UKC

Link to last week's thread: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=622035
UKC Fit Club is not a substitute for the training diary but to use with (or without) it as a motivational tool for all.

For those wanting to find out more about training for climbing a number of physical training articles are linked here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=274502

The following training article by Alex Barrows is the bible for training the four main "energy systems" specific to climbing: http://alexbarrowsclimbing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/training-for-sport-climbi...

Information about scheduling a training regime to peak in time for a trip/competition can be found here: http://ukbouldering.com/media/pdf/periodisation.pdf

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity, noting goals, successes and failures and to swap ideas.

Anyone interested in starting is very welcome but 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 to help achieve your goals whatever the level of your chosen activity.

Psyche video of the week: Eiger Dreaming vimeo.com/136047737

Fitclubber of the week award: Joughton – for his Pembroke exploits

Dandan82; pain easing this week? Take it easy – no pull ups just yet please! (p.s. great looking shed!)
Mutl3y; resting works – who’d have thought that! Congrats on hitting your weight target
Mattrm; overindulged on North Wales classics
AJM; 7a+ flash above water – what a great way to get back to the grade – you pathed it despite the lack of chalk at the top. Horny will go down with a breeze fo sho. Have fun in the New Forest.
mrchewy; spill the beans?
Joughton; Epic set of ticks from a few days in Pembroke. Keep this up and an E7 OS is on the cards – From a Distance maybe?
Joyce; supershed up – how does it rival Dandan82? Congrats on the 5k PB. 18min at threshold would have me voming for sure!
Biscuit; further physio progress and some bonus sessions whilst on holiday – keep up the maintenance work.
Hms; solid week and new bouldering heights. Winspit must have been a sunshine oven; don’t beat yourself up that routes feel hard in sub-optimal conditions!
Planetmarshall; welcome back and congratulations on the new contract.
Nick Russell; more progress from hurty wrist? Mine calmed down in a few days, but thanks for tips.
Ally Smith; feckin’ eegit. Learn to listen to your body and not get carried away. Repeat to self – I will not climb until my shoulder is pain free…
Just Tintin; comp success?
Flopsicle; Great running from the tidgy daughter! Otherwise, taking it easy is the way forward sometimes – the psyche will return.
0.5viking; a triumphant return from Europe trippin’. Any future objectives?
Tyler; ticked any of your proliferating projects?
alexm198; did you get out in the Chamonix peaks again this week?
Humperdink; Team Promotion – big winter of training ahead?

Absentees: All present and correct

In reply to Ally Smith:

I'm not sure it is possible to over indulge on North Wales classics is it? Thanks for doing the stats. Love the addition of Fitclubber of the Week, hopefully I'll manage something someday that'll get me on it.

STG - Sport pyramid - 6a (2/10), 6b (1/6), 6c (0/1) 12st
Aspirational - Climb E5/6 (London Wall), Scottish Winter V (Point 5, Zero, Minus, Orion), WI5, Redpoint 8a (Masada, Mortal Kombat & Cider Soak) stay injury free & maintain 11st

Weight - 12st 1lbs (gained 1lb)

M - 100 dish tucks
T - Rest
W - 100 dish tucks
T - 200 dish tucks
F - 100 dish tucks
S - Trad at Lewes Castle
S - 200 dish tucks

Month Avg - 81%
Year Avg - 69%

Had an odd day on Lewes Castle. Went to warm up on Osiris a tough VS that I've done before, but have in the past fell of the overhang a few times. I seem to have got into a mental place which means that I flub the overhang first go, panic and fall off. It's a decent lob, about 6 meters or so. My yelling got people looking from the beach, as I was properly 'ARRRRGGHHH FFFFFF' as I went off. The holds just weren't as good as I remembered and the good foothold involves some serious contortion for a 4c move. My second couldn't get the hex out so had to wait for the other team to get it out. By then it was 1pm and all my psyche had evaporated. So we went to look at Pwlldu Bay which has some nice looking routes, not many, but worth a proper trip one day.

