Stamina training is all about quantity over quality. Even though stamina won't make me climb harder or prevent me from pumping out, I know that I will be climbing for weeks and weeks in hot weather and it's important that my body can take that shear volume of climbing without risk getting completely exhausted to the point where I need weeks of rest before I can get back on the routes.
I view stamina climbing as a way of training cardio for your climbing muscles. The idea is to get your pulse going, and then race around the boulder wall och up-and-down the routes like a jojo, and then rest before getting back up. Eric Hirst recommends resting the same amount of time as you're climbing, so for a 10 minute interval I would rest for 10 mins, which is kind of a sweet deal because I need to belay my partner anyway while he/she does the same routine.
After one week of stamina training, trying to work out the proper amount of intervals, time per interval, tempo etc. I can say that the most difficult thing is finding the right grade and time on the wall. I want to avoid pump since that turns the exercise into an anaerobic endurance session, but I also want to get my blood pumping, so it's a fine line to walk. What I've done is to remember to take short rests on the wall when I feel the pump coming. In Stockholm at K2 it's easy to find long routes with good holds so it's pretty easy to avoid the pump, but in Växjö (where I do one session per week) I'm pretty limited in the selection of circuits and type of holds to grab, so often it's easier to just jump down and start over right away instead of trying to go for something really hard and getting pumped.
The climbing gym in Växjö is actually a racket ball gym, where they've "redecorated" one of the racket ball courts into a bouldering room, it's reaaaaaally tiny (the "inside-a-nutshell"-metaphor is spot-on). The holds were put up sometime... long ago, and haven't been replaced or even moved since then. I kind of like it though - it is what it is. There's a small group of local climbers who come here every other day, training on the same old holds they've practised on for years. Hat's off for their dedication and... patience! Don't know how they do it!
Just for fun, I put together a small clip of the gym, with me doing a typical stamina session of 3 minutes (compressed into one) for you guys to... well "enjoy" is probably not the right word but... watch atleast?
In other news, I've been invited to go for a 2½ week long climbing trip to Spain at the end of March, soooo psyched!!! I've missed climbing outdoors and it is always there that I get most inspired, most exited and it's when I'm the happiest while climbing. Climbing and training indoors is fun, it's convenient and social, but it is also just a means to an end. And that end is to climb as much as possible outdoors.
Jan 31, 2012
Jan 29, 2012
Climber food: Chicken Curry? Curry Chicken!
It's not enough to just train hard if you want to reach the next level in climbing (or any sport for that matter), you also need to eat right. With a busy schedule as it is and having to fit ambitious cooking plans into that... well let's just say that for both me and Em, we realised that we had to come up with dished that are also fast and easy to make. And they have to taste good, because we LOVE food!
So, as a step in one more move, we (or atleast I) plan to give you the recipes for a few of our favorites, to help you find some gastronomical inspiration when time is tight and you still need to down those calories to get you through the next training session.
First out is my favorite curry recipe right now. Here's what you need for roughly 5-6 portions (depending on what you need to eat, this will give you 6 portions of about 580 kcal)
500 g chicken fillet
8 dl coconut milk
1 red pepper
200 g bamboo shoots
200 g pineapple (sliced)
200 g baby corn
1 dl of cashew nuts (unsalted)
2 dl fish sauce
2 dl sugar
1 tablespoon kaffir lime leafs
6 teaspoons of red curry paste
garlic
ginger
1 tblspoon cooking oil
1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add ginger (grated), garlic (grated) and the curry paste. Add about 1.5 dl of the coconut milk and let it cook for a few minutes
2. Add the chicken (sliced, or use tofu if you prefer a non-meat-alternative) and another 2 dl of the coconut milk. Let the chicken cook in the coconut milk for a few minutes (atleast until the chicken turns white)
3. Crush the cashew nuts powder-like and add a little coconut milk and mix it to a thick paste
4. Add the sugar, fish sauce and the lime leafs (these can be found in the "thai-shelves" at well-sorted grocery stores). Add the pepper (chopped in square pieces), baby corn (chopped in half) and bamboo shoots. Add the nut paste and most of the rest of the coconut milk. stir it around and let it cook for a while. Give it a taste and add more curry if needed. Also, you can add some coriander or cummin at your own discretion.
5. When the chicken is all cooked-through, serve with bulgur or rice. Enjoy!
Healthy for ya!
So, as a step in one more move, we (or atleast I) plan to give you the recipes for a few of our favorites, to help you find some gastronomical inspiration when time is tight and you still need to down those calories to get you through the next training session.
