bluefoxicy

Turns out Earth Treks Climbing is right next to Red Zone, the laser tag place.

Turns out I am still weak.

After the off season, my bicycle threatens to kill me. Really, I was gonna bike in the cold but it kept hovering at 2 degrees above freezing and raining a lot... that plus wool is so utterly unappealing. I've biked in the rain in the summer and enjoyed it; not doing that in the winter, snow or I'm not going out in it. Five months later my heart just can't take the bike.

Well. They'll give me a $75 instruction package and a $65/mo membership to show up and crawl on the walls like friggin' Spiderman whenever I feel like it, indoors, rain or sun or blizzards from the blackest planes of Hell left out in the parking lot. Even in the off season when the weather's threatening me with fatal exposure to frigid wetness instead of providing a perfectly passable snowscape, I can just stick the bike away and keep on scaling the walls.

Seems worth it. What do you think? Worth it? Waste of money, stick with pushups and stationary bike?

ericm979

Climbing is fun- I used to do it before there were indoor climbing gyms. It'll get you fit for climbing if you do enough of it, but it's not going to get you fit for cycling. It's usefulness depends on your goals.

The learning curve is steeper than cycling- as a beginner cyclist you don't need instruction to avoid serious injury, but it's a very good idea for climbing.

rdtompki

Join a good gym for 40/mo or so. Wait for warmer weather.

bluefoxicy

Interesting points. Yeah falling off my bike at 15mph a few dozen times wasn't really bad. Falling off that



50 foot high wall once is probably worse.

My goals are for both stamina and strength, but I guess there's not a lot of aerobic action going on when you're effectively lifting your own weight steadily. The place seems to insist that it provides strength and stamina training for your entire body--arms, legs, abs, everything--along with requirements for coordination and balance.

Ah well, as long as it's fun and keeps my heart beating I guess that does something. Plus right next door is a laser tag place.

CharleyGnarly

I say go for it. I tried climbing for the first time last summer and loved it. There is a place close by that I plan on visiting soon to get going more. As for the gym, I tried that and became incredibly bored. The repetition of a gym is a killer to me. Climbing however, seems like a good alternative for strength and endurance.

Carbonfiberboy 

I did high angle rock when I was a kid. I still like climbing. It's a very cool past-time and not dangerous at all in the gym. Hey, they got insurance issues! One of the very cool things is that you get a lot better if your strength to weight ratio is higher, even more noticeable on the wall that in cycling, I think. So that's pressure to get it off. It will seriously improve your fitness and flexibility. It won't do much for you aerobically, but there's more to life than just riding. You will absolutely stink to begin with. Don't let it get you down, just keep working on a route until you get it. I've worked on a particular route for weeks.

What you want to do in the winter is get a set of rollers and ride them for an hour maybe 3 times/week. That makes all the difference. Never let a winter go by without keeping some aerobic fitness. It gets harder to get it back every year.

SmoothieXL

do it, i climb avidly, and i think it is a great activity to counter cycling with. keeps your body in balance, with strong core and upper body strength, as well it really stretches out the hips, which are known to tighten from cycling.
however in terms of improving your cycling, probably not a significant amount. i mean its always better to be healthier and fitter, but there are basically no direct skill transfers between the two activities.
check out some climbing movies for inspiration, i recommend king lines, pure, and the sharp end.

hyhuu

In climbing, gravity sucks ... much more so than cycling. Yet in climbing forum, you won't see thread like "we we are still fat".

bluefoxicy

This?

I don't know what happened but I can't close my hand around anything today. Yesterday I climbed around the bouldering area for 2 hours and then did an hour of top rope before I ran out of energy (got hungry, camelbak was running low, etc), the day before that I had my first climbing class (3 hours, half of that was climbing).

Today my forearm hurts if I squeeze things more than enough to raise a soda bottle. There's this huge, meaty bulge on the inside of my forearm just below my elbow. What?

I feel like I've been hit with a brick. A lot.

Carbonfiberboy 

Don't raise a soda bottle. Never drink that crap, ever. You also don't need a Camelbak. I once did Arches, a 15-lead route in Yosemite with one water bottle.

bluefoxicy

Hey, I have Mexican coke, tang, orange juice, almond milk, ovaltine, Nuun, gatorade, root beer, Nuun that's flavored like Cola, Bass pale ale, apple juice I fermented...

Last year in 106F weather people were telling me a 16 ounce water bottle filled with just cold water should have been good for me for a 15 mile ride. I nuked like 1.5 liters of electrolyte-enhanced water on my 2-way commute in normal weather, 7mi each way, and didn't even have to take a piss when I got done it. A godsend right to the end.

Yeah I don't use that much water climbing, I even mix it rather light on the electrolytes. But I'll work out what I need. This one's just a 1.5L Hydrobak with no storage, it weighs all of 3lb full and I forget it's even there and fall on it.. :\ The best part about a CamelBak is I can take water under load; if I had a water bottle strapped to my hip, I'd want a feeder tube on it.