Steve McClure training advice #7 - Have Fun!

Steve McClure has spent part of his time in the quarantine by putting together some training advice for guys 45+, published on his Insta. The 49-year-old is the best climber in the world around 50 and says he has been in peak shape since 45+. At age 46, he did hist first 9b, last year he did his hardest ever trad onsight 8a and just the week before the lockdown he was in France onsighting a bunch of 8a+ and plenty of 8a. Training for old Folk. Part 7. Have fun Sounds a bit corny. But sometimes the fun element can be lost in search of numbers, and the joy harder to find as performance starts to slip. There is no doubt that for many of us numbers do count, and we measure ourselves by them. But take the pressure off. For nearly every climber in the world, no one else measures you by numbers. They don’t really care. What they do care about is that you are happy and having fun. A joyful tick of a 7b is way better than a screaming fall off the last move of an 8a. It’s absolutely true we have to keep pushing hard; it’s satisfying to be the best we can be and to know we worked hard to get there. Know that, know you are your best, don’t allow numbers to judge. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. We don’t have as much time as we used to have. Fill those days on the crag with fun and good memories (but of course still cranking hard after all the training we did..) All these training notes will be combined over the next few days and on my website Steve-McClurse.com. There will be extra detail, and working with rockcity climbing, I’ve answered a load of questions. If you have additional questions ask away here and I’ll answer them in the article.