UKC

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_854-7623...

Thanks Ross and Tom for the instant offers to take over first weekend in September.  I don’t mind another stint in the New Year (you can probably tell that I quite like doing this!), so if you prefer, split the Sept – Dec block between yourselves and I will come back refreshed.  However, perfectly happy for others to jump on.

Another interesting week with exchanges on car issues, one-arm hanging tips, more fit club merch (Biscuit) and some strong strength tests from our resident yoofs.  The return of The Sheep (yay)

Ally Smith:  Yes, probably makes sense to take it easy occasionally and having several consecutive bouts of illness would do it for me.  Thanks for car advice – I’ve now had a week of travel with no problems so just hoping no longer-term damage done.  Considering trading up soon anyway.

Interesting to see some discoveries about what to work on from the Crimpd static core and thumbless / thumb testing.  The detail some people pursue is really eye-opening (as is their interpretation of ‘taking it easy’).

Another stunning board set with 10x7A/+ and 20x6C+ on the minute.  I’m not sure I’d expect to complete one of the 6C+, though never having tried it is a bit of a mystery to me.  Glad to hear that you had to try hard by the end.  It must be really good stamina training.  Completing the Crimpd small edge routine at plus 16kg is also quietly impressive.

Ross Barker:  Regarding ‘rigorous standards’ – I might be enthusiastic in statting, but you are cranking far harder than me.  I think that is what really matters!

Sorry to hear than finger woes are still a feature with a bit of a troublesome  re-occurrence of previous problems.  You will be very fed-up of continual niggles, but I guess this is a feature of the intense stuff that you do (?).  Bouldering is far more intense than most of the plodding up sport routes or trad climbs that occupy most of us, so the loads through joints are going to be fairly extreme.  I know you are careful with warm-ups and stuff, but slightly off body positions (or whatever) are going to have a real impact.

As you note, none of this appears to have held back your weighted 1RM, which I think is the highest load we have seen, though not sure in terms of BW percentage (or age handicapping 😉).  Considering that I don’t think I’ve seen you training this, to have improved is only down to your work on the MB.  Also excellent on the one-arm hangs and I expect you have retested with Ally’s tips in mind?

A nice session at Manor Crag (which has had a FC hammering this year with three separate members visiting.  Good results despite the injuries.  Take it steady and keep up the rehab.

Btw, I agree that micro-edge training would be daft for you.  You are strong enough as it is!

Biscuit:  So many contributions from you so I won’t be able to track them all.  Thanks for offering your wisdom on a load of stuff and interesting that you are putting out some more merch.  I did like your ADHD comment on approach and wondered when you were going to apply this seriously dedicated single-minded hyperactivity to PZ?!

An entertaining week of training with the London weekend featuring, including the breakfast buffet and takeaways.  It happens and sometimes you have to just roll with it.   Less training and more shoulder rehab is probably a good thing in the period of enforced quiet anyway.  Mind you, your quiet week wasn’t completely without some training efforts, though you seemed a bit away from your normal schedule.

I can’t imagine Langdale will be that inviting at the moment.  I cycled down Chee Dale this week and even the dry crags were dripping.  Somehow, keep managing to find dryish rock to climb, but most of it is very far away from the places I should be climbing at this time of year.  Apparently, things are set to improve…

The Sheep:  Fantastic to have you back.  I did think that you might be up in the Peak as I had an idea it was July, but I don’t suppose the Edale Skyline featured with the fairly depressing weather!

A strong return to the pool after a bit of time off, which shows that very little has been lost – 4 km across the week is excellent and plenty of mileage on the road as well for a start back.  Great to see a target on the schedule and it should be attainable as you have been over 5 km early this year.  That said, two months is quite a challenge to step it back up to a race distance (and possibly pace), so I will follow both your progress with interest.  You will have clocked the very impressive running times on here of late as people seem to have turned to running – probably the weather causing changes of focus!

Mattrm:  Yes, aside from the initial shock of starting back with something, it is nice to get that early improvement curve.  Good to see that your times are falling with each passing week and that you are getting a 5 km in regularly now.  Pacing is a challenge for definite and I often find it hard unless I run with others – usually go slightly too fast and find that even if I consciously slow down, my times tell me otherwise!  Did your 5 km include some hills (it normally does) because I suspect that has a fairly dramatic impact on times.  I don’t do enough on hills to understand the impact.

Good to be planning more of the longer runs as your pace will settle and something more consistent will emerge.  Hope you manage to get wall sessions in as it sounded like an enjoyable break last time.

Tom Green:   Running back on more seriously for you again and some good times appearing already.  Back up to your target weekly average or thereabouts at a stroke.

Interesting to see your revised goals as always.  Twice weekly fingerboarding is a good target and shouldn’t be hard to fit in.  After all, if you do max hang cycles, they only take 6 x 10 seconds to do and the rest periods (6 x 3 mins) can easily be filled with core and other strength stuff, so the whole session is often under 20 minutes for me.  It probably isn’t technically proper, but I do a sort of continuous mixed set of max hangs, pull ups, push ups, stretches and weights, then rest 2 minutes and repeat.  Far less time that resting between every exercise, which I wouldn’t have time to do…

I’d be interested in the Lundy hit list.  I’ve only been once as I didn’t think I’d like it.  Loved it and lucky enough to climb every day.  Also wondering what classifies as a ‘big’ mountain day?

Ian Parnell:  Sorry to hear that you’ve written off the Autumn target though probably not good if you’ve lost your running mojo anyway!  It might be a good thing to target in Spring as would work quite well on the back of a winter training programme?  That would give you enough months to get your times somewhere near where you want them to be.

You sound a bit flat physically with your report of the Depot visit and Awesome Walls, though actually delivered a pretty decent return as far as I can tell.  A good insight about the moves feeling easy after all the bouldering – definitely inspiring me to get to the walls this winter with hard moves on the plan.  At the moment, anything beyond my typical onsight level can feel impossible initially, whereas it isn’t…

Managing your state is probably good professional advice for yourself, as Biscuit noted!  You sound like a rest is needed, and probably the opportunity to get on some rock again as it is pretty clearly what drives you to train as purposefully as you do.  Let me know if you want to get out on return, though I think Mondays are out for the duration of the holidays?