Sadly my main climbing partner fell of a VS in the week (I wasn't there) caught his ankle in a sling on the fall and broke his ankle. So if any fitclubbers are climbing on the Gower or in Pembroke and don't mind me tagging along, please drop me an email.

I'm not doing so well with the weight maintenance. But the exercise average is staying up. So that's quite good. I think this might be a 80% month with a bit of luck.

I've really made a choice to stay off HVS. I've made a list of crags with ** VSes on the rest of the Gower that I've not been to so I'm going to tick a good wodge of them off. Going to the same old crags and stressing out about climbing HVS just isn't fun any more. Also I'd like to see if I can second a load of harder trad routes somehow.

In reply to Ally Smith:
Cheers Ally. Hope the shoulder is just muscular and heals quick. It'll give you time to get all the niggles out of the way I suppose.

Quiet week as still amusing the kids. Only managed one very minor climbing session. Jumped on an auto belay while I could and did:5+, 6a,6b,6b+, 6c+ and 7a with no rest. That was it.

However I really feel I've got my diet sorted now. Concentrating on non processed foods and cutting out bread. I still used to get the odd craving for a can of coke but have just twigged I've not had one for a couple of weeks. Don't miss it.

Physio, posture work and stretching done everyday and I'm feeling good. No niggling issues or tightness. Bodes well for getting down to it. Body fat does seem to have gone up but I'm not stressing as I've had two weeks of sat on my arse. It'll soon go back down.

Aiming at 3 climbing sessions next week. 2 routes and 1 Boulder. Target is still 6c pyramid of 12 routes and to just have a boulder session to see how it feels.

I may also be joining a gym at the place where JD goes swimming. I'll use it to work antagonists and do my physio while she swims.

Also booked flights to Thailand for end of November. Something to aim at. Not a climbing holiday but looking at a couple of days at crazy horse buttress and a day at railay just because.

In reply to Ally Smith:

M: Planned rest
T: Unplanned rest due to work
W: Longridge, thought my new found lightness would men I floated across the second fifth. Fail. Booked flights for weekend when I got home as the forecast here looked shite.
T: Change of plan meant I went out with a mate for dinner. Uncharacteristically stuck to one course.
F: Lowest weight since my sport climbing heyday, went to Boulder UK were I finished off the worlds hardest V4 (third session) flashed one of the remaining V5s and did a V6.
S: Walked around Venice and checked conditions reports for Yorks lime. Phew!
S: see Sat

In reply to Ally Smith:

Thanks Ally. Hope your shoulder is getting better. I had a busy week:

M - cycle commute
T - cycle commute. Fingerboard in evening, with S&C x 3 in gaps.
W - cycle commute. UCR in evening. Dozen routes, but the long 7b still eludes me. Did it in 2, but there is one move in the middle that seems to spit me off every time.
T - Redpoint, hot and sticky as usual. Lots of routes but as ever find the style a bit weird. Had a creditable go at a roof 7a+ but turning the top lip eluded me.
F - 4 miles in various pavement tramping, not v exciting but still exercise.
S - Cheddar with D2 belaying. Clipsticked rope up CC and was shocked at how hard the moves felt, so had a TR go to remind me of the foot positions. Then 2 lead tries, not going for serious redpoint, just seeing how it lead. On the second I got ground to clip3, then clip3 to clip5, but then there is still 1 pesky move at the top of the groove that I can't get to work. Need a further play on foot positioning. But it is just 1 single move, to the jug that finishes the hard climbing.
S - TCA in morning trying comp problems. Did half of them, had a go at all the others but the difficulty goes up considerably! Also did a few more greens (6a+ to 6c). Fell off a couple of circuits to finish. Then a 4 mile family walk in the afternoon. Then a nap cos I was so tired - must be getting old or something.

This coming week I won't mention when I hope to get on rock, cos otherwise the weather gremlins will hear like they did last week. They do exist you know!! Plus I have a Nina pummeling to 'look forward' to.

In reply to Ally Smith:


Cheers Ally. It was an ace day out last weekend, very much enjoyed it.

A week of ups and downs this week.

