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I kept a thorough training journal for all of 2011. While most of it is completely uninteresting to anyone other than myself, I went through the whole thing this morning and pulled out some the more interesting tidbits.
I didn't have a allot going for me in 2011. Half the year was spent on crutches in an external fixator and the remainder has been spent learning how to walk on my own two feet. I also came into the year with a significant hand injury that was incurred while training to close the COC 2.5 with both hands for Steve Edward's 50th birthday. Stress has been high with school and personal responsibilities dominating my time. Nonetheless I was able to crank out more than a few PRs and learn a ton along the way.
Moving forward, I hope to break into the 5.13 range sport climbing and develop more strength and endurance in my bad leg to facilitate bigger adventures in the woods. I have a feeling my 31st birthday challenge (3/4/12) will center on one of these goals. If I can motivate to write more than once a quarter, I'll keep you all posted.
I recently read a quote that resonated with me regarding the past year. "When you walk in the valleys, you know how big the mountains are."
Happy New Year
Highlights
Bouldered V3 in a fixator
Redpointed Sit start of Anchor Punch 5.12a
Redpointed Chips Ahoy 5.12d
Epiced on Pro Skill 5.12d and never sent
Finally sent Reverse Melee V4
Finally sent Slap Happy V6
Onsighted a number of routes at The Callahans up to 5.11d
Helped build/bolt Hell of Being Crushed Alive (5.13a?) and began to link sections
One minute repeater on BM 2000 crimps + 20 lbs.
One minute repeater on BM 2000 small pockets middle 2 fingers
One minute repeater on BM 2000 staggered pockets back 2 fingers
One arm pull up with each arm (first time)
Crogged a 15 minute mile
Hiked 30 km of the Umpqua River Trail on crutches in a day.
Hiked over half of the Ridgeline trail on crutches
Sunset Bay on crutches
Great Hikes (NOT on crutches)
- Mount Pisgah
- Opal Pool
- Night “jog” on Ridgeline Trail
- Rooster Rock
- Romero/Forbush overnight loop with my little brother
“Ran” 3 miles
A handful of beautiful bike rides in SB county
Note: I did allot of campusing too (obviously), but the only board I have access to is NOT regulation spacing, so all those accomplishments are not deemed official or notable.
Monday, January 2, 2012
Monday, August 8, 2011
Blue Ribbon Day
Elijah’s friends know not to expect strong positive outbursts.
But last Saturday he was still roaring long after I yelled, “Take!” and came to rest post diving backwards from the chains of Chips Ahoy. Staring down from what can only be described as that “Spiderman” pose (you know the one he uses to lower off buildings and make out with chicks), it was pretty clear that we were both pushing the limits of human psyche. Yes, two dudes alone in the woods were straight up blissing out shirtless in harnesses while tied together with a strong rope.
But …. ahem…. of course there’s an explanation for this.
Chips Ahoy is more than some 12d drilled out sport climb at a crumbling sandstone hell crag. Shit. Elijah will tell you it’s the best route in the world. In his words, “I’m jealous of anyone who’s getting on Chips.” Yes, almost every hold on the route is obviously manufactured, but I have to agree with Elijah. That line of pockets up the steep blank side of the Owl Tor is some of the greatest climbing in the world, and I’m not just saying that because I sent this weekend.
Most sport climbers will tell you that they love the building momentum of good sport routes and the thrill of the fight to hang on as energy is released into the holds. None of the moves on Chips are really that hard. I contend that some of the 12a’s in Santa Maria have harder moves. The thing is, I wouldn’t call many of those moves easy either. The perfectly crafted two and three finger pockets that litter most the route are deceptively draining, and forget about shakes until you get to the jugs near the top. You gotta move on Chips, and if it’s anywhere near your limit, you gotta fight. Everyone likes watching redpoint burns on Chips. The route is brilliant.
