team heerema

On Saturday I travelled to compete in a competition at Amusement Action Directe in Boisbriand, just north of Montreal. Many of the climbers on the Altitude team went – it was a great showing.

This competition was not part of the national Tour de Bloc circuit but part of a smaller circuit of Quebec competitions. The event seemed well organised and the problems were enjoyable for sure.

Qualification Round:

Leanna didn’t come with this time because she’s swamped with work. She marked papers for probably 16 hours this weekend. This was a good competition for her to miss because it wasn’t a Tour de Bloc event and less important.

However I sure could have used her support: She helps me by advising when I should rest, which boulders I should try, when to eat, etc. Without her there I pretty much ran around like a chicken with my head cut off during the qualifier round. Usually I complete all the problems I need to complete to qualify in the first two hours, and rest for the third hour. This time I was scrambling around right up until the end trying to complete 6 problems. By the time the qualifier period ended I was exhausted.

Worst part about it was I injured my left shoulder pretty badly YOLOing out to a hard mantle-move. Best part about it was that I still managed to qualify in 2nd place.

Finals Round:

Between qualifiers and finals I slept for half an hour, ate some food, and then stretched my shoulder A LOT. I needed to keep it warm and stretched before the muscles ceased up. I couldn’t move my hand behind me past my shoulder without sharp pain. I knew the injury wasn’t super serious, I just needed to keep it warm.

I didn’t get enough time to recover and regain much energy before finals began. I got out on the first problem and right away I knew I was tired. If I had to guess, I would say I was performing at about 74% of the energy level I normally can during finals. I could really notice it on the wall because I couldn’t pull really, just grab. Look what happens when Leanna doesn’t keep me under control eh?

Some problems I only tried 2 or 3 times during the 5 minute time limit because I was so tired I knew I couldn’t improve my high point. All things considered, with the shoulder and being really tired, I did pretty well, salvaging my score by doing the last boulder problem on my first try.

This secured me another bronzed 3rd place finish behind Seb Lazure and Fred Charron.

I rested Sunday and Monday and while I haven’t stressed or climbed on my left shoulder since the competition it feels fine. I can’t generate any pain by moving my arm around. That’s good news because I leave for Las Vegas on Saturday for a week.

I’m sorry these blog entries are so boring lately. After Vegas, climbing season around Ottawa should begin and I’ll be able to get outside and post more photos. Also, I’ve got some big news coming up shortly.

Smaller news, later this week I’m going to post a couple of climbing videos, one I made and one my friend Max Moore made. Free up some bandwidth.

Getting awarded with a mouth full of food