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TOTOLORE (Read 180671 times)

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TOTOLORE
April 08, 2010, 01:00:14 pm
UNTITLED
8 April 2010, 9:30 am

This is definitely a strange moment. I am really fighting to gain back a decent state of form, but I seem unable to really comprehend the causes.

I was thinking that two weeks off would sort things out, but it looks like I was wrong. Ok, I have a tweaked finger, but that's not enough. I think that one of the most important aspects is that I really really don't want to be in the gym these days. The feeling of depression I get every time I step in, is hard to describe, but it manages to completely make my psyche disappear, and I have to say that I am well psyched to go and train every day I can. Magically, all this good will vanishes as I open the green door. Maybe it's the presence of kids screaming all around, maybe the fact that there are no new problems, maybe the new volume on the 45° that made my project unclimbable, sitting in the smack middle of the crux move.

Anyway I don't let these minimal reasons hold me back. I just keep going there until I puke.

One other reason I am trying to analyze is my new fingerboard routine, taken from the Beasts. It is hard, maybe too hard for me at the moment, or maybe it just packs in too much volume: the consequence, anyway, is the same, I am unable to climb shit after it. Seeing how the said Beasts do more or less the double than I do, is mindblowing.

It's good to change though, and I am positive that it will pay alot, as soon as I get familiar with it. Probably reducing the number of series and raising the intensity could do for me, after all I don't really need to perform seven series of seven hangs for each type of hold, yesterday my forearms were pumped and swollen for at least another hour after finishing the routine.

One last consideration is about food. I am thinking that I am eating not enough, or not well enough. Maybe an email to a friend of mine who is a specialist in nutrition could be useful.

Then: I finally bought a Beastmaker. I am really excited, to say the least. I am looking forward new sessions, right in the comfort of my home, with my music and perfect, smooth and beasty holds. The idea is to cancel from my mind the thought that I can't hang a hold. Hanging onto pencil lines drawn on the wall is my mid term goal. The long term goal is one arming them lines.

Finally, something climbing related. Despite being pumped silly and tired for the whole session, yesterday I gave a true will power display. After doing a couple of easier problems in horrible style on the 10° wall (I didn't know they could make walls only 10° overhanging), I was pointed at a project on the 45°. On more familiar ground I set off for the flash, and I failed, being unable to swing out left to a very good foothold from two crimps that you hold with your arms crossed. I gave it another go, but this time even the first two moves proved to be too hard for me. Sadness. Before putting in more useless efforts, I wanted to know whether the swing move was doable, so I reached the far away foothold, then using ohter holds tried to get into the cross crimps positions: nearly impossible even from jugs. I was just about to let the shitty project rot in hell when I saw the light, under the form of a huge dyno, with the crimps switched: YYFY, it was doable. Now I only had to do it.

Again this was the hardest bit. I fell twice on the starting moves, exhausted. Then I missed the dyno, then I got the dyno but ripped from the left hand crimp. I kicked the chalkbag and rested. I wanted to get it done, more as a mind effort than a physical one. And I did. I sat under the starting holds, closed my eyes and started thinking to every move, to the millimeter, to every hold, to the sensation of power I wanted to recall from my squeezed muscles. I dispatched it. The first moves went as smooth as a drill in a concrete wall, pure power, then the dyno didn't even feel hard. Just the time to slightly fuck the feet sequence and I was eyeing the final jug, trying to put my body in balance to stick it, but before I was able to compose my rational thoughts, my non conscious mind had already taken over, and I found myself falling on the hold, latching it, swinging out on one arm while letting go a power scream and a horrible swear.

Cristiano smiled and I was happy.

It's all in the mind. And in the muscles.



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#1 PEOPLE!!!
April 15, 2010, 01:00:15 am
PEOPLE!!!
14 April 2010, 7:34 pm

I climbed in Ticino this past weekend! Nothing hard went down, but I finally made it to Brione. During the walk back from that amazing, peaceful and surprisingly chilly setting, I couldn't help but think how good it will feel when I will do that walk after climbing "Amber". I will. I don't know the day, I don't know if I will struggle or if I will crush it, I don't know if I will be alone or surrounded by friends, the only thing that I know is that one day, in the future, I will be walking in that valley after climbing "Amber".

The fact that I didn't even see "Amber" is marginal.