It’s also considered the entry into “hard climbing” at the Tor. Chips is sort of the pre-test piece, and many a strong climber have logged hours trying to tick this one. Somehow however, I limped my crippled ass into the Tor and sent it in 2 days of work this season (7th or 8th burn ever), and yes, this was the first 12d I’ve ever redpointed. I (and especially Elijah) don’t like giving myself too much credit for doing physical things with a mangled left ankle after surviving almost 2 years on crutches. Yet redpointing well beyond my pre-accident limit THIS quickly felt pretty damn good.
So perhaps this explains our “moment” together out in the woods.
And the good times kept on going. The smart chap that he is, Elijah took advantage of our psyche and jumped on Better Than Life (5.13c) and sent it…. again. I say again, because he’s the only person who’s ever sent the route more than once, and he’s now done it 5 times. He looked so good on this recent send that for a moment I thought he might be on a different route. It is fully rad to watch someone cruise 13c.
Elijah also put in a few burns on his new route (the Rubble project), which he’s currently calling Dawson’s Creek. Earlier in the day he finished fixing up a few holds. The steep, bouldery route is currently only 5ish draws long and ends at the chains of Auto Magic. The moves remind me of the steep cobblestone routes of Box Canyon up at Maple. Its nothing like any of the other routes at The Tor, but Elijah looks pretty damn good on it. It’s probably in the low 5.13 range.
One can’t speak about work at The Tor these days without mentioning Tom. I don’t know Tom’s last name, but I won’t be surprised to learn that it’s something like Sledge, Foreman, or Stone. The guy REALLY likes doing work and has recently focused his obsession on The Tor. Anyone who hasn’t been to the Tor in a few months is going to be BLOWN AWAY by the landscaping this guy has done. Its unbelievable and the routes are beginning to benefit. The sit start to Anchor Punch has become the standard, and as soon as Phil adds a hold or two, When The Sea Doesn’t Want You is going to be at least a half dozen moves longer.
So, like two cattle dogs with an endless reservoir of energy, Elijah and I put in some more work on the new channel that is going to direct this winter’s waterflow just where we want it.
Then, somehow we managed to NOT die on the drive home. The 166 is especially dangerous after a Blue Ribbon Day.
But last Saturday he was still roaring long after I yelled, “Take!” and came to rest post diving backwards from the chains of Chips Ahoy. Staring down from what can only be described as that “Spiderman” pose (you know the one he uses to lower off buildings and make out with chicks), it was pretty clear that we were both pushing the limits of human psyche. Yes, two dudes alone in the woods were straight up blissing out shirtless in harnesses while tied together with a strong rope.
But …. ahem…. of course there’s an explanation for this.
Chips Ahoy is more than some 12d drilled out sport climb at a crumbling sandstone hell crag. Shit. Elijah will tell you it’s the best route in the world. In his words, “I’m jealous of anyone who’s getting on Chips.” Yes, almost every hold on the route is obviously manufactured, but I have to agree with Elijah. That line of pockets up the steep blank side of the Owl Tor is some of the greatest climbing in the world, and I’m not just saying that because I sent this weekend.
 |
| Elijah caressing the fantastic 2 finger pinch
|
Most sport climbers will tell you that they love the building momentum of good sport routes and the thrill of the fight to hang on as energy is released into the holds. None of the moves on Chips are really that hard. I contend that some of the 12a’s in Santa Maria have harder moves. The thing is, I wouldn’t call many of those moves easy either. The perfectly crafted two and three finger pockets that litter most the route are deceptively draining, and forget about shakes until you get to the jugs near the top. You gotta move on Chips, and if it’s anywhere near your limit, you gotta fight. Everyone likes watching redpoint burns on Chips. The route is brilliant.
 |
| Moving fast through the "easy" section
|
It’s also considered the entry into “hard climbing” at the Tor. Chips is sort of the pre-test piece, and many a strong climber have logged hours trying to tick this one. Somehow however, I limped my crippled ass into the Tor and sent it in 2 days of work this season (7th or 8th burn ever), and yes, this was the first 12d I’ve ever redpointed. I (and especially Elijah) don’t like giving myself too much credit for doing physical things with a mangled left ankle after surviving almost 2 years on crutches. Yet redpointing well beyond my pre-accident limit THIS quickly felt pretty damn good.