First out is my favorite curry recipe right now. Here's what you need for roughly 5-6 portions (depending on what you need to eat, this will give you 6 portions of about 580 kcal)
8 dl coconut milk
1 red pepper
200 g bamboo shoots
200 g pineapple (sliced)
200 g baby corn
1 dl of cashew nuts (unsalted)
2 dl fish sauce
2 dl sugar
1 tablespoon kaffir lime leafs
6 teaspoons of red curry paste
garlic
ginger
1 tblspoon cooking oil
1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add ginger (grated), garlic (grated) and the curry paste. Add about 1.5 dl of the coconut milk and let it cook for a few minutes
3. Crush the cashew nuts powder-like and add a little coconut milk and mix it to a thick paste
Healthy for ya!
Jan 28, 2012
What do I do when I don't climb?
This week I left my dear hospital drawings to start working with a new project. An ICA store in Stockholm is re-building so I’m drawing the solution for HVAC (Heating Ventilation and Air Conditioning). It is a REALLY fun project but it is a small one so I’m going to finish it during next week. It will be interesting to see how it turns out…
I don’t know whether to tell this or not! The aim for today was to write about my life when I don’t climb. But to be brutally honest, every piece of my life has some connection to climbing in my head. I work to be able to climb – go on trips, buy gears and afford to live in Stockholm! :P I see my work as a crazy fun place which continuously gives me small missions to solve. It keeps me entertained and gives me a perfect eight hours rest every day.
Even dough I think a lot about climbing when I create my drawings my mind is mainly focused on my work. This mental rest is really important for me. In all sports I have practiced I have always needed this mental break. I need to balance up my sport with studies, work or anything else which give focus to something outside my sport performance. For me the mental rest is as important as the physical rest. My work gives balance to my sport and my sport gives balance to my work. Just PERFECT! J
I wake up 05.30 so I can be at work around 06.00-06.30. Unfortunately I work in Mörby Centrum right now so it takes me about 40 minutes to go to work… BUT soon my company is making room for me at the office in Liljeholmen. Which happens to be a few minutes from K2… I live I Hägerstensåsen so I think you can see the picture. A few minutes to work and even less minutes to K2. Work 06.00-15.00 and then off to K2… GAH! I can’t wait! J
I go up early every day to be able to go early to K2 in the afternoon. It’s so many people at K2 in the evenings! Which is FUN but it’s nice to have done most of the training when it starts to crowd up… you can pick any route/ropes/boulder without risk to fall on other people/stick to one route for an hour without being a pain in the ass…
I just love hanging around at the climbing gym. The only thing I can complain about is that they don’t have any open hours in the early morning! Just think about it! Wouldn’t it be perfect to be able to go for some morning climbing before work?! Is anybody with me on this one? J This is my wish for K2! If you open 06.30 two days every week I PROMISE you to be there (every week) for some morning climbing before I hit my missions at work… do we have a deal? ;)
So what else do I fill my days with? Hmm… I have a big family! I have four sister and brothers which I want to spend as much time as I can with. Unfortunately none of them are living in Stockholm and none of them are climbing… but since I am the oldest one I still believe I can influence them in the right way… we will see… I’m working on it! J Family and friends is REALLY important to me so that’s another reason for going up early and hit the gym early. This gives me more hours in the evenings to spend with friends and family.
Wow! Now I’ve been writing A LOT and it is still almost exclusively about climbing… But this is how it works! I eat, sleep, work, chill and live for climbing. It might not make sense but that’s how it feels. It’s more a lifestyle then a sport in my eyes… which is just lovely!
Now I really have to round this off! :P Want to share two stuff which inspired me this week! Gabriel Wagnberg is making TOTALLY AWESOME music!!! Which I happened to find this week… Unfortunately it is only available on soundcloud.com but if you have facebook you can log in through that account… don’t ask me how but it works! :P
Go to soundclound.com, log in with your facebook account and search for ”Gabriel Wagnberg”. Then listen to “Big & Drone” and “Forgive My Song” to begin with… it is sooooo GOOOOD!
Another thing which inspired me a lot this week was seeing Alex climb the new 7B+ at K2! Awesome good climbing!! Thaaanks for that! J
Jan 24, 2012
My macrocycle for 2012
Check out the mad excel skillz displayed by yours truly as I pieced together this puzzle of conditioning strategy for the entire year - my Macrocycle for 2012! I realise that it is highly subject to changes, revisions, "aw-fuck-it"-days et cetera, but it is a good, and motivating start! I feel so psyched now to get going, Emelie's little flipped-out-yet-wonderful travel guide from Tenerife didn't exactly help to alleviate the feeling of climbing abstinence.