The week itself was pretty much a write-off in terms of following the plan. I've been very busy and a bit stressed out with work so certainly on Wednesday training suffered on account of it. I did better on Thursday and Friday in terms of climbing (I climbed some relatively hard problems and tried some of the harder circuit board circuits) but did almost nothing that was structured. Head just wasn't there. Will try to do more this week, especially since I need to be managing a transition into power endurance training over these next few weeks.

Saturday was a really nice day out. After a lazy start we went to check out the bouldering on Portland Bill. Got down there and there were some resident locals with all the beta for a new linkup they had just done of some of the lines in the Force Majeure cave. Oddly, despite being new, its actually the easiest line through the cave roof. 6C+ or 7A or something in that sort of ballpark. Opinions differed. For me, as hard or harder than the boulder field 7As I've done but obviously easier than the boulder field 7As I can't do the individual moves on. Really nice though.

Sunday was supposed to be my first imperial century ride, the new forest rattler. Anyway, to cut a long story short I bailed onto the 82m version late on. A bit disappointing. My knee had started to flare up, and I was a bit jacked off by a lot of poor road surface, too much busy roads and traffic and also a route I wasn't enjoying that much - some beautiful bits of open new forest complete with ponies and so on, but also a load of random lanes between fields and some fairly nondescript suburbia. I'm very keen to do more cycling there but probably shorter rides staying in the cool bit in the middle.

So yeah, ups and downs. Pretty scared by the idea of the peak ride in September now. Somehow got to manage getting some quality saddle time in for that whilst also training hard for Kaly.

In reply to Ally Smith:
Well deserved - an epic week Jake!

Yeah, I think it's going well. A bit sore after the weekend climbing at Shipwreck Cove (really good venue by the way, I'm keen to get back there for the harder stuff) but at least some of that is to be expected as I get used to using it again. Definitely no catastrophic re-injury!

I think I'm in a good place for getting back to the climbing. I guess I'm about 2kg lighter than 4 weeks ago and I've at least retained some core strength. I was going to say improved but after climbing this weekend I'm not sure that's the case. Apparently it takes a lot of non-climbing core workouts to maintain a climbing level of strength!

M - 3km run. Fingerboard - a few deadhangs. (64.9/65.4)
T - 5km run. Core. (64.6/65.4)
W - Climbing, Cheddar. A couple of 6b+ routes, no problem from wrist. (64.6/65.5)
T - 40 minute run, 6x(2:00 on/3:00 off) intervals. Trampolining. (64.6/65.2)
F - 4km run. Core. (64.4/65.0)
S - Climbing, Shipwreck Cove. Onsight of a 6c+ (very enjoyable route) felt easy. Narrowly avoided an epic after attempting the 7a traverse line (Marine Layer) then having to wait to get back on it. Just about managed to aid the rope up then aid up on TR to get the draws out with about 5 minutes left of the tidal window! (64.3/64.9)
S - Climbing, Shipwreck Cove. Went back to finish off Marine Layer. Also did a thoroughly enjoyable 6a (Lemon Soul) on Mermaid Wall. (64.2/65.1)

Figures in brackets are 5-day moving averages of weight (am/pm). I think the weight experiment has run its course but I'm going to keep monitoring and will post a 7-day Fri-Thu moving average (am/pm/overall) from now on. It's been pretty interesting and I've definitely learnt a few things:

My weight seems to be pretty plastic down to 65kg. I could probably get it lower than that but I don't have any particular desire or incentive to do so at the moment.

I've managed to do this mostly by changing snacking habits (a well-stocked fruit bowl has been essential!) but also a modest decrease in portion size. It's taken some discipline but isn't completely unsustainable.

Morning readings seem not only to be lower (as expected) but also more stable than evening readings.

My energy levels have been affected, not in everyday activity, concentration, etc. but definitely in my running. I soon settle into a steady run (high aerobic zone) and have definitely improved in pace and endurance at this level but as soon as I demand more it's not forthcoming! That said, the intervals this week felt good.

General goals:

• Manage rehab for next 6 weeks. Avoid doing too much too early.
  
• Improve the asymmetry.
  
• Get enough running fitness to enter a marathon/half next year without injury concern.
  

Next week:



• Running: one long (at least 12km) run.
  
