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 3^rd 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 2^nd 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.

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.

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!




We're natural athletes:

A (not so) Brief History of Cobra Strike

Back in 2009 I was driving along the outer edge of Hartman Rocks searching for new climbs. I had planned on driving a lot further, but just 10min after leaving my apartment I noticed a surprisingly overhanging wall. Right off the road. I pulled off and hiked up to the wall, not expecting much. From the ground though, it was obvious that there was a route that followed the black water streak. I rapped off the top to get a better look was amazed at the quality and presence of holds. Those that have been to Hartman’s know how anomalous and overhanging route with holds is. In fact, in the whole sea of friction slab climbing that is Hartman Rocks, I think this is the steepest, if not the only, overhanging sport route.

Obviously I was psyched! I couldn’t wait to sink some bolts into the wall and start figuring out what I thought was going to be a sweet 5.12. I called everyone I knew who had a drill, trying to borrow one. Everyone said, “No”. I couldn’t even get someone to lend me a hand drill. So I bought a hand drill and spent Easter ping-ping-ping-ing away. Almost 1 hour per bolt for 7 bolts. The Hartman’s Project was born.

My first tries on the route were pitiful. It took all day to figure out the overhanging mantle and after that I couldn’t do 90% of the moves. This couldn’t be 5.12. Having never climbed 5.13a before, the hardest thing I could conceive of was 5.13b. Maybe this thing is 5.13b?

Early tries on the Hartman's Project

Enter Ben Spannuth. I met Ben through the Collegiate Climbing Series in 2009. Ben is a SUPER strong climber with multiple 5.14d ascents. After a CCS competition we held at Western State College, I took Ben out to check out the project. He was psyched on it! In the one afternoon he worked on the route he quickly did all the moves, but couldn’t link the sections. Ben left, but was psyched to return at some point.

Ben's first time on the project. 2009.

Over the next 2 years I would periodically go back to the Hartman’s project to see if I was strong enough yet. I wasn’t. Eventually, with the added psyched of Caleb Justice and Roy Quanstrom, I was able to do all the moves on the route. After another year I could 1 hang the route right in the middle.

Now it is 2012. After climbing a bunch of ridiculously hard routes in Spain, Ben is coming back to Gunnison to work on the Hartman’s project. The pressure was on. I knew Ben was strong enough to do the route and I had only 3 weeks to get the first ascent before he arrived. After bolting and working on the route for 3 years at this point I REALLY wanted the FA. I became obsessed. In 2 weeks I went from 1 hanging the route in the middle to falling on the 2^nd to last move every time. The clock was ticking and I had to SEND. After sticking the 2^nd to last move and falling on the last move one day I was psyched! I had it, the route was in the bag! I skipped class he next day and went out to the route fully confident that I would send it. I warmed up, did all the moves, came down, and got psyched for what I hoped would be the send burn.

The camera was rolling. I cruised through the overhanging mantle, snagged the low crux crimp and cranked <POP> to the pinch. Wait. Shit. Take. That was my finger.

I had just ruptured my A3 and A4 pulleys in my left ring finger. Climbing was out of the question for months. I was facing a long recovery and I knew it.

Ben arrived a week later and got to work. I hiked up and belayed him for 2 weeks, still no send. He was so close though. At this point I just wanted to see someone send the route. I had imagined over and over what it would feel like to snatch that finish hold. Now that that was out of the question I had to at least SEE it done. To know it was possible.

Ben left for a weekend and quickly (5 tries) dispatched with The Bleeding (5.14b) at Mill Creek in Utah. He came back and had 1 more week to finish off the Hartman’s Project. The last few moves are hard though and Ben was hitting the same wall I had, the deadpoint to the lip off of the two slopey pinches. The 2^nd to last move.  On the evening of May 2^nd, 2012, Ben dug deep, snatched the lip and topped out Cobra Strike (5.14b).

I learned a lot from watching Ben climb Cobra Strike. A lot about climbing, but also a lot about humility, patience, and priorities. I had become so obsessed with the first ascent, something that I thought was rightfully mine, that I over worked and injured myself. Only to find out that I had a crucial bit of beta wrong. Had I been patient and worked on the route with Ben, I might have sent, I may have even got the FA.

I like to think that every project has a lesson to teach. A lot of times that lesson isn’t even about climbing.

Fast forward through the year and a half of recovery and training and here we are. September 2013. I sent it. It felt great.

I did it!

I could regale you with the details of the send and give you the move-by-move recap, but I won’t. Because that isn’t what is important. The important stuff is what occurred before the send, the lessons I learned, and the life that goes on after.

I am sitting in a coffee shop in Gunnison Colorado with Ben right now. We are 3 weeks in to our 4 week climbing trip. Our cuticles are destroyed from working the hard pocket routes we just finished bolting. Who is going to get the first ascents? Who cares?

Hiking to the new routes.

Climbing is more fun when you’re climbing with your friends.

Back In Gunnison

After getting overly frustrated with the conditions at Mill Creek we made a snap decision, packed up, and left for Gunnison on Wednesday afternoon.

Upon arriving in Gunnison Wednesday evening Ben and I met up with another friend of mine for an evening bouldering session at Real Lost Canyon just outside of town. RLC is a unique sandstone area that a few friends and I "rediscovered" a few years ago. I put up some of my favorite boulder problems here an used the area as an outdoor training facility. It was really fun to go back to those boulder problems and see where I am compared to where I was before I blew up my pulleys. The verdict? My fingers are still significantly weaker than before, but I guess that is to be expected. Fortunately I have a good amount of time left on the trip, and I have places like RLC, that got me strong before, to get me strong again.

Oh, and guess what!?

I got on Cobra Strike yesterday! I almost sent it! Three times! Hopefully it will go down today.

