Harder climbing during base fitness phase

[grigor]

Hello

I recently received my copy of RCTM - I'm very impressed and am looking forward to taking training seriously for the first time.

Drawing up my schedule I note that there appears to be the potential for 4-6 weeks (rest plus base) without any harder climbing being done. I'd be interested to hear people's thoughts and experiences.

Although I see myself as a sport climber, my location means I do a lot of bouldering and a weekly hard session with friends forms a big part of the social side of the sport for me. I'm unlikely to abandon these outings so my question is really - how hard can I climb once a week during the base fitness phase without compromising the physiological aspects of ARC training?

Note: I don't want to perform in these sessions, I just want to join in to a reasonable degree. Is it a case of 'don't go daft and just make sure you're fresh for the strength phase that follows'...?

If it's seen to be counter-productive then I'd be keen to know that. I agree with the time-value arguments laid out in the book and simply 'doing what I'm told' is a big part of why I bought it.
 

Thanks - Grigor

[grigor]

I should have added...

My actual ARC sessions will be totally separate as our normal bouldering venues are not suited to ARC work. What I'm asking about are pure bouldering sessions, for fun, that would happen in parallel.

[tedwelser]

First, I would say I don't really know the answer to your question. But I will hazard some guesses.



I think that some of the primary goals during the ARC phase are (1) building climbing volume at an intensity that is lower than your normal goal-motivated climbing (2) improving technique by spending more time practicing on the rock where you are focused on how your are moving and paying closer attention to your movement (3) emphasizing process over product.



You could integrate some of these things into your "climbing for fun with friends" sessions. It depends on the nature of your climbing resources, but I have spent a lot of time bouldering outside where part of the time is spent on long easy traverses or linking easier problems. When we used to winter in Hueco in the 1990's we would take time and boulder some of the higher V0's in the East Spur maze-- cycling up and down while focusing on movement and technique.



To the extent that one of the points of the ARC time period is to rest your body from more extreme efforts you could avoid attempting problems near your limit.


During my most recent ARC phase I was consistently getting all of my sessions in, until our water line broke.  Then I had to spend all my time digging a ditch and moving dirt, which was not very specific to climbing.  After a few days of physical labor I got back to my last 3 ARC sessions, and I am sure it took some value away from my time, but I feel as though my general endurance improved somewhat already.


Finally, I don't think you can "ruin" the ARC period by climbing in other ways. The physiological benefits seem to be based more on the volume of climbing not on the absence of other types. The RCTM mentions a couple times that you can add ARC into other periods without setting yourself back.



Hope that is helpful and not too off base.

[MarkAnderson]

I don't think some easy bouldering will undermine your ARC training. The problem is that it creates fatigue, and so limits the amount of ARC training you can do. That is, if you add bouldering, you must remove something (ARCing), assuming you are training up to the limit of what your body can handle. So your Base Fitness may not improve as much as it would if you just limited yourself to ARCing.

Worth noting, some see ARCing as injury-risk-free. That is not true! ARCing has the very real potential to cause chronic injuries (like tendovaginitis in the fingers) becuase the duration of training is so enormous. So if you decide to add in a bunch of extra climbing to an already action-packed schedule, be on high alert for signs of distress or inflammation.