Anyway, the point of the macrocycle is to put some thought into how you want to setup your training schedule for the whole year, taking into account where you want to hit peak form, when to take it easy and recover, and also to fill in little notes on progressions you make, record injuries and illnessess and so forth. It gives you an overhead perspective on your training and it gives you so much motivation to stick to your plan when you have intermediate goals.
This is how I planned it
First weeks are actually what has already happened, which is to say: not alot. Because of the important deadline at work, and then catching a nasty cold right afterwards, I haven't been able to go climbing and it has driven me crazy almost.
Anyway, I felt like I really needed to start with a period of stamina training, getting back into business, taking it easy on my joints and finger tendons and just getting that volume of climbing back in my body, and also combining the climbing with cardio training and easy gym exercises. After four weeks I will hopefully "get back into the swing of things".
(btw, inspired by Emelie, I will throw in links to music and clips and other things that pop into my head as I go along. Expect alot of dorky stuff!)
After the stamina, I will alternate strength and endurance before a possible (probable!) climbing trip for one or two weeks at the end of March (It'll be awesome) and I will need to have a rest week before the trip, atleast from heavy training.
Then I'll start a 4-3-2-1 cycle to get into shape for the BIG TRIP, although since it's only 9 weeks between coming back from Spain and going away again, I've skipped the first stamina week (or the last, or... one of the weeks anyway) to get some more endurance in me.
Back from the trip in september I'll start alternating between strength and endurance and maybe mix in more and more power as well, depending on what needs to be done for the final project which I'll find (or it'll find me perhaps) somewhere during our trip.
That's the plan as it is right now. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, first I'll need to get through this first period of climbing climbing climbing climbing. That's what's so great about the macrocycle, it keeps you on track, I'm not tempted (ok that's a lie, but I can control the temptation) to go doing hard bouldering when I know It'll screw up my plan, instead it gives me motivation to go climbing, even if I'm away working.
Went to the local "gym" here in Växjö (the place where my project is... and when I say project, I don't mean climbing project, I mean the project where I actually work... you know... to raise money to pay for rent, food etc... still don't know? You dirtbag!) today and did some bouldering circuits and it felt gooooood! So nice to be back, even though the climbing gym is smaller than a shoe box, the holds are about my age and it's a bit of a hassle to get there from where I work. Back at the hotel now for more work, but I feel worked already! :) Forearms are pretty numb!
Anyway, the point of the macrocycle is to put some thought into how you want to setup your training schedule for the whole year, taking into account where you want to hit peak form, when to take it easy and recover, and also to fill in little notes on progressions you make, record injuries and illnessess and so forth. It gives you an overhead perspective on your training and it gives you so much motivation to stick to your plan when you have intermediate goals.
This is how I planned it
First weeks are actually what has already happened, which is to say: not alot. Because of the important deadline at work, and then catching a nasty cold right afterwards, I haven't been able to go climbing and it has driven me crazy almost.
Anyway, I felt like I really needed to start with a period of stamina training, getting back into business, taking it easy on my joints and finger tendons and just getting that volume of climbing back in my body, and also combining the climbing with cardio training and easy gym exercises. After four weeks I will hopefully "get back into the swing of things".
(btw, inspired by Emelie, I will throw in links to music and clips and other things that pop into my head as I go along. Expect alot of dorky stuff!)
After the stamina, I will alternate strength and endurance before a possible (probable!) climbing trip for one or two weeks at the end of March (It'll be awesome) and I will need to have a rest week before the trip, atleast from heavy training.
Then I'll start a 4-3-2-1 cycle to get into shape for the BIG TRIP, although since it's only 9 weeks between coming back from Spain and going away again, I've skipped the first stamina week (or the last, or... one of the weeks anyway) to get some more endurance in me.
Back from the trip in september I'll start alternating between strength and endurance and maybe mix in more and more power as well, depending on what needs to be done for the final project which I'll find (or it'll find me perhaps) somewhere during our trip.
That's the plan as it is right now. But let's not get ahead of ourselves, first I'll need to get through this first period of climbing climbing climbing climbing. That's what's so great about the macrocycle, it keeps you on track, I'm not tempted (ok that's a lie, but I can control the temptation) to go doing hard bouldering when I know It'll screw up my plan, instead it gives me motivation to go climbing, even if I'm away working.
