UKC

Apologies.  Got waylaid yesterday afternoon by neighbours and in no fit state to complete the post by the time I got back.  Should post this morning.

In reply to Derek Furze:

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_fit_club_week_853-7620...

I am due a break as Biscuit suggested last week.  Possibly, you are all due a break as well!  I'd like to run through August, but could someone pick up from the first Sunday in September?  I've got a busier spell with work starting then anyway.  I will be happy to do another at some point and I will definitely be contributing every week anyway.

Another challenging week for stats with multiple entries from nearly everyone!  I half expected Ally’s boss to be on the phone to ask if I could exercise some control over the club who seemed to think that his first day back at work would be a good time to ask for some complex analysis of Moonboard problems, weight training and real-world climbing grades.  Entertaining anyway, but Chat GPT would have generated more reliable data…

Tyler:  Back to the top of the rankings in terms of your early response last week, restoring a reassuring sense of normality for the resident statter.

I did take your ticklist seriously and had a fairly serious discussion with a mate about how we might change our approach and start taking on harder things.  Discussion is one thing of course, but we think we have hit on a formula that might provide a productive compromise. 

I thought it might have been Battleground as it is adjacent to the two you did, but there are a bunch of others on Crescent Buttress that appear to be of decent quality.  I haven’t been across that far this week, but will definitely put it on the ‘new crags’ list for a visit.

It sounds like a disrupted week of life admin for you, but interested to see that you got the bike out and set yourself some hill climbing goals.  There are plenty on here with serious biking on their plans, so I expect there will be some sound advice if needed!

Somerset Swede Basher:  Despite several contributions from you on last week’s thread, I struggled to find a usual report, but then realised you put in a short ‘didn’t get much done’ early on!  Still recovering from end of term illness by the sound of it, though as you note, you are not missing good conditions!  I think you have managed to get out by now, so back to normal soon?

Despite not doing much, some interesting comments through the thread on running in particular.  Impressive stuff from back in the day, which probably explains your decent pace whenever you do get out these days.  Anyway, all helpful insights to help Randy with his plans and also thought-provoking comments on how significant having running mates was to your own approach.

Biscuit:  Thanks for support and observations about declaring.  I’ve put something on this in the general points at the start.

Another one with some really strong running in the background and something akin to ‘when 6b is a rest’ comments on pace!  ‘5 mins per km soon becomes a jog pace’!  I think I will get there tomorrow (July target), but it still feels quite hard within a 5 km put in a km that fast.  I guess I need to do more and keep working at bringing my times down.

Quite a varied week from you that fits with your maintenance theme.  Work on the board and the finger curls alongside your active holds development – that has been progressing for a long while now so the gains should be clear.  Good to see you back at the project despite poor conditions – I think this makes more difference that we sometimes think.  Anyway, you are clearly on it for a while, so good to see the progress continuing.

Shoulder niggle is a bit of a worry, particularly if PZ is the trigger.  It will be interesting to see how your treatment plan works.

‘By then, the rain will have stopped’… apparently not!  A bit tragic when walls are ‘super busy’ in the middle of summer!

Very interesting comments on the thread about maintaining gains.

Randy:  Good news on the finger if it is improving each week and that you have a safe way to train with the injury.

Some varied work in the gym with your push ups, lunges, squats and v sit ups.  Good to see that you are keeping the work going on the handstands as well.  These two sessions also have a fair bit of work in them, so also might be impacting your one-arm stuff (?).

Running seems to be going really well and has attracted quite a lot of interest across the week, including some thoughts on fuelling and training from people who have achieved marathons previously.  The pace of your threshold run is impressive, though as you note perhaps ‘overcooked’.  To follow that with your runs on Wednesday and Thursday was also showing good recovery.  Stretching out to 28 km on your long run also excellent, especially with such strong pace towards the end. 

Some solid sessions on one-arm pull ups and lock offs, though I can understand that you feel somewhat stalled with these.  I guess there has to be some impact from the work you are putting into running, even though it is a very different type of strength.  I intended to train on Friday, but had a hard day leading up to it and realised the moment I started to warm up that it was going nowhere – just too drained.  Something similar must be happening and you are pushing the running quite hard!

AlanLittle:  Yes, family commitments always seem to come along at the peak of the season!  Anyway, plenty of the year left for outdoor climbing, though Germany seems to have suffered some strangely unhelpful weather at all points of the year to date!

An interesting week of Thalkirchen visits and some decent bits of cycling either getting to the wall or in the woods, so plenty of exercise spread through the week.  The wall visits were suitably varied as well, with the Kilterboard session having very different purpose than the sessions working your project.  It sounds really hard if your description is anything to go by and I struggle to conceive of applying myself to anything like that on plastic.  I did have one winter years ago where I got up to 7b on the walls, but it was just steady progression up onsighting through the routes that did it – even indoors, I haven’t really worked anything…  must experiment at some point! You obviously need to get on the sloper training regime currently pursued by Ian, myself and to some extent, Biscuit.  Then at least one more move might fall.  Interesting comment that ‘another session or two’ before deciding if it is a ‘prospect’ or not – some serious application right there!

Ian Parnell:  I think sloper hangs are very dependent on the particular hangboard – mine isn’t a BM, so it may well be easier.  That said, you can only train and improve with what you’ve got and I have definitely made progress over the cycle – see this week’s report. 

As you have noted, the running times are seriously impressive across the reports of the last few week’s, but I shall continue to include my own achievements in this field regardless!   You put a couple in this week and are presumably thinking of increasing your mileage heading towards the Autumn?

Good to see the Birchen Edge research undertaken, though a shame not to get away to Pembroke in the end (or onto Mortlock’s even).  Grabbing stuff between the showers has been very much the pattern for the summer really and I seem to have go this down to a fine art lately. 

Block lifts consistent with recent week’s though a shorter session and some signs of tiredness throughout your report.  The Depot sessions sound productive though with quite a lot of successful boulders achieved, including the more difficult purples later in the week. 

