Certified Rollers

My arms are toast.

Despite the weather doing it’s utmost to ruin my plans for this week’s adventure, I decided to make the best of the situation and try something I’ve been thinking about for a little while, bouldering.

My brother is a climber and he’s been trying to get me to try bouldering for years. It’s always been something that I thought would be cool to try but I’ve been hesitant because I have no idea what I’m doing and I’m not exactly the biggest upper body strength guy. I guess focusing on distance running for like 20 years will do that to you.

A few months ago I somehow stumbled on a local climbing gym and kept telling myself I was going to try it. For whatever reason I never pulled the trigger. Until this week. I have had a terrible habit of allowing myself to get discouraged over the past year. There have been multiple times that I’ve come up with a plan that’s been thwarted by one thing or another. I have to say, I’m pretty proud of myself for not letting that be the case in this instance.

Earlier in the week, I came up with the plan to ride the Iron Hill Trail at Red Top Mountain as a way to start trying to tackle the Georgia State Parks Muddy Spokes Club. Unfortunately as the week wore on the forecast for rain continued to rise. I held out hope but woke up to persistent rain and growing rumbles of thunder. My adventure Friday was shut down.

I moped around the house for a bit before summoning the motivation to get out the door to run. At least I got something in. Then it hit me. I was thinking about how I might be able to check out the gym my brother is working at in Boston when we go home for vacation. BKBX is a “adventure gym” and my brother loves the bouldering setup. Hey wait a minute. I should go check out that climbing gym that’s down the street later.

I was a little hesitant and a little intimidated but I made up my mind. I was going. No better way to find out what it would be like than to do it right?

After work I made my way to Adrenaline Climbing in Suwanee. It’s a fairly nondescript building mixed in among a bunch standard industrial park offices. You’d definitely miss it if you didn’t know it was there. I was unsure at first. I’ve never been to a climbing gym and that was most certainly obvious. The guy at the front desk was welcoming. He could tell it was my first time but noticed I was eyeing the bouldering wall and got me set up with shoes and then sent me on my way.

My first two initial reactions to climbing. One, the shoes are not comfortable. At all. That might be the sign of fun to come though. Ski boots aren’t very comfy and my bike shoes feel the best when I take them off so there is that.

Two, I get the whole chalk thing now. Definitely going to make sure I have some next time. My hands got worked pretty good. But honestly I think that means I was trying hard so I’ll take it. To be honest, I wanted to ask some of the other people around if I could get a handful, but I wasn’t sure if that was cool or not.

Over about two hours I climbed as many of the routes that I could. They were all the first two levels or grades, I’m not really sure how this all works. Some were easy. Some were really hard. I tried to watch the other people that where there as much as possible to see if I could pick up on any techniques. Most of the broke down to me thinking “yeah, I’m not strong enough to do that”.

It ended up being a really good workout and I’m glad that I decided to give it a shot. I don’t see myself becoming a climber but I am absolutely planning on trying to work it in to my routine. I’ve said that I want to become a better “outdoor” or “adventure” athlete and one thing that not being able to run as much has done is open some doors or at least open my mind up to trying some different things.

It’s one more way that I can get off the couch and do something, so I will certainly be back. As soon as my arms, shoulders, and fingers stop hurting.

Recovery Beer of the Week

Hutton & Smith // Belay On!

Fitting choice right? Hutton & Smith is small brewery up in Chattanooga that takes its name from the “fathers of modern geology” hence the pick axes. Belay On is their hoppy blonde, which is great on a hot summer day down here. It’s a session beer, so it’s low alcohol and drinkable, perfect for tacos after a couple hours at the climbing gym. I have only seen it up in Chattnooga, so I had to jump at the chance to grab a six pack when I saw it locally. Honestly though, the best part was when I was holding the cold can in my hand. It felt so good on my sore and raw fingers.

Not a bad day considering that I started it off frustrated and bummed out about the rain. Adventure of the Week #1 was a rousing success. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go not lift my arms for a few days.