Having read a recent thread on climbing potential it started me thinking.... Like all of us I occasionally watch the old climbing porn dvds and get all fired up watching heros climbing all manner of desperate routes. Right that's it I think, no more beer or junk food, gonna strip away that small chub ring and work really hard on technique and maybe one day ..........
Then reality hits home, I'm in my early 50's, married and live miles from any decent climbing.
So what to do .... I have recently been lucky enough to start climbing at our local wall (nothing special but still training) with someone who can really climb well. I've also started running more and almost cut out the beer.
The main thing is the better climber says to me "if you never try that harder problem you will never get any better" Well let's see... within a couple of weeks all of a sudden I'm giving it full beans and starting to get up stuff that before seemed out of reach.
Although my time on rock is very limited a recent trip to Swanage went like a dream. My confidence on the lead was really good, and I was moving more fluidly and committing
to hard moves without faffing.
So plan is keep at it over winter climbing as hard as I can technically and get used to climbing at my limit on the lead pumped until failure. Get totally comfortable taking controlled lead falls.
Keep off the beer and drop some more weight.
Then in Spring get out as much as I possibly can and hopefully that clutch of dream E1s at Swanage and the Peak will be mine.
As for those E5's ..... maybe in the next life !!!!
So what about you ????
