Climbing Dads: Tom Randall & Jon Procter Discuss Their Experiences and Strategies
Last year, we had a parenting-focused interview on the show with Caro Ciavaldini joining Mina (who’s also recently a new mum!) for a discussion about climbing and training post pregnancy. We had some great feedback from you guys on the content, which also included a request to do a “dad” version of the interview….
So here it is folks. You asked and we will always try to deliver! Two Lattice dads – Tom Randall and coach Jon Procter sit down to chat about their own experiences since having children. Never ones to sugar coat, Tom and Jon share their ups and downs and some of the strategies they’ve used to maintain a path of progress and performance in climbing.
Key topics discussed:
Tom and Jon’s parental set up.
The early days of changing lifestyle and how this affected training and performance.
Methods for managing time and energy with less sleep or less “free” time in the week.
Split sessions for training and climbing.
Training Mesocycle lengths and format
Home training set ups.
Differences in endurance vs strength training as a parent.
You can find Mina and Caro’s interview here if you’re interested in that one too!
I’m listening to this right now, while my 6.5 month old nurses with Mom in the other room. I’m finally getting to the point where I feel like I can take advantage of some of your efficiencies and strategies and use information like this for motivation.
I feel like I have to point out that it sounds like you all had relatively easy young babies, and for other readers/listeners it’s entirely possible there won’t be even as much free time in the first few months. There was no setting an alarm to feed our daughter; I think the longest she slept in the first four months was just over 3 hours, and frequently it was only 20 minutes, night or day. There was also no setting her on the ground to hang board. If she wasn’t being held she was fully screaming, and the sound of a board creaking or a weight knocking would wake her up. It’s still possible to ask some time from the other person, but it’s generally very quick and with lots of guilt if the house isn’t in order, etc.