Crash, crush!

Another strength training cycle is finished! For thirty days I religiously followed the training plan and it seems to have paid off. A few weeks ago I already wrote that even though the first sessions weren't good - number 2 being soul crushingly bad - a promising upward trend became visible after five trainings. The sessions that followed absolutely blew my mind: in terms of volume training number 6 was the toughest I've ever recorded and all the following trainings surpassed the previous. The volume graph below (in red) shows the rapid volume increase through the cycle compared with the previous cycles. After ten trainings I've set personal records on the added (and total) load for every single grip position (see second and third graph). I am amazed! After the 'big crash' this summer I set my hopes on reaching old strength levels again and didn't dare thinking about actually crushing them.

This is the first quantifiable result since I started recovery and it seems that through the course of the past thirty days I've fully reached my old (finger) strength levels again. Now let's hope the measured gains will translate well into power and increased climbing performances… Campus training is up next and I hope to get out on the rocks soon again!

Workout volume and time under tension per training (explained here). A rapid increase in volume during the third cylce is visible. The last five trainings exceed volume levels of previous cycles. Note that season 1 and 2 are hardly comparable, due to the much lower T.U.T. in season 1. Season 3 shows improvement over season 2 for similar T.U.T. though.

Added (or substracted) load per grip position (the exact excercises are described here). Personal records on all grip positions were reached. The figure below shows this also holds for the total load, which includes effects of body weight fluctuations.

Relapse, return

Just after sending my project 'Super Surfer', my life was thrown upside down. I started feeling ill on wednesday and found myself on the intensive care by saturday. Luckily the days of absolute misery that followed went by in a bit of a blur. One thing was made very clear though: if Michelle hadn't dragged me to the hospital, I would have died. Possibly on the same day. My liver was failing, my kidneys were failing, my brain was failing and my blood values were dropping like a brick in free fall. Not good. Although I was promised at least a month in the hospital, the doctors released me after a week. To this moment they are failing (and still trying) to identify the cause of my relapse, but after five days of intensive treatment and administration of a high dose of prednisone I started recovering rapidly. Two days later I slept in my own bed again. And for a few weeks, that's what I've mostly done: sleeping. Initially, even reading was too much of an effort. I got pulled through by Michelle, who arranged to be at home and take care of me for weeks.

As psychologically provoking and cathartic the experience may have been, I somehow fail to write down anything meaningful about it. I try to remember and to forget simultaneously. Most of all I want to feel healthy and strong again. It's severely testing my patience… After ten days at home, exactly three weeks after climbing 'Super Surfer' I tried climbing on my woody again. It was terrible: I couldn't finish a single boulder. Even the warmups of my previous trainings were too hard. I felt miserably weak. I was miserably weak. Since then, I did some sort of rehabilitation training on almost every single day: yoga, light crossfit, long walks, bouldering, anything to get back into climbing shape again. Gradually the intensity increased and after three weeks of rehabilitation I climbed a 7b route in Teuto again. Although still a long way from 8a, it was a massive confidence booster. I deeply enjoyed the following weeks of holiday, being able to enjoy live, to walk with Michelle and the dogs for days in Luxembourg and even do some more climbing in the lower half of the 7th grade. Higher 7's felt completely impossible though.

I will need one or more full training cycles to get back to my previous shape again. When work started two weeks ago, I kicked off a new cycle and began with strength training. Anticipating disappointment, I started with low loads. I was disappointed nevertheless… Because fingerboard trainings are very quantifiable, the results left little doubt about the fact that my initial performance sucked big time. Perseverance is paying off though and after two demoralizing first trainings I got the hang (pun fully intended) of it again. Now, five trainings in, it seems I'm on track to reach the high points of my previous season again. I'll be back!

