Bumping up against a natural limitation, in any pursuit, is a difficult thing to deal with. This post will explore my journey in this space.
When I self reflect on my personal limitations in climbing I can break them into the following categories. This will not apply to everybody although I hope others can relate.
Anxiety is a double edged sword
Balance is key
Stoke = Success
Anxiety is a Double Edged Sword
Ever get the feeling of intense nervousness while approaching a route or objective? I almost always do to some degree. This anxiety at times has been crippling to the point of pushing me away from the sport and second guessing what I'm doing. I found myself at a crossroads related to climbing in 2020 and sought the counsel of a sport psychologist to help me work through some things. The key takeaways were as follows:
Anxiety is an natural evolutionary response to help with performance in extreme situations.
There's a healthy level of anxiety that will lead to optimal performance.
Society has labelled anxiety as something negative or something to be feared; therefore, when one experiences anxiety its important to not feel anxious about the anxiousness and start circling the toilet bowl
Note taking around anxiety levels and resulting performance on climbs helped to calibrate my system
Anxiety related to aging is a strong motivator for me to get after it. I worry that as I age i will loose physical performance and loose the stoke to pursue climbing endeavours. This anxiety pushes me to want to do as much as possible in as short of a timeframe as possible. As explored in the next section, this drive needs to be kept in check for best results.
Balance is Key
Ever heard the expression practice makes perfect? It was engrained in me from my younger days. The implication is that if you keep practicing and keep doing something you will inevitably get better and better. The connotation around the expression is that there's no limit to what you can achieve if you keep working at it. This is not reality for me though. In a given season there is an ideal amount of climbing that keeps me at peak performance. The results of climbing too little are relatively obvious. The results of climbing too much are less obvious and are explored below:
Mental fatigue: Aditya's wife gave an excellent analogy where the brain is like a match box. You only have some many matches to give before its empty. Too much climbing causes the matches to burn up before they can be replenished leading to headspace issues.
Physical fatigue: This is particularly true in the alpine climbing space. Alpine climbing is hard on the body and too much of it starts causing fatigue issues for me leading to physical and resulting mental tiredness. I am constantly engaging in subjective self reflection to determine the correct balance. Interestingly enough, decreased sex drive is a good leading indicator for me.
Personal Life: When I'm out climbing too much it naturally limits the time I'm spending with loved ones and friends. When these relationships start to feel strained it affects my overall mental well being and trickles over into poor headspace for climbing. Unfortunately for me, climbing is not something i can "bury myself in" when my personal life is in shambles. Optimal performance coincides with satisfying relationships and a rewarding personal life outside of climbing (including travelling, socializing and professional accomplishments)
Stoke = Success
I do my best when I'm in a destination that I'm excited about or on a route that I've been dreaming about for a long time. The most rewarding climbs are ones that I've been yearning for. A seed gets planted into my head as a thought, then the seed germinates into an concept as research progresses and finally the germination process blossoms into a strong NEED. Fulfilling what I perceive as a NEED yields optimal performance. The types of routes that I get excited about are constantly evolving. The following explores a bit of the progression:
I used to get excited about the Canadian Rockies 11,000ers for the scenery, fitness and adventure experience. I currently have to limit the number of them i do per year because I started finding them taxing.
I used to get excited about ticking off the brand name climbs in the local area. I still have a draw to routes like Beckey-Chuinard. However, the draw is fading due to the misery that can accompany these climbs such as grueling approach, inclement weather and heavy packs.
My current draw is towards highly aesthetic international climbing destinations. . . . which will be a strong focus of this blog.
I am very style dependent too. I shut down on runout slab and highly technical climbing often found on limestone routes which lack positive holds.
As this blog develops, I hope a community forms and that we can all be bold enough to explore these ideas more freely.
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