Archive for the 'Life' Category
Sitting once again in the exam room at my doctor’s office I reflected on what I could have done differently to not be there. I had to wait over a half hour for the PA to finally see me, so I had a lot of time to think about this. I really couldn’t think of anything. I mean, jesus, I injured myself warming up…warming up so I wouldn’t get hurt. I guess there isn’t anything I can’t manage to fuck up.
Bouldering on some easy overhanging warmups during my lunch break yesterday, I felt a weird pain in my lower back. It felt like I pulled a muscle, just a small pain when I moved a little bit. I’ve gotten pulled muscles before and they are uncomfortable but no big deal. A few hours later and I was lying down in my bed not wanting to move at all for fear of the pain.
Turns out, sprained ligaments in your back are incredibly painful. I found this out when after the PA diagnosed my symptoms and I mentioned that 400 mg of ibuprofen hadn’t helped and the response was “Yeah, that…won’t be enough”. So now I’m using some new fangled topical stick-on anti-inflammatory/pain killer which doesn’t seem to be doing anything to help alleviate the discomfort. I also have a prescription for some muscle relaxers and jumbo size ibuprofen, which I’m thinking I’ll have to fill.
As far as recovery time, it’s looking like at least a week of no activity and then a slow comeback that is bounded by pain. Unfortunately I’m worried this will kill the couple objectives I have setup for the winter. Hopefully it won’t impact the attempt to link up the trilogy in late Feb. or early March. I’m worried about how long it will take me to get back in the gym however, to keep my fitness up. Hopefully next week I’ll be able to at least do hangs on tools, hangboard, rings, etc. Hopefully shortly after that I’ll be able to get back into step-ups with a pack. On the up side, I at least should be healed in time to start training for the rock season.
While working on my undergrad I learned that in order to fully understand anything, you need to understand the definitions first. So, what is commitment? The dictionary definition includes “the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action” as a definition. Dictionary definitions are nice, but in our society, words become so loaded with connotation they often become contextualized. So what I think commitment is, probably differs from what Joe Six-Pack (of beer) thinks it means. To borrow from Mark Twight, it means “the mobilization of all available resources to achieve a particular goal”. In short, commitment is wanting; it’s hunger. You have to want something before you can be committed, and the more concise that something is the easier it is to make a plan to get there. Second, you need to take action on that goal; to mobilize “all available resources” in an attempt to meet that goal.
If you ask someone what their goal for the next new year will be, there answer will be filled with optimism and lofty goals. If you ask them how they choose to accomplish that goal, they may even have a plan. How about when you check back in around March? Ask them what they’ve done to accomplish their goal, and you’ll probably get a reply with a lot less optimism. More likely, you’ll get a lot of excuses. The excuses aren’t necessarily a sign of laziness or a sign of any inability to commit. The excuses are a handy comfort mechanism we use to dull the sting that results from having nothing to show for all the talk.
Why is it then that committing to goals is something that so many people falter on? It’s hard, plain and simple. Truly committing to something takes, as Twight side, the mobilization of all available resources. That means everything you have goes into achieving your goal. You don’t half ass work, you don’t get to blow off the things you need to do to succeed, you work, pay attention, learn, adapt, and grow. The completion of a goal is more an expression of the journey taken to get there and this is reflected in the accomplishment. Hard & honest work will yield stronger results than half-assed, dishonest work.
So what is commitment? It’s hiking in the rain to check out your project, knowing full well you won’t be able to climb it. It’s training when you should, but don’t want to. It’s leaving the doubles on the ground, forcing yourself to work with the gear you have. It’s the countless other examples of actions taken in the pursuit of some larger goal. So while we can split hairs about what commitment means, it’s always something you know when you see.
SELF Magazine - Today's snake oil
The following is a rant filled with elitist tirades; be fore-warned.
This is the kind of crap that gets me fired up. SELF Magazine ran an article through MSN entitled “Secrets of the Fittest”. In six short paragraphs the “feature” reveals six “secrets” fitness “trainers” use in order to get that [insert whatever crap-filled line about what a good body they have line here].
Take this first tip, which effectively suggests that exhaling during a situp will give you “hot abs”. Really? I’m sure that’s why all of us don’t have six-pack abs…we haven’t been exhaling at the right time. There are some many things wrong here, I don’t even know where to start. First, if you care about looks more than your fitness, you might as well go masturbate in front of the mirror because that’s what your workout will effectively be. If mediocrity is your goal, than your results will be mediocre. “Fit” bodies come from hard work, trying to say anything else is ignorant, naive, and just plain wrong.