Randy:  Interesting observations on the impact of training running on strength and vice versa.  You are probably right about not being able to divide the body and I recognise this more when I have a really long work day, then climbing the following day.  Not surprisingly, it can feel very dislocating and it takes a while to switch into climbing mode somehow.  I am learning to roll with it.

Very sorry to hear that you have triggered an injury – plantar fascia you suspect.  It sounds like it has become bad quite quickly and I think it can be a troublesome thing to fix.  However, you will be doing the right thing to try get on top of it quickly and at least it won’t affect your one-arm work 😉.

Prior to that, your runs were pretty good again with plenty of distance at good pace.  The threshold run seemed to be the trigger, though obviously it could have been a developing problem for a while.  You mention being tired more than once in your report (this week and others) so worth paying attention to some deload opportunities?

SteveJC94:  I can confirm that Chee Dale is wet.  Took my grandson for a bike ride there and a lot of stuff was dripping, though I didn’t pass near enough to the Cornice to inspect things.  That said, the new North Wales Limestone guide should inspire you to travel west as there is loads for you to get to grips with over there.  We often remark how much more inspiring some of the places are in comparison with much of the Peak – the same is true of the wonderful landscapes of the Dales as well.  I can sit and enjoy the scenery, which doesn’t happen in some of the Peak’s shoddier offerings, though it does have some charms of its own.

Good that you have a diagnosis though what have you done to trigger bursitis in your shoulder?  I had it on an elbow last year, which was quite spectacular, but pretty much painless.  It seemed to be self-limiting with a bit of care.

Five training days on a deload week!  I can see the intensity is a few notches down from your usual, but still quite a bit of flexibility work and miles on the bike. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

part two.

AJM:  There’s no ‘nominally’ about it.  Surely Llanymynech counts as ‘holiday grades’ for you anyway?  I’ve not been for a look at the particular bit where Slobberlob resides – mainly because it is full of no star routes that are too hard for me, but I will make an effort on my next visit.  The crag generally is a good spot for Autumn as the bird bans don’t affect it then and it doesn’t get quite so hot.  Anyway, glad it worked out as an option and for future reference it is only a little further to Llangollen, which has a lot of close to the parking hard sport at places like Dinbren and Pinfold.  Superb scenery as well.  Oh, and trad climbs…  You’ve also got Ally’s crag near Mold (Devil’s Gorge), though I think the warm up is 7a.

Good to see the revisiting of goals has pushed you back to your rehab and that you got a ‘good session’ in on this.  Ordinarily, it is easy to get into the wrong mindset with rehab – ‘not really training, but fixing a problem I wish I didn’t have’, whereas it is really building strength / capability to prevent injury being a problem.  It would be interesting to know what exercises you are doing and what feels like it is working, as shoulders are a niggle for a few of us at the moment.

AlanLittle:  As I have remarked on many occasions, the application of the German branch to Thalkirchen and many other walls amazes me.  It certainly demonstrates a real commitment to improving to be visiting walls in the midst of the season proper in the conditions that you have frequently described!  Given that, there are bound to be changes in motivation and conditions impacting how well you do on any given visit.  Certainly, one day outside can feel very different performance-wise to another, so similar things will happen indoors as well.

The new toy sounds interesting, though a little bit of research and a reading of the excited comments from Biscuit didn’t tell me much about what it is or what it actually does!  Presumably force development is a bit like recruitment, so is something that is typically handed?

The project now seems to be a real thing, though slopers and humidity just won’t work.  Are you working the moves in the hard bit each time?

Plenty of cycling again, though it sounds like you need some recovery on the plan as well!

Somerset Swede Basher:  Hopefully, holidays are what the doctor ordered and that you will be back to full strength soon, though not to weak a showing if you’ve managed two more of the mega-steep Craig-Y-Biceps specials – some of those things have had very few ascents logged so good effort getting them done.

Great to see you had a quick trip south and hooked up with Lee.  I’d not heard of Grand Central Station (to recent a route), but it looks pretty good.  You’ve picked up a few routes there now, which is unusual as most people avoid the place.  I do think that when I climbed a lot at Avon, it had a very positive impact on technique.  Not sure I’d cope with the (spaced) gear these days though.

Good to see that you are taking your training duties seriously and have put in the sessions while on holiday.  A 2 km swim is astonishing, when I haven’t seen any swimming on your usual weekly reports.

Steve Claw:  Your comments of grading sparked a bit of debate, though I think your position is understandable really – it must be quite hard to actually put grades on things where a reasonable amount of practice is involved.  I understand the ‘projects’ and ‘to do’ list distinctions now!  A nice position to be in though with two lists on the go of new stuff prepped and waiting.

Yes, you have a had a really quiet time lately, partly because of work.  Hopefully, the enforced rest will be helping with the injuries anyway.  Amazing that you’ve managed to find yet more new possibilities while away with the family!

I’d reflect (quite possibly inaccurately) that you’ve been doing quite a lot of new stuff in various places, but not so much of your working at hard established routes this year?  I remember you were going to Brean fairly regularly at one point and working through some hard sport there, but I haven’t seen that sort of thing so much recently?

Tyler:  Some interesting stuff across the thread from you this week, including the toy throwing.  Are you cutting your hours, or have you negotiated to do a full week in four days?  I did this latter option once when I worked at Peterborough Hospitals (long commute) and it worked really well – I had to get into work really early, but then had time at each end of the day where I had nothing disturbing me, so found it really productive generally.  Quite a few organisations are pushing for a four-day week as a typical option now, though usually the idea is less hours, but the same pay…

Thanks again for the encouragement.  It made a difference this week, though not in the sense of going on a project.  I think your comments on El Tigre (soft) are at odds with how you wrote this up a few months back when you first went on it.  I haven’t checked, but remember something like ‘surely this is 7b’, which is what it now gets and what most of the logbook comments support.  Anyway, I want to go to Llanddulas at some point, so will try to apply the approach.

