When I refer to aerobic endurance I am talking about our ability to keep climbing for a long period at an intensity where we don’t get pumped. Whilst this might not seem that appropriate if we want to improve the grade we climb, this ability to keep going for long periods can help us recover quicker if we get pumped. It does this through two mechanisms the first is helps develop the heart and lungs like I suggested in a previous blog about cross training, but more specifically it helps us grow, reinforce and widen the capillaries within our arm and upper body muscles to help promote blood flow, and therefore get oxygen and energy supplies to where we need it.
In essence this type of training requires you to do a large volume or number of routes at a level that you do not find yourself getting pumped at. Again like everything start of with maybe 10 routes up to a certain grade, and then try and increase the number of routes in each subsequent session (12, 14, 16… or 15, 25, 30…). The important thing is you don’t feel pumped so this could mean that you end up repeating very easy routes a few times if there aren’t enough easy routes at your wall. With this type of training it is often better to start by increasing the number of routes rather than the difficulty.
Outside I have sometime used long enchainments of easy routes on places like Idwal Slabs for this purpose. i also get to take clients up what are easy routes for me, so often I can train for aerobic endurance as I work. If you are not that lucky just think high volume and low intensity.