I just recently moved to San Antonio from Austin, and the move has definitely affected my training regimen. First of all, I started my internship, which involves working 8-5 every day with class once a week from 6-9pm. Since I've never had a full-time job for more than a few months, this will be quite the mental and physical shock. When I initially began the search for nearby climbing gyms, the prospects were looking meager and expensive. Since my internship is continuing education and not a paid experience, I am currently living off of student loans. For some reason, I absolutely LOATHE debt, so I am determined to use my loans sparingly.

Luckily, before I forked over the money for a gym membership, some friends at ClimbTech (www.climbtechgear.com) put me in touch with some local SA climbers, one of whom has his own wall in his backyard. Overjoyed, I went to check it out last week! The wall is not very tall, but starts out very overhung to capitalize on surface area. The footholds are not where I would naturally expect them, so the routes definitely challenge me to use different footwork and other techniques to finish the problems. Since this home gym is about 25 minutes away from my place, and I have to drive 1 hour round trip daily, I plan to limit my gym climbing to twice a week.

My typical training plan is to just destroy myself one day and rest for two, and repeat. However, with my limited time, energy, and motivation recently, I am starting to workout moderately hard every other day. If I get a chance to go to the weight room in my apartment complex, I'll do forearm curls, tapering down in weights until I can barely lift 5 lbs. Something I really need to work on is my lock-off strength. I currently have none, so I try to do exercises on the pull-up bar when I get the chance. I typically do some pull ups until I start to slow down. Then, I lock off at a 90-degree angle, pull my shoulder blades together, and wait. When my arms start shaking intensely and I feel like I'm about to fall off, I try to do one more pull up with everything I've got. I usually have to put my whole body into it to barely get a fraction of another pull up in, but I love it! I also try to do 20 push ups every night and 100 crunches, if I remember ;) I haven't had a chance to climb at either of the outdoor walls, Medicine Wall or Cub Cave, but hopefully once it starts cooling off, I'll be able to get out on the weekends. Can't wait for the fall! Happy training :)