David Fitzgerald is on the run

David Fitzgerald started climbing five years ago when he joined the University. "The obsession was instantaneous" and within six months he had done his first 7C and after 3.5 years, his first 8B+. Yesterday he did The Buddha Extension 8B. "It took me roughly four or five sessions to do - the Irish grades are extremely stiff. Throughout the higher grades in Ireland, almost every line should be given either a plus grade or a full letter grade harder. In the lower grades, sometimes giving two or three grades harder is appropriate. It's a funny consensus that we always joke about, but at the same time, we continue to sandbag at every given opportunity. " It will be very interesting when this super gifted boulderer, later this autumn, will hit more modern grading travelling to Finland and Austria. "I always try to focus on the finer details in climbing. This attention to detail is important and requires you to be honest with yourself. I think I've progressed as quickly as I have because I obsess about climbing. It's always on my mind. I constantly question what I'm doing and I draw inspiration from how every other person moves. I've always been my biggest critic and I feel that this mindset has helped me get to where I am today. I train 5 days a week, sometimes 6. On my rest days, I like to stay active by either running, stretching or doing antagonist exercises that target my forearm extensors or my shoulders. When I'm training, I usually climb for about 2-3 hours on the board and then add an extra hour of either fingerboarding, ground core exercises, front lever training or pull-up/push-up pyramids (each exercise lasts for roughly 30 mins, so I'd pick two exercises after each session). All of these sessions end with 30 mins of stretching also. I just finished my studies this year, so now I can focus all of my energy into climbing. Between training, home projects and trips abroad, I'm very excited to push my personal limits this year."