CMG's Log (6', 190lbs, HLM, HPS, Montana, Climbing)

[DCR]

This is the weirdest thing that I've ever posted, and likely never will be topped.

Last night I had a dream that the 2024/2025 NFL season had begun, and the Steelers, in winning their opening game (which after waking, I hazily think was against Washington), scored 80-something points for a league record. In the dream, I had conversations with friends about Tomlin being a prick for running up the score like that, which is odd because in real life I have no issue with that sort of demolition and regularly defended New England for doing so in 2007, despite that I hated them. Also in the dream, I was looking forward to posting about the game in the NFL Chatter thread and more specifically gloating over it with you. I know that you're from Pittsburgh and a fan, but of everything that goes through my head in a day, those factoids have got to be at the absolute outer limit of my consciousness. Maybe we had two exchanges in that thread? Beyond weird that my brain would pull those strings.

Let's move on.

Let's also hope that it was a premonition.

[cgeorg]

In mine, I got stabbed. I'll take yours any day.

[cgeorg]

2024-04-19
Lifting

Bench
69x10x7

Felt good, no cracklies

Squat
205x5x3

Felt hard. Probably actually like an @7-8 or something but it's been so long since I've gotten close to failure I don't have much calibration in that range.

Internal Rotations
Blue band x[8,10]
+
External Rotations
Gray band x10x2
+
Supine BB Row
125x10x2

Hooked the bands to a carabiner/strap setup rather than looping them around the upright, which gives a little more effective room for them to stretch. Much better.

6 ways
5x[5,3,5]

Did these without pausing between - neutral, pronated, supine.

Cut everything short because my wife only had 2 accessories to do, she'd finished, and we needed to go buy cheese for wine and cheese night. It was a lovely evening. Plus, I didn't want to be dead for climbing in the morning.

2024-04-20
Climbing

Strong warmups, campusing went well.

Top Rope
5.10d Flash
Tough little crimps, pretty happy with this one. Also, I've been falling on 5.10s lately so it was good to get a send here.

5.11c 2 falls
Made it about 3/4 of the way, but there was a tough move that I barn-doored off of. Then, a bit higher, I got my feet too high going to a hold that was a lot worse than I thought it would be. Generally, the worse the hold, the more under it you need to be to have good angles/friction.

Paused to watch a little girl doing a crate-stacking climb thing run the gym out of crates, she got 24 stacked and climbed on. You go kid.

5.12c fail
I fell low, then made it maybe 1/4 of the way up, and the texture on the holds was killing me so I bailed, then immediately started on

5.10c 1 fall
Pumped out like 3 holds from the top.

5.12c fail
I figured I'd do a similar thing, do as much on a hard one as possible then get right on the easier one that was set with it. I made it like 2 moves, fucking impossible.

5.10c Flash
This was desperate as hell, there were a few good right hand holds to rest my left, but nothing good for the left hand to rest my right. I was shocked that I finished this one out.

5.11a Flash
This was an interesting one, a good rest about halfway up but the finish was technical and very hard. Real happy to get this, I don't think I've sent a 5.11 in a few weeks.

Bouldering
I think I just went over to the comp wall, I sent a few 2 pepper climbs and then got a 3 pepper climb that was a 5 star boulder, super duper fun. Worked on another one with a dude for a little bit but couldn't get past one move in the middle, I'll come back to it later. And probably get video of the first one, it's real cool. I think the way I did the start may not have been the intended beta but hey, a send is a send. It seems there are a few ways to do the part right after the start but I found the best way for me.

Didn't seem to be affected by the lifting 14 hours prior.

Yardwork
Some pruning, then threw out my back breaking a thick dead branch off a stump. I think it happened because I was leaning into it, and then when it snapped my back suddenly tensed to keep my from going flying. That was about 4 hours ago and I have more mobility at this point than I usually do, fingers crossed I'll be able to put socks on easily within a few days.

[broseph]

Yardwork
Some pruning, then threw out my back breaking a thick dead branch off a stump. I think it happened because I was leaning into it, and then when it snapped my back suddenly tensed to keep my from going flying. That was about 4 hours ago and I have more mobility at this point than I usually do, fingers crossed I'll be able to put socks on easily within a few days.

Congrats on being old. Your body hyperspecifically adapts to thing like deadlifts and falling off rock walls, but throws a fit when you startle it doing life.

[cgeorg]

At least I haven't injured myself in my sleep... yet.

2024-04-21
Rehab

SL Deadlift
45x20

Empty bar to the floor and back, no problem and a little pump for blood flow. Did a bunch of stretching yesterday and today, it's cleaning up quicker than any tweak has. There's a little hitch getting it into full extension, but other than that I can go from fully bent to fully hyperextended without too much trouble, and twisting both ways is fine. While the pain is pretty generalized, the actual tweak seems to be low left side - laying on my back, picking up my left leg is way harder than my right. Planning to lift tomorrow, deadlifting either 95 or 135, and climb Tuesday. Really sucks to lose a 3/4 of a weekend though.

I think my lower spine has a weird tilt based on an xray from many years ago, and I'm thinking about seeing a chiro to see if it can be straightened out a bit. It may just be due to a leg length discrepancy or something, my squats look a little weirdly skewed from the front, and shirt off in the mirror, my abdominal center line is kinda curvy. I get these stupid tweaks often enough that if there's something there that can be better lined up, I'm for it.

[cgeorg]

Probably the biggest climber on YouTube, Magnus Midtbo, has had Larry Wheels and Eddie Hall, and I think Thor? on a few times. Just dropped a new video with Eddie doing some sport climbing. He is really impressive, can't imagine lugging 370lbs up a wall.