Regarding your comment about real rock withdrawal.  Yes, understandable, but good that the training is being maintained.  It definitely helps to have a maintenance schedule going throughout, otherwise starting back is really hard as a lot of the hard-won gains have melted away.  You’re doing well with bouldering as that makes it a bit more fun as well.

AJM:  Agree with your comments about the weather – it has been really unhelpful for a long time now and it is hard to stay motivated when so many ‘target’ places are simply not worth the effort.  Luckily, we have a new North Wales limestone book to inspire visits to some unfamiliar destinations and so far the area’s reputation for missing the worst of things is accurate.

I’d assumed from the regular reports of heel hooking that you had go your hamstring back to normal, but good to see that you are starting to put some proper rehab into your shoulder.  The fact is that it usually needs more than wilfully ignoring the problem to improve things and if it is limiting your options (bouldering) then the effort should lead to reward.  Certainly, in the past, I lived with injury and it took years of elbow niggles for me to actually work at fixing it (and now maintaining it in a better state).  Good therefore to see so much shoulder rehab on your schedule – clearly a decision has been made.

SteveJC94:   Thanks Steve – mileage is where I’m at – trying to put a platform together after such a patchy early part of the year!  More this week, though also a function of conditions.

Your training week’s are metronomic in character!  Another excellent set of board problems and the circuit laps are also strong, even if the problems and circuits are familiar (?).  A lot of hard moves across the Tuesday session.

Haven’t seen the bike out for a week or two, but interesting to see the run appear on the schedule, with a quietly impressive 10k to start proceedings!  Repeater work continues (that’s the metronomic bit) with a slightly upped weight.  Interesting to see how the max is set for these, which without checking would probably put my 70% at a shade more than bodyweight, whereas I know I can’t complete six set at BW!  Perhaps I need to work on these over winter…  I expect I can find something more interesting!

Yes, conditions down the Dale must be a minge-fest by now, which is disappointing as I’d got keen on Chee Tor again.  Things are pretty bad when Kilnsey is sopping in July!  I guess it is a case of getting on places that get plenty of wind and sun.  You should consider getting out to North Wales limestone – sometimes as quick to reach as the Peak and an awful lot of nice rock to go at.

In reply to Derek Furze:

part two

Steve Claw:  Thanks for your positive spin on ‘complications’.  It is doable, though not a straightforward as chucking a rope down unfortunately, which means I have to take someone else along – probably two others so that they can do something worthwhile while I mess about.  I am hoping things will dry out enough for a prep visit this summer – it should just need cleaning of some plants rather than anything major, though I need to check whether there is a viable and independent line at the top to make it worthwhile.

Interesting to see the detailed diagnostics on your elbows, though I guess the ‘separate’ issues are all related in some way?  I do also get numbness in my finger occasionally on my left-hand mainly.  Nowadays, I am more likely to get a grumble in my elbow from using a handsaw than climbing, which is easily fixed by avoiding the issue!  I am pleased that training appears to be making them more robust, despite doing elbow intensive stuff, so a good reason to keep at it for me.

Your outstanding project list is fantastic with some tough stuff on there.  I note that SSB was in with a comment about 7c+ on gear being more than E6, so looks like a big one to get done.  Tbf, they all do!  Not sure the boulder 7b mentioned up thread appeared in your OS list, though maybe you are only talking about projects in the sense of needing lots of visits?

Ally Smith:  Good to see that your FC buddies provided an appropriate return to work distraction!  Not sure I followed all of the comparative analysis, or whether Tyler got his simple hard to less hard ranking of training feats.  A bit apples and pears with Saxon bar, Moonboard and BM2K central rung all in there?  As you note, what is hard for some may be a breeze for others, as Ross’s comment might suggest.

Didn’t realise that your job was Marketing Manager for Shropshire’s finest, but you manage to plug the Dugout often so hopefully they will be giving you a Christmas bonus.  Must be a tough sell over in Frankfurt though? 😉  No doubt, it will be a contender for FC week 1000’s multinational meet?

Considering a new baby and something you’ve caught at the Dugout, that’s a strong training week (amongst many recently).  Impressive to keep it going throughout.  The 29 6C+ on the minute attracted comment (quite rightly), but the 5x6 BW on 20 mm isn’t trivial either and the 50kg ten second hangs are massive.  Not something I’ve tested for a while though and I am often surprised when I do a progression as described.  Quite different from a typical max hang session in feel.

Ross Barker:  Great to see you back to it in chirpier form!  A bit of a shock to have you so off-key last week.

The weather is getting to all of us I think and it can be immensely demotivating.  That said, it seems like your part of the country has been pretty much the best of late.

Some excellent Moonboard sessions this week though with three sessions you have clearly gone for it with a vengeance.  Good to see successes where previously you hadn’t succeeded (Too Hard for Cailean) and the skin of your teeth flash later in the week.  Given that you are still rehabbing a finger, these are strong results to be delivering.  New problems being set as well, so something of an inspired week on return.

Light hangs and icing continues, so good to see repair work carried out faithfully.  Be nice to get on some rock again soon?  Your MB one with ‘slightly minging crimps’ shows some progress is being achieved on both repair and one of your stated goals.  Good stuff.

Tom Green:   Getting decent conditions in the Alps is becoming really difficult nowadays and it is probably getting to the point where it needs the season adjusting as Ian suggests, particularly because the danger level is racheted up by the lack of freezing being maintained high up.  That said, the shorter days and cold bring a different set of issues in the winter!

Snatched some decent things from the disappointment of realising that your targets couldn’t be had, including one off the 100 list.  Whole alpine seasons can go by without things getting done for all sorts of reasons, so don’t be too hard on yourself.  At least you had four days in a great place and the weather to do something.  On recent visits, I have tried to have a flexible plan, including just doing some rock shoe routes if conditions dictate, but still come away disappointed if I haven’t got a ‘real’ target route done…  Last time I ended up snatching the Belvedere in the only small patch of not raining during the whole trip.

Mattrm:  Great to see you report an ‘excellent week’ and happy to reflect that putting in a 10 km is an impressive outcome considering that you haven’t done that many longer trips recently.  I’ve been stuck at 5 km for ages, partly because of my running partner, so I think I would struggle with longer distances especially where hills are involved!  Anyway, it was clearly hard if you were left in need of recovery for the next couple of days!  Good effort!

