Music to my ears!

So ignoring my previous blog post about sleep after training sessions here I am at 11:25pm writing about the past few days activities. I  also happen to be nursing a rather tasty dram of Bruichladdich Rocks, a lovely un-peated Islay, I got given another bottle of single malt for my birthday so I thought I'd better get on with this one so I can start the next.

The weather has been pretty poor for a long while now and although we have had two 'alright' days, life (most notably the cars MOT and my mother visiting) has got in the way of being able to capitalise on anything. That said I did have a nice find in Oxenhope on Monday evening, whilst walking the dog a different way to usual I stumbled across what I've named The Mutton Block due to it's proximity to the Lamb Inn and my stupidity in not noticing it sooner. The block looks to have 3 good, clean, independent problems on it with possibilities for a few links and eliminates, with everything in the 6a+ to 7a+ territory this looks like a good project boulder and it has a flat landing and the surrounding area is toddler/ dog friendly. Will definitely be spending a bit of time here when (if) the weather dries up.

Now to this evenings training... having worked as a technical adviser and in several climbing walls in different capacities I would not ever recommend wearing headphones whilst climbing, this is only my opinion but I think it can be a recipe for disaster. The tendency whilst wearing headphones is to tune out from everything around you and focus entirely on what you are doing in that moment, great for the gym or on a run.

However in a climbing wall people fall on you, you are more likely to miss the 16 stone bruiser about to crush you launching himself off the wall behind you and if you're really unlucky the 6 year old who has up until now been quite well behaved chooses your final lap on the 7a circuit to come and play under the circuit board. All these things made so much worse by the fact that you haven't noticed them because you're rocking out to Katy Perry or Bruce Springsteen (don't know why I chose those two, neither of them are on my playlist). That said this evening was strength training time and I was in the training room and man did music help me to focus! I had the best session of typewriters, offsets, holding position on the beastmaker and campus combined with slow pull-ups I've had so far. The music really did give me the extra edge on the last set of everything.

So in summary...

36 Crazyfists and Rage Against the Machine can make you train harder, but they can also make you stupid if you insist on headphones in the climbing wall itself.

Off to the Lakes for a few days on Friday so maybe a session at Lakeland Climbing Centre in Kendal whilst we're there (the forecast looks pants so I doubt we'll be getting out) and then onto session 4, 5 and 6 for strength training. I'll re-post once I've completed strength phase before I switch to power for 6 sessions.