Is anyone else better at technical climbing than uphill fitness?
I got into alpine climbing 2 years ago from a rock climbing background. I am slower on the uphill than most of my alpine climbing partners but I am usually better at hard climbing, route finding, rope management etc. My all day endurance is decent too physically and mentally, no problem walking uphill for 3 hours, leading 10 pitches of 5.10 trad, 8 pitches of rappel then 2 hour scrambling down. I have done a few TD routes and my all day fitness or climbing ability has never been an issue.
However, a lot of my climbing partners come from some sort of trail running background and seemed frustrated when I say, need 2.5hr for the approach instead of 2. I know this so I would suggest to wake up 30 min earlier, and they would reluctantly agree. I am not annoyed when they say, take an extra 5 minutes building each anchors, and I give technical advice to them if I notice something inefficient that they can easily improve, and they are usually appreciative.
I don't particularly enjoy long cardio unless there is a cool summit, technical climbing or steep ski down for the reward. I enjoy and train for technical climbing. Between gym climbing during the week and alpine climbing on the weekends I have no time or energy to train cardio as well. I would love to go slower on the approach when I climb outside so I can be at zone 1/2 but that's not really feasible when I'm already slower than my climbing partner.
I should also mention that I'm a female and most of my climbing partners are male. Ongoing process (and struggle) to find more women partners that want to climb the same objective as I do.
Is anybody else in the same boat? Any tips or advice?