Great to see a trip to the wall as well, which has been part of your plan for quite a while now.  Hopefully it was enjoyable and something to include more regularly?

I've had a rough weekend, and although I did one of my running targets on Friday, I still have one to go and only today (Monday) to get it.  If only I didn't have a hangover and a polie of work to complete!

Liam P:  Fantastic that you have hit your weight loss target and immediately stretched it further!  It did look like you weren’t going to get there as you seemed to have stalled at a bit over 80 kg, so great to see you push through the barrier prior to your holiday.  It is odd how it happens as I have been stable at 66/67 kg all year, but dropped to 64 kg this week, which I can only attribute to having a reasonable run of climbing and other exercise as I’m not sure I changed anything else. 

Good to see that you’ve been training on smaller edges that you realised and surprising what difference the 2 mm makes.  Achieving 86.5% is a fair jump and starts to make BW seem close now.  There are a few working on this across the group and I am getting closer to putting together a revised training station to include the assistance – definitely an Autumn plan once I have sorted out all the other things that are in the way!

Your training week looked good and the lock-offs are increasingly strong as well.  Hanging wipers also raising weight gradually and a good spread on the board as well.

Given how little climbing you’ve been doing, having a wobble on something with skinny gear is to be expected.  You need some mileage behind you to feel relaxed in those situations and most people stick to things where the gear is straightforward and bomber until they have their head in gear.  Good to complete it on pre-placed gear anyway as that will help.

Small Step:  Certainly can include me in the ‘age’ category – I think I am the oldest on here at approaching 66.  Oddly enough, I don’t feel that I’ve changed much over the years in that I always struggled at the start of each season and always felt I needed to be climbing regularly (every third day) to get smooth.  I don’t get out quite that often now, so I accept the blips that come along, but top-roping a couple of routes was a change in strategy that worked well.

Your pull ups must be getting strong as you’ve kept the pattern going for a while now.  They will start to feel really solid, so definitely worth changing the stimulus on your next cycle.  Plenty of us include weighted pull ups as well.  These were something I had never done and they felt hard at first even though I was doing BW sets easily.  They still feel hard, but they have a very positive effect on subsequent BW ones!  Take care with elbows however.

A decent week with good results at the wall, which sounds like hard work in hot conditions.  Good to see you maintaining your training plan pretty well and are putting a good base together each week.  You will start to see gains on the hangboard or pull ups over subsequent cycles, though it is early days for you on these yet.  Have you done any of the testing to establish a training level?  Plenty of us have done these and repeat them periodically – Alan is familiar I think?

Climbthatpitch:  Great to see you back and no worries – it is just a loose ‘club’ with a broadly shared purpose and life can easily get in the way at times.  I’d give up if I had to do it on my phone and even struggle completing on my laptop.  Much better with my twin screen office set up!

Car challenges can be frustrating, but glad it was sorted with minimal expense!  See my post this week for my own (shameful) car contribution. 

Your session at the Gap looked productive with plenty done.  A very decent evening!  Great to get up to North Wales for a bit of out of area variety and an explore, especially as it must be quite a distance for you?  I keep meaning to do something similar, but so far I keep prioritising climbing with others, whereas the day you had sounds quite inspiring really.  I’ve recently added similar things to my targets so that should give me an appropriate push.

Visiting a wall in summer and ‘nothing structured’?  Hopefully some fun was had regardless!

In reply to Derek Furze:

Quite a good week, though less training than planned for all sorts of reasons (mainly watching out my Fit Club merch to arrive).  Sadly, I only dreamt that I had ordered 'train like Ally' headbands.

Mon - risked a trip over to Llangollen.  Heavy rain overnight meant the crag was largely dripping, but managed to find stuff to do in a drying wind at Twilight area.  Another new area for me and as lovely as much of the escarpment.  Nothing very hard as dealing with damp on most things, but seven routes anyway.  Great day good research for my Autumn plan.

Tues - long day at work.

Wed - Grabbed a session at Harpur Hill.  Eight routes mostly 6b, again with some damp about.  These were on a bit I haven't done routes on before (College Buttress) that I used to be able to see from my office at the college in 1994.  A good, quick hit.  Then trained in the evening - managed 3 sets of 5 weighted at 11.3 kg; 3x2 assisted one armers and 3 sets of lock offs at 90 deg for 8 seconds.  Wrist roller at 4.6 kg which feels like a good stimulus.

Thurs - early start for work so dashed to the to put fuel in.  Consider whether to put E10 or E5 in, but went for the comfort of regular unleaded.  All would be fine, but I drive a diesel.  Drove to Stoke and back - no real problems through struggled to start on three or four occasions.  Worked out what I had done.  Called out Fuel Flush and parted with £175... sorted.  They were amazed that it had coped for 70 miles or so.

Fri - run.  Did 5 km in 29:21 so hit one of my end July targets.

Sat - last session on max hang slopers and got to PB of 16.9 kg in five sets; 5x10 BW pull ups (considered doing five more sets to get to 100, but was short of time); 5x10 push ups; 5 sets of stretches and 5 sets of 15 reverse curls at 9.2 kg

A fair bit of climbing done despite poor weather.  The first month where I have exceeded my monthly routes target (49 vs 35) so starting to claw back the annual target for 'days out' and 'routes completed'.  Training days are well on track to smash the annual goals set.  I've added some classic rock type type goals for the rest of the year and including winter.  I am also going to start on Tyler's NWL ticklist by the year end, even if it means I have to redpoint something.

August plan is to do more maintenance work and actually design a training station.  I've ordered a weight pin to hang weights off a harness and sorted out a pulley.  Just need to build a power station type set up that can handle a campus board as well.  Considering a different hangboard, lifting blocks and micro edge as well.  Also need to order the headband.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Tried my one km target over the weekend, but was too knackered.  Will hopefully get it this week.

