Norway dispreparation

Well, I have to say, this must be the worse build up to a big trip I have ever had.  Let me chart the series of unfortunate events for you...

Oct - despite niggling injury, I go to Spain and redpoint 7b
Nov / Dec- I redpoint a tough (for me) 7a at the Castle
Xmas - do not a lot
Jan - have weekend in Brighton for two chalk sessions - first cut short due to getting caught in the football traffic, second cancelled due to hangover
Jan - manage to do one hour solid bouldering, 'good good' you may say, but blisters force me off climbing for over a week
Feb - go to the chalk, fall off, bash elbow. James falls off, is still on crutches four days later, only nine days before we go
Today - I go for a climb, decide to try the fat campus rungs for some endurance work, ruin hands. Pretty much sums up this year so far.

Given I did manage that hour bouldering I think my endurance must have been pretty good from pre-xmas - the question is, have I done enough to keep it that way?  It certainly won't have improved.  I suppose these things are sent to try us.

Apparently conditions are excellent out there, I just hope we make it that far!

I have decided that, after Norway, my climbing training needs to get a bit more scientific - more training, less 'hmm, perhaps I'll climb that next...'

This is surprisingly painful

Exploding chalk syndrome

We were quite psyched for a decent session on the chalk today, and I had emotionally committed to three hours of training.  But as seems to be the way of late, it wasn't to be. I was traversing a steeper section when the chalk my axe was in ripped off, sending me bicycling backwards through the air - I wasn't very high, four feet off the deck maybe, but high enough to wonder how much it was going to hurt as I was falling.  Well, quite a lot actually, as I seemed to land mostly on my left elbow.  I was able to carry on after a bit of a break, and got two hours in in total.
James wasn't so lucky, his chunk of exploding chalk landed on his knee, which is now pretty swollen.  He has two weeks to recover.

Me doing a completely pointless fig4:

Ronhills and stripes, it's how I roll

Update: Monday - James' knee is not broken, confirmed via x-ray, and my elbow really hurts still.

Nick ruins Saturday, almost finds 'Mark'

I plotted my run on gmap pedometer, let my lunch settle and was preparing to get ready for my 14.97 mile run, only to find I had left my running shoes at home. This apparently ruined the day as Holly was planning to get on with 'pottering' (tidying her room, again) so I was told to take up the least space possible:

A bit bummed at not running (though not enough to go home and get shoes) but at least I had a decent training session at the wall yesterday, admittedly on the screw-on-smear training wall which only really involves crimps - not exactly transferable to ice, but it was nice to feel enthusiastic for the first time in probably a month.

In other news, the drying cupboards in the changing room at work have seen the return of the kit-moving poltergeist (or as I prefer to call him the arsehole tosser).  Periodically we go through phases of finding everyone's kit dumped on the floor of the cabinet, presumably because someone thinks drying their kit is more important than drying everyone else's. I have even found a boot in the bin before.  Anyway, after emailing the below photo to the building manager (and getting naff all response), I was chatting with a fellow changing room user.  Still in a foul mood, I had another moan about the aforementioned tosser (I have been sure for years it is down to one guy), and he thinks he may know who it is!  Apparently he dumps everyone's kit on the floor, uses the dryer for his kit while he showers and then takes his kit, leaving all ours still on the floor! The cheek!  So I am now after a guy that may or may not be named Mark, may or may not be tall, may or may not go to a gym, usually during an early lunch, and may or may not kickbox.  The kickboxing element rules out any preemptive strike of violent force, don't want to get my ass whooped - but stealing all his clothes while he is in the shower may be an option.  I am shifting my gym pattern next week to engineer a encounter.

Nick does a Gold...

...expedition. Sort of.

Another 50 mile week, but this time in only four days. I must admit it has left me feeling quite fatigued.  I hope to go for a run on Saturday so should break the 60 mile barrier for the first time.

Once again its knocked my Norway training for six though – went to the wall on Tuesday and froze my ass off on the cycle there, which sucked all the enthusiasm from me, I lasted less than an hour.  So I have potentially five training opportunities left, two of which should be on chalk – so I am targeting twelve hours of quality training.  Its a bit ambitious but needs must.

Re my earlier post linking Ben Goldacre’s summary of the NHS reform bill, here is a petition against it: http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/22670

The NHS

What will happen with the NHS bill, in 5 tweets.

Regrets of the dying

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/feb/01/top-five-regrets-of-the-dying

I will be happy just as long as my last regret isn't 'I really wish I had checked that kno....'

Which does make me think about if I fear dying.  and I don't think about it a whole lot but perhaps the ends that I fear the most would end with the following going through my mind:

‘Oh bugger, I must have fallen asleep at the wheel’

‘Shit, avalanche, please don’t let me die’

‘I don’t think this pillar of ice should move like that, oh, its collapsing...’

I think of them all, death-by-avalanche would be the least pleasant due to the potential to take quite some time. Not that I am morbid...

How to speech

My process for writing a best man speech began with me writing it word-for-word, essay style.  I found that, pretty much, the first ideas to pop in my head ended up being the main content for the speech.  I then stripped that back down to quite brief notes and divided it into logical sections and practiced each section separately.  After a few run throughs, each section had evolved so I expanded the notes again to cover the new bits or altered turn of phrase.  In the end I had a few extra points that were really just one-liners and didn’t fit in well, rather than disrupt the flow, I binned them completely.  I figured I would rather have a shorter speech that one filled with waffle.  In my last practice, it took 9mins 30secs – I have no idea how long it took on the day – I spoke too quickly but then had the odd pause for the audience to recover(?), so I would guess a similar time.   This ‘essay-note-sections-practice-revised notes’ system worked well I think.

I promised myself it would be written way earlier, and practiced way more, but I am not sure that would have made much difference.  In a way, I think over practicing can be dangerous – too learned and if you get lost, you’re stuffed.  So just blag it.