Athlete • Speaker • Guide 
Athlete • Speaker • Guide Date: 2nd May 2010
A year or so ago I read an interesting book by Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers. Gladwell looks at why some people on the edges of human potential, or “outliers,” succeed brilliantly while others don’t. Extremely high I.Q. people who don’t succeed at much of anything are contrasted with less bright but still smart people who dominate intellectually. Why does one person succeed and not the other?
Posted in: Blog
Explain to those of us who aren't elite, who or what is "Angie"?
Angie: 100 each, done in straight blocks of 100, of pullups, pushups, air squats and situps.
And I'm not elite. For the full humor of the elite comment check out two crossfitters one chalk bucket…
I just found your blog. Great stuff Will. Keep the info coming cause I'm following it all.
hi will
thanks for all of the thoughtful info (or informative thoughts?)
just a question about your WOD, are you following those everyday on the cf site and resting when they say rest? i'm curious about how much volume to try incorporating into my week.
cheers
katherine
How are you Will?
I wanted to thank you you again to be out there climbing day after day. Last time I saw you in Canmore for our mix-ice seminar to guy Search and Rescue Technicians, you were pretty cool with us. I have been climbing for 21 years now and I have to tell you I came back from South America climbing peaks after peaks…Cayambe 5790m, Iliniza 5263m, Imbabura 4621m, Altar 5319m, Pichincha 4776m, Cotopaxi 5897m…in less than 9 days. I just arrived from Haiti last month. I helped that country from day 1 after the earthquake for a month, giving medical care to fast evacuation by helicopter. I had my hands full and bloody, but I am now in Canada.
After talking with my fellows climbers and my boss, I am today in Vancouver Island buying a house; after asking a posting back West and the worl of Nice Canadian mix-Climb. Yup man, I am now closer to the Rockies and I will follow your crazy cool stuff and exploits here. I hope I will have the honor to meet you again and exchange around a good beer.
Your friend Nicolas Meunier
What would being able to do 100 nonstop pullups have to do with elite alpinism? I think you once wrote that alpinism is "weight on your feet" with mental cruxes. Rest of it, I agree. You are as strong as your weakest link.
So after reading the post I had to try "Angie". I don't work out in a gym, instead I train by ski-touring, trail running, bouldering, sport/trad climbing, and soloing moderate alpine routes. I got Angie done in the pathetic time of 29 minutes. Believe it or not it was the push-ups that killed me. I hammered the pull-ups out in six minutes, and then the darn pushups just killed me.
Fun though. Kind of re-sparked my interest in Crossfit.
Thanks Will!
Hey Will!
I've been lurking and checking in on your blog regularly for quite some time now. Always loads of good stuff here and I must thank you for it! I just happened to finish reading Outliers the other day (VERY creepy to read about those Korean plane crashes as I was at 30,000ft flying into D.C. the other day!) …Anyways, the 10,000 hours thing really struck me. -The book says it takes 10,000 hours of practice to fully master whatever your passion/endeavor might be. Whether its computer programming, or climbing or playing the piano…Whatever… One common denominator with all of the elite in their respected fields is that they have put in their solid 10,000 hours of practice to get where they are. I wonder if you agree with that? And I suspect you might be one exceptionally rare individual who can claim 10,000 hours of practice (or roughly 10 years of experience) in 3 different areas? Climbing, boating, and flying? I think I've got my 10,000 hours of climbing in, but that didn't leave time for much else! Pretty darn impressive and inspirational, from where I sit, to think about guys like you (are there any other guys like you?) who have been able to take things to that level in 3 different areas… F'ing PROUD man! Another question for ya: Can you think of anybody who has shot to the top in climbing, or paddling, or flying, or whatever W/OUT putting in their 10,000 hours???? Fascinating stuff, IMO… I really like the thought that no matter what your weaknesses/flaws are, IF you put your time in, you WILL get where you're trying to go. And it doesn't hurt to come to places like this blog to think and learn about ways to get the most out of your practice/training time… Maybe if I practice just a little SMARTER, I can knock it down to 9,000 hours on my next endeavor! Ha!
Incidently, I've been addicted to crossfit for a solid 2 years now. I love it and just can't get enough. I can't believe that after 2 years I still can't wait to find out what tomorrow's WOD is gonna be! But its also been great to read some objective opinions (like you've posted here in the past) rather than be a closed minded, cult following, 'cool-aid drinker'… Yep there probably are better ways to train specificly for my climbing, but x-fit is just TOO MUCH fun right now… Now I have to find a way to shave another 60 seconds off my best Angie time thanks your "elite" comment! HA! I agree 100% that training your muscles is the easy part. My next big battles are mental. OK, I know I can make it to the gym every day, but will I be smart enough to force myself adapt my training to better suit my climbing needs? Will I find the will-power to learn how to listen to my body in regards to nutrition… All great stuff to think about, and all thanks in part to some of the thoughts you've shared with us here.
Please keep the good stuff coming, and I'll be sure to report back with my results after another 9,000 hours guitar practice…
regards,
-Scott DeCapio (I've run into you at the crags once or twice{always a pleasure} and even crashed at your place once or twice many years ago while ice climbing {thanks for that!)
