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Journal - Increasing The Calibre

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comPiler:
Don't Call It A Comeback
23 February 2016, 1:04 pm

I'll never forget the moment I fell out of love with climbing; the feeling as my fingers pinged off the hold, the pain as my toe broke as it hit the roof, the realisation that months of training and effort had been for nothing as I sat on the train back to London from Paris - it's almost exactly 5 years to the day since I last touched that rock and the memory is still fresh.

It had been the first day of warm enough weather during a brutally cold period in Font, we'd spent many days reading in the van avoiding the snow. I'd wanted this project badly and knew it suited me, perhaps I'd wanted it too much and was too eager to try it, I should have taken the advice of the guy who was trying his project on the same bloc 'still probably too cold' he muttered as he pinged off  an awful looking sloper. But I didn't. I took the rail and pulled on, it felt good to be back pulling hard again after the cabin fever of van life. The moves felt easy, all I had to do was put the toe hook in, match, pop for the jug and it would be over - a lifetime goal ticked - then in a second, it was over and a love affair which had begun almost a decade before on the southern sandstone of England came to an end.

I haven't touched rock since.

Looking back I can see why it ended so abruptly.  Climbing and training had filled a void in a particularly turbulent and tough period in my life, I had used training as an escape from everything else around me - the result was that it had become everything to me. Living in London trips to rock were scarce, you had to make them count. The pressure mounts in that situation, all of the training leads to great strength and with that comes great expectations. You have to send, you're expecting it, those around you are expecting it - you've staked everything on it.

I'd staked too much on it.

Five years later things are different. I'm writing from a different continent, with a settled life and most importantly rock on my doorstep and world class problems a close drive. Surfing has filled the void for me these past years and most importantly kept me fit and given me new strength in my body. It has also bulked me up and some of that weight will have to go, but that's the easy part. The hardest part will be getting that strength back.

But this isn't a comeback, it's a whole new start. Climbing and training is no longer the escape for me it was before, the pressure is off and with it I am sure the projects will fall.  It felt good to pull the shoes on again and chalk up for the first time. It felt good to fire the blog up again, but it felt right to start it afresh, to document a new journey. I'm typing this with sore skin after my first month of climbing. It has been a month of mileage and conditioning, the diet has begun and next week the real training will start in time for the spring temps to hit New York. To ensure the motivation continues my first trip is booked for the summer - Magic Woods to take care of some unfinished business.

 

Game on.

 

 

Source: Journal - Increasing The Calibre

comPiler:
Checking The Vitals
24 February 2016, 4:56 pm

The campus board set up in NYC  

So this is it, this is where it all starts.

After one month of conditioning it's time to get back into training. The spring temps are slowly creeping across the East Coast of the USA and I can't wait to pull back on some rock again. Since I decided to chalk up again I've been taking it slow and steady, basic power pulls and 5 sessions a week of bouldering pyramids - flashing everything up until my current flash limit and then working my way back down again.  This mindset has also helped me start to get the technique back, well what technique I had.  

My body has felt in really good shape over the past month, my climbing conditioning came off the back of a two week trip of pumping surf in Costa Rica and nothing works you more than paddling into heavy waves.  As well as living in NYC over the past four years, I also spent one year in Sydney where I surfed almost everyday.  I don't believe that climbing really helps you become a better surfer, but from what I've seen over the past month surfing that much definitely makes you a better climber. Surfing has changed my body shape, given me stronger shoulders and lats than I have ever had before and coupled with regular yoga, drastically helped my flexibility and balance.   There is no doubt surfing works your body - it just doesn't touch your fingers.

So yesterday I spent half my session running a basic strength test to find out where I'm at.  

The Vitals

Weight

I've previously dieted hard, too hard. As a climber with a bigger frame I've always battled with keeping my weight down. Despite keeping me fairly lean, the years of surfing has bulked me up, so from last week I enlisted the help of a good friend from London, Mark Ireland. Mark is a former professional rugby player turned personal trainer. He laid out a sustainable diet plan for me which in a little over one week has seen me drop from 177.7 lbs to 171.1 lbs.  Previously my dieting was always in a less than scientific, unsustainable and ultimately unhealthy way.  This time around the target is sustainable, healthy fat loss and it's working. Gone are a lot of the carbohydrates and the booze and the pounds are dropping off.  If I can continue this I will be down to my target training weight in no time.

Strength

Five years away from climbing is a long time. I figured it was long enough to lose a lot of the specific strengths you build while training.  Sure surfing has kept the body strong but does that help you with basic power? Or locking off? Or finger strength?

It turns out it does.

On my old stomping ground of the campus board 1-5-7 on the large and medium went down first go without much effort. Rather than pushing it too far I moved to the Beastmaker where I managed a one armer on the main rung, a full set of repeaters and encores on the 35s, a 10 second non nestled hang on the 45s and back two six second max hang on the small pockets.  

