Fifth climbing class today – I'm clearly stronger in the bouldering cave than on the wall, which means I need to work on stamina. It's so easy to say "take" and sit in my harness when top-roping, but I've been working on avoiding that and learning to just relax and take breaks (with straight arms) on every route. Today I discovered the higher I get, the more shallow my breathing becomes. Climbing with held breath is a bad idea. Breathing deeply keeps you moving and tricks your body and mind into thinking the route is easier than it actually is. So I reminded myself to breath even deeper through the hardest parts.
Next week is the last class and Daniel said he's going to go over a lot about the mental aspect of climbing. He said Chris Sharma, arguably the world's best rock climber (at least at one time), spent two years meditating and then came back to blow everyone out of the water on the rock face. So much of any effort is in the mind, and climbing is definitely no exception.
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