UKC

Fit club 893

Hey homies. Good to see people starting to get stuck in to summer season. Hopefully everyone is avoiding/healing any niggles that may delay the summer send train.

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fit club is a rich community with posters sharing their goals, noting successes and failures and offering support to those struggling to maintain motivation. Anyone interested in starting is very welcome to join, but to get the most of UKC fit club you should aim to post each week, every week, however little or much you have done. By making such a regular public record of your activities and by restating your goals every week this new habit will hopefully improve your training habits and drive you towards achieving your goals whatever the level of your chosen activity.

Link to last week’s thread: 

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fitclub_week_892-77017...

Derek Furze: Love the sound of the Llangollen enchainment -it's such a nice place. I've done similar run-climbs (soloing a route on every crag except Craig Arthur) and can confirm it's a quality way to spend some time. Clear up the sport project goals for me... I assumed you were looking for a harder red point, but then you mentioned Dinbren not being very onsightable? What's the plan?

Alan Little: Good point about hill fitness probably being as important as anything for those longer routes. Trad mileage shouldn't be too much of a problem, as I get the feeling that those granite routes are pretty straightforward cam plug-ins! If only there was a way of training skin not to get trashed by heavy granite mileage! Did the weather play ball for more hill days this week?

Tigh: Another good week -nice consistency and great to see some vertical metres too. Those strength sessions look like they'll complement the running well. Interesting you and Biscuit mention core as I was thinking about this recently... I hate doing core work but find that when I've been neglecting it I get a bad back if carrying a heavy bag, especially downhill. I guess your bag won't be too heavy on GP and MB, but maybe something to think about.

mattrm: Solid week that. It can be tough balancing running and climbing, especially as you're building the mileage up, so great to see multiple sessions of each. Looking forward to hearing about the big fell run this week.

Somerset Swede Basher: On the face of it, it looks like a light week by your standards, BUT... I can verify that Winking Crack counts for a whole week's worth of climbing by itself! Metres of effort for inches of progress! I think it's safe to say that your aerocap efforts over recent months are definitley paying off in terms of ability to hang on and ability to recover. With focus on the circuits/autobelays, are you getting enough stimulus to maintain the top end strength too?

Randy: Interesting points about compromising on the quality of training to fit around your schedule. It's all very well for the coaches to talk about ideal rest patterns and periodisation etc, but in the real world sometimes we need to make the choice about whether to train tired, skip rest days ahead of forced deload periods etc. I feel like in these situations the main priority is just avoid injury by listening to your body... feeling tired is ok, but feeling tweaky is less ok!

the sheep: Ooft! Sounds like a rough week -I'm glad you can laugh about it! How has this week felt? I imagine the lurgy has taken enough out of you that you'll have a bit of a hangover from it?

Steve Claw: Aw mate, that sucks. I hope that now the original insult is over there is some good news? I've had a couple of fairly dramatic sounding/feeling finger prangs that have actually turned out to be fairly low key, so I hope yours is one of these. In better news, that's a hell of an onsighting spree. Onsighting 6b moves (unchalked too!) is bloody impressive.

Tyler: Brownie points for entering the trad fray last week. Did you keep the momentum going with more gear-based ledge-shuffling this week? Don't worry too much about being wiped by the Tryfan day... one of those a week and you'll be parois-ready in no time. On that topic, Tuesday sounds like good training for the Walker!

Ian Parnell: Wow, you really have embraced the soloing -three days this week! I know what you mean about it being incredibly addictive. On the flip side, I often think we climb our safest and most controlled when soloing, so hopefully it isn't too dangerous an addiction?! Did you get an appointment for addressing the finger niggles yet?

Ross Barker: Nice work on the Ippikins link (and good name). Despite being local-ish I'd always written that place off... maybe I should go and check it out! Left middle finger obviously lagging behind a bit, but perhaps not too bad given it's previous history? A sign your rehab has been paying off? (Also, your L pinky appears to be a mutant!)

Tom Green: A better trad sesh, need to keep the momentum going. Maybe the running feels hard because of doing the same things in the same places... Perhaps new routes will up the motivation?

AJM: Looks like you're back in the swing of things after the trip -glad you haven't got the post-hols blues! What was the final decision on Pastoral? Enticing enough to put up with the pain?!

planetmarshall: How was the return to training? Be careful with those hangs... the last thing you need is an unexpected dismount! Maybe trade them for pick-ups? -they seem all the rage on FC these days!

biscuit: You are starting to sell the lakes slate to me! I may have to head up and check it out. I guess if you are pottering about on slate, then you will need that core work to get tufa-ready for the proj! I definitely feel your pain about core exercises though... they are so tedious! I'll be watching to see what exercises you settle on -hopefully you'll inspire/shame me in to working a serious weakness of mine.

