The Hard Part

I've had my training fire re-stoked since purchasing this wee book, and it's inspired this blog. One of the first takeaways i've acquired is that i need some meaningful goals. Now, i've known this for some time, but having had no realistic vehicle for getting there (i.e. a coherent training plan) it's never felt tangible. I've known for ever that my weight is a huge obstacle to my climbing, but i'm just not a small dude. i can be very disciplined for a while, but with no method to correlate weight loss and performance, i've never managed both at the same time. That is to say, i just keep trying to climb harder and harder (which i've managed with slow, stuttering results) and hope that when the magical time comes and i happen upon the perfect diet, i'll find a way to drop 20 or 30lbs and keep it off, at which point i'll nearly instantly be a number grade or so the better climber.

I can't say it's a bad plan, actually; only it's lacking an engine. The "climbing harder and harder" bit is terribly vague. As the Anderson bros point out (in different words, and with much science for underpinning), you can't convince yourself you've gotten from point A to point B if you can't remember where point A was, and don't know what point B might look like. And unlike weight lifting (and most other sports) climbing "difficulty" or "resistance" etc, is very tricky to pin down and gauge.

A second problem with just climbing constantly harder is that you can't. You either periodize or you break down, and your body periodizes for you. That's essentially what i've been doing for the last 7 or 8 years. It works, but it ain't optimal. Only i've never been exposed to the climbing equivalent of a training season. What, even, would that be broken down into? There're routes for building endurance, and there's bouldering for strength/power. Hard to mold that into a proper season.

The Training Manual ostensibly solves all this, and in such an absurdly simple way that i'm a li'l irritated i didn't think of it myself. First it suggests a pretty formulaic 17ish week season. That's broken down into a base fitness phase, a strength phase, a power phase, a power-endurance phase, and a performance phase, followed by prescribed rest. Simple enough. That could translate almost straight into lifting or triathlon.

The neat bit is what it breaks down into: base fitness is (indeed) routes--lots of sustained moderate climbing. No getting hurt here. Strength is hangboarding. Power is campusing and very very very hard bouldering. Actually very little climbing in these two phases. PE is boulder linkups. Then you perform and go send yer dream proj(s). Easy peasy.

The goal just now is to make it through a first season without injury. I've built a campus board. I have the tools. Now to start.....and that's killin' me! With 14+/- week training season before the bu'ness starts, i'd really need to start this in earnest around the end of June, unless i wanna peak in August. And October sounds way cooler. Until then, i'm trying to whip my chunky butt into shape to start training properly.

Big Ol'

If there were such a thing as a Clydesdale category in climbing, i'd rock it. Weighed in at 200 and change this morning. Having been around a lot of climbers over the last decade, i gather that my weight is sub-optimal (and kinda rare) for an obsessive climber. There have been short moments when i've weighed substantially under 14 stones, but i had a flaccid skeleton jutting out of a triathlete's trunk. Weight has always been a problem.

Presently, i haven't much weight to lose from my legs; but i'd guess and say i'm hovering around 15% bodyfat--meaning i could slough 25lbs without courting any danger of being "ripped" or sacrificing muscle. I just don't quite know how.

And that’s not to say I haven’t tried. I’ve ground through every diet fad thought of, and the thing is i haven’t simply experienced the standard disappointing result of losing a bit, then gaining it back; i tend not to lose any substantial weight. Now, by the calorie-deficit-equals-weight-loss equation that means i’ve either gotten perfectly adequate maintenance calories on a 1,400cal/day liquid supp diet, or i’ve managed to cheat and add an extra thousand calories or so in chia seeds. And while i’m occasionally convinced that my body’d sooner give up brain tissue than central adiposity, i suspect that i’m secretly an undisciplined, low-down, dirty cheater.

Currently, i’ve adopted a quasi-paleo sort of diet, and i will say it’s made a difference. I had got up to 215, and just by cutting out the grains and garbage i’ve dropped 15 or so. And it wasn’t very hard. But i’ve plateaued. I get that it should be hard for some of us to drop that last 5 or 10 pounds to hit optimal cranking weight, but i don’t think it should hurt much to stay at sub-equine training weight. How to get to the next level?

That’s what this blog’ll cover. My sport is climbing, and my clock is ticking. I only have a few years left (assuming God allows me that) to make whatever big gains i can make before i’m too old and’m fighting just to maintain. I’m going to have to become methodical in training, serious about rest days, picky about projects, detailed about goals, jealous about three day weekends, and i may have to give up cheese. And i really, really like cheese.

I have another board where i can post up weights and numbers, etc; the plan for this is motivation. I want to separate goals, the tic list, and my blathering from the numbers. Maybe this way i can keep 'em both a bit clearer.

Right now i redpoint v5 and the rare v6, and bouldery 5.12. I think it's reasonable to send v8 and 5.13 before i'm over the hill. There're the vague, long-terms. Now for the training.