No dry routes on Marine Drive!?  Another indicator of the very poor weather that we’ve had.  I feel very lucky to have snatched stuff most weeks, though less this week for all sorts of reasons.

Liam P:  I like the idea that you ‘owe’ me sessions!  I suppose that is part of the shared motivation that we all get – the sense that we should deliver something each week is quite strong!

That’s an impressive pull up performance considering that you don’t usually do loads.  There have been a few big numbers for BW pull ups recently, so I shall have to put a bigger set together myself soon to remind myself that I still can!  One-arm hangs look good and a steady progression – presumably you saw Ally’s tip for Ross recently?  Wipers also showing another increase in the ankle weights, so they are going along well.  Good stuff with the bouldering projects as well, showing some strong form there.

Have a good holiday and minimise the weight gain!

Small Step:  Yes, feeling stronger is all a bit subjective, so it is actually helpful to have some markers in there that are a bit more objective and that demonstrate progress in some way.  Of course, the progress on pull ups or whatever may not actually translate well into climbing better anyway, so I only think about the measures in relation to the training targets themselves.  I’d start getting frustrated if I thought I should be climbing harder or whatever as a result of weighted pull ups being better!  I find it helps to have some measurable progression on each training cycle, though it gets harder each time something comes around again, which is partly why I want to extend my training station options.

A good session on the plastic on a day where Alan also visited Thalkirchen.  I think we have a FC member in there 24 hours a day!

The alpine outing sounds brilliant and very inspirational.  Days like that live long in the memory.  Great to get on a big day like that with someone to guide you through the epic descent.    As you note, quite a change from your usual routine, so it must have been quite a day.

In reply to Derek Furze:

A quiet week of training and climbing as had lots of other stuff on...

Mon and Tues - just loads of work and a lot of extra stuff prompted by being the executor on my aunt's will.  Finally sorted it all and issuing the cheques this week.

Wed - childminding.  Thought I might train in the evening, but to knackered.

Thurs - am work, then a cross-country dash to Llanymynech.  Opened my account on Grid Iron wall with five routes.  Not bad in less than perfect conditions and a few very muddy breaks.  Intended to do Gaza Strippers as last route, but chose Sack the Strugglers (6c) instead, on the grounds that it was shorter, but still had a star.  The star was misplaced, but the route was bouldery and a bit blind, so fell off it a couple of times before sorting it out.  Didn't RP as short of time, but can do so on next visit.  Felt like hard moves, but rubbish really.

Fri - executor stuff.  Travel to Milton Keynes.

Sat - Reggaefest.  A full-on festival experience including mud, rain and the sense that I smoked week all day just by being there.  Slightly odd to see families with 15 year olds rolling up joints, but perhaps just a cultural dissonance?  Some great drum and bass stuff, some icons like David Rodigan who was brilliant for someone in his 80s.  Went back to the hotel before the headliner (not my sort of stuff) and then finished off with a session in Revolutions de Cuba (always a good dance night).  Daughters both impressed that we were latest to bed...

In reply to Derek Furze:

The toy throwing was unrelated to the four day week, which I arranged a while back (pro rata decrease I salary), I just said I was only going to work my contracted hours as I was sick of covering for the company’s resourcing issues. I will, no doubt, continue to work more than 30 hours a week but that’s down to my dreadful time management and phone addiction!

It’s always got 7b but when I tried it last year I had the blinkers on. Doing that way would be harder than 7b but doing it the way everyone does is easier than, for instance, Cornholio or even Mr Chips. 
Reasonable week for activity but nothing outdoors.

M: Short session  on my board didn’t do as well as normal but now pretty convinced my warm up is about 7a which is sub-optimal

T: 1:15 on the bike

W: First midweek day off but didn’t really make the most of it as only had use of car for morning. Beacon on auto-belay and bit of bouldering before picking up my car (£1700 fix, ouch)

T: Took car back to garage with same fault and fell in a river whilst checking out Rhiw Goch crag!

F: Nowt

S: Beacon on auto-belay and bit of bouldering. Boulder grades are a bit all over the place but tried hard and did 8 tie ins on auto-belay so a big session by current standards. Tolerable elbow aggravation (less than Monday) so probably ought to do more of this. 

S: Training effect of walking around Liverpool undermined by amount of eating on the way. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

As are the rest of us, I’m sure! Lots of ground covered at Llanymynech so that’s good.  You should probably try your hardest route earlier in the session but I’m sure you know that!

In reply to Tyler:

Earlier in the session...possibly.  I don't think it would have made any difference with this one.  It was just bouldery.

I like to get some climbing done, so my current thinking is to get six or eight things done and then mess about on something beyond my limit, on the basis that it won't ruin the day if I don't get it.  Then, if I learn enough I can do it the first few next time.  Flawed, I know...

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek, feeling a lot better now. Energy back to normal and got lots done on holiday despite Jersey being very stormy at times (we were in a tent...). No climbing this week as the weather has been poor for soloing but lots of other activity. I used to do the odd triathlon so although I've not swam much in the last couple of years it's not coming from nothing. Took my portable finger board so as not to lose too much while away from rock. We also did a family walk most days (6-12 km) which I've not listed below.

Mon. Rest.

Tues. Repeaters, pull ups, press ups, 1km sea swim, 6km run.

Wed. 10km run.

Thurs. 2km swim, repeaters, pull ups, press ups.

Fri. 48km cycle.

Sat. 1km swim.

Sun. 1km sea swim and 14km kiddy speed cycle.

That's me done for swimming 'til next year!

In reply to Derek Furze:

Should mention that childminding involved a cycle ride with grandchild in Chee Dale.  Can confirm that much of it is sopping.  

Also, SSB talks of 'kiddy pace' rides.  I take it he means faster than is comfortable?

