Day 158 - Rock Star

not as wide as advertised

Well, today really didn't go as planned, as I hope is evident from today's photo.

Now, those of you who know me (and there may be as many as several of you out there), will know that I'm into neither celebrity nor selfies...and yet this photo is both (kinda).

Allow me to explain...

The plan was to get up earlyish, drive up to Jool's warehouse in Nuneaton and drop those laptops off, then head straight off for a long bouldering workout, before heading back home, where my new musical toy was due to be delivered. 

But it turned out that Jools was having a hectic and stressed morning, with only a few hours to get sorted before going on holiday for a week...I ended up working there until around 1pm, and leaving with a couple more computers that need some work doing. 

At least I'd decided to climb indoors rather than out today, as the plan would have been dead in the water at this point. 

Over the last couple of years, there have been a number of days when I've had opportunities to climb outdoors, when Anna hasn't...today, I'd considered going bouldering at The Roaches, Cratcliffe or Burbage South, but felt that would be yet more experience for me when Anna can't make it...especially after my 50@50 the other week, when I climbed 50 routes and Anna climbed none...

So I decided to treat it more as a workout, and go indoors.  Our favourite bouldering centre is in Loughborough, which is almost never convenient...however, being most of the way there already this morning, I realised it would be perfect for a few hours exercise.

But then it was was 2pm by the time I got there, I was hot and tired before I even started, and I tired quickly.  I rarely climb indoors on my own, and I clearly need to learn how to pace myself.   After an hour or so I was hot, unpleasantly sweaty, and pumped.  And I felt very tired, and very weak...yay! 

Either I'm completely out of shape, it was simply the heat exacerbating the situation, or I just climbed too hard too fast (by my puny standards, of course).  I did around 30 problems in total (and down climbed them all) in the space of an hour, and apparently that's about enough for me at the moment...

However, as a bit of a bonus, this chap was there setting some new problems (I tried one of them - couldn't get off the ground)...it was one of those curious moments where you meet someone you "know", whilst being just some weird stranger to them...

Anyway, this guy is Tom Randall, and he's a very well known and highly accomplished climber around these here parts (and beyond).  

(Climbers make the best kind of celebrity - the kind nobody has heard of!)

Tom is part owner of the bouldering centre I think, although I've never seen him there before.  
He and another climber named Pete Whittaker are known as the Wideboyz, due to their love of climbing wide cracks called offwidths.   They famously (amongst the climbing community at least) went to the States and climbed all the hardest offwidths they could find, including the hardest in the world, which was unclimbed up to that point.

The Wideboyz also produced a series of crack climbing instructional videos, which we watched with great interest, before finding that cracks are still really hard to climb!

(Anna and I have been meaning to get on top of our crack climbing this year, but it hasn't happened yet...)

Video's always seem to be popping up of Tom climbing some super hard stuff in the Peak District, and some super fun stuff too...all of it light years beyond my meagre bumbling, of course.

So I asked Tom if I could take a couple of photo's, simply meaning "whilst he worked"...but I think he assumed I wanted to be in the shot so stopped working and pulled a couple of faces with me.  

I felt bad for interrupting his work (I honestly hadn't meant to), but he was a really cool guy, very friendly and fun, as you can see, so it worked out well!

Thanks Tom!

One last note...that bit of kit I ordered...here it is, duly arrived, with Jazz kindly posing for scale.

big box

What on earth did I order, a new drum kit?!   I can't believe the size of the box!

One day I might show you what was in the box...

;-)