New and Experienced Climbers Over 50 #26

wendy weisswrote:

I think I'm going to be the control group for all of you who are doing and measuring things I don't even understand.

I'm very much on Wendy's 'control group' team!!!!

I feel it is synchronicity that my question "Where have all the cowboys gone?" was answered with the link to a route of same name.  (and a posted song!)  That route is 100% out of my league in every way... it's a multi-pitch ("absolute no"), and it is a 10d (I can't do that).  

So I want to climb it.    It may never happen, but what a journey just picking up the skills needed to do such a climb.  

Out with Bob today... I was ill from an all night insulin situation... but climbed anyway just a little.  Mostly, we did a review of my anchor-building skills to get a starting place.  I had some fun placing cams, working with my cordalette (which may or may not be nylon) and the quad I made last night. Placed two #2's today... this picture showed up on my FB feed.  Guess I'm ready for the rostrum now!

My 4 intended routes... I am just so pleased.  Lots of mileage, learning, getting comfortable on harder routes... slowly slowly making my way towards each of them. I chose well because each requires such different abilities.  I'm just honestly feeling blessed.  

Ken Tubbswrote:

My interval training lately has been a 5 mile, 2000' climb on my new full squish 29er:

Followed by:

I'm not jumping yet but the flow trails shown in the latter half of the video are absolutely a riot. The transition from 90's hardtail to a modern slacked out 29er has been interesting. These new bikes just rip! I've also switched from clipless to flat pedals. Hence, the no jumping part until I'm consistently staying "one with the bike" :)

Congratulations on the new rig. Modern bikes rule.

Can I please join the ‘Control’ AKA ‘Lazy as Fuck’ team? Cheers. 

Tim Schafstallwrote:

This is what I recommend for cardio:

Prancercise

And the video so y'all can follow along

  

T

She has lovely ‘hair’ and the music is cool. I’m not a big fan of the trousers, maybe if they were white chinos? I feel she’s not really ‘prancing, it’s more of a ‘dancing down the garden path’ thing she’s doing; which is fine, but not prancing as such. Maybe the prancing comes after the 1.10 mark which is where I stopped the video. Mainly due to the trousers. 

Can I volunteer for the out of control group?? 

I always thought Prancing was a Boulder thing.

A City of Rocks gathering where we do laps on Cowboy (5.5) and then prance around the campfire in white chinos drinking beer and eating cheesecake would be fun. Carl, I’ll chip in for your plane ticket. I get the sense it’d be fun to  drink a few tinnies with you.

Guy Keeseewrote:

I always thought Prancing was a Boulder thing.

It is, specifically an Eldo thing, and I spent decades and decades prancing tuff there.

Hank Caylorwrote:

It is, specifically an Eldo thing, and I spent decades and decades prancing tuff there.

lol.... F'n Prancers™™™

Hank Caylorwrote:

It is, specifically an Eldo thing, and I spent decades and decades prancing tuff there.

Yes and from Eldo the practice has expanded to far flung corners of the globe!

Coldndark…. I vote Carl to be “the one I’d most like to swill IPA and eat pizza with at the City” 

Carl- think about it, June is midwinter for you, get out of the funk. Get a ticket… we can work out the rest. Seriously. 

Colden Darkwrote:

A City of Rocks gathering where we do laps on Cowboy (5.5) and then prance around the campfire in white chinos drinking beer and eating cheesecake would be fun. Carl, I’ll chip in for your plane ticket. I get the sense it’d be fun to  drink a few tinnies with you.

I’m in. 

Guy Keeseewrote:

Yes and from Eldo the practice has expanded to far flung corners of the globe!

Coldndark…. I vote Carl to be “the one I’d most like to swill IPA and eat pizza with at the City” 

Carl- think about it, June is midwinter for you, get out of the funk. Get a ticket… we can work out the rest. Seriously. 

Ha ha cheers. Sounds like my kind of clambering trip!

