The beginning of the month marks the arrival of my favourite email newsletter from Steve Bechtel at Climb Strong: "the world's best source for climbing coaching and training information." I don't know if the coaches at Climb Strong are the best in the world - that's a pretty ballsy claim - but of all the climbing coaches that have sprung up in the last few years (in these Covid times it seems like everyone is either a climbing coach or host of a podcast), Steve Bechtel, who has been around for decades, makes the most sense to me. Bechtel is to climbing training what Dan John is to strength and conditioning: the wise old man who has seen it all before, knows empirically what works, what doesn't and isn't fooled by the next latest thing.
Coincidentally, the July newsletter (you can sign up for free at Climb Strong) arrived on the first of July, just as Doug and I were heading out to climb at Nowra. Apart from one very brief trip in 2020 (I climbed a grand total of two routes), it has been three years since I climbed at Nowra, which as every older climber knows is a veritable life-time. Nowra is known for steep walls, ring bolts and sandstone slopers. There are not that many routes in the easier grades, but lots and lots of routes for grade 20 and up crushers. Every time I climb at Nowra I get worked. The question was, how worked would I get this time?
A lot less than previous visits, I was hoping. I had lost 10 kilograms, a significant amount in a weight dependent sport, was bouldering, climbing weekly, training on my home wall, and strength training. In deference to building strength and power I had dialled way back on all my long endurance events, not having gone on any of my long rambling runs since we returned from South Australia. Younger folk can run, climb, strength train and bounce back with alacrity but, for older athletes, balancing recovery with training and performance requires walking a much finer line.
Every real athlete knows there is a big difference between exercising and training. Exercising, which is what most people do, may - or may not, depending on how hard you work - make you fatigued, sore and sweaty, but training makes you better. Or at least it should, done right. If performance does not improve, training is merely exercising. Nothing inherently wrong with that but as a goal and performance oriented individual, I want my training to work.
At the small climbing area close to where I live, I was climbing better, much better. I had "sent" two routes that previously defied me (I mean really defied me as I could not even get off the ground) and I am currently working another hard route. I was tentatively beginning to believe that my training was working.
Climbing routes you know well, however, is one thing, climbing unfamiliar routes on a different type of rock is another. The real test for me was whether I could climb better at Nowra than I had in years gone by. Not a big goal for youth, but for someone much closer to 60 than 50, improving is a quantum leap beyond simply maintaining.
And I did! By the end of the day I was pretty worked, but in a good way; tired but stoked, realising that all the meat, vegetables, lifting, bouldering, core circuits at the local playground was all worth it. Psyched to read Bechtel's latest training missive, plan out a new training block, and climb even better next time.
As Bechtel says, Hold Fast.
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