In reply to Derek Furze:

My daughter has 14" wheels and only one gear so we are destined to never go above 10kph (which is painfully slow) until she grows... but I see it as investment in future wind blockers! It's probably good she doesn't have gears too as she still falls off from time to time so best she can't go faster.

In reply to Derek Furze:

I should also remark that I worked all morning in Stoke and the drive over was painful, so I felt out of sorts on arrival.  Needed some footage just to get into gear.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Hi FCers. Top stats as always Derek.

I haven't been to Lundy before so my hit list is an unimaginative bunch of three star classics! 

The Indy 500 (E1 5b) Formula One (HVS 5a) Satan's Slip (E1 5a) Destiny (E2 5c) Shamrock (VS 4c) Dark Power (E1 5b)Double Diamond (HVS 5b)The Fifth Appendage (E1 5b)Headline (E1 5b) Shy Tot (E1 5b)Quatermass (E2 5c)Stop Press (E2 5c)

'Big mountain days' are a bit of a nebulous concept, but basically anything that physically or technically resembles the kind of working over that fits Tyler's 'all good training for the Walker' maxim! Ranges from 'Every route on Windgather in a day' to 'All Ben Nevis ridges in a day'! Includes running, walking, climbing and mixtures of all three.

Week 31:

M: Core and strength. 

T: Climbing (should have gone for a run, but was tempted by the prospect of a damp, midgy kilnsey! A sociable, but fairly unproductive, session flailing around on the start of Sidekick (7a+). It may just be too hard for me, but I'm intrigued to see how it feels in better conditions when I haven't had a hard fingerboard and pull up session the night before!

W: Prehab.

T: Bouldering. Nicked a small session before the rain came in at the Plantation. 

F: Bouldering. Back to the Plantation for a social bouldering session. Nothing too exciting. Had a couple of goes on Deliverance Traverse (L-R) (f7A+) (more in hope than expectation!) but actually made decent progress -might be worth going back to in good cons later in the year.

S: Trail run. Nice loop round Froggatt, Burbage and Stanage. 27.2km, 419m vert, 6:58/km. Slow pace included stopping for a quick solo of Heather Wall (HVD 3b) and a few other bits of faff!

S: Bouldering. Another nice sociable sesh at Burbage South. Lots of mileage at V1-2, a quick V3. Lost lots of skin and tweaked both thighs heel hooking on some horrible mantels -lovely stuff!

Week 32:

M: Core and strength (no fingerboard)

T: Prehab.

W: Run and fingerboard.

T: Possibly climb. Prehab.

F: Core and strength.

S: Rest.

S: Run or climb.

STG (end Sept):

3 off big mountain day list.

Average twice weekly finger boarding.

5+ off Lundy hit list.

MTG (end Dec):

White Wall (Masson, not Millstone!)

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. I'm actually going climbing again! Maybe. We have a bank holiday long weekend coming up in Bavaria, and a planned DAV group outing to the Pfalz. Weather forecast looks rather iffy though.

STG: Climb something good on Munich DAV Pfalz Expedition
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.

Spent the week entertaining and getting to know my teenage niece, who I hadn't seen since before the pandemic. 

M: "rest day" I suppose, although I find walking around town on pavements to show the lass the sights far more strenuous than a similar amount of hiking up a hill

T: Wall, Thalkirchen. The lad wanted to show his cousin his place of work. So mostly hanging topropes and belaying her, but also managed to get enough warmups in for a good ground-up go on The Proj: 1½ new moves. Yay!

W: One hour ride to bikeshop and back, having succumbed to the urge to start pimping my mountainbike. Just new pedals for the moment, although a dropper post might be next on the agenda.

T: Bike ride with the niece in the forest, avoiding the narrow twisty tree root stretches that are normally my first choice of paths to ride. I took her over to the wild boar reserve, not realistically expecting to see many out & about early afternoon in broad daylight. We saw loads - mostly this year's young uns that are big enough by now to be allowed to venture a bit away from mum, but not yet cautious about staying under cover.

F: Found a bit of time between family stuff to do a tindeq critical force test. Jeez. That's one of the hardest things my forearms have ever done. Did the test while watching the Bern men's boulder semifinal - this new co-commentator seems to know what she's talking about. 

S: About 1½ hours on the bike on various errands around town

S:  Thalkirchen. Evening session after dropping the niece off at the airport. Bouldering, including some bouldering-on-an-autobelay on the route project. Wasn't able to match my previous best ground-up link - foot sequence needs some work to arrive at the start of the hard climbing with more gas left in the tank. But after a rest I was able to add a couple of moves to my previous high point, now five moves into the hard climbing. At which point I arrive at both hands on a heinous slopy rail that I can barely even hold, let alone see myself moving on from. What happens next? This is about move 20 of 35; I've done a couple more single moves in isolation on the upper section, but no real links as yet.
 

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks for your stating work Derek - hearing that you do your hangs, pull ups and fitness work in a rapid circuit makes me even more impressed than I was before. I've not completely written off the Autumn project yet - as of my objectives its the only one on my doorstep, and therefore fits much better than all the others with the current mayhem of family life.

Mon – Nothing

Tues – 4 miles hilly run

Wed – The Quay Wall in Exeter. 10 routes (5 without hangs) all except one (a 6b+ slab) was ungraded as they were left over from a competition the previous weekend – my guess was 5+, 6b, 5 x 6c, 7a. In a way quite nice change to do things without grades. Slightly odd session as my partner was almost half my weight and I was very worried about the risk of them belaying, so hung when it got tricky rather than go for hard moves and risk a fall. The Quay was a particularly poorly ventilated centre so on the top quarter of the routes I felt like I was climbing in a sauna. Still, arms got worked.

Thursday - Nothing

Friday – Dumbbell windmills 3 x 5 each side (3kg), Density finger edge lifts 30secs each hand, warm up 2.5kg, 5kg, 7.5kg x 3.

6mile run, watch bizarrely said 6.5miles and 4.47 min/km but probably a bit slower. Still, nice to feel like I’m running rather than plodding. Twisting crunches, twisting leg raises, alternating one leg bridge 20 x 3.