Anyway, the amazing surprise of this mini trip is that I met loads of cool people. I met two nice guys from Sweden who also happen to read this blog (and that was shocking); I met a guy I had only chatted with on the Net, who showed me around and made me feel safe when I was climbing "Arabald"; I finally managed to climb with a friend with which I had only shared the plastic holds of the gym; I met a group of young german powerhouses, and one of them also gave me a precious piece of gear that I had been searching around for weeks; I met some Brits who impressed me with their energy and coolness and I also met Italian bouldering guru Marzio Nardi. All these people were nice with me, giving me beta, or a spot, or simply being nice. So guys thank you, you made me feel good and that is the only thing that is important.

Then: today I went sport climbing. "Top roping" would be more appropriate, but I had fun, so nothing else matters.

Finally: I had a good session at the gym yesterday, and despite feeling a bag of shit, perhaps it still hasn't come the day I will hang the shoes to the proverbial nail. To be honest, I didn't feel bad at all, I felt strong and sparky, but since I had been feeling shit during the last weeks, I was probably feeling strong but being shit.  

Anyway, in this very moment, a Beastmaker is traveling towards my house. I am excited to embrace again the most basing cult of power; when, this summer, the gym will be an oven, I will be training as a headless chicken and this thought already makes me feel good, because climbing is like this: the more you put into it, the more it gives back to you.



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#2 THE MAKING OF A BEAST
April 17, 2010, 01:00:23 am
THE MAKING OF A BEAST
16 April 2010, 10:08 pm

My life as a climber can now change: the Beastmaker was indeed traveling towards my house when I last posted here. It came friday morning, finding me, quite unusually, at home, ready to give it the first kiss. I am truly excited and am ready to dedicate myself to the cause, to be honest I really can't wait to start training on it. I still have to completely recover my finger, but the antiinflammatories are doing their mean task.

Other session today, nothing really noticeable again, apart feeling not too bad: I did a few things on the 45°, then I set and tried a new problem on the 60° and finished with some footless bouldering on said walls. At the end of the session I was overall tired, but could still feel some power, so I tested the fingerboard and I found out that I can still one arm a slopey edge at the end of a session, and that is very promising.

What pleases me the most about the Beastmaker, is that, far from being magical, it gave new psyche to get back to some serious fingerboarding, and that it opened new visions and new desires. Who sees, desires, and who desires, want.  



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#3 GODDAMMIT
April 20, 2010, 07:00:12 pm
GODDAMMIT
20 April 2010, 1:50 pm

Fucking hell, I am so fucking pissed.



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#4 SOMETIMES...
April 27, 2010, 07:00:19 pm
SOMETIMES...
27 April 2010, 12:40 pm

Sometimes, the clarity of my vision terrifies me.

In this vision a see a man, whose only care is climbing. It's the thing he loves the most, and climbing and preparing himself to climb stronger, are the two things that make him happiest. In this vision, this man is sad and depressed when he can't climb, whatever the cause: a relationship, work, family issues, bad weather or an injury. Anything putting his desire to a stop is a enemy, an obstacle to a bigger happiness. Far from being obsessed, this man only strives to fully appreciate his love for climbing, to dedicate all the time he can to being happy, simply happy in doing what he loves the most. When his climbing doesn't go well, this man is also sad, but this sadness quickly turns into a new desire to get better and stronger.

This man is fully himself when he's climbing, and only in climbing he's fully himself: in this he is also fully free, because his climbing is for him absolutely useless in the terms of "normal" people. It doesn't give him money or fame, it's completely and purely useless, therefore, completely free.

When the vision gets deeper, I see and understand that this man is ready, at any given moment, to give up and abandon anything he's doing to go climbing, and if he doesn't do it, it's just because he pauses and reflects over the cosenquences of his behaviour. But he knows he's ready. He often regrets his past decisions, when he was young and had nothing and noone to tie him down to his responsibilities: he didn't take advantage of good chances, and those are now gone and forever. So every time this man has to drive for hours on his own to get some climbing done, he regrets all his past decisions, that could have made his life better. He knows his life would be better, because he knows what he wants now. This regrets, though, aren't enough to stop him from desiring ever more, or from driving that extra distance, or from training once more.

In my vision, this man wants to tell all the young climbers to never let go of a good opportunity to be happier, in whatever way they want, because there's always time to be responsible.

So I'm sure you can understand why, when I see myself in that man, the clarity of my vision terrifies me.



