Things have been very quiet here of late. Actually no, thats a dirty lie. Things have been hopping and I've been up to my (increasingly large) tits, just none of it has been climbing related. The last 2 weeks have been a bit of a blur of getting assignments done and writing essays and doing bad things. This is hopefully over for the next wee while so I can get back to focusing on the more important things in life, i.e. how to get from the bottom to the top of increasingly difficult bits of rock (sounds a bit silly when you put it like that...).
Apart from one disastrous attempt to get out bouldering (snow blizzard, forgot waterproofs, burst water bottle), see below, the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a hiatus. There were a couple of 3am beastmaker sessions alright, but that was more to get away from the computer and fool myself into thinking I was doing something productive than any concerted attempt to get better. All that has changed now though thankfully! Workload has reduced and psyche has returned. The weather is fantastic, its almost warm enough to get on some routes and I saw some shit cool stuff happen at Murlough yesterday! From what I've seen, Murlough Bay (and the boulders around the Head in general) is definitely the future of steep, hard Irish bouldering. The potential is just immense! Though I can't see much development happening in the middle of the crag. It'd take ages to get there, you'd forget where it was afterwards, and no-one would ever go there again. Thats not something that has to be worried about in the near future though, as Murlough has more than enough to keep everybody busy :-)
In terms of training, I think I'll go back to basics to a certain degree. I've been told that my training methods are kinda old-school, but hey, what works is what works. So the plan is to mix up trendy repeaters stylee fingerboarding with some old-school "hang there 'til you fall off or black out" deadhanging. Add to that a (Haston style) metric tonne of pullups and pushups and hopefully a positive effect will be felt. Any results of such a positive effect will no doubt be sprayed up on here in due course :-)
Aborted Bouldering session:
(had to use shitube because vimeo was being hormonal and uncooperative, will try and fix tha in due course)
Some thoughts:
I sound like a complete tool in that video.
I've recently read "Bad Science" by Ben Goldacre. Thoroughly recommended, well worth a read to help develop some healthy scepticism. The whole concept of systematic reviews was very interesting though. Made me wonder if a similar concept could be applied to climbing. e.g. if you kitted out a top climber in period gear, would they be able to climb the hardest standard routes of that period. Not sure if it'd prove anything, but it would be an interesting experiment.
While openhanding truly is the One True Grip, recent experience has shown that good crimp strength is needed for the coolest problems at murlough. It is possible to train crimp strength on the Beastmaker, but its a pain in the hole. Think I might manufacture some complimentary nasty little crimps and screw them up next to the board.
Got the Ron book. Read the Ron book in a day. It was good. Go get it. :-)
Peace Out
3 comments:
nice post!
This is going to sound controversial but I'm coming around to the idea that the old Metolius Simulator is still the best all-round fingerboard going. Why the hell drilling mono pockets on a board? if you just want to work them, stuff a mono on an edge and off you!
Having said that, the wood is niiiice on the beastmakers :)
lots of arguments that some of the old-school guys were just as strong as modern folk, and I'm not willing to doubt it in many ways!
Cheers! :-)
I don't really know about the simulators, never had regular access to one to compare. The b-maker is certainly an improvement on my old strip of wood over the door though! I heard someone say recently that the b-makers have become a bit of a cult item, and I think thats true to a certain extent. Everything about them from the name, to the exploits of the guys who make them, to hearing about the beasts that have them make you (or me anyway!) really WANT to train! And thats gotta be a good thing :-) Though I do steer clear of using the monos, can't really see them being beneficial for a long time to come.
fair point about the strip of wood, although I do know of one climber who has only trained using a single campus rung for years here in UK, and boulders 8b! Pulls like a maniac on it (just reduces number of fingers I believe) and it pays off......
Good point though about just wanting to train - at the end of the day, you can read and research all you want, but if you don't put in the time, you'll still get zero out of it. I still think those 4 years in college for me where I just bouldered every 4-5 nights a week for 2-4 hours were a huge influence on my base level! Granted, I'm not sure if I learned anything in college but that's besides the point :)
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