The first couple of team training sessions in November and December were really hard. Competing against the best women in the country on really different problems was such a change from being on of the oldest one the junior lead team. I really enjoyed the problems and the comp style of the sessions but i found it difficult. I didn't like being the worst, but it did make me go home more motivated every time.
I noticed improvements between the first and second trainings which was encouraging; the problems were starting to look possible even if I couldn't do them in the 5 minutes, but I still felt like a bit of a kid.
After a short break over Christmas I started comp training before the Rocfest and the team world cup selection event (this mostly involved trying hard problems and trying to flash new problems). A week before Rocfest I managed to hurt my elbow though, apparently from over-training (a bit worrying as this was the week of my exam!). It was just a muscle injury and I could climb on it with out making it worse but trying really hard on consecutive days really hurt, so in the Rocfest I struggled a bit.
The comp was great fun as always though and there was a cool set of problems but I made a few too many mistakes and ended up missing out on the final by 1 point ! I went home straight away in a bit of a strop, not staying to watch the finals, I regret that now as the finals are always awesome to watch and pretty inspiring. But after a couple of hours at home I was feeling better and looking forward to the training the next day.
At the beginning of February we had the first GB senior lead team meet at the Depot Nottingham. I hadn't done any endurance for ages and was pretty apprehensive, but it was loads of fun and a bit of a reminder that i cant neglect endurance training for too long.
NUBS (Northern University Bouldering Series) had been going on since October at various different walls, but the 12th of Feb was the last round at the Climbing Works. It was great to climb as part of the Sheffield University team especially as we won, I also managed to win the womens individual comp.
Last weekend was one i'd been nervous about for a while - the World Cup selection event at the castle. I know I'm not ready to do loads of world cups this year, the longest I've ever focused on bouldering before now is 2 months, but I still really wanted to show I was improving and was supposed to be on the team.
I had a bit of a dilemma when the British University Championships (BUCs) was announced to be the day before e selection event. I felt I should do BUCs because Sheffield Uni have given me a sports scholarship and give me a lot of support but I didn't want to be tired for Sunday.
In the end I decided to do BUCs as realistically my situation for world cups wouldn't change that much at the trials.
So on Saturday I went to the Works with rest of Sheffield uni climbing team.
It was a standard comp - 25 problems and 3 hours.
I ran round the easier ones getting about 10 done in 20 minutes, but with so many people I eventually had to start joining queues. I was still doing ok for a while though, I flashed about 18 problems and still had about an hour left. But as I started rushing and getting on the harder problems I started making mistakes. There were rumors about the cut off score for the final and it was really getting to me. In a moment of panic I managed to top one of the hardest problems to get a score of 206 and make it into the final in 2nd place behind Nat Berry.
The final though was a massive disappointment, I expected a normal final with 4 blocs so when we were shown a traverse on the circuit board I was pretty gutted, especially after such a good qualifying set. The final was as bad as it sounded with hardly any separation so we all stayed in the same order. I was a bit disappointed but second in my first BUCs wasn't too bad.
The Sheffield Uni team did great with Katie Maxwell 3rd and the boys team 2nd!
 |
| 2nd place |
 |
| Sheff Uni Team |
After a late finish I started travelling down to London, stopping off on the way for a huge meal. We got to our hotel around 11pm but it wasn't a mega early start. I ate tonnes for breakfast as the girls weren't climbing til 12 ish then we headed to the Castle.
I felt good warming up as I still felt pretty warm from the day before so I didn't do too much. I was still pretty worried about the climbs expecting them to be far to hard for me but I was excited anyway.
When I went out for the first problem I knew about half the women had topped it but looking at a tiny screw on on the volume as the starting hold I couldn't believe anyone had managed to pull on. I tried a few ways but couldn't get anywhere at all. I used to go to the team training sessions and think that if I couldn't pull on it was just because I wasn't good enough and not try many other ways but i'd learned from the last session that I probably was good enough if I could find the best way for me. I walked around the volume a bit and eventually found that you could hold the arete and the volume which made the first move fine. I managed to get to the bonus and was setting up for the last move when my foot slipped! (I think I was rushing too much).
The next problem wasn't too bad until the last move where you had to stand up to an undercut on a slab.
The next 2 problems I tried my best but didn't get the bonus.
I finished the first round in 4th out of the 6 women (way better than I expected).
The second round was harder, I didn't get anywhere until the 3rd problem when I only made one move but it was enough to get the bonus. I got the bonus on the 4th as well. I'm fairly certain I came 6th in this round but I was pretty pleased anyway. After seeing the nutritionist at Sport Sheffield I've noticed I have a lot more energy on long days and I really felt the difference here, I managed to try really hard on the last problem after 2 days competing.
I was really pleased with the team selection. I hadn't expected to keep up as well as I did or get close to topping any problems. I still have a lot to work on and need to get a bit stronger but I can go to a World cup this year, which will be a great experience and show how good I really need to get.
training sesh at the Hangar- thought a video would be nice (taken at the end of the session which is why i keep falling off :) )
I'm now getting ready for CWIF which is going to be mega hard this year with loads of international climbers coming! But I'm going as part of the Banana Fingers team!! So pleased to be sponsored by such an awesome company, it's going to make climbing while at Uni a lot more manageable.
check out their website here : http://www.bananafingers.co.uk/
No comments:
Post a Comment