The last two months

Here we are with my first blog spot of the year 2015. The period riding December and January has been quite busy and many days were spent inside for training and preparation. Like usual, training has a double face; a bad one and a good one. Once I got the training mood, I always know that I sit the rock climbing out for a while. This is a negative part and sometimes it is even dangerous as you lose the rock feelings and technique. The positive side is that once I got into this process I am just damn focused on training and nothing else; I like this thing and I love to do it despite sometimes rock climbing misses a bit. During 2014 I basically had only 3 weeks of training during all the year, then I got injured and I had 3 more weeks in autumn where I made a kind of soft/keeping training just to recover well and prepare my wrist for hard climbing and for the though moments would come next. Late in autumn, I felt it was time to start again and I opted to buy an online training program from two well known trainers of Teamof2. The program provided 10 weeks of daily schedules. Since the Christmas holidays were in the middle of the deal, I split it in 3 different sections: 3 weeks of hard training, two weeks and a half of rock climbing/rest/soft training and 3 more weeks of full training again; all this package would have made a flew from December to the beginning of February. I was excited.

At the first look, the program seemed to be interesting and mostly new for me. In fact, it was. Many workouts that I wasn't used before had been added. While the schedules I already did before underwent modifies using other systems or other recovering time. It has been curious and newsworthy to follow a program set by every day of to-do's. Before this, I just planned what I should have done in the whole week, giving no matters to the order of sessions or the days when I had to push hard or not. Moreover it is the first time that I followed a program made by someone else and not planned with a self-setting. New stuff like I said, new ways and new workouts. For example I had Cardio sessions where I was completely green, TRX workouts for the core and the shoulders and other cool exercises. Since I do only bouldering I often underestimated the Cardio aspect and its importance and aftermaths. I knew I was bad and it deals of one of my biggest lack, but I didn't think that it could be so useful for bouldering. Definitively it will be a part of my future training.

The graphic of my shape made a lot of ups and downs during the period. At the beginning I felt gorgeous. Between the first and the second week I had a really high peak, I managed to do my first 1-5-9 ever on the personal PG, I could try V14 in the wall and I sent different hard problems in the gym. Then I started to be tired, weak and a bit sick from training. The last few days of the third week I had a big cliff, my muscles hurt but I was mentally serene, since the drops are obviously normal. I went to Ticino for few days; I rested, I climbed a bit and I enjoyed the fresh winter air. I felt pleasure, joy and I got relaxed in being out instead of close into a stinky and dirty pigeon house or into a fitness gym where I could read the sameness of the usual customers riding on a static bike. They seemed stupid and I also was. One day I felt bored and faint, while the day after I ticked "ninja skills" off. This is to say how the ups and downs can change and the shape can evolve, dropping or rising. I came back home and I came up again few days during the holidays. I tried hard on "big kat" and I finished this line after 4 days of war. I tried "the story of two worlds" and I felt everything was going down again. That day I perceived a intensive dose of tiredness which followed me for days. I reached the lowest point during the middle of Jan, where I sensed fatigue and I had to fight to make 1-5 on the rungs of my PG. My shoulders didn't answer, my body was off and what I had was only a bit of finger strength that allowed me to go on. Sometimes I skipped the daily workout; I felt insane trying something when your body or your instinct don't feel good and positive. On the last week I came up again. The skin raised up, the shoulders seemed to be better and day after day I added a piece of mine to the full package. The core strength missed again, and it is missing right now as well. The motivation came and the line of my imaginary graphic probably is reaching the medium values. Now I finished, I felt I need rest and recovering days, I need to find a way to link all the skills together and make one unique well-working piece. The time will say if it has been worthy and useful for myself, or just a kind of "keeping" training and the hard times was vain. I am confident, we will see.

Ninja Skills 8B+, Sobrio (CH). Photo Stefan Kuerzi

4th day on the line. Finally sent "Big kat" 8b+ this morning, in Chironico. It could probably be my hardest climbing so far. The mental setting it required me is pretty high and this is not only due to the physical first part but to the mantle which I felt extreme coming from the bottom. Well done @jwebxl for the FA. @salewa @lasportivagram #chironico #switzerland #ticino #bouldering #rockclimbing

A photo posted by Niccolò Ceria (@nk_ceria) on Jan 6, 2015 at 8:10am PST

The last week of training is over. Thanks to @teamof2training for the support and for the great workouts you suggested me. @salewa @lasportivagram #climbinggym #dyno

A video posted by Niccolò Ceria (@nk_ceria) on Feb 2, 2015 at 4:41am PST

Almost at the end of the second week of the training program. 2014 has been pretty poor under the training aspect and I had just few weeks of this during the spring. Now that my wrist seems to be totally recovered, I opted to start an online program together with @teamof2training I am really psyched to try all the things where I am weak like cardio and core workouts.

A photo posted by Niccolò Ceria (@nk_ceria) on Dec 12, 2014 at 11:47am PST

Two pretty nice lines.

