If You Think It's Too Much, Double It.
Changing Perspective The Hard Way
Life feels like a grind a lot of the time, and our training can feel like it, too. I try to read every morning, write every morning, work in two businesses, spend time with my family, practice archery, do some general activity, and train for climbing. It doesn't leave a lot of time for hanging out, and I'm OK with that. One thing I've noticed from time to time is that in a certain workout or activity feels like I am just barely able to make the time I'd planned to do it.
Let me give you an example: In the winters we skate ski as a family. I've done the sport recreationally for years, but only as an activity when I couldn't climb or wanted to spend time with friends. I never train for it. Never plan around it. Recently, though, both kids have become racers, and both want to go skiing more and more.
We travel the state for meets for much of January and February, and there's not a lot to do around these events....except ski. So I ski. This year I got interested in getting a bit better, maybe a bit faster, but most importantly, wanted to be able to do a full day of skiing with my son. What's a full day? Maybe 90 minutes to two hours. It's hard work, though. I built up time on the skis. 40 minutes then 50 then 60, lots of rests. Longer days on the weekends.
Every time I went, my goal was to do just a bit more, or to do "x" minutes / miles without stopping. It was torture. Every single time I went, I dreaded trying to make my minutes. Every time I went I felt wiped out. It was seriously hard to get out the door, and finally I had had enough. As I walked the trail into the woods at our local area, I told myself I wouldn't go for time or distance today, but rather just ski all of the groomed trail in the area.
I strategized as I skied. I figured out how it seemed best to link certain loops. I worked my way through them without ever once checking my time or my pace. I saw a moose. I stayed on mission. Some sections had to be skied twice to efficiently link the trails. Another section had not been groomed the last time they laid down the track, so was pretty slow. It didn't bother me. Just part of the required work.
When I'd finished, I found that I had only stopped twice for water. I found that I had skied for nearly 90 minutes without thinking, when getting 45 was what felt like a limit on other days. And I realized it was all about the strategy of planning the training.
It's so easy to chase the wrong thing. To pick easy books so you're sure to finish them. To fill your day with easy tasks. To force yourself to to crazy random workouts, just so you'll get tired and sweaty every time you hit the gym. To slowly work your mileage up, even though it's not physically hard for you.
What I love is to pick a big objective a few times each year. I'm not talking about something you have to train up to, and in fact, I don't think you should. What I suggest here is that you go do something hard, and see how prepared you are right now.
Double the total volume of boulders you do in one session.
If your normal strength workout is 5 exercises for five sets each, do 10 exercises in your upcoming session.
If you go walk an hour a few days each week, go for two or even three one evening.
Stretch for a full hour instead of the (if you're like me) half-hearted 20-30 minutes in front of the TV.
This should not be planned and progressed and carefully loaded. It should feel like a reach, but should also be addressed differently than you normally address this thing. Like going for "all the trails" instead of "even more minutes."
One day, many years ago, Mike Lilygren and I tried to climb as many of the Cathedral Spires in a day as we could. We topped out maybe 20 of our dream of doing all ~70 of them, but failed to reach our objective. What we did not do was count moves, track grades, or add up how many feet we climbed. We set a huge goal, and went up against it. It's still one of the bigger days I've ever done, and it was pure fun.
Metrics only get you so far. Mixing some crazy in with a bit of dreaming, and you might find out you’ve got more in that tank than you thought.