Cheers Tom for reflections as ever.

The clear up bit is me hedging my bets.  I can't imagine the idea of going climbing all day and coming back with nothing, so I think of projecting as sitting alongside doing a few onsights to get something on the board and warm up.  Probably this is misguided and I should commit to working something from the get go.

I suspect the Climb High area might get busy as well, so it is useful to have other things to get on with while waiting to get on Technicolour Yawn or whatever.

An okay week.  Took it a bit careful as garden projects have taken a toll on my shoulder.

Mon - repeater picks up at 21.6kg.  15 mins on the exercise bike for 8km.

Tues - Repeater pick ups again.  40 pull ups - all sets of five on the minute and two sets with added weight.  Shoulder seemed okay with this, but didn't push the numbers.

Wed - work

Thurs - met my mate at Helsby to car share the rest of the trip.  Rain bouncing off the road at this point, but decided we were committed, so motored westward.  Just as we were considering pushing on to Holyhead, the rain eased, so we pulled off at Llandudno to consider options.  Chwarel Bach y Penryn for a quick warm up mess about, then Bodagon Skyline for a bit more.  Quite liked the latter - ten routes and two new crag points, so considered it a decent salvage mission.

Fri - still predicted cold so Gigg North for further mileage - beginning to find a groove, but tried a 6c last route a struggled.  Just tired and short of time, so it should go next trip.  Eight routes and back for a party.

Weekend consumed with a trip up to Bolton to see friends.  My last scheduled week working out in practices this week, but next phase now in prospect for July, so two months break in proceedings and no guarantees to follow.  Interesting times.

Reflections - nice to get a bit done on rock that was dry at last.  Bodafon minor, but some nice looking lines.  Warming up this week, so hope to have some onsight mileage days.  Strangely interested in the Trevor sector by sector concept though very aware that Borderline is hard and polished and Traction Control is even harder and as smooth as glass - perhaps this is a perverse attraction?

Cheers Tom. Top end strength is a bit low but not miles off. This week I've basically failed at everything!

Mon. + Tues. Rest.

Wed. Fell off the top of masters edge again. I felt so solid at the top, really disappointed to slip off.

Thurs. 3km run.

Fri. Tried Any Hole's a Goal 7C at Blackwell Dale. Couldn't do it the normal way. Came up with some alternative beta that feels like it should work but didn't actually manage any moves! Failed to repeat Red or Dead. 3km run.

Sat. Quick play on the easy stuff  on Langsett Crescent Park Boulder between kids parties round the corner.

Sun. 3km kids fell run.

Thanks for the stats Tom. Unfortunately, no positive news from side. Fell off the stair while trying to catch a train on Wednesday and landed on my right elbow. Luckily nothing is broken but i suffered a deep and nasty cut directly above my elbow that needed to get stitched up. So far given the circumstances everything seems to be healing fine, but right arm needed to be splinted. Additionally, i am on antibiotics becauce the Doctor was worried about a high infection risk.

Hence, all in all it looks like i am out of action for at least the next two weeks

Thank you Tom.

Its always when things are going strong that we get injured.

As you can imagine a quieter week for me, a little bit of time on the rock, but having to be really careful.

Tues - New Routes 2 x 6a, then evening fun in Avon.  Seconded Little Red Rodney (E2 5b) and led Obscurata (E3 6a)

I have tried to completely rest the finger this week, and applied Diclofenac Gel to reduce the swelling.   Will introduce very light loads this week.

Thanks for the stats Tom!

Weight - 14st 7lbs

STG - 10km fell loop in 1h 45m

MTG - 30 mile ultra (July 24)

LTG? keep on trucking?  stay fit? ummm

BHAG - F7A boulder somewhere / kickflip

M - T - Rest

W - Llanbedr Horseshoe - 25k, 5h 45m

T - S - Rest

Weekly kms - 25k

Diet status - Ok

Excellent run on Wednesday.  Lovely route taking in a bunch of hills I've never done before.  ITB was a bit painful on the final descent, so I'm going to have to do some work on that.  I shouldn't be surprised it was a problem, it's been an issue in the past.  Other than that, I've done nothing really.  Weather hasn't played ball really.  It's only till this afternoon, that we've had a little bit of sun.  Next week will be a diet and 'deload' week.  Few chilled runs.  Skate if the weather is nice.  Hopefully do some bouldering.

