[comPiler]

Failure Hurts
5 June 2014, 11:27 am

One of the best blog posts that I’ve read recently, comes from British climber Mina Wujastyk about her recent experiences on the world cup scene and how her levels of motivation in climbing were fluctuating hugely. It wasn’t the quality of the writing or the photos that got me psyched, it was the barefaced honesty of it. These days it’s actually pretty rare to read something from an athlete (particularly a climbing one) that lays down some of the truths about how hard it is when things are going wrong or when they’re suffering. Perhaps we all want to appear superheroes, or maybe it’s just plain hard to say we’re hurting?

I’ve just arrived back in the UK this week feeling pretty miserable. Last week I went out to try and complete the Gondo Crack project that I’ve spent a fair bit of time working on and I failed. I was climbing really well, my head felt amazing and I wasn’t making any mistakes but yet I still didn’t succeed. On the final day, in the final hour (yes I was going for an all out, just before catching the plane attempt!) I grasped the finishing hold with my fingers, but they uncurled and my body hurled downwards. Swinging around on the end of the rope, I knew I’d given everything and it was over. Everyone at the base of the route looked towards the ground and I could feel a sense of disappointment that the person they’d tried to push upwards with screams of encouragement had fallen short.

Looking for psyche?? During the last visit to Italy (I stay in Italy, but travel over the border each day to try the project) I was privileged to meet so many people from the Ossola climbing community. These guys are incredibly passionate about their region and visiting various houses during the trip was constantly opening my eyes to this. There were always photos on the walls of alpine adventures, multi pitch new routes, topos and climbing pioneers up in frames. The history of climbing here is just as rich as ours back at home and the characters involved in the development are real legends. I think it has been the influence of this crowd here in Italy that has made me so determined to succeed on Gondo Crack. They’ve made me believe that putting in extra effort to something that seems unattainable is worth it and when I see each of their faces, I know they’ve already been through that experience. The ups, the downs and the shear hard work.

Being back in the UK again has been really tough, I won’t lie. On the first day back I allowed myself a day off from training (I desperately wanted to punish myself for not succeeding) and spent time relaxing with family and friends to give myself a break from the intensity. Whilst it felt good to chill out, I couldn’t get my head out of gear and I felt like my mind was still pedalling at a breakneck speed towards a certain belay I’d failed to clip.

The next day I felt like I need to start training early. I didn’t want to miss out on any more time and I needed to understand what my body was asking me to do next – did I feel on form to push to another level or was more time out needed? Within 10 minutes, I knew the answer. After just one lap of a hard crack circuit I felt like crying. I had nothing. Suddenly my mind had joined my body and I finally knew that I needed to accept that I’ve got to allow myself some time. Time to reward myself for actually giving 100% to the project and for not flying out from that country thinking I could have given more. I couldn’t. And I should be flipping psyched about that.



The problem is, that all of us who want to push ourselves in sport are generally quite hard on body and mind. We rarely savour the thrill of succeeding and often reward ourselves in a fairly transient way. Just think about the last project that you completed – did you have a big celebration afterwards, take 2 weeks holiday from climbing and write it down somewhere that you’ve achieved your goal? I suspect not. I would put money on most of us having a meal out / drink in the pub with mates and then getting stuck into training or climbing again within 2 or 3 days. The problem is, that this isn’t a realistic way forwards in the long term. Whether we succeed or fail on a project I think we need to recognise that the huge length of “build up period” that we put into these things deserves a longer “reward period” to balance out the mind and body. For that reason, I’m now on a beach holiday in South Wales and I’m pleased (I didn’t grit my teeth honest…) to say I am not training for a whole 6 days. Yes, that is SIX days.

 

 



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[T_B]

I suspect all but the most arrogant of climbers realise that most people don't want to hear folk moaning about their climbing! Climbing is a pointless and often selfish activity, when you're psyched it can be hard to keep things in perspective. I agree, I thought Mina's blog was superbly written. It struck a chord because we've all had those times when we lose our 'mojo' and feel a little lost, though most of us probably haven't worked as hard as she has in their climbing and 'put themselves out there' like she has, especially with the British team crowd funding effort. Taking time out for a while is usually all that's required, or just stepping back and doing some easy trad or whatever. But you're never going to get much sympathy from others just because you failed on your project, especially if you're a professional climber. Most people fit climbing in around their lives and accept that they can't always do what they would like, simply because there are so many things to try and balance. I find that sometimes I have to re-calibrate my aspirations and just be thankful I get to do as much climbing as I do. That said, you should definitely book a trip in the autumn 

