Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Bouldering at the gym

At the climbing gym, there are a few options to get your fill. An option that I didn't originally care for is bouldering. I didn't like it because my fingers would hurt during every move I would make. I've grown to like it much more, though.

Bouldering doesn't require any special equipment, but some mental and physical strength will definitely help. Simply, you try to get up a short wall (around 10 feet) using only certain hand and feet holds. Oftentimes the problems are quite tough, and they take patience to solve. The best way I have found for solving difficult problems is to break up the route piece by piece, as if you know you can do each move in the route seperately, eventually you should be able to do them together.

While at the gym, I have been spending more and more time doing this type of climbing. It is a fun workout.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Ten Miler in St. Paul

Today wasn't a perfect day in St. Paul, the temperature in the mid 40s and strong wind, but I felt the need to go on a run after three or so days of eating lots of sweets. I didn't start my run with the plan to go 10 miles, but that's how it ended up.

I began my run near the cathedral, at the eastern end of summit ave. I felt pretty good, wearing a hat and gloves along with my running shorts. Not a combo I usually go with, but I needed some warmth.

After running 2 miles down Summit, I arrived at Lexington avenue. Its a great place to turn around, as it is a pretty major intersection. I felt strong and pushed on, full well knowing that any step I took, I would have to take again on the way back. I made the same decision at the 3 mile mark, Snelling avenue. Even at that point I thought, well, I'll just go a few more blocks, but it felt good, so I continued on, making it to the Mississippi river rod trail, 4.5 miles from where I started. I ran to St. Clair avenue along the trail, and made sure to run by one of the lookouts over the river along the way.

The trip back was tough, as I knew it would be. I hadn't run more than 9 miles since 2008! I had a few slow moments, but tried to throw in some short tempo challenges. I would run half a bock moderately fast, or run fast between two obstacles, such as tree and a lamp pos.

It felt good for my furthest run of the year. I did it in a decent time, too, though nowhere near my old race pr. This wasn't a race, though. This was a fun run down beautiful Summit ave!