Ready...Set...

I’m gearing up for my birthday challenge this year and I’m getting pretty excited. Last year for my 37^th birthday, I was eight months pregnant. I had initially wanted to do a challenge, but as my birthday approached I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to. My knees were shot from running a 12K when I was seven months pregnant (damn relaxin!) and I had pregnancy-induced carpel tunnel syndrome.

So…fast forward to my 38^th birthday which is looming in the near future. With just a little over two months to go, I still have plenty of time to work out the difficulties I’m encountering with the planning process, as well as work at getting my knees in shape for a whole lot of work.

The challenge this year, unlike previous years, has a name: The Secret Stairs Challenge. Every time I say it I think of Nancy Drew which makes me giggle. I’m a huge Nancy Drew fan so I’m happy to give a nod to that super cool girl sleuth.

I live in North Oakland close to the Berkeley border and while I don’t live on a hill, the Oakland/Berkeley hills are just up the street from me. Since having a baby last December, I’ve spent many hours walking around the neighborhoods near my apartment carrying the boy in the Ergobaby carrier. After too many laps on the same loop, I started wandering around and exploring. And to my surprise and delight, I discovered that there are numerous “secret stairways”: short cuts connecting the long, winding neighborhood streets.

So to celebrate turning 38, I’ll be attempting to ascend (and probably descend some as well) 38 different secret stairways while carrying the little darling. The pre-challenge challenge has been finding 38 sets of stairs near me (check!) and then mapping them and creating a route to follow. I’m very thankful I still have some time to work on mapping the route because everything takes SO much longer to do with a tiny helper.

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/

The Challenge

The day of my birthday challenge dawned bright and clear. Now it’s funny typing that because I feel like that usually implies the time before someone awakes, but on challenge day I was actually starting to run as dawn broke. It was a balmy 45 degrees out in the Baylands and I was pretty cold for the first mile or so. It was rather dark and somewhat foggy when I started out and I started wondering what I was doing. I felt somewhat reassured as I saw a few other runners and some bird watchers, but mostly I was thinking, “What’s wrong with these people that they’re out so early in the cold?”

As the sun peeked up from behind the mountains, I was rewarded with the beautiful sight of sunrise over the Baylands. I saw tons of cool birds (white pelicans, egrets, American coots, etc.) and was almost attacked by a flock of Canada geese. OK, the last is probably an exaggeration, but I’m always scared that Canada geese will charge me and peck my eyes out. The sun brought some warmth and I was able to strip off some of my layers and finish my run more comfortably.

Tom was waiting for me in the parking lot with a warm car and bags filled with 33 donut holes. We headed back to my brother’s house for second breakfast and the beginning of my eating challenge. I showered, changed into cycling clothes, and prepared for the second part of my physical challenge. Tom and my brother came along for the riding part of my challenge. We departed from my brother’s a little later than scheduled and rode along the Steven’s Creek trail, Baylands trails, and finally up onto the Dumbarton Bridge. The halfway point for the ride was the high point of the bridge so we turned around there and rode back to Mountain View. Every time we stopped to use the bathroom or eat some Gu, I ate a donut hole. Due to our numerous stops and my slow pace, the ride took 45 minutes longer than I had anticipated. But I was so excited about the ride that I didn’t care. The weather was perfect for the ride and the lovely bike trails left me longing for living in the Bay Area again.

When we got back to my brother’s house, I showered and changed again, this time into climbing clothes. While I showered, Tom went to La Bamba (our all-time favorite burrito place) to pick up lunch. I was already starting to feel sick from eating donut holes and only made it through half of my burrito. I took a few minutes to lie down on the couch, which was not scheduled. Between this and the ride taking a long time, we wound up departing for the climbing gym an hour later than I had planned. My brother had to go in to work, so Tom and I set out alone for the gym.

By the time we got to the gym, I was feeling fairly exhausted. I took a quick tour of the gym to scope the routes and learned that there were more than enough routes in the range of difficulty that I wanted to climb. This was reassuring because it meant that I wasn’t going to be forced to climb harder routes than I wanted to. I tied in and started up the first climb. Things seemed like they weren’t going to be too bad, but as I rested between routes, I kept eating more donut holes. The more I ate, the sicker I felt and the longer I rested in between routes.