[comPiler]

Time and Rest = Better Grades
17 June 2014, 6:04 pm

I’ve not really got that much reading material down in the crack training cellar. I suppose I like to keep it spartan and without any distractions or excuses from working hard. I have allowed myself one small indiscretion though, and that’s a copy of Climb magazine with a very important training article by Steve McClure in it. Does it prescribe the reps, the rest periods, secret regimes and special exercises for fingers of steel? No it doesn’t – it tells us resting is just as important as training! You can break your body down with a good session, but if you want it to adapt afterwards, you have to let it recover to achieve what’s often referred to in the business as – “Super-compensation.”

Got Super-Compensation? (c) Paolo Sartori You’d think being a climbing coach would make me good at dishing out this kind of advice to myself and taking it on board. I think I’m probably ok at telling myself, but very poor at listening! In my last blog about returning from Italy to try Gondo Crack I had to do just this. I was burnt out, tired and lacking mojo. I told myself that it wasn’t the end of the world and all it needed was some rest, which probably for the first time in a (very) long time I took. My God, it felt good. And weird. Six days off pottering around on the beach with my family, going for walks and watching TV was my medicine and I was very curious to see the effects.

Well, it’s one week later and I cannot believe the difference. It’s like someone injected a 25yr old me into my body and gave me the most psyched mind for quite some time. After that week off, I came back and had training sessions that went through all previous highs and did a few link-ups that I wasn’t sure were possible. It’s all very well me going on about this to you, but I’m not sure you really care if I suddenly did a 9b+ crack on wood – it’s just fake stuff. What really counts is what you’re going to do now, with this information.

If you look at the last month, did you train/climb more days than not? Did you do a number of back-to-back climbing days? Are you psyched out of your mind to complete your outside project, but suffering from training gains that no longer come or even worse, slightly dip? Well, take a look in the mirror, slap yourself with a empty chalk bag and GO AND HAVE A WEEK OFF! I’d be great if just one person out there tried this and had a positive experience. Let me know…. :-)

Entering the crux on Gondo Crack (c) Paolo Sartori  

 



Source: Tom Randall Climbing

[abarro81]

Conversely, when I take a week or more off I invariably come back feeling atrocious and spend a few weeks struggling to do my warm-ups.. That's not to say I don't think it's worth it down the line, but it's never made me feel good at the time.

[slackline]

Is that not suggestive of not having consolidated whatever level you were at before taking the break Alex?

Or your breaks are too long. Tommy wrote he took six days off (and advises taking a "week off"*), you're saying this happens when you take >= 7 days so perhaps take shorter breaks.  Everyone is different so experiment and see what works for you.


* Some might construe six days off as a week.

[tomtom]

Yeah - my trainings the opposite. Repeated 1-2 week breaks due largely to work mean I'm constantly playing catch up in the time between breaks to get back to where I was....

[abarro81]

I don't think I quite get your point? Consolidation is just another word for stagnation
I think it's because I only take time off following a trip generally, so
- my comparison is immediately before the trip (or during the trip), when - all being well - I'm moving into a peak
- peaks have a habit of being followed by dipping (and not through hoods in a snoop dogg style) so after the trip I'm liable to be shit irrespective of resting or not, and even in comparison to base level rather than peak level
- I'm derecruited from the trip, then further so from the rest. I'm someone who loses their 'snap' very quickly - a 10 day trip of pure route climbing causes a notable drop off in strength for me. I definitely aint one of those people who can just route climb all summer and be almost as strong at the end of that period as the start.

If I want to feel 'on it', I get much better results from standard tapering - dropping the volume but keeping the intensity. E.g. if I have a proj I want to crush on the weekend I might not do any aerocap that week. I also find this makes me less injury prone than full rest, after which I have a habit of retweaking old injuries.

[Edit - don't think it's a length of time thing, I've used various lengths of time in the past]

Anyway, my point was just that for me, I have never felt the effect Tom was talking about. Anecdotally, however, my best gains training wise have have come a couple of months after extended (2-3 weeks) breaks from climbing. Too many other differences to really have a clue about causality though - e.g. one time was start of a gap year where I climbed full time, the other was returning from enormous trip on that year where I'd not bouldered for months, so you'd expect good gains in both cases.

[slackline]

Fair-do's, it was just a thought that sprung to my mind, as it seemed surprising to me that you'd struggle to do warm-ups after a break as they're meant to be easy relative to maximum performance.

