and i'm back in the game...

So I am finally getting myself back into climbing shape after virtually not climbing at all for the past 1/2 a year (by virtually I mean about once a month at the gym). The very last day of February was the last time I had climbed outside until October 2. On that day in February, I achieved my personal best grade: V6. On October 2, I was able to climb a couple of V1s... Obviously, I had some work to do. For the past 3 1/2 weeks, I've been hitting the climbing gym 3-4 days a week and have been outside twice. The first two weeks were very hard, both physically and mentally. I was working on boulder problems in the gym for multiple days that a year ago would've been done in two or three tries. I felt worse after an hour long session than I used to after 4 hours at the gym.

In the past week though, I have been seeing some big gains. I'm repeating all of the stuff I was projecting in that first week with ease and have moved on to working on some of the hardest stuff at the gym. My endurance is still pretty low, and if I do two days in a row, that second day is noticeably worse, but my peak strength is probably back to 85% of where I was 8 months ago. I'm working on V5s-V7s and am up to 2 - 2 1/2 hour sessions at the gym.

This weekend, I'll be making my first trip to the notorious "Holy Boulders" in southern Illinois. It is supposedly the best bouldering area in SoIll and is a little hush-hush. There are no printed directions or maps of the area - you just have to know where to go and what problems are what. I know a couple of people who have been, but have never been able to get together with them. My friend John from the gym is taking me this weekend though (weather permitting), and I'm pretty excited! There aren't too many easy problems there since it is not a place where newbies go, but I'm hoping I feel strong that day and can do some of the awesome intermediates that exist.

Anyway, hopefully I'll have an update for you after this weekend if we don't get rained out.

It feels good to be back.

15 Favorite Jazz Albums

Head on over to the Jazz St. Louis website to check out my list...
http://jazzstl.org/featured/devin-rodinos-15-favorite-jazz-albums/