• Longer fingerboard session than last week. Deadhangs again.
  
• At least 2 core sessions.
  
• Climb outside again. (Swanage at the weekend?)
  

In reply to Ally Smith:

Thanks Ally, hoping the shoulder is doing well.

Well would you believe it, I did some climbing this week!!

M:
T: exercise ball core
W: emergency spannering to pass MOT, was really paranoid it would screw up my elbows but it was no issue whatsoever.
T: exercise ball core
F:
S: BOULDERSHED CLIMB! WOOOO!
S: miraculous lack of elbow pain

I waited until Saturday for my first tentative climb, it was going to be Friday but we had to finish preparing the spare room to be plastered.
I did a full warm up, pulled gingerly onto some holds.... and had a great session! I did about 30-40 minutes of climbing and set about 4 New routes, was in there for 90 minutes tops. The elbows felt great, the left feels completely perfect, not the slightest hint of any issue from it, the right is still a little unhappy if I bear down hard on small crimps but I was more than happy for my first session back on it!
I'm really out of shape, my skin was trashed in 90 minutes and my lats are mega sore today but there has been no soreness from the elbows in the last 2 days so I'm well pleased!
Now for a lot more easy sessions to get some stamina and try not to push on to hard routes just yet.
Oh, might be going to brean next Monday or Tuesday depending on weather, (probably climb at a Bristol wall if it's rubbish) so looking forward to that. 😃

In reply to Ally Smith:

Boring – injury sucks.
Physio friend is compelling me to get a MRI scan; one job for this week is to investigate what the work BUPA insurance will cover??

Medium & long term goals - same as before - but first off, need to be fixed enough to contemplate them

STG (next week)
- Icing, stretching, and rehab every day for hurty bits:
- finger; start to introduce some back-2 and middle-2 deadhangs at sub-body weight
- knee; foam roller
- wrist;
- both shoulders
- 2x >30km bike rides
- Do “daily abb workout” from silly app.
- Maintain sub 76kg weight; back up to 76.3kg – portion control needed when sitting on posterior all day!

Last week:
M - Nothing. Played with footage of Mecca Traverse in Windows Movie Maker. vimeo.com/135406552
T - Dynamic core; front & sides. Low dish 3x 1min. Steady.
W - Nothing. Failed to take any decent photos of Persied’s.
T - 25km flat bike. 54min. Dynamic core; front & sides. Donelly core 2x 1m30s. Hard. Very baby press-ups against wall.
F - Felt knackered. Wrote some bloggage to keep me entertained: http://allysmithblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/photographic-catch-up.html
S - 38km hilly ride in the peak; 1hr 37min. Numb knob. Ran out of low gears and had a right grind through the Macclesfield Forest/Goyt Valley. Tried some voodoo flossing (UKB thread) on wrist, finger, ankle and knee; think it worked on ankle scar tissue. I will persist for a while.
S - After a week of letting the left shoulder do its inflammation thing, I started the rehab. Very slow and steady foot-on fingerboard warm-up, concentrating on good form and keeping scapula tucked under the whole time.
RH max hangs (don’t worry about asymmetry; this is purely keeping fingers firing well enough for project #3 crux; if I ever get back to it this year?)
Sub-body weight deadhangs to rehab left ring-finger.
Dynamic & static core and baby press-ups at 45 degrees.

In reply to Ally Smith:

Stick with the rehab Ally - there's plenty of time left to crush this year. Hope the core work is still going well.

STG - Salbit South Ridge (ticked)
New STG - 7a on the trip
New MTG - Incapacity Benefit, WCJ inside a year (current best is 6b flashes to give some perspective)
LTG - Salbit West Ridge and something (anything) on Kleinwinterhoek in SA

