The in-between season

I’ve been working on movement, learning how to stand on two feet again. Trying not to pull myself off the footholds and applying technique on the vertical walls and slabs. Learning how to balance, how to trust my feet, how to use the right muscles for each movement, playing with movement. It was a battle to start with, but so satisfying when things started to come together. It’s also helped my steep wall climbing. There’s always so much more to learn.

During the winter, local competition season, I’ve also been playing with nutrition. That is eating snacks/drinking chocolate milkshake more during climbing. Then eating as much as possible between competition rounds, whilst trying to avoid feeling stuffed, rather than just the normal meals. I have to work hard to remember to snack when I’m active as I find I don’t feel hungry until it’s too late. I’m the opposite at work, where I struggle not to dip into the biscuit/cake pile. My job is a sedentary.

The extra eating in competitions seems to have helped give me an extra edge. It’s easier to have something left in the tank at the end of the day when you’ve put more in to start with! This may seem obvious, but I didn’t think I was running out of fuel previously on the usual 3 meals and occasional snacks. I thought I was just getting generally tired from the exertion. Experimentation proved fruitful.

I tried to apply this at the Superbloc competition at London Excel. However, I couldn’t seem to stay hydrated. The atmosphere was oppressive and I felt weary. I climbed OK and battled hard. I came close to some tops, but didn’t manage to finish anything, even though I felt I could. I came close to making the final 6 (one attempt on bonus), but ended up joint 8th in good company. I took quite a while to recover, after coming down with a cold.

The time for CWIF came round so quickly that it took me by surprise. I chose to do the morning session as it is good practice for me to try and pull hard early in the morning. I didn’t get up really early as I valued my sleep more than having my body ready to get going (studies suggest that the optimum time to exercise is around 6hrs after getting up). I had a shaky start, but got going before dropping too many problems (aided by chocolate milk and fruity snack bars). I qualified for the semi-final in 11th (breakfast and lunch before, chocolate milk during, full chicken and rice meal after), just scraped the final in 6th and pulled out a podium 3rd. I tried really hard and felt pretty good (understatement). I celebrated by going out for dinner.

We trained with the Swiss team two days later. Everything caught up with me and I had a ‘higher gravity day’. However, it was short lived. The good CWIF result has made me feel stronger mentally. It’s given me a ‘can do’ attitude and I can’t get enough of this climbing thing. Long may it continue!

Fontainebleau holiday bliss at Isatis

Spring evenings at Curbar – Dan’s Wall