Project done

On any other day I would have been happy to go home satisfied after climbing a 7c route. Today it turned out to be the warmup. I just climbed an exit variation to Alien (adding a slightly harder, more sustained top section) to familiarize myself with the first crux of my project after a three month break from it. On the way down I checked out the second crux. Visualizing the moves every single day of these three months proved to be a powerful exercise: nothing felt rusty and I could redo the moves instantly with great precision. The next time my feet left the ground I baffled myself and climbed the project. Before I set off, Frans convinced my to set up my camera already, after I announced my intention to film some of the later attempts. I really didn't see it coming and the resulting absence of redpoint pressure may have contributed massively to my success…

Anyway, thanks to Frans there's a video. Because it shows me applying a small amount of chalk before entering the second crux, I feel I have to elaborate on that first and share the statement that I've written in the video description on vimeo:

"Although sector Schinder seems to be a place where Teutos no chalk policy is commonly violated, using magnesia is not allowed. This makes the hardest moves on Schinder unclimbable, which led to the decision of using a very small amount of chalk before entering the second crux of the route, as can be seen in the video. Friction+ cream got me through the first crux. I've cleaned my traces afterwards. The big chalk stains that are visible in the video were there before I arrived: what you see is my first attempt on the route in three months."

As I sit down writing, it slowly dawns on me how much time and effort it took to get here. 'Super Surfer' (see below for a brief history of the route) combines the hardest sections of sector Schinder, home to the toughest routes in Teuto. I started climbing on Schinder in the summer of 2011 and after several session I climbed 'Banane', my first 8+ (7a+). One year later I battled through 'Die Hexe' 8+/9- (7b) and 'Alien', my first 9- (7b+). The crux of Alien remained a very low percentage move (I stuck it only incidentally and have fallen off it beyond count) and it took nearly two more years before I climbed the direct start to Alien in spring 2014, climbing straight into the crux without using the left side of the wall. According to Teuto local Andreas this variation is a 9 (7c). A month later, again after several sessions, I climbed 'Banane' without the big block as a foothold: 'Banane ohne Rampe', my first 9+ (7c+). All that remained now were the combinations. I started trying the Alien-Hexe-Banane combination, but failed to climb in throughout 2014. The Alien crux spit me off on most attempts and whenever I got through, I lacked the power endurance to make it to the hands off rest on the block of Banane. I couldn't even imagine climbing it without the block.

In november 2014 I - unknowingly - made the most important step towards the ascent of Super Surfer: I bought the Rock Climbers Training Manual by the Anderson brothers and made it my personal training bible. After one cycle of strength, power and power endurance training I returned to Schinder and made it to the block on my very first attempt. I was shocked. It turned out to be more than luck: I haven't fallen from the Alien crux once this spring (and climbed it about six times). Suddenly the thought of climbing the line without the block became realistic and an obsession was born. I immediately started trying it, but failed to stick the dynamic dead point near the end. More power endurance was needed. For three months I left the project untouched and did another cycle of strength, power and power endurance training. Yesterday I finally felt ready to try it again. I was right. Four years after climbing the easiest route on Schinder, I've climbed its hardest combination. What I never expected, was to climb it in one attempt. I'm still shocked. And deeply satisfied.

A brief history of Super Surfer or the 'Boerenjongens' project:

The idea of climbing variations and combinations on Schinder isn't new. Already in the early 90's Enschede locals Jan Martin Roelofs and Peter Horning started doing it. In 1989 Jan Martin calimed the first ascent of Banane ohne Rampe and a few years later (date unknown) Peter climbed a combination of Alien and Banane ohne Rampe on toprope. Jan Martin repeated it later, also on toprope. It is listed without a name in the topo as a 10- and I later learned that Jan Martin and Peter referred to the route as 'Boerenjongens'. Whether they climbed the direct or easier left start of Alien I do not know. In the meantime the routes on Schinder have been rebolted and a lead ascent became possible. Nevertheless, to my best knowledge the route never saw a repeat or a lead ascent. Not until yesterday.

An ode to joy

After a winter without outdoor bouldering somehow my approach to the activity changed. Rather than chasing grades and trying the hardest boulders I can find, I find joy in climbing the lines that appeal to me, regardless of their difficulty. Although it's probably just a phase and I'll get sucked back into chasing higher grades at some point, for now I like it this way. It's uncomplicated, free from frustration and very playful. Maybe that's exactly what bouldering is supposed to be: the ultimate expression of hedonism.

In that spirit I spent a truly enjoyable evening bouldering, waking and relaxing with the dogs. I tried to capture it with my camera and although the girls are so fast and energetic that most of their action happened off screen, I did get some great footage of them as well. Every time I watch this video it puts a smile on my face, I hope you'll enjoy it too:

At one precarious moment a hold broke. Ten points if you spot it!

