Sport Climbing Training Plan- Give me feedback

Nevermind

I may not be reading it correctly, but it seems your longest set of moves in a row is 40. If you want to increase endurance your longest sets should be 300-400 moves (20-25 minutes of continuous climbing).
The running, pull-ups, push-ups and crunches are too non-specific to be much help.
It would help to know the grade and style of your project routes and your current:
1.) Max boulder grade
2.) Max 4x4 grade
3.) 20 minute continuous climbing grade

Nico Toscani wrote:I think general fitness and recovery between burns in a climbing day is my greatest weakness. So, I'm hoping these will improve that.

Recovery between routes comes down to how well your climbing muscles can flush the byproducts of exertion. This depends on how well vascularized your climbing muscles are. Vascularization is increased when you do long bouts of aerobic activity with the muscle group. ARCing is the best way to increase vascularization in climbing muscles.
Push-ups, pull-ups, crunches and running will increase vascularization of the muscles used in push-ups, pull-ups, crunches and running, not climbing.

Nico Toscani wrote:During sport climbing season, maybe I can get up a v9 after 3-4 sessions, maybe v8 in a session or 2, and I could flash v7 or do it in a day.

You are plenty strong to climb enduro 5.14a. You don't need to increase your bouldering grade.

Nico Toscani wrote:If I had to guess, maybe in the v4 range?

4x4ing on V5 or V6 will give you more latitude if you want to climb more power-endurance 13+/14- routes, or if your project has a sustained (3 bolt) crux.

Nico Toscani wrote:I understood the exercise as something where you're trying not to get very pumped.

Yes, that's the idea. Keep it aerobic.

Nico Toscani wrote:So, my grade not getting pumped for 20'(15 gym routes in a row?) maybe 5.9-5.10 if that, I don't know?

Your ARCing needs to be in the 5.12a/b area if you want to have any chance on enduro 5.13+ or 5.14- routes. These routes rarely have a move easier than 5.12a, so if you are going anaerobic on the non-crux section, you will have a really difficult time when the crux comes.

Definitely Macia. I followed that exact plan about 2 years ago and it worked quite well for me. Having said that I think it worked well for my level at the time (going from 12+ to 13-), which is the level I think the plan is designed for. Afterwards I hit a bit of a plateau when I came back to Colorado and realized I could hold on forever but had no power. I started including some deadhangs, campusing, and a lot more bouldering which has helped. The plan worked very well for increasing my power endurance (or what he calls short and long endurance), and so I think it is a good plan if that's what you're going for.

My last thought is that if you're trying 13+/14- routes then the volume is a little low. For example the thursday session on the peak week (week 3, month 2) has you only doing 6 long endurance laps which will only take about an hour. I think you could probably start with 6 or 7 and build from there. In Macia's other Q+A book he recommends including a long-bouldering session on wednesday, or on thursday before doing long-endurance which is a good way to add in some extra work.

Nico Toscani wrote: When you say it needs to be in the 12a/b range, are you referring to each 20 move section being 12ab? 15 straight gym 12as would be outrageously hard.

Yes, the individual routes need to be 5.12a. That would get you solidly into 5.14a. ARCing at 5.11b would be a good start towards the 5.13+ range. Start in the 5.9 range and bump the difficulty up each session. We strive for a mild pump that we can shake off if we camp out on a jug.
Training intervals is a great way to climb interval-style routes, but it will not transfer very well into aerobic climbing.

Nico Toscani wrote: An example Macia provides is an elite climber doing 10 sets of 20 moves at 75% with 45" rest. So, I could be wrong but it sounds like that's how guys like Ramon, Edu, and Patxi train for aerobic capacity. And, what I'm doing is a scaled down bush league version of that with 100 move in a series instead of 200, and 1'45"-2' rest instead of 45".

What you are failing to recognize in the above example is that the 75% of ability level provides the scale down. You are just reducing the volume and increasing the rest which completely changes the workout.

Question, what exactly is 75%? I mean, how do you come up with it? Is it 5.1, 5.2, 5.3 ....5.11, 5.12, 5.13 or do you separate out a, b, c, d or go on "feeling"?

