My pre season training went well, even managed to stay injury free, something i haven't managed to do for a long time. This meant by the time the first international came round, the CWIF (climbing works international festival) i was feel strong fit and ready to compete. It seems my feelings were correct as i finally won it (having been 2nd in this comp at least 3 times before).
My bubble burst slightly as a head cold decided it wanted to go onto my chest, making training and sleeping very difficult for two weeks, leaving me feeling a little under prepared for my first world cup of the season in Slovenia, but i managed to squeeze a few good sessions in before heading out but still unsure of how i would fare.
Thankfully i made it through the lottery of qualifiers and into the semifinals topping 3 boulders out of the 5 but should have been 4 really! The semi finals were a similar story really topping 2 boulders out of the 4, one of which was one of the harder ones, but failed to stick the horizontal roof dyno that quite a few others did, leaving me in a slightly disappointing 17th ( 2 flashes was enough to be in the final). It definitely felt like a top ten climb to me but in a field where every man in the semi finals had previously been in a final before it was always going to be a tight one.
The following weekend was Vienna, somewhere that has treated me quite well in the past so i was hopeful for a strong performance. I felt good and relaxed warming up perhaps a bit too relaxed in hindsight as i missed the easy dyno on the first problem thinking how warm the holds were! I slightly misread the third problem topping that 2nd go too! The 4th problem was infuriatingly close as i slipped off the final hold, turns out no one else got close! The 5th problem was easy, leaving me with 3 tops in 5, but should have been 3 in 3 really! even 3 in 4 would have put me into the semis...just. instead i landed up 27th kicking myself over two stupid mistakes and wondering what if over the 4th problem! At least i got some points! The semis and finals looked like my style too!
We have three weeks off now before Innsbruck, giving me a few weeks to work on a few things, and try to get things a bit more hooked up.