Font again

A very short update, because right now I lack the time to write long stories here without sacrificing valuable training time... Too much work again, I hope next year is better. During the Ascension weekend I visited the bouldering Mekka of Fontainebleau again. I hadn't been there for years and needed (still need, to be honest) to get used to the specific, technical style of climbing. Although I only climbed a handful of low 7's, I haven't enjoyed bouldering this much in a long time. Font truly is one of the best climbing areas I've ever visited. I should visit it more often!

Below is a short video I cut from the rather random footage I managed to shoot there. I should have spent much more time to capture the beauty of the forest, but I didn't. Next time maybe... Nevertheless the video doesn't fail to convey the great atmosphere and the fun we had.

In the meantime I've started training power endurance. Gradually campus training started to have detrimental effects on my body. It took only a few hints to make me change gears and progress to the less injury prone power endurance training: a split middle finger tip that got deeper and more painful with every training, a flapper on a pinky and a near flapper on the other, a slowly developping nagging little pain in my wrist and elbow and a mild inflamation in a collateral ligament. Although I''m fully aware that a more sensible person may have stopped a few trainings earlier, I am mildly proud that I didn't stubbornly stick to the plan a let go of a few more campus trainings to prevent more serious injuries. It is motivating though to start working on power endurance, knowing it'll get me in shape for some hard route climbing in the summer. The first training was and absolute disaster and reduced my forearms to pulp even before finishing the first circuit, so there's a lot of room for improvement. That's good, right?

New season!

I still don't really know why I didn't write a decent wrap up for the last season, because in the end it wasn't really that bad. Although I didn't get outdoors nearly as much as I had wanted to, I climbed enough to discover that the disciplined training I've put myself through this winter is paying off and I am getting stronger again. Honestly, that's quite a relief after the absolute lack of results since April last year. After the initial (and undeniable) gains of installing my woody I got stuck in doing the same bouldering routine over and over again, which turned out to be equally effective as flogging a dead horse. Totally unnecessarily though, because essentially I have a luxury version (it has a window) of the dark and damp training dungeons that got British pioneers like Ben Moon and Jerry Moffatt to the top of their game 20 years ago. It feels like only now I'm learning to use it properly with the help of some fancy training books offering the latest insights in climbing training. Somehow it seems though that said heroes like Moon and Moffatt were doing awkwardly similar things long before these books were written...

Ode to old school! Released in 1996, 'The Real Thing' was the first ever real bouldering movie.

Don't forget to watch parts 2 and 3!

Anyway, let's talk about me. I still haven't bragged about the last Teuto session halfway March and it's already a while ago since I shared how far my ego drifted off during the preceding session. It's baffling how little is needed to feed it! During the last session, my confidence got another boost. By failing. Now that's a rare thing. Usually failure frustrates me beyond reason, but this time I had no expectations whatsoever and got surprised by falling on the last hard move of my intended summer project. Twice! Reality check: the last move is a real bitch. It's a very powerful, technical deadpoint that requires accuracy. Although I can do it consistently when rested, it's horribly hard to do when fatigued and it's right at the end of a 16 move power endurance sequence. There can be a really long way between falling on the last move and doing the last move here… Nevertheless it's right on top of my goal list for the next season!

Fast forward to today: as I am writing this, over a month of the second training cycle has past already. The mentally draining strength phase is done and I've started working on power already. I carefully logged my trainings again and the results are quite insightful. I've described the training before, so I'll go straight to the results. Below are the graphs displaying the data from both season 1 and 2.

Time under tension (T.U.T., i.e. total time spent hanging) and Volume (integral of total load over time).

Added load per grip position (negative load implies weight was substracted). Grip positions are listed in chronological training order. The 'front 2' grip position (middle and index finger) has been added to the routine in season 2. The plateau on the 'Big Sloper' position is deliberate as the purpose is to warm up the elbows and shoulders (and not injure them).

Total load equals body weight plus added load and is used to calculate training volume.

Boring details (skip to Summary for the conclusions):
Having to build on a previous season brings the difficult choice of the starting loads of the first training. In the nearly three months between strength cycle 1 and strength cycle 2 detraining occurs: some strength is lost and it's unrealistic to expect to pick up right where I stopped. The aim is to surpass the previous highpoint at the end of the cycle though. Having no real clue what to choose, I varied the drop a bit per grip position: on the '4 finger open' hang I didn't drop weight at all, on 'front 3' I dropped 8 kg, on '4 finger half crimp' 6 kg and on 'mid 2' 4 kg.