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#5 REALITY CHECK
May 01, 2010, 01:00:13 pm
REALITY CHECK
1 May 2010, 9:05 am

So far, 2010 has been rather disappointing in terms of climbing achievements. It's not that I haven't climbed shit, but for sure I haven't climbed as much and as hard as I had figured before. That's the difference between desires and reality. As you may or may not remember, 2009 ended with a bang, when I went to Cresciano and did "Frank's Wild Years", a problem I fell in love with many years ago, during my first trip to the place with my friend Eric. That ascent is one of my career highlights, because it was fast and solid, I tried it for half an hour the first day, then did it first go on the second day; but also because it's been a dream come true, and doing that problem pushed me back in the past to that trip with Eric, when everything was different, in my life, in my climbing, and connected me again with those days and those memories, bringing them closer to the present, making me able to relive them, in this send. This year has been different. I took a few days off after Cresciano, then went back to training for Font. I had many projects and I was sure I was going to be strong. Unluckily, I immediately started with the wrong foot, being forced to suspend the training for a couple of weeks for a physical problem, but I kept my mind together, I kept thinking that those two weeks weren't going to be crucial in years of training, and I was right. Font, on the other hand, proved itself to be shy of success for me: I was actually in good shape, at least physically. The fact that my girlfriend didn't come with me, as it was supposed to be, left me a bit on the down side, but luckily friend Filo took her place and helped me alot. Snow, rain, damp boulders were what the forest had prepared for us, and despite climbing to exhaustion every day, I was unable to try even just one of my many projects. So it was back to Italy, with a fairly depressed mood and a tired body. One day, I felt my middle right finger a bit stiff and swollen, but I didn't care too much about it. Well, since then, two months ago, it's gotten worse due to my continuous training, hindering my climbing alot and generally being a pain in the ass. Despite this, I had a few good climbing days especially at Amiata, where I repeated a few old problems in good style, and put up a few new ones, the best being for sure "Petting" a nasty traverse with a cool sequence. I was hoping it to be very hard, but unluckily I think it's not.

Spring came. High temps caused low psyche in the gym. I kept training in no specific way, just bouldering as hard as I could, and after a few weeks I started feeling better again, but still with an injured finger. I needed something to push me forward, to give me new psyche, and when I pictured myself trying to train in the summer months, with temps in the gym in the high 30's, 80% humidity, the solution appeared in the form of a "Beastmaker 2000" fingerboard. In the previous weeks I had already gone back to fingerboarding, this time using the beasts' advices, and got good feelings from that, despite clearly having to tune it down to my needs. I was overdoing it a bit, but I could feel it was good. Then, just from nowhere, a sting in my right elbow. I thought it was going to disappear with a couple of days off, and it did, but it kept coming back after every bouldering session. And it's still here. It only allowed me one single Beastmaker session. A great session, to be honest.

So, these are the facts. The boring facts, you want to add. Yes, as boring as I am bored. I am absolutely pissed off by my injuries, and I know that I should have addressed them earlier, but fuck off, I want to train and get strong, not sit on the sofa massaging my elbows. Clearly this hardman way of thinking doesn't pay off that much, and now I am sitting on the sofa, massaging an even worse elbow.

"Think long term" is what I tell me. The summer is long and I won't get much climbing, especially because of work. A few weekends in the Dolomites, that's what I long for, but they are still far away. So I am trying to recover my finger and elbow, and in this dark moment, the light came in the form of a polished bit of limestone in the British climbing mecca that Raven's Tor is. This hold represents an entire world for me, a world of training, dedication, myth and modesty. It gave me new energy to keep going to the gym, it allows me to rest my right arm, and it's a long term goal of mine, sitting perfectly in another long term plan, that is taking one month off during next fall to be spent in UK.

I don't care if I will take this month off (oh fucking hell I do care!), and I don't care if I will one arm that hold (oh fucking hell I will!). As long as it helps me keeping my psyche up during an injury, anything goes.



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#6 RESPECT
May 08, 2010, 01:00:09 pm
RESPECT
8 May 2010, 9:20 am

Respect is one lost attitute nowadays, but it has great importance for me. It says alot about a person, and I want to be a respectful person, also at the rocks.

Years ago, I was watching a tennis match at the telly; well, more than a tennis match, was a tennis lesson: one of the players (whose names now are lost in the dust of my brain) was so superior, so inspired, that his poor opponent was being destroyed; it was something on the lines of the infamous final of Roland Garros back in 1988, when Steffi Graf won 6-0 6-0 in 32 minutes, tennis' shortest final ever.

Anyway, on the commentators' mouths the word "humiliation" appeared often, and it seemed well put at the moment. Everyone was thinking "Please, let him win at least this point!" and was considering kind of "unfair" to destroy an opponent with such energy and dedication: it seemed that the player wanted to put the other player's career to an end.