So perhaps this explains our “moment” together out in the woods.
And the good times kept on going. The smart chap that he is, Elijah took advantage of our psyche and jumped on Better Than Life (5.13c) and sent it…. again. I say again, because he’s the only person who’s ever sent the route more than once, and he’s now done it 5 times. He looked so good on this recent send that for a moment I thought he might be on a different route. It is fully rad to watch someone cruise 13c.
Elijah also put in a few burns on his new route (the Rubble project), which he’s currently calling Dawson’s Creek. Earlier in the day he finished fixing up a few holds. The steep, bouldery route is currently only 5ish draws long and ends at the chains of Auto Magic. The moves remind me of the steep cobblestone routes of Box Canyon up at Maple. Its nothing like any of the other routes at The Tor, but Elijah looks pretty damn good on it. It’s probably in the low 5.13 range.
One can’t speak about work at The Tor these days without mentioning Tom. I don’t know Tom’s last name, but I won’t be surprised to learn that it’s something like Sledge, Foreman, or Stone. The guy REALLY likes doing work and has recently focused his obsession on The Tor. Anyone who hasn’t been to the Tor in a few months is going to be BLOWN AWAY by the landscaping this guy has done. Its unbelievable and the routes are beginning to benefit. The sit start to Anchor Punch has become the standard, and as soon as Phil adds a hold or two, When The Sea Doesn’t Want You is going to be at least a half dozen moves longer.
 |
| Hard to see in the back there, but the landscaping is good
|
So, like two cattle dogs with an endless reservoir of energy, Elijah and I put in some more work on the new channel that is going to direct this winter’s waterflow just where we want it.
 |
| Saturdays work
|
Then, somehow we managed to NOT die on the drive home. The 166 is especially dangerous after a Blue Ribbon Day.
Sunday, March 6, 2011
30th Birthday Challenge Report
I took a round about course to arrive at this year’s challenge. Back in the fall while training for my portion of the Steve Edwards 50th Birthday Group Challenge, I had big plans to crush the #3 COC gripper for my 30th. This idea crashed and burned just weeks after closing the #2 when something significant popped in my left palm. It took weeks until I could open and close the hand without significant pain, and its still nowhere near 100%. So no gripper challenge. Then I concocted a challenge that had nothing to do with my body - a challenge for the mind. I quickly discovered that playing the guitar aggravated the gripper injury in my left hand so that portion was dropped after only a few weeks. The remaining hour/day of reading seemed manageable initially, but right around a month into things the 5.5 courses I’ve been taking this quarter started to overwhelm my challenge efforts. Around the same time, I started to make significant gains crogging down at Amazon trail. I’m a sucker for physical challenges, and a new idea was rising to the surface - could I cover 30km of trail on crutches in a single push?
It seemed possible, but given that I’d never covered that much ground with 2 healthy legs, I knew there would be significant suffering involved in an attempt. Perfect.
With only a month until the big day, and a current maximum effort of 1-2 miles. I wasn’t going to have enough time to properly train for this sort of distance. Over the next 3 weeks I hit the trail every other day or so and increased load progressively in this sort of fashion: 1 mile, 2 mile , 1 mile, 3 mile, 1 mile, 4 mile, etc. alternating loading days with recovery days. Knowing that crogging is not natural at all (especially since the fixator makes one of my legs almost 2 inches longer than the other), I continued to devote much effort to prehab/stabilizer training as well. The weekend before the challenge I managed a personal best of 7 miles of coastal trail in about 3 hours.
So the Gameplan for 30km (18.5 miles):
I found a segment of the Umpqua River Trail that would satisfy my requirements. I didn’t want to loop or double back at all, because its far harder to motivate on trail you’ve already covered. The segment had two parts: Tioga (16 miles) and (Mott 5 miles). Other than the trailhead dividing the two there were no other access points. 21 miles would be a bit more than 30km, but it was close enough and I sure as shit didn’t wanna underestimate.
