brooklyngoilnnp

"Strong is Beautiful" -- Crossfit Slogan

Two years I began doing Crossfit twice a week after reading Mark F. Twight's book Extreme Alpinism. Following Twight's fitness suggestions led me to both his website gymjones.com and to crossfit.com.

Unfortunately due to the lack of a crossfit facility in my area and my own desire to focus solely on climbing I gave up crossfit in a few short months.

More recently I've been reading about the workouts done by Exum Guides at Mtnathlete.com as well as the Alpine Training Center in Boulder.

Seeing all these badass women and men, climbers and tri-athletes, some close friends as well as heros messing it up in crossfit inspired workouts motivated me to check out the newly opened gunxs crossfit (http://gunxcrossfit.typepad.com/) in Gardiner.

I've always had a uneasy relationship with my body and athletics. Being 6 plus feet tall can be a blessing and a curse. School gym coaches were always quick to expect me to succeed in basketball while other kids honed there talents in stand up comedy at the expense of my large frame and big feet. As a teen I rebelled hard and refused to play any sports with the exception being an occasional street hockey game where I skated circles around the competition.

When I discuss crossfit with other climbers many are concerned weight training will bulk you up. However we don't often have the tools or the awareness to know what really goes into bulking up nor do we know if we even have a solid foundation of fitness. It would seem many climbers women and men have uneven muscle development even when we are climbing at a fairly high level on the rock.

Right now I am in transitioning from rock climbing (and rock guiding) looking toward a full 4 plus months of water ice climbing in the catskills, daks, NH and who knows? I am planning on guiding ice full time as well as getting out there as much as possible. My goals in crossfit is conditioning my body to perform at a high level over long days and gaining strength and power. I certainly have a lot of core strength but I feel like I need a base level that can take me through a solid 5 plus days of climbing ice with few rest days.

At gunxscrossfit we got an excellent coach, Peter, with an understated style and great taste in music. During my first workout we rocked out to Springteen and Bob Dylan. Peter's coaching isn't a one shot deal where he tells you what to do and then walks away like some commercial gyms. At crossfit your looking at ongoing hands on training and coach. He's got a great group of runners, climbers, tri-athletes and folks coming too. Everyone is cheering each other on.

I am currently going to crossfit 3 days a week. I am not climbing much these days. The days are shorter and chilly so this is what I am doing to prep for ice season. I've actually thought about going more but we'll have to see. I made it out for a run this week and hope to keep at it. I am thinking I have 8-10 weeks of crossfit training to get ready for the full on ice season. Here's a week of crossfit. I will try to keep up my reports and let you know how its going.

Week 3 of Crossfit

1) Monday
pm - crossfit

2) Wed
am - gunxscrossfit strength workout
pm - ran 4 miles

3) Fri
pm - gunxscrossfit conditioning workout

Some Inspirational Links:

http://gunxcrossfit.typepad.com/

http://mtnathlete.com/

http://www.gymjones.com/

A Brooklyngoil's Gear ~ An Insider Guide to my Gear Obsession

They say "light is right" and "every once counts" and I tend to agree. However light also equals expensive and frequently means less durable. While this may not be a safety issue per se it does mean your gear may not last as long. Dynema slings mean be stronger than nylon but certainly get worn out alot quicker. Ditto for the super thin ropes. and caribiners.

My pack fully loaded with gear and water weights = 20 pounds (25 pound with 2.5 liters of water).All weights are approximates.

This breaks down as the following:

Pack -- Millet Pro lite 35L (size m) (1850grams) -- pack is stripped of all unnecessary do-dads.
hydration system - MSR Dromlite 2.5 liter (5.8 oz)
Harness - Arcteryx M 280 (9.8 oz)
My rack -- weight = 10 pounds

Pro
A mix of BD and DMM nuts 2-10
Set of 4 tri cams
3 master cams (orange, yellow and blue)
2 BD C 3 (red and green)
7 BD C 4 (lil blue to big blue)

Slings
2 4 foot dynema
9 2 foot dynema
5 quickdraws

Carabiners
half BD neutrinos and half BD hotwire (in the winter I switch to all hotwire)

Lockers
1 Petzl Attache (for belay)
5 BD Vaporlock

Cordelettes
2 21 foot 6mm

Assorted other items
BD ATC Guide
2 prussiks
1 Petzl tibloc
1 Petzl spata knife
Metolius nut tool
Petzl chalk bag
Guide book (grey dick)
1 pairs of barracuda rock shoes
Petzl headlamp
small first aid kit
sunblock
extra bars and gu
Helmet -- for the hot weather Petzl Meteor 3 (winter TBD)
Camera

Ropes
1) lead rock -- Sterling Velocity 9.8
2) lead ice -- Sterling Ion 9.5 (and Petzl dragonfly 8.2 half ropes).




Climbing up the Uberfall descent w. Lucy


interview with Donnie Darko and The Box, out this Friday, writer and director Richard Kelly: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/42994

Started by alpine climber Jonny Copp, this year's Adventure Film Fest in Boulder, CO. looks very good. http://www.adventurefilm.org/index.aspx

Posted on gunxscrossfit an article linking depression and processed food. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8334353.stm