If/When I send I will write a longer post about the history of the route (which I think is cool). For now though, this is the roue that I blew up my pulleys on a year and a half ago. Every time I pull the move that I hurt myself on, I can "hear" my pulleys popping and my stomach gets tight. It is terrifying. I keep doing it though. My finger has been doing well, but I am hyper conscious of the pressure in my left ring finger. Being back on the route I can absolutely understand how I injured myself. The left hand crimp is almost perfectly designed for ring finger destruction. I have to keep trying. I'm so close!

Mill Creek: First 3 Days

Ben and I arrived in Moab the night of the 10th. In the morning the weather looked bad, humid with large storm clouds over the mountains. We went back to a large arete we had scoped out during our last trip in March. We were very excited about the potential of the line. It was almost 200 ft tall and it looked like there were just enough holds for it to go. However, upon further inspection this time, we decided it probably wasn't possible. There is one 15ft section that has literally no holds. Drywall. That and one of the key holds for the top section flexed a lot and would probably break in such a way as to leave no hold at all and another impossible section. Definitely a bummer. After hiking back from the arete we went to Big Bend for a quick bouldering session. We repeated a bunch of moderate boulders and then put in some work on Hell Belly (V11), a hard compression line out a sandstone refrigerator block. Since it was over 80 degrees out neither of us was expecting anything. Surprisingly I was able to put my lanky frame to work and link a lot of the moves. If there is time I'd like to go back in the morning or evening sometime when it is cooler and try to send. For the rest of the day we worked on a silly traverse eliminate just to get pumped and wear-off some fingertip skin.

The arete that doesn't go.

The next day the clouds still looked ominous and the humidity was unreasonable high. For those who are living in caves and haven't heard, Colorado and eastern Utah are getting HAMMERED with rain right now, lots of flooding and damage. So I guess we are pretty lucky to have the lesser amount of rain  we have been getting. Still though, the heat and humidity are making it nearly impossible to put together the main objective of this leg of the trip, The Bleeding (5.14b). I worked on The Bleeding a few months ago, in March, and was able to do all the moves, but couldn't link the sections or do the crux consistently. Fortunately, training works and I feel much stronger this time. I can do the crux move almost every time, and I can link the route in 2 sections. I just need to build up some more endurance and have a few days of dry air. Fortunately, time is still on my side.

The Bleeding. So pretty!

Today we had some more goes on our projects, but with the intermittent rain, high temperatures, and high humidity, thing haven't been going too well. I think maybe I brought the east coast with me :( I feel good on the route, but I am definitely struggling. I settled on some new beta for the crux that is even more consistent than before and I pushed my high point to within 6 moves from the top. Which sounds great, except those 6 moves are a V9 boulder problem after climbing 40ft of consistent cranking on powerful underclings and sidepulls with no rest. Needless to say, I'll probably be falling from the top for quite a while. If I don't send this thing, it certainly won't be for lack of trying!

The weather...

Next up is a rest day! hopefully the weather will begin to clear up soon.

First Days in Colorado

The drive was quicker than expected. I was originally planning on a 3-day trip from Maryland to Colorado, but once I start driving I find it hard to stop. The first day was a 17-hour epic all the way to the western edge of Missouri. I was hoping to make it there in a little less time, but a flat tire somewhere in Illinois slowed things down. Day two was a shorter 12-hour journey, but it felt longer because I knew I was almost at my destination. Within 5 minutes of entering Golden I was already tossing a Frisbee and slacklining with my good friends Terry and Jacy, who have been letting me crash on their floor for the past few days.

Pat's Arete

That evening we immediately made plans to go bouldering at Mt. Evans the next day. Mt. Evans is an AMAZING alpine bouldering area that sits around 12,000ft surrounding 14,264ft summit of Mt. Evans. On the hike in to Area A, we encountered some thunderstorms and almost turned back. Fortunately we decided to hide under a boulder to see if the storm was going to stick around or just pass by, you never really know with the weather at that elevation. After about 30min though, the rain passed and we had fairly clear skies for the rest of the day.  I was able to make some quick ascents of a lot of great problems like Ludders Pinch (V7), Pat’s Arete (V7), The Dali (V8), and Bierstadt (V9/10). I was also able to start working on a problem that I have dreamed of climbing for almost 10 years, No More Greener Grasses (V12). I remember seeing pictures and videos of this problem when it was first finished in 2004. The line follows bad crimps up a 40 degree wall covered in green and black lichen. Unfortunately my trip to Moab might keep me off the boulder until next summer, since the boulder could be completely snowed in by the time I get back in October. I’m a little but happy about that though, because I’m going to need this next year to develop some more finger strength to be able to pull off a send in a timely manner.

Bierstadt

After a rest day and a tour of the Earth Treks Golden construction site we were back at it. This time Caleb was able to come down from Fort Collins to come boulder with Terry and I in Boulder Canyon. We went to the Castle Rock boulder, which is right off of the road. I couldn’t believe how good the rock was. We started on a super classic V5 called Standard Bulge. This might be one of my favorite boulders for the grade anywhere. Terry did a cool variation of the problem by trending right under the bulge with a cool sequence of smears and side pulls. I was able to onsight The Citadel (V8) just to the right of Standard Bulge and then we all took turns hucking ourselves at the V10 dyno of Cage Free. I  got close to doing Cage Free which is surprising because I  typically don’t do well with dynos. Unfortunately it promptly started thunder storming, but this time it didn’t let up, so we jumped in the van and headed back to Golden for a brutal session on Terry’s recently completed home wall.

Terry on the Standard Bulge var.

Caleb on Standard Bulge

Now I am super tired and sore and I’ll probably just lay around, work on the climbing team curriculum, and slackline all day. Ben has some things to take care of in town and then we are leaving for Mill Creek tomorrow morning!