Sunday, January 28, 2007

I get knocked down, but I get up again...

So yesterday was one of my official days off of running (I didn't run on Thursday, but between the 4.5 I ran on Wednesday and the 4 I ran on Friday, I made up my missed miles for the week). Now normally Saturdays are my completely no training day, and I like it that way. Yesterday, though, was just plain fun - I took a rock climbing class. I now know several things: how to tie the appropriate knots, that old running shoes with ginormous toe boxes aren't good for climbing, that I have no upper body strength, that I can belay someone even if they weigh more than me, and that some of the guys that climb are way cool, but that others are just jackasses.

After our initial lesson (which took about 2 hours and only involved about 20 minutes of actual climbing on either my friends end or mine), we had open access to the entire climbing gym. The gym is a pretty big climbing gym and they have can accomodate all climbing levels. I did ok during the lesson, but the shoes were a problem...my toes/feet just kept slipping off of my foot holds cause my shoes were far wider than my feet. So we got shoes (they were free with the lesson). Anyway, we started climbing one of the easier climbs and I was actually doing pretty great, until this jackass on autobelay did two things. One, he took my foot hold as his hand hold even though it was clear I had the right of way (I was above him on my way up) and two, on his way down he swung wildly away from the wall, literally knocking me off the wall. It wasn't cool. I now know that when you are on autobelay, you have to be extra careful cause you really don't have much control of how you come down. The jackass managed to get himself kicked out only moments later when he did a backflip on autobelay and almost kicked 5 people in the head...like I said, not cool.

There were guys who were super cool. There was this group of guys, probably my age or a little younger who were bouldering. They were literally hanging upside down just from the tips of their fingers clinging to the rocks. Now they also almost all had their shirts off so it was quite a spectical to watch...mmm eye candy. Anyway, I'm amazed at what some people can do in the climbing gym. Watching other people do lead climbing (and miss a place where they were supposed to clip in and fall four feet and smack into the wall) was pretty outstanding. I plan on going back to the climbing gym, and since it is just blocks from my work I could go after work.

As a result of the climbing, I've got a pretty sore upper body. My arms really aren't accustomed to doing much of anything, apparently. Also, I'm afraid that I'm getting shin splints. My right tibia has been hurting (in classical shin splint style) for the last day or so. I'm gonna try stretchign a bit more. I think maybe its just my mind playing tricks on me as a result of the training for the half marathon. I've never had shin splints before.

Foodwise, yesterday was pretty bad. I celebrated my friend's birthday with her family. Celebrating involved lots of mexican food, plus cake and ice cream. It was good cake though....so it was worth it. On good news on the weight front, yesterday I had a doctor's appointment and the dr.'s digital scale weighed me in at 155.5 - whooo!

Running to do today: 5 miles
Weight (dr.'s office): 155.5
Weight (home): 156
Flex points used yesterday: 10

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