Inspired by Geraldine Taylor's achievement of climbing her first 8a at the age of 54, I have decided to undertake an experiment:
Is it possible for an overweight, London based, mid 30's family man who hasnt climbed in 7 years to climb an 8a? And if so how long will this take?
Basically on hearing about Geraldines remarkable acheivement I decided perhaps I should not write myself off quite yet. So before I begin let me give a bit of background:
Until I moved to London (the fateful 7 years ago) I had climbed pretty much all my life. I became reasonably good but never actually succeeded in climbing an 8a. I managed trad mountain routes to E6, grit to E7 and sport to 7c+.
I am 34 years old and have basically spent the last 7 years sat on a sofa eating pizzas and curry, and drinking wine and beer. It has been fun, but those days are now over.
Lay your bets.....
christmas holidays
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At Christmas my grandma, grandpa, auntie, uncle and cousins came round and
had Christmas with my family. They came on Christmas eve and stayed until
boxing...
16 years ago
4 comments:
My advice it to go for a nice and easy improvements rather than anything extreme...
1) No booze on weekdays (except dinner parties)
2) No sugary treats - muffins, cakes or home made chocolate cookies :-)
3) At least one cardio session a week.
Good luck mate
Advice taken on board and implemented.
As an over-weight, London-based, mid-thirties family man who has just started climbing regularly again I love this. My problem is that even in youth I only ever climbed trad and only to E2.
I am inspired to join you on your quest to climb 8a! At present have never climbed 7a so that is a shorter term goal.
What would your advice be?
Join the quest Jim!
It would help me to get the motivation going again if nothing else :)
It took me a while to get some fitness back so take it slow and don't get demoralized. I found lots of small targets so i could really see measurable progress helped.
Also try to get to the crags as much as possible. Climbing walls are just boring and kill your motivation! Good luck!
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