In reply to Derek Furze:

This is actually part of my job remit. The fact it's E5 or E10 won't have an impact on how well a diesel functions on fuel contaminated with gasoline. 

The main failure point to be worried about is that fuel pumps in diesels are lubricated by the fuel; when you accidentally mix in gasoline, you lose that lubrication and can do long-term damage, or even have catastrophic failure of the high-pressure fuel pump. 

It sounds like you got lucky, either by not putting too much gasoline in, having a base diesel with high lubricating properties, or by having robust hardware (pre-2008 VW?)

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks for the detailed stats - I took it easy at the start of the week to give my immune system a chance to defeat the lurgy, and it seems to have worked.

Week 30

M – First day back at work. Taking it easy to reduce likelihood of lurg making a third surge. 10x 45s on/90s off v-sit hold whilst baby wrangling.

T – Still taking it easy. 3x10 OHP 30kg.

W – Crimpd static core. Hollow body holds considerably harder than planks or v-sits. Wrist-wrench, 10s holds; 18kg thumbless flexor (quite hard) 18kg extensor with thumb (quite easy). I probably shouldn’t be surprised with that, as my thumbs are a strong point. Guess I’ve found something to work on with both these sessions 😊

T – Reverting to the daily minimum concept and repeated Crimpd static core, plus some stretches.

F – 5x5 20mm BW pull-ups on-the-minute, then aero-power session. 10x “7A/+” then continued with 20x 6C+ benchmark on-the-minute. Good level of try hard by the end.

S – A fraught day out shopping with two under 3y.o. which inevitably ended with toddler lying down in a pram shop, kicking her legs and refusing to move. Daily minimum: 10x 45s v-sit / 90s rest while late night baby wrangling.

S – 3x5 20mm edge pull-ups at BW+Mk2, then some unstructured hangs to warm-up, before Crimpd small edge routine; BW+16kg. Finally Mk2 was due another feed and I got 45min on the board before her big sister woke up. In that time I managed a recent 7B+ benchmark and got close on another 7B+ (which used slopers and would be easier with better skin – back on the Rhinoskin for me).  Much later, Wrist-wrench, 10s holds; 22kg thumbless flexor (hard) 22kg extensor with thumb (quite easy).

In reply to Ally Smith:

Thanks for the explanation.  I wasn't showing any lights, but was towards empty.  I put in £40!  It's a Skoda Octavia 2012.  They have quite a large (500ml?) filter arrangement, so possibly that helped by maintaining a blend?  Starting was ropey from the first restart after my meeting though.  Just amazed that I made the mistake and even 'chose' which unleaded to use!  My mind was clearly elsewhere...

You can claim that this is not distracting you from work on this occasion!

In reply to Derek Furze:

2012 Octy will also avoid the other potential issue, which i didn't mention, which is impact on exhaust after-treatment based on urea (NOx reduction via SCR). 

Starting will certainly be an issue, as the cetane number will be much reduced by the presence of gasoline.

I'm glad you're mobile again, but keep an ear out for any rough starting or increased noise from the fuel system (you can hear the HP pump start to whine when you turn on the ignition, but before turning the engine over)

In reply to Derek Furze:

Good afternoon all, brilliant stats as always Derek. If nobody else volunteers for the next stint I'm happy to do one, though I think I'd struggle to keep things up to your rigourous standards

Indeed it has been crap, but the weekend turned out to be not too bad and was able to enjoy touching some limestone on Saturday.

Unfortunately the repairing has gone a bit pear-shaped this week as the ring finger A2 has reared it's head again, for no apparent reason, despite the index A2 being more recent and not seeming to have gotten worse at all? Confusing! At the start of this week now the index A2 feels pretty much fine, but I'm getting a bit sick of the relentless injuries and tweaks!

Finger aside though, the rest of my body seems to be in good shape with PBs for 1RM pull-ups and assisted one arm hangs on the Beastmaker.

Last Week:

M - AM very light hangs. Left ring finger A2 now feels crap again?!

T - AM very light hangs. Warmed up and both A2s were feeling sort of okayish. Moved onto general strength benchmarking just to see where I am:

- Pullup 1RM = BW+60kg (total 177%, 138kg). Improvement of 9kg since Jan '22.

- BM2K middle edge, assisted 5s one arm hangs = -25kg on the injured LH (didn't want to push it!), -1.25kg on the RH, which I'm very surprised with. Tried sans assist but the rotation spat me off after 2-3 seconds. 

Ice baths before bed.

W - Weigh-in at 78kg. AM and PM very light hangs.

T - AM very light hangs. Evening Moonboard. Five benchmarks up to 6C. I think I got the intensity about right on the left hand but wasn't feeling great in the rest of my body.

F - AM very light hangs.

S - Little Orme. Started on Johnny Dublin (f7A+) which went pretty swiftly, very nice on the finger as there's only one LH crimp and you can take it very passively. Next was Jawa Right Hand (f7A+) which was a similar story. Went for a "just a look" at Cave Wall but was lured in by the pockets of Patch's Problem (V7), and quickly sussed a sequence utilising a very tasty 3F drag on the LH, and clutched it from the start on my last-ditch effort. Perhaps a bit desperate but not sure how my 3FD strength is affected by the injury. Certainly harder than the softies from earlier!

S - PM very light hangs.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Climbing.

W - Rest.

T - Climbing.

F - Rest.

S, S - More climbing, potentially Portland DWS if the weather holds up!

Goals:

Rehab both A2s.

Improve ability on tiny edges.

Work on PE.

Oberth Effect Proj.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks as ever Derek. Looking back 5 min/km comment sounds like a humble brag. It wasn’t meant to be. Just an observation on how we all have different strengths and weaknesses.

The shoulder feels like it is being well targeted. It’s settled, but that maybe because I’ve not been on PZ!

I need to re test my active finger strength. I’ll do that this week and then I think I’ll change finger exercises to pinches. I’ve actually had a period of being very inconsistent with the curls which isn’t good. 
 

M - gym (shoulder bias), 10min on x2 at 6b, 30 min flat jog. Supposed to be 3x10 mins but life happened and I didn’t get time.