At some point though, they gave the mic to another commentator, a former tennis champion of the '70s, and he said one of the most inspiring things I have ever heard on sports. He said that it was just the opposite: far from being a humiliation, the stronger player was paying his best respect to the other one, putting all his energy into defeating him. This is the only way to demonstrate respect: giving everything you have to destroy your opponent. What most consider a sign of respect, doing just enough to win, like cat and mouse, is a horrible lack of respect and a true sign of presumptuousness.

When you destroy an opponent, although it may seem "unfair", you are telling him "listen man, I believe you are a strong opponent, I fear you and I respect you, so I won't risk anything with you, and I will cancel you from the Earth's face". On the other hand, if we don't put ourselves 100% into something, we want to say that we are superior to that task or opponent, we don't need to apply seriously.

So, I want to keep this attitude also in my climbing. If someone shows me a problem and I know I can flash it, I want to flash it, and to flash it so hard that it becomes another problem. In this I am not humiliating my friend, I am only paying my respect to the problem, especially if it's on plastic, because it has probably been conceived to be hard, especially for the setter.

Briefly, I want to apply all myself to a task, because I think that this is the only way to be respectful, so if this involves destroying a friend's problem, well so be it. I put too much of myself into climbing to let it become something not entirely serious. So, if I will ever get to the Tor, and if I will ever do that infamous one armer, be sure that I will try to do two; and if I will do two, I will try to do three, and so on, endlessly. Because Malc is a legend, and because he'd do the same, I am sure.



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#7 ALL QUIET ON THE LEFT HAND FRONT
May 15, 2010, 07:00:06 pm
ALL QUIET ON THE LEFT HAND FRONT
14 May 2010, 8:50 am

My right elbow hasn't recoverd yet.

I try to keep my chin up, my head down and my eyes fixed on one step ahead of me, my mind on the long term goal.

It's very very hard for me, now, not to get really angry and depressed about my climbing. Ironically enough, I am realizing right now that in the previous weeks, when I was feeling weak, I wasn't THAT weak, and most of all I was climbing well, if not strong. So, to have to interrupt this kind of flow, really makes me sad. It would have been perfect to keep the good climbing style and then match it with some serious training, weights and fingerboarding. Oh well, I have to cope.

I keep doing my left arm training, and I see some progress. I am able to lock off on a slopey edge now, something that I could easily do on my right arm but not on the left one: at least this injury gives me the chance to really address my weak left arm, to regain some balance between the two arms. The other day I also tried to one arm that hold, nearly doing it. I went up with power, but then was unable to complete the pull, stopping a bit shy. Strange, given that the first part of the pull is generally the hardest to perform. I also did some other tests, finding that I can dead hang and one arm that hold very comfortably with just 3-5 kilos off. The hold I train on right now, I am sure, is nowhere close to being as hard as the hold of "Malc's One Armer", and this makes me shiver when I am alone in bed at night. Sometimes the goal seems getting closer, sometimes it seems so far away, becoming so distant in the fog, as if I was lost in a desert and could not reach the oasis that is at the line of the horizon. This really scares me, not because I am scared to fail, but because it will show how weak I am in comparison to other climbers. It's something completely different than, for example, being unable to climb a problem: here, there are so many different aspects thare relevant, while on that hold, you can only be strong and one arm it, or weak and not one arm it. So, it's a benchmark, completely separated from climbing, but also so closely related with it: if one is able to perform a single hand move at Font 8a, the road to something good gets wider, straighter, and faster, and I want to race down that road as fast as I can.



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#8 SOME OTHER TIMES...
May 19, 2010, 07:00:21 pm
SOME OTHER TIMES...
19 May 2010, 1:15 pm

... some other times I think back to a few years ago, to the first years my girlfriend and I were together. Back in those days everything was so easy. We were living in a big house, we were free from bigger troubles and worries, and any given weekend was good to go climbing for a few days.

Meschia, Magic Wood, Cresciano, Annot; surfing in Corsica, or in Sardinia. Anything would do. Life was simple and straightforward. Climbing was so straightforward: get to the boulders, throw the pad under a rock and climb it. No name, no grade, no beta, nothing. I trained on my own, on my small fingerboard, with random trips to the old gym in Florence, maybe once a week, to get my ass kicked by punters here and there.

Everything is so different now. Work is my main concern, because, for the first time in my life, I really love what I do. Sadly I don't earn alot, but it's enough, and now that my girlfriend is working too, our lives are taking a completely new path. There's alot of time dedicated to training, still, although now I train in a big gym three or four times a week, with psyched climbers, that, anyway, still kick my ass, but that's another matter.

