climbing indoors

I have a vague plan this winter for climbing indoors.  Those of you who follow this blog will know that I dont particularly enjoy being indoors under any circumstances, and indeed as I never really physically train for climbing (preferring to keep it as enjoyable as possible!), I dont usually find it makes much difference to my outdoor climbing in the summer.

However, this year I am trying an experiment.  Rather than taking the winter off climbing and just running, stretching and biking, with a bit of winter stuff thrown in, I am actually going to try climbing indoors regularly, and am aiming for one routes session and one bouldering session a week. Now I know this is hardly training, but for me, its quite a revolution!  Am going to keep up with the things I normally do over winter for variety, and certainly wont be forcing myself to do anything I dont feel like doing (especially being mindful of my bursting finger blood vessels!).  However, I would just like to see what it feels like to come out of winter onto rock feeling relatively fit.  When I look back over the last 5 years of climbing, I think I have managed to improve a little every year, mainly through better technique and better psychological tactics, and probably in spite of my lack of training.  So I wonder what might happen if I did train a little?

For me, its important not to put pressure on myself, so I certainly wont be setting any goals or putting bets on improvement.  The mindfulness approach suggests an open and curious attitude, so that is what I am trying to cultivate towards my little experiment.