[abarro81]

I guess I mean end-of-warming-up-moving-into-proper-session-warm-ups, if that makes sense, not full on first problem of the session warm ups.. There may also have been some exaggeration for emphasis.

[nai]

How you feel at the end of the time not climbing will depend largely on how you've spent that time surely?

Tom sounds like he's been on holiday relaxing and enjoying himself having pushed himself very hard mentally and physically.  Had the time off been spent working (away like tomtom or catching up after a trip), overeating, drinking too much, sleeping too little, doing stuff that you'd rather not be, etc. then it is quite likely that you won't return feeling as positive or as strong.

[Tommy]

Alex - yup I have that same issue. It only seems to come about though when I'm basically pedalling water and maintaining a good level (i.e. somewhere around peak). We both know that having 7 days off a week or two before going out to do something hard (especially if it's power, rather than enduro) is going to cause us issues.... But if we've hammered it, have consistently overreached and are a little burned out then it's great. Maybe you're not pushing hard enough?! ;-)

In my peak period though, I have had my best performance many times now by taking around 4 complete days off. Most of my hard ticks have occurred after this. Everyone is different though!

Tomtom - I think if you're having those constant 1-2 week interruptions then it's probably the case that you're rarely overtraining and getting burnt out as you point out.

Alex - also looking through your points again, I can see where maybe we have 2 different ideas. I think you think that 7 days off is going to result in you "best performance" and not what I'm saying which is that it will result in a "recuperated body". As we both know, you can be right on the edge of breaking yourself and pull something out of the bag! Maybe that's why we all feel total turd after climbing trips where we've done our best stuff.

The other thing for me often is the mental rest. I train around 25 hrs per week but also work around 20-60hrs per week, which means when you combine hard training with full time work then you're totally wasted in the head. I used to work really hard in a - cram it all in style - before going on trips but I've since learnt that I'd arrive at projects mentally tired despite being physically on form. Personally I really feel both have to align to be your best.

[moose]

Crikey... how the other half live.... except on my rare occasions of holidays and leave, I have a 5 day break every week - only do any climbing on weekends. It never struck me as an abnormal, potentially harmful habit, only excusable in times of extreme burn-out.  That said, I am shit (with a resigned, phlegmatic attitude to it).

[Three Nine]

That's because you only eat enough for two days' activity out of seven

[cheque]

I am shit

 

[tomtom]

I've seen you at the wall in mid week evenings Moose...

[andyd]

I've seen you at the wall in mid week evenings Moose...

Not to mention evening sessions at the calf!

[Paul B]

It's an interesting post and rest/fitting it all in appropriately, has been the main thing that bugs me about the "energy systems shizzle", especially when people are trying to make significant strength gains (I'm looking at you Three Nine).

Like Barrows has said in the past, strength/power is a lazy man's game, endurance is not.

[abarro81]

Indeed. Really I should spend a few years as a boulderer t focus on strength, but I like routes too much. For sure my energy systems work get in the way of strength gains. (Except an cap which helps in my opinion)

[Three Nine]

You're definitely right Bennett, but when I went to Rodellar this year I was reasonably fit, and I really liked feeling like that and swinging around on all these endless v1 moves. Maybe if I want to climb 8c+ one day I should sack any energy systems off for a few years, but that's not as important to me as having the chance to do an awful lot of swinging around in big caves doing a ton of easy moves in a row.

Plus you're really strong and you suck!

[Doylo]

 

Maybe if I want to climb 8c+ one day I should sack any energy systems off for a few years,

And sell your soul to the devil 

[Moo]

I'll give you 3 tins of irn bru and a refresher bar for your soul 

[Three Nine]

sold

[TobyD]

I've seen you at the wall in mid week evenings Moose...

...and you always seem to be trawling facebook for midweek partners in Yorkshire

[moose]

I've bouldered outdoors on a weekend evening three times all year (twice Ilkley, once Woodwell - had a job nearby), not been to the wall on a weekday (except bank holidays) for over a year.  I have been advertising for midweek partners a fair bit recently though; I've a large chunk of my annual holiday allowance to use up by the end of the month - so have climbed routes midweek three times this month (with two more days scheduled next week).  Vast majority of weeks though, I only climb on weekends (which frankly suits me fine - I seem to pick up elbow niggles otherwise - especially from indoor bouldering).

[abarro81]

Fuck that shit