A New Chapter

The last time I posted, I was right smack in the middle of my Paleo challenge. Well, my Paleo challenge ended today! For a quick review of what Paleo is: Eating meats, nuts, veggies, seeds, and fruit consisting of 40% carbohydrates, 30% fat, and 30% protein. No grains, legumes, dairy, or processed foods are allowed.

I want to give you just a quick rundown on how the diet affected me. Coming from a 65% carbohydrate (mainly grains), 15% protien, and 20% fat (mainly unsaturated) ratio, I knew that I might run into some bumps along the road with this new makeup of percentages. However for the first month I felt really no changes. I felt energetic and excited about cooking new things and trying new recipes. But about 4 weeks ago this began to change, and I began to feel really tired. I felt really foggy actually. As if I could not respond quickly to what was going on. I found out recently that my ph balance was really alkaline, being almost an 11 on the scale, where humans should be between 6.5-7.5. I'm guessing this is because I took out grains and pasta, which were the only acidic things that I was really eating. However I am constantly learning more about the pH scale and am just going to experiment with implementing different foods into my diet until I find what will make me feel better (or what is making me feel worse).

I think coming out of this challenge I am going to eat a small amount of grains/starches to see if this "fog" goes away. I think that it will, but it may take a couple of weeks. What I like about this paleo challenge is that it has helped me kick my sweet habit! I have no real craving for frozen yogurt, candy, or chocolate anymore. Pretty cool actually. I also feel much better eating foods without high fructose corn syrup (which is in basically everything now, so shopping can get frustrating)

Even though I felt I was in a fog for the past few weeks, I have made some amazing progress! Not only did I get my first muscle up, but I can do three strict muscle ups in a row on gymnastic rings. I can also deadlift 280lbs! Below is a chart of my before and after measurements. Keep in mind that I stayed a consistent 139lbs throughout the entire challenge.

 

Moving on with crossfit and climbing, I am seeing significant changes in my strength and finger health. I competed in this past weekend's Dark Horse, placing 6th, and realized that my fingers are doing pretty well. Even though my grip strength and power endurance was significantly weak, I noticed that my fingers are healed enough for me to begin (very slowly) training these aspects of climbing again!

Going forward I am going to continue with a mainly Paleo diet, crossfit, and climbing and add in some slight climbing specific training. My hope is that I can be strong and healthy enough to compete in both climbing and crossfit competitions this coming year!

End of Paleo!

First Climbing Competition In 11 Months!

Last weekend I competed in the first Dark Horse competition of the season. This was also my first competition in 11 months!! In November of 2011 I competed in the Dark Horse which was my first and last competition of the '11/'12 season. I placed 2nd there, and I was feeling really strong. But I unfortunately felt the effects of my over training three weeks after.

Last weekend was what I consider the real test to see how well my fingers are recovering. I was really nervous about doing a redpoint qualifying round because I wasn't sure how my fingers would hold up with 3 hours of climbing...plus a finals round. Especially with all hard climbs. The longest bouldering session I have had since I began bouldering again in late August had been an hour and a half long and consisted of projecting a v8, climbing v5's, and rope climbing 5.10. Even though I feel that I have all of my power back, I am lacking in the power endurance range. Knowing that made me even more nervous to climb hard.

However, my fingers held up through the entire day! ...with tape of course. But nevertheless, it felt great to compete. My scores were low in the qualifying round because I was trying not to push it too hard on my fingers. I also had poor power endurance and only had enough gas in the first hour to climb hard. I went into finals in 8th place, but I am so happy that I was able to climb hard for three whole hours!

In finals I was definitely feeling tired. But it felt great to climb in front of a crowd again and the climbs were so much fun! I think that one of the most satisfying and exciting things in life is having a crows cheer for you. I felt as if life made sense again. It was great to compete against many of my friends that I had not seen last season, and to meet new friends as well. I think that I either placed 4th or 5th in finals. Scores were not posted for those not in the top three, but I came to this conclusion after talking with my competitors.

Whether I came in 4th or 5th doesn't really matter in the long run. What matters is that I climbed with no further injury and helped put on a great show for those watching; which is one of my all time favorite things to do. I also got some great photos/video of me climbing!

Hopefully I will be able to write more posts about competitions this year! So psyched to be back!
Thanks to Jordan Shipman from Louder Than 11 for the great highlight video and Natalia Boltukhova from Metrorock for the great photos!


Highlight Video:
Dark Horse 2013 Series 4 Round 1 Highlights from Louder Than Eleven on Vimeo.

Photos: (more on darkhorseseries.com)

Recovery Month 9 and 1/2

I cannot believe that I have been recovering from this injury for 9 and a half months now. That is crazy! Obviously this tendovaginitis had been building for quite a long time before I could feel the full effect of the damage. When I did it was already too late...like every climber's nightmare.

