Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Specialization, Weaknesses, and the SAID Principle


Woah! Yesterday's gym session was a physiological punch in the gut, and an undeniable example of the SAID principle. The SAID (Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands) principle is one of the foundations of exercise science. Essentially, you only increase your capacity to perform a certain activity by engaging in that activity or something similar. Additionally, if you trained for an adaptation in the past, but then neglect to continue imposing demand for that adaptation, your performance will decrease to your baseline levels (a process called ‘de-training’).  For example: If someone spends all their time climbing powerfully on very steep terrain, they’re probably pretty good at it, or at least better at it than they might be at technical face climbing (if they rarely or never practice that style of climbing).

 You probably know someone who feels comfortable climbing on vertical walls, but as soon as there is a roof or the wall starts to kick back, they flail. The most common reaction to this is “I can’t do overhangs, they’re too hard” and they go right back to the vertical climbs. Seemingly in the hopes that, on some magical day, overhangs will become “easy”. Unfortunately that magical day does not exist. If it did I imagine it would be called “Awesome Day”. The only way to get better at what you are bad at, it to practice what you are bad at. When you practice what you are bad at you get better at it faster than when you get better at what you are better at when you practice what you are better at (I know I could exercise my vocabulary, but I like how that last sentence is almost a tongue twister). Why? Because it is pretty easy to go from being Terrible to being Mediocre, but relatively much harder to go from being Mediocre to being Awesome. You probably went from not knowing how to drive a car to knowing how to get from point A to point B without killing yourself pretty quickly. You may have backed into a few dumpsters, hit a cat, or rear ended that fool who slammed on the brakes even though the light had only just turned yellow, but hey that’s what happens when you’re learning. Anyway… You are probably a pretty mediocre driver. The vast majority of us are. Now go youtube some rally car race footage. Comparatavely, how much time, practice, and dedication do you think it took to go from navigating the grocery store parking lot to tearing it up through the forest and drifting hairpin turns without crapping your pants at the prospect of certain death? A lot more time than it took you to pass your drivers test. Even if that took a few tries. Moral of the story: work on your weaknesses (but don’t forget your strengths)!

Now back to that gym session I was moaning about at the beginning…I got my butt handed to me at the gym yesterday. I got pumped at the 3rd bolt of a route. Grabbed a draw on an easy route (shameful). Got pumped on a BOULDER PROBLEM! And could hardly pinch anything. I felt so weak. Like a kitten. meow.

“How could this be!?” you might say (and I definitely said). “Didn’t you just climb some fairly hard routes? How come you suck?”

Answer: The SAID principle.

In the past 6 weeks I have climbed on only 10 routes. 3 were warm-ups I flashed. 1 was a warm-up I did everyday before trying my second project. 1 was a ‘project’ I did 2nd try. 3 were projects I didn’t send and didn’t try very many times. Which leaves 2 hard projects I actually sent. One took 1 week (and 3 years of work prior) and the other took 2 weeks of dedicated tries. What I’m getting at is the fact that I spent most of my trip trying to adapt to only 2 routes. When you are really trying to redpoint something hard, you only get a few tries before you are too worn out or the skin is too thin. So after 6 weeks of only tying in to the rope @3 times a day/4-5 days a week, I lost a lot of muscle. Evidenced not only by my weak gym performance, but also by my post-trip weight of 149lbs (at my strongest bouldering I weighed about 155-160lbs). I adapted to the demands I was placing on my body. When climbing thin technical pocket routes it is really helpful to be light and rely more on footwork, technique, and endurance. Once I took those adaptations back into the gym, I was obviously out of place. I don’t have the strength or the power to crush my way up pinches and edges anymore.

And now I have a choice: Continue to focus on technical face-climbing (a type of climbing my body naturally excels at) or get back to work on my weaknesses and become a more skilled climber. Option 2…duh. For me this isn’t even a question. I love working my weaknesses. Honestly I think that is the only “gift” I have as a climber. I love to work hard. So to work I go.

You can make the same choice: Specialize in your strength or work on your weaknesses. Neither decision is right or wrong and both take hard work.

A recent post by training guru Steve Bechtel on his website climbstrong.com contained this nugget that I absolutely love:

“Developing your ability as a climber is about compromise, not balance.”

It is impossible to train up all the facets of your climbing to the same high level at the same time. You always peak certain traits at the expense of others. The key lies in making the right decisions about what to compromise, when, and to what degree in order to achieve your goals.


Climbing is hard… so work harder.

I just realized that my idea of hard work might not be in line with yours. Hard work doesn’t always mean sweating it out in the gym. More often, hard work means: eating right, resting properly, adjusting your internal dialogue about your performance, being aware of how your body is moving, staying hydrated, making your training fit into your everyday life, and riding the constant ebb and flow of psyche and performance.

