Looking back over the past year to see if I've improved at the 3 things I've been training.
Climbing. Overhead Press. Sprinting.
Climbing
On June 1st of last year I picked up 120lbs with my left hand on a 20mm edge and 130lbs with my right hand. At least one time in the past year I've picked up 130lbs with my left hand and 140lbs with my right hand.
I mostly did these lifts as a warm-up and only did a few dedicated workouts if I couldn't climb for some reason. I'm happy I was able to make improvement with both hands. In the next year I'd like to pick up my bodyweight with my right hand and get my left hand up to 140lbs.
I don't think this type of finger strength is a limiting factor in my climbing.
Since August of last year an overwhelming majority of my climbing has been spent moonboarding twice a week. I would warm up by pulling with the tension block and then climb on the moonboard for about an hour while working on completing the benchmarks at the lowest grade available. Through November I completed almost all of the 2016 v4 benchmarks and then when the gym changed over to the 2024 set I did all of the V4 benchmarks and as of today I have 7 6C benchmarks left. That's about 77 benchmark climbs between v4 and v5 since last November.
One feeling I have about the past year is that I think I've topped out my climbing ability with about two hours of structured climbing per week. Training that was essentially moderate to limit bouldering for an hour a session. In running terms, I'm doing the kind of training I was doing in middle school. Low mileage. Short workouts. Racing a lot.
I feel like I can be very strong for one effort or a single move but that ability decreases pretty quickly over the course of a session. I also don't think I use my body as efficiently as I could. I think both could be addressed by climbing more. More training-style climbing instead of working hard moves. More volume.
The thing I liked about the training I did this year was that it was easy and simple to quantify and it didn't make me too tired for things like sprinting. A few years ago I would just climbing whatever I felt until I got tired and the next day I would feel wiped out. I've done a good job at being intentional with my climbing training.
That said, when I look at my off-the-wall strength metrics, I should be climbing harder than I do. And it comes back to not climbing enough.
So! This summer the goal is to CLIMB MORE. When I would train for cross country in the summer it was about accruing mileage. It didn't really matter if it was slow or not. It was about making the number go up. And I saw huge improvements from doing that.
The plan is Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays when we're climbing in the gym with the summer camp to do easy climbing and work on dynamic movement with make-ups. NO PROJECTING! NO TRYING HARD MOVES! NO SPIRALING! Easy, fun climbing that is low stakes so I can still run the summer camp effectively. I'm okay with climbing very little during this time. This time is not about getting fit or even doing anything challenging. It's movement maintenance.
Then on Tuesdays and Fridays I'm going to warm-up on the campus board and then do structured workouts of Wall Crawls where I do climbs on the moonboard and batcave spraywall while holding each position for 5 seconds or a 7 count before moving again. If I could build up to 2 hours per session of this training, 4 hours per week, I think that would move the needle. I can also supplement the time with the batcave traverse wall or the tread wall. We'll see! I think it's going to be really tough but I want to set the bar high and be okay with feeling tired and weak. I'm not going to test my strength or expect any PRs but trust that doing the work on relatively easy climbing will pay off.
Strength
The main lift I focused on this year was barbell Overhead Press. At some point in the Fall I hit 60kg for one and then I kinda lost my momentum due to shoulder injuries and weird things cropping up. I also had a wrist injury in the Spring that made pressing with the barbell uncomfortable. Recently though I hit 12 reps with 95lbs which is also a PR. I made incremental progress towards my goal of pressing my bodyweight but upper body strength training was definitely secondary to climbing and lower body training. I'm okay with that.
Again, my pressing and pulling strength aren't limiting factors to my climbing. They're fun to work on but it wouldn't make sense to prioritize them more than I do. Also injuries are lame. As of right now I'm completely healthy other than some lingering stiffness in my right wrist so I'm going to continue with the strength training I've been doing.
Lately my routine has consisted of holding one arm lock-offs on each arm for as long as possible. Then pressing 95lbs or 100lbs for as many reps as possible. Then using the pulley system by the hangboard to do as many one-arm pull-ups as possible with 15lbs attached to the other end of the pulley. Then I do as many bodyweight pull-ups as possible. I started with 15 one day and every session I try to beat that. I'm currently at 18 and my lifetime best is 22. So far I haven't had to go to failure because I just beat it by one and then stop but I'll have to figure something out once I can't beat it anymore. Maybe I'll just add a little bit of weight and then start again. Anyway that's been working well. I like those exercises and it's not enough to make me super tired.
Sprinting
On June 3rd, 2025 my sprinting PRs were
50m- 6.14 100m- 12.58 200m- 26.89 300m- 43.25
As of June 3rd, 2026, my PRs are:
50m- 5.94 100m- 12.22 200m- 26.41 300m- 42.29
I improved! Yay!
If I could make that some amount of improvement over the next year, I would consider my sprinting goals reached.
I learned a lot about form and changed my training quite a bit from a year ago. My lifts are also completely different. My legs are visibly bigger than they were a year ago.
Keep going.
