[Will Goldsmith]

I'm going to El Chorro this Easter for 10 days, with the aim to on-sight lots of long (30m+) 7a/7a+'s and hopefully a 7b. Recently I've on sighted a few 6c+/7A's, none of which were especially long (16m ish). On all these routes i didn't find any of the moves really desperate, but i was feeling fairly pumped at the lower off.

I'm assuming its my stamina which needs training(?)

- Whats the best way to go about it? My rough plan is to Lap routes at the wall on a toprope i.e. lead up, down climb, up, down, and to do circuits. Is it best to go until failure, or to keep a steady pump going for a certain amount of time?


Any help/advice greatfully received!

[abarro81]

UCR and the academy both have good circuits boards for training power endurance, maybe do some capillarisation too. There's articles on planet fear and moon about power endurance and stamina stuff.

[Will Goldsmith]

Cheers Alex. I'll check out planet fear, hadnt thought of that..

Did you have a good time in Chorro? Get lourdes ticked?

[Eddies]

Long climbs on small holds, shaking out on crimps not jugs. Aim to do 3 sets of 20min climbs with 5mins rest between sets.

Then at end of session do ladder runs on campus board using small rungs and feet on a step on the back wall.
1-2-3-4-5 match 5-4-3-2-1. Do 3 sets of as many reps as possible (untill failure) with 5 mins between sets.

[abarro81]

Chorro was cool but lourdes stayed wet all trip unfortunately. Nice to be climbing long routes in a t-shirt rather than bouldering in 20 layers!

Doing intervals on the circuits at the walls is what I spend most of my fitness time doing - anything between 20-80 moves. On short ones I try not to shake out - make it intense enough that you can't rest your way around it.. on the longer stuff I do a fair bit of shaking. SACCing (20-40min, very light pump but never boxed) also seems pretty useful - shaking out on jugs on slightly overhanging ground does seem to get you good at shaking out on jugs on slightly overhanging ground. Which is what lots of euro stamina seems to be about. It is boring though - take some music and a bunch of detication!

[abarro81]

Oh, the two routes right of hakuna matata at makinodromo both get 7b in the new rockfax and are both soft stamina on flatties/slopers/jugs if you're after the 7b onsight. Plus you get to retro-burn-off Paz if you onsight them or hakuna.

[Will Goldsmith]

Glad to hear you had a good time

Cheers for the info, all very usefull. 

[Fultonius]

Old Thread Revival!

I'm off to El Chorro in October and would like to get some F7bs onsight and maybe a 7c quick redpiont. Only there for a week so i doubt I'll get the chance to do any projecting.

Time available is:
 
The rest of this week.
1 week holiday
1 week Free
2 weeks (Work in azerbaijan)
4 weeks Free
1 Week Taper
El Chorro!

I'm not 100% sure where I'm at just now fitness wise. Heading off to Ratho to do some onsighting and see where I'm at on plastic.

This summer I've mainly been bouldering and sport-projecting at Dumbarton. Every time i've been tradding on other rock types I feel like I'm struggling to read the moves and get the footwork right. This is the aspect I'd like to put the most time into before going but i don't have any access to climbing of a similar style to El Chorro.

I managed my hardest ever sport project earlier this year, but that was 7 weeks ago and I've barely been on a rope since then! My bouldering level is back up to about my previous maximum of 7A+/B but that's on problems I worked a lot and know well.

So, to put it plainly - I think my current weaknesses are route reading/footwork, power endurance and endurance.

Any tips for improving these?

[Tommy]

Most likely, given your recent climbing activities your Anaerobic Capacity will be high-ish and your Aerobic Capacity will be low. Given that the routes whilst you're away (especially the onsight ones) will be taking a fair amount of time then you'd be best off trying to artificially suppress AnCap and build some power endurance on what AeroCap that you do have (definitely not an ideal world!).

1. Suppress the AnCap by doing high end endurance work - it's gotta to be 50% uncomforatable pump and 50% proper pump.

2. Do your power endurance work in broken sets - i.e. capitalising on some of the bouldering/RP work that you've already done and your body will be used to. Think 15 v hard moves, 30 secs rest, 15 moves, 30 secs rest, 15 v hard moves. Your session should be no more than 90 minutes. Aim to to reduce rest times AND increase the rep moves towards the event goal. Far more effective if hitting both ends.

3. Finally, try not to work power endurance more than 2 times per week as you'll have a poorly adapted aerobic capacity and it's likely you'll end up over training if you do.

4. One final thing - if you do some regeration climbing i.e. total piss easy climbing, then you can slightly reduce the effect that the power endurance climbing will have on your relatively weak aerobic capacity. I.e. you'll not suffer so badly on some of those long onsights.

Footwork...................... well, you know what to do there! 

Hope you have a good trip.

[Fultonius]

Cheers Tommy -  I think that makes sense as the route I've been redpointing is sustained 15 degree overhanging edges with no rests. The hard climbing only lasts about 5 clips and then it's failry easy to the top so it really doesn't tax your aerobic system at all.

At Ratho last night I was finding that even on "relatively" easy long routes I was feeling surprisingly out of breath and not recovering as well on shakes as I used.

1. I'm a bit lost by the concept of "suppressing my AnCap" how exactly would I go about this?

2. Makes sense - should be able to manage this.

3. Will do.

4. Is that on rest days, or just one session a week of huge volume easy climbing?

Footwork - I should know what to do there but It's an area I never seem to make massive improvements in. Basically good footwork is not automatic for me - as soon as I start to stuggle on an onsight I rely on power and forget about feet. My footwork's actually ok on redpoints once I've figured out a sequence.

[Tommy]

1. I'm a bit lost by the concept of "suppressing my AnCap" how exactly would I go about this?

2. Makes sense - should be able to manage this.

3. Will do.

4. Is that on rest days, or just one session a week of huge volume easy climbing?

Footwork - I should know what to do there but It's an area I never seem to make massive improvements in. Basically good footwork is not automatic for me - as soon as I start to stuggle on an onsight I rely on power and forget about feet. My footwork's actually ok on redpoints once I've figured out a sequence.

1. See my point #1 above in doing high end endurance - i.e you're sort of bridging the gap bewteen enduro and P/E. I'd say 1-2 times per week would be adequate

4. Rest days or on a separate day - as long as it's REALLY easy, then won't be a big deal.

Footwork - i know what you're saying. I think we all feel like that sometimes! 

[Fultonius]

1. See my point #1 above in doing high end endurance - i.e you're sort of bridging the gap bewteen enduro and P/E. I'd say 1-2 times per week would be adequate

I wish the was a dunce smiley...

So, to be a bit more specific, roughly how many moves and roughly how hard should this be. I've pretty much done no structured/planned aerobic, anaerobic or power endurance training in my life! I'm not saying I've never trained, but i've just generally do smoething along the lines of:

Lacking power? - Boulder!
Lacking Stamina? - Huge Volume!
Lacking Endurance? - Lap Medium-Hard Routes!

This:

Do your power endurance work in broken sets - i.e. capitalising on some of the bouldering/RP work that you've already done and your body will be used to. Think 15 v hard moves, 30 secs rest, 15 moves, 30 secs rest, 15 v hard moves. Your session should be no more than 90 minutes. Aim to to reduce rest times AND increase the rep moves towards the event goal. Far more effective if hitting both ends.

...is nice and clear, but I'm still not entirely sure how to do "High End Endurance Work".