Weeks 43 & 44: critical force

What I did:

I tried to find my critical force, which is the maximum amount of force a climber can exert aerobically. I used the calculation from StrengthClimbing.com (they also do a good job of explaining the concept). I did 7/3 repeaters until failure at 80% of my max on a 20mm edge, at 60%, and at 50%. I managed to hold on for 95 seconds, 175 and 275 seconds respectively. I'm 75kg and the max amount of weight I can hangboard with is +32kg, which leads to a MVC of 107kg.

Results: Critical force of 358N, CF/BW of 48.6%, CF/MVC of 34.1%, and W' of 46418. My critical force and anaerobic endurance are very low for someone who wants to climb 8a, but I feel like my MVC is good enough for my goal. 

This study by Lattice was done with 1 hand, while I used both my hands... That probably means I can't use their data, but if I simply divide my CF/BW score by two, then my score would correspond with an expected climbing grade of 7a+ (5.12a).

This might seem a bit depressing, but now that I know my critical force, I can train aerobically at the highest intensity and crank up the volume. I tried doing 10 minute repeaters at my critical force, but this didn't work out. StrengthClimbing recommended I do a pyramid of 7/3 repeaters instead, with 1 minute of rest in between. This comes down to: 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1, and 1 minute of 7/3 repeaters at critical force intensity with 1 minute of rest in between. Workout is 45 minutes in total, total time under tension is 32 minutes. I'm planning on doing this 3 times a week.

I started at an intensity of -40kg, and the plan is to slowly remove weight over the weeks before my trip to Spain in December. Honestly, any improvement would be a MASSIVE help for all the long endurance routes there!

I tried the critical force pyramid on hangboard, and afterwards felt so drained that I realised I needed a deload week. I took it easy, but starting next week my schedule will look like this:

• Monday: rest
• Tuesday: hard bouldering / board climbing
• Wednesday: PT exercises and critical force pyramid on hangboard
• Thursday: rest
• Friday: either the same as Tuesday, or a rest day if climbing in the weekend
• Weekend: outdoor climbing, or critical force pyramid on both days (and PT exercises on one day and cardio on the other)

This means more rest every week than I've had all year. I'm hoping this will help me recover from my injury, and get me ready for Spain. I'll try to stick with this schedule until my trip in December.

StrengthClimbing also made this visualisation, which makes it obvious how much I need to work on my aerobic endurance:

Reflecting:  

The 10 minute repeaters were too pumpy, so I started doing pyramids instead following the advice from StrengthClimbing.com. I can see how having many 1 minute breaks will teach my body to recover faster, so I'm glad I'm changing protocols.

The pyramid is also quite pumpy as it's at my critical force. I found this quite surprising. At the peak (4 minute of repeaters followed by 1 minute of rest), I have a pump of about 7/10... but this level of pump is manageable and I can complete the protocol without any issues. I'm also surprised that doing the 45 minute workout isn't as boring as I thought it was. I enter a weird flow state every time, which somehow makes it less boring that the other aerobic exercises I've done earlier this year. 

I also managed to climb on a moonboard 2016 for the first time, and managed to do a couple of 6c benchmarks. This is the first good news I've had in a while, so I'm super psyched! Progress is definitely here, I just need to be patient. 

My hand (lumbrical injury) is still far from being healed. I'm going to the physiotherapist again, to have it looked at again.

I'm starting to realise that keeping track of my psych isn't as useful as I thought, because I tend to be psyched all the time :p

My pulling force, and how I'm feeling during the training, seems to be a much better metric to determine when I need some more rest. 

 

What will I do next time:

 The same, I'll try to stick with this schedule until my trip to Spain in December.

Statistics:

Climbed 75 meters on real rock.

Climbed 50 meters of aerobic endurance laps (while doing movement drills).

Taken 7 falls while committing to the next move.

Biggest link in Glucose: 7 bolts (out of 12 in total). I won't be able to try Glucose anymore this year, so I'll stop keeping track of my biggest link.