There's sadly little time dedicated to climbing on rock. And when I get that precious time, it's so different now: gone are the days of 30 problems climbed in a weekend. Sometimes I laugh "The less I climb, the better". My goal now is to get to a place, to seek my specific project, to crush it as quickly as possible, then move on to the next. I need a name, a grade, and often I would gladly appreciate some beta, to save me alot of wasted tries!!! While years back I wanted to get an overall good level during the whole season, now I train more specifically, with more dedication and responsibility. Sometimes I have come back from a trip without a single problem climbed. Some other times I have come back with a total amount of climbing of a couple of minutes, just enough to send a project. But every time, I have come back proud of what I put into my climbing.

So, what's the point? The point is that we never know what's next, until we make something to make it happen. As long as we lie in our lives, avoiding choices that could prove us to be wrong, everything comes cheap or even for free, but tasteless. When we make things happen, we expose ourselves to success or failure, to a sweet taste or to a bitter taste. My trick is to seek the bitterness into a sweet taste, and to seek the sweetness in a bitter taste.

One thing didn't change in these last years: I really miss my friends and I really miss spending more time with them.



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#9 Re: TOTOLORE
May 19, 2010, 10:35:50 pm
Really enjoying your stuff, nibs  :)

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#10 Re: TOTOLORE
May 20, 2010, 12:11:08 pm
hey grazie!!!

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#11 THE ROAD TO THE TOR
May 20, 2010, 07:00:08 pm
THE ROAD TO THE TOR
20 May 2010, 2:04 pm



The road to The Tor is very long and very hard. I feel I have just left.



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#12 PITCH BLACK
May 30, 2010, 01:00:08 pm
PITCH BLACK
30 May 2010, 9:41 am

Night vision. I have to get it. I have to learn it, and then I have to master it, and then I have to follow it through this moment.

In the last week I had been fooled that my elbow injury, maybe, was really healing: tuesday I had a poweful session with weights, in which I had no pain or discomfort, and I didn't even need to ice the elbow, afterwards, nor to use anti-inflammatory patches. I was happy and I started picturing myself cranking.

After a couple of days off, I had another session on friday, and despite some discomfort I was still feeling good, maybe I started picturing myself not cranking, but definitely enjoying climbing.

Yesterday I went climbnig. No, wait, I went bouldering. My goodness. I felt as weak as a man can feel, and after a while my elbow was fucking sore. I did nothing hard, I tried to slowly get into the moves, but as soon as something harder than climbing with a straight arm was needed, I felt a sharp pain that stayed with me for the rest of the (brief) session.

It felt horrible. I don't even know if I enjoyed the climbing I did. I am scared to say that I didn't. My friend Bengio was on fire (pretty much as usual), and not being able to take his energy and to climb at full power has been very very depressing. Sad but true, I don't enjoy doing easy stuff. Whatever the grade may be, I enjoy being at my limit, but not for an injury. I may have fun, and I did many times, doing a delicate traverse on a featureless slab, and I have fun fighting my way up powerful overhangs, but only because this is what I WANT  to do, rather than what I HAVE to do because I'm injured.

So, how poor my condition is? Not only I can't climb, but when I get to climb I don't even enjoy it. Wow, to even write it, it sounds horrible.

"You have to be very disciplined" says Ben in "Stonelove". He also says "I don't like being weak".

Looking back at it, it's really been a hard day out. There were rays of light sometimes, but they were cancelled by an acheing elbow. I really really don't know what to do. I was hoping to enjoy climbing. I had waited for this day since weeks. I had planned a weekend in the Dolomites. I had dreams to fulfill, I had problems to crush and routes to try.

As some of you may have understood, I am sad. It's not uncommon, you know it if you are a regular here, to read sad lines. But one thing is being sad because you failed on something you should have done, one other very different thing is being sad because you couldn't even try.

My hope is time. Time and weather. It's already +30° here. 22° yesterday night at 10. Not exactly crushing conditions... and the summer hasn't even officially started. I have long boiling weeks ahead, alot of work and different things to do, that I will talk about sooner or later.

The climbing gym is going to be closed in a few weeks. The owners are going to split and noone knows when and where a new gym will open, if it will. I feel at Ground Zero again. Maybe even lower, because I still can't start over again until properly recovered. In this pitch black night I will center my vision on weights and fingerboarding. I need to move. I need to do something. I need to become strong. I need to crush hard things. I need a mental asylum.



