Yesterday we had a later bouldering session than we usually do. I always prefer having a climbing partner, and that’s when Jody could make it. However, I went out to the gym about an hour before she was supposed to show up—with no storm in sight yet, and gorgeous warm sunshine, how could I resist? I wanted to move some holds around that I felt weren’t getting enough use; I’d rather have them in the most useful places and save the more obscure gym spots for when I have so many climbing holds that I can’t help but put them there.

After I finished this task, I started warming up, and I felt stiff, for sure. One thing about my body that has held true for 18 years of rock climbing is that it takes me a long while to warm up. I think this (along with not enough power) accounts for my relative ambivalence about competition climbing—I’ve never really taken the time to whittle it down to an exact science, but I’d say I require at least half an hour, if not an hour, of solid climbing with gradual increases in difficulty to actually be able to climb anywhere close to full potential. Especially in situations with isolation before climbing, I never quite seem to be there by the time the competition begins.

As I warmed up yesterday, I made up some new problems on this season’s unpopular walls—the two less-steep, but still quite steep, walls that used to be my favorites. I realized that they have much smaller holds that I can actually hang onto than the ultra-steep wall, and that I’ve been neglecting this potential. I also had this weird sort of otherworldly revelation that no matter how much better I become, my gym will always illustrate for me in a very exact way how problems and routes can always be harder than what I am able to climb—no matter how strong I become. I am having trouble putting this into words, because it seems obvious, but it was just a kind of mind-opening expansive feeling and yet a feeling of utter helplessness, too, just this knowledge that right here, in this building full of plywood and fake climbing holds, I will always be able to see and know how climbs can be harder and still be climbable by somebody, just by looking at the walls.

As I considered this truth, I made up a couple of problems that seemed impossible. But by the time Jody showed up, I felt more warmed up, and within a few tries, I sent one of these supposed impossibilities. I then sent another problem from a previous session (this after punching a hold while dyno-ing—ouch!), and worked out the ending to a problem I hadn’t been able to touch in the last session, too. I felt pretty good for only having one day off, actually.

And then, magic. I tried something I’ve wanted to do for the entire time I’ve been a rock climber: I tried 1-3-5 on the campus board again—and this time, it happened. Then I tried it with the other arm leading—success again. I did this multiple times with both arms, amazed. I have almost always (can’t remember when I started campusing) been able to do the single-rung skip, from one to three, but never, ever been able to come close to then skipping the lower hand from one to five, with the other hand still on three…until this year. And then, yesterday, it just happened, and like so often happens when you can suddenly do something that used to be impossible, it felt bizarrely easy, and yet absolutely mind-blowingly incredible at the same time.

This was one of my goals for this year—a clear stepping stone on my path toward a one-arm pull-up. Being able to do this actually proved more incredible for me than I anticipated. It’s not just the accomplishment of the personal goal, which is always amazing, but it’s the revelation of a new feeling in my body, a new potential, a new world of climbing opening up. It’s like I’ve rebuilt my entire machine, and I’m just learning how to operate it, how to effectively use the controls and maneuver it, and it’s absolutely the coolest state of being I’ve ever experienced. Just the session before, I campused the smallest rungs for the first time ever (I managed to down-campus them yesterday, too), and now this, this awesome separation of my arms into powers unto themselves…strong boys have no idea what it’s like to have never felt this before, maybe, but for me…wow.

That’s why I kept doing the rung skipping trick until I couldn’t anymore—because the sensation was just incredible. I suddenly grasped what it feels like to actually be able to pull powerfully with one arm. I stopped trying to use swinging momentum to get me to five, and just let the transition happen, and let the upper arm do most of the work. Discovering that it had the power to do most of the work was the key, and then commanding it to do so—although it’s not a words thing. It’s just an operational function, and it takes little thought, only some coordination, because when I do it, it strangely doesn’t even feel hard. That was maybe the most startling element of the whole experience.

So, after this, I came inside thinking about maybe more training last night, but it was already after 5, and four hours of bouldering and campusing had left me feeling pretty exhausted, honestly. I decided to save everything else for today, for better or for worse, so we’ll see how that turns out. It’s snowing lightly but no real violent weather has manifested, yet. I suppose I’ll warm up slowly and see where this day takes me…definitely not campusing, but possibly some power endurance laps and pull-ups? We’ll see.

What a difference a rest makes! I took off one, two-day cycle of training—and still, I bouldered more than I have been last week, adding in an extra session. Plus, I had that cold to deal with (which is still lingering, but definitely on the way out now). But no matter, because by yesterday, I had plenty of energy to invest into climbing and working out again, so much so that I enjoyed probably the best bouldering session of the season so far.

Yesterday was a ladies’ session, just me and two other women. We had such a good time, even though all of us climb at different levels. I love it when this happens, when even though you’re working on different problems, that everyone becomes invested in what the others are doing, so it feels as if you’re all in the same boat. We all worked on the same wall (the steepest wall, which is my favorite wall in the gym), and everyone experienced success—one even finally made it from bottom to top for the first time ever, which was awesome to see.