Go forth and crush.

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Killed It...Snapped It's Neck...

I sent Fruit Stripe yesterday!

On my first go I fell because I missed the blind-slot-deadpoint. In an unconscious effort to make my failure as spectacular as possible, I caught my foot in the rope on the way off the wall, flipped upside-down and caught my own fall with my own ankle. Ouch! Surprisingly I don't think I even have rope burn. Hooray! Anyway, I rested a bit, tied back in, and snapped it's neck.

It is crazy how hard a route can feel until you send it. It is also crazy how quickly you can develop endurance and the ability to recover (compared to strength at least). Two weeks ago I was getting pumped at the 3rd bolt, couldn't recover at any of the "rests", and couldn't link through the resistance crux. Then yesterday, I didn't start to get pumped until the second to last move (by which time the route was over), I recovered quickly at the rests, and cruised through the resistance section with enough energy left over to to nearly lock-off the blind-slot-deadpoint. So cool, climbing is great!

As for the grade of Fruit Stripe...this has been the source of great debate :) It flip-floped between .13+ and .14- for a while. Though after sending it and after climbing on the other routes we bolted (which are all harder than Fruit Stripe), I'll call it .13d. As much as I wanted it to be .14-, it's just not that hard.

Today is the last day of the trip. We are headed back up to the crag to clean up what is left of our fixed lines and draws. Oh yeah, and Ben is going to (he better!) put down the last of the Zebra Wall projects. The Double Bubble aka: Pool Shark project. He fell off the move to the finish hold yesterday, so I'm pretty confident he'll smash it this afternoon.

I was hoping to have some cool climbing pictures for ya'll but, it hasn't worked out. So here is a cool picture of Ben jugging up to clean up the Pool Shark project.



As for me?

LET BOULDERING/TRAINING SEASON BEGIN!

p.s. we saw two little brown bear cubs and their mom in town last night, 30ft away. We didn't get eaten. Nice.


Friday, October 4, 2013

Next Route!

So many cool routes going up at God's Crag right now! Ben and I have each bolted 2 new lines on the upper tier (we've been calling it "Upstairs") and they are hard. Ben finished bolting and sent an abandoned project on the Zebra Wall called Fruit Stripe (5.13d). He also sent one of the routes I bolted, Two Bits (5.14-), which makes for the first 5.14- at the crag. Oh yeah, he also flashed Full Facial (5.13b), which I believe is the first flash of that route. Needless to say he is on a tear.

Ben flashing Full Facial, the best .13b on the planet

So far I haven't sent much (no surprise there). I was able to do Full Facial easily, 2nd try after 4 years off of it. Pretty much by accident. I hung the draws, lowered, and was planning on projecting it for a few days. Then I just started climbing to see how high I could get before I got too tired. I didn't get tired and clipped the chains. That was nice.

Heading upstairs

I have spent most days trying to send Ben's route, Fruit Stripe. It is about 70-80ft tall, slightly overhung, with consistently hard moves on crazy pockets with lots of mono stacking and other pocket shenanigans. There is a bad rest before the final boulder and I am having a hard time recovering enough . Lame. My endurance has been steadily increasing though and I feel like I'll send in the next day or two of tries. I've also continued to work on Two Bits, but again, I am having trouble recovering at the "rest" before the crux. I can do all the moves though and I can link through most of it, but rock climbing is hard.

L->R: Fruit Stripe (.13d); Double Bubble (prj); Two Bits (.14)

Ben also bolted a route to the right of Fruit Stripe, the Double Bubble project, that he thinks will be a little harder than Fruit Stripe. A section of that route is currently plagued by the choss goblins, so it is still getting cleaned and we haven't really been able to try it yet. Hopefully tomorrow.

The Headwall project. The dotted line is a fixed line.
The first day we arrived I bolted a line I have been looking at for years. To the right of the waterfall there is a short steep headwall that pulls onto a slab above. But here's the thing with that. The approach is super annoying and a bit dangerous. To get to the belay ledge you have to move along an old fixed line and then ascend up a rotten dihedral that is composed of the worst rock I have ever encountered (and I've seen some choss). This wouldn't be that bad, but everything that gets knocked off falls 250ft off the top of the Mileski Wall and lands in the middle of the crag. Not very safe. So we can only really go up there when no one is around. Luckily, there is almost never anyone else at the whole crag. The route itself is SICK. Really cool (bad) holds on a steep wall. This thing is hard. There is pretty much nowhere to clip. Right now it looks like 2-3 powerful double digit boulders in a row. 5.14+? Who knows. We haven't done all the moves yet.

Another view of The Headwall project


Right now it is a rest day/ internet day/ grow skin back day. Hopefully tomorrow will be a...

 SEND DAY!




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