It didn’t stop completely but there’s not much momentum. Same with the hill fitness, I should be doing at least one a week and there’s no excuse given the long evenings.

M: Nowt

T: Cromlech boulders, came away empty handed but spent quite a bit of time trying to crimps so it’s got to help

W: Too cold for anything other than Sticky Mix wall, was nice in the sun but we moved around to try Flash - Pumped! (7a+) too soon and I fell off the top with numb fingers, got it next go but it’s taken a few goes, mainly down to poor tactics/conditions. 
T: Nowt but saw a consultant about my shoulder/elbow fingers. Got some MRI and x-rays lined up.

F: Realised I’d done ko CV for a couple of weeks so forced myself out on a mostly flat trail run, just over 6kms at just under 10km/h. I guess I should aim for 10km soon

S: Tremadog, seconded The Weaver (E2 5c) which is as good as its reputation, didn’t push to lead as we need to be quick due to crowds. Then swung leads on Leg Break/Blinkers (E2 5c), I probably got the harder pitch and was pleased with how I climbed it but it’s probably only E1 5b. Good for the confidence nonetheless.

S: Too cold at Mayfair but spent and fun afternoon in the sun (still pretty cold). Robbed of a 7a flash because Rockfax have not upgraded Hot Club (6c+) as per the definitive guide. To be honest they are right not to! Finished off Mr. Chips (7a), another that has been on my unfinished business list for too long. This one is definitely full value at 7a!!

Pretty good week but my big toes have given me some real gyp these last few days, not sure if it’s the running or the trad. Seeing another consultant about them on Wednesday. If anyone has anything to say about fusing them I’m all ears. 

Fantastic trip!

Thanks for the stats Tom. Yes got my bits checked out via Mr Biscuit!

STG (this month) – maintain a grip on daily life, sort out niggles.

MTG (next 2 months)– 1. Give me strength – shoulders and core. 2. Attempt 2 on run-climb project. 3. Rheinstor Lower Traverse??

LTG (next 6 months) – 1. Give me strength – fingers, steep stuff and slopers. 2. Trip to Sanctuary Wall. 3. Redpoint a 7b+.

Mon – Pull up pyramid to test out finger niggles, up to 5, total 25 pullups

Tues – An hour or so soloing at Stanage. 5 routes HS-VS, 14 stars.

Wed – Physio appointment. Reassuring diagnosis of PIP sprain in index finger, so not as limiting as previously thought.

Thursday – Foot on campus 60 secs on 60 secs off. 60, 60, 60, 59, 39, 38, 38, 354 total. Was a bit unsure whether this was pushing things too hard considering dodgy finger. But finger survived OK and considering I was subconsciously probably holding back a bit – time not too bad.

Fri – 30mins Carcing

Sat – Gogarth in the sun. 4 routes at Castell Helen Limping Lisa (E2 5b), Atlantis/True Moments/Freebird (E2 5b) (Added in finish up Caress of Steel (E2 5c) which makes it even better), North West Passage (E1 5b) and Atlantis (E1 5c). My feet were in complete meltdown by the last route, but a great mileage day. My trad head felt well screwed on and I was finding gear easily. Positive.

Sunday – Had planned to do some strength and conditioning today, but too tired and achy from yesterday. Will try and force myself to do 30mins core before bed.

Reflection - Good to get a physio assessment of my Achilles and dodgy digits. As a result, even though I’ve not recorded above, I’ve been doing rehab every day this week. Quite buoyed by the news that my finger is likely just a sprain and so I can keep climbing, just avoiding twisting and extreme intensity. Also got good advice on my Achilles but I feel this has potential to be a longer process. Still this advice together with a top day yesterday has made me feel a lot more positive than recent weeks.

And its name. When my mate & I were on the traverse pitch of Nimbus - our first E2 - some muppet on The Weaver managed to climb between our ropes.

That’s one of the reasons we wanted to move quickly but the name is a bit strange as it’s a pretty plumb line. 

I think I posted a bit early. It was too nice an evening and I was too grumpy to stay at home so I headed out for a boulder. Ticked off Cyclone (f7A+) and Humpin' Sit-start (f7A+). I can put my toys back in the pram now 🙂.