Tue - Fly to Zurich, train to Luzern and dinner with friends in Kriens before getting 4hrs kip and an early alarm
Wed - Salbit South Ridge. Parked in the valley, did the direct start which kept us in front of those starting from the hut and topped some 7hrs after leaving the car, some 2000m in ascent. Two beers and my legs fell apart on the last 500m of descent. No mountain training, thin air and never having climbed on granite before makes me think that it'd be perfectly feasible to shave at least an hour off this, as a team of two pitching it. Awesome day! The climbing is really nice, no pulling hard. The crux pitch is harder than 5a - more like 6a and is the only bit I'd not be too happy soloing as the crux is delicate balancing on crap feet. I could spend day after day on that ridge and not get bored. Doing the ridge from the valley felt immensely satisfying but when I get round to the West Ridge - that'll have to be from the hut. Speed is essential on there and I'll need to get high for a week before and train properly for mountain legs.
Thu - Friaki, Pilatus. 50min walk in to a perfect limestone crag not in any guide, bolted back in 2003 by Rene. Very Peak style with lots of sidepulls and undercuts. Too battered from day before and the pulled core muscle, so had a boulder about at the bottom before deciding rest was right. The hard 7s and 8a/+s looked amazing, genuine lines up the rock. Certainly one to go back to after the trip. Pierre ticked his first 7c at the age of 57, just seven years after starting to climb. Inspired by this indeed. Staggered that such a good crag, north facing and high, (so in summer it's perfect) isn't in a guide but that's Rene's way and it makes it all the better for people like me who don't enjoy crowds when climbing.
Fri - Gig. Al-berto and the Fried Bikinis new album launch at the Yucatan in Engelberg. Cracking night, beer, food and friends.
Sat - Newly bolted granite slab in Gosherenalp. Rene did nine FA, I ticked some 2nd ascents and had a most amazing time. New routes are dirty, I have a new found respect for FA climbers and bolters. Felt really privileged to be there and almost bagged the 6c. The crag goes up to 7b slabs with some easier climbs in the 5s, and a 3 star 6c IMO. Another perfect day, they just keep on coming. I love Swizzy, the people, the ambiance. It's just great.
Sun - Rest day.
Mon - Gosherenalp. Granite slabs in a guidebook this time that Rene bolted back in 1989, interestingly the grades are higher in the guide than those painted on the rock. Didn't get any easier I guess as they got cleaner. Really pleased to have flashed a 6a+ that had a nasty font-esque mantle ( I can't mantle at all well) and the sun shone again. Beer after.
Tue - Fly home
Wed - Water-cum-jolly Cornice with Muenchener from UKB. Incapacity Benefit, perfect day really. Only got two crux moves in isolation to sort now, which is all down to where to place my feet, as usual. Just love this place. Hopefully there again next week.
Thu - Staden Quarry. Another nice day but not at all bothered about single pitch trad on limestone, so let Alan lead everything. I'm becoming a sports climber for sure.
Fri - Rained all day but we went to Rubicon and had a play on Small but Perfectly Formed. jeez. A boulder problem in the sky! Nails for me, total anti-route haha. Climbing Unit, Derby boulder comp. Got to problem 7 and got bored. Cake, coffee and the circuit board.
Sat - Rest day.
Sun - Smalldale. Main Wall was a nice bit of rock, tried the 6c+ to the side but it seemed fiercely technical at the bottom and top. Nice climbing tho. Wandered to the easier area to find loose rock (removed loads off one route) and had a sense of why did I bother. Shame to end the hols in a quarry but was being sociable with mates.

Had such an amazing time. If anyone finds themselves in the middle of Swizzy and fancies getting on some crags that well bolted and less travelled - drop us a line and I'll pass Rene's email on to you. All the crags have grade and name at the bottom of each route but generally no topos, so directions are needed.
Feels like 6c would tick easily now, by fourth go for sure if it suited me and I was inspired by the route but at the minute I'm just trying hard moves on 7s whenever I can, in a bid to get stronger before the trip. Granite slabs are ace.

In reply to Ally Smith:

Thanks for doing fit club Ally.

Back from two weeks family holiday in the Alps mostly riding bikes down hill a bit too quickly for comfort. Have some catered chalet weight to loose and re-motivated. Back on climbing & training now.

2015 aims:

Winter VI 7 - Tick.

Spring / early Summer 7b RP - Countash, Mill Side Scar - Tick.

