New Wheels, Energy, and Tweaks in my training

Oh so sweet…
Up until about 3 years ago I was into a bunch of different sports. Kayaking, climbing, mountain biking, etc. I basically loved all sports that involved being in the outdoors. But three years ago, something changed. Something altered my “I like all sports” to “I just want to climb”. Thus, a couple of weeks ago i sold my mountain bike and BOUGHT A VAN! Yes, i love this. Essentially i needed a second vehicle that i could live out of when I’m on the road. As i sit here, looking outside, I can see my new (used) Safari Van. So sweet. Inside, newly built cabinets, a bed, and some typical amenities: Fridge, stove, cutlery, dishes, dishwasher (just kidding), etc. I’m stoked. My wife refuses to drive this beauty…I say it’s like drivin’ a porche (sort of).

Energy
I love climbing. Just about every aspect of this sport gets me all fired up. But of course, with anything we love, there’s always challenges along the way. Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the energy to which can be created with whom your climbing with or, those who are around you at the crag. Now, a lot of dealing with surrounding “energy” falls back on your mental “toughness”. And just to be clear, when I say “energy” i’m talking about the mood, the atmosphere, positive reinforcement vs. negative reinforcement, creating a positive outlook out of something negative, and so forth. The other day i was out climbing and throughout the “session” you could tell there was a lot of negative energy in the air. People weren’t psyched, there were negative comments being thrown around left and right, it just wasn’t good. This plays an effect on your climbing. Whether you realize it or not, a negative atmosphere, or negative reinforcement can cause your IPS (ideal performance state) to drop which basically lowers your climbing potential/ability. As i said, this has a lot to do with your personal mental toughness and how you handle things…but I think it’s important to always try remaining positive with those whom your climbing with, to always encourage them to push harder, to go for that next hold no matter how pumped they are…and if they can’t do a move encourage them anyways…it makes a difference.

Tweaks
I’ve been learning a lot about my training in climbing…the in’s the out’s, what to do, what not to do, and how to do it. And I’m fairly confident that i’ve been making good progress. My climbing has improved, i’m sending harder routes, my onsight level is coming up. All in all, i’m quite happy. However, recently i spent a few days in skaha, Penticton (BC), and got totally worked on longer overhanging routes. This annoyed me. My climbing has improved, I’m stronger, my endurance has increased a lot…what was the deal. Well, yesterday i spent the afternoon with my coach and he worked me to the point of failure. It didn’t take much. Why? Right away he realized what the issues were and attacked them/me with exercises that exposed such issues.

I’m used to my home crag. A lot of the routes are sort of steep, but more so technical. My home crag is where i train, where i spend most of my time. It makes sense now. I’m not used to steep overhanging routes, nor have i trained for such routes. Thus, put me on one and things don’t go as well. This also became apparent in training yesterday. My coach put me on an exercise that involved climbing a bouldering problem that was super overhanging. After about the 4th or 5th attempted lap on the problem, things started to fail…and quickly. Another factor that was noticeable (by coach) was my body tension. I thought that area was pretty good. Nope, I was wrong. Next exercise: Lever training intervals. Wow. Hard. But oh so good. This exercise too revealed a lot. My body tension was failed after short periods of time.

Training: To improve on my endurance for overhanging routes I’m going to do climbing interval sessions. There is an exercise called “4x4” which is kinda hard to explain but to put it simply: I’m going to use 4 different bouldering problems that are sort of hard (but that i can send pretty much every attempt), and with each problem, however long it takes me to climb that problem…that’s how long i get to rest before climbing the next problem. Repeat this four times. Yes, that’s 16 boulder problems. Ew ew ew. (I’m pretty sure that’s what was explained to me by Gadd, if I’m wrong then 1. I’m going to be really sore after doing my version of a 4x4 and 2. Before i destroy myself, if it’s wrong, tell me what the right way is). Going to do this 2-3 times per week.

Lever Training: Lever training is going to help with my body tension. Apparently my butt is hangin’ a bit low on overhanging (horizontal rough) routes. So, training the front lever (hanging from your arms, lift your body up and extend your legs straight out, leaving your body completely horizontal-as stiff as a board) will increase your body tension. How to do this, or, how i’m going to do this: Lever interval training. This entails doing reps of front levers (or half levers-only extending one leg out, or “front curls” which is lifting your body up, keeping your back parallel to the ground but tucking your legs into your stomach) until fail. The amount of time you spent doing your set of lever reps, that’s how long you get for resting between sets. Do 5 sets 2-3 times per week.

I’m always excited to learn about how to improve on my weaknesses. It motivates me because i know it’s going to make me a better climber. I like the mental challenge of sticking with it as it reveals how bad you actually want “it”.

Thanks WG for getting me into the gym when it was closed and thanks, as usual, for layin’ the smack down.