Saturday – Routes at Awesome Walls, 5, 6a, 6b, 6c+ (fall), 6c, 6c (fall), 6c, 6c+ (falls).

Sunday – 8 mile run in 75 mins. Legs initially felt like lead but eventually got going.

Reflection - I’m hoping I’ve reached my emotional nadir this past week. Ended up coming home early from the family holiday due to mental health problems of one of my children (they’re happier now they’re home). My climbing day was a complete wash out with the worst rain of a very wet week, so ended up at the local climbing wall, where I couldn’t really climb properly partly due to where my headspace was at. The positive news is I think I’ve psyched up my Devonian mate for some sessions on Sanctuary Wall next year which would make a very inspiring long-term goal – as there are a bunch of routes there that I think are amongst the wildest adventure routes of their grade in the country. Plus, they’re 1 – 2 grades beyond my current levels, so would be the perfect motivation for winter training. Bit lost with where I am climbing/training wise in the short term as I feel like I’ve got niggles everywhere, so I’m laying off anything too intense and aiming to do more running and rehab/conditioning work for a few weeks.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek - detailed and observant commentary as always.  I had my dad visiting for a long weekend, limiting what could be fitted in.  It was the first time he's met Mk2 and was great to catch up. I really need to make more time to see my folks, but being 5hrs away and my mum not travelling makes this challenging.

Week 31

M – Gentle day. Crimpd static core. Hip stretches. 3x10 OHP with 10kg kettlebell (way easy, but it was the only thing to hand).

T – Board. Gentle foot on floor circuits and 2x 6B+ repeats to begin the warm-up. Then 12x 6B+ to 6C+ flashes. Feeling warmed up and fairly strong by this point, I worked and completed 3x benchmarks; “Problem 15”, 7B+, “The Chosen Few”, 7B and a new one “Looks like hard”, 7B+. I was close on a final 7B+ BM too. Lurgy be gone!?!

W – Short board warm-up, then assisted 1-armers (6 sets of doubles with 10kg assist). Then aero-cap drop intervals; 6C+ (Kami Shitoe) 6C x2 (Just Another Day; Ataualpa) 6B+ x2 (Duplicate test; An easy problem), wooden jug problem (6A+?). Smash the lot, rest 2min and repeat x6. Moderately pumpy Bar core and 3x10 30kg OHP to finish.

T – Daily minimum. 10x 1on/1off plank.

F – Full-on day of child wrangling, with no chance of fitting in exercise as the toddler dropped her snooze for the first time, resulting in a teary and stressful meal and bedtime.

S – Daily minimum. Assisted front-levers.

S – Squeezed in a 45min board session. Rushed warm-up and then got very close to doing two benchmarks (7B+ and 7C - pinging off a diagonal pinch shared with both) and briefly testing some moves on a 7C+.  4x10 leg raises.

In reply to Derek Furze:

It actually has probably more a positive effect on my one-armer work, as i now have more time to train one-armers and even more important much better recovery. 

I don't think that the threshold run was the trigger, more the final stone that broke my body. In the last weeks i was ramping up the weekly mileage, as well as long runs and speed quite fast. And in addition to that i spent my "rest" days with some hard strength training. In the end this was just more than my body could handle.

To be honest i knew that it was a little bit of a gamble and there was some significant risk for an overload injury with this training plan. Just did not expect it to be this severe, but rather that something comes up that can be dealt with by a couple of rest days.

Yeah, deload would have been a good idea, but at least this injury now has forced me to do some recovery.

Recap last week:

Mon: Rest

Tues: Rest

Wed: Archer Pullups: 4x10 with 3 min rest, Fingerboard repeaters: 6x6x7,3 at 95% BW on 20mm egde, 50 Pushups

Thur: Rest

Fri: Archer Pullups: 4x10 with 3 min rest, Fingerboard repeaters: 6x6x7,3 at 95% BW on 20mm egde, 40 Pushups

Sat: Rest

Sun: Archer Pullups: 5x10 with 3 min rest, Fingerboard repeaters: 6x6x7,3 at 90% BW on 20mm egde, 40 Pushups

The foot is getting better, though i am still not able to walk 100% pain free. Hence, i am trying to give it as much rest as possible. At least the finger feels much better, even after a ramp-up in the repeater volume i did not have any pain or discomfort. So fromt that point of view i should be good to go climbing again, now only my foot needs to heal

Switched up pullup training, as i felt worn out from the maximum strength training and felt like i needed a little bit more volume. The plan is to continue that for 2-3 more weeks and then decide on the next training block.

A couple of interesting observations from analysis of my garmin data about changes to my body during the 2 months of intensive running training:

• Estimated VO2 max increased from 57 to 61
• Resting heart rate reduced from 48-49 to about 44-45 (exact values usually depend on training load)
• Heart Rate Variability increased from 46-47ms to 54-55ms. Another value that seems to be measuring overall fatigue quite well for me as it always goes done after hard training days and goes up when i recover
• Stress values are much higher even for normal running sessions that felt easy than for strenous strength workouts. I assume that is due to the fact that the stress values that Garmin measures are more related to cardio vascular stress than to muscle soreness. Also quite interesting to see how stress levels went through the rough after a hard running session, especially after the long runs my values were probably worse than a student during their final exam though i was chilling on my couch

In reply to Derek Furze:

Cheers Derek, its good to be back and with a specific goal in mind too  Had a steady week gone with an increase in distance for one of the runs.

Monday, 0.5k lunchtime swim and 7.5km evening run.

Tuesday 1k swim

Wednesday, 1k swim

Thursday, 1k swim and stretch class at lunchtime, 5k evening run.

