I completed the 2013 off-season training for climbing with a peaking phase. Without getting into the technical details, here’s how I kicked my ass:
- Very heavy resistance training 5 days a week.
- Campus board training twice a week.
- Climbing practice at least twice a week.
- Four to 5 hours of badminton each week.
- Bushwhacking exploration once a week. (This always included a combination of postholing, steep slippery hard-pack, mud, and leaf-covered tiger traps formed between the big rocks. No footwear covers all of that terrain, and I usually guessed wrong. It was good for the mind to get outside and into some new territory, but physically it was an exhausting conclusion to the week.)
It was hard to keep up that intensity and volume of training for the month, and my body was eager for the scheduled week of active rest that followed. But now, I’m fully recovered, and STRONG –and itching to climb, too!
Unfortunately, winter doesn’t seem to want to end. Bouldering at Munson Lake won’t be in the cards for a few more months anyhow, as it will take that long for the road to solidify enough to be passable. Elsewhere, though, there are a few projects I’d like to get on early in the season before the bugs come out, so I want to be ready to go at any time. For now, that almost means training as though it’s in-season.
I’ve rearranged all the holds on Kermit, and will be hopping on the wall at least once a day, and ideally 3 or more brief sessions focusing on small holds and technical moves. Given my work schedule and daylight, I know 4 days are definitely not going to entail outdoor climbing. This is good in that I can schedule resistance and campus training days appropriately to avoid fatigue on potential projecting days, yet still maintain or even progress strength and power.
