Feedback for a four-month program

[travismcclinchey]

Hello,

I recently purchased the book and am excited to put it to us this winter! I am impressed at how active this forum is. It will be a great resource for something like me with no idea how to properly train.

I have read about half of the book thus far, selecting the chapters that I felt would get me started for the first couple weeks of my training.

I have purposely joined a bouldering only gym this winter to focus on my training and not get tempted by the sharp end.

I have never really 'trained', but rather simply just climbed. I have always equated improving with simply climbing harder and with mileage. Although I have improved this past year, I feel as though it was minimal and have plateaued overall. Therefore, I am interested in trying a formal training program.

I have been climbing for about seven years now, with the last four being fairly full-time. I have generally climbed full-time about 6-7 months of the year outdoors. After this winter, I plan to take that up a notch and take ~ two years off to mostly focus on being a climbing bum.

What interests me most is traditional climbing and longer multi-pitch routes. Having said this, bouldery routes and steep routes are my weakness and this is what I am interested in training this winter. My 'performance' phase will be at Gunks in NY, if this helps with my questions below.

For what it is worth, and on a good day, I currently onsight 5.12- and redpoint 5.12. This is for both trad and sport. I can maybe boulder V3/V4? I boulder about as often I floss my teeth, which is not often.

My questions:

1. Between now and my performance phase, I have 17 weeks, which is more than the 12 weeks suggested in the book. What is suggested to make this work? I was thinking of extending each of the performance, power and power endurance phases by about a week... but I worry that I will burn out and perhaps will peak a phase well before my planned transition. Thoughts? 
(FYI, I only plan to be in the base fitness lan for two weeks)

2. I have about seven days of forced non-training during weeks 6-7. This is about the time a transition from strength to power is due. Should I treat this forced rest as a transition period? Or should I spend a few days after my forced rest getting back up to speed with strength?

Thank you in advance for any comments and suggestions.

[erick]

Welcome to the forum and happy training.

If you are living somewhere you can get outside and climb I personally would spilt your extra weeks between base fitness and performance. Getting extra base fitness will help with your work capacity later in your training, Also its a great excuse to get lots of mileage in since you will spend little time climbing when you are deep in the strength/power phase. Just an idea though.

[travismcclinchey]

Thanks for the response Erik. 

I am in Toronto, ON this winter. The only outdoor climbing I will be doing these next few months is ice/mixed climbing and that will be minimal and more for fun / to get outside.

Perhaps I will extend my base fitness phase by a week or two. My performance phase is fixed to start May 1st, so I can not really start this earlier.

[MarkAnderson]

Considering your goals, I agree with eric that it would be wise to use a full-length Base Fitness Phase. Trad and multipitch climbing tend to be endurance-oriented, plus they benefit greatly from efficient movement skills. Furthermore, since you are new to training, you might consider adding another week or so of Strength so that you can get your hangboard baseline weights dialed in.

If you still have extra time after that, I would spend it on power. If you start your PE phase too early you risk overtraining (in the "junk mileage" range) and burning out earlier than you would like. The "good" news is that your forced break will set you back a little bit, so you an spend the extra time getting back to where you were before the break.

[travismcclinchey]

Thanks for your input Mark (and Erick). I have started my base fitness now and have read most of the book as well. My plan is starting to make sense to me instead of just words/numbers on a spreadsheet! I think I will use my extra time on the strength phase.

Thanks again.