Friday, 1k swim

Weekend was spent on taxi duties, gardening and DIY.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Weight - 12st 6lbs

STG - 15k a week by mid-September

MTG - 10k 1 hour

LTG - 30 mile ultra (July 24) and 86 mile (Sept 24)

M - T - Rest

W - 5k

T - 6 mile bike ride

F - S - Rest

S - 5k

Running distance - 10km

Two 5ks this week.  Didn't bother timing myself, just went for getting two nice chilled runs in.  Most of the week was off work looking after my lad.  Went for a 6 mile bike ride with him to a local pump track and spent an hour goofing around on that.  Might be having a mid-life crisis, just gone and bought my self a DMR Trailstar, which was the jump bike I had in my late teens.  Really cheap on ebay as well.  Running wise, I'm going to push up to 12k next week and then onwards up to 15k.  Then I'll start seeing if I can introduce a flat 10k each week.  Got at least two races planned out for next year.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Good afternoon all. I think I'm running out of ways to say, "good stats as always Derek"

Cheers. I think it's just something I'm naturally predisposed to (especially compared to being flexible or ratting on 4mm edges!), but having a history of dodgy fingers might be causing me to tend towards the climbs that reward brutish burl, which then becomes a self fulfilling cycle as I get stronger in that area without taxing the fingers too much?

Not yet, it's probably too intense to do too frequently, and the last thing I want to do is injure my good hand!

A pretty good week from me. Good board session early on, then a weekend in Portland which was a bit marred by unfortunate weather, swell and partner circumstances at the beginning, and then by my own head game afterwards, hah! Had a thoroughly good time though.

Last Week:

M - AM and PM very light hangs.

T - Weigh-in at 78.2kg. AM very light hangs. Evening Moonboard. Half a dozen 6C/+ benchmarks, including the infamous Pixel Bricks - cheekily flashed! Got the finger intensity level spot on I reckon.

W - AM and PM very light hangs.

T - AM very light hangs.

F - Lots of walking.

S - More walking, much of it wet.

S - Good scenes at Cave Hole. Flashed Spittle 'n' Spume (E1 5c) with move-by-move beta from AJM, but wasn't enamoured by the prospect of falling in since my last DWS adventure, so didn't actually try anything else. I like to think that if the sea was totally flat I'd have gone for an audacious flash attempt of something harder but it could be the brain making silly excuses. Need some fall practice I think?

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Climbing.

W - Rest.

T - Climbing.

F - Rest.

S, S - More climbing!

Goals:

Rehab both A2s.

Improve ability on tiny edges.

Work on PE.

Oberth Effect Proj.

In reply to mattrm:

'bought myself a DMR Trailstar...jump bike' - will you be able to run with broken legs?

In reply to mattrm:

I've been watching a lot of "how to bunny hop" mountainbike tutorials on youtube. I don't think I can do myself too much damage at the speeds I go on relatively flat singletrack in the woods; I'm hoping the seemingly more or less mandatory broken collarbones only happen when one starts doing serious downhill.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek, sounds like you had an interesting end to the week! 

I really ought to get hold of a copy of the new guidebook. The development on The Diamond looks like it could be world class!

The physio's theory is it all stems from a Rotator Cuff tear 5 years ago which never healed properly so there's a lot of scar tissues, tightness and misalignment in my left shoulder. Plenty of stretching and proactive mobility work seems to be the key to keeping it at bay. 

M - Lower body flexibility

T - 4 x 10 minute ARC blocks on the autobelay

W - Upper body mobility. 5 x 5 bar shoulder shrugs

T - 10 problems on the 30 degree board (6B, 6B, 6B+, 6B+, 6C, 6C, 6C+, 7A, 7A, 7A+)

F - Zone 2 ride. 19km / 58m ascent / 39mins / 29km/hr average. Managed to take a spill on the final bend of the ride and landed on my recently fractured wrist. Seems like no major damage done but one to keep an eye on.

S - Rest

S - A trip to Malham where all the projects I'd wanted to get on were sopping wet and my wrist wasn't feeling 100% so got some mileage in with a few reps on Consenting Adults (7a) and Brooklyn Girls (7a)

In reply to Tom Green:

My 2p from one trip to Lundy is that you don't get given any extra in the gradings for them being remote and sea cliffs. I found most of them at the top of the grade. Possibly because I don't climb on granite that much. But they were all bloody brilliant!

In reply to Tom Green:

Only been to Lundy once.  I only went because people I knew were going and didn't expect to enjoy it.

I loved it.  I knew about the mites (horror stories), but they are worse than you can imagine.  Minors may happen on this thread, so I will spare you the details.

Access to some things is fairly hairy and intimidating.  Deep Zawn for example feels full on.  There is a lot of variety with slabs, cracks, steep stuff, good rock and bad.  You can usually have the crag to yourself barring places like the slide.  Some things feel easy (Dark Power), others not so - Quatermass easily the hardest E2 I've done.  Super rocks were useful (placed every pitch), but aren't sold any more.  I have some if you want to carry them.

The Albacore, Asofoetida, Saffron (easy) set is a decent group not on your list.

In reply to biscuit:

Yep. No mingulay grades down there!

In reply to Derek Furze:

Uh oh! Hadn’t heard about mites?! Doesn’t sound fun!

Good tips on saffron et al. I’ll put them on the list. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

The line up for the DnB looked epic. Did you catch Shy FX? Also David Rodigan is a hero. I had no idea he was in his 80s?!

In reply to Tom Green:

Yes - Shy FX were great.  General Levy also brilliant.  Barrington Levy was on Sunday so missed that.  Also they played a trailer for the Bob Marley film at regular intervals.  The Premier Inn near MK Bowl is sold out for next year already!

In reply to Derek Furze:

As Alan rightly notes, the worry isn't legs, it's definitely collarbones.

If you're using SPDs, it's dead easy.  Bit harder with flats obviously.  I used to be able to bunny hop pretty well with flats.  Obviously it's nice to hop over things at speed, but if it's a log, then things can go badly wrong.  Even more amusingly, I can still ollie, which did surprise me.  I took a skateboard to the skatepark as well.  I'm keen to get back on some singletrack, we've loads of great rides around here.

In reply to Tom Green:

Lundy,

Destiny (E2 5c) great, but stiff for E2. Check out Rampart (E3 6a) when there.

