Gobble Gobble

Walking the roman ruins

Whenever I travel to a new country the experience is slotted into place alongside all the rest of the countries I’ve been to.  My first country started off as my baseline (China 1992), and from there each country either goes before, after, or in between.   What makes a country enjoyable to travel in will certainly differ from person to person.  For me, I like countries that offer a mix of unforgettable adventures with some ease of travel and safety.  Travelling a country like America or Australia is fun, but you generally don’t come back with the crazy stories of donkey rides, dodgy food, welcoming locals, jungles, temples, jewels and coconuts.  Well, I suppose it does depend on where you go, but it’s in countries like India, Thailand, Nepal, Egypt and Turkey where my experiences have been rich with culture and adventure.

Hot Springs and Travertines at Pamukkale

Turkey offered a surprising balance of culture and tradition, with development and organization.   Their bus services are one of the best I’ve ever encountered, you can get practically anywhere in the country by bus, even to the remotest of towns like Geyikbayiri.   The longer haul bus rides are extremely plush – personal TVs, plug point, WIFI, and cookies and coffee served on the bus!  The Turkish are generally very friendly and eager to help, but unlike Egypt they do not pester you relentlessly, and they respect your space.   The food was yummy, although I have to say unfortunately a tad fried ... even my poor piece of cauliflower had no chance of offering goodness after it had been fried to death.  I’m pescatarian (meaning I eat fish, dairy and vegetables) so I can’t speak for their meat, but the fish is superb!  But that’s the boring stuff, it’s the cookies and Turkish Delight that you simply must not miss out on – the Turks really do know how to make a good treat :)

The climbing in Turkey was great.  We went at the end of October and beginning November and the day time temperatures were perfect – if the crag is in the direct sun it is pretty hot (just the way I like it) but if it’s in the shade all day it can also be pretty chilly.  Evening temperatures were a lot colder than we expected, and we really regretted not bringing our down jackets.   

Chimaera - Eternal Flames at Olympos

We first headed to Olympos, planning to stay for 2 days and just chill on the beach, but we ended up staying there 4 days and climbing quite a bit.  The crags are smaller than, and not quite as magnificent, as those in Geyikbayiri, but there were some good routes and we loved the vibe at our pension (Varuna Pension) so we stayed on.  We didn’t get to all of the crags either, so I can’t really make a full judgement call on the climbing offered in the area.

Some of the crags at Geyikbayiri

Geyikbayiri was all its hyped up to be!  Amazing crags and all within walking distance of your accommodation.  We stayed at Climbers Garden, which is small enough to create a friendly know-your-fellow-climbers vibe, but big enough to not feel too cramped :).  The crags are a gorgeous orangey brown limestone, with streaks of white and black.  The climbing involves lots of tufas and pockets, but with a good splash of crimps and slopers to add variety, with choices of overhanging, roof, vert and slabs.  They don’t include a star-rating in the guidebook, so you never know what enjoyment factor the route will provide, but only the occasional route that I climbed was sub-average, most were really good.  The grades are pretty solid,  I very rarely came across anything that was softly graded, and quite often felt that the route could do with an extra + grade ... but maybe that’s just me being weak and pathetic, best you get yourself over there and test them out for yourself!

Sun and rock ... happy days!

Me on my project "Fun in the Sun"

If you would like anymore details on the climbing in Turkey then don’t hesitate to contact me – places to stay, how to get there, food, recommended crags etc.

2011 British Lead Climbing Championships - Edinburgh

Weekend of the 15th & 16th October 2011 was host to the British Lead Climbing Championships (BLCCs), which was held at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena.  Here follows the journey of one climber, Karen Varga, as she made her way through the event :)

First up was the 1st qualifier route!  The climbing order is randomly generated, and as luck would not have it, I was first.  When my partner told me this my nerves just hit the roof and I really started panicking.  The qualifier routes are done "flash" style, meaning that you get to watch the other girls climbing the route.  Through watching others climb a route you really learn so much about the route, where the tricky bits are, where best make the clips from, where there's a good grip to shake out on etc.  So yip, obviously with climbing first you don't get that benefit!  It also means you climb very early, and I wasn't ready for that and wasn't warmed up very well.  But hey ho, it turned out alright in the end and I managed to top the route (that means you get to the top and you clip the final quickdraw).  However it wasn't a super hard route and 8 out of 13 girls topped it, so the pressure was on for the 2nd qualifier, which was definitely the harder and more technical of the two.

 

Climbing the first qualifer route

 

In a way I was slightly lucky because since I was first on the 1st route, I only climbed 8th on the 2nd.  Of the 7 before me, one had topped and another had slapped the last hold.  The others had fell off at various heights below that.  So I knew I would need to get to the top to guarantee me a place in the finals.  I felt nervous but fairly confident for the route.  However half way up I very nearly botched it!!  I faffed around on a hand match on a small crimper grip ... the problem was my finger tips were totally numb and I couldn't feel anything (it was chilly!).  In my head I just thought "Oh my gosh I can't believe I'm going to fall off at this move".  I then got control of my mind and just shouted at myself "Come on Karen, just grab for the next grip".  I literally snatched for it and held it, managed to move my feet somehow and tenously went up for the next grip.  Somehow managed to stick that and got my foot up, looked up and the next grip was a large-ish one where I knew I would be able to shake out.  I snatched for it, stuck it ... and *breathe*.  I was totally pumped and my fingers were numb, but thanks to the decent grip I managed to hang there for a while and shake out and get some feeling back into my fingertips.  I then continued up the route and got to the final grip, which I stuck but I didn't have any juice left in my arms to clip the final quickdraw.

