UKC

How do you work it out?
Do you start with ultimate goal and work your way back, or do you have lots of bench marks goal and as you go you keep changing the long term goal?

Just pondering: I think I may go the former rather than the latter. But what will happen if I get ultimate goal ticked? depression, new crazy cycle of goals?

In reply to French Erick:

Short term is generally within 1 grade, long term is a couple, long long term is dream grades. It's important to set real targets though and not get hung up on the grade, make sure you are inspired by the rock and the line rather than the grade, as it can get very depressing when you've been training for months and still haven't reached your nearest target.

For example, my short term goal is to be flashing 7a/+ on a regular basis. I've been training with this in mind for about 3-4 months now, starting from being able to climb 6c fairly comfortably. I've only just reached the stage where I'm starting to taste the possibility of victory, I've been very close to many flash attempts recently and have flashed a 7a+. So, it is starting to become reality, however, that is only my first goal. I've got a medium term goal of climbing 7b clean after working within the next few months, and plan to climb 7b on proper rock before Christmas - this may or may not be a conservative target, but I don't want to push too hard or I'll get frustrated and lose focus.

Whenever I get sick of the sport climbing I switch to trad or bouldering for a little while and push my targets in them, which provides a nice release and gives you a sense of why you really climb, i.e. for the fun.

In reply to French Erick:

I think the usual suggestion is to use the shorter term goals as waymarkers along the way towards a long term goal. If you are setting yourself short term goals, they're presumably going to be set with a longer term aim in the back of your mind anyway.

In my case I set myself a goal of "8a before 30" about 2 years ago or something, so my main medium term goal for last year was a pyramid of routes topping out at 7c+ (ie 1x 7c+, 2x 7c, 4x 7b+, 8x 7b), and this year I've been working to turn that into an equivalent pyramid of routes at 8a. And the shorter term goals beneath those varied with time of year, mainly strength work indoors over the winter, peaking in time for trips, that sort of thing.

When you meet a long term goal - depends what you want really! Once I've ticked 8a I might start a pyramid for 8a+, or work on my onsighting, or my trad, have to wait and see really!

In reply to French Erick:

depends what you want to acheive. some goals only require short/mid term training.

long term goals need multiple short term ones to make viable to train for, and all along the way you need indicators to assess if youre getting there. time is the thing here, so need to consider how much time you have to devote to stuff thats not totally focussed towards the objective.

sustaining a long term goal needs planning to avoid adaption, boredom and plateaus. need to work with a mix of things, but usually not at the same time as that leads to mediocrity with all of them.

In reply to French Erick: i tuned in to see some answers as I've just set myself a December goal.

I set my goal by saying what I wanted to achieve, then put a date against it that seemed hard but achieavable. I then worked backwards from that and set interim goals and importantly found a mentor to confirm I wasnt crazy. A mentor makes a difference giving you a objective view, an objective sounding board for the goal and progress as you go.

My goal is to boulder F7a by Xmas. I now have a training plan, checked by a mentor and tailored to my life by me. I'm on day 5, so still lots to do but settling in well to the habit of training and not just social climbing.

In reply to French Erick:
Long term is dream route (E5 or E6 depending who you ask). Time scale 4 years (october 2017).
Mid term goals. a few OW in the UK and Annot within 2 years.
Short term (within year) improving my crack technique and my weak crimping, onsight E4.

To relieve the tension I have winter climbing to throw in the mix.
Steps towards it: just built a crack machine in shed along with a system board. Planning on 3 times a week climbing (2 sessions on home wall, 1 elsewhere).

Current level never onsighted E4 proper.

In reply to French Erick: Four years is a damn long time if you're already climbing E4. Surely with a session or two working the route in question on a TR you could get it sent? Or is it a dream E5 onsight? Because IMO, the only way you are going to onsight E5 is to consistently climb at E5 by working routes first and then doing them, and then eventually move onto an onsight attempt of a new route.

Just my opinion though, depends how much time you have to train.

In reply to rasmanisar:
Fair enough points
The routes is a multi-pitch in the US.
My only goal is O/S, indeed.
It will take me that long because, as you rightly point out I need to O/S E5 consistently.

With family and work commitments, I will not manage in less time. This is a weak weekend warrior way to approach it. I am open to criticism though: do you think the very long term goal is too far away (ie: I'll not keep to it and loose interest)?

Also the financial aspect is important: I'd like to go the US once between now and my "attempt" to tick some middle term goals and keep the interest. In a 4 years schedule, I will only be able to afford time/money for 2 trips of that stature.

I feel that by stating my goal to the UKC troops am I making myself more accountable to the anonymous interweb hords who have a well known record for being rather vitriolic ( a trait I rather like). Fairly puerile behaviour, I know, but if it helps me getting there...

In reply to French Erick:
i agree, the former. i think you are better making them process orientated to. come-up with objectives that help you move forward and then decide the process that gets you that objective, make completing that process the goal. so target completing a number of training sessions or number of rp or on-sight attempts at e4 then e5 (failure doesn't matter, its just ploughing on that does). not that i do this...

once you reach the goal i reckon it's going to feel like "why did i ever think that would be hard? e5/e6 is easy, i haven't proven anything, that e8 looks hard though...."