After taking a full 6 months off from climbing and seeing various doctors/trying many different remedies, I found myself able to climb again in June! I began on easy routes, then easy bouldering in August. With a combination of crossfit, a couple of hard climbing days a week, and lots of rest for my fingers, I found today that I am back to where I was last September! Last week I sent a v8 in the gym and yesterday I was able to climb all of the v6's in an hour. The pain in my fingers while climbing has gone from constant, to every 10 minutes, to every 5 minutes, and now to every 2 minutes. I am hoping that with slow progression, this pain will completely subside.

So with this recent breakthrough, what comes next? Well in my last post I spoke about how I was shifting my focus to my nutrition and overall fitness. I truly believe that if I can get a good routine going with these two aspects of my life, it will have dramatically great effects on my climbing. I figure that this will help my fingers recover and help me reach my big goal for the year.

My big goal of 2012: To make a full recovery in my fingers by December...and to stay un-injured.

December 3rd of 2011 was the first day I had felt the pain in full force. I am expecting this recovery to last one full year (2 and 1/2 more months to go), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Until then, I am going to focus on climbing 2-3 days a week and doing crossfit 3-4 days a week.

...

 

A week and a half ago I began my paleo diet challenge. Right now I feel as if my body is detoxing. I do not feel very energetic while working out and I sometimes get headaches. But I knew from the start that this would happen to me. I also know that this will most likely go away within the next week or so. It is just my body's response to such a drastic change in diet.

With this diet I am going to keep close tabs on my body fat percentage and document my results. I had a skin fold caliper test done the other day to see (roughly, since this test is not completely accurate) what percent of body fat I have. The test said that I have 18% body fat. So my fat percentage is somewhere in the vicinity of that.

These are my body shots from Day 1 of paleo. I am going to compare these with the future photos I will take at the end of the challenge.

Psyched for what the rest of 2012 has to bring me! I am going to do my best to make sure that does not involve more injuries!
 

The Paleo Challenge

For the past month I have stated that I was thinking about going to the SBC pro in Seattle at the end of this month. Well I have decided not to go. Simply put, I feel that my fingers are just not ready for a competition that requires me to climb hard two days in a row. For the past month I have been bouldering v8 in the gym, but I cannot climb hard for at least four days after a bouldering session.  I really just want my fingers to heal appropriately so that I can attend these competitions without any hesitation in the future!

That being said, my main goal for the rest of 2012 is to have my fingers make a full and healthy recovery. I really think that this can be done successfully. Then I will CRUSH in 2013! For some reason I can already feel that 2013 will be a good year!

So what now? 

Do I just sit and wait for my fingers to heal? Of course not. That's way to boring. So I have decided to switch my focus to gaining overall physical fitness of my body. I have already begun to balance my muscles with the crossfit workouts I started three months ago. I have also focused on balancing my bouldering and sport climbing so that all of my climbing muscles are developed properly.

You might be wondering what else an overall physical fitness entails other than the balancing of muscles. Well, along with playing other sports and just being active in general, I think that nutrition is a huge part of physical fitness. Being helthy will not only limit my risk on injury and illness, it will also cut down on some body fat that I have (except not too much; I am already pretty skinny).

The subject of nutrition brings me to the title of this blog post: The Paleo Challenge! Basically, the paelo challenge is a two-month diet/lifestyle change. The Paleo diet is based upon what the Paelo cavemen ate way back in the day (when every caveman was supposedly jacked). Eating on the Paleo diet is basically just eating meat, nuts, veggies, seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar, and no dairy. It is also made up of 40% carbohydrate, 30% fat, and 30% protein. This challenge is done through a company called Lurong Living and is strict Paleo, meaning no cheating (cheating is a deduction of points). Cheats include eating legumes, grains, alcohol, and basically anything that is not listed above. However because this is a nation-wide lifestyle challenge, Lurong Living provides supplementary crossfit workouts, resources for documentation of progress, and of course prizes. If I can go three weeks on the challenge I will get $85 worth of fitness gear!

To most, this challenge might seem crazy. But I am also on a team with some of my crossfitting friends and we are going to prepare our weekly meals every weekend. Doing this with other people is really motivating! I am also extremely interested in how this diet is going to affect my body. I have never restricted my eating before, except for when I gave up alcohol and sweets for a short period of time. I wonder how my body will react! Will I feel more energetic? Will I build more muscle? Will I become more lean? Or will I become ill? Will I injure myself?

I can only answer those questions in the way I knew best: experience. I am the type of person that needs to experience things in order to learn. I cannot experience a diet through a powerpoint, just like I cannot experience coaching without actually coaching. Or climbing without actually climbing. I want to feel the changes so that I can share my experience, whether it be good or bad, with other people.

