I decided that I was going to take a little running break over the three day weekend. But, I replaced it with other forms of body torture, I mean, cross training. So today, you lucky folks get three posts for the price of one as I recount each day.
My weekend began in the cute little town of San Luis Obispo, where Raquel went to college. We were determined to have an action packed weekend, where we kept up my training while she showed me her old college haunts. First stop on the tour: Bishop Peak (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bishop_Peak). This climbing/hiking area is literally in the back yard of her college campus. No wonder those kids are so fit. Even the beach was only 15 minutes away. It still makes me wonder how often those students attended class, lucky bums..
Anyway, the area was beautiful and filled with buff/tan students swinging on the cliff face. Now for those of you haven't gone climbing, this is a sport that challenges your flexbitiy, core, strength, balance, and general monkey swinging abilities. To me, it's like yoga on a wall and fantastic cross training. Fortunately, I have the luxury of learning from my expert climber gf. However, it doesn't mean she can give me her hard earned strength and agility. She can make scaling a cliff wall look as natural as walking down the street, while I struggle to even make it to the first ledge. But not to be deterred, I gave it everything I got.
At some point, I realized that a lot of this sport is mind over matter. My body is capable of a lot more than I think it is, if I could just overcome the fear factor. I needed to trust in the rope, the gear, and in Raquel to not let me fall to my death. Alright folks, this is why climbing is not for every couple and could potentially be a fight waiting to happen. In any case, as soon as I believed in those three things I found myself reaching for farther holds and trusting my own limbs more. All of a sudden, I felt like the climber from the Marines commerical: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cjya6LnF0mU , except I had a rope and didn't climb as swiftly. By the end of the day, I managed to complete the longest climb I've ever done outside. And I'm completely proud of that accomplishment, even if it was rated one of the easiest climb on that mountain.
So what did I learn? I need to let go of the things that I can't control (the environment, my gear, etc.) and focus on the things that I can. If you actually trust the support that you have to catch you, you'll always accomplish more than you set out to do.
Stay tuned for Day 2...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment