A New Spring Wreath
or... clothes for my naked front door
My front door was feeling a little naked. It told me so. I had a wreath on it last fall, but I'd been using that wreath for a few years and it was finally showing its wear. Then I had a Christmas wreath that Dad and Patricia had bought us, but it too had its time. The front door's been naked for a couple months. So, the other week I noticed that AC Moore's was having a sale on all their silk flowers. I took advantage.
I worked at a flower shop when I was in college. I absolutely loved it. I loved that my job was to pick out pretty flowers and pretty colors and put them together in gorgeous bouquets. I tried my hand at making arrangements sometimes. Its much harder than it looks. I got pretty good at making boutineer's though. And I've got the big poofy bow's that we'd tie around bouquet's down pat (I can tie very nice bows on presents, too -- yay).
Needless to say -- I still love going around and picking out pretty flowers and pretty colors. I LOVE oranges. I think it makes things pop. The bluish-purple, yellow and white accents accentuate the orange pretty well, I think. Hopefully the bugs and the birds don't make a home of it too soon.
For the record: the orange are sunflowers of some kind; the yellow is forsythia; the blue kind of looks like a delphinium but the leaves are all wrong; and I think the white is stephanotis but again, the leaves aren't quite right...
Great Big Sea
a concert for Friday the 13th. What's the opposite of triskadecaphobia?
I LOVE going to a Great Big Sea concert. I think I've seen them a half dozen times. Each concert has their own charm, each has their own highlights. This was no different.
For those unfamiliar with Great Big Sea: they're HUGE in Canada, but somehow rarely known here in the US. Every concert I go to gets bigger, so hopefully that means they're gaining more traction. They should. They've got a great sound, and they put on a great show. The main members of the band, Alan, Sean and Bob, are from Newfoundland, Canada. Their upbringing gives them a unique traditional, folk-ish, rock-ish sound that makes you want to stomp your feet, dance and sing along.
Their interactions on stage are one of the best parts of the show. Between Alan and Sean's back and forth banter, Alan's storytelling and Bob's avoidance of the mic, I'm always entertained between songs (there must be something about "Bob"'s in bands that don't like to talk on stage. Bob from Downtown Harvest is the same way).
Tonight's show was at the Scottish Rite Auditorium in Collingswood. The auditorium has a very interesting feel to it... Kind of like an updated gothic church... I think Jay described it best when he said it could have been used in a scene from 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer'. It had an intimate feel and great sound (except for the electric guitar in When I am King, it was way out of balance). More than any of that though, it was quite convenient. I wonder what other shows will play there.
But enough of all that, back to the music: My favorite songs are those that they sing a capella. Their harmonies are beautiful and haunting and lovely. The second encore was amazing. They sang Old Brown's Daughter, no mics, no music, no clapping. Just a silent audience and them. It was the perfect end to a concert I didn't want to end. I hope they come out with another live album that includes that rendition.
30 in Thirty - not quite
Last month I read about a kind of blogging challenge. The challenge was to write thirty blog entries in 30 days. I first wrote about it last month.
I think the final tally was 22 entries in 30 days (or 25 in 36 days if you extend it a bit). For the most part I'm happy with what I wrote, there are only a few "fluff entries" (like the Peep Fight). Disappointingly, there was only one entry about knitting. Maybe if I didn't spend so much time writing, I'd have had more time to knit. Although the Yoga mat bag I'm crocheting is taking longer than expected. But I'm being a good girl and am working on it a few times a week (I'm done with 3 rows of elephants, just 2 more to go). I don't want to start a new project until I finish it (although I really want to make myself a Sheldon, isn't he cute??).
I'm really happy with all that I wrote about the Strength Series. Its been good to reflect on my climbing, analyze it for myself and see how much my yoga practice influences it.
All in all, I think I'll probably write more often than I did before this little challenge, but certainly not daily. More knitting time!
Accepting frustration
one more way how yoga helps my climbing
One of the things I've learned from my yoga practice is to "accept what my body has to offer me today". It sounds kind of silly at first, but its tough to do for a competitive person like myself. Accepting that you're not always going to be at the top of your game, accepting that you may never be able to have the perfect posture in a certain yoga pose, accepting that today may not be the day that you're going to send that climb. It's not an excuse, its not a reason to stop pushing yourself to improve, but rather its the awareness that your body may not be ready to do it.
 The proper posture for "Cow Face Pose", picture courtesy of ashtangafriends.4t.com |
 My version of "Cow Face Pose". I may never be able to grasp my hands. I can accept that. |
Monday was one of those days.
During the Strength class, we worked our way towards our "sending limit". To "send" a climb means that you complete a climb from start to finish without any falls and without any "takes" (breaks). The exercise we had in class was to first do 1 climb two-grades below your sending limit, then do 2 climbs one-grade below your sending limit, and finally climb to your limit. So for myself, I was going to do one 5.9-, two 5.9/5.9+'s and one 5.10-.
I found a 5.9- that I'd climbed before, and finished it cleanly. Then I attempted a 5.9+ and fell 3 or 4 times. I started over after each fall, so that I could send the climb cleanly. But, with each attempt, my arms and legs got more tired. It wasn't that I wasn't capable of making the move. I'm sure on another day I would have made it. But on Monday, things just weren't clicking. I was physically tired and had no energy to latch onto the next hold, to stand up on my right leg and to finish the move. I had to accept what my body had to offer me, and what it had to offer didn't include that move.
I moved on to a 5.9 that included a high step that I couldn't move off of (knowing what I learned in Friday's Flexibility class it made more sense why that move was so challenging for me), then I moved onto a 5.9- that had a sloper move at the crux. Down I came.
