Leeds II

Getting-locked-out shenanigans aside, my weekend up North was amazing, and it felt like it had the restorative properties of a holiday, without having to take any time off work. On Saturday I had my first taste of climbing on Yorkshire gritstone when we went bouldering in Shipley, which was a fun but humbling experience. I didn’t adjust particularly well to the grit, didn’t climb particularly well either, and wore through my fingertips in an alarmingly short amount of time. Despite that, it felt so good to be in a forest, without the sound of sirens or loud neighbours, and to breath air that didn’t feel like poision. In the evening we made huge portions of delicious veggie gyros, talked about life and watched Midsommar, which was just as cathartic an experience as the first time I watched it.

On Sunday I ran 16 miles on the Trans Pennine Trail, an absolutely stunning route that follows the canal out of Leeds, complete with barges and locks. The scenery was beyond beautiful and is almost certainly in tourist marketing material as exemplifying the idyllic English countryside. After having burned so many calories, we ate lunch at Estabulo, an incredible Brazilian all-you-can-eat place, where I did indeed eat a truly inordinate amount of food. It was so good that the next time I’m in Leeds I’m going to insist we visit again. Despite being weighed down by a couple of kilos of meat, in the afternoon we headed to City Bloc gym to check out the comp wall, where I miraculously managed to get up a couple of the problems, sufficiently redeeming myself for my lacklustre climbing performance the day before.

Today, my entire body is sore, and I’m glad that my only plans involve sitting down. My weekend break worked out exactly how I’d hoped it would, and I can’t wait for the next one.