Assigning numbers to this is difficult/pointless, and all depends on route composition, setting, your climbing style, etc.

Nevertheless...Take for example some routes at the RRG -- the Undertow Wall at the Lode. I'm RP'ing at a 14- level, and I can ARC continuously for 30+ minutes on routes up to 12d on that wall, if they are the pure enduro routes...Tuna Town, Leave it To Beavis. These are rated 12d, but probably have no move harder than V2...maybe even V1. At a place like Wild Iris, I would probably have to stay below 11- to be in "ARC'ing" territory because there are 11a's there with tweaky V3 and V4 moves. Clearly, RRG style climbs (whether they are outdoors or in a gym) are the best for ARC training--that is, consistent, sustained difficulty with no discernable cruxes.

ARC'ing must be done by "feel", and the best way I can describe it is this: After you are warmed up, climb hard enough to build up a pump as quickly as possible, and maintain that pump for the duration of the workout...30-45 minutes. Therefore, the pump can't be so severe that you can't complete the workout, but it should be as severe as you can without falling off, or flailing. This takes some practice to figure out, but isn't too hard. If you have varied terrain and an assortment of holds it is easy to modulate the grip-size/angle/movement-difficulty as needed to control the pump.

Once you've got that down, throw in things like movement practice, breathing, weighting your feet, leading, and down-leading, etc. to create a workout that is both parts quality training and quality practice. When done this way, I think there is nothing better for progressing at endurance sport climbing.

To the OP: Please describe your warm up routine at the crag, and what you mean by a "go" on a hard project. If you're only getting one good go, I suspect you could make some adjustments to these to fix that.

Mike or Mono, how often, if at all to you ARC on routes at a gym. What I'm curious about is down climbing. Most often on harder routes it is pretty awkward, you know, since they are set to be climbed up not down. So, would you down climb on the same routes, easier, any feet and keep moving, lower (unlikely)?

And, no I don't have access to a tread wall.

LeeAB wrote: So, would you down climb on the same routes, easier, any feet and keep moving, lower (unlikely)?

I downclimb an easier route using any feet. This is where the gym shines, a 5.11+ can be set right on top of a 5.9 downclimb.

Brendan N. (grayhghost) wrote: I downclimb an easier route using any feet. This is where the gym shines, a 5.11+ can be set right on top of a 5.9 downclimb.

This, for the most part. Sometimes I'm able to down climb the same route...maybe add some feet our shake longer at the rests. Even outside you can often down climb an adjacent route.

Nico Toscani wrote:I guess it depends. But, on days where I'm trying a hard project, Ill probably do 1 5.11 and 1 5.12. Or, if Im at a crag where I have a few routes really really dialed, maybe a 13a or a 12d and a 13a. By a "go" I mean a redpoint attempt where I get pretty high on a route close to my limit(as in 50-60 feet up a 90 foot route). That would have me cooked enough that if I rested for 3 hours and re-warmed up, I probably wouldn't be able to get back to the same high point that day. Another example- if I tried really hard to flash a 12d in the morning, I might be blown out enough that my attempt on a project in the afternoon would be useless.

So are you saying that one five to fifteen minute burn saps you for the rest of the day? That is crazy. Maybe you are resting too long between burns. I rest between 45 and 90 minutes, no more.

do a bunch of hard top roping....that'll get you stronger no matter what

Brendan N. (grayhghost) wrote: I downclimb an easier route using any feet. This is where the gym shines, a 5.11+ can be set right on top of a 5.9 downclimb.

Just double checking, it is what I do as well if I don't traverse.

austin luper wrote:do a bunch of hard top roping....that'll get you stronger no matter what

The A.M.T.R.

Nico Toscani wrote:Yeah, more or less one truly max effort can wreck me for the rest of the day.

This is classic 'Over-Strong' syndrome. You are in the bouldering mindset of trying to tear the holds off the wall and not in the route mindset of doing everything as weakly as possible. This is why you are getting wrecked.
Do some serious ARCing, then 4x4 and 6x8s and you will feel fit.

Does anyone know if Macia has any materials in English? Or does anyone have access to anymore of his training plans?