I should have started climbing young but didn't, for some reason. I grew up near the Red River Gorge and had tons of friends in high school and college who were really into climbing; I could easily have joined in their enthusiasm and just wasn't interested for some reason. Years later, grad school, very urban setting with no rock to speak of anywhere nearby, I had a moment of frustration and stress while working in a very small library carrel and thought, "I wish I could just climb the walls." Epiphany. I immediately searched out local climbing gyms, recruited a friend to take a beginner class with me, and fell in love. That was about five years ago.
I climbed quite regularly, almost exclusively in the gym, mostly toprope with some indoor leading, for several years, but I've been off for most of the past year, due to other parts of my life getting too busy. I'm now back at it and trying to get back into shape, but I'm finding it a little frustrating to get back into a regular schedule and finding it impossible to get back into shape without a regular schedule. Part of the problem is that it's SO time-consuming: my gym is a 30-minute bike ride away (and more like 40 if the weather is bad and I have to take the bus), and because I tend to toprope, I find it almost impossible to get out of there in under two hours. I also feel like I need to go at least twice a week if I really want to improve rather than just maintain (and I definitely need to improve right now!), so I'm trying to remember how to fit 7-8 hours' worth of climbing back into my weekly schedule. When I'm on the wall, there's nothing I love more; when I'm sitting at home thinking about everything else I could do in those 3+ hours, it's hard to get motivated. Anyone have any tricks for this? Fortunately or unfortunately, I tend to climb with a large group of people--on any given MWF late afternoon and early evening, there will be 5-7 of us there, and we pair up accordingly--so there's no particular climbing partner accountability involved. Mostly, I think I need to get the habit formed again--climbing, after all, is about overcoming inertia, and right now I've got a lot of mental inertia.
As I dream about my ideal future life (I'll likely be changing geographical locations in a year or so, but where I'm going is very up in the air), it involves living somewhere near good outdoor climbing; I'd love to get out of the gym, at least some of the time, but I'm not in a position, geographically or financially, to do it now. We'll see!
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I should have started climbing young but didn't, for some reason. I grew up near the Red River Gorge and had tons of friends in high school and college who were really into climbing; I could easily have joined in their enthusiasm and just wasn't interested for some reason. Years later, grad school, very urban setting with no rock to speak of anywhere nearby, I had a moment of frustration and stress while working in a very small library carrel and thought, "I wish I could just climb the walls." Epiphany. I immediately searched out local climbing gyms, recruited a friend to take a beginner class with me, and fell in love. That was about five years ago.
I climbed quite regularly, almost exclusively in the gym, mostly toprope with some indoor leading, for several years, but I've been off for most of the past year, due to other parts of my life getting too busy. I'm now back at it and trying to get back into shape, but I'm finding it a little frustrating to get back into a regular schedule and finding it impossible to get back into shape without a regular schedule. Part of the problem is that it's SO time-consuming: my gym is a 30-minute bike ride away (and more like 40 if the weather is bad and I have to take the bus), and because I tend to toprope, I find it almost impossible to get out of there in under two hours. I also feel like I need to go at least twice a week if I really want to improve rather than just maintain (and I definitely need to improve right now!), so I'm trying to remember how to fit 7-8 hours' worth of climbing back into my weekly schedule. When I'm on the wall, there's nothing I love more; when I'm sitting at home thinking about everything else I could do in those 3+ hours, it's hard to get motivated. Anyone have any tricks for this? Fortunately or unfortunately, I tend to climb with a large group of people--on any given MWF late afternoon and early evening, there will be 5-7 of us there, and we pair up accordingly--so there's no particular climbing partner accountability involved. Mostly, I think I need to get the habit formed again--climbing, after all, is about overcoming inertia, and right now I've got a lot of mental inertia.
As I dream about my ideal future life (I'll likely be changing geographical locations in a year or so, but where I'm going is very up in the air), it involves living somewhere near good outdoor climbing; I'd love to get out of the gym, at least some of the time, but I'm not in a position, geographically or financially, to do it now. We'll see!