Home wall, benchmarks, and a RCTM plan
Oct 29, 2021 19:56:23 GMT -7
jetjackson and cozisco like this
Post by tedwelser on Oct 29, 2021 19:56:23 GMT -7
Home wall, benchmarks, and the importance of a good training plan and a setup that allows you to follow that plan.
I stopped posting here about 5 years ago when a weird finger injury led me to quit climbing for a while. I was drawn back into climbing by the desire to connect with my daughter (who was herself getting back into climbing and was also getting ready to go to college) and the arrival of the initial pandemic.
We decided to start exploring obscure cliffs in the woods near our town. Anyways, I enjoyed putting up easy routes and just being outside and away from people for long stretches of time. Then, this summer a family trip to visit grandparents also included climbing in Boulder Co, Logan Utah, and Tensleep, Wy. I had not really prepared properly for the trip, so I basically maxed out at 11c, which is about the grade of the hardest routes I had been climbing in the last year.
Well we got back in July and I took a brief rest and then started a training season with ARC, HB, limit bouldering, and now, PE work. The coming two weekends are to be my sending season at the Red, and I am excited to see what happens.
Because of my home wall and the 120 problems that have remained unchanged over the last 7 years I have a good sense of where I am relative to my notes from earlier seasons.
I have repeated 3 of the 4 hardest problems that I have ever sent in my home wall (v7); I recently completed my second PE workout of the season which consisted of 6 reps of my PE training route (25 moves; approx 5.11d) each rep of about 1.5 min with 3 min rests. And just tonight I completed two reps of my 54 move 12b room traverse with goodish handholds but very limited and small technical footholds.
Last time I was completing these training benchmarks I was onsighting up to 11d and sending some of the 12b’s second go at the Red and New. I am very curious to see how the coming weekends pan out because I don’t know if my assessments are missing some key dimensions or if I can anticipate that routes like Too many Puppies 12a and Sex Farm 12b will feel solidly within my range. This is my hope.
I have friends who have also been training for this November sending season, but they are limited to training at commercial gyms and they did not follow a RCTM season and they don't have the same notes and references from earlier seasons. I wonder if my sense of where I am is more accurate. One friend in particular is hoping to send in the same range I am aiming for. We were sending at a similar level this summer in terms of routes, but he was sending much harder problems on tension boards etc. (I was more motivated to build a current year pyramid and RP in the low and mid 11’s, while he was gunning for 12- but did not send)
My guess is that my RCTM season and use of benchmarking will make it likely that I will be able to send in the range that I am aiming for. I worry that my friend will be disappointed this season, and I think it is due to both a training regime that was more haphazard and an inability to really gauge where he is without either a notebook to look back on nor a set of clear benchmark routes to repeat..
Tonight, after a warm up boulder ladder, sussing moves and then two sends of a longish and steepish route I feel tired. So I think my overall day fitness is not where it should be. My plan is to totally go bolt to bolt to hang draws and avoid effort until after I have my target routes sussed. I suspect that I will only have 3-4 good goes in me per day, so sending 2 or 3 target routes would be a big success for a weekend. I also foresee that I will need to devote most of my last day to sussing targets for the following weekend.
The one big downside right now is low temps. The forecast highs are looking like mid mid 40’s, which is about 10 degrees lower than I would prefer.
I stopped posting here about 5 years ago when a weird finger injury led me to quit climbing for a while. I was drawn back into climbing by the desire to connect with my daughter (who was herself getting back into climbing and was also getting ready to go to college) and the arrival of the initial pandemic.
We decided to start exploring obscure cliffs in the woods near our town. Anyways, I enjoyed putting up easy routes and just being outside and away from people for long stretches of time. Then, this summer a family trip to visit grandparents also included climbing in Boulder Co, Logan Utah, and Tensleep, Wy. I had not really prepared properly for the trip, so I basically maxed out at 11c, which is about the grade of the hardest routes I had been climbing in the last year.
Well we got back in July and I took a brief rest and then started a training season with ARC, HB, limit bouldering, and now, PE work. The coming two weekends are to be my sending season at the Red, and I am excited to see what happens.
Because of my home wall and the 120 problems that have remained unchanged over the last 7 years I have a good sense of where I am relative to my notes from earlier seasons.
I have repeated 3 of the 4 hardest problems that I have ever sent in my home wall (v7); I recently completed my second PE workout of the season which consisted of 6 reps of my PE training route (25 moves; approx 5.11d) each rep of about 1.5 min with 3 min rests. And just tonight I completed two reps of my 54 move 12b room traverse with goodish handholds but very limited and small technical footholds.
Last time I was completing these training benchmarks I was onsighting up to 11d and sending some of the 12b’s second go at the Red and New. I am very curious to see how the coming weekends pan out because I don’t know if my assessments are missing some key dimensions or if I can anticipate that routes like Too many Puppies 12a and Sex Farm 12b will feel solidly within my range. This is my hope.
I have friends who have also been training for this November sending season, but they are limited to training at commercial gyms and they did not follow a RCTM season and they don't have the same notes and references from earlier seasons. I wonder if my sense of where I am is more accurate. One friend in particular is hoping to send in the same range I am aiming for. We were sending at a similar level this summer in terms of routes, but he was sending much harder problems on tension boards etc. (I was more motivated to build a current year pyramid and RP in the low and mid 11’s, while he was gunning for 12- but did not send)
My guess is that my RCTM season and use of benchmarking will make it likely that I will be able to send in the range that I am aiming for. I worry that my friend will be disappointed this season, and I think it is due to both a training regime that was more haphazard and an inability to really gauge where he is without either a notebook to look back on nor a set of clear benchmark routes to repeat..
Tonight, after a warm up boulder ladder, sussing moves and then two sends of a longish and steepish route I feel tired. So I think my overall day fitness is not where it should be. My plan is to totally go bolt to bolt to hang draws and avoid effort until after I have my target routes sussed. I suspect that I will only have 3-4 good goes in me per day, so sending 2 or 3 target routes would be a big success for a weekend. I also foresee that I will need to devote most of my last day to sussing targets for the following weekend.
The one big downside right now is low temps. The forecast highs are looking like mid mid 40’s, which is about 10 degrees lower than I would prefer.
