# Rock Climbing Training
## Season 01
### "Workout" No. 008 ~~ JAN/15
#### Base Fitness Phase – Week 1
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## Crushers love pepper. They hate cinnamon.
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### Happy Monday, y'all!
Today was day 8, but also day three in a row because I had to go get my dumb self a bit drunk instead of working out... I'm regretting it a little bit -- I was starting to feel some hot-spots on my hands after climbing yesterday. Today, I lost a little chunk of skin. It's not my first, and it will certainly not be the last. It's never fun though...
*Middle finger, left hand a little worse for wear. All of them are looking a little more leathery than normal.*
Today was our third ARC day. I talked about ARC training the other day, so I wont go over that in detail -- but it's like endurance training for climbers. If you're sitting there, thinking to yourself, "what the hell are we doing anyways? what's the big picture, here?". Well hold on just a minute there, sonny or sally. Lets talk about what we're doing. We're embarking on the first leg of a ***PERIODIZED*** workout schedule. "And what in the hell is that?", one might ask.
> Periodization is a strategy for physical training in which different training activities are performed in accordance with a carefully designed schedule. The purpose of this timing is to achieve a synergistic effect on overall performance that results in a *performance peak* at a predictable time.
>-The Rock Climbers Training Manual. Andersons (2015)
This is the first portion of that schedule. Speaking of which, lets check out how we're doing!
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###### *January 2018 - Season 1*
[](https://steemitimages.com/DQme18nSu84p95iVZXMXnmHNq6MQeQT9TQAqeScbQvV5SUB/climbing%20scedule%20day7.jpg)
###### *Click for fullscreen version*
Awwwwwww yeah! Going strong! Who needs skin when you've got tidy green checkmarks! If you'd be gracious enough to fullscreen that calendar (I worked insignificantly hard on it), you'd notice that we're looking at 2x30min ARC sets -- and remember to have a skill practice in mind.
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#### The Workout:
##### The Plan (*The Good*):
* 2 x 30 minute ARC sets;
* 10 minutes of rest in between;
* Skill pracitce --> "Finding Calm"
##### Objective Summary (*The Bad*):
* 15 minutes of light bouldering while I waited for @somebuttstuff 's late ass to show up (not sure why -- it's a pretty solo exercise.. but there's something to be said for solidarity!);
* 30 minute ARC session;
* 1 unfortunate climb on top-rope that ripped a bit of skin off.
##### Subjective Summary (*The Ugly*)
Whelp. Going into it, I was pretty tuckered out already. A little bit of squash on the weekend. Climbing two days in a row. Went for a pretty good run earlier in the week. Took the dogs for a nice long walk. *Drank a little bit too much a couple days last week*.
However, when I wasn't too busy making excuses, I was actually crushing it pretty good:
* The bouldering felt pretty great. Put down a couple boulders, ranging from V2 to V4.
* Felt nice and strong -- starting to lean up now that I've got my diet under control (save for the afforementioned beers).
* The 30 minute ARC session felt great. Was pretty difficult coming up with interesting combos between the 4 routes on that rope.
*@somebuttstuff up on the autobelay, powering through his 30 minute set, on the upper level -- a couple of local crushers going for it on the bouldering wall*
* The toprope climbing at the end actually felt pretty good. Was flinging my way up a fun 5.11c route without too much difficulty. Hands felt strong. Didn't even really notice that I had lost a chunk of skin -- Climbing walls are a little gross though. Everyone grabbing everything -- kinda reminds me of the subway a little bit, and I don't go touching things with wounds on subways. Outside is a different story -- a little dirt never hurt anybody. Gonna let it dry out, put a little BAG BALM on it, and let 'er buck on Wednesday.
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### This is where I try to share something about climbing, outside of my training:
Today, I will introduce you to one of my all time favorite ways to kill time, and also think about climbing. Enter, [ROCK and ICE Magazine](https://www.rockandice.com). I'll share articles and things from here on occassion, but not too much -- because that shit ain't mine. But this, my friends, is a gold-mine. Not only can it make your hands sweat, your stomach hurt from laughing, and your knees tremble at the same time -- but it can also be a great learning tool. In specific -- their video series of *Weekend Whippers*. To the uninitiated:
> [WHIPPER](http://rockandice.com/how-to-climb/climbing-terminology/) Taking a very large fall, usually while leading.
R&I Magazine has a section called the [Weekend Whippers](http://rockandice.com/videos/weekend-whippers/), where they put up another user submitted video of some poor bastard / wench taking a huge whip each weekend (duh). However, they also throw down a couple sentences on why it happened, and how it could have been avoided altogether. Sometimes, there are celebratory falls (AKA *Victory Whips*) -- but most of the time, it's people making poor choices, that leads to bad mistakes and close calls.
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# The Pitch (This is me talking about how I'm going to spend rewards -- if you're only here for climbing, you can skip this)
After my first few posts, I spent some time thinking about how I can make this space a little sexier. And two things came to mind that could really enable some cool looks at some cool places:
* A drone;
* A van.
I've picked out a nice cheap drone that I think should be a solid introduction to what I'm doing. Check thing out -- the [Yuneeq Breeze 4k](https://www.ncix.com/category/drones-1b-1183.htm). It seems to shoot pretty high quality video, and it's way cheaper than most of the other ones. Does anyone have experience with this thing? I'd like to know.
My plan with these posts (aside from keeping a journal, generating motivation and the occasional giggle, and sharing some great climbing content when the good weather gets here) is to fund climbing gadgets (drone) and adventures (van). These will directly enable me to capture more interesting perspectives and get further into these climbing parks and be able to share more about each area.
If you've made it this far down the post, then I give you mad props. Be advised, on one of the @dtube posts I made earier, I ended up getting a pretty juice upvote out of it. It is my intention to use this money as a launch pad to, in some way, shape or form, promote these posts (please tell me what is and isn't acceptable -- please let me know if something is frowned upon).
When this post becomes *roughly* 24hrs old, I will use a portion of the liquid funds I have available and purchase some upvotes for this post:
* I will leave all SP rewards powered up in my account;
* I don't usually get much of a profit from this in terms of liquid rewards (though it can, and does, happen) -- and you can sometimes get less back than you put in. I will try to choose wisely.
* Get your upvotes in before that, and enjoy whatever curator rewards you can get! I wont do any promotion or resteeming of my own before this -- I'm trying to make this a bonus, as small as it may be, for my followers.
#### Please upvote and resteem generously. There's some amazing places on the island that I would like to share. I try to respond to all questions and comments that I get, so make some noise! If you have any questions about some of the climbing jargon / lingo I used, just ask, and I'll break it down. I might even make it a feature in my next post, in which case I'll give you some credit, and maybe even some kind of reward... unknown at this time.
That's it for now -- I'll see you on Day 9! Tomorrow is an OAE day, so no movie pun! Movie puns only happen when we climb for some reason...
Be well, stay safe, and I'll see you on the sharp side (once it dries out around here).
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### Previous CRUSHENING posts:
* [DAY 6/7](https://steemit.com/climbing/@mstafford/the-crushening-day-06-07-the-crushinator)
* [Day 5](https://steemit.com/dtube/@mstafford/g6h4hzcx)
* [Day 4](https://steemit.com/dtube/@mstafford/tqqiit37)