A Curative Training Day | Alli Rainey Climbing

Ah, BP1, you mind-warping demon! How dare you taunt me with the idea that I?might improve my strength and power enough to send you this season, only to toy with my emotions, day in and day out, as the warm-enough weather fades into a memory and my days of climbing here for the season dwindle?alas, it would be so much easier to take this consistent paddling if I hadn?t been pushing my one-hanging sticking point up for the last two months, until it?s finally at the last hard move with pretty much no time left for another breakthrough. This would be so very much easier to take if I wasn?t so close to sending now?if I was back at a two-hang or at the first one-hanging spot, low on the route.

I feel like a UFC fighter who?s involved in some unceasing loop, where I have to do battle with the same opponent who?s a better fighter than I am every other day. I work and strive and push my weaknesses, knowing exactly what?s holding me back, and then I step into the ring once more, only to discover that I?m still not quite able to beat my greatest foe (to date). But I also realize that this is what makes rock climbing the way I do it ? as a sport climber who?s all about pushing personal performance on real rock climbs ? so much easier in a way than a UFC fighter gets it. After all, they train and train and train and train for months and months to do battle one time ? and if they step into the ring and get knocked out in 10 seconds, that?s what all that training leads up to. Harsh.

And they don?t have the luxury like I did yesterday, when I observed during my warm-up burn that I just didn?t feel quite right; I felt not quite recovered from the other days of climbing, like the big work sessions on the upper crux had left my biceps and triceps feeling less powerful than usual ? I pretty much knew I didn?t have a chance before I even tried for real yesterday. How much would that suck, to wake up on the day of your big fight, your one chance, and just feel sort of off and not really totally at your peak? When that happens to me, I can do what I did yesterday ? give it a couple full-efforts burns with no expectations, knowing I?m not feeling great, and then just head home to train to dissipate some of the frustration I feel.

That?s the beauty of my relationship with sport climbing though. I get to walk away pretty much whenever I want, and I?ve found this summer even more than ever before, that when I have a down day on the rock or even a down week, if I come home and train on Friday, I usually feel pretty uplifted and empowered by the experience. Yesterday was no exception. I?m lucky enough to be able to do this this year, even while working a route that pushes my strength and power ? to put in effective apr?s-climbing training sessions that help rather than hinder my progress. I love having enough of a base to do this without risking injury or overtraining; I?ve developed much better body sense of knowing when to go and when to stop as far as training goes, too.

So yesterday, I improved wildly on the eccentric lowers ? I can stop my motion and hang isometrically through the first half of the lower now, and the second half is much slower. Super cool to see this progress! I did some triceps lifting, too; as always my tri?s were trashed from BP1; that?s the weakness that?s holding me back from the send, for sure. Too many moves requiring me to push holds way past the pulling point, and it just drains their power. I also did a quick ab-maintenance hit.

Just for the heck of it, I decided to see where my fingers are after this summer, too. I haven?t been training fingers and forearms all summer, because they?re my greatest strength. I don?t fall from my hands opening up, ever ? never fall because of a forearm pump. I always fall because I?m not strong enough to pull the next move. Seriously ? always. So I haven?t trained my fingers because that would be training my strength, and when I?m training after climbing, I?ve wanted to keep it brief. But yesterday, curiosity got the best of me ? and wow, was that ever fun and cool to check out. My fingers are way stronger in terms of both pure strength as well as in terms of power endurance, thanks to BP1.

I did five sets of strength reps, and then after doing all the other training, did three, 10-minute power-endurance sets. It was so fun! Training strengths is always fun, I think, because it makes you feel super strong, but seeing gains in my strengths just from trying this route 1 million times was ultra-cool. Coupled with the gains in my weaker areas that I know I?ve gotten from both the route and the route-driven training, I simply can?t be upset about the outcome of this summer, even if I have to walk away sans send and come back next season even stronger to tear it to pieces. As a bonus, too, it seems like the power-endurance sets left me feeling better and more recovered from the entire training sesh than I usually am; makes sense, as they were probably a good cool-down for my muscles.

I followed this with a full-body stretching and a steak dinner; once a week I eat red meat, and it?s always after this training. Today, I feel excited about going to the Red River Gorge more than I have been, and ready to just leave this whole BP1 thing until spring, when I?ll hopefully step into the ring for my final bout with this opponent and discover that I am now the superior fighter, at long last.

Source: http://allirainey.com/home/2011/09/24/a-curative-training-day/

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