Friday (the 13th) glee likes scary movies

[rydra_wong]

The Friday post of glee is where you get to tell us about your climbing-related happiness this week.

N.B. Please feel free to post your glee on any day of the week; the Friday glee is just to get the ball rolling.

To enhance this week's glee: When E7 is V7, a film about the increasing trend of doing gritstone routes as highball boulder problems. Appropriately enough given the date, it includes the terrifying Elm Street (E8 6c).

Comments

[rydra_wong]

\o/ W00t!

Bouldering seems to involve a lot of Falling Off Rocks, but I kinda expected that.

Yup! Basically, if you're not falling off a lot, you need to try a harder problem. *g*

[fadeaccompli]

Heh. There were several orange courses where I ended up stuck halfway through, and finally just climbed back down. (And, alas, many more that I couldn't start without cheating. That whole sitting start convention is HARD.) But, yes, the falling off seems to be part of the thrill. And when my body starts going "No! We can't go any further! We're a whole foot off the ground and if we go higher we might fall!", I know it's probably time to wrap up and head home.

[rydra_wong]

That whole sitting start convention is HARD.

Oh hell yeah. It was months and months before I could do one; before that, my "sit start" was just a "sit". *g*

But once you start doing them, they help build strength.

And when my body starts going "No! We can't go any further! We're a whole foot off the ground and if we go higher we might fall!", I know it's probably time to wrap up and head home.

When I started climbing, it was the other way round; I had to promise myself at the start of a session that if all I did was traverse to and fro across the wall a foot off the ground, that was enough. Then my brain would get into it and I'd find myself lured up the wall.

Nowadays, I know it's time to go home when I'm sloppy drunk with endorphins and my body is going "Let's try slapping wildly at the next hold on that totally impossible problem! We can flyyyyy!"

Well, okay, I usually stay a bit longer, as it can sometimes be useful to try slapping wildly at the next hold on the impossible problem, but there's a point after that when I recognize that my co-ordination and judgment have vanished completely and it's time to go home before I hurt myself. *g*

[fadeaccompli]

Ha! That is interesting. At the beginning of my time in the gym is usually the only point at which I successfully make it up something. I mean, I start with something easy, to build confidence, but even so; after an hour or so, I won't be able to make it up the course I went up the first time. The more tired I get, the more grumpy and cautious my body gets, until I find myself getting adrenaline responses to very minor slips.

[rydra_wong]

after an hour or so, I won't be able to make it up the course I went up the first time.

Yeah, to begin with, 45 minutes (including breaks) was about my maximum length session before I was useless. Now (for indoor bouldering) it's about two and a half hours.

So you'll develop more endurance as you go along.

Though it's also helpful to work on pacing yourself (something I should admit I'm very bad at). With bouldering in particular, it's easy to keep on trying and trying and trying on a problem and getting worse each time, when taking five minutes off can let your body recover.

[fadeaccompli]

So far, I'm only going bouldering with at least one friend along. (The gym requires spotters, though it doesn't actually enforce this.) So there's some pause limits in that if I fail a course, well, it's time to go play spotter for my friend anyway, and that gives me breathers. But I'm really hoping I'll develop more endurance soon; only being able to get one course properly per visit is so frustrating, even knowing that the traversing and flailing afterwards is helping me along.

Is there any accepted "reasonable" amount of time I should be taking between sessions? I don't really have the schedule freedom to do more than three times a week, and it's more likely to come out to once a week, but I don't know if I should be taking days off between going, like with weightlifting, or trying to do it as frequently as possible, like with stretching.

[rydra_wong]

Three or four times a week seems to be the usual maximum (unless you're training super-super-intensely and your body can handle it).

But you'll need to build up to that over time: start with once or twice a week at first.

Listen to your body -- when you're still feeling tired from the previous session and/or you have DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), don't go climbing that day.

It's an especially bad idea to overdo things as a beginner climber, even if you have the energy to do so, because your tendons need time to strengthen; stressing them too much too early can lead to injuries.

For me, three times a week is my max and I really need to take a day off in between sessions. I can do other stuff, but not climbing.

[fadeaccompli]

Ah! That's very good to know, and thanks. I have a hard time distinguishing between "discomfort means you're making progress, press on!" and "discomfort means it's time to rest, stop!" when it comes to new exercise types.