Trying this conjugate rock training stuff

[bedellympian]

I tried to mix it up for a couple months after reading Sol's post about conjugate periodization. I had been climbing a lot of random stuff (no consistency) with the occasional hang board session (~once every other week). I then spent 2 months doing the following:

 

Tuesday:

Easy bouldering warm-up

Project 1-2 routes at my limit (total 4-6 goes)

4x4 bouldering

arm strength and core

 

Thursday:

ARC 30 min

Project 1-2 routes at my limit

4 sets on campus board

4 onsight/flash boulder problems

leg strength and core

 

Sat/Sun:

Early in the training I ARCed a third day in the gym, later I climbed routes outside.

 

Early in the training I worked on boulder problems I could send easily and focused more on the ARCing, doing it as a warm-up both days. Later I treated the ARC as a warm-up and focused on pushing the harder boulder problems and the 4x4.

 

This definitely got me strong specifically for sport climbing, but I feel that having a bigger and more consistent climbing base would have paid off more. Also, you wouldn't want to do this for long, 8 weeks was a lot of intensity and my body had some lingering aches and pains.

 

Results: I sent a climb that I could have probably sent before with a lot of work but I did it easily in 4 tries and it upped my redpoint best two letter grades.

 

... my 2 cents.

[Sol]

BOOM!

 

Nice work! Always interesting to hear how folks get on with this stuff.

 

A couple thoughts on dealing with the aches and pains in your body of an intense training load is like you said, to build a bigger base more gradually, but also to take 3-7 days off of training every 3-4 weeks.

 

What now?

 

 

[bedellympian]

Thanks Sol,

 

I'm taking a week off of training and just climbing fun stuff if the weather is nice. I will be refocusing on muscular endurance training with crack climbing and multi-pitch days on the weekend. Plan is to hit Yosemite and Sierra in late June once I get off work for the summer. Hopefully some stuff in Canada later in summer.

 

 

[Sol]

What exactly is muscular endurance training?

 

One thought, if it ain't broke... you know the rest.

[bedellympian]

Muscular endurance is one of the things stressed at the end of the base period in the Steve House Training for the New Alpinism book. It's basically just doing a lot of (insert muscle taxing activity here). The reason for the change is that my goals for the summer are long endurance climbs, not hard red points.

 

I'll do some more of this conjugate stuff in the fall and try push my hard climbing farther then.

 

Plans for muscular endurance workouts are...

 

TR solo laps on pumpy thin hand cracks

Jug a line in a tree with a pack a bunch of times

 

Throw in some hangboarding, campus boarding, bouldering to maintain grip strength and try some of the harder cracks and multis now that my redpoint sport grade is higher than them.

 

Hopefully will be nice and fit when I get off work in late June.

[Sol]

Sounds legit.