Second, the idea of isolating a muscle group is myopic and misdirected unless you’re a meat head body builder. In the words of Dan John and Mark Twight, there is no “core”. The body is “one piece”, as all movements originate from the center. Training natural movements improves flexibility, proprioception, leads to functional strength gains, and trains natural motor programs for everyday movements. What more accurately describes a movement you’d do in daily life, sit in a chair and curl something with nice comfy handles to your chest through a fixed plane of motion or pick something heavy up from the floor?
It’s ironic that our society focuses on image over fitness when image is a consequence of fitness. It’s pretty remarkable how form follows function. When you concentrate on becoming fitter your body follows in suit by striping the excess and keeping the essentials. However, most people will look at you and think you’re not fit because of the predominant over-loaded idea of fitness in our society (i.e. big muscles equals fit). That’s fine, just load them up with a pack and have them try to keep up on a trail with you over 12 hours; if you even care. Otherwise get out there and start getting stuff done.
Regardless, I’m pretty sure I lost whatever thread of coherency I managed to strike here. Anyone who suggests you can get results from anything but plain damn hard work is 1) wrong, b) ignorant, or 3) lying. Remember, in the end it’s all about the journey and how you get there, rather than the destination. If you take shortcuts, you miss out on some of the finer points and your journey is less fulfilling and you gain less from it. Maybe you only care about the destination, in that case I’m surprised you made it this far. For the rest of us though, here’s to experimenting, learning, understanding, and getting at it!
I’ve been slacking on a lot of stuff lately. I’ve got a podcast in the process of being written, and an essay mostly written with some thoughts on training. I’ve just been really tired lately. I’ve been climbing hard lately and really pushing on the training side of things as well. In the past week, I completed a couple bouldering projects, pushed my limits on trad leading, took some falls, and generally have been going at the edge of what I can put out.
I think I’ve been over-reaching/over-training here. In retrospect I’m exhibiting a lot of the symptoms; exhaustion, lack of motivation, suppressed appetite, trouble sleeping, etc. It occurred to me that over-reaching/over-training is a negative feedback loop. You feel like you’re not performing at your best, which forces you to try to push harder or train more, which just puts you deeper in the hole, which pushes the psychological need to train, ad nauseam. For me, I think one big indicator that I need to scale back is when I just don’t even feel like heading to the gym/boulders/etc to train. For me training is an integral part of my daily existence; my release. When I don’t feel like doing it, it should be a pretty powerful flag to stop and look at things. More often then not, I’m concerned I’m just having a weak mental moment, and I’ll push myself to hit the trail, work a project, or grind through a workout solely to push through a mental barrier. Maybe I need to take more time and look back at the training log and consider whether I’m just being lazy or if I really do need to take a seat for the day. I guess this is what they mean when they say only a fool has himself as a trainer.
Living the life?
What’s up folks!? This is GK here, writing to you from 34,000 feet sitting in…wait for it…first class. That’s right, it seems that my reputation proceeds me here at United. They checked my boarding pass and said, “Oh, Greg Kuchyt? Oh, Mr. Kuchyt we can’t have you traveling coach, please take a complimentary upgrade to first class!” *Sits back with foot room and clasps hand behind his head* That’s right, things are hard here on the A-list.
Haha, actually that’s not what happened, but it doesn’t hurt to have a little fun! I’m not really sure how this happened but quicker than I could process it, a very kind gentlemen was forcing a 1st-class ticket in my hand telling me he wanted my seat so he could be next to, what I’m assuming/hoping was his child. The only thing I could stammer out was “Are you sure?” and he emphatically insisted. With no shame, I abandoned all coveted Man-Law and abandonded Matt in coach to take my seat with the airborn elite…my people. I was finally coming home.
Honestly, I sat down in my seat feeling incredibly out of place wearing my incredibly abused apprach shoes and pants. Hearing my fellow first-classers discuss their careers and introduce themselves, I find myself in the mix with high-level business people, an intellectual property lawyer, and a “complex corporate contract” lawyer. Like I said…my people…right?
The stewardess comes around taking everyone’s meal choices for dinner. She looks at my seat, 1D, and looks it up on the manifest. Like something out of a sitcom, she suspiciously inquires, “Mr. Yu?” Damn, I’ve been sanbagged…it’s pretty obvious that I can’t pass for a Mr. Yu. I decided honesty was the best policy and explained the situation. *Phew* No problem.
