Continuing our series of Home Training Plan interviews, this week we chatted to Elizabeth Hardwick, a US-based climber who hopes to maintain her endurance and power endurance during lockdown. With limited facilities at home, Elizabeth has had to adapt her facilities for training, and in this interview tells us about her favourite sessions, how she’s managing training around work, and the challenges she has faced…

How have you found training at home compared to your pre-corona schedule?

I have actually kept my schedule very similar to what it was pre-Covid. I am a geological engineer and due to my work on infrastructure projects I’m considered an ‘essential’ worker. So I’ve still been working M-F. During the week, I do morning and evening sessions Tuesday and Thursday. I rest M, W, F with some stretching, hiking, and/or mountain biking. And I do longer single sessions on Saturday and Sunday. 

How has having a HTP helped during this period of time?

Having a HTP has really helped me focus my efforts and dial in a good overall volume without having any climbing time these days. There are so many climbers sharing their workouts on social media right now that it’s easy to get distracted if you don’t have a plan in place.

How do you feel working from a short 4-week plan affects your ability to stay motivated and active?

I actually think a short term plan, as long as it has many of the same elements that would be in a longer term plan, is ideal right now. It’s hard to predict when we’ll be able to get back to the gym and crags, so training in four-week blocks helps me stay active now while staying hopeful that we’ll be back climbing soon

What’s your favourite session and why?!

My favourite session is 70% or 80% repeaters. All of my outdoor projects that I hope to get back to in late spring or early summer have ‘power out’ cruxes or long cruxes with the hardest move at the end, so I’m stoked to be working on this at home now!

Have there been any challenges you’ve faced whilst training and have you managed to overcome them?

Since I’m still working full time, and I prioritise getting high intensity/high value training done when I’m fresh, sometimes I’ve found myself lacking time or motivation to get the low intensity and mobility work done. I’ve started making myself do a few important stretches immediately following my high intensity work, even if I don’t have time to do a full stretching session. That way if I run out of motivation later in the day, at least I got in a few key stretches already (some stretching is better than none!).

Do you have any interesting or creative setups that have worked well for you?

We don’t have many dumbbells, but we do have a barbell and a landmine post. So I’ve been doing some of my shoulder conditioning work with the barbell. I’ve been doing landmine press instead of dumbbell overhead press, and bent-over barbell row instead of dumbbell row. That has worked great for me, as I don’t really have the shoulder/lat mobility to do overhead press anyway 😉

Do you train with anyone in your household and is that fun/helpful?

My husband is a climber and runner doing some training stuff at home too. We’re doing very different programs but it’s motivating seeing him work hard too!

What has been your funniest training at home moment so far?

I wanted to try something to do a little footwork with climbing shoes on, so I glued some pebbles to the bare wood door frame in our garage below a hangboard, thinking I could stand on the pebbles and move around on the different holds on the hangboard. Turns out the wood wasn’t really strong enough because as soon as I really weighted the first foothold it broke off, taking a thin layer of wood with it… (https://instagram.com/p/B-xBcXQjPXl/).

See our Home Training Plans here: https://latticetraining.com/product/home-training-plan/.