climbing (or: fear my lithe, rippling good fortune)
Last Friday, I accompanied prosicated to her CrossFit workout. I'd heard of CrossFit but never experienced their workouts firsthand, and let me say, as someone with a high bar for badass workouts, it was fantastic. I spent most of the weekend sore from my neck to my ankles.
So, what's a good thing to do when you're gloriously sore? Why, go rock-climbing, of course! Sunday, whynotkay accompanied D and I to MetroRock in Everett. For those who haven't been there, MetroRock is gigantic. Here's a tiny bit of it:
I learned a lot by watching whynotkay, who seems to spend all of her time up on the wall looking awesome.
I have only climbed a few times, so even very basic technique pointers are useful: keep your arms straight, and use your toes. I will be practicing that for a long time. It helps, though.
I actually spent most of my strength trying out this one single move at the bottom of a climb that involved a lot of 'stemming' (a word I'd never heard before). I was trying to push off of something with a foot and a hand and rest my shoulder against the wall and hoist my other leg up onto a big rock all at the same time, and I wanted to get it right. I reached the point where I figured out with my body what I wanted to do well enough to discover that if I hadn't been so sore and tight I could have done it. So, in the end, I didn't get the move but I felt triumphant anyway because I think if I go back I will. Here's D, a few feet above the move I was trying, on the same route:
She was extremely good at giving us pointers from the ground about what to try:
And we also spent a lot of time sitting back and watching her scramble up the wall.
After all that, my toes were sore. One of the only parts of my body that had escaped CrossFit untouched! Gorgeous.
Also, we spent Saturday afternoon-into-evening at a crazy awesome backyard party (Back Yard Burning Man!) with temporary tattoos, glitter, and a bouncy castle. I saw lots of people and was far, far too sore to go up on stilts myself (or even carry on much of a conversation), but I still had a great time.
Good, good weekend. Now collapse.