Improving 'The Resistance' - slowing down
Image credit: brixton50.co.uk
As part of this new emphasis on improving general suffering, sorry endurance ;), or long sustained sequences of climbing I'm putting more emphasis on climbing slower. Why? Mainly because I realized that I was basically just throwing myself at the laps sometimes and almost sprinting around them because the moves are so familiar. I'd actually forgotten this - at one point when I trained, I used to have a stopwatch set to go off every 20 or so seconds. Whatever hold you were on, no matter how good are bad it was, I had to stop and hold it until the watch beeped again 5 seconds later. Grim, but it worked!Regarding speed, you do climb very quickly, especially when red-pointing routes and crux sections, but you also have to do things like stop to chalk up, clip quickdraws, etc. - all stuff that are easy to avoid when lapping on a board. So, to help this ever 5 holds I'm stopping if possible and almost counting to 10 to simulate stopping to clip a draw. And of course, I'm climbing slower - not snail slow but closer to what I remember was the pace on routes last week.
My first experience of it last night was much more accurate to last weeks experience, and I also noticed a side benefit in some ways: because you have to hold onto a hold for longer, the other arm gets more time to recover - exactly like what you're aiming for on routes! Game on :)
thoughts?
A good tip is that if you are training on routes, bring 4 draws two on the right of your harness two on the left, and on each clip on the route, transfer two draws from each side of you to the other side. Then clip the rope, then continue climbing.
ReplyDeleteHi Mendeley,
ReplyDeleteReally nice idea! I've done it before where I just have a stopwatch to go off at 30 seconds, then go again after 5, then 30, then 5, then..... but this idea of clipping draws sounds cool. Definitely going to try it out - much appreciated for the idea :)