Friday 4 March 2011

Must get light


Two frustrating but still good days on my highball Glen Nevis project lately. A persistent split tip is demanding a break from tiny sharp crimps, just when conditions are getting brilliant. Nevertheless, I worked out some more sequence tricks and feel my arms and fingers have reasonable power. There’s only one ingredient left really - must make my body lighter. It’s getting close to time to switch from training to performance mode.
Hey, I’m still nowhere near doing the thing. But I can see that I could be. Time to focus. For now, it’s laps on the board with split fingers taped. 
The moves feel brilliant - I can see they are starting to flow. I know I’m climbing them close to as well as I can, it’s just pure strength-weight ratio on the crux move now.

5 comments:

  1. Tomek Sliwinski04 March, 2011

    Hey Dave
    I am really interested how you going to tackle the weight issue? I am struggling with it my self, do to too much biking i build up my quads . at least 10 pounds to much(5 pound per quad LOL).I am thinking to start running(not big fun of it)do You got any suggestions or ideas? Tomek

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  2. ciao Dave!
    please, remember that you're a model and inspiration for many climbers, myself included. I'm sure you know how delicate the subject of weight loss is. you are a physiatrist and a professional climber, and I'm sure you know what you're doing. but many of us don't. so, please, always remind here that weight loss in order to climb a personal project, for the vast majority of us, is probably useless, while better technique, better training and a healthier lifestyle could be good substitutes. I know that you often point this out, as in the "carb dumping" entry, but please, keep reminding us how dangerous it can be to start playing with our weight.
    it's not a criticism against you, but suffering from an alimentary disorder from climbing, years ago, I know how terrible it can get.
    keep up your good work, as always!!!
    thank you.

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  3. err, lore although you make a fair point, remember that you are responsible for your own actions and decisions as with every aspect of climbing. role model or not, people need to think for themselves.

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  4. I'm just about to post now about a book that deals with a lot of the methods very well...

    I don't think it is dangerous to choose what weight to be. It's an everyday part of being an athlete and nothing remarkable. It's only dangerous if you choose an unrealistic weight and everyone must do that for themselves. I agree there are some problems for a tiny minority of people who develop disorders, but I don't agree that being scared or even cautious to talk about weight control is the right approach. In fact I think it's worse. If people's methods are out in the open and it's easy to talk about then there is less left to the imagination which then cannot run wild about the extent or importance of weight management.

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  5. Hey Dave,
    I´ve been spending the last few weeks' evenings reading about intermittent fasting, since it interests me from a medical (I'm a medicine student) and from a performance view.

    I stumbled upon several different methods, ranging from more than 24hrs fasts twice a week to 19hrs fast every day.

    Now, since I recall you mentioning IF here, I wanted to ask if you experimented with it or if not, if you still had a program that you think is best for climbers?

    Thanks a lot in advance!

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