I’ve been a climber/dirtbag for 20 years now, and in those years, I have yet to train. I know what your thinking.
Man, he must either really like to climb and that’s his training, or he doesn’t care how he climbs just so he’s climbing. Both are accurate, I’ve never been the textbook dirtbag climber.
For instance, I actually have a job; I’ve been a photographer for 24 years and for most that would go against the dirtbag credo. Of course my job allows a great deal of flexibility on my part since I make my own schedule and live in a state where the climbing is as close as a five minute drive from my house. Oh yeah, I have a house too, and a family.
Weird…
All that to say I’ve never really seen the point in training, I climb a lot, and that’s always been what I do, it trains me for, well, climbing?! What else would I do? Enter my friend Andy.
One day, quite innocent enough, Andy mentioned his trainer was an old friend of mine. Now keep in mind, Andy works out at a CrossFit gym called Emergent Fitness, not a place I would frequent. I mean, don’t they pick up truck tires and drag them around behind themselves with chains?
No thanks.
I was sure he was mistaken; until he told me it was my old friend and climbing partner Brad.
Brad and I meet and we reconnect about the days climbing together in WY and CO. Before I know it, he casually mentions I should start training with him. Again, see tire sentence above, and I decline. But here is the thing about Brad, he is a really good climber, I mean like world class. And you don’t get that good at something without being really driven. He has this knack of being able to turn that drive on anything, including his one legged climbing friend. The next thing I know, I’m signing on to train with Brad two days a week, and I’m as shocked as the next guy.
The first two weeks, and I’m fairly sure Brad is trying to break me in half. I can’t bend down to pick up my belay device should it fall, and my whole body feels like I have the bird flu. Both Andy and Brad just laugh.
My climbing goes from being pretty descent to being really bad, since most of the time I’m to tired to care about holding into the holds. Brad has me doing weights and something called Hit Strips, which are holds on a 45-degree wall, which you run weighted laps up and down.
As Brad says, “ you already have endurance, we want power, if you don’t have power, you won’t need to endure anything.” Well said, but all that means is IM getting an ass kicking. By the third week, I’m actually beginning to feel good. I’ve upped my weight in a few things, and the hit strips are getting better. I still haven’t seen a climbing change, but I’m hopeful. Now in week four, I head into the gym after a rest day, another strange and foreign concept for me. I mean what do you DO on a rest day???
After warming up, I send a project I failed on two weeks before, and after four hours of climbing, I’m not really that tired.
Hmmmm, where is that tire and chain?
Craig DeMartino
outsideallday.com
