Post by Charlie S on Jul 2, 2014 13:54:49 GMT -7
First, an endorsement of the Rock Climber’s Training manual:
I had been stuck at 5.10 for about a year. Try as I may, the progression was not happening. Now after completing my first round of training, I have onsighted 1 5.11a, redpointed 2 5.11a’s, 1 5.11c, worked within reach a 5.12a, and onsighted an alpine 5.10b which felt like 5.11 with the pack weight and thin air!
My goals are mostly hard trad, with some sport thrown in for good measure. Crack technique is extremely important to my end-goal, Fallen Arches (5.13a) in Little Cottonwood Canyon, UT. There are two cruxes: a rattly-fingers 5.12 portion and a V6(ish) boulder problem halfway through.
To be honest, I want to climb harder because I hate waiting in lines for climbs. The lines drastically disappear the more difficult the route gets!
I’m an aerospace engineer. This means that I live in Excel (and love it there). All other benefits of the Rock Climber’s Training Manual aside, the most inspiring part of it was showing me how to track my training and put it in chart format. In the following paragraphs, I will present my current methods with charts. Of course, I’m open to input. Also keep in mind that several of the plots (such as the hangboard) project workouts into the future as things to strive for.
Base Fitness
Unfortunately, I have yet to determine a way to track this one. The routes at my gym change constantly and there’s no way to consistently keep track except the amount of forearm burn.
Strength (Hangboard)
The raw data:
The first 8 workouts were on the 10 second hang, 5 second rest. The remaining workouts are on the 7 second hang, 3 second rest. Grey cells denote workouts yet to happen. I’ll explain the volume calculation in a moment.
The next plot shows the strength progression (including the planned progression):
The weight added and planned final values were based on how my fingers felt at the end of the last session. I found the 2-finger pocket to particularly painful and one that should be ramped up slowly.
Now, comparing whole workouts to “volume”:
Note that by decreasing my TUT, the volume has decreased. The formula is essentially the sum of the workouts (6 total) where the volume of each individual workout is the equivalent of my body weight plus any added weight (or subtracted) multiplied by the time under tension. I’m currently on the “basic” hangboard regimen with 6 hangs per set at the same weight.
We’ll see how this season’s hangboard progresses. I’m debating between adding a 7th grip, a 7th hang for each set, or ramping up weight.
Power (Campus Board)
Again, I’ve had to compensate for my gym. I do not have route setting privileges and many of the routes are insanely hard for multiple moves or too easy. Many holds rely on pinches (which I find I have a decent amount of strength in anyway). Therefore, I’ll be sticking to the campus board for the time being.
The raw data for the campus board is very long in Excel. Basically, I assign the following intensities to these workouts:
Workout Intensity
And the following intensities to the rungs:
The volume is then calculated by multiplying the rung intensity by the workout intensity by the number of moves (a ladder with 8 moves on the large rungs would be 1*1*8), and then summing it across 4 sets. I currently have to stop at 4 sets to not damage the fingers. Still getting stronger!
Campus board setup.
Campus board volume workout. Note that workout 6 is “in the future” and is part of my planning.
Power-Endurance:
Power-endurance proved to be another interesting one to analyze. I mixed up this routing by doing LBCs and outdoor Route Intervals. I tracked pace and interval length. Familiarity with the routes facilitated faster intervals, although I know it would have been better to maintain a single pace.
Note also that for the outdoor route intervals, I could only throw down 3 sets. My outdoor route of choice was an overhanging jug haul at 5.11c where every move was a big throw.
Long-Term Planning:
So where do you go with this tracking? Which goals do you have in mind? When do you want your peaks to happen?
The first step for me was to identify when I wanted my peaks. My spring and fall peaks will be idea, although my winter peak (occurring in mid-January) will be hard to utilize. That’s fine. Here is my long-term plan as far as cycles are concerned:
This is good from a scheduling perspective. But as the Andersons pointed out so well in their opening chapters, you need to have goals. I tossed this off initially. Upon further thought and reflection, I added in goals and it has helped me focus better. So do it! Here is the long term goal, assuming one-letter grade progression per season. This may be ambitious, but the goals (I think) are reasonable.
Route Tracking:
Route tracking is also very important and serves as a great motivator. Here’s a breakdown of my current 2014 season:
Conclusion:
I have found plotting workouts not only fun, but extremely helpful in my training. As I enter my second season of training, I look forward to climbing harder and tracking it in graphical ways. I hope this has given some of you ideas on plotting your training and climbing, and most importantly, given you motivation to train better!