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#13 DOLOMITES
June 07, 2010, 07:00:09 pm
DOLOMITES
7 June 2010, 12:45 pm

The heavy approach.

The imposing Catinaccio.

Andrea leading the third pitch.

Yours truly at the top.

I spent the weekend in the Dolomites, and as usual it's been gorgeous. With a nice group of friends, also. With my friend Andrea I climbed the "Spigolo Maestro" VI, at the Catinaccio group, a nice short multipitch (six pitches), very exposed (it's a ridge) and both physical on the overhanging bits and technical, on grey wonderful slabs, where you always find the hold you need to progress right when you need it. Well protected on pitons, I only put one friend, before realizing I hadn't noticed a nearby piton. I am very proud of having led the crux pitch. I had a moment of tension when a fast party, led by an alpine guide, as we found out later, joined us at the third pitch belay: I was leading the delicate slab above, and I started hearing some muttering from below, clearly the fast party was complaining about us being slow. In fact, Andrea later told me, the guy got to the belay where he was, and quickly said "Oh, shit we have to wait now!"; Andrea, my very best friend, quickly answered: "Exactly, you should have gotten up earlier, as we did." End of story. Silence again, and I completed the pitch in glory.

I spent the following day all alone at Cittą dei Sassi, getting back in touch with bouldering. I tried "Dolomitenmann" 8a+, a left to right traverse out from "Mecca" 7c. I had pictures of James trying it last november, almost doing it in a few tries: well, came out that his sequence skipped at least three good holds and was plain brutal. I spent a long time finding my own sequence and managed to do all the moves quickly, but I hadn't enough in my tank to complete the whole long problem (20ish moves). I did it in two halves and in the doing also repeated "Mecca"; sadly, baby soft skin, temps in the high 20° and general lack of climbing fitness all together were too powerful enemies for me to defeat.

I had moments of rage and disappointment, but then realized I was in an amazing place, doing what I love, and  my elbow was also feeling quite good. I kept on climbing on the problem until I couldn't do more than one move in a row, then with a monster grin of satisfaction, packed and left.

As the last mountains disappeared in the rearviewmirror, and I had only flatlands in front of me, I started reliving all the moments of these two days, and suddenly I found myself there in the mountains again, with the rough grey and orange rock under my fingers. And this is just magic.



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#14 RIGOR MORTIS
June 16, 2010, 01:00:25 am
RIGOR MORTIS
15 June 2010, 7:30 pm

Today I finally made it back under the Beastmaker. I think the video says it all.

... and a rather happy Totolore after a particularly satisfying set.



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#15 EYE CANDY
June 18, 2010, 07:00:18 pm
EYE CANDY
18 June 2010, 1:18 pm



Images courtesy of Filippo Galluzzi.



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ONE YEAR, ONE MONTH, WEIGHTS, A MISSION
21 June 2010, 12:43 pm

Two months ago I did my first serious Beastmaker session. Then I decided to call it quits for a while, to recover my elbow, and dedicated myself to moving weights around in a dusty, dark and stinky gym. I have been doing this for the last month, three or four times a week, and I think I got some result. I immediately noticed that somehow, during the winter, I had retained the power I had put up in past summer's cycle. So I started again from there.

I have trimmed the session in this month, cutting off useless exercises (useless in terms of climbing training) and adding some others. In particular, I started training my back, and recently my triceps, with super sets.

So I first do parallel dips and then cable extensions for the triceps, and I do bicep curls with a dumbbell followed by one armed pulley machine or one armed lat machine. It's strenuous but effective. I hadn't felt my biceps and back this worked in a lot of time. I still am very very cautious with my right arm, I try to pull down but avoid the fully locked position due to my elbow, which, despite the repeated beatings I give it, is getting slowly better. The combined one armed sessions at the fingerboard I did all April, also gave some results. My left arm is definitely overally stronger and more stable, and my bicep has changed its shape, which is a clearly good sign.

Yesterday I did my second Beastmaker session of the past week. Progress. I am currently training with 6 sets of 10" hangs for each chosen hold and grip. Still refining the session to obtain the most from power and skin, yesterday was a good one. I did:

warm up; big rungs; 20°; 30°; middle two; slopey monos; front two on small ones; back two; back two on small ones; small rungs; back three small rungs; small rungs again. Felt good and satisfied at the end, with a decent volume of 11 clean minutes of deadhangs, and also a quite high intensity, working two fingers at a time is hard for me, almost never done it before. It's good to train this way because you can go at the limit without having to add weight or go one armed, two things that I don't want to do anymore (the frist one), and for the moment (the latter).