Finally I came to the realization that if I didn’t stop eating donut holes, I wouldn’t be able to keep climbing. So I stopped eating at 18 donut holes and decided to save the rest for the bar. My friends Katie and Sasha stopped by to give me some encouragement and my brother showed up as I was finishing climbing. I climbed 12 5.8’s, 18 5.9’s, and 3 5.10a’s. I was feeling very accomplished until I remembered that I still had 15 donut holes to eat, 28 people to talk to, and the full 33 shots of beer to drink! I only managed to talk to 5 people at the gym and only two of them were self initiated. I quickly regretted having set this part of the challenge for myself. I hate talking to strangers! What was I thinking?

We left the gym and headed back to my brother’s place once again. I showered again and changed into sweats before we departed for dinner. We had some delicious ramen at my favorite ramen house in Mountain View and then we left for the bar. Arriving at Fred’s Place, I was reminded what a dive it is. As we walked in I was wondering how in the world I was going to fulfill the talking part of my challenge. It was a Monday night and the bar was far from filled.

Our friends Dave and Tina (and Tina’s friend, Dan) met us at Fred’s for the drinking part of the challenge. After drinking several shots of beer and eating some more donut holes, Tina dragged me over to a group of six people. She told them I had something that I needed to tell them. So I launched into a description of my challenge. After the ice had been broken I continued around the bar by myself, talking to some of the weirdest people I’ve ever talked to.

There was “pink sweatshirt guy”, who I guess is a regular at Fred’s. He looked homeless to me and might be the drunkest person I’ve ever seen. I was nearly in hysterics as I explained my challenge to him. I’d call it a conversation, but it was really a monologue since he didn’t respond to anything I said. He did, however, give me a thumbs-up at the end. I started talking to two middle aged men who were sitting at the bar. They were self-described “wolves” who talked about carrying me out of there on their backs. They asked if kissing 33 men was part of my challenge and said all sorts of other creepy things. I wound up staying with them for a while because they bought me four shots of beer that they insisted I drink. Tom finally came over and saved me.

As it turned out, I talked to every single person in the bar (which was 20). This brought my total up to 25. I made it through 22 shots of beer and 28 donut holes before I called it quits. We had to get up early the next morning, pick up Tom’s mom and drive all the way home and I was having a hard time imagining doing this severely hung-over and sugar-coma-ed. Some might say that I failed in my challenge, which in some respects I did, but I feel pretty good about what I did accomplish. And I’ve already started planning next year’s challenge because this was the best birthday I’ve had in a long time!

Setbacks

Since last writing, I was feeling really fired up about training hard. I climbed one day at the gym, ran two 6.6 mile runs, and did a hard one hour ride on the trainer. But then the setbacks began. And somehow all the things that I had feared would happen when I first started planning my challenge did happen. I got injured, sick, and the weather turned rotten.

During my last session of climbing last Thursday, my pointer finger on my right hand started to hurt. I cut the evening short figuring it was better to take care of my hands than to train anymore. I appear to have tendonitis in my finger and was in pretty bad pain the day after climbing (I made a makeshift splint at work because movement of any kind was hurting). It’s been a week since it started hurting and while the pain has lessened immensely, I can still feel it when I grip anything. I’ve been icing it several times a day and taking ibuprofen. Hopefully with a few more days rest it will be feeling even better.

On Saturday morning, I woke up with a sore throat. I spent the weekend reading on the couch and taking lots of Zicam and vitamin C instead of training. I figured that by Monday I’d been on the mend. Instead, I woke up Monday full blown sick and spent most of the remaining week at home. I managed a half day today, but was so exhausted that I had to come home after my class left at 11:30.

I’ve been checking Mountain View weather obsessively in the last week and it’s gone from bad (30% of showers) to worse (70% chance of rain with a high of 59). So I first toyed with moving my challenge to Saturday. However, when I considered how rotten I felt today, I decided the wisest decision would be to move the challenge to Monday. By then hopefully, I’ll be all better (including my tendonitis) and the weather is supposed to be clear. Sadly, since Monday is only a holiday for me, the supporters of my challenge (friends who were going to do various parts with me) will be at work. My boyfriend is currently my only support.

While things aren’t going exactly as I had planned, I’m still pretty excited about the challenge itself. I may not be as prepared as I wanted to, but I’m fairly confident that I will be able to finish my goal.