No one was interested in coming along, but Matt and Allison offered pickup service. The plan was to have them meet me at the end of the Mott section around dusk when, based on my calculations, I’d be finishing the 21 miles. We all assumed the trails proximity to the highway would mean plenty of cell service, so we could coordinate specifics upon their arrival. I discovered upon arrival that this was not the case. No service - a potential problem. Matt and Allison knew I had no plans of backing down, so I figured worse case scenario, they’d be hanging out in the dark for a few hours.
With no one accompanying me on the trail, I decided to do some video journaling in lieu of photos etc. The result is below.
It seemed possible, but given that I’d never covered that much ground with 2 healthy legs, I knew there would be significant suffering involved in an attempt. Perfect.
With only a month until the big day, and a current maximum effort of 1-2 miles. I wasn’t going to have enough time to properly train for this sort of distance. Over the next 3 weeks I hit the trail every other day or so and increased load progressively in this sort of fashion: 1 mile, 2 mile , 1 mile, 3 mile, 1 mile, 4 mile, etc. alternating loading days with recovery days. Knowing that crogging is not natural at all (especially since the fixator makes one of my legs almost 2 inches longer than the other), I continued to devote much effort to prehab/stabilizer training as well. The weekend before the challenge I managed a personal best of 7 miles of coastal trail in about 3 hours.
So the Gameplan for 30km (18.5 miles):
I found a segment of the Umpqua River Trail that would satisfy my requirements. I didn’t want to loop or double back at all, because its far harder to motivate on trail you’ve already covered. The segment had two parts: Tioga (16 miles) and (Mott 5 miles). Other than the trailhead dividing the two there were no other access points. 21 miles would be a bit more than 30km, but it was close enough and I sure as shit didn’t wanna underestimate.
No one was interested in coming along, but Matt and Allison offered pickup service. The plan was to have them meet me at the end of the Mott section around dusk when, based on my calculations, I’d be finishing the 21 miles. We all assumed the trails proximity to the highway would mean plenty of cell service, so we could coordinate specifics upon their arrival. I discovered upon arrival that this was not the case. No service - a potential problem. Matt and Allison knew I had no plans of backing down, so I figured worse case scenario, they’d be hanging out in the dark for a few hours.
With no one accompanying me on the trail, I decided to do some video journaling in lieu of photos etc. The result is below.
30th Birthday Challenge from Micah Elconin on Vimeo.
Monday, February 7, 2011
Baggin the Butte
It seems that body can adjust to almost anything. 5 months ago, just days after becoming part machine I couldn’t imagine putting ANY weight on my left leg. Shit, I couldn’t even lift the thing off the bed it was so damn heavy and painful. About this same time, my father says to me, “I bet you’ll be climbing with that thing on in no time!”
I would have taken that bet.
And I would have lost.
A few weeks back experiments began in the cave at The Crux. Initially my bouldering sessions were almost completely leg free, but this past Saturday found me traversing less than vertical walls and tactfully sending projects in the cave. This would be far more interesting with video of the “harder” bouldering, because some of the problems totally force the use of the bad leg. It almost feels like dry tooling with a foot. After two hours, I’d sent two V3s and flashed a V2. Walking out of the gym I had to laugh comparing the days tick list to this day not too long ago in Red Rocks, NV.
Meanwhile, crogging has been paying dividends as well. Although I’ve yet to break the 15 minute mile, the few days a week spent down at Amazon Trail have undoubtably improved my ability to move around. Feeling confident on Thursday I drove past the running trail and on up to the Baldy Peak trailhead. About 20 minutes later I’d covered the 300 feet of elevation gain over the course of about half a mile. It was hard work, but nowhere near as grim as I expected it to be. After successfully getting off the small peak, it was very clear what needed to happen next.
At just over 2000 ft, Spencer’s Butte isn’t much to talk about, or even look at, but as the the highest point in Eugene, it has earned a small reputation amongst locals. The trailhead starts at about 950 ft elevation southwest of the summit. Over the course of just over a mile, the main trail weaves around the south side and delivers hikers up the gently sloping east face of the butte. So yeah, its basically a great afternoon trail run for fairly fit people with two legs. Initially the plan was to take this route to the top, enjoy the summit and back track down the same way, but when I got to the trailhead and saw the scores of people of all ages and sizes headed for the main trail, my attention quickly turned to the West Trail with not a soul in sight. The West trail takes a direct route to the summit and in a half mile it covers the 1000+ ft very quickly, some of which, I’d heard, was 3rd class. This immediately sounded far more appetizing than the alternative.
