[NateGoodwin]

What should we watch out for if taking a big climbing trip midway through our base periods? I know that some overtraining is to be expected, but how should we monitor to make sure that it isn’t too much to recover from? Active recovery days built into the trip (skiing,easy sport routes, hot springs, etc.), or?

Topic

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on March 15, 2017 at 9:46 pm #4271

Nate:

Make the climbing trips you take during the base building phase contribute to building the base rather that trashing you. Pick objectives that are within your current capacity from both a technical and endurance standpoint. Don’t swing for stands until your base is well established.

The purpose of the base period is to increase your work capacity in all the fundamental realms that make up your goal event. During this period you are putting money in the bank so that when the time comes and that account is huge you can withdraw from it on your goal climb(s) without overdrawing. If during this base period you put some money in that bank account only to draw it back down again by going on a spending spree you are only hurting your long terms capacity building and performance.

You can still do specific climbing both on trips and at home that contributes to the base building bottom line. Over reaching (spending) too much during this time may feel good in the short term but may result in you bouncing checks part way through your goal climb. So plan accordingly and you’ll just keep getting stronger all the way through the base period.

I hope this helps,
Scott

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on March 16, 2017 at 4:05 pm #4280

I’d also be wary of accepting that “some overtraining is to be expected”. If you start your goal climb fit and fully recovered, then, by all means, dig deep if you need to. But during the base period, I would avoid periods of overtraining at all costs.

To echo what Scott said, overtraining isn’t worth in the long-term what it costs in the short-term.

As a side note, something that has helped me avoid overtraining is to focus on recovering for rather than recovering from. It may sound like a silly distinction, but I find that the change of focus fits better with long-term development.

Thinking of recovery as preparation rather than reparation counter-acts my more natural tendency to get greedy and try to do more than I should.