Climbing the 2nd qualifier route

  

However that was good enough to put me in 3rd place for the finals! (only 6 go through to the finals).  But the competition was very close, with the field only being separated by micro points (the difference between only touching a grip (point -), actually holding it for a second or two (point full), or moving off it towards another grip (point +)).

The final route is climbed "onsight", so you don't get to watch anyone else climb it.  All the climbers go into isolation, they then set the route, you all come out and get 6 minutes to view the route, and you then go back into isolation until its your time to climb.  The final route wasn't too technical, but it was steep with big moves, so more of an endurance route really.  I think I climbed well, there were some bits where I really had to keep shouting at myself to stay calm, keep moving, focus, shake, don't panic :)  1st place girl topped the route and I must say, she was that little notch above the rest of us (she is also the reigning British Bouldering Champ so she's very strong!).  2nd place girl got 42 points, she was last years winner.  3rd girl got 41 points, and then I got 41- points :( so it was super close, and again I missed 3rd place by a micro point!

Climbing the final route

I keep going round in my head wondering if I could have squeezed another 1% out of my body and actually held that damn grip.  Maybe I could have, maybe not.  One aspect of the finals that I struggle with is not knowing how high the other girls got and thus not knowing how high I need to get to beat them.  So I've got to get the right frame of mind where nothing but topping the route is enough :)

Picking a Training Programme

I’ve done a lot of research on climbing training programmes, both on the internet and in magazines, and through chatting with friends, and it seems the definitive choice is a periodization programme.  But within that global approach the question still remains between the benefits of a strict periodization programme versus one which consists of smaller microcycles.  When writing my own training programme I was faced with this decision, and it was hard to find any source which could conclusively say which approach worked better.  I doubt there is a “one fits all” plan anyway, as factors such as age, experience, available training hours, injuries, and other activities would all need to be taken into account to determine what would suit the individual best.

Whilst building up to the GB Team Trails in March this year I wrote myself a short 3 month periodization programme, following the most common macrocycles of general endurance, strength, power, and finally power endurance.  I followed the “strict” approach, where each facet was isolated to the corresponding macrocycle, with the exception of general endurance which I continued to maintain throughout all phases.  This worked very well for me, but much of the success I think had to do with the fact that I was building from a fairly low level of fitness, with this being my first proper training since my back surgery.  Up until then I was focused mainly on building up my base level of strength and fitness, and with the training I then got some decent results in a fairly short period of time.

After the Team Trails I had only 3 months until the World Champs, so I made some slight adjustments to my training programme but stuck with it more or less that same.  This worked fairly well, and I felt it gave me an extra nudge above where I was before, but the gains were certainly not as spectacular as the previous phase.

I’ve definitely found when I reach a certain level the improvement gains are subtle and very gradual.  Improving on a single grade takes a lot of time and effort.  Not that I mind the time and effort ... its climbing after all so it’s all good!  After the World Champs I took a moment to try to identify some of my weaknesses, and to then write a programme that would hopefully address these weaknesses and enable me to see some progress by the end of the programme. 

This time I was limited to only 8 weeks until the BLCCs (British Lead Climbing Champs), plus it fell over the summer months so my higher priority was to get out on rock and do some real routes!  I decided to try a microcycle approach instead this time, firstly because of the time constraints that I had, but also because I felt that I was starting to plateau with my old programme and it is always good to shake things up a bit, and add variety to keep both your mind and muscles stimulated.

My programme had two overall macrocycles – strength and power endurance – which overlapped by a couple of weeks, but each macrocycle really consisted of weekly microcycles in which I would incorporate a bit of everything in various proportions and intensity.  This programme has gone well – the competition benefits are still to be seen, but on rock I’m feeling really good and I think I am now at PB (Personal Best) strength!  Unfortunately winter is fast approaching, BUT I have a trip to Turkey (Antalya region) coming up in 1 weeks time, and I have other plans afoot too ... :)

Some interesting links:

http://climbstrong.wordpress.com/2011/01/06/call-it-what-you-want-periodized-training-works/

http://www.bodyresults.com/e2r_hit.asp

To help you spice things up with your own training programme, here are some training techniques that I used for the various facets of climbing:

If you have any training techniques that you have found to be beneficial and you’d like to share them, then add your comments below!

The Classic Mistake

Having decided that I’m lacking in finger strength, I did a whole whack of internet reading and have come up with a new training programme, which of course incorporates hangboarding.  It also dawned on me that I’ve been climbing for 13 years and I don’t think I have ever closed-crimped a grip!  All my strength is in the half-crimp position.

Half-crimp position

So about 2 weeks ago I was happily doing my hangboarding session in my favourite half-crimp position, my fingers were nicely warmed up and I had moved onto the Beastmaker small crimp grip, with 6kg weight.  I finished my set and this lightbulb lit up in my head saying “hey, don’t forget to train closed-crimp too!” 

Next set I cranked my fingers up into the closed-crimp position, gritted down, and managed to pull out 5 reps.   It didn’t feel comfortable of course, and during the set my right wrist and forearm got pretty sore so I decided against doing another set.

 

 

 

Closed-crimp position

Lo and behold, the next day my forearm is hurting!  A session with the physio and it’s confirmed that I’ve strained my thumb tendon, which runs from the thumb all the way down the forearm.

In my moment of non-genius I went from never doing closed-crimp to attempting to do a full set with 6kg weight on the tiniest of crimps … I honestly can’t believe my stupidity.  Luckily I have at least learnt how best to handle an injury.  This one required a week rest from climbing, lots of icing and compression, and some massage through the forearm to release tight tendons and muscles.

I guess we’re constantly learning :)