The Indy 500 (E1 5b) an absolute pleasure

The Fifth Appendage (E1 5b) Great, but the real adventure is The Promised Land (E3 6a)

Satan's Slip (E1 5a) is recommended as The Devils Slide for big boys and girls.

In reply to mattrm:

I had one of these as well!

Put 5 ich forks on it, which was unheard of back then. It was a beast, but really heavy.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek. We got a day climbing in Langdale. It felt good to be out.

M - Nothing done but lots of miles (as a passenger) on the motorway. I went for a half hour jog afterwards.

T - Had a boulder at Lancaster. A good try hard session. I tweaked my shoulder/elbow on a dynamic roof move.

W - Boulder session at BoulderUK. Stopped after an hour as my arm was hurting. Flashed up to V5 but couldn't do some. Felt tired.

T - Went up to Langdale in the evening. I think I went for a run at some point during the day.

F -  Black Crag (Wrynose) where we did 3 x HVS's, 1 x E1, 1 x E2 and an E3 between us.  Good day! I re climbed Yellow Fever (E2 5b) which I found desperate last time. I had been told there was definitely a 5b way to do it and after much dithering I found it this time. 

 Pocket Crack (E3 6a) was the E3. I was gutted to not get the onsight. I beat myself up about it a bit and then did it second go. It felt very intense and hard. Way harder than Needle Arete (an E3 round the corner I've done before). I felt a bit better when I looked on UKC the next day and saw out of about 50 entries logged only 3 had onsighted it. I know 2 of them and it was well within their grade. For the first day of trad since mid June it went OK. 

S - Kendal Wall - nothing over 6c I don't think. My arm started to hurt so I kept it low key. It felt better for it the day after.

S - Life admin, went for a run, shoulder rehab

It was lovely to get out and I feel psyched to train again. Priority is to get the shoulder sorted and I've got a plan now to do that.

If the weather holds until Friday I may be able to get out again - fingers crossed.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thank you Derek

Later than usual reply this week, but not much to report either.

Had a day out cleaning a new line, which should prove to be a popular, as it will be a steep 20m 6c+ and I managed to work out a small variation start and finish that will give an 6b for whose climbing at that level.

Also had a day out with the children doing some easy top ropes, which was fun.

Unfortunately the rest from climbing has been replaced with work based manual repetitive elbow movements, that as you rightly said are actually worse, and the elbow joint has been really sore all week. (separate to the tendon issues).

You are correct, the hard redpointing I used to do has been replaced with climbing whatever we are working on at the time. This can vary all the way through the grades, and although I enjoy it, it has messed with my upper level fitness.

In reply to biscuit:

You’re in good company, I was fewming!

??

In reply to AlanLittle:

Weather forecast looks rather iffy though.

Hi Alan,

we're in luck, finally...weather looking good after all...perhaps even a tick too warm again.

Hope you have a good couple of days.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Yes - Shy FX were great.  General Levy also brilliant.  Barrington Levy was on Sunday so missed that.  Also they played a trailer for the Bob Marley film at regular intervals.  The Premier Inn near MK Bowl is sold out for next year already!

Hi Derek & Tom,

Enjoyed reading the little exchange between you. D'n'B not my thing, but it's strange how what you read simmers away and then ignites something else.

I was wondering what - if anything - do Fit Clubbers listen to 'to get psyched'?
Perhaps not that practical at the crag or the wall, but while training...
I wandered further with the wondering: what would be on a Fit Clubbers playlist, or more in tune with my age, a mixed tape. And also agewise I think - today to be 'psyched' is enthusiasm pure and ready for anything and seeming obligatory in every climbing video. Decades and decades ago we used to distinguish between psyched up and psyched out, admitting, you shat in your pants. Mixed tape could be side 1: psyched up, what get's you going, side 2: psyched out, tunes to console, the arm around the shoulder, or scream out in frustration...

I'm quite obviously bored with the pile of work stacked in front of me at the moment... the wanderings of wondering...

My own contribution for the moment...possibly fits both sides 1 & 2...

youtube.com/watch?v=XkclIDu9K5c& 

Wishing you both good musical accompaniment to your weekend activities.

In reply to Derek Furze:

A late one from me, as usual there's no such thing as a quiet run in to holiday.

Last week was pretty hectic. Early part of the week I had to work through couple of evenings. My Friday day off turned into only a half day at short notice. However, the long running saga of attempted life changes finally crystallized which is a positive step.

I think I did some rehab during the week, but I can't really remember.

On Sunday I had a great morning out on the dws. It was a bit choppy following the stormy weather on Saturday but there was still a bunch of stuff that was ok and getting out of the water was still ok which is the key thing. Did a usual range of favourites, fell off Bare Reputation (E4 6b) (there's a throw where you have to leave enough room to match hands, and I didn't and couldn't recover it) and A fish with a reputation (7b S0) (last years project, where I entirely forgot the foot sequence on a route which is very sequencey). Great being out again.

In reply to Small Step:

We've canned the Pfalz trip. Forecast for there yesterday was saying thundery showers every day - not a good outlook for a soft sandstone area where climbing on damp rock is an absolute no-go. 

Still hoping to get a local-ish day out at the weekend though.

Might have another try at the Pfalz on the October public holiday - probably a better chance of good conditions than August anyway

In reply to AlanLittle:

Sorry to hear that. Shows that my weather map reading was definitely southward...hope you get out somewhere else....and October works out.

In reply to Small Step:

The Official Fit Club Playlist of course, what else?

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1xFlbNTflMqEbiBXLiMY0R?si=179bd251139d4a0...

That's the 2018 edition - maybe time for an update?

In reply to AlanLittle:

Ha, it's been done...should have known...what a trove the Fit Club thread is...

In reply to Small Step:

Haha! Good question... the FitClub training playlist threw up some bangers for 'Psych up' previously, but maybe not so good for 'Psyched out'!