[cgeorg]

2024-04-22
Lifting (mostly rehab)

CG Bench
76x12x7

I think I'll start adding some weight and see how it goes. If I really pull my shoulders into my pockets and keep the bar pretty low, I don't hear anything from my shoulder.

Deadlift
135x15x2

Also a set of SLRDL at 95x5 for warmup. Each deadlift rep felt better than the last, but I got a pretty sick low back pump after the 2nd set and figured I'd done what needed to be done.

BB Skull Crushers
55x[8,10,12]
+
BB Curl
55x[15,12,14]

Less pump than last time. My left forearm and elbow are cramping up from writing this though, I think I may have been squeezing pretty hard.

[cgeorg]

2024-04-23
Climbing

Auto-belay
5.10a Flash
Harder than it should have been.

5.10d Fail
Fell on the second to last move, I think I got my feet too high.

Top Rope
5.11d Fail
Cool rock-like holds, so I had to give it a try even though I knew it was a high gravity day. Got about 2/3 of the way with 2 falls before I was just too pumped to do any more than a move or 2 at a time, bailed. Will give it another go

5.10b Flash
5.10b Flash
Remembered to pretend I was clipping on lead for this one, took plenty of rests on the way up, good climb.

5.10b 1 fall, then a send
Had a foot slip on the way up the first time, and was faux-clipping. I wanted to try the section where I slipped again, so I got right back on and sent it very quickly, w/no faux clipping. Amazing how much clipping slows things down.

Man, feels like we did more than 4 routes. There were 3 of us so it was a little more spaced out.

Bouldering
Went over to that 3 pepper comp boulder to film it, but there wasn't a good place to set the camera, so I just day-flashed it (sending a climb you've previously attempted on your first attempt of the day) and left.

Lots of high gravity days lately, not a fan. I'm weighing around 181 now and have fully slacked on creatine/protein powder. Also, had a checkup with the surgeon, looks like we'll be doing an exploratory surgery to see if we can clear up the whole thumb not bending thing. That aside, he seems pretty blown away by my progress.

[cgeorg]

2024-04-25
Golf

9 holes
44, walked

Drivers and irons started coming around - really focusing on rotating the torso and not doing the old up and down and slide thing. Unfortunately, I had like 20 putts plus a couple from the fringe. That short game will kill you every time. Feeling good about it though, I'm struggling to judge speed on the greens right now but I had a few really close ones that just didn't drop.

[cgeorg]

2024-04-28
Climbing

Flashed about 2/3 of a v4-6 boulder in warmup, I think I got my feet a bit high and hands out of sequence at the end. Felt decent going into climbs.

Top Rope
5.10b Flash
Cruisy

5.11b 1 fall, 1 fall
Mostly crimpy. The middle bit looked pretty hard, but I actually got through it ok. There were pretty decent feet to keep you out of really bad positions, and just enough good holds to get a little shake here and there. There were 2 bad holds in a row almost at the top, and I think my feet were a bit high, and I fell. Hung around a bit, found lower feet and got through it ok. My climbing partner took a turn, then I got back on. Went through the lower sections basically identically, and kept my feet lower where I fell but still couldn't hold on when I went to the 2nd bad hold. Got right back on and was able to send it, so I don't think it was pump, I think I just wasn't quite pulling my hips into the wall the way I needed to. Real solid climb, will attempt again.

5.11c several falls, fail
Real sonofabitch (love that chrome's spell check recognizes this) of a climb. Made the comment even before I started that it looked like one to try to fall up. Lots of terrible crimps and really hard positions. There is a (possibly) couple that I often see climbing, they're both quite strong. She was here today with another guy, and came up a route next to me as I was hanging after my first or second fall. She was making some funny comments on her climb on the way up, I was joking as she passed me, and once she finished up hers I skipped the section I was stuck on and tried the next one. Got to a point where I just could not haul myself up any farther, and gave up. She and the guy both tried this climb after I'd finished, and both fell at one of the places that was giving me big problems, so that made me feel better, and also like I want to climb with more people.

5.10c send
Flashed this one before, and sent it again first go. On the ground, I said I'd like to try leading it next time. Once I got about 2/3 of the way up, I remembered how last time when I got here I was super pumped and every move was like "oh god, there's no way, better just throw for it" and managed to stick it. Well, this time was no different. Got the send but man, leading that one would probably be the hardest thing I've climbed. Definitely the hardest lead, even though I may have done a 5.10d at some point before.

Did a bunch of yardwork yesterday, and I think there will be more today. Yesterday involved moving 7 big stones and a bunch of dirt. Today will involve some concrete blocks that I've worked out to be about 80lbs, and more dirt. Luckily it should be cut short by hanging out with friends outside later. Lifting who knows when.

[cgeorg]

Didn't actually do yardwork Sunday, not too mad. Did move some leaves around Monday.

2024-04-30
Climbing

Top Rope
5.11b 1 fall
The same one as last session, got 1 move farther. Progress

5.11b 1 fall
The route next the 5.11c from last time. Pretty cool but the holds are mostly a little worse than you'd like. I think it might go.

5.11d 2 falls, 2 falls
Toughie with a few really fun moves in the middle and a pretty technical spot that I fell on both times, then a crimpy spot near the top that's just quite hard that I also fell on both times. I think I'll keep working this one as well.

That was pretty much it, finished with a joke of a 5.10a where I just tried to do the biggest moves I could, probably skipped 75-80% of holds, also did some 2 chili boulders during warmups and faffed about on some other hard things when I had no skin left at the end. Campusing is going well, I'm consistently hitting 1-4 in warmups.