I had been stuck at 5.10 for about a year. Try as I may, the progression was not happening. Now after completing my first round of training, I have onsighted 1 5.11a, redpointed 2 5.11a’s, 1 5.11c, worked within reach a 5.12a, and onsighted an alpine 5.10b which felt like 5.11 with the pack weight and thin air!
My goals are mostly hard trad, with some sport thrown in for good measure. Crack technique is extremely important to my end-goal, Fallen Arches (5.13a) in Little Cottonwood Canyon, UT. There are two cruxes: a rattly-fingers 5.12 portion and a V6(ish) boulder problem halfway through.
To be honest, I want to climb harder because I hate waiting in lines for climbs. The lines drastically disappear the more difficult the route gets!
I’m an aerospace engineer. This means that I live in Excel (and love it there). All other benefits of the Rock Climber’s Training Manual aside, the most inspiring part of it was showing me how to track my training and put it in chart format. In the following paragraphs, I will present my current methods with charts. Of course, I’m open to input. Also keep in mind that several of the plots (such as the hangboard) project workouts into the future as things to strive for.
Base Fitness
Unfortunately, I have yet to determine a way to track this one. The routes at my gym change constantly and there’s no way to consistently keep track except the amount of forearm burn.
Strength (Hangboard)
The raw data:
The first 8 workouts were on the 10 second hang, 5 second rest. The remaining workouts are on the 7 second hang, 3 second rest. Grey cells denote workouts yet to happen. I’ll explain the volume calculation in a moment.
The next plot shows the strength progression (including the planned progression):
The weight added and planned final values were based on how my fingers felt at the end of the last session. I found the 2-finger pocket to particularly painful and one that should be ramped up slowly.
Now, comparing whole workouts to “volume”:
Note that by decreasing my TUT, the volume has decreased. The formula is essentially the sum of the workouts (6 total) where the volume of each individual workout is the equivalent of my body weight plus any added weight (or subtracted) multiplied by the time under tension. I’m currently on the “basic” hangboard regimen with 6 hangs per set at the same weight.
We’ll see how this season’s hangboard progresses. I’m debating between adding a 7th grip, a 7th hang for each set, or ramping up weight.
Power (Campus Board)
Again, I’ve had to compensate for my gym. I do not have route setting privileges and many of the routes are insanely hard for multiple moves or too easy. Many holds rely on pinches (which I find I have a decent amount of strength in anyway). Therefore, I’ll be sticking to the campus board for the time being.
The raw data for the campus board is very long in Excel. Basically, I assign the following intensities to these workouts:
Workout Intensity
And the following intensities to the rungs:
The volume is then calculated by multiplying the rung intensity by the workout intensity by the number of moves (a ladder with 8 moves on the large rungs would be 1*1*8), and then summing it across 4 sets. I currently have to stop at 4 sets to not damage the fingers. Still getting stronger!
Campus board setup.
Campus board volume workout. Note that workout 6 is “in the future” and is part of my planning.
Power-Endurance:
Power-endurance proved to be another interesting one to analyze. I mixed up this routing by doing LBCs and outdoor Route Intervals. I tracked pace and interval length. Familiarity with the routes facilitated faster intervals, although I know it would have been better to maintain a single pace.
Note also that for the outdoor route intervals, I could only throw down 3 sets. My outdoor route of choice was an overhanging jug haul at 5.11c where every move was a big throw.
Long-Term Planning:
So where do you go with this tracking? Which goals do you have in mind? When do you want your peaks to happen?
The first step for me was to identify when I wanted my peaks. My spring and fall peaks will be idea, although my winter peak (occurring in mid-January) will be hard to utilize. That’s fine. Here is my long-term plan as far as cycles are concerned:
This is good from a scheduling perspective. But as the Andersons pointed out so well in their opening chapters, you need to have goals. I tossed this off initially. Upon further thought and reflection, I added in goals and it has helped me focus better. So do it! Here is the long term goal, assuming one-letter grade progression per season. This may be ambitious, but the goals (I think) are reasonable.
Route Tracking:
Route tracking is also very important and serves as a great motivator. Here’s a breakdown of my current 2014 season:
Conclusion:
I have found plotting workouts not only fun, but extremely helpful in my training. As I enter my second season of training, I look forward to climbing harder and tracking it in graphical ways. I hope this has given some of you ideas on plotting your training and climbing, and most importantly, given you motivation to train better!
