There's something to be said about gear; when it's new, when you've had it for years, or when you're going out to buy it. I've used a lot of gear, and over the years have learned that, the more you get to know your gear, the more confident you are when it counts. Take ice axes for instance...when you're half way up a climb, nice and steep, when water is "spraying" down into your face, blinding you from any site of your next placement...you need to be able to swing those axes and tell when your pick is sunk to the hilt or when it's barely hangin' on. With new axes it's hard to tell their reaction. Same goes with crampons. I had a bad experience with a brand new pair of crampons. Silly things blew off half way up a climb. Definitely human error, but i would have known if they were properly set or not if i knew a bit about them. I guess what i'm tryin to say is: get to know your gear before you put it to the test during an intense moment.
Next topic: Over-training. I've been reading up on training a lot lately. Whether mental or physical...both count just as much as the other. When the mental side of things starts to come into play, overt-training can soon follow. Your mind can play tricks on you, telling you that you need to keep pushing, don't worry about the pain. Well such things aren't true. When your body is starting to hurt...it's a fine line that you're walking on if you keep pushing. I think over the past month I've been over-training. My right arm is starting to hurt pretty good. Advil has become my friend...but i certainly don't want to start relying on that. I took a day off and trained tonight...kept 'er easy...more working on technique than anything. I did however throw a few power moves into my session, but again, i think that was due to the mental side. I watched a short vid online of someone last year at the Ouray ice festival. They were pulling a roof of ice doing a figure four move. Naturally, seeing that i wanted to go out and test my strength in my climbing gym. So, i did the move and now my arm hurts. As i sit hear typing away...i'm thinking to myself, "you know you could do the move, you really didn't have to go out there and do it." That's the mental side. If you concentrate, you know what your body is capable of, just buy asking it, or thinking about it. Deep inside, we know ourselves a lot better than we lead on out in the open.
Training is a very scientific method of progression that takes very precise concentration. Over doing it can lead to becoming weaker than you started. Be careful, read up on what you want to accomplish and how you plan on getting there. It's important.
All aside, training is going good. Just working on a bit of technique right now. I'm as strong as i'm going to be for the Ouray event. I need to come to terms with that, and focus now on the event itself.
I love climbing.
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