Went to the local "gym" here in Växjö (the place where my project is... and when I say project, I don't mean climbing project, I mean the project where I actually work... you know... to raise money to pay for rent, food etc... still don't know? You dirtbag!) today and did some bouldering circuits and it felt gooooood! So nice to be back, even though the climbing gym is smaller than a shoe box, the holds are about my age and it's a bit of a hassle to get there from where I work. Back at the hotel now for more work, but I feel worked already! :) Forearms are pretty numb!
Jan 23, 2012
Why do I want to make love to a rock?! :O
Two days of travelling and two days at Tenerife. It sounds like a really awfully planned trip BUT honestly, I’ve just had the best vacation of my life!! The trip was long and the weather sucked BUT everything else weighed it up 100000% and more! :P My normal overdose of energy is higher than ever!! And my motivation for climbing and my energy to give even more is so high I can’t even explain!!! Haha…
So, I guess I should start to tell about the climbing… since the main reason for going to Tenerife was to visit my younger sister (which btw turned 25 this Sunday) we focused on climbing close to Adeje where she lives. We focused on an area called Guaria. Look here:
If you look at the map we lived close to “Playa de Las Americas”. It took about 20 minutes to go by car from this place to Guaria.
With some help from a simple map and the guide book for climbing at Tenerife we found this place easily. A tips if/when you go to this places: be prepared for SMALL 45 degree inclining roads with MANY curves… this cause problems if you meet any kind of vehicles going in the opposite direction! Haha… we did this and survived so this is not an impossible action! J BUT it’s totally an interesting experience! ;)
By the way! It is REALLY cheap to rent a car on Tenerife! We rented a car at the airport and left it back three days later. It cost about 750 Skr. There are many places to rent cars from at the airport. Goldstar gives the best prices! J We got a nice looking car but maybe not the fastest one… but it took us to all places we wanted which is all we asked for! J The traffic at Tenerife is ok… it feels safe to drive there! J
The guide book has a very good explanation for how you find Guaria by car. So I don’t go into that one! J It is a litte bit harder to find the climbing spot! This is the tips: take the car up to the last two houses and leave it there. Then go and stand in between the two houses and look down towards the rocks. You will then clearly see some stones painted with white color. Just follow these stones and you will get to the right path! J We came from another direction and missed this sign! So it took us about one hour to get to the climbing spot! It was a nice hike but I recommend taking the right path since it is much safer! J
After the hiking we reached the rock. This rock was totally incredible! It has this warm red tone and a soft surface without being polished. And it gives out such a stable trustable feeling… don’t ask me how… I fell in love on the spot! I was hanging on a rock at Tenerife, overwhelmed by all this good good gooooood feelings which in the end of the day made me wanna squeeze, hug, kiss and totally make love to this rock! Haha… am I crazy or what?! ;)
The rock was in such a good temperature too. Not warm but not cold either! Sine this period is winter time at Tenerife the outdoor temperature was between 17-20 degrees. So with other word: perfect for climbing. I can imagine it will be extremely hot on this climbing spot in high season. I totally recommend going here during colder periods/days.
The climbing was totally awesome!!! I don’t know how to describe it. It was delicate routes combined with this incredible rock and wonderful view! Just imagine yourself hanging on a rock about 15-20 m over the ground. When you turn around you see all the way to the sea many kilometers away. The view was totally amazing!!! This was my best climbing experience so far. And another thing which made me totally happy was that all the endurance training is showing result. I totally enjoyed hanging on the rock. I trusted my hands and feet more than ever! I have a long way to go before I can totally BE THERE. But I felt such a difference from last time I climbed outdoor (which was this summer). I could relax and enjoy every movement. I could enjoy the view and best of all… I was so calm! GAH!! Addictive!!!!
Haha… so this was a little bit about the climbing on Tenerife! Anything you want to know? Just ask! J I totally recommend going here to climb but go for more days… there is SO much to see!
Last but not least… today I need some pop music so I give some to you too… this is a REALLY good song by Tobias Fröberg:
Jummie! This one is by the way on the soundtrack to the DVD “Blomstertid” with Peter Magnusson. The soundtrack AND the DVD is toooootally good. Give it a chance! J
This is it for today! I will show you some pictures and write a little bit more about Tenerife another day during the week! J Have a nice Monday! J
Jan 21, 2012
Different kinds of training
I'm going to start going through how I'm planning my training for One More Move 2012. It's not set in stone or anything; I'll update it as I go along to adjust for injuries, illness, fatigue or maybe a newfound weakness i need to work more on.
I thought I'd start by summing up the different types of training I will be doing. Alot of this stuff comes from Eric Hörst's climbing books and online material, and some bits and pieces are grabbed from Dave MacLeods excellent book "9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes" and also from what I've been taught during last year's climbing development programme at Klättercentret.