T - Board - managed 8 x 1 min reps. Was feeling fatigued so didn’t push on. 
Shoulder and finger curls

W - Travelled to Leeds to work in a climbing wall, returned to Preston to work in a climbing wall. Still didn’t do any training…….

T - shoulder 

F - Quick Boulder before heading to London for the weekend to watch the FormulaE with my son. Didn’t get back until the early hours of Monday. 

It was a reminder that I haven’t bouldered for ages. I felt low on power and ached all weekend.

I went for a half hour jog Sat and Sun mornings and walked about 20k steps each day. But I also ate breakfast buffets and takeaway food all weekend. 
 

I think this week I’ll change things up with narrow pinch grip training and a Boulder session as well as the board session. 
 

Next weekend we’re hoping for a few days in Langdale on an FRCC meet. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

Hi All, glad to be back and posting. Things not totally sorted but progress is being made and at least I am more self aware of when the head is taking me into dark places.

Monday, a rest day having spent the previous week walking up and down the hills around Castleton in between the rain!

Tuesday, back in the pool after a while off. Just the 0.5 km to loosen the shoulders. 5k run in the evening with the kids back at swimming.

Wednesday, in the pool for a 1k swim.

Thursday, 1k swim and stretch class

Friday, 1.5k lunchtime swim and out for a 5k run with the wife in the evening.

Weekend was spent in the garden doing battle with the jungle that it has turned into. Nice to be outside without it raining!

Not a massive amount of exercise to report however the important bit is getting myself out there and doing something. Being aware that my training improves with a specific target to aim for my wife and I have entered the Leicester half marathon which is a at the beginning of October. So essentially 2 months to get myself from 5k to Half Marathon. I do like a challenge

In reply to Ross Barker:

Wow!  Those strength tests!

In reply to the sheep:

Great to see you back and with some targets to boot!

In reply to biscuit:

No humble brag detected!  Genuinely impressed and motivated by all of these strengths and weaknesses being shared openly across the group.  Pinch blocks - good idea.  Another bit of kit to source.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Weight - 12st 6lbs

STG - 5k - 30 mins

MTG - 10k 1 hour

LTG - Come up with better goals!

M - 1.9k run

T - W - Rest

T - 5k - 36:48

F - Rest

S - 1.9k

Running distance - 9km

Nice thing about getting back into things from a terrible base is that I'm constantly improving.  I wasn't even trying that hard on the 5k and took nearly a minute off it.  I'm normally bad at pacing, so the start was pretty slow and I only really pushed it for the last 500m or so.  I could have definitely pushed it a bit more through the middle of the run.  Busy family week as well, my son's birthday so we had family over and it was all a bit busy.  Glad I managed to get the runs in.  I'm just going to do two 5ks next week.  Hope to get down the wall as well.

In reply to Ross Barker:

Looking strong lar!

The trick with 1-arm hangs is to keep the assistance to control the rotation, but increase load by adding weight to your body (small increments can be handled easily by slipping weights in pockets).

BW+60kg pull-up is seriously impressive

In reply to Derek Furze:

Hey team. Thanks for the stats, Derek... you've done a great stint, with really thoughtful feedback, so you definitely deserve some respite! (Ross, if you're happy doing the final quarter of 2023, I don't mind picking it up in the new year?)

Week 30:

M: Core and strength. Right swearing finger is a little sore, but more when I press on it than when I hang.

T: Trail run. 18.5km, 536m vert, 6:38/km.

W: Prehab.

T: Indoor climbing. Max hangs, strength interval bouldering, autobelay aerocap.

F: Trail run. 18.1km, 535m vert, 6:51/km. Felt quite hard, not sure why. 

S: Wedding raving. 

S: Prehab.

Week 31:

M: Core and strength

T: Run.

W: Prehab.

T: Core and strength.

F: Run.

S: Climbing.

S: Climbing.

STG (end Sept):

3 off big mountain day list.

Average twice weekly finger boarding.

5+ off Lundy hit list.

MTG (end Dec):

White Wall.

100m D6/7 in a session.

110 days climbing for the year.

1000 km running (and 40km vertical) for the year.

LTG (end March):

2+ off Scottish VII list.

1+ of Alpine Winter list.

In reply to Derek Furze: Thanks Derek, well done on your stint, you've set the bar exceptionally high. recently I've lost my running mojo, so plodding through the motions at a minimal level. I think that's because I'd written off the autumn run/climb project but considering this weeks injury niggles it might be back on, although my running levels are months off what is required just to complete things let alone set a respectable time.

Mon – Depot. Warm up 5 x (green, blue, black, pink). Attempted 3 purples. Regressed - felt low on energy, and finger (tweaked last week) felt worse, plus niggle in elbow felt like beginnings of golfers elbow. So switched to circuits. 6b+ on wooden circuit board (30 + moves) x 4, 4 mins rest – got pumped

Tues – 4 miles easy run

Wed – 4 miles easy run round woods

Thursday - Awesome Walls. Not done routes for a while but with the state of my finger and elbow it seemed like the only option. Warmed up on auto belay, 4+, 5+, 6a, 6b, 6a+, then led 6c+ slab (always find slabs here suit me – technical rather than too fingery), 5 x different 6cs; topped 2, got to 2/3rds on another, and 7/8ths height on other two. Reasonable session, was able to battle quite well and all moves felt really easy after all the bouldering, but felt heavy and low on zip.

Friday – Nothing

Saturday – Easy swim 500m, easy run, 4 miles hilly plod

Sunday – Nothing

Reflection- This week has been a good example of the mind-body link. I’ve felt down, tired and stressed for a few weeks now and so when this week I tweaked a finger, and all the others flared up in sympathy and golfers elbow kicked in, it wasn’t a huge surprise. As a result I’ve done less training this week and stuck with endurance stuff on bigger holds. A little bit of positivity is that I haven’t lost any endurance despite not training it. On family holiday now and looking forward to the recovery time. I’ve got a climbing day with an old mate – my planned venue the ludicrously steep Sanctuary Wall currently feels delusional given my current low levels, but also the poor weather forecast.

