The last few summers in Washington have been hot. I got tired of sweating off bad holds only to be too weak to send in the fall, and so I reconsidered my strategy. After a great spring at the crag, I decided to train inside this summer and save my projects for the fall.

Who in their right mind pulls the plug just as the season is starting? Especially when they’ve been climbing at their peak?

My decision is the result of my previous experience and my new data. Every year, after a few months of climbing outside, I notice a drop in power and strength. For as many seasons as I can remember, it’s been the same pattern: start the spring crushing and then hit a performance plateau, maybe squeak a send by late summer, and struggle on harder projects in the fall when conditions are at their best. 

Apparently, exchanging power for endurance is a necessary evil. Up until now this trade-off was a theory of bro science, but now I have the training logs and performance metrics to prove it.

So this summer I’m back on the hangboard to re-up my strength and re-set my ego. It was an impressive spring outside, but as soon as I went for my first grip (a warm-up!), I failed.

I decided to be conservative and start my new round of hangboarding at about halfway through last cycle’s data, meaning that I assumed that I would have lost about half of my power in the past two months. But after failing, then failing, and then failing, I realized I was wrong—I had lost everything!

After failing completely with my “conservative” goals, I had to accept that it’s better to start off easy and re-build strength slowly, than to go too hard and get hurt.

This is the first time I’ve ever had objective data to guide my training. It was hard to wrap my head around the idea that I’m the strongest I’ve ever been, and yet I’m weaker than I was. How is this possible? I had suspected it for years, and now I have the data to prove it.

I haven’t done anything yet, except have the best spring I’ve ever had and confirm that I’m weaker than I thought. Now I’m back on the hangboard to re-up my strength and power. I’ll let you know in the fall if these long and lonely training sessions are worth it.