To explain the additional drop for the last three after two trainings, I have to admit to making the stupid mistake of neglecting the advice of sticking to a 30 day regime of hangboarding exclusively. I broke the discipline already after the first training by squeezing in an outdoor bouldering session in Avalonia. I climbed six 7's in a day, but payed for it during hangboard trainings 2 and 3. They were terrible and I felt so weak that I decided to drop weight on the mentioned hangs after training 2.

Based on the results, it seems that dropping more weight is better: for the '4 finger half crimp' and 'mid 2' positions the weight drop was small and I only matched the highpoint of season 1. I wonder if I would have surpassed it if I hadn't gone out to Avalonia though… 'Back 3' had a slightly bigger drop (6 kg) and surpassed the previous season by 2 kg, 'front 3' had the biggest drop (8 kg) and the biggest gains (6 kg). The '4 finger open' positions seems to contradict the trend with no drop and a progression of 6 kg as well, but I think this particular grip position did benefit a lot from the campus training I did after the first strength cycle. With that in mind, it's spectacular that the 'front 3' grip has progressed 6 kg as well, especially since I did complete the 'front 3' hang on training 10 and failed to complete the '4 finger open' hang.

Because of the drop in load, a corresponding drop in training volume is expected at the start of a new cycle. It doesn't show up here, because the T.U.T. was increased by adding a new grip position to the routine. On this position ('front 2') I hit a brick wall during the last five trainings and wasn't able to progress anymore. I have no idea why. Next season I'll start with an even lower load and see what that does.

Summary:
The implications now, for those interested in hangboard training themselves and for future me, who should really, really read this before starting the third hangboard season:

• Stick to the program, don't do anything that interferes with the hangboard trainings. That means no hard climbing: the forearms get two full rest days between trainings. I did an hour of crossfit training for arm, core and shoulder strength and injury prevention on every first rest day, which seemed to work fine.
• Drop back in load significantly from the end of the previous cycle. Make sure it's high enough to be able to surpass the previous high point at the end of the cycle. Next season I'll try to drop back 10 kg. With a possible progression of 2 kg per training, it should be possible to match the previous highpoint during training 6. That leaves 4 trainings to try and surpass it.

New found strength

Everything seemed to line up to make my first training cycle end in disaster. I had to cancel the trip to Spain for which I more or less planned the entire cycle and closer to home winter condition lingered on, making sports climbing impossible. Stubbornly I ventured to Ith, but failed to get warm enough in the ice cold wind to climb anything hard. Equally demotivating was the flu I struggled with for more than a month, culminating in a bronchitis infection right at the planned fitness peak at the end of the training cycle. I felt anything but fit and saw the chances to reap the rewards of the hard work slipping away rapidly.

But right when I got desperately frustrated, my mood hit all time lows and I considered starting up a new training cycle without achieving a single climbing goal in the first, a spell of spring arrived out of nowhere and sparked my enthusiasm. Two afternoons in Teuto with Frans and Koen were all it gave me - normally a second choice option in any occasion - but they gave me exactly what I needed to finish the training cycle and get psyched to start a new one. On the first afternoon (with Frans) I climbed the power endurance route 'Stamina' (7b+) in Plisseetal. Allthough gradewise that isn't new ground, I was shocked by how easily I climbed it, feeling fitter than I've ever done before. I continued working the moves of an extension (making it 7c/7c+) and fell on the last move when I gave it an attempt. On the second afternoon (with Koen) I climbed the extension on the first attempt. Meanwhile, in a vulgar display of fitness, Koen impressively flashed Stamina.

Having quite some time left owing to our quick ascents, we walked to Schinder, home to the 7c+ project that threw me off many times last year. It has a powerful crux halfway, followed by a short power endurance section to a great rest just two moves below the top (one tricky, one easy). Last year, I only occasionally managed to get through the first crux and when I did, I lacked the power endurance to reach the resting position. Now, I climbed through the powerful crux moves immediately and climbed to the rest with a feeling of mastery and control that seemed impossible last year. I rested, did the tricky move and then made the monumental fuck up to let a foot slip, preventing me from clipping the chain. With all the hard climbing done, I blew the formality of finishing it correctly. The 'real' goal is climbing the same line without the good rest, changing the finishing sequence completely and adding a 7A/7A+ boulder problem at the end of a demanding route. Climbing it with the rest therefore only is an intermediate goal, mostly a psychological support in building the believe that the ultimate goal is possible. Until this day that goal felt way out off my leage, but having finished the easier variation for all but clipping the chains, I started to believe. I've never been as strong as I am now. Having spent many time on Schinder in the past years, it's hard cruxes and sustained link ups are the best benchmark I have and I've never done them as easily as I did them this day. It's time to commit to my hardest project yet and consider the intermediate, easier 7c+ goal as done!