In reply to Ally Smith:

Good tip, cheers, I'll try that next time I'm there.

Cheers, I don't think it's my weakness I was joking to some mates a out cranking out 200% but it suddenly seems like a somewhat realistic long term goal.

I think my main weakness (aside from injury proneness!) is small <20mm edges, as even at full health I find two-handing a 10mm edge pretty hard. I also feel that I moan a lot about it and don't do much to actually resolve it, but in my own defence I think micro edge training would be silly until my finger woes are sorted.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Yeah, one thing that i have noticed during this whole combine running and strength training experiment that you can not divide you body into certain parts. If i wreck myself with running then i won't be fresh for a strength session on the next day and overall recovery is definately affected. The funny thing that i have a feeling that running is more affecting my strength training than vice versa. One possible explanation is am just more used to the strength training and hence it is not as stressfull, but i also think that hard running is more taxing on the body in general

Recap last week:

Mon: Tried to do pullups but absolutely empty already during warmup, as i would had a hard session on Sunday though i did not do pullups on the weekend at all. Probably just generally fatigued by the 28km run. Decided to go an easy 30 minutes recovery run instead, 5:25/km pace with heart rate well below 120

Tues: Easy run 45 minutes, 4:39/km 132 HR. Felt much better than yesterday though still not fully recovered. I also noticed that i felt much better on Monday after a huge dinner. So probably i was still a little bit underfueled on Monday despite eating quite a lot on the weekend.

Wed: Assisted One-Arm-Pullups at 89% BW, right arm: 2.5, 2, 1.5 left arm: 2.5, 2.5, 1.5; Assisted lockoffs, 150°: 92,5% BW 8-9s; 96% BW, 120°,90° and 45°: 6s-10s.  Fingerboard repeaters: 4x6x7,3 at 95% BW on 20mm egde, felt much better than on Monday but still no real progress, not sure if i hit a plateau or if i am still tired from the running

Thur: Threshold run: 8km at 4:00/km, 164 HR, pace felt much easier and was spot on for threshold work. Unfortunately, i had started to develop some pain in my right heel which was noticeable but manageable during the threshold run but got significantly worse during the cooldown.

Fri: Foot got worse and i was barely able to walk

Sat: Pain got a little bit better but still not even able to walk without pain. Probably got an inflammation in my plantar fascia (a tendon that connects your middle foot with your heel), due to too much running volume in the last weeks. Well, i was aware that what i was doing was some kind of risky but to be honest, i would not have expected it to get this bad such quickly.

Sun: Tried to do one-arm pullups but was too tired. Did 3x12 normal pullups instead and fingerboard repeaters: 4x6x7,3 at 90% BW on 20mm egde

A little bit of an unfortunate week, that shows the risk of quick changes in training volume, especially with an impact sport like running. The goal for this week is just to get healthy again so that i am at least able to walk normally again. Not sure when i am able to run again, but considering how bad the symptoms i think a couple if weeks rest from running will be necessary if i don't want to turn this into a permanent problem. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek, very reflective. 

I've been meaning to get out on the bike for a while but the weather has been very offputting as I hate cleaning my bike and as much as I dislike running, cleanign a muddy bike is even worse! 

That's a very good shout! I've been meaning to get across to the Llandudno area for quite some time as there are some stunning looking lines over there. 

I've been suffering with a shoulder tweak so opted for a bit of a deload week. 

M - Hip & leg flexibility

T - Rest

W - Upper body mobility

T - Zone 2 ride. 38km / 184m ascent / 1hr 19mins / 28.6km/hr

F - 3 x 10mins easy ARCing on the spray wall

S - Zone 2 ride. 22km / 67m ascent / 48mins / 27.5km/hr

S - Shoulder Physio & massage. They've diagnosed bursitis rather than an acute injury, similar to the problems I had last May. Got plenty of alignment and stretching exercises to crack on with so hoping things will settle down in a few weeks. Thankfully I can still climb, but will be keeping the intensity low and avoiding shouldery moves 

In reply to Derek Furze:

100%. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for this weekend which so far isn’t looking too bad.

The hamstring does seem to be fine now, but I was reminded that on my annual goals I had expressed some desire to continue to strengthen and stretch it, which obviously I hadn’t been doing. The same annual goals were the trigger for taking the shoulder seriously again.

A fairly good week really. Went to the wall, did some stretching and rehab, and had a day outside at a new crag which was good. Nominally got my first 7b done for a little while, although I don’t know whether it actually is or not.

Monday - rest

Tuesday - wall. Fairly decent session

Wednesday - stretching

Thursday - rehab, good session

Friday - busy work day then drive to the in-laws in the evening

Saturday - Llanymynech Quarry. First time there, despite it only being 75mins from the in-laws. I generally look northwards to the peak, or sometimes southwards to the Wye, but the Shropshire venues to the west have been something of a blind spot for me. Did some random warmup, then the sun came round and it was really hot. Liz was convinced Nomad Wall, where her project was, would still be fine, so we did a filthy approach pitch to get there. It was baking, too hot for me! Eventually we bailed to a bit of shady quarry where I managed to do Slobberlob (7b) second go. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if this was a lot easier than 7b, but my grade calibration is well out of whack at the moment. Not what I thought I would be doing - I’d obviously looked at all the big long wall climbs when scanning the guide - but a good day out. It’s got a fairly friendly crag base in a lot of places so it wouldnt be a ridiculous place to bring the family. And Nomad Wall in particular looks very good (although not with the family!)

Sunday - rehab and stretching

In reply to Derek Furze:

Another valiant effort on the stats Derek! Another quiet week with family commitments from me

STG: tick any of my local long term projects
MTG: tick my first 7a for two years
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 823
LTG: Winter 24 or 25 - do an actual off piste ski tour.