One other good (or bad, depending on your opinion) thing about the Beastmaker, is that it's widely popular among strong climbers, this allowing everyone to share data. Speaking with Tom the other day I realized (once more), how weak my fingers are. Seeing footage of Ned campusing between the 30° and the small monos in the , made me realize how weak I am. Reading the Beasts' feats, made me realize how weak I am. The road is so long, steep and difficult, and it's so easy to get overwhelmed by other people's power. But, despite being so depressing, playing with the big boys is the only way to grow up stronger. I don't want to be the king of the gym, I want to go around and touch many different kinds of rock and climb many different, hard problems. I go to the gym to fail, to be shit and to feel shit. Not to succeed. Or not mainly.

Sometimes I am a bit sad because I feel the need to put more effor into my climbing: recently I feel like I've been a bit slack, not traininfgproperly or seriously, even though I know that this wouldn't be fair to say. I have trained as hard as I could with my injury, but this thought lets me not satisfied. I would like to dedicate my entire day to climbing and training, doing more and more, but sadly it's not possible.

Even having the time needed, I don't know if my body would allow me, but for sure I would try.



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#17 HOT ROCK, BUT STILL ROCK
June 30, 2010, 01:01:12 am
HOT ROCK, BUT STILL ROCK
29 June 2010, 7:55 pm

I spent the last weekend at Amiata, in a super posh B&B that my girlfriend chose. The plan was to bake in the sun and chill in the swimming pool, for her; to destroy hard boulders, for me.

Predictably, she had more success, but despite a months long layoff due to the elbow, the lack of specific training, baby skin and hot, aggressive rock, I definitely pulled.

At first, I was feeling very nervous; it was as if everything was new. I felt unsure about doing moves that didn't seem that hard; I felt unsure to be able to actually complete a problem without screwing something; I felt unsure if it was a good idea to really give it a serious try, or if it could have been better for me to hide in the shadow of my elbow injury and step back from stage.

Predictably again, I decided to give it a go. On the first problem, I was very tense. The move off the pinch seemed hard and as I tried the topout I immediately started to have problems, until I found a sequence to the right side of the boulder. So I took my chances, stepped under the small overhang and concentrated. Then I pulled on, and I felt everything easy as it once was. Despite this, I did manage to screw it on the topout, due to not being used anymore to climbing. I was tempted to take the tick nonetheless, the move that I fumbled is easy and I was scared to try again the bottom move, the slap to the sloper. Then I thought that I had to get used again to the pressure, that I had to get confident again, to see myself doing every move and to believe. So I did it again and crushed it.

This brought great joy and satisfaction. I had previously cleaned another line to the right, dynamic slaps and compressions between the arete and some pinches, but the rock had already taken its toll from my fingertips and my body was tired, I didn't have much core tension and could barely figure out the bottom moves. The top ones will be hard, but I will do them and it will be a great problem.

I walked back down to another small overhang.

Months ago I had been there, and I had done the problem, but I couldn't complete the sitter I wanted to add. So I set to work, but every hold was too painful, and despite getting the last crimp twice, I had to admit defeat.

It was time to get back to the pool.

Sunday, with my already acheing tips, I found myself again there. I warmed up, and felt comfortable under the pressure of wanting to do the sitter first go. It wasn't a flash, in my mind it was even harder than a flash attempt. On a flash, you can blame everything for blowing it: a wrong sequence, a suddenly greasy hold, or whatever. I couldn't. I knew exactly what I had to do, how every move and every hold would feel, how hard. So it was with great joy that I did it first go, cutting loose even if I didn't want to, but climbing it well.

I went back to the problem of the saturday, and added a sitter to that also.

Finally, I went back to another sector to give a try to another project of mine, a traverse on slopey holds. I made progress and I felt happy and grateful. I felt grateful to myself, because I never let go and kept my faith in a better future, even when I was feeling sad and I found everything unfair.

So I came home with new problems done, and, which is even better, new projects to bash my head against.

My elbow was tired but fine, so maybe that better future has finally arrived and I am ready to welcome it.



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#18 Re: TOTOLORE
June 30, 2010, 01:41:10 pm
excuse me,
could someone tell me if the video on the blog post works properly? I checked it out but it seemed to stop at around 1.50
thanks.

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#19 Re: TOTOLORE
June 30, 2010, 02:03:32 pm
Nice short vid Nibs.

Streams the full 3m54secs here ok.

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#20 Re: TOTOLORE
June 30, 2010, 05:40:08 pm
ok thank you!