Hi!

As I previously wrote on february the 10^th, these last weeks has been set for a period of Pan gullich and it was fine devoting twice per week to this kind of training which is probably my favorite one. With the new holds assembled at the end of January, I can train more campus moves than in the previous sessions, In fact I was motivated to start. I usually did eight exercises for each session using four different holds. Every exercises was repeated for three times for each arms, resting 30 seconds for the change of arm. Between one exercises and another, I rested 3 min. During all this period I have done the same eight exercises for all three weeks and I was finally able to do my first one-five-nine on the crimp 2cm large although the edges are not as far as the standard length. In fact there are 20,5 cm between every crimps. Other cool exercises I inserted in my traning were some jumps. For example, I tried to do a coordination thing and it deals to jump from the first until the three, just touching this one, and coming back to the second edge. At the beginning I was really clumsy in doing this, but after some attempts I started to get more coordination. The other six exercises are the same which I tried during the training periods before the new holds. Now the PG period is finished and I would like to do three weeks of mixed sessions, like two sessions of fingerboard, one of PG and another one of resistence-strength in climbing gym. In this way I would like to do 4 session per week and I will dedicate other time to climbing outdoor before Easter since I am planning 10 days in Sweden, hoping that the weather could be merciful.

Beyond pan gullich, I also trained in climbing gym and I climbed on the rock too. On saturday the 16^th I went to Chironico with my dad and in the afternoon we moved in Nivo Bassa, a sector where is possibile to find some lines a bit different than the classic style of Ticino. After trying a bit “the great shark hunt” one of the imperishable enemies of Swiss, I put the hands on a line I had never tried before. It was “the crackline”, an amazing line that traverses a huge overhanging wall. At the start it presents a little low traverse with some crazy pinches, afterwards there is a painful and hard sequence on three crack holds where you have to put inside the fingers and lock them to stay hung. My immagination about it was really negative because I knew its holds would have been far from my style of climbing. At the end of the day, surprisly, I managed to do every single move on it and I was so glad. In the first part I hadn’t so much troubles but I found some hard times in the middle when I was with my left hand in the first crack and I had to take a fundamental crimp to do the subsequent movements. After that there is another crack where I had to lock my index and to go to the last one putting inside the ring finger and it was a bit painful. In fact after some tries without tape some blood started to drop down from my fingers and I couldn’t try it again for the pain. The week later I came back with Gabri, Marco and Aly and after 2 hours of work I was able to do this particular line. The day was splitted in three important sessions of attempts and after each of them I always understood something more precise about it. Every little difference was really useful to reach the succes. When I was at the top I was fain to do this thing and from that moment I didn’t have to put my fingers in those cracks anymore. 

The Crackline 8B, Chironico. foto Alice Gariazzo

The other adventure I want to write is about “tai lung”. It’s a line situated in the first discovered sector of Varazze. I had occasion to put my hands on it at the end of the last year and after 10 minutes I had every piece of the sequence. Probably that day I was a bit tired to link the complete line and after one hour and a half of attempts I quitted. This time I came back with Nils and when we arrived there the heat was leaving us, in fact there was a prime friction. The holds had a perfect grip and my skin too. After a really fast session where I found a different feet sequence, I was positive and during my second go from the start I crushed it. It’s probably one of the best line in all Beigua’s area and its movements are interesting. It starts stand from a good undercling and a sidepull and the holds are really lovely to use until the end of the problem. The last move is a big dynamic to a slopery pinch pretty funny to do. I will edit a little video during the next days, meanwhile I share some pictures kindly shot by Nils.

Tai Lung 8A+, Varazze. Foto Nils Favre

Tai Lung 8A+, Varazze. Foto Nils Favre

Tai Lung 8A+, Varazze. Foto Nils Favre

The day after we went to Druidi sector again and in the afternoon Nils wanted to check the moves on “Gandalf”. Whereas I climbed it some months ago, I decided to try the extension problem which become “gandalf il grigio” 8B+. I felt the first part really harder than how it looks from videos. Probably I had some problems due to my length because I am really compressed in the first part of the traverse. After 10 minutes of attempts it started to rain a lot , but we could go on to try it for other two hours since it is sheltered enough. At the end of the session I did every single move but with a completely different beta from other climbers who have climbed this line. Last sunday I came back there with my dad, just to try it before the spring come. I was rested. In fact I was able to do a good session of work on it. I managed to do the first part with the original beta although I had my legs really close to my body when I climbed. My best attempt was falling at the end, just before the last hard move. In The last part of the session, I used some attempts to try another beta in the middle part and I was surprised in finding another way which is a bit more convenient. For sure this problem is not the best one, the rock is bad and it isn’t worthy, but the movements on this climbing are pretty good, really physical and I had fun to try them. it will be in my projects list for winter 2013, although I am still hopeful to find some “cold” and dry days in March.