Posts Tagged ‘training’

Hey climbers!

I wrote a major story about my training abroad! Last weekend I visited Puurs Klimax, but unfortunately the open gym was closed since September 17th due to the Worldcup. This weekend I couldn’t return though. Where am I able to train proper?

To change subjects, my Sunday started with 3 super delicious brown buns, of which 2 were smeared with butter and choco paste and one with chick curry. My breakfast was surprisingly awesome. It gave me loads of energy for the next few hours!

In the afternoon I went to Wupperwände in Germany to train onsight climbing with Alexander, Nikki and Tabitha. This climbing gym is perfect to train due to its many hard routes. I haven’t been here since last year and all routes were new to me.

I believe we arrived there about 1.45 P.M. and we climbed until 7 P.M.! I ate 4 sultana crackers and didn’t have time for a lunchbreak. The other 5 hours I managed to climb 10 routes. I could recover pretty well and keep on climbing. Wupperwände is nice because of the lead climbing, the overhanging walls and the available free wi-fi for your phone. I wasn’t the one who figured out there was free wi-fi though. I won’t mention any names .

My ticklist: blue 6, red 7+, black 8-, green 9, attempt black 9+, brown 9, black 9+, attempt orange 9+, white 9- and blue 9. The routes probably doesn’t mean much, however a route database might give you an impression of the available routes. There aren’t that many difficult routes in my opinion. My reference point was like a German 8 equals a 7a, a 9 equals a 7c etc etc. Read more about a conversion table of the grades. German grade system belongs to UIAA list.

Sometimes the route wasn’t representing the grade. It was either too easy, whereas a + more it felt so much harder. The difference was quite noticable between a 9 and a 9+. Anyway, it a subjective experience though.

To cut a story short, I trained well abroad with Alexander, Nikki and Tabitha! See you next time again climbers!

After an invitation from Rachel from Facebook, we realised our plan and went climbing at Puurs Klimax together!

From Breda Yvonne and I were lucky enough to join Pascal, Mirthe and Viola. Unfortunately we got stuck in traffic jam on the highway E19. Finally after 2 hours of driving we arrived at the climbing venue.

The weather was super! When we arrived at the climbing gym, we weren’t the only Dutch crew. Another big group of Dutch people from Heerlen arrived early in the morning. They started climbing at 10 A.M. already. Bunch of die hard climbers! 10 minutes before we arrived, a few team members arrived as well: Nikki, Elko and Tabitha. In total we were with a group of 13 Dutch people in Belgium! We set a nice record on a regular Saturday right?

I changed clothes quick, ate a sandwich and started climbing! I believe it was about 28 degrees, however when I was climbing it felt way hotter. I didn’t have a concrete plan though. I just wanted to climb some hard routes through the roof. That went pretty well!

Climbing in Puurs is quite unique. It’s a different style, a style you definitely need to get used to. Most of the routes are challenging and getting harder at the end. Nonetheless it’s really cool to climb here, it’s a nice way to practice your clipping skills. Falling out of the roof is also something you have to get used to. I like it though, I don’t think about falling, which is good so I can focus on the route!

Mirthe took more photos than me, which is quite unusual. You can view her photos here.

Anyway, enough about Puurs. Here is my yesterday’s climbing ticklist: 6a, 6a, 6a, 7a, 7b+, 7c, attempt 8a, attempt 8a and ended with a 7a. I trained well and I’m sure I’m not the only one who felt good about it! I want to climb often at Puurs, the environment feels more comfortable though. It’s a good sign for the Worldcup Lead, which is pretty soon on my calendar!

Last Thursday boulder setter Herman Engbers was setting problems again.

He set 4 new problems on the competition wall. We invited Hans Busker to climb with us among the national team.

And from far far away we managed to ship Nicky de Leeuw to Monk Bouldergym from Austria!

Tuesday we were with 12 climbers, unusual big group though, however on Thursday we were only with 6 climbers. Coach Wally enjoyed the training too.

First we warmed up 10 minutes and then making up problems for each other, followed by a competition simulation.

Compared to last Tuesday, the problems were harder. From 4 problems (from left to right: yellow, yellow, grey and yellow) I managed to have one bonus and one top. Herman was testing his skills for the men’s finals though.

At the end we enjoyed some yoga exercises led by CTO powertrainer Tanja Sarenac.

I liked this training a lot. By the way, most of the problems are re-adjusted by Herman, because they were a tad too hard.

More photos available on Facebook!

Thursday evening I went to climbing gym Neoliet Eindhoven to test the competition routes for the Youth lead 4 competition. I took some notes, which I will upload tomorrow on my webpage after the match. Hopefully the routes are tweaked though. Anyway, the routes are nice. Good luck tomorrow!j

Today I had another team training in our national trainingscenter: Monk Bouldergym.

I entered the gym at 3.15 P.M. and boulder setter Herman Engbers was busy setting new problems on the competition wall.

Besides the competition problems from last Saturday, there are now 2 new traverse routes on the wall. Those were already set before Herman started though.

Today’s update: there are 4 new problems on the wall. Each wall has a green boulder problem!

Besides our team members we had a few guests among our team: Enya Groenland, Tom Hendriks and Mirthe van Liere. It was nice to have them around. Our training was led by coach Wally.

We conducted a warming up at first, to sum up: climbing 3 green problems, traverse from left to right on the training wall, leaning 30 seconds on your elbows, climbing 3 blue problems, 10 pushups on the floor, climbing 3 grey problems, hanging on the horizontal bar and flip hands without falling 10 times, climbing 3 magenta problems, hanging on a horizontal bar and lift your toes all the way up to the bar without bending your legs 10 times, traverse on the training wall from right to left, climbing 3 apple green problems followed by 8 pullups on the horizontal bar.

Then we created 3 groups with 4 climbers and make up creative problems for each other. In my group there were 3 ladies: Tabster, Eva and Enya. Each problems should be challenging enough, so we’d be well warmed up for the competition simulation.

Well, that’s easy said and done. With the same group we started climbing our competition problems, set by Herman. There was 5 minutes time to solve each problem. My goal was to climb each problem within 3 attempts.

I thought it would be really difficult because Herman wanted to test his skills for the national championship. I was wrong, the problems weren’t that difficult however really nice though. I achieved my goal.

At the end we conducted some stretch exercises.

It was a really nice training. More photos are available on my Facebook! I can’t wait for my next training!

Every Tuesday afternoon I train at Monk bouldergym.

Today however we went to another location namely Puurs Klimax. You know what that means, many long routes!

My prep was successful. Rope from Climbing Technology, Boreal climbingshoes, chalkbag, harness, Berghaus team clothing and ready to go.

The CTO bus was already parked at Monk. Even Jorg Verhoeven was present, well not physically but just as a sticker on the bus.

As you can see, we went climbing with a big group.

At Puurs, I climbed about 6 routes. Not that much though, I’m not recovered yet from my elbow injury. Coach Wally observed me and told me I should keep on moving, from one hold to another hold, where my feet should automatically position in the right direction to make the next movement. I think I should have less doubts during climbing however that might not be visible during all the routes.

Unfortunately we had to leave on time. Again Jorg showed off his climbing style at Puurs…

Hopefully we can train together more often in different climbing gyms. See you next time!