Reconnaissance

Last week Dave and I conducted a little recon mission to HCR. The goal was to get a little climbng in a familiarize ourselves with some routes that were new to us, and we also discovered some routes that were new to the ranch! We concentrated on the North 40 on this trip for a couple of reasons. One, to celebrate my 40th birthday. Two, because the North 40 offers a variety of shaded climbs even in the heat of the day. We were fairly lucky because the temps were tolerable and the climbs were shady for the most part. I did manage to get Dave stuck in the beating sun as he worked "Mo' Better" 5.10b. But he didn't sweat away completely and we were able to try out a few new routes on the east end of the 40. The first route wasn't really new to us, as it was a trad line the I had put up in January called "15 degrees" (5.7) in honor of the high temp that day. But this spring the line was bolted, so we had to give it a try without gear. In my opinion it's a good line, and a little more appealing placing gear, but it will certainly see more traffic with the bolts in place. Either way, it was fun. Then we headed down to the Kindergarten Boulder to try out 3 new lines there. The first was a 5.7 trad line called "The Poison Ivy Route" that was put up last year. It was a decent line, but nothing spectacular. One more easy one to run for the comp. Next to that line were two bolted lines that both went around 5.7 or 5.8. I don't know any names for those two routes, but I bet they will be in the new guidebook Cole Fennel has written. It is set to be released around the 24HHH comp and is sure to be a hit! Cole and Stark Ligon won the team competition last year. You can check out the book at Fixed Pin Publishing.

Strategy

Well the training continues as I keep battling injuries and trying to stay strong. I am still doing the rock-fit cross training, running, biking, and hiking even though my shoulder is not 100% and my back is hurting now. Perhaps I am over training? But on to 24HHH strategies.

This will be my fourth year climbing in 24HHH. Each year I've modified my strategy from the previous year and shown great improvement in the results. So the big question this year is what can we do to improve? Well Dave and I are heading to HCR on Wednesday to try out a few routes that we don't have dialed in yet. We are going to try and push our upper end routes a little higher early in the day and save some of the easier stuff for the next morning. There are also several new routes at the ranch that we haven't been on yet. We want to give those a shot so we don't have to onsite them in the middle of the night. I've also got a couple of "secret weapons" that I want to try out before the comp. More on that later!

Rehab Continues

Not much news to report on the rehab of my shoulder. I've already done to weeks on a prescription non-steroidal anti-inflamatory. I can definitely tell that it's helping, but I can also still feel plenty of pain after a workout. If it's not showing improvement in 30 days, then we may try a cortisone injection. But until then, it's wait and see.

So Dave and I are continuing to work on our strength and cardio by doing workouts in the gym, running, cycling, and climbing. I believe the combination of this cross training will help get us fit to go as hard as possible for the full twenty-four hours. In previous years we've always had a little bit of a lull in the early morning hours before dawn. Sometimes it's just sitting for a few minutes while we wait for a route to open up. But this year the plan is to hit it hard and don't stop until the final shotgun blast!

I talked to Jason from HCR last week and he mentioned a few new routes that have gone up. So I think a little reconnaissance mission may be in order soon!