I'll list some typical exercises to do for each type of training, sport climbing, bouldering, and general/non-climbing.
STAMINA
I like to think of stamina as fundamental to my overall condition both on and off the wall, and also as a measurement of climbing quantity. Stamina climbing means climbing alot, as opposed to climbing hard. It makes your body and your muscles "used to" climbing and because it is low-intensity, you can focus on technique as well.
| Definition | Aerobic endurance, ability to perform sustained workout at between c:a 50-80% of maximum level where muscles work in the presence of oxygen |
| Benefits | - Increased ability to climb longer periods, e.g. all day long and/or many days in a row - Faster recovery while resting - Modest gains in anaerobic endurance |
| Sport exercise | Interval training on "easy", overhanging or vertical routes, example: 8 sets x 3 minutes climbing, 1 min rest between each set, total time 32 mins |
| Bouldering exercise | Boulder circuit, example: climb 15 "moderate" problems (vertical/overhanging but easy holds), rest 1 min between each problem. Total time approx. 30 mins |
| Non-climbing exercise | Interval training ("fartlek"), example: 1 min at normal pace, 1 min at "near-max" (~80% of max) pace, repeat 10 times. Total time 20 mins |
ENDURANCE
This is that kind of exercise that gives you super-pumped forearms which, at the end of each session, are screaming for oxygen. Since you have to climb at near-maximum difficulty level, it is very hard on your fingers, shoulders and elbows so don't do this type of exercise for too long periods.
| Definition | Anaerobic endurance (also called "power endurance"), ability to perform short sustained bouts (around 20-40) of moves at near-maximum level where muscles work in the absence of oxygen |
| Benefits | - Increased lactic acid "tolerance" - Increased removal rate of lactic acid etc. - Increased ability to climb short, powerful sport routes |
| Sport exercise | Interval training on "near-max" (pick a route you can finish but feels hard), example: 2 sets x 6 tries, climb until top/fall, lower down and rest for the same amount of time as you climb |
| Bouldering exercise | Boulder circuit, example: climb 4-5 "near-max" problems (avoid weird cruxes you risk falling off from), climb each problem 5 times with 1 min rest between tries and 4 mins between each problem. Total time approx. 80 mins |
| Non-climbing exercise | - Pull-up intervals (3-5 pullups at start of each minute for 10-20 minutes total) - "Frenchies" (hang on best holds on hangboard, do a pullup and hang in lock-off position 5 seconds, go down, do another pullup and then lower down directly to 90 degree angle and hang 5 seconds, repeat and go down to 120 degree angle: that's 1 "frenchie", repeat 2-4 times) |
POWER
I see power as a dynamic application of your strength, by that I mean how fast I can summon my strength from the moment i touch a hold until I've applied adequate force on it to be able to hold on. Useful to train this for dynamic climbing which is sometimes necessary. Have to be careful not to overuse fingers though!
| Definition | The speed at which your muscles can transfer energy (roughly translated to strength x speed) |
| Benefits | - Increased ability to "stick" a holds dynamically - Also trains anaerobic endurance, depending on exercise |
| Sport exercise | Climb routes dynamically (but stick to easier routes to prevent injuries to finger joints etc) by deadpointing and dynoing between holds instead of climbing statically |
| Bouldering exercise | Perform dynamic moves on boulder problems, campus climb (no feet) problems |
| Non-climbing exercise | - Ladder climbing (without using feet) up fast and down slowly. Both left-right-left-right hands from bar to bar as well as dynoing with both arms between bars - Dynamic pullups, go down slowly and then up fast - Campus laddering on fingerboard, only for the pros (which means not me!) |
STRENGTH
Increased muscle mass isn't the only factor in increased strength. It is also a matter of neural adaptations in your sensory system, resulting from repetitive stimulus. Neural adaptations account for a large proportion of early strength gains and beginner climbers rarely have to actually train strength in order to climb harder.
| Definition | The force your muscles exert on holds (and other things in general) |
| Benefits | - Increased ability to hang onto small/bad holds without falling off - Also trains anaerobic endurance indirectly |
| Sport exercise | One-arm traversing, put one hand behind back and lunge sideways for next hold, then upgrade feet and repeat, reverse direction and use the other hand going back |
| Bouldering exercise | Climbing problems at or beyond strength limit (or by using weight belt), target one specific type of hold, should produce rapid failure |
| Non-climbing exercise | - Pull-ups - Deadhangs on fingerboard - Lock-offs, pull up with both hands on pull-up bar and then let one arm go and hang until failure starts to set in. Drop down using both arms before failure |
Comments
I feel that stamina will be very important to train both now initially as well as during the build-up for the big climbing trip. I'll need to have great endurance in order to be able to climb continuously for 3 months outdoors during the hottest months of the year.
