Lead climbed a 5-9

That's not me, it's Tom Slider

I went rock climbing outside for the first time this Saturday. We did a 5-8, two 5-9's and a 5-10 (which I couldn't do, ugh).

I'm am a total newb. The most I've done before this was go through a belaying course at the gym. AJ and his friend Jason basically taught me everything right there on the rock.

At the end if the day, on our last route, they asked if I wanted to lead it. I said, "Heh, I don't think that's a good idea," but they persisted. So tried it.

Lead climbing is a lot more intense (read scary) because you can actually fall a distance instead of the few inches you "fall" when you're top roping. Clipping in is particularly nerve racking because you only have one hand on the rock and it's also the point when you fall the farthest.

They said I had the Elvis leg going a few times.

I did end up falling (just 5 feet or so) and got nasty bruise on my bicep where I hit the rope and a scrape on my shoulder from hitting the rock.

I'm pretty sure I'm scared of heights.

Lost $100 in a pool shot bet

I hung out with AJ last night and we went to play pool. Pretty early on in the night, he jokingly asked if I'd give him $100 if he made this ridiculous shot.

The shot was pretty outrageous for casual pool player. It was a bank shot that had to barely kiss the ball to fall into the side pocket. Both our jaws dropped when he did it.

I paid him the money because I was serious when we made the bet. I was so sure he wasn't going to make, there wasn't a doubt in my mind.

He kept trying to give the money back, but I said it's cool if he used it to pay for drinks and food all night, which he did... and spent he all 100 of it by the end of the night.

Killer Spin Class

According to my Polar heart rate monitor, my average heart rate was 101% over the course of a 45 min spin class. The max was 106%. Thats 193 bpm avg, 204 bpm max. That's really good for me, who's a self proclaimed cardio wimp.

The spin class was great. It was an instructor that was new to me and she challenged me just hard enough to where I was constantly giving full effort. Sometimes if the instructor is too hard, I just give up, ya know?