I worked on a crimpy problem with large moves and some slopers that I’d made up on Thursday, with more success than I expected. I actually had some great linkage, and figured out in principal how to do the ultra-dynamic top of the problem, one of those complex movements that forces a shift from slow and controlled climbing in a heel hook to suddenly and swiftly releasing the heel hook, and using the momentum generated from that to propel the body upward, bouncing briefly off a terribly slopey hold (aptly named “FAIL”) before hitting the top of the wall. Really cool.

I decided to postpone doing my power endurance workout until today, because I’m now trying to increase my actual amount of climbing each week in preparation for my upcoming climbing trip. I’d like to move up to four days of decent-quality climbing per week, plus whatever training I can manage. This will be challenging, I have no doubt, and I will have to listen to my body closely to make sure I don’t overdo it, but I’m psyched and feel ready—plus, I don’t have to heat the gym much these days, since it’s much warmer outside. Today, I can probably climb in the sun.

What I did instead yesterday was a campus workout, something I haven’t done for awhile—partly because of the sore tendon pulley in my pinky, and partly because my hands just felt exhausted overall. But yesterday, my pinky was feeling much healed, and so were my hands, so I decided to do it. I have been regularly trying to skip a rung—the 1-3-5 effort—which is a goal of mine. I can easily do 1-3, of course, and recently, my fingertips have been brushing the top of 5, which means I’m really close. But that’s all I’ve been doing campus-wise…

Yesterday, though, the other women got stoked on campusing, too, which made it way fun, so I proceeded to attempt campusing all of the rungs, from big to ultra-tiny crimps. After I double-dynoed up and down the big rungs, and it felt easier than ever before, I felt fairly uplifted. I continued through the next couple levels—big crimps, then medium crimps—which I’ve always been able to do, up and down. Then, I moved onto tiny crimps, which I’ve only ever maybe been able to do one or two moves on. I campused up to rung 4 the first time, dropped off, and mused, “I think I can actually do this today.”

I rested for a bit, and then hopped back on, and campused with ease up to the top, and even managed to down-campus one rung. I was astonished—this is something I have never even been close to doing before, not ever! This presents the best evidence so far of the gains I’ve made this winter through training; it’s what I seek to see, the measureable difference between “old me” and “new me,” when the results of all of the effort actually show in a quantifiable way. It’s much harder to see them through boulder problems—just harder to tell if you’re stronger when you’re always making up new problems to try. But to come back to campusing to discover that I can do something that’s never been possible before—now that’s a real gain.

Psyched, I finished out the campusing by doing all of the different rungs again (up and down to failure), and then I came back in here and finished out the day with a strong power training (assisted one-arms) and supplemental training (triceps, legs, core, stretching) session, followed by a long walk in the sunshine with Jedi. Today, I feel decent and ready to crush my power endurance session here in a bit…in the sunshine, no less. I’m buoyed by my progress, and it feeds the desire to keep up my efforts at gaining power—because that’s what made the campus improvement happen: I have more control, and therefore, more accuracy in moving between very small holds. So cool.

I’m still sneezing, but definitely feeling better this morning after a rough day yesterday of feeling congested and just worn out. I can tell my energy has returned, though, because climbing sounds fun again, and my body seems up for it…and possibly even for training today or tomorrow. I’ll gauge it by how today’s bouldering goes and decide after that whether or not training is a smart or foolhardy call. But the cold is definitely on the departure road now, thankfully. I absolutely loathe being sick. I find it very difficult to maintain a positive outlook and to feel great when my body feels awful. The mind-body-emotion connection demonstrates its awesome power yet again.

I woke up after nine hours of sound sleep this morning, feeling much refreshed, especially after doing nothing for training yesterday except for taking Jedi for a walk and stretching. I actually feel so good that I’m already contemplating having an extra bouldering session in the gym today—mostly because it’s brilliantly sunny and looks to be another warm day, and the idea of climbing with the doors open in the sunshine is very seductive. If I do that, I want to try to take it easy, and not go for a super hard session, but we’ll see. I am already amazed at how much better I feel just from not doing a day of training, though. I think my body needed this—just a break from the training for climbing that’s not climbing (if that makes any sense) for a few days.

The sunshine definitely lures me out of my wintry mindset and drags me into a springtime state of thinking. I find myself distracted from writing tasks, and wanting to just be in the sun, soaking up its warmth, appreciating its return—especially after seeing a weather forecast that predicts stormy rainy spring weather coming up. That makes it seem even more worthwhile and justifiable to sneak in an extra day of open-door gym play now, if I’m going to be thrust back into gray precipitation soon, even if it’s the sloppiness of spring showers instead of the frozen torment of winter snow.