So. Was going to go climbing today and try some of the leading routes that I want to do in Brookes, but unfortunatly my climbing partner has lots of work to do so decided she couldn't go until later in the week...
Went anyway just to boulder, and that went okish I suppose. I don't really like the bouldering in Brookes. I think I might like it more if I was stronger, but I generally prefer the problems in Bristol. There is nothing in Brookes bouldering that leaves me with a sence of 'oh wow, what a cool problem.' The routes are pretty cool though. Maybe after doing more training for forearm strength and so on I'll improve my bouldering to a standard where the harder Brookes problems become doable. Maybe then I'll enjoy it more, because at my current bouldering grade there just isn't much to do. Basically I'm rubbish at bouldering and need to get better. I'm going to put a grade here of V1, as a grade I can climb in Brookes. This is because I seemed to be messing up anything above this grade today. Its a little embarassing as V1 should be really easy, and I've definatly climbed V2/3 in Brookes and harder climbs in Bristol, but as I climb harder Brookes grades I'll post them here. Hopefully that won't be too long.
I think bouldering is much more enjoyable as a social sport. Can be hard to get motivated by yourself, and can be pretty boring, especially if you don't climb anything particularly thrilling. I think a group of people working on a problem is better. Was quite good at Brookes today, because there were a couple of people there also just bouldering and so we chatted a bit about a couple of problems.
All in all, not too bad a session. Didn't acheive much, but good at least to do a bit of climbing, hadn't been since last Sunday previous to today.
I'm planning on going back to Bristol for the 8th November. There is a climbing festival in the Bristol Climbing Centre that weekend. Should be a lot of fun, hopefully I'll be able to drag some people with me from Oxford, but not sure who'd be interested. There will a bouldering competition that day as well, and hopefully by then I'll have improved enough to get a decent score. Should give me a goal for this months training at least!