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#21 Re: TOTOLORE
June 30, 2010, 06:06:14 pm
Worked fine Lore.

I love the slap move on the first problem  :thumbsup:

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#22 Re: TOTOLORE
July 01, 2010, 12:46:19 pm
thanks rich!!!
I'll watch you static that move when you come south!!!

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#23 GUILTY
July 06, 2010, 07:00:16 pm
GUILTY
5 July 2010, 8:16 pm

I feel very guilty for not training as hard as I want. After an easier week, now I would really like to train very hard and very specifically, also.

I can more or less do the first thing, at least with the weights, but I can't really do the second, or at least I can't do anything else than the Beastmaker (which is, anyway, a great thing).

The wall closed last weekend, and now they are dismantling everything. Noone really knows when and where they will reopen; rumors are that they will build a mega wall and everything, but also that they will move away from town: given that the wall was two minutes on bike from my house, that's no wonder.

I keep moving weights in the sweaty, filthy gym and can see some progress. After a short week, with one day dedicated to weights, one to toproping and the rest to drinking with my friends for the Palio, yesterday I hit the weights again and found myself in good power regime. On the bench press, I jumped from 6 to 10 reps of my previously usual weight, then I added 5 more kilos and could still do 2 reps, after just a 3 minutes rest.

I think I have refined my session. Bench press, then 2 exercises to work the triceps in super sets, then back and biceps with various techniques. Yesterday I did the pulley machine one handed, four sets, and then 7 sets of bicep curls, using two different grips. Unluckily my elbow is still achey if I do the normal curl, with palms pointing up. Finally, shoulder and abs.

Today the menu offers back again, probably lat machine one handed and biceps again, still don't know whether in super sets or not.

Then, I am trying to get into better eating habits, this meaning I'm trying to eat a bit less. Not to lose weight, that is one thing that I don't want to do, but to feel better, and not like a T-Rex after eating 1/4 of his bodyweight in one meal.

My sunday Beastmaker session was very good. I am still doing sets of 10" for 6 times for many different holds; currently:

- big rungs;

- 20°;

- 30°;

- mid two, good;

- slopey mono;

- front two, small;

- back two;

- mid two, small;

- small rung;

- back three, small rung;

- small rung.

Last sunday I changed things a bit, to fight a climbing-deprived weekend. On the bigger holds and on those on which I'm stronger, instead of deadhanging 10" I do 5 pull ups, going up and down by the second. On harder holds, I do one set deadhanging and one pulling, and on the hardest ones (monos and back two) I just try to do as many pulls as I can and then I deadhang to complete the 10".

I liked this session and will keep it; it's both fingery and physical (d'oh! could you guess it?) and left me pleasantly worked. It was nice, on monday, to feel my back a bit achey.

So, everything is NOT lost. The summer is long, the gym is closed and I am super eager to step it up. I wonder how the others will survive the period without the gym, then I think that mostly they won't care. The idea of training as hell to boulder 8b is not shared by many, or simply they have less mind issues than me.

My goal is to get out of this summer stronger than ever. The lack of training facilities only makes my will stronger. Strong mind and strong body. Is there anything else?

No.



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#24 OMPHALOS
July 11, 2010, 01:00:24 am
OMPHALOS
10 July 2010, 7:10 pm



When I am at the bar, I am the center of the universe. I stand there and I watch people pass by. I observe every glance of the barman, I listen to every word every customer pronounces. And I judge humanity upon what I see when at the bar.

So I can see someone asking for a coffee at 8 pm, which is a legitimate thing, but then I can see the same person eating tons of peanuts, chips and everything's on the bar. And that is NOT legitimate. No finger food with coffee. We are civilized people.

Or I can see the fat girl who, after three dishes full of sandwiches, omelette and pasta, is shy to have another drink, because "cocktails contain too much sugar". But I can also see nice couples, or beautiful ladies, well dressed and polite.

So, my friends, go to your local bar, and don't be shy to ask for something a bit particular (maybe not a Singapore Sling when the barman is busy with dozens of customers, or he will hate you forever. The Singapore Sling, however, should only be sipped while in Singapore, with a perfectly shaped 18 year old prostitute to your side), because your barman will be happy to make you your favourite cocktail, will be happy to be doing not the usual gin-and-vodka-and-amaretto-shit, or whatever the tosser wants, to reach unconsciousness as fast as possible.

Remember, when at the bar, be cool, be stilish and be polite, because I could be there, right elbow on the bar, judging humanity.



Source: TOTOLORE


 

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