Hey everyone, hope it's been a good week. I've enjoyed seeing blue sunny skies again. Hopefully it stays that way!

A decent week from me, two days in North Wales and some rehab in between.

Last Week:

Avg weight 80.1kg

M - Index finger bruising thanks to that wretched slot. Rest.

T - Wrist pronation stretches. Pronated bicep curls, 6x5.

W - Mega day in the Pass. A buncha things around Tonfedd, Appauled (V5), Northern Soul (f7A) and Paul's Bulge (f6B+) being highlights. A couple odds and ends around Cromlech and RAC later on, just for the joy of movement. A particularly wicked day not just for good performance, but crucially enjoying being out on the rock in perfect weather. A few moments where the left middle and right ring were mildly sore, which is not so good, but that might just be a product of the high volume.

T - Wrecked! Rest.

F - AM wrist pronation stretches. Pronated bicep curls, 6x5. Lower body mobility work. PM a bit of Moonboarding, not pushing it. Left hand felt absolutely fine. Right hand not strong but not sore. Then did some slabbing to pretend I have this "technique" lark. I'm not sure I do!

S - Rest.

S - Carreg yr Ogof. A bit of mileage, cut short on Bloodscream (f6C) when I twisted my ankle on the uneven landing; overextended in dorsiflexion. Minor enough to be okay walking back (and having a quick dip in a river) but bad enough that it was sensible to call it a day. Should be fine in a day or two. I don't tend to have issues with my legs but I know my ankles aren't the most mobile, mostly from old pre-climbing injuries. Perhaps something to work on?

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Climbing.

W - Rest.

T - Climbing.

F - Rest.

S, S - More climbing!

Goals:

Rehab left middle finger.

Improve wrist mobility.

Improve lower body mobility.

Louisville Lip.

Rigpa.

Sadly not, see Saturday

STG: Rough Bounds Scottish backpacking trip in May
STG: Thalkirchen 5.9 "easy" crack
MTG. DAV Lofoten meet in July
MTG: Im Extremen Fels ticks    in August
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 823
LTG: Winter '25 - do an actual off piste ski tour.

M:  Mostly rested. Did some shoulder presses & rotations in the evening

T:    One hour casual pace box step-ups while watching Netflix

W:  Wall, Freimann. Autobelays 6a+ 6a+ 6b+ 6b 6b 6b+ 5c 5c 6a. Pretty similar to my last autobelay session a couple of weeks ago: fine on stuff up to my comfortable onsight grade, quickly shut down on anything harder despite the individual moves being trivial. Typical board climber!?

T:    Half an hour box step-ups. Higher step, heavier rucksack - what TfNA calls "specific strength training" (I think).

F:    Crimp block pick-ups, pull-ups, ring supports, shoulders. Must have gone harder than I thought on the shoulders on Monday: they still feel worked today.

S:    Would've gone hillwalking, but with last week's huge snowfall lying right down to valley level and thawing rapidly, spending a whole day wading through thigh deep slush really didn't seem like a good idea. Still need to get the aerobic base hours in though, so took the mountain bike out for a rare all day ride instead. To my surprise, despite going nowhere near the mountains, I clocked up well over a thousand metres of ascent just going up & down little local hills. 

S:    Took the bike out for another hour in the woods in the evening to loosen up sore legs.
    And a few sets of crimp block pick-ups

Three weeks to Scotland. Couple of public holidays coming up, should hopefully be able to get one or two back-to-back hill days in
 

Hi folks.

Week 17:

A poor week for training and climbing. Was always going to be a challenging week, but also I didn't take opportunities when I had them.

M: Rest.

T: Run. 14.8km, 43m vert, 6:25/km.

W: Tough work day.

T: Strength sesh. Unusual session in that it was all gym free weights, not the usual climbing specific stuff. 

F: Nowt, but did walk 19km over the course of the day.

S: Nowt. 

S: Nowt. 

Week 17:

M: Run.

T: Strength.

W: Rest.

T: Climb.

F: Run.

S: Rest.

S: Strength.

STG (end of May):

Average 35km/wk running.

2 off E2 list.

1 x VS Challenge Day.

2 x Sport Onsighting Marathon.

A Spade (TICK)

Slobberlob (TICK)

MTG (end of July):

Average 45km/wk running.

1 x Mountain Ultra (Welsh 3000s; Tea Round; Corris Round).

3 off E2 list.

Maybe sneak in an E3.

2 x VS Challenge Day.