Regarding strength, Eric keeps pointing out how fundamental it is to train strength to increase your maximum level, but as far as I know and feel from the climbing I've done so far, I haven't had a single moment where I've thought "Damn, I'm just too weak to do this move, even if I'm fully rested". I've always failed because of fatigue and being pumped, never because a single move has been beyond my strength. I don't know if that will change soon (my old trainer Robin thinks I can easily climb 7c without having to increase my strength one bit)
I love doing power training, but I think for this year there will be no or very little finger training beyond what I get just climbing normally. So for power, I will stick to doing campus moves on big holds and on the ladder, no finger- or campusboards for me.
I'll put together a full-year schedule and post it here, I've been working on it quite a bit but have had to change it because of injuries and work load so it's taken some time to get it done. So psyched to put the last touches on it now that I have an idea on how the training year is going to look!!!
Jan 17, 2012
All work and no climbing make Anders go nuts
Phhheeeewww!!!
I just delivered the mother of all deadlines at work today. Feels so good to finally get it done!
I work as a consultant where I help clients (basically municipalities and big energy companies) build new power plants. Right now I'm deputy project manager for a large such plant and my work over the last few months has been to produce massive amounts of technical and legal requirements before we hand it over to suppliers of said power plants. Easily more than 300 pages of technical "mumbo-jumbo". The work load has been off the charts and I've had literally no time whatsoever during the last week for anything else besides eat, sleep and work (not exactly "eat, pray, love" now is it?).
Now the worse is behind me, unfortunately this high-intensity, sleep-deprived state of affairs has left me with a nasty cold, so now I'm forced to rest from climbing and training alltogether, even though I BADLY want to get up on the wall again! But I'm not going to rush getting back, or my training will suffer and I'll just get sick again.
While away from training, I've given my setup for the coming weeks a little more thought, and I've decided that I'm gonna go for endurance training for at least the first four weeks once I get back from sick-leave. By endurance I mean aerobic endurance, climbing low intensity climbs for a long time without rest. Last year when I trained for the development programme at K2, we also started out with endurance and I felt it really payed off. I will blog more in detail about my thoughts on endurance later.
Now I'm gonna eat some home-made thai red curry (stay tuned for recipe - it's the perfect food for us trying-hard-climbers), watch "The Wizard's Apprentice" starring Adam Ondra (bought it yesterday!) and then sleep like I've been awake for a year.
I just delivered the mother of all deadlines at work today. Feels so good to finally get it done!
I work as a consultant where I help clients (basically municipalities and big energy companies) build new power plants. Right now I'm deputy project manager for a large such plant and my work over the last few months has been to produce massive amounts of technical and legal requirements before we hand it over to suppliers of said power plants. Easily more than 300 pages of technical "mumbo-jumbo". The work load has been off the charts and I've had literally no time whatsoever during the last week for anything else besides eat, sleep and work (not exactly "eat, pray, love" now is it?).
Now the worse is behind me, unfortunately this high-intensity, sleep-deprived state of affairs has left me with a nasty cold, so now I'm forced to rest from climbing and training alltogether, even though I BADLY want to get up on the wall again! But I'm not going to rush getting back, or my training will suffer and I'll just get sick again.
While away from training, I've given my setup for the coming weeks a little more thought, and I've decided that I'm gonna go for endurance training for at least the first four weeks once I get back from sick-leave. By endurance I mean aerobic endurance, climbing low intensity climbs for a long time without rest. Last year when I trained for the development programme at K2, we also started out with endurance and I felt it really payed off. I will blog more in detail about my thoughts on endurance later.
Now I'm gonna eat some home-made thai red curry (stay tuned for recipe - it's the perfect food for us trying-hard-climbers), watch "The Wizard's Apprentice" starring Adam Ondra (bought it yesterday!) and then sleep like I've been awake for a year.
Jan 14, 2012
Fighting fears! :)
So another nice Saturday passed by! I woke up, had some egg sandwiches and went to K2 to do some lead climbing. That’s what I call a perfect morning! J The mission for today was to fight some fear…
It was a few weeks since I climbed lead so I got scared in the middle of the first climb! GAH!!! BUT… today I realized something totally unbelievably cool! I was so determined not to let my fear rule today so I continued to push myself to climb two different routes over and over again. My whole body was shaking, my whole mind was telling me “let go, give up, give up, give up!!!”… but still I just went on and tried to push away all that stupid nonsense.
