Rock Climbing

Athletic career: 2001

My first year at college (creighton university) was a exercise in undoing all the athleticism and fitness I had built up over the last 19 year. College calbre wrestler, undone. 2:02 half-mile, undone. Didn't drink beer in high school, fine. Now I will drink ten. Didn't eat mac-and-cheese or ramen noodles, fine. Now, three servings for late night. It was a exercise in glutny, and I was getting great marks. Interestingly enough, I some how managed some great grades that year. It probably had something to do with all the extra calories... or brain food that was going around.

I came home following my first year and decided that I no longer wanted the extra 20 lbs. It was unsightly, and I looked like a fat hippie, in my college tie-dye, flip flops, and shoulder length hair. I first got a job at an animal pharmicuticals company in charles city. One upside of the 6 am start time was that I could no longer go out and drink, at all. I tried it once, and things did not go well. Trust me. Standing up helping to produce drugs for barnyard animals in a moon suit does not lend itself to feeling hung over.

Another perk of the company was that the CEO had some kind of dispute with the local YMCA. Apparently, the Y wanted too much for membership for the 1000 employees, so in striking Mike Ball fashion(get it...) he said,"Fine..I guess I'll just build our own gym." And he did. 80-90k worth of fitness equipment... probably two years worth of what the YMCA wanted for membership. I started work in mid-may, and more importantly, I started workouts as well. Run and lift was the extent of my exercise, just did that 1-2 hours a day to start the path back to fitness. Apparently, I was the only one in the company that know that the gym existed. I would go weeks without seeing a soul.

One of the aspirations of a 19 year old returning to physical activity is to have the pecs, abs, and shoulders that is achievable with dilligence in the weight room and at the dinner table. Although I don't have any body for life pics, I assure you I was succeeding.

It was at this dinner table that my close friend and old wrestling coach posed the question,"Why do you want to get that way, anyone can do that. Why not do something challenging with your life, like climb a mountain." Brilliant. With that one statement, I know what was going to happen. I would start climbing. But how? I lived in Iowa...

Some quick recon shed some valuable information. The was a climbing gym at UNI in Cedar Falls. However, they charged 10 dollars per climb for non-students. Problem solved. Adam , my friend from high school purchased a summer long climbing pass for me... he was a university student. I was on my way to being a rock climber.

Another perk of my job was I only worked 4 days per week. This lent itself to more working out and some travel time on weekends as well. My schedule allowed me to go down twice a week and climb at their gym. There, I met some fellow climbers that offered a spot in their car that weekend to redwing minnesota to climb and camp... I accepted, learned how to climb out doors and the rest is history.

I came back to Creighton, started a rock climbing club that was financed by the university, took trips to minnesota, missouri, moab, and competed in the flat lands rock climbing competition in lincoln where I placed second. In all actuality, climbing may be my favorite sport. You don't have to do anything but climb and you body magically chisels itself under its own weight. Every climber I know, male or female has the ideal body, not too bulky not to lean, just right. Including the red-head that was imbarasingly good at UNO yesterday.

The reason I remember this stint, I because I went for the first time in 4 years, yesterday. I arrived to meet my friend from dental school, Nic. Right when I arrived to the UNO gym, I saw Nic working a bouldering problem. It was evident that Nic had traded in some winter weight, for the climbers physique, much like I had 7 years ago.

Climbing goes along with any other principles of physiology, use it or loose it. When I stopped climbing in 2004, I could sport climb 5.11-5.12 routes. In layman terms, I would have had to start climbing daily to see any greater gains if I were to continue with the sport. Or much like a good cat 3 cyclist trying to chase upgrade points in cycling. Everyday climbing workouts maybe hard, however, lifting my fingers(like right now) following my "every 4 years" climbing session trumps all of that business.