The Paleo Challenge begins on September 17th. I am going to start posting my experiences of being on the diet while I try to crossfit and climb. I am going to pay specific attention to how the diet is affecting my finger recovery, my hypothyroidism, my muscular hypertrophy, and body composition. Hopefully only good things will come from this experience!

For more information on the Lurong Living Paleo Challenge, click here.

Awareness

As my last year of being in the teens is climbing to a close, I'd like to reflect on this year. Looking back, this year has been, to put it lightly, a total shit show. I began the year with a heart procedure to get rid of my SVT, endured some tendonitis and ended up taking a full six months off from climbing for tenosynovitis in my ring fingers. Not only that, but I had other responsibilities such as going to school full time and coaching two climbing teams. Oh, and I broke my ankle walking...that one was harsh Mother Nature.

I can sit here and complain about this whole year and how horrible my luck has been, but I am not going to do that. I will not do that because, simply put, this year was not so horrible. I had the most incredible learning experiences and would never have the knowledge I have right now if it was not for this year. Being able to feel the loss of climbing, feel the stress of full time school, teach while my climbing was impaired, and endure whatever else was thrown at me, has taught me some huge life lessons.

One of these lessons is that I am actually good at climbing. Not only am I good at climbing, but I have a good understanding of how the muscles respond to training and training in general. I understand how it feels to be injured and out of the game, which is huge when relating to others. Especially to others that I coach. I also am a very good goal setter. I have been able to achieve every goal I have written down since I decided to seriously train for climbing back in 2010. That excludes this past season of competition goals because of injury. But those goals are now for 2013.

But that is not the biggest thing I learned. The biggest thing I learned is how to be aware of my body. Not only how my body responds to training, but when my body needs rest. I've learned how to be more health conscious and what/how much food to eat. I've learned that even the slightest mistake could ruin my chances of recovery. I've even been more conscious of my stress levels and mental psyche. All of this is such a powerful tool I've never tapped into before! I am now learning when it is good to listen to my body instead of pushing through pain and unmotivation.

Knowing how to be aware also comes with difficult decisions. One of these decisions is whether or not I go to the SBC Pro competition at the end of September. I am financially stable enough to go and I have the ability to climb hard enough to compete. So why not, right? Well the fact is I am still recovering and it would totally suck to mess that whole thing up. But the real question is: Can I give up if I feel pain? Maybe that is an easy "yes" for most people, but that is actually a very difficult question for me to answer. I have been thinking about this question for a couple of weeks now...and I'm not sure if I can give up.

You see, I am what I consider an intense individual. I give 110% every time, no matter what it is. But I especially give my all when it is a competition. I just love to compete and I know that I am also pretty stubborn. I mean, I had an SVT attack during the qualifying round of the 2011 National Championships and I kept climbing...for 4 more climbs. Then I had to go to the hospital. In retrospect, it was a great decision because I was able to qualify for the Vail World Cup. But my heart did not require a prolonged rest period. I even competed at the Nor'Easter four days after having my heart procedure! But my fingers do need rest and if I am able to take myself out of the competiton completely, I will not get injured. I'll have nothing to "give my all" for.

So that is my biggest decision at the moment and I have to make that decision within the next few days. But looking at my future goals, I want to do well at Nationals. If I rest/recover now and spend my time practicing my awareness, I will crush in 2013. There will always be more competitions and more opportunities for me to succeed. I want to win someday and I cannot do that if I am plagued with injuries. So I'll keep you all posted!

Also, here is a photo update of my climbing/crossfit training. Not much difference from the last considering it has only been a month, but I can tell that my chest is more toned.

Summer Recovery

The last time I posted on this blog, I had briefly talked out my plans for getting physically fit. I am happy to say that I have had a lot of progress! I am also excited to say that I have had NO PAIN while climbing!! This is such a huge step for me!

Climbing has not been the only thing I have had progress in either. Six weeks ago I could just barley run a mile at 5mph. Now, with the help of an inhaler, I can run three miles at 6mph. Now that I feel that I can actually run well, I am starting to like it. I run a lot in crossfit and I also run through the side streets and park near my apartment. I can tell that my midline is getting thinner and I am pretty excited. Not that I need to lose weight, but it is nice to have a less bulky build. I feel lighter and more healthy.

I also said before that I was going to start crossfit. I took what is called an "on-ramp" class, where we learn different lifts and workouts required of us. So far I have been doing crossfit for five weeks, three days per week. I can already tell that my body is getting stronger. The first day after our on ramp was over, a staff member moved me from their "below beginner" level to their "advanced" level. I'm psyched because my workouts include more complicated lifts, chest to bar pull ups, and handstand pushups! It is nice to have a challenge that is not climbing. I feel that crossfit is another outlet for me and can help my competitive climbing. Ultimately with crossfit, I think that my body will be in a more balanced physical state which will help both my climbing and mental state.

