 I can remember when I first started to Feed the Rat in me. It happened when I was really getting serious about my climbing and I started to push my limits. Running it out, or attempting to climb something significantly harder than before. It was great, a fantastic feeling of satisfaction for pushing myself hard. Succeeding in the times when I was genuinely extended, at the limit of my ability, my strength or my will. It wasn't until I was talking to Rob that he quantified it as 'Feeding the Rat'. So I guess it wasn't necessarily satisfaction, but satiation, the rat had fed.
On the occasions that my rat surfaced for a feed, the climb that was the hardest thing that I had ever been on felt easier, the holds grew, the runout didn't matter and my brain finally shut up.
It's not "The Zone" it's better than that. Being in the zone is advantageous to achieve at a particular time, you can be rational about it, do things to be in it at the necessary times. But the rat that's in you, it's always there, always happy to be fed when you're up to the task.
To feed the rat, you don't have to be unstable, or have a desire to self-harm. You just have to push yourself into that region of discomfort, either because your mind begins to doubt, or your muscles are screaming at you or your sphincter's puckering up in fear. The moment that you press on ahead, the feeding begins. |