M: 
T: Wall, Thalkirchen, routes. Performance comes & goes in waves, and it looks like my recent spell of strength on plastic is ebbing. Back to getting pumped on 6b's, so it goes. 5b 6b (too early in the session, flash pump) 6a 6a+ 6b 6a+ 6b. But I was mainly there to meet up & make plans with my partners for a long weekend trip in August. From that perspective a successful evening.
    Bike 45 minutes
W: 
T: Took delivery of my new toy, a tindeq load cell. The idea being that I can use it to calibrate finger training rather more accurately than with the three kettlebells I possess. And see cool graphs! Initial results: I get peak force in strict half crimp on a 20mm edge comfortably over 50% bodyweight and both hands very even. Good. Rate of force development ... hmm. This one clearly needs a bit of practice. On a few goes I had pulls ranging from 79 to 126 kg/s, but with right consistently significantly faster than left. What does this mean? What is good or bad? No idea. I shall work on the assumption that faster = better.
    MTB 1½ hours in the woods

F: Wall, Thalkirchen. Kilterboard. Good session, definitely starting to feel stronger. Ticked a couple of 5-6 go miniprojects that had felt hard in previous sessions, but pretty steady today. And got my best link yet in on The Actual Proj.
    Intended to do deadlifts etc afterwards, but was too tired from bouldering and happy to rest in the satisfaction of a good session done.
    The usual 45 minutes-ish bike commute.

S: Half an hour mobility & shoulders

S: Brief Thalkirchen morning session before heading off to collect my teenage niece from the airport. Haven't seen her since before the pandemic: my how you've grown etc. 
    Short but good routes session - improved my ground-up link on the 7b+ project by one move, which doesn't sound like much but it takes me firmly into the start of the actual hard climbing. And felt a bit closer to holding the penultimate heartbreak sloper. What lesson am I taking on board to improve for next time? Don't forget your damn brush when you're limit projecting on crimps in this gopping humidity!
    Bike a bit over an hour there & back with a couple of extra errands en route. Today I really noticed my legs suddenly feeling the five or six hours a week I've been averaging on the bike over the last three months. May have to dial it back a bit for a week or two.
 

In reply to Derek Furze:

I use my tension block and squeeze the opposing edges of two holds. It’s good for fingertip thin pinching.

Keep your eyes peeled for a finger friendly fingerboard/pinch block which will be in all good climbing shops soon.

When I say soon I mean in a while. It turns out these things take ages when you (have to) involve other people. I’m not moaning about them, they’ve been fantastic, it’s just that my ADHD brain would hyper focus and get everything done in a couple of weeks. It has me on edge when people take a normal amount of time to complete a task that I am super interested in 🤣

In reply to Ian Parnell:>

whilst this is music to a physio’s ears (well done on responding what your body was telling you) could you please not tell everyone or I will be out of a job and my children will starve. 

In reply to Ross Barker:

Have you tried climbing on a 30 degree board with small holds?

It may be that you lack the coordination and specificity for small holds. A board gives more variety and forces you to use the holds rather than dangle off them. 

In reply to AlanLittle:

I use the tindeq for testing patients (including the RFD facility) happy to chat about it with you if you want? It is very easy to get a wonky result with it though for RFD.

it’s also pretty bloody good for fitness type work. You can now set it up to do repeaters. Have a play. The facility to set the repeaters up where you still have to pull a bit in your ‘rest’ is fantastic. It’s the closest I’ve come to replicating a pump on a climb in training.

Now I’ve said all this I feel like I should actually use it to train rather than just test people with it.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Hi Derek, more energy this week, enough to go climbing but have had to sack off most the cardio again as other (hopefully short-lived) health issues causing problems (I won't go into details, if the kids at work notice this I'd rather they not know all the details of my life!). 

Mon. Sport climbing, 4 tie ins with plenty of rest between goes. Quick redpoints of Much Monkey Magic (7a+)  and then J.L.N.O.E (7b+).

Tues and wed. Rest.

Thurs. Piton Route (VS 4c) and then Grand Central Station (E2 5c) with Lee. Just a short session as rain stopped play in the morning. Nice to meet up with another fitclubber.

Fri. Travel day, off to Jersey!

Sat. Repeaters, pull ups, press ups.

Sun. 2km swim.

In reply to biscuit:

Thanks. I mostly see RFD as a curiosity at the moment while I'm trying the device out; my main motivation for buying it is to be able to do training hangs (pulls) with varying numbers of fingers at reasonably precise percentages of max. 

I like the sound of your repeaters idea though, and will definitely be giving a critical force test a go when I can find a decent time window where don't have other sessions planned.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thank you Derek,

Its hard to grade high E's as I don't onsight at that level, and would be very wary of giving anything E7 as its well above my grade, (and I would be headpointing it anyway).  If in doubt I prefer to undergrade, as no-one wants to get a reputation for grading soft routes

I have 2 lists, there are the "Projects", that I need to work on over multiple visits and the Redpoint is not a certain when I go to do it.  The bouldery 7b route is on the "To Do" list, which is usually a bit longer and is routes that I know I can do, just need to find the right time/belayer etc.

Was on holiday with the family all this week, so nothing to report.  I managed to find another little crag whilst out nosing around, another one added to the bank.

Not done any notable amount of actual climbing for nearly a month now - need to get back on it. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

It’s pretty simple really, treat it like a project from the outset and keep going back to the same route, i.e. stick clip, don’t worry about not doing all the moves on your first go up, don’t try redpointing until you’ve done good links, extend draws if you need to etc.

Have you been to Crinkle Crags, I’ve not been but Martin recommends it. 

Unfortunately it’s not advice I need it’s functioning knees. 

Bit of strange week not helped by unstable weather and a car that is still in the garage. 

Start of the week was marked by me throwing my toys out if the pram repeatedly at work which, together with going down to a four day week, will have a long lasting cathartic effect and an improved work life balance

T: Half hour mountain bike, did the route without putting a foot down, which was a very STG.

W: Rain

T: Drove around the Marine Drive looking for a dry route, there wasn’t one but enjoyed a pleasant evening walking around Llandudno with Fi, felt like I was on holiday.

F: Had no one lined up to climb with at weekend so cut my losses and went to the Beacon. Short but ok session as I continue to nurse my elbow.  

