Blogs

                   Me and 'junior' doing a 7b problem in the lakes (check out my ever growing belly ;))

Since about 2 weeks ago the size of my belly seems to increase every single day. Which is probably a good thing, knowing the (unborn) little one is fully developed by now and only has to grow bigger over the next 19 weeks. The (obvious) downside of getting a bigger belly is that your climbing performance decreases. Although I'm still not 'huge' I do feel the extra weight I have to carry, and the lack of power I have in my lower abs. Especially the latter makes climbing so much harder.
It's a fascinating feeling though, not being able to stay in a certain body position on a steep wall. It feels as if your body all of a sudden 'collapses', when you least expect it.
A 'good' thing about getting a bigger belly is that you get heavier and thus stronger in the arms. Just imagine how strong your arms must get when you train with all those extra kilos for so many months ;).

I know it's not realistic to think I can keep climbing (hard) for much longer, but for now it's a nice feeling I can still climb. I even managed to do some 7a's and a 7b boulder problems in the Lakes the other day. Which seems, if I might say, a pretty good effort for an 21 weeks old foetus ;).

Within 3 to 4 weeks time Andy and I will go and see my family in Holland. After which we will drive to Germany and Swiss. Hopefully I will still be able to boulder by that time. If not I will just spot Andy, which should be easy with that 'airbag' in front of me.

A lot worth mentioning has happened the last three months. So why I didn't blogged any sooner isn't clear to me at all. Oh, well.

Between my last blog and now we've been on two trips: bouldering in Sintra (Portugal) with Andy and Springer (Chris Graham) and route (!) climbing in Montgrony (Spain) with Andy and Martin (Smith). Both these trip were, how shall I say it, ….interesting. Our trip to Portugal fell in the period of 'the ash cloud disaster'. This meant that, instead of 5 days, we had to stay a week and a half. During the extra days, Springer made himself usefull by writing a nice trip report our stay in Portugal. And since I couldn't of written it any better myself, I might as well refer to it (instead of writing about it in my blog). So see: http://articles.climbnewcastle.com/sintra.html

Our trip to Spain was interesting because I've not done routes for a long long time. Although I hardly climbed that trip, and was scared as soon as I tied on, I did enjoy the trip. Because we both enjoyed it (Andy was climbing well), we will probably go on another route climbing trip this summer.

Between these two trips I've mainly been working: finishing of lecturing at Sunderland University, route-setting, coaching and working for Climb Newcastle. 'Unfortunately' I haven't been able to climb and train as much as I would like to. The reason is because Andy and I expecting a little 'junior' Earl in December. I'm only 15 weeks pregnant , so you can't really tell yet. However, my body makes it more than clear to me that I'm not the only one to think of any longer.

The last three months I simple couldn't do a whole lot physically (I was to tired and nauseous to climb or train). This is probably the reason why I hardly climbed in Spain. I started to feel the first physical 'changes' in Portugal, but fortunately I was still able to limb reasonably hard there (i.e. I still did a couple of 7c's).

Meanwhile I start to feel much better. I slowly start to get my energy back, which means I can train a bit more and for a little longer. Hopefully I will be 'fit' again (or as fit as you can be when you're pregnant) for our next trip.

Thanks 'Climbing Works' for a great competition. Seeing all those international awesome, strong and talented climbers competing was really motivating. It really motivated me to climb lots and train hard again (if my wrist and finger lets me, that is).