Spanish Reflection: New Objectives

My recent trip to El Chorro was both my last trip of 2011 and first of 2012.  It was a time to reflect upon both what I had achieved in climbing 2011 and a measure of where I was as we set off into 2012.  

What to try at Loja?  A day out at a new crag (to which I must return) with amazing tufa 8's... Heaven!

At almost the very same time of year in 2010 I had had my best short trip ever; a good wedge of 8s, my first 8b onsight (though I suppose it may be 8a+?) and an 8c in a day (though I suppose it may be 8b+?).  One year later and despite having climbed my first 8c+ in the summer, I had lost a lot!  Some pills are bitter to swallow and as a climber who is always searching for that ever harder tick, to seem to have got worse is depressing to say the least.  

The Chorro 2011 team carb-loading on traditional Spanish fare.

 To feel like I was going in to a  new year, in which I had been hoping to exceed my limits, having taken many steps backwards hit me like a tonne of bricks.  My resolve is weakened easily (an admission of frailty perhaps) and it was a tough corner that had to be turned to pick myself out from the "what is the point" moment.  But, a couple of days back in TCA and I realised that with this kind of facility at my finger tips all is not lost, indeed I am in the perfect position to exceed my personal expectations.   

All I needed to do was to step back, analyse my present situation, challenge the status quo a little and push myself outwith my comfort zone. 

Maybe the dream catcher will help.

Step 1: analysing what has changed.  

Though I had started work at a top training venue I was putting in long work hours and not actually training to the same volume as I had been previously been used to.     The increase in short boulder sessions over long volume, and almost no running, coupled perhaps with a change in dietary content, had meant that I had gained almost and a stone and a half in weight.  My father was a great rugby player and I have inherited a propensity to "bulk up".  Such genes are a curse in this gravity dictated sport.  Lastly, I had not done nearly enough ROCK climbing in the whole of 2011. 

Step 2: doing something about it.  

The long hours are petering out as TCA takes off, so turning around the training volume is not going to be too hard.  Planning sessions out and sticking to the plan will make the sessions more time effective.  Though it will upset my fiance and mother (the only readers of this blog?) to hear it, I need to lose some bulk to get that next grade.  I am not anorexic, I do not think I am fat, I am not.  I am just not the right shape for what I want to do.   Lastly, I need to do more ROCK climbing.

If I can get on top of these things then I might just about climb another 8c+.  I might climb 9a!  I might do neither of these things.   I will however be happier knowing I have tried to achieve my dreams rather than giving up on them because they were hard. 

I might even boulder a real 7B+, in Font!

The limit of human possibility; Rubis Sur L'Ongle 7B+