Lori Milaswrote:

...
dragons, how cool that you are working on Fitness so intently. I don’t know if you have checked out the Whoop Locker resources, but they have been so helpful to me. It’s easy to google, and they have both articles and podcasts on all matters of fitness, sleep, nutrition.

I haven't checked those out, but thanks for the tip.

I am not able to move my HRV more than a few points.

Have you tried anything specific? I've heard reports from people who claim they have, and this includes olds.

What I watch every morning is the amount of quality sleep I got the night before and that HRV number. A couple of things have moved that needle for me. One is Meditation and the other is Massage even if it’s short and sweet.

So do both meditation and massage change your HRV, or do they just change sleep quality?

Whoop almost always claims that my "sleep performance" is 100%. I would think it was defective, except for the fact that I've had just a couple of really bad nights of sleep since I got the thing, and it does indicate that I had poor sleep in those cases.

Like you, I also watch the HRV numbers, and I'm looking to experiment to see what I can change. So far, I can't figure out what makes it change. They don't say how precise the measurement is, so maybe the changes I see are all random noise.

 What I have been able to improve is my recovery after a really hard day of climbing which is also important. I’m not sure how much zone 2 I get into but when I go for my frequent hikes if they go on for three or four hours and includes an hour or more of scrambling, it does just feel right.

That is cool!

I do also watch my “strain score” on the Whoop, and I’m sure you could do the same with various other measurements during the day. With the Whoop, there is a Strain/Exercise reading from 0 to 21, 21 being the theoretical max that you can never attain. So when I see a whoop score of 20.3 I know I am in big trouble.

I hear ya lol! I don't know what the scores really mean. It's probably just some proprietary algorithm that does something with your heart rate. The highest I've ever gone is 20.4, but that was a rare event. I climbed Easy V that day, a route that plenty of people solo. I'm pretty sure it was not the difficulty, but the stress of leading that got my heart rate way up that day. My average for the last 6 months is 13.3. What's your average, if you don't mind sharing?

Idaho Bob - thanks for sharing your interval training program. My problem with interval training has been that I don't have an exercise machine (I used to have a rower, it is gone now). This is a problem both for doing Zone 2 and HIIT. If once a week is effective, I could do HIIT on a nearby track... 20 minutes or so is doable. The Zone 2 stuff drives me crazy. 3+ hours per week spent shuffling around, it just kills a hike.

wendy - I'm measuring things I don't understand either.

Ward: 

Dr. Attia rides an exercise bicycle inside, but I can’t imagine a less inspiring form of exercise

I know!!! Horrific. And I used to work out on an indoor rower, which shows I have some tolerance for these things.

Tim - whatever floats your boat, man!

So, anyone else in this thread want to join Team Quantified Self (or Team Rejuvenation Athletes or whatever we want to call it)?

Carl Schneiderwrote:

I’m in. 

Carl, the two weeks starting June 10 would be a good time to be at the City.  Let us know your schedule if you can make it.  If you arrive earlier or stay later consider joining me in McCall, Idaho to climb Slickrock, fun, moderate multi-pitch routes, 5.6 to 5.10, both sport and trad.

Idaho Bobwrote:

Carl, the two weeks starting June 10 would be a good time to be at the City.  Let us know your schedule if you can make it.  If you arrive earlier or stay later consider joining me in McCall, Idaho to climb Slickrock, fun, moderate multi-pitch routes, 5.6 to 5.10, both sport and trad.

My problem is I’m better placed in the second half of the year to travel. 

Carl Schneiderwrote:

My problem is I’m better placed in the second half of the year to travel. 

City of Rocks in September is amazing if you can swing that. Weather is more stable than June (we’ve had snow, torrential rain, wind all mixed with unbearable heat in June). 

We had the entire of Texas Canyon to ourselves yesterday. Good day out…

ErikaNWwrote:

City of Rocks in September is amazing if you can swing that. Weather is more stable than June (we’ve had snow, torrential rain, wind all mixed with unbearable heat in June). 

Agree with Erika, September is pretty nice in the City.