Victorious!

Yesterday I awoke at 6:00 a.m., bright-eyed and bushy-haired. By 8:00 a.m. I had begun Part I of my Birthday Challenge. I started off at Berkeley Ironworks in (you guessed it) Berkeley, which is the gym I’ve been climbing at the most. I was delighted to find that they had set some new boulder problems since I last climbed there. I had been getting pretty bored with climbing the same stuff over and over again. So I got a nice mix of old and new problems and I finished my 36 points worth of climbs in 44 minutes. I was feeling strong and amped and I finished every problem on my first attempt. I climbed 4 VOs, 3, V1s, 3 V2s, 3 V3s, and a V4. I was feeling great and even sent my boyfriend a text that said, “And I still want to climb more so that’s good.”

"Contemplating the first climb of the day" or
 "Reasons I shouldn't take selfies"

I drove home and had some serious couch time. Just me and Netflix on a rainy morning in the East Bay. But after two hours, I was ready to continue my challenge. I put on my rain boots and hopped on BART.

Part II of my challenge was at Great Western Power Company in Oakland. I was excited to get back to climbing and things went pretty well. There were two V2s that I fell off of on my first attempt, but after some thought about how to get through the tricky moves, I got them both on the second try. I made a couple attempts on a V3 but I was unable to finish it. I watched some guys trying it and they couldn’t figure it out either, but they weren’t very experienced climbers so I’m not sure that says much. On another V3, I couldn’t even figure out how to get off the ground. But these things happen. There were plenty of other problems to try and I was able to get my 36 points in an hour and 20 minutes with 3 VOs, 3 V1s, 5 V2s, and 3 V3s.

After a crowded ride home on BART, I ate a late lunch and snuggled up on the couch again for some more Netflix. I was still feeling pretty good, but happy to be wrapped in a blanket watching the rain through the window. After a few more hours of vegging out, I headed out one last time. It was still raining, but the sun was out as I drove across the Bay Bridge into San Francisco. I was looking forward to meeting up with my boyfriend at the last gym. I had been alone all day and not wanting to talk to anyone at the gym because I was afraid they’d ask me what I was writing down (I was keeping track of what I climbed). After the trauma of explaining my 33^rd Birthday Challenge, I didn’t want to tell anyone about Birthday Challenge 36.

Finishing the last climb!

Part III of my challenge took place at Dogpatch Boulders in San Francisco. This is the newest of the gyms and has significantly taller walls than the other two. I had some concerns about finishing the challenge there for that reason. Taller walls=longer problems. And that’s hard at the end of the day. I started to worry as I climbed the first problem of the session. My hand skin was sore and my biceps and triceps were feeling fatigued. After a few more climbs, I was starting to feel exhausted. I wanted to try to get in some V2s and V3s before things got any worse. I found a V3 that I was pretty sure I’d be able to climb. But  it got hard at the top and my grip was really insecure. The top of the wall was just out of reach. I had to stretch and inch my fingertips over the top. If I hadn’t been in the middle of a challenge I don’t think I would have made myself finish it. But I was determined to collect my 4 points and not have to try it again.

My boyfriend arrived about halfway through Part III and it was really nice to finally have someone to talk to. Although he was probably less thrilled because by the time he arrived I was getting pretty whiny. I finished the last part of the challenge in an hour and 35 minutes with 3 VOs, 3 V1s, 5 V2s, and 3 V3s. By this time I was feeling pretty loopy and asked my boyfriend to drive us home. The traffic was awful, partly due to the rain causing some flooding. In one area the street had flooded up over the sidewalk and was lapping up against the side of a building. The water was ankle deep there and calf deep in the street. And then the tunnel on the Bay Bridge was flooded too. It was an exciting trip home!

Flooded tunnel

The final count for my challenge:

VOs: 10

V1s: 9

V2s: 13

V3s: 9

V4s: 1

Points: 36 x 3 = 108

Time: 3 hours, 39 minutes

Well, I’ll be radio silent for about a year until I start planning for next year’s Birthday Challenge. I’ll leave you with the words of Paul Simon’s song “Have a Good Time”, which has been my official birthday-post song since college:

Yesterday it was my birthday
I hung one more year on the line
I should be depressed, my life's a mess
But I'm having a good time

Ready to Rock and Roll!

It seems like I just turned 33 and finished my first birthday challenge. Yet in reality, here I am, about to turn 36! In case anyone was wondering, I did do 34^th and 35^th birthday challenges.

When I turned 34, I went to Disneyland. My goal was to ride 34 rides and do 34 repetitions of 34 different body-weight exercises (squats, lunges, etc.) while I waited in line for rides. I made it halfway there (17 rides, 17 different exercises). My birthday fell two days before Thanksgiving. Let me just say that that is NOT a good time to visit Disneyland. It was unbelievably crowded. And it turns out that you can’t really ask six-year olds if it’s OK to cut in line in front of them for your birthday challenge. It was a miserable challenge in a lot of ways, but it was still fun to hang out at Disneyland.

For my 35^th birthday, I really wanted to do a climbing-based challenge. But it just wasn’t in the cards for me. I had torn my labrum in June and was unable to climb much while waiting for surgery. So I decided to do a 35-day-long workout challenge leading up to my birthday. Every day, for 35 days straight, I either ran (3.5 or 5.3 miles), worked out at the gym (doing 3 rounds of 5 repetitions of bench press, front squats, pull-downs, etc.), or did a hangboard workout (climbing training). It was brutal. And not because any one workout was that hard. But really. 35. Days. Straight. I’ve never been so happy for my birthday to arrive because when I woke up on my birthday I didn’t have to workout! I was also happy because my challenge was successful.

So here’s the challenge this year. Since my shoulder has recovered (mostly) from surgery, I decided that I should finally do an all-climbing challenge. I’ll be climbing at three different Touchstone gyms (Berkeley Ironworks, Great Western Power Company in Oakland, and Dogpatch in San Francisco). At each of the gyms, I will be bouldering a total of 36 points. The easiest climbs (V0) will be given 1 point. V1s will be given 2 points and so on. So I could achieve my goal at one gym by climbing 3 V0s (3 points), 4 V1s (8 points) 4 V2s (12 points), 2 V3s (8 points), and a V4 (5 points).

I’d be lying if I said that I had trained really well for this challenge. In that last few weeks I’ve finally been able to start climbing three days a week again. Prior to this I was only getting in one day a week if I was lucky. I’ve ascertained that I can climb 36 points in one session (I was able to do it in one hour by climbing problems I’m familiar with). My last day of training I climbed a total of 66 points. And boy was I exhausted. So I think I’m going to need all the luck I can get this Thursday!

For info about what a Birthday Challenge is: http://www.birthdaychallenge.com/