Katherine–
I generally do the main site WOD (usually scaled down substantially), and do it most days. If I miss a day I'll generaly do a mellow version of the missed WOD as part of my warmup or cash-out to the next WOD. But that scales down as my climbing or whatever season I"m in scales up; if I'm rock climbing hard four days a week then I'm not doing the WOD or any additional training, my body can't handle the volume, nor will that training help me during that fitness cycle. I hope that helps, just remember that it's far better to be slightly undertrained than overtrained and injured!
Nicolas–Yeah buddy! Hope to see ya out here soon, keep it safe in SAR land, and good luck on the Island, let no moss grow under you (no chance of that).
Best,
wg
Butch: Nothing to do with any physical action you have to do in the Alpine. But if you can do that you're a fit bastard in general, and you have the ability to do a lot of work fast, something that is useful in the alpine. You suck if you can't do it, that's a personal insult, get training amigo!I can't do it either, ha ha!
Scott–Great to hear from you amigo, and glad you're still getting after it! I'll follow up on your comments later today, I'm out the door right now to fly for a couple of hours, yeah!!!
Butch, doing 100 pullups may not have much relevence to alpine climbing, but neither do 100 squats or pushups or situps. I think you're just knee-jerk poo-pooing upper body strength, when a pullup isn't really all that great an indicator of that strength. But 100 pullups (and the rest of it) are definitely a measure of work capacity, which many would argue is really important in the mountains.
If you can't do Angie in under, say, 25 minutes, then you are not a well rounded, advanced level athlete. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as you may excel in stuff you love like climbing or keg stands. If Will can't do it, the same applies to him. Crossfit measures fitness by how well you can handle some athletic task that you have never seen or tried before, and it specializes in not specializing.
My problems in climbing are all at the other end, the mental side. I've been climbing 12 years, and my hardest trad leads top out at 5.12a, and I've never led ice harder than WI4. My PR on Angie is 13:54. The pullups, situps and squats take me 3 minutes each, but the pushups take 5. By Will's standards, I should be pushing into 5.13, but I seem to be at a road block that I haven't been able to get around in years. I wish we got more than 14 days of ice a year down here in North Carolina.
Kevin–Nice work, nothing to be ashamed of at all, solid. Your experience is pretty typical of the person who has done a lot more "pull" than push in life. The good news is that pushups come really fast! Have fun.
Scott, the CF thing is a drug, a cult, a lot of fun, and super for life I think, yeah! I guess the question I'd ask you is this: Are you doing CF for climbing, or just 'cause you like doing the WOD? I ask myself that, sometimes I'm doing CF just 'cause I like to get after it, and the WOD supplies that feeling nicely. Seriously, what's wrong with doing CF just to do it? It's like going for a run, feels good.
The Gladwell stuff is really good, interesting to hear your take. I think you, being Scott D., or maybe anyone, can get really good at something in less than 10,000 hours, but it's a good start. Other factors such as who you hang with really effect results–hang with 20 people who think 13a is a warmup and you will think it is pretty quickly too. Hang with people who think 5.13a is the limit of the possible and it will be… More mature sports or professions take time to get good at too; you can run 10,000 hours and still not be at the top of the running game for example…
I think I've put in somewhere around 10,000 hours in a kayak, more climbing, less flying (I figure only about 2000 to 3,000 hours in the air). Ice climbing hours are different than rock climbing; I only really learned to ice climb when I stopped leading and just TRed like mad for about 50 days while training for the X Games. Technique vs. head; I had the head, but not the skill until I developed my movements… And I still suck some days for sure. Oh, and I think you have to do those 10,000 hours and be "current;" if you do the ski bum thing for ten years and rack up your 10,000 but then don't ski anymore for 10 years you'll have lost a lot of skill, strength and head. I did that with paddling, it took a while to get it back.
Anyhow, thanks for the thoughts, great to hear from you, and hope to see ya in Canmore soon!
North Carolina Anon, I'm waiting for the call to get it on there one day, and it's time for you to get a 200+ hour season in! That'll sort it all out…
Will,
Another interesting post, it like it… and especially the cynical and humourous jab at trad: "Climb all day on 5.7 and still think it's fun." haha, that had me laughing!!
As for CF, lately I've been doing it more regularly but see one failing element being the long-slow-distance component. CF seems all about power + intensity, which are great, but the LSD element is a critical part of alpine suffering (ie. 1000m/hr, etc). In a day-day practical sense, how are you adding or improving on this with your varied training? (ie. obviously running up Lady Mac or Haling a few times would help, but given usual life constraits what alternatives would you suggest…)
Anton
Anton–
CF is for general fitness, not sports specificity (that's my opinion, not trying to speak for CF here). Trying to make it sport-specific completely misses the very best part of CF: being truly generally fit.
It all boils down to what performance result you want out of your training, and making your training work for that. If you want to be an pure alpine climber then I would do less CF and more alpine climbing. Same with rock climbing; if you have a max of 10 hours a week in which to train or practice your sport then practicing it (climbing gym and hiking up hills) will do far more good than anything else. If you have 20 hours a week then you can work more on specific weaknesses.
If you're going to alpine climb in the spring and rock climb all summer folllowed by skiing all winter then there will be shoulder seasons, and this is where I'd do CF. If you only have 30 minutes at lunch and can't make the climbing gym then CF is likely as good as anything for that time use (unless you're a rock climber, then hang on a fingerboard).
Wow! It's awesome blog post here. really very interesting for reading.Like those pictures.. I enjoyed it.
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