The Climber

The Climber is the official magazine of the NZ alpine club. It's the only climbing magazine published in NZ. It is an honor to write a piece about climbing while pregnant for this magazine given the line up of bad asses that usually grace this publication. Kiwi's are a hard core group with egos the size of peanuts and cojones that could crush a bull. The article is called, "A kick inside" and I'm happy that the idea of climbing while pregnant is starting to be an accepted one throughout the world. It's really not as scary as it sounds and it certainly made my pregnancy so much more enjoyable.

photo by Kyle George

Summertime

It actually feels like summer right now. I just finished my first semester of physical therapy school at the University of Utah. It's a very demanding Doctoral program and I'm loving it but I'm also being tested by it in more ways than just academics. I feel so proud to have rocked it this semester after having just given birth and uprooted my family from our home in Flagstaff to Salt Lake City. It's been quite the trial but it's been so worth it. We are all completely stoked on our new playground and have hit the ground running. Kyle is mountain biking, Ava is swimming in the creeks and playing with the wild animals :)

Snail race with over 30 snails found in the driveway.

We are barely surviving the sweltering heat and I hear this summer has been pleasantly mild...
We are also adapting to drinking the 3.2 beer and I've found it's a nice study beer, being that it's mostly water.
I just finished a 6 week training regimen and am ready to go surf in California before we head north to Lander.

Training Log
15 minute traverse/wall warm-up
System board training:
1. Lock off's

5 sets of 5 lock off's with one arm (other arm is on another hold but doing minimal work). Try doing with same leg as arm, then switch opposite foot on as arm which is pulling for next 5 set of 5.
5 sets of 5 pinches (three up, three down moving up the wall)
5 sets of 5 crimps
2. Hang board or finger board
Choose a size and simply hang for 10 seconds, 10 times

By this point my tendons are thoroughly worked so I switch tracks to endurance.

3. 35-40 minutes of treadmill running.
I can do 30 minutes straight now but when I feel like I'm gonna pass out I switch over to the eliptical to work my quads and I can hold on tight!!! Can you imagine falling while running on the treadmill. I was interested so I googled it and spent 25 minutes either laughing hysterically or wondering what the world would be like without stupid people...

4. Stretching and Pilates to finish.

Now it's time to get outside and play!!!! Have fun out there!