Weather disgustipating this weekend. Tried to go out on Saturday morning. Rubicon is unflooded but the high levels of moisture in the air have condensed on the rocks. It was probably driable, but this was 10am, reckoned by >1300 it might have been ok, but I had to be back. Went to the climbing works.
Chatted to Dave Hesleden and mate whose name I have never known, and then the Mighty Reeve turned up. He was going up whilst I was going sideways. Its the wrong time of year to be training endurance and he was trying problems I hadnt noticed before. Sometimes I find I can't summon the mental fortitude necessary to try hard on power endurance/stamina routes/problems. Which is why all that I have ever done has been a function of strength, or at most a few bouldery moves strung together. To succeed on longer things you need to muster inner mental toughness, you need to really want to do it.
I wonder if psyche comes from different areas of your brain or something? I find that on a short problem I can shut my mind out and execute, whereas to achieve success on hard redpoints you need to be able to pull it out of the bag when the chips are down - i.e. when you are pumped and form is less than perfect. Writing this it seems I have the boulderers mentality which is that in order to operate at your limit, all that goes before has to be perfectly executed, you cant afford to fluff the moves going into the hard bit.
I am of course, talking about extremes. I dont step off just anything because I think I stuffed the start moves up, only if I know that which comes after the bit I fluffed is at my limit. Part of which is honesty I suppose. What point carrying on if you know you havent got left what is required? I need to sort all these things out and get into really trying if I am to do Mecca next year.
3 comments:
I think the point is that you never know that what you have left is less than required. I've lost count of the number of redpoints or onsights I've succeeded on where there's been large sections where I thought I had no chance.
Without getting too new-age about it, it's really easy to underestimate what your body is capable of. In fact, PE training can be a useful window into this. Force yourself to NEVER drop off, always try one more move. Get angry if you have to, beat your chest and power scream. I guarantee there'll be times when you amaze yourself, latching hold after hold after hold. It's the feeling a sport climber lives for!
The man speaks truth. Folk who think they could never be stamina climbers often assume that people who seem good on stamina routes don’t get pumped. In reality a huge part of stamina climbing is learning to push on despite the pain and remain in relative control despite lactic levels going through the roof.
To climb anything anywhere near your real limit you need to be able to fly the plane through deep fog with both engines on fire and still make a perfect landing on the runway.
Bring on the trumpets!
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