Pinch Me... I Must be Dreaming

All athletes, artists, and scientists have experienced “break through” moments. After months, years, decades of focused effort towards an accomplishment of some goal, the dam gives way and the river explodes through the flood gates. While part of me believes that the journey is its own reward, everyone enjoys this fleeting moment of success, and there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to when we’re touched by the muse. In fact the only common thread I’ve noticed in my personal breakthroughs is that they almost always occur when I least expect them, and last Thursday night is the perfect example.

After a long day of rehab, acupuncture, work and errands, I dragged my ass down to The Shed for what I could only assume would be a shitty campus board session. Thursdays have been my “big move, big rung” night, which although far more forgiving on my fingers seems to require more energy than the more fingery workouts I do earlier in the week. My goal was to make it through a list of combinations I’d done in the past. It was essentially going to be a maintenance night.

After completing a few warm up sets I was feeling a little better and decided to try 1-4-7 a few times just for shits and giggles. The rest of my workout was already planned out and most of the sets were long easy and sort of boring. I might as well give my long term (read: like since I learned to campus back at the 911 Castle in 1999) project a try right? Yes, after all these years I’ve never done what many call the entry level movement to real campus board work.

And what do you know? I hike it leading with my good arm - like I had to double check to make sure I was on the right rung. Rad. “Ok, lets try this with the bad arm, just for fun to see how far away I am”. Again, a hike to 7. “WTF?” Of course Phil, the boys, and I are psyched. “Might as well try 1-5-7.” First go leading with my good hand I pull to 7 and notice my hand gliding past it even though I’ve already eased off the gas, yet I still hit 7.5. “Um....” Next try I slap 8. 1-5-8. Out of fucking nowhere. And I was literally a millimeter away from it on my bad side. For those that don’t campus much let me try and shed some light on how utterly ridiculous this improvement is. It ain’t much different than having a personal best of 5:30 in the mile and then getting up one morning and almost breaking 4:00. Unheard of. This shit doesn’t happen very often. 

So what happened? Although part of me still believes that I was dreaming there are a few factors that must have been involved. First off, the previous week on the board I did a weighted workout (10 lbs). It didn’t feel so bad during the session, but my elbows definitely felt it the following day. Secondly, I had a light session on Tuesday, because I tweaked my finger. And third, (I should get on a scale to confirm), I must be lighter. For some reason, my appetite has been really light the past few weeks and I’ve been training like a madman, so I can only assume this is the case.

Now, if I can only get this damn leg to start working for me....


Video: Rich Simpson demonstrates 1-5-8.5 on small rungs.