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Training for All-Day Moderate Trad?
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Hey guys, So I have a trip to Red Rock planned in about a month and would like to maximize my time there, as I don’t get to do trips like that often. We’ll be mostly cruising long moderates well within our comfortable grade range, but since it’s an extended weekend trip (Fri-Mon), the climbing will be fairly concentrated (no rest days). I’ve often felt fairly destroyed after long multipitches in the past, and the Approaches at RR can be fairly long and technical, so I’d like to do whatever I can until then to get into better shape. What do you guys recommend? I’m thinking calf raises for sure, as I could barely walk after a week of Squamish slabs...but what else? Running/cardio? Squats? Arcing? |
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For me the problem with multiple days in a row is the skin on my fingertips. Pulling lots of plastic before may help toughen them up if that's a concern for you. |
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Stairmaster with a heavy pack. |
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Three weeks of progressively increasing aerobic training load and ARCing, followed by an easy or rest week before leaving should get you a little boost to your capacity for long approaches and long moderate routes. *edited for spelling* |
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My typical routine for training all body with a focus on walking with a heavy pack is a training circuit that is done twice a week. I took this from the Power-Endurance section of Training for New Alpinism and modified it to meet my needs/goals. YMMV 1 round = 1 set each of Squats (front or back), weighted pullups, box steps (1 rep = 1 up left, 1 up right), weighted dips 10 squats, increasing weight to 5 x 1 5 weighted pullups, increasing weight to 2 x 1 10 box steps (I don't suggest increasing weight on these), can increase weight to 5 x 1 10 weighted dips (I have shoulder problems so I maintain sets of ten reps) Do 4-5 rounds with a 10 minute rest between each round. Less rest if you want to keep your heart rate high throughout the workout. Light stretching during the rest is okay. Do this 2x a week. You should feel worked, but not trashed the day after. I would plan on tapering before your trip, though if you only have a month I'm not sure how much this will help. I typically try to maintain this for 10-12 weeks and follow with a 6-week max strength routine. Otherwise I'd suggest staying hydrated throughout the trip and planning meals that allow you a full recovery. I find that food and hydration are huge factors in being happy with multiple long days of hiking and climbing. |
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Cool, thanks for the replies! |
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Cardio. And more cardio. edit: great advice below. If you're climbing within your known grade range then I'd say your stamina/endurance for both the approach and long climbs are the issue, not your overall strength. Do many laps in the gym. Down climb the routes. Do 2-3 times the length of route at the gym. If your route (s) are 7 pitches, try to climb 14 easy "pitches" at the gym, 2-3 days in a row. Regarding the approach: Cardio. Both inclined treadmill and stair master. Slow with pack, and do milage faster without. You'll be crushing that approach to Crimson Chrysalis in 30 minutes flat. |
Ryan Hill wrote: Unless the OP has done consistent weight training, he'll spend the 1st week of 4 weeks in DOMS after one workout. That leaves him with 3 weeks of training. 1 week of taper leaves him with 2 weeks. He can't do conventional weight training with 1 month to go. OP, drink water and eat bagel with cream cheese on routes will help you a lot. Also, arrange your schedule in a progressive easier by day will also help. |
Ryan Hill wrote: Thanks for posting. I like this concept and use a similar routine. My question is what does “10 x 1” mean and how is it different than just saying “10 squats”? pardon my ignorance! Thx!! |
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Weighted ARC training and down climbing routes will help you the best. RR's Approaches honestly weren't that bad (mostly under 45mins) and the stone is soo soft that my skin was completely fine after 7 days of straight climbing. The biggest thing is to just get used to carrying more weight since you need to bring water, food, jacket, gear, and shoes with you on so many pitches. Have fun Dude! |
divnamite wrote: Excellent point and I think I kind of ignored the 1 month portion of this request, apologies to the OP. Also, I now know what DOMS is, thanks. You are correct that w/o a good weight training base this workout won't be effective in a short run. It can be modified for short term gains, but is more part of a long term training plan than something to play catch up on. Hopefully the workout I posted above proves to be helpful in the future. |
Dennis wrote: Ya, it should just read 10 squats. I got mixed up while typing this out. |
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I feel like the answer is always "sport specificity" unless you've got a glaring issue that needs correction. Three weeks of 2-3x / week box step-ups with a pack is what I'd recommend for targeting fitness for the approach (e.g. not being worked as hell day over day). Start with a load / duration / step gain that's short of your longest approach, and gradually work it up over three weeks. Take the last week off to taper / rest. Your pack won't weigh that much with dayclimbing stuff, so you could probably just start off with the full load. I find step-up workouts harder to do in my home for longer than 45 min - 1 hour before I'm really bored. As for pacing, I'd do these "zone 2"-ish 2x / week and one day / week "zone 3"-ish. You don't have the time luxury to do a more formal periodized conditioning thing, but some of these will whip your legs / lungs / body into familiarity for hiking. I don't have much to add in terms of prep for the actual climbing, since that is so idiosyncratic. My rough recommendation would be what Steve Bechtel advocates for under his "more climbing in a day" section of this blog post, with thoughtful selection of the route difficulty. I generally agree with Steve's view that many climbers don't successfully execute on ARC training since they just default to "small moves to big holds", and as such don't get the theoretic benefit. If you have access to a gym with auto belays where you can hog them (maybe early in the morning?), I think you could successfully execute on something like this. Especially if you can select routes that have small foot holds. Have fun! |