S: Turns out I had a choice of people to climb with and plumped for Llanddulas as I only had a short window. TR of El Tigre (7b) to warm up and very nearly got it next go. Did it next time but I think it’s soft, especially if tall (this is where I do a stage wink in Derek’s direction!)

S: 50mins MTB, tweaky knee but ok afterwards

In reply to Steve Claw:

OTOH if you want people to get on your routes you don’t want the reputation as a harsh grader!  

In reply to AJM:

Good effort, I wouldn’t be surprised if it is harder than this! I went on it knowing there was a crucial heel hook but couldn’t find anything obvious and it felt impossible

In reply to Tyler:

Absolutely agree 👍 

eGrinder says 7c+ on gear is a minimum easy E7 if well protected (I.e. continuous fine crack) or hard E7 for "Standard Trad".

In reply to Tyler:

Passing the third (?) bolt, there's a break with a left hand edge above it and a pocket and edge above that - heel in the break to get the pocket.

In reply to AJM:

Thanks Andy, it's not a route I thought I'd get back on but equally I'm intrigued as everyone (boulderers?) seems to think its not that bad

In reply to Tyler:

i had similar thoughts in terms of why it might have seemed reasonable - I'm not exactly in peak shape for anything at the moment but I'm probably more able to still do a short indoorsy boulder problem than say a longer power endurancey sort of thing.

In reply to Tyler:

I've not tried Crinkle Crags yet, but I have considered it on more than one occasion.  It looks good and mostly no tide issues.

Thanks for tips.  Will add 'project something' to an outing shortly.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Cheers Derek. Just managed my two wall sessions I owed you before my wine-club holiday. Weighed in at 81kg pre-flight so hopefully I’m not too far off when I return.

Tue

Wall

• OA Hangs 20mm 6x 5s 4FD @ 82/83/84/85/86/87%BW. 
• Standing Ab Wheel Rollouts (big assistance band) 3x 12
• 40degWoody. Ticked my 7A Proj which took 2-3 sessions (graded by me so probably wildly overgraded!)
• Straight Arm Hanging Wipers 3x 15 (+1.4kg of Ankle Weight)
• OA Lockoffs 3x 5s (big assistance band - didn’t work as well as a pulley as there’s no assistance at the top)

Thu

Antags

• Parallette Press-ups 5x 30

Fri

• 40degWoody. Swapped a few moves for smaller holds to make a new 7A+ Proj. Did it in 3 sections.
• Straight Arm Hanging Wipers 3x 10 (+2kg of Ankle Weight)
• Pyramid Pull-ups. 12 down to 3, so 75 in total.

I’ll be away for 2-weeks now. Hope everyone enjoys the summer (if we get one!)

In reply to Derek Furze:

Hi Derek, thanks as ever.

Your remark on every third day to get or stay smooth is something I can very much relate to. Necessary to keep the ‘machine’ nicely greased and oiled…after all, rust never sleeps...
Thanks for the tip on changing stimulus – I’ll definitely give this a go through the second half of August / first half of September: invert the zigs into 2-4-6-8 and play around with the weight vest to see what’s possible. Funny that you ask about testing & training level. About three weeks ago on the wall I noticed quite a considerable gain in strength on a couple of moves, and indeed I feel stronger thanks to this mini cycle. But it’s subjective…I’m a bit hesitant to find ‘objective’ levels and don’t know why…this why is definitely something to mull over. Practically, maybe a bit of testing prior to winter training…

A mixed week for me – from plastic to alpinism…

Mon: stretching & light upper body.
Tue: wall, Thalkirchen, 6a+, 6b, 6b, 2 x 7a (same route), 6b+/6c, 6c. Short session; the routes I was interested in were blocked by setting in the adjacent lines so went back to some 7a ‘unfinished business’ from March and did quite well. Complicated crux no worked out - alas so complicated that I fell on the last hard move after...
Wed: stretching.
Thu & Fri: Blaueis Hut, Hochkalter, Berchtesgaden Alps. Went up with the idea of a bit of sport climbing on Thu afternoon and multipitch Fri. Sport crags were really wet and not terribly inviting. Partner was firmly set on doing the Blaueis traverse the next day, which in its purest form takes in the six peaks surrounding the hut like a horseshoe. Given the weather and his relatively inexperienced and very unsure partner / second (me!) we decided to walk up to the first peak on Thu. So for Fri that left five peaks, with 12 pitches (6, 4, 2 progressively on different towers) in total up to 4+, lots & lots of scrambling and downclimbing, spectacular views, and although not difficult some passages were quite exposed – full focus needed. The first sections went really well, the odd pitch in drizzle, but there were also blades of brilliant sunshine occasionally cutting through the gloom. Although I was a bit slower than my partner, we were still within the time markers…and then the weather turned after all, just before the ascent (all the rope climbing was done) to the final peak, the Hochkalter, i.e. with about three hours ahead of us. Mist enveloped and descended, thunder growled, and there was the odd lightning flash. The only exit left to us was down the col (right term? Scharte in German) to the small glacier, which fortunately had a really good cover of late season snow. We abseiled down and landed in a gap about three metres away from and two metres beneath the lip of the snowfield / glacier. And so we had to climb up and mantle over the lip while on abseil with blocked prusik. Took me three goes because I needed an extra foothold in the snow than those my partner had politely stomped. And so we descended, slowly, cautiously, abseiling, downclimbing using the tips of the trekking poles like axes, stamping steps with our approach shoes---a huge compliment to my partner for helping /guiding me down…I’ve since looked at some photos on the net and can’t believe how steep it looks…gradually though it evens out and it was tiring but relatively easy going…ten hours later we were back at the hut.
Sat: exhausted after getting home past midnight (got caught in a traffic jam on the autobahn after a pile up on Friday night), light stretching and recovery food…
Sun & Mon: scheduled was the second half of the climbing block, family climbing with my wife – dodgy weather and tiredness made the decision to replan very easy. Now three days in mid-August (public holiday here thanks to Mary’s ascension).

So that’s it – all this plastic stuff and so little rock and then – for me at least – a bit of an alpine ‘epic’.

Wishing all a good weekend.