I was pretty excited to see how this training cycle would work out, for there were lots of changes to the previous years:
- A new goal: a rock route instead of a comp season
- A new training facility, and oh boy, it is enormous!
- A training start right during the healing of an injury
A slightly worrying issue was that I started my basetraining at least a month earlier then all of my usual training partners, leaving me to do specific exercises by myself, which is much less motivating.
General feelings
Even though I only did an average of 4.5 sessions/week (which is less then I did during my endurance years) I had some problems regenerating in between trainings. As a guideline, I use the principle of doing the next training session after sufficient recovery, which is not fully practicable at my age with the training I had planned. Nonetheless, by varying the intensity of my sessions (60% – 100%) I made it work to avoid those useless zero-energy trainings.
What sometimes totally destroyed me, was the height of the bouldering wall. The wall I used to train on was 3 meters high, this one 5 meters. That means boulders automatically become longer, since nobody stops half way. Since I was training for a power-endurance project, I guess this was nothing problematic, but rather helpful instead.
Due to my finger not feeling 100%, I had to adapt some exercises, for example use bigger crimps therefore smaller feet. I was sure that at the end of the training cycle my crimp strength wouldn’t be where I want it to be, but you gotta make the best of it, right?!
Things I stopped doing
Since my goal is very specific, I had thought really long and hard what I needed and what not ;). I was actually quite happy to put aside the modern comp-style jumping and volume-wrestling; I’m an old school climber these generations, so those were never my thing…
I also had to make some cuts in some activities that were… let’s say counter productive for training. Alpine scrambles (I live in the Alps and I love them!), skiing (this winter proved to be the best in many years), and travelling. I basically decided to stay at home to focus on training. Since I had enrolled in new studies after finishing a few years ago, I thought ‘why not use all that free time and get active?!’. I quickly realised that I had bitten off more than I could chew, and that full-on training plus full-on studies are not great companions.
In the End
I gotta say I didn’t feel at the top of my fitness ending phase I of my training, but I wasn’t too worried about it. What would really count is how I would feel on the route, and I was sure that I had layed a good base for the upcoming training phases.
Next throwback: Spain trip #1