
V3 with an abundance of handholds. Then I moved on to three laps on another V3.
This one challenged me at the end of my first go and I almost came off. But I
pulled it together thanks to my husband pointing out an unseen foothold. I had
flashed both of these problems on a previous gym session and I was fine with
repeats, but it seemed like it would be a better challenge if I could also do
some new V3s. I dug deep and was able to climb three new V3s.
At
this point, I started to feel like the challenge I was attempting was too easy.
I was feeling fine, had about half of the time left, and only had 19 problems to
do. That’s when my husband said that the only logical thing for me to do would
be to attempt to have 10 each of each grade V0-V2. Initially I thought that the
V3s would break me and that I’d only have strength left to do easy climbs, but
since I was doing OK I agreed to the new constrictions.
I
had only done two V2s for my warm-up, so with eight to go I searched the gym
for problems that looked doable. I wound up with several repeats, but I also
flashed three new V2s. I kept thinking about my friend Sarah and a blog post
she once wrote about marathon training: running is easy, running is hard. I
found that it translates to climbing. Every few problems, I’d find myself
sitting on the mat thinking either: climbing is easy or climbing is hard. It’s
weird how exhaustion (both physical and mental) can come and go so quickly.
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| Post-challenge |
I
ticked off the V2s and moved on to finishing the V1s and V0s. I began to be inspired
to finish early so that my husband and I would have time to get lunch before
going home for Baby Z’s nap. And wow, does food motivate me. I finished with 14
minutes and 18 seconds left on the clock. And we had time to dive into some
delicious Korean food.Despite
being six months late, I’m so happy and relieved to have had the opportunity to
attempt my challenge. And I’m delighted that I was able to finish it too! I was
also really pleased that I didn’t fall off a single climb.
I
was so thankful that my husband was able to come and support me. I may have
been able to do it without him, but it was really useful having someone try new
problems for me and help me out with beta and unseen footholds.
Now
it’s time to start planning the Big F birthday challenge. I can’t think of a
better way to celebrate turning 40. Although getting an ice cream truck also
sounds pretty good…
