This week’s post works in tandem with last week’s, Project Shopping.

It’s important to be in the rhythm and flow of always feeding the project hopper with projects that you’ve vetted through the project shopping process. There is a natural rotation to the kinds of projects you will be working, i.e. short-term goals, long term-goals, weather-dependent goals, crowd-dependent goals.

After I warm up, I typically give one or two redpoint attempts on my primary project, the one I am closest to sending. If I feel that I am close, rather than staying on that project for additional burns, I start working other projects and laying track for routes that I want to work later in the season. This feeds the hopper so that there is no lull after I send a project; I already have the next one lined up and in the works.

Working a variety of routes also helps psychologically. I like to get on other routes now and then so that I’m not falling on the same move all year. I use to be obsessive about trying to send my projects, giving it three burns per day, three times per week, but that is a sure way to burn out, so keep I keep myself excited by starting something new.

Another strategy to keep yourself engaged and trying new routes is to knock out some low- (to no-) star “classics” that you passed up while you were working your way through the grades at your crag. Work these into the rotation. This can be particularly useful on crowded days (it’s not like there’s going to be a line for those choss piles).

If the crowds have cleared out for the day, and if you’re project is free, give it a fitness burn. At this point, you have absolutely no expectations of sending, you’re just going to run up it really quick and see what happens. How many times have we sent on this burn? We’re warmed up, relaxed physically and mentally, free of jitters and butterflies, and because we’ve let go of the result, BAM!, we send it last go of the day.

This is also why it is a good idea to have something in the hopper, because now that’s the primary project. By this point, you may be ready to start giving that new project redpoint burns, and the process can begin again.