Baby Come on Home

We arrived home on my step-dad’s birthday and planned to surprise both my parents by showing up on their doorstep unannounced. Little did I know that my younger brother, who lives in Florida, had decided to do the same thing! So it was surprises left, right and center. An emotional blur of hugs, kisses, tears and cheers. It was such a wonderful experience to come home to!

The very next day we went to our local gym and had a chat with the bossman about what we wanted to do and what we felt we could offer. To be honest, I only half expected Rich to get some work let alone both of us walking away with solid employment. Our first month back was a whirlwind of training, study and exams; all whilst trying to catch up with mates we hadn’t seen in a year. 

Finally working solid hours, we moved out of my dads (we said we’d only be 2 weeks... thanks dad) and into a flat of our own. It’s a total dive but the location is perfect and it allows a slight feeling of dirt baggery, lacking only the convenience of mobility. And being that we’ve had mates crashing on our floor almost more often than not, it has been a great little ‘transitional’ flat for us.

We both really wanted to concentrate on getting super strong, climb fit and healthy this year. To learn as much as we can at work and to develop and solidify a strong skills set that we can take anywhere with us. Work wise, we wanted to bring some fun and new life into the gym and I do believe we have done that. Rich wrote a training template called ClimbFit which I teach weekly. It’s awesome to be able to combine my PT skills with climbing and see rad improvements week to week in our regular climbers.

Rich has put heaps of effort into developing himself as a route setter and the results have been awesome. To see the regulars frothing over his new routes is really inspiring. He’s tried to push some boundaries and get people out of their comfort zone. Not only that but it has pushed him to think more about his own climbing, what his strengths and weaknesses are and work harder at improving. He has been a training machine and the hard work has paid off. I’d like to say that I’ve put in even half his effort but I think even that would be a stretch. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve trained hard and have seen some great improvements and made some serious gains but if I trained like my demon husband, I’d be crushing!

With that said, now that our wedding is over and I’m done with that emotional roller-coaster, I’m really aiming to spend the next few months concentrating solidly on my own climbing. Our honeymoon in the Bluies was a real slap in the face as to how much climbing really does mean to me, mean to us both as a lifestyle that we don’t just want, we need. For me climbing and the lifestyle, the energy, the freedom that comes with it allows me to breathe. I love it. We love it. The fact that we get to do it together is just the icing on the cake. A passion shared is a passion that explodes out of both your beings. It grows and becomes a part of you like a hand or a foot and you just feel lost or empty without it. I am so blessed to do what I love with the one that I love. I pretty much hit the jackpot and I’m pretty darn stoked by it too…