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| Relax to the max... |
Having had a lovely time putting up new routes and feeling benevolent, I am now back to thinking about purely selfish climbing matters and self improvement.
So why am I so strong but cant do what I want? Why am I strong at all, at 55, when kids are weak? Does strength have anything to do with climbing? What is the relationship between power and stamina? Why can my wife do 8a after not climbing for 7 weeks? And does being able to dive down to 30 meters have anything to do with climbing better? There's about a thousand questions going in my head, and it's confusing me, and similar questions must be confusing others.
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| Relax to the max, to the max... |
I dont want to think about anything, and I think confusingly this is one of the answers! Don't think....do.
To dive to 30 meters is not a great thing but it is a big thing, especially for me. I have failed to do it when my lung capacity was greater and my ability to hold my breath was two times greater. The difference is some calmness, and being in the water for five weeks! When you are deep down in the water and the world, the breathing world, is miles away, like the surface of the moon, it's difficult not to panic. But panic, you must not do.
Climbing is very wierd, if you think you know about climbing you are well wrong. Climbing depends on calmness, an inner quite, most easily seen in a lack of worry. Why then have I been calmer soloing and ice climbing than safe safe redpointing? Because I invest too much of myself in performance. For some wierd reason and by some mechanic I dont understand and am unwilling to admit, climbing really, really hard, is fundamentally important to me. It's crucial and that's why it's so hard and often escapes me. My best on-sights are often unexpected, or at the end of a day when tired, and lately I have had good days because I have the excuse 'of being old and past it'. Grades defeat me before I start most of the time and this is changeing, and I will change this more.
Why am I strong? Who cares? Well I care, actually I'd like to be stronger. Is it possible at 55? What is climbing stamina? This one baffles me! What is so called power endurance? Why does training for 10 weeks not add up to the same thing as loosing three kgs in stamina terms?
Is the benefit of my hours yoga not so much in flexibility but in the calming of my Mediterranean mind.
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| Relax to the max, to the max, to the max.... |
Here is something that might help you, 8a or so called routes of 8a are very attainable. If you can't do routes of 8a you are under achieving. I seriously think that I am underachieving, I always have, that's why I will try harder this year, I will also be calmer, less stressed and will therefore have more fun and success. Climbing in some ways is like deep wild terrain powder in the mountains, the more you relax into the speed, the better the turns. Of course you have to have legs and the core and the lack of fear.
It is not a question of having a big brain, it is a question of turning your brain off. Fear of failure will make you fail. Adopt a strategy that helps you minimize, or eliminate the consequences of failure.
My strategy is to climb without pressure knowing that my age is no excuse, my strength and knowledge is sufficient for my task, failure is impossible, as I simply will try harder.
Remember what Bob Marley said :
"don't worry abaout a ting,
everyting gonna be O right,...."