Then suddenly, everything just turned around in my head. It was like my body got sick of sending out fear in my body when I refused to listen to it. My mind became totally focused and I only saw the next hold. “One more move, one more move”. The fear was still there in the background but it was kept in some kind of control! Don’t ask me how but that is what I felt! Totally unbelievably cool! Haha… So in some way I cracked some kind of code in my mind today! Which off cause made me very happy!! Now I know have to continue to fight with that one… some kid of breakthrough! J Awesome!!
After climbing I went directly to work to fight with another fear…. Put on and off the alarm at work! Honestly! It took me 5 minutes to dare to start the process to put the alarm OFF. Then I worked for a few hours, sitting in a totally empty dark office, listening to some goooood music. Totally nice! After that I spent another 10 minutes staring at the paper with instructions how to put ON the alarm again. Then I just did it! :P Let me say, I THINK everything went ok… we’ll see when I go there tomorrow! Hopefully everything is in order… I totally fought that fear too anyway!
AND by the way… the reason for working on a weekend is TOTALLY ok… Me and Karthik is leaving Sweden for a long weekend on Tenerife Thursday to Sunday….. that’s why I am working in some hours this weekend! J So you have some nice sunny pictures and reviews on the climbing on Tenerife to look forward to for next weekend! J
Finally! Found a new brutal dubstep song… crazy good!!
Have a nice weekend! J
Jan 11, 2012
Here we go! :)
So the new year started and I have had crazy much to do! That’s why I havn’t wrote anything yet! It’s gonna get better… just have to get this into the routine! ;)
So this year started with a lot of work! My days have been filled with making drawings for a hospital and off cause; climbing! J In the end of last year I started training to increase my endurance. I plan to focus on endurance for eight weeks in a row just to see how that will affect my climbing. My aim is to do 1000 moves about 3 times every week.
I have done this endurance training for three weeks now and I already feel the difference. The biggest difference I feel is that I am starting to lose my fear for getting pumped. (No shit?! ;)) I really start to trust the fact that even if it feels like my hands gonna pop out any second I still can go on for a long time. It’s literally a mind game and a total mind fuck! I might be crazy but I totally love it… and I hope this training will help me to get rid of some fear in lead climbing… we have to wait and see! J Five more weeks!
So what else!? J Not so much actually… I’m working, climbing, and off cause listening to a LOT of music... so with other words: life is totally NICE! The only thing I might wanna complain about is that it would be nice to have even more time for climbing… but that’s another story! J
Since I’m a big freaky fan of music I just HAVE TO take the change to spread some nice pieces here! For two year I’ve almost exclusively been listening to dubstep… so there will be a lot of this kind of sounds… BUT I will try to get some other masterpieces up here too! J Hope you enjoy! J
This one has been on repeat in my iPod this week:
Just can’t stop listening to it!!
And one of my favourit bands are NERO so I have to start with one of their goodies to…
Now it´s time for another eight hours with my dear hospital! See you in K2 after that! ;)
Jan 8, 2012
Hold on!
Week one is coming to an end, time to sum up.
I finished with some tough bouldering today to try and establish my weaknesses using certain holds, also did they same on rope earlier in the week. From what I can tell after just two sessions of this, I seem to feel stronger while crimping than climbing slopers generally, however the idea is to NOT crimp and instead try to climb open handed only (might not be that big of a surprise, I think most novice climbers have weaker open hand/sloping grip strengths compared to crimping), so I will consciously work on that. Slopers are always kind of awkward to climb, especially with high foot placements and while moving sideways, keeping balance and body tension and so forth. So a little of that too in the mix!
However, I do not feel that one certain type of hold is giving me any special problems, so I will probably not need one-type-of-hold-only-training. Instead, I will work on all holds and the techniques behind using all of them. I think I can make faster improvements with my body and foot technique than what kind of hold I'm grabbing, so the technical part of the training will definitely be more about that.
Next week will unfortunately be very busy for me workwise so no climbing during the week, but I will have time next weekend. Will do some endurance, power, and strength training respecively to find a ... rhythm in the training, see how much I can do before I get tired, how to set up the different exercises, how long they take, if I need to supplement the climbing with gym exercises, fingerboard etc. So more detective work in other words...
I finished with some tough bouldering today to try and establish my weaknesses using certain holds, also did they same on rope earlier in the week. From what I can tell after just two sessions of this, I seem to feel stronger while crimping than climbing slopers generally, however the idea is to NOT crimp and instead try to climb open handed only (might not be that big of a surprise, I think most novice climbers have weaker open hand/sloping grip strengths compared to crimping), so I will consciously work on that. Slopers are always kind of awkward to climb, especially with high foot placements and while moving sideways, keeping balance and body tension and so forth. So a little of that too in the mix!
