All I really want to do is improve at the sport I love.

Nothing breeds frustration like being on a plateau and not seeing any improvement for long stretches of time. So, I’ve recently decided to start an aggressive training regimen, complete with a decorated Army veteran - Dave Wahl - to coach me along the way.

Coach Dave has been training various types of athletes for a long time, from cyclists to sprinters, and more recently mountaineers and rock climbers.

In addition to my normal climbing days, I train two days a week doing ‘general conditioning’ with Dave and one ’sport specific’ day. The conditioning days involve a circuit of exercises, usually involving some type of amazingly unstable situation, which forces my body to twitch like a meth addict without meth as I struggle just to remain stable.

Dave calls out the pacing as we go from one exercise to the next: “Ready?” (more of a warning than a question) “Begin!”

The sport-specific day involves weighted pull-ups, campusing, and other exercises designed to hit important climbing muscle groups.

It’s only been a couple weeks and I already feel like i’m improving, which is a positive sign.

The sport of climbing is lots of things for me: It’s an excuse to travel, it’s an aesthetic pursuit, with my videos it’s a creative outlet, and it’s an athletic challenge. Hopefully this winter season and the spring and summer to follow will be my best yet in all these aspects.

Until then, one thing is for sure: I’ll be sleeping soundly at night.

Cloudveil ambassador Chuck Fryberger is a climber and videographer from Golden, Colorado. His work can be seen at www.momentumvm.com.