2 x Sport Onsighting Marathon.

Yates' Layaway.

Eliminator.

Might I recommend you try Red Wine is My Kryptonite (7a+) next time you're there?

Back from our South African jolly with a bump.

Whilst away I did some "carcing" on the longer drives and very occasionally groped a CoC #2 gripper, but otherwise exercise was limited to pushchair/rucksack carrier walks.

5 weeks off climbing / 4 weeks holiday eating in total, with encouragingly mild impact (up 2kg and maladjusted to sitting at my desk and/or dropping off a board on to spongey mats giving me a sore back).

Week 17

M – Last day in South Africa, followed by 11hr overnight flight home to Heathrow.

T – Feeling wobbly from <4hrs sleep.

W – No exercise beyond 45min walk to get Mk2 to snooze in the pushchair, as she was refusing to sleep in her cot after a month of car/pushchair snoozes.

T – Fun return to the board, climbing the most repeated BM at each grade before moving up a grade. Surprised myself by retro-flashing up to 7B+, dropping the 7C due to a spinning hold, and even coming pretty close on the 7C+. However, my back was starting to seize up at the end of the session and I was happy with what I’d achieved from 1st day back. Even my paper thin skin survived pretty well.

F – Sore back, stiffening up throughout the day. Vitamin i and hot water bottle treatment.

S – More of the same.

S – Just as well I was feeling slightly less crippled, as my wife came down with Covid

We have a vague plan to go back but I’m hoping I won’t have to until I can get on Crescent wall (current bird banned) as I have unfinished business there before taking on any more!

Oh, that's a shock!  I didn't realise that Crescent Wall had bird restrictions.  I may have to revise my project goals to avoid delay!

Hey Tom. Yeah bag won't be heavy but I do agree there's high value to some core work which I may try to implement in the evenings. 

A good weeks training again so happy with progress so far

M - Strength session 

T - 5.5 km easy pace run

W - 11 km easy pace run 

T - 3 km easy run then 4x1 mile repeats at approx 5min/km

F - Strength session

Sa - Work and travel to Brecons

Su - 23km hike. 1300m of elevation.

This coming week is technically a deload week so some easy runs midweek but will go to North Wales Sat to Mon so plan to get a few good hikes in. 

Have a good week all

I've not had the opportunity to get back on it yet so the question hasn't really come up! I'll probably give it at least a few more goes to see how I get on with fresh skin rather than after having worked the beta out.

This week started with the nest of intentions but poor planning on my part led to bad scheduling and too many rest days.

I went to the wall on Monday and had a really pretty decent session. Tuesday and Wednesday I did fairly unstructured sets of dips and chinups with the aim of getting some decent aches going.

Thursday I rested.

Friday was when I should have rested. I didn't think through the fact that with in-laws visiting I was going to have distraction and therefore lack the ability to do stuff.

Saturday - a couple of km walk and more random sets of chinups and dips.

Sunday - a day where I should have done stuff but failed to, just got sidetracked by other things.

The dips do well at generating good aches. I'm weak at them so it's also hitting a good place on the diminishing returns curve, right at the bottom! Chinups I'm way off where I used to be but I guess that's what comes from injuring your shoulder and having a long break doing only rehab.

Going to see my parents this weekend, although a possibility I could get outside on the bank holiday Monday. Going to plough onwards this week, aim to manage my time a bit better.

My core is a mix. 2 sessions of paloff presses and landmine oblique twist. That covers anti rotational and rotational aspects. 

1 session of kettlebell circuits - halos, lateral bends, swings, squats and half Turkish get ups. Increase the kettle bell weight, reps of each exercise or the amount of circuits that you do depending on what you want to work. 
 

Enjoy! 😆 

This last week was 3 x at the gym again and I really do feel like I’m getting stronger. 

I can’t remember what climbing I did other than on Sunday we went to Trow Gill and I did Pimp with a Limp Direct. (7b) It was dirty and some bits were wet but it went OK. It was pleasing to be able to shake out on the undercuts at the top. Undercuts have been a weakness of mine and I’m feeling much more solid on them. 

This week will be gym based again and then hopefully getting out to Kilnsey on Friday. Quite excited for that. 

Cheers Tom, recovery is going ok but seem to have a persistent chest infection that won’t go away. Not bad enough to stop me doing things, but have a really chesty cough.

Anyway as it’s such a lye entry a very potted history of the week was 4 swims, 2 runs, a cycle and a stretch class 😊