In reply to climbingpixie:
> (In reply to Tom Ripley)
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> I think I push myself a fair amount of the time. I try to do something that's hard for me on most of my climbing days but only feel I'm actually climbing at my limit occasionally. I don't fall off very often so perhaps I should be trying harder!
I generally try something that's at my limit each time I go out. sometimes I succeed and sometimes I fail...par for the course I guess. I suppose you could look at it that routes where you've failed have been pretty close to your limit (but maybe the "wrong side of the limit"!)
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> The days I climb best seem to be the ones where I warm up by very easy soloing, second a route and maybe lead something non-strenuous around my cruising grade then just go for it
I also tend to start off with some soloing or bouldering... I find soloing is pretty good for "warming up" before trying bold routes. I guess the reasons for that are obvious... It not only gets the head in gear, but also makes you focus on precise movement on every moves, as there is no room for error...
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> Generally the best way I've found of psyching myself up for hard routes is focussing on the route and disregarding the grade as much as possible.
Totally agree
The day I led my first E1 I'd backed off leading a HS earlier in the day and the day I led my first E3 5b I'd struggled on a VS 4b as my first lead!
I led a couple of E3s last week at Froggatt but failed miserably on an E2. Grades are nonsense
Not feeling intimidated by the grade and actually getting onto the route is half the battle anyway, sometimes climbing the thing is actually easier, lol.
That actually makes alot of sense...there are quite a few routes that have intimidated me, but when I have just got on them, I have usually ended up thinking "that wasn';t half as hard as I expected". There are a few exceptions, obviously