Honestly, first class makes you feel good (read as “important”), but I don’t see the value for the extra money. Maybe if you flew all the time I could understand it more. However, being somewhat of a dirtbag anyway, this just feels uncomfortable for me. The fact that as I sit here I’m noticing that my approach shoes smell awful from too many days wearing them without socks between climbs isn’t helping me feel like I fit in either. Seriously, I just feel bad for how much the stewardess has to work up here. There is a pre-meal snack, a full meal, a dessert, pre-flight beverages, in-flight beverages, and then supposedly a rumored, pre-landing snack. For doing nothing but sit in a seat for 6 hours, we’re being well taken care of calorically. It’s a good thing I’m a 5.13 belayer, so I can work off these calories.
Alright, I think I’ve railed on first class enough in my ironically elistist rise to the soap box. I should just chalk it up to a perk I don’t really understand and wouldn’t normally take. It’s just not my style, then again I also keep my aparment at 55 in the winter, ride and walk as much as I can, and then there is the ice climbing thing…the mother of making yourself deal with pretty minimal comfort. So maybe these aren’t my people after all…go figure.
There’s some controversy regarding recent activity in Argentine Patagonia. Alpinist has the story, here. In short, a Red Bull sponsored athlete attempted to free the famed Compressor Route (VI, 5.10 A2) on Cerro Torre. A film crew was in tow to capture the attempt. Apparently the team drilled an additional 60 bolts into the Torre formation, including a direct rap line, and left 700m of fixed rope. This is the ugly side of climbing, the community is spraying every which way about it and I’m sure nothing will ever be resolved.
I have my own opinion and beliefs on style, I’m a product of learning to climb in an area with a lot of history and strong ethic when it comes to bolts (i.e. minimal). I don’t agree with this, and I also think it violates the larger global climbing ethic. Some of the power houses of alpine climbing have gone on the record as well to state their displeasure in this matter. It should be noted that US hardmen Josh Wharton and Zack Smith almost completed a bolt free ascent of Cerro Torre about 3 years ago. Talk about style, integrity, and commitment. That’s the style I respect and value, it’s rising to the mountain, not bringing the mountain to your level.
Regardless, I was not happy with what happened and since I can’t really do anything about it, I exercised my vestigial prerogative as a consumer in the land of the free and the Incorporated…I wrote a pious letter that won’t make a difference.
“I’m writing to express my extreme disappointment and disgust regarding the controversy related to Red Bull sponsored athlete David Lama’s activities in Argentine Patagonia. The controversy surrounding the addition of fixed hardware on the Compress Route on Cerro Torre is a testament to how little your company seems to understand about a community of its intended customer base. While statements have been made arguing that nothing illegal has transgressed, the difference between legality and morality is the real issue at hand. The fact that some of the most respected and accomplished international alpine climbers have spoken out publicly on the matter is testament to egregiousness of the offense against the ethics of the global climbing community.Even if the fixed hardware is removed, the rock will be forever marred for future climbers. This is unacceptable. As David Lama is a sponsored athlete of Red Bull and the trip was publicized by Red Bull, I hold Red Bull equally responsible in this matter as David Lama, Daniel Steuerer, and the film crew. As such, I will forgoe any and all future purchases of Red Bull or any affiliated product. In addition, I will encourage friends to follow suit in refusing to purchase Red Bull products. I don’t imagine that this will have any significant impact on Red Bull or its profits, but it is all that I can do, so I will do what I can to stand for something I believe in.”
I should probably mentioned, I’ve actually never had a Red Bull. I’ve gotten into Monster Khaos in the past year and half to get through late night drives. Lately though, I’ve been ditching Monster for Stewart’s Green Buzz after a friend of mine turned me on to it. Green Buzz is all natural; green tea, honey, caffeine and then the usual assortment of herbs and the “hippy shit” (ginseng, taurine, etc). Stewart’s is more of a local company for us (Saratoga Springs, NY) and they are a much better company (they treat their workers pretty well; benefits, retirement…not bad for a gas station gig).
First things first. I’m not going to pretend like I’m setting any kind of benchmark for the world of climbing. I don’t pretend to believe that I do anything that matters to anyone other than myself. Everything I write here is really more of a chance for me to work through the mess of thoughts in my head. A lot of times I’m too diplomatic and consider too many points to be able to come to easy opinions without working them out first, so this helps with that.
In general I’m afraid of new things; I’m afraid of the unknown. I’m not afraid to fall, I’m afraid of not knowing what the fall will be like. I’m not afraid to make a decision, I’m afraid to make a decision when I don’t know the outcome of it. I’m not scared of new things, I’m scared of new things when I don’t know how they’ll integrate into my life. I think we all get the point now.
