I also think you are not resting effectively between sessions. I never used to train more than 4 days a week, usually 3. I think you're training would be more efficient if you did less. Rest your way to 8a I say! (there's nothing wrong with having a couple of weeks of slight overtraining, as long as it's followed by a chilled out week. During the heavy training period, don't expect to climb well!)
Overall I think you can't decide whether you want volume or quality in the session. You're probably kind of thinking of it as volume but then getting bored / keen to get some better ticks / wanting to be more challenged and changing horses mid-stream.
If you want to combine harder climbing and volume in one session, it makes more sense to do a route progression like: 5+, 6a, 6b, 6b+, 6c, 6c+ (perhaps just failing), 6b+, 6b, 6b, 6b, 6a+, 6a [ , … ]. That way you're hitting the hardest routes at 5th and 6th, well-warmed up but hopefully not tired, and then working down through 6 (or many more if possible) easier routes as you're getting tired.
If your only goal is to increase the capillarization in the arms, then no it doesn't matter. If you are aiming to be a better climber, then yes it matters. Doing Aerocap on a wall means you're effectively increasing your total climbing volume by a huge amount. This will go a LONG way towards improving flow and comfort in the vertical terrain.
My old typical routes session (when I was redpointing 7b+) would consist of: 5+, 6a, 6a+, 6b, 6c+/7a, 7a, then either a short rest and another 7a/+ or drop the grade to 6b and do some volume. I would focus on moving fast but efficiently, not over-gripping, improve footwork. Later, when I was redpointing 7c+/8a I would still do similar routes sessions but just with the grades bumped up a bit. - I have never climbed harder than 7b+ indoors, so don't worry too much if your indoors grades are a bit lower than outdoors.
Are you mainly redpointing or onsighting in these sessions?Also, are you climbing with 1 other person or a group of 3? I used to find that If I climbed in a 2 I'd need an extra 5 minutes rest every 3rd route or so; conversely, when climbing in group of 3 I felt it was the perfect amount of rest.
BTW - I consider most Aerocap rest/recovery work. Based on Binney's L1-L5, I do almost all of my aerocap at L1 - i.e. no pump at all.... So in the above suggested workout days, REST -Day 1 restWORKOUT - Day 2 max hangs in AM or at lunch, then 30 min Aerocap in eveningRECOVERY - Day 3 Aerocap starting at 30 and building up each week to 60+by the end of 8 weeksWORKOUT - Day 4 Wall session / ancap(on the long end of it though 2-4min sets with good rest) RECOVERY - Day 5 Aerocap 30-45minWORKOUT / REST Day 6-7 Weekend boulder outside have fun There's 2 full rest days, 2 recovery days, and 3 "workout" days. The key is making sure your AeroCap is EASY.
I thought as a 7b+ redpointer I should be doing way more and way harder routes than I am currently at the wall. i.e multiple 7a/+'s....On-sighting or repeating routes, I never redpoint indoors.
Quote from: Luke Owens on January 07, 2014, 09:47:51 am I thought as a 7b+ redpointer I should be doing way more and way harder routes than I am currently at the wall. i.e multiple 7a/+'s....On-sighting or repeating routes, I never redpoint indoors. What's you max outdoor onsight? What about on a style comparable to indoors (short, steep PE probably on quite pinchy holds)? What about on that style, 3rd or 4th day on after climbing 8 other routes that day... Max RP probably isn't that useful when we're talking about what grade you could/'should' expect to be onsighting indoors.
Did you eat more that day??
If I had to guess, i'd say you finally recovered from your overload about 2 weeks ago. IIRC, there was a bit of discussion about you doing too high of a workload and needing to back it down around x-mas. You seemed to take this to heart and dropped your workload, and increased your rest. After some time, your body finally was able to fully supercompensate for all of the training load you had put it through.
Don't underestimate the power of a proper warm up. Many days climbing have been ruined by getting on too hard a route too early and battling on through the flash pump. Looks to me like you've taken a couple of days rest and then had a proper slow warmup, oldest trick in the book for a goods days sport !