Looking Toward 2010

The biggest change for 2010 will be my return to (mostly) full time rock climbing. Last year was my attempt to be a “real” bike racer, and that didn’t quite work out as planned. It’s easy to say I just didn’t train hard enough, but I found that by the end of the season, road racing just wasn’t any fun. Combine that with an increasing desire to climb on the weekends (putting a serious dent in bike time), and riding motivation was seriously lacking (it’s worth noting, too, that climbing is very much a family activity for us, very much unlike bike racing). Of course, I haven’t given up the bike–I’m still commuting every day (even in the snow) and riding the mountain bike in Frick. But this year, my focus will be getting back to where I was with climbing. Part of this is spurred by our planning for a long-ish road trip out west in the spring (possible destinations are Hueco Tanks, Maple Canyon, and Rifle). And, of course, there will be many weekends spent at the New River Gorge, too.

That’s not say I won’t race this year. It may be difficult in the short term seeing as I don’t actually own a road bike, and if we’re gone most of April or May, I’ll start the season at a disadvantage with few miles in my legs. Oh well. I’m sure I’ll show up at the C races at some point (assuming a bike), and I’d like to try a mountain bike race or two this year as well.

As for climbing, I don’t have any concrete goals at this point. There are routes I’d like to do at the New River Gorge, but only time will tell if they will be season-long projects. I’m trying to work out some sort of training plan that only involves the gym one or two days a week. I happened upon these British gents and their hangboard training plans. Their commitment to the fine British tradition of focusing on board training rather than actually climbing is impressive. The hangboard training will be particularly useful, as my finger strength is lacking at the moment.

The fine British board tradition:

Splinter from ben pritchard on Vimeo.