45 minutes later a dozen or so locals were startled by the sound of aluminum and plastic clanking against the wet stones near the summit. They looked over just in time to see me mantle over the edge from “God only knows where”, pick up a pair of crutches and proceed straight towards the pile of boulders at the true summit.
Hiking up The West Trail alone in a fixator during a wet winter day was probably one of the most fulfilling, motivating and truly adventurous things I’ve ever done. The hiking was steep with numerous 3rd class sections (meaning I’d need the use of one or both hands), and the combination of mud, loose rock and slick stone made for a moderately thrilling experience. Seeing as it was Superbowl Sunday, I brought along some Packers gear to stoke all my new Wisco friends. In the end it made a fitting summit flag. After snapping some photos I headed down via the main trail. The ascent has me so psyched, I barely noticed the countless passer-by’s comments.
And as always the looming question.... What’s next?
I would have taken that bet.
And I would have lost.
A few weeks back experiments began in the cave at The Crux. Initially my bouldering sessions were almost completely leg free, but this past Saturday found me traversing less than vertical walls and tactfully sending projects in the cave. This would be far more interesting with video of the “harder” bouldering, because some of the problems totally force the use of the bad leg. It almost feels like dry tooling with a foot. After two hours, I’d sent two V3s and flashed a V2. Walking out of the gym I had to laugh comparing the days tick list to this day not too long ago in Red Rocks, NV.
Meanwhile, crogging has been paying dividends as well. Although I’ve yet to break the 15 minute mile, the few days a week spent down at Amazon Trail have undoubtably improved my ability to move around. Feeling confident on Thursday I drove past the running trail and on up to the Baldy Peak trailhead. About 20 minutes later I’d covered the 300 feet of elevation gain over the course of about half a mile. It was hard work, but nowhere near as grim as I expected it to be. After successfully getting off the small peak, it was very clear what needed to happen next.
 |
| Baldy Peak |
 |
| Baldy Peak |
At just over 2000 ft, Spencer’s Butte isn’t much to talk about, or even look at, but as the the highest point in Eugene, it has earned a small reputation amongst locals. The trailhead starts at about 950 ft elevation southwest of the summit. Over the course of just over a mile, the main trail weaves around the south side and delivers hikers up the gently sloping east face of the butte. So yeah, its basically a great afternoon trail run for fairly fit people with two legs. Initially the plan was to take this route to the top, enjoy the summit and back track down the same way, but when I got to the trailhead and saw the scores of people of all ages and sizes headed for the main trail, my attention quickly turned to the West Trail with not a soul in sight. The West trail takes a direct route to the summit and in a half mile it covers the 1000+ ft very quickly, some of which, I’d heard, was 3rd class. This immediately sounded far more appetizing than the alternative.
45 minutes later a dozen or so locals were startled by the sound of aluminum and plastic clanking against the wet stones near the summit. They looked over just in time to see me mantle over the edge from “God only knows where”, pick up a pair of crutches and proceed straight towards the pile of boulders at the true summit.
 |
| Spencer's Butte |
 |
| Spencer's Butte |
Hiking up The West Trail alone in a fixator during a wet winter day was probably one of the most fulfilling, motivating and truly adventurous things I’ve ever done. The hiking was steep with numerous 3rd class sections (meaning I’d need the use of one or both hands), and the combination of mud, loose rock and slick stone made for a moderately thrilling experience. Seeing as it was Superbowl Sunday, I brought along some Packers gear to stoke all my new Wisco friends. In the end it made a fitting summit flag. After snapping some photos I headed down via the main trail. The ascent has me so psyched, I barely noticed the countless passer-by’s comments.
And as always the looming question.... What’s next?
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