Training before road trip with limited time

[willblack]

Hey y'all,

I'm going on a month and a half long road trip from May 22nd-July 11th this year, and I am in the midst of scheduling my training cycle. Right now I am planning on doing a 4-week hangboard/strength block, followed by power training until we go on the road trip. The road trip is primarily sport climbing (Shelf, Rifle, Maple, Ten Sleep as well as some bouldering and a couple big trad objectives). I'm a tall climber and I tend to naturally have good endurance, so finger strength and contact strength tend to be my weaknesses. I don't have time for a legit PE phase before my trip so I'm thinking that the Power Endurance will come naturally once I start trying hard sport routes all the time. I have also considered splitting my last 3 weeks of training between power and PE. Any feedback or advice would be greatly appreciated!

[jcm]

Mar 29, 2016 7:27:30 GMT -7 willblack said:

4-week hangboard/strength block, followed by power training until we go on the road trip....I'm thinking that the Power Endurance will come naturally once I start trying hard sport routes all the time.

I think that this is a good plan, especially if you can organize the trip such that you visit more power-dependent areas (such as any bouldering you might do, or sport climbing that tends to be less sustained (Shelf, etc.)) toward the start of the trip, and more endurance-dependent areas toward the end (i.e. Maple). This will allow you to make the most of your shifting fitness during different parts of the trip. If you wanted to go to Maple or Rifle near the beginning of the trip, you would really want to do some PE training before leaving.

[willblack]

Yeah, I think we will probably boulder in the front range for the first week. After that we will climb at shelf a bit then head to Rifle, then Maple. I feel like sport climbing a lot is pretty good power endurance training in itself so I haven't scheduled any for before the trip.

[MarkAnderson]

Mar 30, 2016 6:25:59 GMT -7 willblack said:

Yeah, I think we will probably boulder in the front range for the first week. After that we will climb at shelf a bit then head to Rifle, then Maple. I feel like sport climbing a lot is pretty good power endurance training in itself so I haven't scheduled any for before the trip.

Shelf will be super hot by the time your trip starts. Not a complete deal breaker, but something to keep in mind (if I were climber there at that time, I wouldn't expect to climb super hard). There are a number of north facing crags, but they aren't as good or classic as the other areas. I would recommend climbing at Cactus in the morning, then a short siesta at mid day, then The Gym in the afternoon.

[willblack]

Yeah, I figured it would be hot by the time we get out there, it just looks so awesome we had to go. We'll move on once it gets unbearable and go get shut down in good conditions at Rifle.

[jcm]

A few more notes regarding conditions and destinations:

Shelf will be quite warm, but shade can be found. Even in the shade, don't expect hard sending conditions. You will be a bit more limited as to which routes you can climb, since many of the best walls get sun pretty much all day. For instance, you should not expect to climb much at Cactus Cliff or the Bank at that time of year. In addition to the options Mark mentioned (Gym in the afternoon), other good options include the Sand Gulch crags. The Free Form Wall gets morning shade, and the Contest Wall gets afternoon shade. Since they are right across from each other, you get climb at one in the morning, rest a few hours mid-day, then climb at the other in the afternoon. Not a bad day. The Gem Wall is also quite nice and gets lots of shade. So, Shelf would probably be manageable for a couple of days if you really want to visit, just don't expect it to be a hard sending phase of your trip.

On the other hand, if you are already planning to visit Tensleep on this trip, you could just skip Shelf. Tensleep offers a similar climbing style to Shelf, but most agree that Tensleep is better. Conditions at Tensleep will be vastly better.

Have you thought about visiting Wild Iris? It will be just coming into season in late May, and conditions will likely be good. It would be a good crag to visit at the beginning of your trip, during your power peak, since the climbing there is so powerful. This is basically what I'm doing this spring/summer; visiting Sinks and Wild Iris in early summer as a bridge between my spring power training and summer endurance goals.

Lastly, if you have not previously been to Rifle, if is a good idea to schedule plenty of time there. For many people there is a bit of a break-in period to get used to the style, so having a bit of extra time to really settle in to the place is good. Once you do learn how to climb there, there is a vast amount of good hard climbing to try, so again it is worth having a fair bit of time.

[willblack]

Hey man,

Thanks a lot for the advice! We don't have a specific schedule, we are going to just let our level of psyche for a given area determine the amount of time spent there, so if Shelf is truly unbearable we'll just move on. That being said, we're from the southeast where good climbing conditions pretty much means any day that it's not actively raining, so we will have a couple fun sweaty days there and then move on when we get sick of it. Same with Rifle, I like a technical challenge and I'm excited to learn the style there. We'll probably stop at Wild Iris, but I'm a little hesitant to sacrifice time in Ten Sleep for the shorter routes of Wild Iris.

[jcm]

Sounds like a good plan. Rifle, Maple, Tensleep are pretty much the "big 3" for summer sport climbing around those parts, and there is so much good climbing to do at all three. It definitely makes sense to skip Lander in favor of more time at Tensleep.

I've spent a bunch of time at all three, so PM me if you want any additional travel/logistics beta (camping, showers, food) or route suggestions.