Hello Again!
Sorry I was too lazy to get this written sooner. Two weeks ago was the first sanctioned competition of the 2013-2014 year. Being at my home gym (Rock Jungle Fitness), I was really excited for the event, and also had set expectations relatively high. The total turnout was spectacular, with over 40 people competing in the Open Male category. This was fairly intimidating, but I had established a plan I believed would yield the best results. Although there was a relatively small number of athletes in my category, they were very strong and I new i would need to perform at my best. Additionally, I knew that it would be costly to fall on any hard problems, as I had fairly poor endurance and the lines to get on the wall were about 10-15 minutes long. Fortunately, things were going very well, and I flashed a solid top 6 problems. One of these was very crimpy, but I was ecstatic to get no grief from my previously injured fingers during or after the climb. One other guy in my category was very close to me, and I knew I needed to do a hard slab problem that I had previously not gotten very far on. This was a bit of a worry, because slab is not my forte to say the least, but I managed to get the send with only a small fraction of the comp left. I knew that that send secured first place in the 16-17 boys category, and given the incredibly strong open competitors I had dismissed any hope of making finals at the start of the comp. I glanced over at the results while waiting around after the scramble round (45 problems, 3 hours to climb, top 6 count), and was shocked to see myself sitting in 9th place! Although only eight climbers go through to finals, I was super psyched and motivated to see that, perhaps on the right day, that I could climb my way into finals so to speak :P. Rock Jungle and all the finalists put on a terrific show, and I was glad to be a small part of it. A lot of people in other categories climbed amazingly, and it was super inspiring to see youth athletes push through fatigue and fight to earn two spots on the female open podium! Youth Competitors of all ages and genders through down, and its got me really excited to see whats gonna go down in three weeks time in Calgary. But until then, Goodbye!
Thursday, 14 November 2013
Saturday, 19 October 2013
A Little About Me
Hi All,
Just a little background information about me and what you'll find on this blog. I decided to start writing it so that I'd have something a little more detailed to look back on my experiences, because I want to be able to have this archive to go through in the years to come. I'm a 16 year old climber based out of Edmonton, AB. I train out of Rock Jungle Fitness, and my coaches and team there really inspire me to keep pushing my personal limits, and they all help keep my motivation high through the long winter months. I have been climbing for about seven years, but have been taking things a little more seriously for the past five. I compete year round, in the youth competition circuit which keeps me strong and motivated through the fall, winter and spring. In the summer, however, I really love to pursue outdoor climbing more than pumping out drills in the gym. Unfortunately I do live a little far from the mountains, so that certainly makes it a little harder to get out. For the past three years, I have had the honor of being a part of the Youth National Team, which is a position I strive to earn back every year. Youth Worlds is at the end of summer, and whether I will actually compete in it or not has not been a factor that affects my training in the past. I find that the constant struggle of injuries and failure that comes with competition climbing is a rather formidable adversary, but one that has made me who I am today. That battle is not close to over, however, and so the training continues, harder than ever as the field of competitors deepens further than the year before. The first real competition comes up in a couple of weeks, and hopefully things go well! I should post about it after, but until then, adios!
Just a little background information about me and what you'll find on this blog. I decided to start writing it so that I'd have something a little more detailed to look back on my experiences, because I want to be able to have this archive to go through in the years to come. I'm a 16 year old climber based out of Edmonton, AB. I train out of Rock Jungle Fitness, and my coaches and team there really inspire me to keep pushing my personal limits, and they all help keep my motivation high through the long winter months. I have been climbing for about seven years, but have been taking things a little more seriously for the past five. I compete year round, in the youth competition circuit which keeps me strong and motivated through the fall, winter and spring. In the summer, however, I really love to pursue outdoor climbing more than pumping out drills in the gym. Unfortunately I do live a little far from the mountains, so that certainly makes it a little harder to get out. For the past three years, I have had the honor of being a part of the Youth National Team, which is a position I strive to earn back every year. Youth Worlds is at the end of summer, and whether I will actually compete in it or not has not been a factor that affects my training in the past. I find that the constant struggle of injuries and failure that comes with competition climbing is a rather formidable adversary, but one that has made me who I am today. That battle is not close to over, however, and so the training continues, harder than ever as the field of competitors deepens further than the year before. The first real competition comes up in a couple of weeks, and hopefully things go well! I should post about it after, but until then, adios!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)