Sport Climbing and Training (Not exactly related)

Oh man. Tonight was amazing. Had work and then headed to the gym. I had every intention of doing a nice grueling workout. However, the crowded gym made this nearly impossible.

Let’s back up. In the previous post, didn’t I say I’d be taking it easy? No projecting or brutal workouts? Yes. So what the heck?! Well, I decided that my aerobic endurance was terrible, and working on that would be a fun, easy (sort of), stressless way to spend the next month and a half.

Saturday’s workout was beautiful. Nice 30 minute warm up. Followed by a good stretch. Goal was to climb every V3 in the gym as smooth as possible with 3 minutes rest between burns (Burns: attempts at a route.). I also get a 10 minute rest halfway through. I wanted to stick right in that aerobic zone. Actually, I just didn’t want to hit my anaerobic threshold. In total, I had three falls and 15 routes leaving 3 or 4 in the roof and surrounding overhang. Definitely should have started there.

It ended with a feeling similar to a long uphill bike ride (and complete muscle failure haha). My hands were missing most calluses, or they were worn away. And I was wiped out. My cool down was supposed to be to slow climb V2-VB (Vb is the lowest grade… similar to climbing a ladder), which was brutal. But it all felt so good. I slept really well.

A lot of people wanted to advise me on the right way to train. Some advice was much more useful than others. But what this workout made me realize (along with the advice I was given…) is that despite the very climbing specific work that needs to be done, the body is still a human body and responds just like it would in any other sport. It’s only taking all the knowledge I already know about training athletes and applying it to benefit me in climbing.

Just so you know… I’ve read more text books in the last year than I did while I was in college. All sorts of texts on sport specific training and the human body and I have to be honest… The human body is still the human body, no matter what sport it’s participating in. Mind Blown? Mine too. A lot of the analogies some of the more experienced climbers used to relate the training they spoke to me about were using Track and weight lifting. Two extremely different sports from climbing and yet the strategies were identical to how I train my athletes. These were some of the same ideas that some members of the climbing community shunned me for considering recently. Haha glad I stuck to my guns. :)

And before I hop back on topic (I know, I’m all over the place. I’m improvising from my rough draft.) I just want to give kudos to top rope/Lead/Trad and all the other sport climbers out there. Every sport I’ve done in my life has focused entirely on short maximal efforts and with only a few exceptions have required serious attention to any kind of aerobic conditioning. The thought of training for sport climbing is both daunting and frightening to me. Much like being a pole vaulter who is told to run an 800m in a meet, or worse (in my case) the 1500. Forcing myself to improve and grow as a climbing athlete is something that will be really good for me. I just have to stomach it. And back on topic.

My plan tonight was to try a “4x4.” Definitely an anaerobic workout. Simply, 4 routes varied in difficulty (ex. V2,V4,V3,V2) done consecutively with 10 minutes rest between sets and repeated 3 more times. But the walls were so busy, I got stuck waiting nearly 3 min between burns ruining what I wanted to accomplish.

So I ended up playing. I was shocked by how I was doing. I already warm so I starting down. Flashed some V5’s and got a V6 on the second burn (foot slipped… oops.). and V7’s are becoming so… friendly. If I had started the evening intending to project that V7 I would have finished it. And I’m fairly confident I can finish it in one or two burns the next time I’m in.

However, due to crowds, I think I’ll be using the old Circuit gym to train. Campus ladders, Hang boards, and a building full of new problems sounds like what I need.

Anyways, that’s all. No, I lied. I signed up for the Portland Boulder Rally on December 3^rd. if I climb like I did tonight I’ll be sure to demolish my performance from my last comp. Plus, Carlo Traversi and Sierra Blair-Coyle are said to be there. Ok. Bye. :)

James