I’ve been using climbing to help work on broadening my ability to deal with “the unknown”. My emotions always seem magnified when climbing; I’m super excited when I have success, super scared when I get challenged, and super frustrated when I fail. Because of this, I’ve been really trying to push myself, on both rock and ice, the past 6 months to get into “uncomfortable” situations where I won’t know what’s going to happen. Through this process, I’ve run into a dilemma of sorts regarding rehearsing vs. on-sighting routes that are at my limit.
In my mind, the purest ascent is the on-sight, I don’t think that’s a controversial opinion. I prefer to on-sight routes rather than rehearse moves because I think it is an expression of skill level, again nothing controversial here. Where I was struggling was the notion that rehearsing/working a route (head-pointing) is a cop-out. I think I felt working a route was a cop-out because it’s me saying I’m scared to get on this route because I don’t know how it’s going to end. Will I succeed or will I fail? If I fail, what does that mean? This is the stuff that made me accept repeating the same climbs over and over last year, not putting it out there on something new.
So, an on-sight is an expression of current skills/fitness. On-sighting means you were able to put it all together there and then; that you were good enough to do that route. For me, it’s also validation that I’m pushing my comfort zone and not falling into the patterns I’d like to break out of. A couple weekends ago I put aside my on-sight mentality on two 5.10b trad routes I had my eyes set on. One was because the conditions were really cold and the crux looked thin (i.e. small, finnicky gear) and I didn’t think it was smart to go at it. The second was on a face route where I just didn’t see the gear. Keep in mind the gear was all there, I just didn’t see it, so I rehearsed it all on TR to make sure it was safe in my head. I struggled with this decision, eventually leading the second climb from the ground later that day and leading the first climb last weekend. I got through both routes fine, but after completing the first of the two routes two weekends ago, I felt like my accomplishment was somehow tainted.
In retrospect, when you’re learning something, you have to practice it to make progress. As well, progression happens in steps; big walls and hard lines had to be aided before they were freed, which bumped up the standard. In reality, head-pointing doesn’t do any harm, it’s a tool in the tool box to keep you safe and push your limit. Use it right and you can use it to propel yourself safely onto other “hard” objectives. The day after that second 10b, I on-sighted a fairly sustained 140ft. 10a face route that forced me to move above micro-cam placements. Progression; that’s probably one of my hardest leads yet in my 2 years of leading, and it was on-sight.
My dilemma was that I felt like I was wimping out, that I was falling prey to my fear of the unknown. I realized, I was willing to take risk, but sometimes you need to know what’s good for you and limit your risk. That same idea carries into life too, sometimes the unknown part of a decision is too much risk, and you change things to limit that risk. That 5.10a was plenty dicey in a couple spots (more so than the 10bs possibly). To quote Dustin Hoffman’s character in Confidence, “You know what I learned about style that day? … Style can get you killed”. A tad extreme? Yeah, maybe, but a valid point to consider as we push ourselves closer and closer to the limit.
3.30.10
Busy Tuesday at Roadside Parking Area
We were wheels up around 06:30 and had and unusual NE wind that helped get us to Mt. Sterling, KY in about 3 hours. After picking up the dropped off rental car and driving into Slade on the famed Mountain Parkway, we chose to hit the Roadside Crag for a solid half-day of climbing. We got to the cliff around 13:00 (1 pm) and did an “easy” day just go get mileage in. We did the following:
- Roaside Attraction (5.7 5-star Trad)
- Five Finger Discount (5.8 4-star Trad)
- A.W.O.L. (5.10a 4-star Sport)
- Crazy Fingers (5.10c 4-star Sport)
- Pulling Pockets (5.10d 4-star Sport)
- Fadda (5.10a 4-star Sport)
We wanted to get on Andromeda Strain (5.9+ Trad) but the description and the look of the route made us wait to try and get on it after it had a chance to dry out. We ran into a nice guy who just moved to the area to work as a snake handler at the local reptile zoo (which doubles as a snake venom milking facility) who we made loose plans to climb with. Don and I then packed up and went to the hotel and realized the restaurant was closing so we then went down to Miguel’s to revel in the Gorge’s climbing scene and plan the next day.
