Never Stop Climbing

My decision to start climbing was absolutely crazy really. I guess that’s one of the reasons it appealed to me in the first place. I was significantly overweight, nearly 40, and had no previous climbing experience. I also have asthma, and live in Houston, Texas – a place flat and far from anything worth climbing. Making it to the top of an 8,000m summit would take years of lifestyle-altering training and thousands of dollars in gear and travel expenses. So where do you even start with that mess?

Diet

This is probably worth an entire post in it’s own right but I’m not really qualified to dispense diet advice to people. What I did though was focus on healthy natural foods. Processed foods, white flour, sugar, and high-carb foods were mostly replaced by vegetables, lean meats (lots of tuna, turkey, and chicken), fruit, and fat-free yogurt. I didn’t restrict calories as I made the switch to new eating habits and I think that’s key to making the transition somewhat bearable. I did cut calories down to about 1,500 a day about a month into the transition.

These days If I do want to deviate from the diet for a burger, or similar meal,  I won’t get it from a fast-food restaurant. Real foods, even if relatively unhealthy, are infinitely better for you than the fast-food alternatives. I’m nine months into this transition and my diet isn’t perfect but it’s perfect 90-95% of the time and that’s enough, when paired with training, to generate results. I’ve lost 95 pounds, and added quite a bit of muscle, since June 2008.

A typical day’s intake for might include:

Breakfast – Fat free yogurt with fresh fruit and a healthy cereal.

Lunch – Turkey sandwich on wheat with mustard and veggies, a salad, or chicken breast.

Dinner – Baked chicken, chicken fajitas on whole wheat tortillas (lettuce & tomatoes – no cheese, guacamole, or sour cream), or Tuna with black pepper and dill relish on wheat (no mayo)

Snacks – Fruit, fat free yogurt, or a cup of healthy soup.

Exercise

The vast majority of serious climbers will spend far more time training than climbing. If you’re starting from zero, which is where I started, you’d better be willing to turn over thousands of hours in your schedule to training. To be honest it requires a level of commitment that most of your friends and family will find a bit insane – especially if you live in a climbing-clueless town like Houston.

I started with walking – 15 minutes worth. 15 minutes of walking seems laughable now but the first few days it was enough. By the end of the week I was up to 45 minutes a day. I upped the time to two hours a day by the second week and started walking 3-4 hours a day on the weekends – sometimes twice a day. My only real goal at this point was weight loss and getting my cardio up to what I’d consider a base level.

Three months into this daily routine I’d lost probably 50 pounds and was at a point where hours of walking no longer even felt remotely like a workout. My asthma had responded well to daily low-level cardio and It seemed like a good time to up the intensity of my workouts. I started climbing stairs.

Stair Climbing

Stair climbing is one of the best training tools, possibly the best, a aspiring alpine climber located in the flatland can employ. It’s a great training method for anyone actually. It works the lungs and the legs hard – just like climbing. It’s also relatively accessible since almost anyone can find a few flights of stairs to climb anywhere and at any time – at no cost. I live in downtown Houston so I’m literally surrounded by stairs.

I started by working in a few flights in public areas along my walking route. I’d cover six miles or so and work in ten stories worth of stairs. After a couple weeks of this I blocked out a few minutes and I’d climb a two-story section of stairs ten times. It was hard. I plodded along taking one step at a time and had to focus on my asthma-impaired breathing but I did this each night for month. It took me almost 30 minutes to knock out 20 stories because I had to pause between flights to catch my breath. It sucked, but I noticed significant increases in my performance every few days.

About a month into this routine I doubled the number to 40 stories. Two days later I went for 50 stories, a week later 70. That cardio foundation I’d been searching for seemed to be there. At that point I was really on a roll and started climbing 70 stories every other day and walking 2 hours on my off days. I was still sort of plodding upward but I was making it and making progress. I continued this routine for about a month before going for 100 stories in less than an hour – and making it.

100 stories, about 3 times per week, became the new routine. I focused on my time and continued to shave minutes off. I wasn’t setting records but I was getting the 100 in consistently between 40-50 minutes. I continued this for a few weeks before deciding to move to stair sprints.

My current stair sprint involves a two mile loop downtown, which has 14 different 2-3 story sections of stairs along the way. I walk quickly between the sections and sprint, two steps at a time, up the stairs. I do the circuit once, sprinting up each section of stairs once, then do it again but sprint up each set of stairs twice before moving on. I usually also pick one section and do 3 sets of 5 sprints along the way. It adds up to over 70 stories of sprints over 3-4 miles. I do this in just over an hour with an average heart rate of about 146 bpm and a lot of spikes to 165-175 bpm.

What Next?

I’m continuing with the stair sprints for now. I’ll probably add an extra lap around the circuit on Saturday’s through March. I’m also starting to focus on my core and upper body more. I’ll be adding lots of daily crunches and similar exercises this month as I up my workouts to twice a day. I still consider myself to be at the initial phase of my fitness plan and expect it to move into a more intense phase later this summer. At that point I’ll probably seek professional training help and get much more deliberate about training and diet.

Disclaimer

This writeup makes my progress sound a bit less painful than it actually was. There was a lot, continues to be a lot, of trial and error involved in this progression – not to mention minor injuries, failed attempts, etc. I’ve learned a lot about listening to my body and monitoring my performance/heart rate along the way. The bottom line is be your own guide and, whatever training program you choose, progress at a pace that makes sense for you.

Update
Check out the awesome Steph Davis’ post on weight training for climbers and NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski’s post on training for Everest in Houston.