Two afternoons in Teuto turned out to yield the strongest climbing I've done in a long time and provided the closure for my training cycle right at the moment I'd lost believe in it ever happening. The new training regime pays off, I'm progressing again and I've gained the confidence to start believing in a next level project. It'll be on my mind during every training of the new cycle I'll start next week. Back to training!

From the archive: my first time on Schinder back in my hair days almost four years ago. In the picture I struggle on the moves of 'Banane' (7a+). It's fun to look back and realize how much I've progressed in the meantime.

Power Training Recap

Time flies by and I've nearly completed my power phase. Campus training has been the name of the game for nearly a month and having no significant prior experience with it, the gains were big and extremely motivating. In fact the workouts were so much fun to do, I feel a bit sorry to progress to power endurance training. That's a sharp contrast with the extremely demanding fingerboard session from the previous phase, which I haven't missed for a second yet.

Much like hangboarding, campussing is very quantifiable, so my inner geek went berserk again and I've analyzed the campus trainings a bit. Trainings consistently comprised a few warmup ladders (after roughly an hour of full body work and bouldering), followed by 'max ladder' attempts: three moves between three rungs as far apart as possible, out of which the second move obviously is the hardest. Because the ladders really boil down to this one move, they are asymmetrical: starting out with the left hand ('leading left') is different from starting out with the right hand ('leading right'). The first graph below shows the hardest max ladders I've completed per workout, differentiating between leading left and leading right. As I've stated before, I had no significant experience in campussing before starting this phase. This explains the fast progress to harder max ladders that the graph displays. I don't expect anything similar in the next season: I'd be very happy to get to 1-4-7 then.

The second graph shows the volume per workout (in red) and the average distance covered per hand move for each workout (in blue). In my opinion, the combination of these two reflects the performance during a training a bit better than just the best performed max ladders. Volume is calculated as the total distance covered multiplied by my body weight. Note the difference with the definition of volume I used for the strength trainings, in which I multiplied mass and time. Due to the static nature of deadhangs, no distance is covered. It's all about the T.U.T. (Time Under Tension). Now, with the dynamic campus exercises, covering distances is what counts. Most readers won't be very interested in these details, but it's important to point out that the quantitative values of volume from hangboard workouts cannot be compared to those of campus workouts. Throughout the phase a steady rise in volume and average distance per hand movement can be seen, which - obviously - makes me very content with the results of this power phase. Now it's time to shift my focus to power endurance!

Hardest max ladder performed per workout, differentiating between leading left (left hand first) and leading right (right hand first). On the vertical axis are the progressively harder max ladders. 1-3-5 for example means both hands start at rung 1, one hand moves up to rung 3, the other to rung 5 and finally both hands match on rung 5. Rungs are at Moon spacing (22 cm), half numbers (like 5.5) indicate rungs at half Moon spacing. More board specs here.

Average distance per hand movement and volume for each workout. Together they give a good indication of the intensity of a workout: a workout with many, many small hand movements could still have a very high volume, but has a very low average distance per move.

Some interesting things I've noticed or learned during this power phase:

• Already after a few campus trainings, I noticed an increase in contact strength on dynamic moves while bouldering.
• Performing a fully maximal explosive movement requires extremely high arousal. Taking time to concentrate on getting all fired up prior to starting the exercise really helps to explode up and makes the difference between not even coming close and sticking a movement easily. This is a bit different from the power breathing approach that worked so well for deadhangs, although power breathing can help induce high arousal.
• Campus training is addictive and it requires discipline to end the workout before performance drops and the risk of injuries increases dramatically.
• Focussing on the lower hand (to push down) rather than the higher hand (to pull up) is extremely helpful. I figured out how to do this during workout 4. See for the results yourself in the upper graph.
• I'm considerably better at max ladders starting out with left. As in this case the left hand does the pulling during the hardest move, this isn't really surprising for a left-handed guy...