What was interesting was not only how much finger strength I had retained over all these years, but how easy throwing 1-5 felt.  It felt easier than ever before and I believe it can only be down to the power which years surfing and training in a pool with resistance paddles has developed in my lats.  Full lock encores and power pulls are deeper than I've ever managed before too.

If you've ever tried surfing you'll know that brutal burning feeling deep down in your lats, in muscles you didn't know existed.  Too often in climbing we continue to train to our strengths, using the muscles we have trained for years to do a job that other muscle development could make easier - ultimately seeing slow improvement.  Where training to our weaknesses and using other sports may lead to substantially faster improvement.

Now, when is that next swell due to hit NY...

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Journal - Increasing The Calibre

comPiler:
Risky Business
26 February 2016, 3:24 am

It's coming, it's definitely coming slowly. The base strength is there, five years after I last touched rock. But so is a body that is now five years older and with that comes the risk.  

Trying to come back to climbing after five years feels hard, but I'm confident I can be stronger than before. Trying to come back with a body five years older makes me nervous. In my mid thirties I'm no old man by any means, but my body has been through the mill. Years of contact sport in my teens and the injuries that come with it has taken its toll. I can feel the tweaks in my shoulders, my left came on a few weeks ago and was dispatched with ice and prescription anti inflammatory. The right now has decided that it's its time.  

I can't really remember what tweaks I used to feel? What's normal? How far to push it?

It has been so long since my body creaked in that way.  Climbing is a particularly brutal and unique  bodily torture in so many ways.

My fingers on the other hand have been behaving. My first session on the Beastmaker tonight went down well, I went through my old encore and repeater regime on the 35s before moving on. Back two max hangs on the small pockets and then a new crimp regime suggested to me by Dave Mason.  10 seconds on half crimped on the Beastmaker crimps then ten seconds off, rest ten seconds and repeat for a minute. Six sets of these with a three minute break between each. At the moment it feels brutal, but then I am 171 lbs and only one month back...

Now, back to that diet...

 

 

 

Source: Journal - Increasing The Calibre

comPiler:
Searching The City
27 February 2016, 12:30 pm

Checking out the Yoyo Jiminy bloc in Central Park

I took a little break from the office yesterday and made my way the ten or so blocks up to Central Park to check out some of the bouldering. I knew it was there, but in the years I've lived here, due to my lack of climbing, I've never really checked it out at all. It's not the most expansive of areas and some of the lines are a little contrived in places, but I'm a man who enjoys Stoney in the UK, where eliminates rule, so that doesn't put me off.  Having lived in London I think many locals here don't realize how lucky they are to have bouldering on their doorstep. In the last month I've mentioned it to a few people at the wall and many I spoke to had written it off as poor and hadn't ever really bouldered there.  Winter is cold here and it would be unclimbable in a lot of those conditions, as a result much of the rock had a layer of dirt on it - a bit of a clean would reveal some real gems.

Yoyo Jiminy is one of those gems.

The V11 is nestled in the middle of the park on the side of one of the lakes, right down by the waters edge.  It's a great spot and the rock is of brilliant quality and the line is superb. A powerful couple of moves gets you established on two sidepulls and then you have a dynamic throw for the top.  It would undoubtedly hold its own as a classic at any of the major bouldering areas around, for me the fact it is in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world makes it extra special. It's high on my ticklist for when I am back in shape and the conditions are better.

On the same block just to the right is one of the hardest problems in a the park, a V12 put up by Ty Landman a couple of years ago and I think yet to see a second ascent.

Here are a couple of videos of the second and third ascents of Yoyo Jiminy V11.



Source: Journal - Increasing The Calibre

comPiler:
Bring On The Battle
29 February 2016, 4:02 pm

It can be hard to say no, when the view from one of your locals is this good. But that's what I've got to do from now on if I want to cut the weight. NYC is a city built on boozing, the culture here very much revolves around it. The local bar on my corner is open until 4am every single day of the year without fail.

That brings temptation, a lot of temptation.

I've always enjoyed that aspect of this city, you can do whatever you want whenever you want. That wasn't a problem for all these years that I surfed, as long as you didn't get too wasted you could always drag yourself out of bed and go wash the hangover out with a sunrise session. But climbing, at least for me, isn't like that.  I have to feel on my game, I have to be fresh to train and climb hard.

The last two weekends have included trips to New Orleans and a good friend visiting from LA, and they've included booze as a result. Now those are out of the way the booze is going too, at least until I can get to my target weight and phase it back in. My target weight is 160lbs, I'm 172lbs currently so still a fair way to go, but I'm only two weeks into the diet and am already 6lbs down.  

That date with that IPA is going to have to wait...

 

Source: Journal - Increasing The Calibre

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