However, I do not feel that one certain type of hold is giving me any special problems, so I will probably not need one-type-of-hold-only-training. Instead, I will work on all holds and the techniques behind using all of them. I think I can make faster improvements with my body and foot technique than what kind of hold I'm grabbing, so the technical part of the training will definitely be more about that.
Next week will unfortunately be very busy for me workwise so no climbing during the week, but I will have time next weekend. Will do some endurance, power, and strength training respecively to find a ... rhythm in the training, see how much I can do before I get tired, how to set up the different exercises, how long they take, if I need to supplement the climbing with gym exercises, fingerboard etc. So more detective work in other words...
Jan 2, 2012
Going south already?
Six-fourteen. A.M. Monday. On a train going south. Work.
So this is how OneMoreMove is going to start? Me running off to some lonesome smalltown out in the middle of the Swedish forest of the south (this part of Sweden is friggin' called "Little land" for cryin' out loud)? Well I do love the work I do and even though climbing has quickly become a passion for me, it takes time to adjust everything else to it. "I have a plan", is all I can say. Getting to it is the trick!
So, let's get this show on the road!
Leaving for our Tour-de-mediterráneo in the middle of June... that means we got about 5.5 months to get in shape, get enough lead experience in us, plan the trip and just get psyched about all the climbing ahead of us. Sounds waay longer than it will actually be in the end.
For me, since I finished off last year with a nasty finger injury and bucket-loads of work, step 1 for me is just figuring out where and how much I suck. How scared am I to fall? How's my climbing technique? Am I better at slopy, pinchy or crimpy routes? Slabs, overhangs, dead verticals?
While away on work I'll do cardio (there's definitely some traces courtesy of mums christmas food and sweets I'd like to rid myself of like a bad ex) and what little bouldering I can get my hands on. Växjö is known neither for its rocky landscape (It's flat, OK!) nor its volumous amount of large climbing gyms (I've nicknamed the local climbing gym "the box", pics to follow) so I'll make due with what's on offer.
I'll also upload the training schedule as soon as I can. It's basically a google calendar visible to all. That way I can both have it easily accessible for myself ("if it aint in my iPhone cal, it don't exist") and share it to the wider audience.
I'm actually not as super psyched as I thought I'd be going into 2012, but I feel it growing. I need to 'get back into the swing of things' a little I think. Finding the routine I had back in November. Also need to find a pace together with Em, her trainer and with all my other climbing buddies.
Might be a slow start, but the wheels are slowly turning!
Seven-oh-seven. AM. Monday. Time to get to work. *Yaaawn*
So this is how OneMoreMove is going to start? Me running off to some lonesome smalltown out in the middle of the Swedish forest of the south (this part of Sweden is friggin' called "Little land" for cryin' out loud)? Well I do love the work I do and even though climbing has quickly become a passion for me, it takes time to adjust everything else to it. "I have a plan", is all I can say. Getting to it is the trick!
So, let's get this show on the road!
Leaving for our Tour-de-mediterráneo in the middle of June... that means we got about 5.5 months to get in shape, get enough lead experience in us, plan the trip and just get psyched about all the climbing ahead of us. Sounds waay longer than it will actually be in the end.
For me, since I finished off last year with a nasty finger injury and bucket-loads of work, step 1 for me is just figuring out where and how much I suck. How scared am I to fall? How's my climbing technique? Am I better at slopy, pinchy or crimpy routes? Slabs, overhangs, dead verticals?
While away on work I'll do cardio (there's definitely some traces courtesy of mums christmas food and sweets I'd like to rid myself of like a bad ex) and what little bouldering I can get my hands on. Växjö is known neither for its rocky landscape (It's flat, OK!) nor its volumous amount of large climbing gyms (I've nicknamed the local climbing gym "the box", pics to follow) so I'll make due with what's on offer.
I'll also upload the training schedule as soon as I can. It's basically a google calendar visible to all. That way I can both have it easily accessible for myself ("if it aint in my iPhone cal, it don't exist") and share it to the wider audience.
I'm actually not as super psyched as I thought I'd be going into 2012, but I feel it growing. I need to 'get back into the swing of things' a little I think. Finding the routine I had back in November. Also need to find a pace together with Em, her trainer and with all my other climbing buddies.
Might be a slow start, but the wheels are slowly turning!
Seven-oh-seven. AM. Monday. Time to get to work. *Yaaawn*
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