Monday was just not the day for me to be working on my sending limit. My energy level was way low. I can accept it just wasn't the day to do it. Writing this I seem to want to quote Stuart Smalley, "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and doggone it, people like me!". I guess that's part of it -- but I'm really just happy that I was able to leave the gym monday night and NOT feel like I didn't accomplish anything. I did: I found a couple new projects to work on, and that's perfectly fine with me.
Friday, a Good day to climb... twice
Pyramids and Flexibility
I love it when a four-day work week has the perfect timing. A nice long weekend is what I needed. Friday was certainly a 'Good' day.
Val and I went to the gym right as it opened and I started doing my endurance pyramids. Last time, when Juergen and I did pyramids together we stayed mostly on the beginner wall, with lots of big juggy 5.4's. This time, I used some of the 5.5's around the rest of the gym for my 1-lap, 2-lap and 3-lap climbs (4, 5 and 6 I still used the nice, easy, flat, beginner wall). It was a good way to keep the climbs interesting and not as predictable. Plus, it got Val to climb some different routes (and that's always a good thing). I just took all the climbs nice and slow. I definitely feel stronger than I did a couple months ago. I'm happy that I'm getting some endurance. Now I just need to work on applying it to some lead climbing.
After finishing my pyramids (ok... instead of a full pyramid... I skipped a bit on the way down... Val needed to get back to work.. so I did 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 5, 3, 1 -- skipping 4 and 2 on the way down), I went home, got some food and took a well-deserved nap (I love naps). I woke myself up in time to head back to the gym by 6.
Go Vertical has really been working on increasing and improving the clinics they offer. The Women's Climbing Clinic is no exception. The series has gotten so popular that Kathleen has started offering two clsses a month: The last Friday of every month is the "V1+ and under" class, and the first Friday of every month is the "V2 and over" class. This month's class was about 'Flexibility' - how it affects your climbing and how it comes into play with power and strength.
One thing that came as no suprise to me was that my poor hip flexibility affects my climbing, I just didn't realize how much.
I have a poor turnout. When I do a square pose in Yin, I can fit 2 fists between my knee and my foot (see how the lady's knee rests on top of her foot in the picture?). I knew my hip flexibility (or lack thereof) made stemming more difficult for me, but I never connected my tight hips to some of the other moves I have difficulty with: namely heel hooks and high steps. My yoga practice has already improved my stemming (my hips don't lock up on my nearly as often as they used to), hopefully yoga will come to benefit my other climbing moves as well.
Tabatas redux
this time with a twist
The first (guinea pig) strength class I took at Go Vertical followed a relatively simple formula. Monday's class followed the same:
- warm up
- stretch
- tabatas of pull-ups, sit-ups and push-ups (ex: do as many pull-ups as you can in 20 seconds, rest 10 seconds, repeat 8 times)
- three-high endurance pyramid (up and down once, up and down twice, up and down three times, up and down twice, up and down once)
- 10-minute fingerboard drill
- stretch
It was really neat to repeat the same workout two months after I originally started this series. It gives me a nice marker by which I can grade my progress (I can hang on the finger board drills longer, yay! progress really is the best motivation). Last night's workout had a bit of a twist: I wanted to keep my heart rate under 140. It's harder than you think. I didn't realize how easily I can push myself to get my heart rate up to 150. At a few points during the night I had to really slow down and breath deeply to bring my heart rate back down.
Juergen has a snazzy heartrate monitor that he let me borrow: Garmin Forerunner 305. It has TONS of features, but the one I used last night is that it records your heart rate and allows you to download it to a computer so you can analyze your workout. We didn't think to turn on the recording til I was half-way through the workout (check out the picture down below). Next week we'll be sure to record the whole thing.
This week my homework includes doing another 6-high pyramid. It'll take longer to do seeing as though I'll be keeping my heart-rate under 140. It'll be a long Saturday workout, but I'm looking forward to pushing myself.
Note: I think its gonna hurt to sneeze today. Damn that pollen. My poor abs.
On a more serious note: lots of good wrist-vibes to Samantha. She hurt her wrist and has to take some time off so she can let it heal. <vibe/> <vibe/> <vibe/>
My heart rate while climbing during the second half of last night's Strength class
Downtown Harvest
my favorite local Philly band
I love going out for a night with my friends, heading out to a bar or a restaurant and just hanging out. I really love going out to a Downtown Harvest show and dancing: right up front in that space between the crowd and the band, where a few of the other dancing people are - I love that.
My friend, Dave, introduced me to DowntownHarvest (for which I'm very grateful). And in turn, I've introduced a bunch of my friends to them. Its tough to describe their style. It's eclictic, it's rock-y, it's pop-y, its got a bit of jazz-y going on and a bit of hip-hop-y too. One thing for sure, it's FUN to dance to at a live show (You can check out some of their music on their website or their myspace page).
Downtown Harvest is made up of four guys from the Philly suburbs: Tom does guitar and vocals, Chris does drums and vocals, Bob is on bass and Frank is on everything else (really everything: he plays sax, keyboards, guitar and sometimes a tambourine. Although... I haven't seen him play a triangle, yet...). They play in and around Philadelphia, frequently in New York City, sometimes down in DC and even way North at Nectars in Burlington, VT (by the way I hear they have great gravy-fries, if you're in to that kinda thing).
On Friday I got to see them at Grape Street in Manayunk. It's a great venue, great sound, nice lights, good crowd. I just wish they got to play longer than an hour-long set. They played some songs off their first self-titled CD and debuted a few from their currently-being-recorded album. As always I had a great time bouncing along to the music. I have a hard time sitting still when they play. I'm looking forward to the next show I get to see. If you have the opportunity to see them: jump at the chance