Burned, Bitten, and Bruised

Munson Lake road is solid, firm and bumpy, making for a much more pleasant weekend than my last attempt to go there.

I exhausted myself Saturday afternoon slashing a trail, before being joined by Terry, Adam and Audrée for the overnight and bouldering Sunday morning.  It was hot.  I had to wear longs for protection from the brush, bugs and rocks, which made it uncomfortably warm.  And, despite this clothing, I still managed to bash a few welts into my legs.  To make matters worse, the few blackflies were tenacious, and managed to work their way between cuffs to take their feed.

Sunday, after they left to do some new routing at Utopia Crag in Bonney River, I scrubbed and sent a nice slab problem at Megacrystals that Dom and I had found in March.  (Four-peckered Bull V2) Since it was too warm for the flies, my shirt came off, but I guess I'd missed a few spots when applying sunscreen, so I burned a bit.

Despite all this it was a great weekend. I absolutely love it out there!

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The following photos are old, it's just a place to host them for the online guide.

Boulder In The Brook, Munson Lake, NB

Chopping Block, Munson Lake, NB

Edgecation,  Munson Lake, NB

Examination, Munson Lake, NB

Glute, Munson Lake, NB

Kingpin, Munson Lake, NB

Roadside Ice Cream Stand, Munson Lake, NB

Perodized Training 6 (Maintenance)

Following a week without training, I’ve begun the maintenance phase.  Hopefully I will be climbing outside often and hard, so the goal in-season is to maintain all the positive adaptations I’ve made over the past four months.  And there have been many notable improvements:  1) There is a big difference in my strength when executing one-arm pulls, lock-offs, sticking to small 2-fingers edges and pockets, big reaches, etc.  2) Better endurance both in terms of delaying the onset of a pump, and in clearing it between attempts.  Also in optimally orienting my shoulder and wrist joints for hanging rests. (Obviously bent arm is bad, but to the surprise of many, excessively relaxed hanging is also bad as it distracts the joints and can partially occlude blood flow.  This makes pulling out of the rest to make the next move very difficult.) 3) More power and precision executing dynamic moves.  4) More confidence and more persistence to fight through hard moves. 5) Refined movement techniques and expanded repertoire of moves.

Though I’ve noticed these factors on a number of hardish routes this spring, I’ve only been able to really put the programme to the test on one limit-pushing climb.  That’s the longstanding project at Gondola Point.  In each of three brief visits, I’ve had the endurance to take more attempts than I’ve taken in each of the past 5 years.  I’ve been able to spend time at the first crux move, experimenting with different footwork, and readjusting grip.  I almost got the route on the second day, but broke a hold.  Actually, I crushed it I was pinching it so hard!  So now without a thumbcatch, moving up and left off the chest-height shallow-undercling- thick-pinch hold is more difficult.  But I feel very good and still think I can get it.

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I guess I should explain the need for a maintenance programme.  If a climbing-specific training makes you better at climbing, when you’re done training, shouldn’t climbing participation be enough to keep you ‘better’ in perpetuity?  In theory, yes.  In reality, not even close.  First of all this programme was for generally improving my abilities, not to prepare for one specific route or move.  Second, it was designed to prepare me for a long season, not just one trip.  Third, due to work, weather, partners, insects, and so many other factors my climbing schedule is not regular, structured or predictable.  Weeks or even months may pass between hard days, or long days, or steep problems, or cracks or... 

So down to the nitty gritty; here’s the overview of the first 3 months of the in-season maintenance programme:

It’s a concurrent training programme at the organismal (human) level, but periodized at the regional (muscular) level.   What this means is each week involves hypertropy, strength and power training, but each muscle group only receives one of these training stimuli for the entire month.  

For the first month, day one is a hypertrophy protocol (7 exercises, sets of 10) for posterior muscles. Day two is a strength protocol (5 exercises, sets of 5) for anterior muscles. Day three is a power protocol which also includes some conditioning drills (5 exercises, various repetitions or timed sets) for lateral muscles. 

For the second month, lateral muscles are trained with a hypertrophy protocol, posterior muscles with a strength protocol, and anterior muscles with a power protocol.  Month three is the last combination.  

There are three training sessions each week (and hopefully three climbing days).  Typically two sets are performed for each exercise, but some days of some weeks this may increase to three, if climbing volume and intensity are low that week.  Contrarily, training loads may be decreased some weeks, if they are hard climbing weeks.  This provides some variability to the training, while adapting to my actual climbing schedule, as opposed to having the training programme dictate my climbing schedule.

There are many more details with regards to exercise selection and progression, but this post is already long enough.  The strength and conditioning coach you’ve been working with for the past four months should be able to put something together for you.

Periodized Training 5 (Power)

The power phase just wrapped up on Friday, and went well.  Training took place 3 days a week, each focusing on a different contraction type.  Tuesdays were fast SSC plyometrics, with a few light timed exercises at the gym, and quickness training on the wall.  For this drill I arranged one jug and a multitude of tiny hold on the vertical portion of Kermit.  Beginning hanging from the jug with one hand, and quickly campused with the other hand touching all other holds in a predetermined pattern, ending on the largish upper hold, with the jug hold locked out at chest height.  This provided me with big gains in contact strength, targeting, co-ordination.

Set-up for quickness drill.

Wednesdays emphasized explosive starts through a couple Olympic lifting variations, (Which are not climbing specific, [I suppose a very weak argument could be made for spotting and landing when bouldering] but nonetheless important for neuromuscular development. And fun.) and maximal dynos from a dead hang. Three exercises, four sets, two reps, 95-100% 1RM.

The focus on Fridays was slow SSC plyometrics: Three to four sets of five reps for plyo push-ups, dumbbell squat jumps, and campus board laddering.  Like the other days it was only one climbing-specific exercise and a couple others to round things out.

Climbing practice averaged only once a week, as I managed to made it outside onto the rock 2-4 other times each week.  On the woodie I would do one to three hard moves on small (3 finger, 1 pad) holds, as in the strength phase, then one tough dynamic move to a medium or good hold, then tack on another static hard move or two.  For the most part 4-6 moves at a time following a static, static, dynamic, static, dynamic, static (or similar) rhythm.

Outside was a mix of difficulties, styles, and volumes, depending on mood, weather and partners: 3 serious attempts on a longstanding project and some moderates at Gondola Point (It's amazing how good I feel deciphering this thing. It's just a matter of time now, I think. Stay tuned for that write-up.), a few easy trad days at Cochrane Lane, THE boulder, Cedar Point, Kingston Crag...

A week of active rest (no training) then I'll pick up with a long maintenance phase.