New Year, New Journey!

    I have always been fond of making New Years resolutions. As days become just hours left in the old year, the promise of a “new year, new me” starts to take over my mind. Yes, I know I promised to be better last New Years but THIS year is THE year!!! And who could really argue with an airtight argument like that? Not me, that’s for sure. And so I began working on my resolutions about a week in advance. What do I want to accomplish the most this New Year? In the past, that has always been my go-to brainstorming starter question. In the past, I had only been concerned with the actualization of the achievements. Nothing else mattered and nothing else counted. It was that black and white for me. For example: Did I lose all the weight like I said I would? Yes? Then I was awesome! If no, then I sucked…and more often than not, I sucked.

I am going to train- as in put in the blood, sweat, and tears

    I have been climbing for close to a year now and this in combination with a few other major life events (falling in love, applying to graduate school, quitting a job I grew to dislike, starting a new job in a place that feels like home) have been changing my mindset. Fading away for me is the idea that everything must be an all or nothing event and slowly taking its place is the idea that I am happy with the journey. And the more I think about it, the more I become eager to start new journeys no matter where the paths (or detours) may take me. What journey do I want to work on the most this New Year? I want to work on improving and expanding my set of skills as a climber!

    What’s my plan of action you ask? Training. Yes, I said it. I am going to train- as in put in the blood, sweat, and tears required for improvement and forego the “I’ll just climb a lot until I get better” mentality because I personally feel the need for structure in order to improve my climbing. This journey has been greatly inspired by my boyfriend and also the Anderson brothers. Mark and Mike Anderson have together created a training system backed up by exercise science that I will be testing out this whole near year of 2017. With their book, The Rock Climber’s Training Manual, in hand and the support from my loved ones I will be rocking out on the walls almost every day! I am very excited and will be happy to share some of my training updates along the way peppered throughout the year.

    The first round of training is SEVENTEEN weeks long! Here’s a general overview:

Weeks 1-4: Base Fitness

Weeks 5-7: Strength

Weeks 8 & 9: Power

Weeks 10-12 Power Endurance

Weeks 13-15: Performance

Weeks 16 & 17: Rest

    I’ve got a long climb ahead of me but I know the journey will be worth it when it culminates in my ability to experience these beautiful moments, even if I don’t get to send the first time.

Steph Davis climbing “Hidden Gem” (13?) near Moab Utah.

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year!

Jon & TheDihedral