Don on the lower section of Earthsurfer (5.11d)
3.31.10
We decided to head into Muir Valley with our new found snake handling friend. Specifically we went to The Hideout for the 5-star route Boltergeist. We climbed the following:
- Moots Madness (5.10a 3-star Sport)
- Boltergeist (5.10b 5-star Sport)
- Bushwhacked (5.10+ 3-star Mixed)
- Preemptive Strike (5.10c 4-star Sport)
- Earthsurfer (5.11d 4-star Sport) [Greg only w/1 fall; Don climbed first half of route below crux)
At the end of the day, we hit up Miguel’s again with our reptilian wrangler friend and had a good day overall (probably my favorite day of the trip; mellow, enjoyable, and no stress)
4.1.10
Don and I resolved to trad climb today and we set our sights on the Long Wall specifically the two 5-star routes Autumn & Rock Wars. I think this is when things started to catch up to us. I know I didn’t sleep much that night and we were directly in the sun and the temps were over 80 degrees. We didn’t get a lot done, but we were also climbing “harder”. Here’s what we did:
- Autumn (5.9- 5-star Trad)
- Rock Wars (5.10a 5-star Trad)
- The Gift (5.12a 5-star Sport) [Greg led to 6th bolt (above first technical crux, below upper power crux) after two falls and then bailed]
After I bailed on The Gift we wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what to do and then finally settled on just running up a nearby 5.10b sport route, Boom! Boom! Out Go the Lights. We both made it only to the second bolt and then finally bailed on the route due to sensitive skin and what felt like incredibly sharp rock that took any pleasure out of the experience. I just want to say the the Trango Squid is an awesome device that allows you to clean fixed quickdraws with ease. I think you can make a similar setup with a work clamp, but for $30 the squid is worth it to me. We retreated back to the hotel restaurant for dinner and made our plan for the next day; to climb for a half-day and then pack it up and head home.
4.2.10
We woke up early and headed off to Pebble Beach with Central Scrutinizer (5.9 5-star Trad) & Brontosaurus (5.10b 5-star Trad) being the main objectives. Here’s what we did there:
- Scabies (5.9+ 3-star Sport)
- Central Scrutinizer (5.9 5-star Trad)
- Environmental Impact (5.7 4-star Trad)
- Straight-Edge (5.12a 3-star Sport) [Greg attempted, bailed at the first bolt…no go juice]
- Brontosaurus (5.10b 4-star Trad)
I pretty much hit the wall on Environmental Impact. My feet were really sore and I was climbing horribly to do whatever I could to not use my feet. I made it to the first bolt on Straight-Edge and just didn’t really feel like I had it in me to try and push through, so rather than hijack the rest of the day I bailed, only to get schooled on Brontosaurus. I just didn’t have the go juice to get through that without falling, thankfully seconding the pitch. I didn’t sleep well the night before and the aggregate exhaustion of the trip and the 80 degree weather of these past two days hit all at once. Thankfully, after Brontosaurus we were heading to the car and the airport.
All in all this was a much better trip for me in terms of performance. I didn’t suffer from the fall anxiety of the last trip at all and I managed to push myself on to a couple of really hard (for me) climbs. Don and I discussed it and I agree with him that the next trip I need to bang out as many 11s as possible to become rock solid at that grade. In all I took back a greater sense of what I’m capable of and a bigger ticklist for some climbs I want to try to attempt here at the home crag in the Adirondacks. We’ll see how this goes.
Bags all packed
So in about 6 hours I’ll be heading to Kentucky again. This time I’m armed with a little more experience and an idea of what I’m getting into. Last year I struggled most of the time down there. I’m just not used to that kind of climbing. It’s funny, 4 years ago I probably would have been better suited to climbing down there, but the past couple years I’ve been focused more and more on trad here in the Adirondacks.
In previous years I used to crank out time in the bouldering cave and on the wall working hard problems/routes. Now I’m more focused on keeping my endurance and strength in maintenance mode and keeping overall fitness up so I can get out and increase my plethora of trad technique/experience, as I feel like that’s where the bulk of advancement is made in moderate to hard trad climbing.
I’m getting away from the point here. Last year I managed to finally settle in on the last two days in Kentucky and was able to hit easy 5.11 (not bad, but not great). This round my goal is to attempt to get on 5.11d, or if things are really going well 5.12a. Last year I was scared to fall or move above a bolt if I felt like I was going to fall (residual self-preservation from climbing in the Adirondacks). This year I’m rolling in with more experience and coming off an ice season with some leads that put me in a soloing head spaces. I managed to roll this into the rock season already this year and got into a hard roof crack (hard 5.9) that I took a couple falls on (bomber gear). It was a big step to get on a route where I knew I would likely fall.
So in short, this time around I’d like to push above bolts and not be worrying about falls (a ridiculous fear most of the time) and concentrate on climbing at my limit (the whole point of sport climbing). Hopefully I can have some success in Kentucky and bring it back here to the Adirondacks and fuel my push into the 5.10 grade, but only time will tell.