Power session performance

[heelhook]

Hey guys

Yesterday was my third power session and second campus session of the power phase. I started the session feeling strong and feeling like I was going to have an awesome session. During my warm up I included some deadhangs from the medium rungs on the campus board as I normally do and was feeling better than usual.

Then I started my WBL and I failed to red point some of the easy boulder problems I flashed in my first and second workout. Then the campus board kicked my ass, I couldn't latch anything and I couldn't repeat what I had done on the previous campus session.

At the gym, there was a kid's birthday going on, so there were kids running around, yelling and playing hanging-basketball (I guess it's a variation of basketball where they put kids on harnesses and lift them 6 feet up and then throw baskets). To add insult to injury the gym is on summer business hours (since most of the stuff went to Magic Woods in Switzerland for the month) so the were open for just 2 hours.

I think this totally threw me off, I was trying my best to focus on stay in the zone but my performance just wasn't there.

In your experience, is being 100% focused on the power workout a requirement or is the poor performance unrelated to the environment?

Thanks!

Pablo

[Lundy]

My guess is it's both, Pablo.  You probably just had an off day (welcome to being human) and the mayhem was keeping you from really nailing it.  Also note that my warmup has exactly ZERO correlation to how well I'll perform on any given day.  None whatsoever.  So I wouldn't sweat it too much.  Unless you have a whole run of bad days, in which case you might need to do some more digging about what's going wrong, I would just brush it off and move on...

[rob]

Totally agree with what Lundy said, some days you feel great, some days go terribly, and often there's no logical explanation as to why. Sometimes it can be a sign you haven't rested enough, but I've had plenty of "bad" days after good rest periods. I usually have one or two sessions like this during the power phase but always bounce back.

[heelhook]

Thanks Lundy and rob! Really appreciate the words of support! You guys rock! Like you said, I'll brush it off as a bad day and try my hardest again next time

[joshvillen]

Closely monitor your "rest" and nutritional intake. Follow a routine of pre-workout foods and post workout foods (something that you know works and makes you feel good throughout your climbing day). Personally, I chug a protein shake, gatorade, and creatine supplement 40 mins before every climbing session because I know it gives me the right balances of hydration and carbs, and will lose most of the excess before really getting into the "serious" part of my workout.

Rest is far more tricky, you really have to keep track of volume, intensity, and just how stress free your rest days were exactly. Especially with workouts that involve recruitment because they really fry your CNS, which means you could be run down without even knowing it because you'll feel muscularly fine but your coordination and timing will be garbage

[heelhook]

That's very interesting joshvillen! I hadn't thought about that at all. For this particular session my rests were all over the place, since I was mostly training with what was left, so if a problem was available for a brief moment I would go at it even if I had just come down from another problem.

In terms of the CNS, do you guys drink caffeine before/during power sessions? Obviously caffeine will have an effect on the CNS, I wonder if beneficial or detrimental to coordination. Thoughts? Experiences?

[joshvillen]

Caffeine is good in moderation but I've read a few articles suggesting it might inhibit CNS recovery. Plus it might make you "empty" certain stomach contents before they're fully digested, meaning that healthy snack you ate might not even make its way into your system.