This is the kind of question I could easily spend the next three days pondering but, for a quick answer, I could probably use the stats that Spotify gave me for my 2022 listening... apparently my two most listened to things were:

1. Kissy Sell Out mixes -perfect for psyching up!

2. Sigrid Acoustic playlist -perfect for when you're psyched out!

In reply to Small Step:

I used to do a psyche video every week when I did the stats years ago.  Not music obviously, just climbing vids.

In reply to Tom Green:

Thanks Tom, ponder on!
Didn't know Sigrid, so got Dynamite playing here, and found this on Wiki: 'she says that it is easier to write about frustration than about having a nice time.' That's the frustration part nicely ticked and wrapped up, then...maybe it's easier because it's more frequent!

Which leads me to:

For the psyche up I thought of the Real Thing, but maybe that's the fly in the ointment - a side 3 is needed - celebration, the scene in the club at the end...

In reply to mattrm:

Hi Matt,

I suppose there'd be a difference now in the videos - with some great but alas too few exceptions it's all very polished & narrational nowadays...which is OK I suppose, in the end the climbing footage is what counts and some stuff is embedded in thoughtful and inspiring stoties... not to forget psyched, dude, awesome...
On the other hand, recently Megos put up video of Ticino bouldering with Yannick F. - eight minutes (or something like that) of falling and failing.... it left me rather confounded...

In reply to AlanLittle: umm not sure if my training ditties would make that play list. Key one for max hangs is this ideally recruiting up into a frenzy to begin loading at 40secs

youtube.com/watch?v=Gy3BOmvLf2w&

for foot on campus efforts then this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=G4KKQ4E9l4Q&embeds_referring_euri=https%3...

In reply to Small Step:

I’m a bit obsessed with Scandinavian singers at the moment -especially how a lot of them get that Sami ‘joiking’ lilt in to their vocals. Sigrid is a fab example of that, and I think her acoustic versions are much better than her original pop versions because her voice comes through so much more. 
 

Good shout about a celebration ‘3rd disc’! I’ll need to give that more thought but it will either be uplifting DnB or possibly house mixes of old Motown tunes (Danny Krivitz style!)

In reply to Ian Parnell:

Raging Speedhorn are a blast from the past… used to listen to them loads, but they’d completely dropped off my radar. That’s going to be the soundtrack to grinding out one more sit-up on today’s core sesh!

In reply to Tom Green:

The Hate Song seems fitting for a core sesh!

In reply to Ian Parnell:

100% ;-p 

In reply to Derek Furze:

Hi Derek, I’m feeling a bit like Ross – I’ve run out of ways to express adequate thanks…ta…

I’d start getting frustrated if I thought I should be climbing harder or whatever as a result of weighted pull ups being better!

This is an obvious point but I have to admit it slips under my radar at times – because I can feel that there’s more power there on plastic, then I correlate…the point is the ‘should’ – a no-no. For the moment I’m enjoying the extra punch and what it enables, better movement and a touch of confidence. I doubt whether I’m climbing higher grades or harder – but I do sense I can do what I already can better, more efficiently, more solidly, if that makes sense…
As for the ‘measurable progression’ – I need to mull over this until winter training. I noticed a rather vehement reaction of refusal to the idea. And over the recent years of therapy that’s usually a sign that something fear-related is lurking below the surface…a healthy curiosity towards such reactions is very important for me.

The alpine tour was something special. And maybe my partner enjoyed his role as well – we had two days scheduled for October, and he now reckons he can get four in – so he’s still keen to team up!

A bit of recovery week for me…unsurprisingly. Lot of work as well at the moment…

Mon: rest, light stretching
Tue: rest, light stretching
Wed: light stretching, light hang board session
Thu: stretching, recruiters hang board
Fri: wall, Thalkirchen, autobelays, midweek partner still away: 6a+, 6a+, 6a+, 6b+, 6b, 6c, 6a+, 6b+…felt strong & solid, but rusty, decent enough oil & grease session; bit of bouldering after and felt more agile, plus reunited with 15° wall – repeated (and actually remembered the sequences!!!) of 3 of the self-defined boulders from early in the year…
Sat: light upper body
Sun: wall, Bad Aibling: 6a+, 6a+, 5c, 6b+, 6b+, 6a+, 6c, 6a+, 7a (stellar route, 3 sequences very hard for me, felt more like 7a+); session a tick better than Fri…

Wishing everyone a good weekend and plenty of psyched (up & out) listening…and celebratory tunes of course.

In reply to Small Step:

Forgot to mention about your alpine epic last week… it sounded brilliant! Great stuff!

In reply to Derek Furze:

Just realised I didn't answer this question. The tindeq is a strain gauge combined with an app. you fix it to something, attached the handhold of your choice to it, and pull. The app tells you, and logs, how hard you're pulling and for how long.

I bought it mainly to be able to conveniently dou hangs/pulls at different percentages of my max with varying grips & fingers without having to faff with pulleys & kettlebells. Rate of Force Development is probably relevant for power moves - as I understand it it measures how quickly you go from 20% to 80% of max force. So faster is better, but I have no idea what is a good or bad result in the grand scheme of things, and from the extreme variability of my initial playing around result I suspect a certain amount of "training for the test" would be required to get consistent results.

In reply to Tom Green:

Thanks, Tom...it was indeed brilliant. Bit of a re-baptism of fire...all that plastic stuff and then boom...on the walk back to the carpark my partner joked about unfinished business...he's keen to put the tour on the 'done list'...

In reply to Tyler:

There were about 50 ascents logged on UKC back to 2018. Only 3 of them (I think) were noted as lead onsights. So it's obviously a hard onsight, That made me feel a bit better.  

In reply to biscuit:

Did you check out our very own Tyler's comments from 2014?  You're in good company 🙂

In reply to Tom Green:

Same here, Raging Speedhorn are a massive blast from the past.  Went to one of their gigs when I was young.  Ahhh the nostalgia.

I just remembered what I put on the playlist, Killer Mike.  Excellent track, but not really very psychey is it.

@Steve Claw - Gotta be done.  I know someone who did something similar to one.  I know everyone says they're heavy, but I don't find mine to be too bad.

In reply to Tom Green:

My bad - he is only 73!