Post by tedwelser on Apr 8, 2016 10:23:09 GMT -7
I had a chance to flash/onsight a high priority route last week. [the route, Diablo is perhaps the best 11d/12a at the Red, located at a semi obscure crag that I had never been able to go to before] I was on the 6th day on of my spring break trip with my daughters, and I had just finished my HB series prior to the trip, and had not trained power or PE yet. My sending cycle is not till May, but, but, but, the line looked so good!
In short, I did all I could on the day and made it to the final clipping hold but lacked the contact strength to hold on for the initial deadpoint. I could have done it bolt to bolt and then sent second try with little fanfare, but that felt like the wrong approach to a great route that is in the right difficulty range.
Ever since I have felt a nagging depression similar to what I have felt for days after losing a big hand in poker. Sometimes you do everything you can in the moment and you just miss out at the end.
Anyways, I wonder if other folks get this sort of feeling-- it strikes me as one of the downsides of placing importance on high profile flash/onsight routes in your goals (at least for people who share the same mental liability about failure that I have). You only get the one chance. On the other hand, a big upside is that I was able to cultivate my best effort and feel that I climbed really well, and it is generally hard to find a route where you can combine your best physical process at your limit with the uncertainty of a first time effort.
So it is a funny bittersweet sort of feeling, perhaps a bit like how Olympians who win a silver medal are more disappointed than those that win Bronze.
I know the answer is to pour my effort back into my training. But I guess I raised this because I think that different people respond to success and failure differently, and that recognizing for ourselves when our response is less than ideal can teach us about further ways to improve, and perhaps better ways to organize our goal setting.
In short, I did all I could on the day and made it to the final clipping hold but lacked the contact strength to hold on for the initial deadpoint. I could have done it bolt to bolt and then sent second try with little fanfare, but that felt like the wrong approach to a great route that is in the right difficulty range.
Ever since I have felt a nagging depression similar to what I have felt for days after losing a big hand in poker. Sometimes you do everything you can in the moment and you just miss out at the end.
Anyways, I wonder if other folks get this sort of feeling-- it strikes me as one of the downsides of placing importance on high profile flash/onsight routes in your goals (at least for people who share the same mental liability about failure that I have). You only get the one chance. On the other hand, a big upside is that I was able to cultivate my best effort and feel that I climbed really well, and it is generally hard to find a route where you can combine your best physical process at your limit with the uncertainty of a first time effort.
So it is a funny bittersweet sort of feeling, perhaps a bit like how Olympians who win a silver medal are more disappointed than those that win Bronze.
I know the answer is to pour my effort back into my training. But I guess I raised this because I think that different people respond to success and failure differently, and that recognizing for ourselves when our response is less than ideal can teach us about further ways to improve, and perhaps better ways to organize our goal setting.