Adrienne DiRosario wrote: This is a good point, even though you may not be pulling hard on steep routes. My first few trips to Red Rock, my fingers/cuticles were completely destroyed after a week. Then I learned to do active maintenance and apply a heavy dose of salve before sleep each night during the trip. A month is not a ton of time, but sport specific endurance training is the priority. Try to get some long hikes with a moderately heavy pack, and lots of volume at the gym wall. When I think of Red Rock approaches, I don't think of huge vertical gain, but instead lots of scrambling/boulder hopping and short ups and downs. High steps onto a box with weight or that sort of thing. The other piece that you may take a look at is efficiency, finding ways to save time/energy without training. This depends on your experience, but if you are say, a 5.10 climber doing 5.8 routes, you can make things a lot easier on yourself by really slimming down the rack, trusting in your ability to handle runouts on easier terrain. Look at every item on your harness/in your pack and ask if you could do without it. Don't carry a 70m rope on long routes when a 60m (or 50...) will work. Drink lots of water the night/morning before so you start hydrated and can carry less water on the approach and climb. Climbing lighter is more fun. Enjoy your trip! |
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With it's low angle approaches with scrambly bits over boulders and on average lower angle rock the easier trad at RR is pretty similar to easier alpine climbing from a physical standpoint IMO. I think that the ARC training with increasing volume is a good idea, going for red rocks easy trad I would stick to vertical walls though. You don't really need to worry about capillary adaptions in your forearms, it's all slab and there are no hand rests everywhere. Making sure that your legs are up to the task of lugging your body up thousands of feet is more important. A month is too short of time frame for this, but for the future weighted box steps as high as you can get up are really helpful. High weight with low reps, just work on recruitment not gaining mass. I was doing 4 reps on each leg with 100lbs on a mid thigh height box for 5 sets when I trained for alpine climbs. No high step on the approach was even remotely taxing. In the past I had tried training with the super heavy pack, steep ass slog technique (40-50lb pack, 4,000ft gain in around 4 miles). The high resistance low rep scheme worked far better, I was faster on approaches and recovered quicker between days. Kevin has a good point on bringing/placing less gear. It's far easier to climb pitches when you're not lugging a nose rack around. |
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Awesome, thanks guys. Yeah, that’s exactly my priority Nick, especially since one of our objectives (end of the trip, thankfully) is Solar Slab. If I can still walk the next day, I’ll be happy lol. |
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I saw a guy recently doing a thing at my gym where he was spending a full hour on the wall. As in, climb up. Down climb. Climb up. Down climb. Never touching the ground. He was on lead doing pretty hard stuff and my gym has 60+ foot high walls. That would build your stamina pretty well. |
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Without much time to train, I definitely second the idea of focusing on your kit to minimize excess gear. Then take that kit out on some long hikes before your trip so it all feels familiar. Have your smaller wall pack system dialed in. No how much water your need. Minimize food. Stressing over logistics and gear can have a big impact in your performance. In the gym, consider a 20-35 minute stairmaster session before ARC training, because it will at least partially simulate cardio into moderate rockclimbing. Half the battle is figuring out how to move efficiently on the approach and the climb without redlining too frequently during the day. 6-8 of those workouts before you go will help. You can add weight on the stairmaster. And transitions - if you could focus on one thing between now and your trip, quicker transitions at each belay will probably save you the most time and energy. Streamline your kit, sport-specific activity, faster transitions. |
Chris Winter wrote: Mark Twight used to try a more intense version of that in the gym and didn't get anywhere. He said so himself in House's New Alpinism book. If you want to build cardiovascular stamina, that book is a good source of what to do. I've read it cover to cover years ago and can't quote it exactly so I'll refrain from specific advice based off the book. If you feel winded on the approach hike, then you need to hike more with 30-40 lbs humping your back. Stairmaster or inclined treadmill since you are located in the Windy City. Running helps but you want to work those muscles that you never knew existed until you have a heavy pack on, so you need both. If you feel tired after climbing then run laps in the gym and chomp on Gu gummies at belays. If you want to combine climbing in cardio, then split it up over the day, cardio in morning and climbing in the evening. Your body will do better than being worked to exhaustion in one session. There is a reason why marathon runners don't run 24 miles every sunday. edit to miles (and sunday) because Kyle called me out |
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Yeah I meant miles. I've seen marathon training programs and the distances are definitely broken up. |
Kyle Tarry wrote: http://running.competitor.com/2016/10/training/long-longest-run-marathon-training_155437 And there is also a school of thought in telling people not to do over do it. I meant 24 miles one session. Are we really going to argue over marathon running because I used a bad example? |
