[Dhanny]

I have been getting out climbing loads recently with this good weather and i'm finding that i feel a little guilty about not training as much as i have been? i did a lot of training over the winter/easter period.

Obviously i'm ecstatic at being able to get out so much (often 4/5 days a week) but i find i feel guilty that i'm not training as much. does anyone else feel this? I feel like i'm strong and climbing well but i know i made a lot of strength gains over winter and want to continue so!

...this is probably a ridiculous post but cheers anyway!

[slackline]

Why are you training?

As a end to itself, or so that you are strong when the weather allows you to get out onto real rock?

[Johnny Brown]

The best training for climbing is climbing. Ipso facto, quod erat demonstrandum, ergo you are training.

[Paul B]

Ditch the guilt, I had a fairly good session inside last night despite hardly training over the last few months for various reasons.
I hate to say it again but Johnny has a point.

[Dhanny]

i agree! i just feel a twinge of guilt sometimes :S stupid i realise! was just wondering if anyone else experiences similar. cheers guys.

[SA Chris]

...this is probably a ridiculous post but cheers anyway!

You kind of answered your own question. If you are doing what you usually train for, why train for it?

[Krank]

Dont listen to them Dhanny,  get yourself back under the board and train, its all this filthy hot weather is good for . In all seriousness, training 1 day a week to maintain gains cant be that much of a bad idea, especially if you can get out 5 times a week.

[Doylo]

It rains and snows all winter, train then. I know what you mean though, maybe a little fingerboarding in the evening will flush away the guilt!

[shark]

Yes you should feel guilty you lazy piece of shit 

..on the floor now and give me 50

[Krank]

 

[tomtom]

Yes you should feel guilty you lazy piece of shit 

..on the floor now and give me 50

I only managed 25 because I've been out climbing too much 

[Paul B]

It rains and snows all winter, train then. I know what you mean though, maybe a little fingerboarding in the evening will flush away the guilt!

I feel guily everytime I walk in the door. My beastmaker hangs there unloved. It hurt me once and since then I've been scared to probe its holes 

[Dhanny]

:D i asked for that eh! haha.
ill just get out and enjoy the rays then.

...pretty new to this forum-ing lark so cheers and hello all! dan.

[Clart]

I dunno about guilty but I have found that my fitness and strength have dropped off a bit from constantly going out Red pointing routes. I could fix this by having high volume day and a bouldering day per week but it's often hard to fit in when you've got projects you're working on. Having said that I can 'only' get out one day at the weekend and two evenings in the week. I try to get at least one finger board sesh in per week on the nights I can't get out to keep the fingers in shape.

If you can get out 4/5 times per week why not have two structured training sessions outside where you concentrate one on fitness and the other on strength?  Should keep your winter strength/ fitness gains topped up.

[Johnny Brown]

I have found that my fitness and strength have dropped off a bit from constantly going out Red pointing routes

Really? So as the season is going on, you're grade is going down?

[Paul B]

People do go backwards RP'ing stuff as the volume goes down.

[shark]

I have found that my fitness and strength have dropped off a bit from constantly going out Red pointing routes

Really? So as the season is going on, you're grade is going down?

Can happen with some variation depending on whether you are multi-day projecting or quick redpointing.

Quick redpointing = endurance goes up - route grade goes up - bouldering grade tends to go down. If you take too many rest days to be fully rested for your project you can progressively lose strength and fitness 

Project redpointing = starts off as bouldering on a rope - progresses to PE training and becoming specifically fit for purpose for those moves on that route only and consequently piss weak and burnt out at the end for routes or bouldering.

Clearly the former is the most sensible approach but where's the suffering in that? 

[Bonjoy]

Do you think Steve Mac, Adam Ondra etc feel guilty for climbing instead of training? I doubt it. Does it do their climbing any harm? I think the answer to that is fairly obvious.
The climbing year is naturally cyclical. Pure strength is bound to drop a little in exchange for overall ability/achievement and visa-versa within the cycle. Assuming the point of the training is to climb well then this is not a problem as averaged out over time you should be improving in all respects.  Any training you do during route season will come at a cost in time and energy which might be more productively (and enjoyably) spent just going climbing.

[Johnny Brown]

Losing bouldering strength because you're redpointing, or vice versa, is not going backwards - its improvement. The body will adapt to what you are doing, you can't excell at everything simultaneously.

I think if folk are genuinely going backwards by going climbing, then they need to rethink the grade they are attempting to climb. I had forgotten folk dangle around on something far beyond them and then call it 'going climbing'.

[Paul B]

what you're forgetting is that Team Tenacity have a high success rate and an impressive tick list.

[Johnny Brown]

I don't know who you mean. Are they complaining about going backwards?

[shark]

I had forgotten folk dangle around on something far beyond them and then call it 'going climbing'.

 

[Clart]

I have found that my fitness and strength have dropped off a bit from constantly going out Red pointing routes

Really? So as the season is going on, you're grade is going down?

Interesting responses. Grade wise I'm going up, or at least doing similar grades in less time.
Weekend days don't vary much throughout the year for me but I would say evenings out in the summer can be of lower intensity and quantity than the winter training sessions. Consequentially, technique and reading the rock improve in the summer but strength tends to drop off.

Shark made an interesting point about resting before red-pointing; this is often only a mid-week option during the summer so training sessions are more likely to be missed to feel fresh for the RP.

[Monolith]

You should probably only feel guilty if you're capable of inane feats of power and nobody was at the wall to witness you doing them during your 'training routine'. See A Dense Loner for details.

That said I feel guilty for not climbing and have the opposite problem to you (mine being down to lack of transport blah blah).

[Falling Down]

Interesting article here on training for running and running that may or may not have some relevance..

http://fitnessintuition.com/2010/06/21/civilized-training-3/