Birthday Challenge (leading up to)

At some point during the past year, I became acquainted with the concept of a birthday challenge (for more info visit www.birthdaychallenge.com). I was immediately intrigued by the idea and it didn’t take me long to decide that I was going to do a challenge for my 33^rd birthday. By May of this year, I had already formed part of the challenge in my mind and completed a trial run of one portion of it. It was absolutely devastating.

My boyfriend was doing a birthday challenge that included 29 top rope gym climbs. I decided I would join him in that part of the challenge and see if I could do 33 climbs. I figured it wouldn’t be that hard because it was only one part of my boyfriend’s challenge. We spent 7+ hours at the gym that day. I finished my mini-challenge just before the gym closed. As I lay on the floor absolutely exhausted, I had the insightful realization that I was going to need to start doing some serious training for my challenge.

But before I could come up with a training plan, I needed a challenge. It took me some time to come up with a challenge that fit me just right. I decided that since this is my first challenge, the goal should be to have fun. So I chose some activities that I like to do: rock climbing, running, cycling, eating and drinking. Up until a few days ago, my challenge was to climb 33 top rope climbs in the gym (5.8 and harder); run 6.6 miles (3.3 x 2); ride 33 miles on my bike; eat 33 donut holes; and drink 33 shots of beer. After writing up my challenge to share with my friends and family, I decided to add one final element: talk to 33 people and explain what a birthday challenge is. It turned out that no one I know already knew about birthday challenges. I figured I might as well spread the good word and try to inspire some new people to live a little while I have fun myself.

With 13 days to go, I wish I could say that I have been training my ass off for the last six months, but I’d be lying. This is not to say that I haven’t been training, it’s just that I haven’t done a fantastic job of sticking to a schedule. It turns out that it’s hard to stick to a training schedule if you haven’t made one. Looking back at my calendar, I’ve tallied up the training days that seem like they include some serious and specific training. It’s looking fairly pitiful:

• 9 rides between 10 and 33 miles long
• 6 spin classes
• A handful of 30-60 minute workouts on the exercise bike
• 5 6-7 ½ mile runs
• A handful of 3-5 mile runs
• A handful of running interval workouts
• 4 days of indoor climbing with specific goals for number of problems/routes to be completed (only one of these days was 100% successful)
• 2-3 days of climbing per week (indoor/outdoor, bouldering, sport, trad, and top rope)

I have spent zero time training for the eating part of my challenge. I love donuts, but limit myself in their consumption. I’ve probably eaten about five donuts this year. I love beer too, but I’ve been such a light-weight in the past few years that drinking two beers in an evening is an accomplishment—a super-tipsy accomplishment.

My challenge is turning out to be more challenging than I was originally intending due to the location of my challenge in space and in time. Although I’m currently living in southern California, I decided early on that I wanted to be in my old stomping grounds in the Bay Area for my birthday. This decision was based primarily on the fact that I wanted to climb at Planet Granite in Sunnyvale rather than deal with a sub-par SoCal gym. However, this has placed some restrictions on my day.

My birthday falls on a Sunday this year and PG closes at 6:00 p.m. on Sundays. In addition to this time constraint, there are only 10 hours of daylight (sunrise is at 6:54 and sunset is at 4:56). Another factor that I have to consider is Bay Area weather. I feel like I rarely had a precipitation-free birthday in northern California. And whether it’s raining or not, it will almost certainly be cold. I’ve decided that I will run rain or shine, but I will be skipping the ride if it rains. I only started cycling in January (FYI, prior to January I had never ridden more than three miles) and I’ve never ridden in the rain. I have my limits in terms of challenges. I’m working on a substitution for the ride that will probably involve 33 reps of 33 exercises.

Here’s my schedule of events (weather permitting):

6:00 a.m. wake up, eat, dress

6:30 run

8:00 eat, change, stretch

9:00 ride, eat donut holes

12:30 eat, change, stretch

1:30 climb, talk to strangers, eat donut holes

6:00 shower, change, stretch, eat, talk to strangers

8:00 drink, talk to strangers, eat remaining donut holes

A small part of me is starting to feel intimidated by this whole challenge and wondering what the hell I’m thinking. But it’s not called birthday “pretty hard” and at least I’ll remember turning 33.