learning tired

I remember very early on when I started running I didn't really understand how to feel how tired my body was. I remember doing a workout by myself and wanting to run 800 meters in under 3 minutes. And I kept waiting for my breathing to go back to normal and once that happened I didn't really understand why I couldn't run faster than I'd ever run before. My body didn't feel tired and I was super motivated. Why was it not happening.

Pretty quickly I learned that you can only perform to your absolute best a relatively small number of times. I see it with the kids at my afterschool program too. They run a 400m loop around the playground as hard as they can and then after they've rested a bit they want to try to beat their time. I tell them, "halfway through you're gonna feel way more tired than you did the first time."

Sometimes they beat their time though. They still don't know how hard they can push themselves.

Anyway, I'm having to learn the same lesson in climbing. Today I felt fine and should've been able to climb really well and do some problems I haven't finished. And then I tried one that I know I can do without much difficulty and I was not able to stick the moves. It didn't matter how hard I tried, my hands were tired in a way that wasn't apparent until they were seemingly maxed out.

Unlike running, I really only enjoy climbing when I'm feeling my best or close to my best. It's not really fun to do a bunch of problems that I already know I can do. Although, that's like being dissatisfied with running a bunch of 7 minute miles when you know on your best day you can run sub 5 minute miles. They're still worth doing to improve. They're necessary. For now though climbing is mostly for fun and for cross training. So I'm not too worried about it. Just interesting to relearn the lesson of being tired.