I have also made large strides in changing my diet. I am trying to eat three balanced meals a day with fruits/veggies mixed in as snacks. So far, my only issue is cutting down on dark chocolate and frozen yogurt. Those sweets are my vice and when I get stressed I tend to eat a lot of it! However so far I have been pretty good (we'll see how that goes on my vacation next week). 

With all of this progress in my life, I feel pretty good! Actually, I feel much happier than I have in the past nine months or so. It is nice because I now have some outlets that are challenging for me. Since I am doing all of these things, I am trying to document all of my progress. Along with this blog, I keep a workout calendar and two journals. I also document photo and take video of me climbing so that I can see my progress. I think that most of my problems stemmed from the fact that I could not see that I was progressing in the sport.
Below is a pretty interesting photo I put together showing my physique change in the past seven months. My shoulders have definitely shrunk, but now I look a little slimmer.

Last but not least, this is my climbing blog so I do want to talk a little about my climbing progress. As I said I have been documenting my progress on video. Six weeks ago I was getting pumped out at the end of a 5.10. Now I am making good progress on a (finger friendly) 5.12d circuit that we have up in our training room. Not only that, but I have flashed a couple v6's and got to the last clip on a 5.12 second go! But that is not the best part: I have NO PAIN. I can't even believe it. I don't even have pain the next day! Even still, I am trying to take it easy. I am only climbing twice a week and the last time I climbed was July 1st. I am also taping my fingers. I really do not want another injury, especially while I am trying to recover.

Below is a link to my climbing video documentation. I can see my progress through the weeks and I welcome you to check it out as well. I am psyched to see what the rest of the summer holds for me!!

Video Progress

True Inspiration

Exactly a year ago, I was in a hotel room in Vail, Colorado anticipating the qualifying round of the Vail World Cup that would take place in the morning. I was the third youngest female competing. I had skipped my high school graduation to go to Vail saying, "I have to go; what if I never have the chance again?" However in reality I felt like this was the beginning to my professional climbing career. I envisioned myself competing in world cups for years to come.

Unfortunately, I did not foresee a finger injury lasting six months and counting. These past six months have been the most physical, mental, and emotional taxing months that I have ever endured in my entire life. Transitioning from high school to college, moving in an out of multiple places, having minor heart surgery, sinus infections, a broken ankle, having my car constantly break down, and getting asthma attacks have not been helping my non-climbing experience. Through this time period, I felt like I had reached a breaking point and then just kept drifting away. I became so broken down that I felt like I was stuck and could never pick myself up. Things like reading climbing books, doing p90x, eating right, and just being fit in general didn't seem appealing anymore. I felt pretty depressed for few months. Although recently I have realized something: These past six months I would not trade for the world.

You are probably thinking why? All of that sounds pretty shitty. But through this time I have learned more about myself than I ever would have if I had kept climbing. Becoming a pessimist and hating the world is something that I just needed to experience. I needed to realize who I really am and why climbing means so much to me. Even though these past several months have been terrible, I recently have had the time to rest from most of my stressors. These past couple of weeks has let me reflect on these months. Turning my optimism back on, I have realized that life has become truly inspiring.

This "true inspiration" I am talking about is not just my life, but life as a whole. I have had the chance to talk to people who have gone through things that I feel are much worse than what I am going through. With this time I have had the chance to experience intense emotions, which really can change a perspective if you let it. I have been able to look at life in a more delicate manner and also look at my accomplishments. For the first time I am actually proud of all my climbing accomplishments instead of feeling that I am still not good enough. Through this time I have been able to look at myself and realize that I love competition and have an unwavering motivation to do something great. This motivation is what made me take this time to learn, appreciate life, and be inspired by it.

In recent news, I am still injured. I have started climbing jug hauls, which is great, but not satisfying. I have decided to broaden my fitness horizons. I recently began running, which is something I used to (and still sort of) hate. I also signed up for a 4 month crossfit membership. My crossfit training begins Monday. For the first time I am getting excited to try something physical that does not involve climbing! However I would love to try trad climbing this summer. So if anyone is in the New England area and wants a trad buddy, I will totally come! You will just have to teach me some stuff.

To conclude this lengthy blog post, I would like to thank my friends who have supported me through these past several months. If I had never taken the time off from climbing, I would not have become close with many of these people. I also hope that this blog post inspires someone to appreciate life. As much as I hate not climbing, my life really is something great and I feel that I have become a better person because of these past several months. And whether I am able to return to climbing or not, I will find something that I can strive to be the best in.