Lattice Training Log Part 10: Week 4 of Cycle 2. De-load 2. Board sends. Sick.
This was the week of Oct 10, the fourth (de-load) week of my second training cycle.
As you can see from the calendar, I got a COVID booster and a flu shot this week, which put me out of commission for Wednesday. I was still feeling a bit lightheaded Thursday but I decided to go train anyway and actually ended up having a great session.
I don’t know if it was the vaccine or what, but I felt really sick again on Thursday night, which knocked me out again for Friday and Saturday. I finally started feeling better Sunday, so I finished what I could (really I just missed some mobility sessions and a 1/2 boulder play session).
This week pretty much sucked. I was hoping to have a nice and relaxing time, but instead I spent most of it feeling awful. I guess it fits better with my training schedule, though.
Improvements
As usual, the details are in the spreadsheet. This being a de-load week, I didn’t do a lot of the conditioning, so there’s not much to report. However, the repeaters felt considerably easier this week - the last hang of the last few sets didn’t feel desperate, as before.
The big win for this week was my board session. I managed to repeat ZELDAWAVE (V5), send the mirror problem (which for me felt harder). I also sent Big Pinch Pinchin’ (V5) on both sides, and did the crux of Punch Pinch (V6) (I think for the first time).
This is my third V5 on the tension board, and I feel pretty confident that I can send Punch Pinch pretty soon, which would be my first V6.
I think the improvements here are largely from technique. I found that I had a much easier time engaging with my feet, which made the climbs feel comfortably within my ability. I attribute this to my tension warmups (though maybe this is the core work paying off).
Let there be light
My gym got lights for the tension board! I’m really excited, as I think this will make training a lot more fun. I can warm up on lots of new tension climbs, and spend rest time thinking about the movement rather than memorizing holds.
I’m also excited to try my boulder triplet workout on the tension board, to see what it will feel like with short but punchy problems. I will probably switch to doing it on the tension board every week, since I can keep a consistent rotation of problems, and ratchet up difficulty week by week by substituting more challenging climbs.
Triplets
This week I saw a video on Anna Hazelnutt’s channel where she does the Lattice boulder triplet workout. It seems that our experiences with this workout are quite different.
On the first (green) problem Anna spends a whole minute on the wall, and I counted something like 17 hand moves! Based on my understanding of the triplets that Lattice has given me, I typically try to pick shorter but more intense sequences, where I’m on the wall for only about 30s. So for this climb, I’d probably pull on past the heel-hook moves and do just the section past the sloper, maybe even dropping off immediately after getting past that crux.
However, it’s definitely possible that Anna’s Triplets have a different purpose in her training plan, or perhaps longer sequences feel more appropriate for her to challenge herself.
Either way, it was cool to see another climber’s experience in a training session that is now so familiar to me. It makes me think that maybe I should record some more video of my sessions, so other folks can compare their experiences in a similar way.
That’s all for this week. Next week is the beginning of Cycle 3. More of the same, though with slightly higher loads and slightly shorter rest times.