Summer quick build through E1 / E2 / E3s on slate before trying to OS Malice in Wonderland, (E3 / E4)

Long term aim, (18 months or so?) HP Exeguy (E6 6b) at Trowbarrow

M: 1hr ARC & core at the wall. (Base & endurance training.)
T: 1hr 10min road ride. (Maintain winter endurance.)
W: am: 1hr ARC outside. (Base & endurance training.) pm: Rode the red route at Whinlatter at family pace. (Recovery pace)
T: Evening rock climbing. Followed my mate up Protus on Raven Crag Walthwaite, which he's been wanting to do for a while.
F: 1hr ARC & core at the wall. (Base & endurance training.)
S: 1hr 30min road ride. (Maintain winter endurance.)
S: am: 1hr fell run. (Maintain winter endurance.) pm: 3hr fell walk (Recovery pace)

A good week. Hope to make sure I'm happy with my endurance and then give Malice in Wonderland a go.

In reply to Ally Smith:




I presume you excluded the start bit from the video?

Looks very different to my day when you just ploughed through the elder trees on failed attempts.

In reply to Ally Smith:
Nice one ally.

Pretty good week:
M-rest
T-works, finishing off blacks, done all but 6 now and not sure when/if the others will go. Starting wasps - 7th/10 hardest circuit.
W-rest
T-works, about half a dozen wasps. Sessioning hard ones rather than just ticking easy ones.
F-rest
S-rest/mini works
S-rest/easy robin hoods stride

Weight 63.x consistently, down from 64.x the week before. Steady progress. Should be on target to hit my goal with a bit of effort.

STG- sack off a works session to get out on one of my projects while I'm feeling strong.

In reply to Ally Smith:

Cheers Ally. Started a new period focusing on anaerobic endurance last week, also added weight to my runs carrying an extra 10%. Since I've a trip to Kalymnos coming up at the end of September I'm using some sport climbing specific exercises. I'll probably change back to Winter specific work in October.

Mon - Trail run. 10km/498m +7kg (10% bodyweight)
Tue - Climbing at Curbar. Made such a mess of Green Crack (HVS 5b) I think this counts as a 'Max Strength' session.
Wed - Bouldering at Roaches Lower Tier. First day out with the new pad - absolutely stunning summer evening (https://instagram.com/p/6Syn-StMx0/?taken-by=planetmarshall)
Thu - Some 4x4s at Rope Race. First time trying this exercise, will take a few goes to get the intensity right.
Fri - Rest
Sat - Trail Run. 13.5km/544m +7kg. Really wanted to get into the mountains today but traffic heading into North Wales was abominable. Decided to head back and went for a run up Kinder. Equaled my previous time up William Clough from April despite carrying an extra 7kg, but will need to check Pace/HR to do a proper comparison.
Sun - Got midged off Millstone. Rest.

Aims for next week
* Get into the mountains if weather permits
* Settle on intensity level for doing 4x4s.
* Increase trail run mileage to 40km.

In reply to Ally Smith: Fitclubber of the week - I feel honoured! Unfortunately couldn't maintain momentum this week.


From a Distance is definitely a big goal for me to onsight or at least ground-up but I think I've lost too much fitness this summer for it to be worth a go if the rumours of ~7c are true. Hopefully I'll manage to rack up a few more E6s before summer is over though. Also looking at Nesscliffe as a potential option, something Tombola or Yukan II.

This week has been the complete antithesis of the last - I needed Monday and Tuesday to rest after Pembroke, then had a hard session on Wednesday so needed to rest on Thursday, and have spent the last four days visiting friends in London so not much climbing unfortunately!

Will aim to improve this week though with some climbing on rock hopefully.

Cheers, Jake

In reply to Ally Smith:

Thanks Ally for doing FC, nice movie from you in the mecca traverse. Pity that your injuries are still keeping you from hard climbing. Struggle a bit with setting an objective now, because my girlfriend is visiting, so not too much time to climb.

STG (this week): climb outside
Join the DWS competiton that is being held because of the worldcup this weekend
MTG (end of the year): climb a grade 7 or 7+ outside
Climb all the routes on duelifjell (2 pitch trad on slab up to 5+) --> Nobody wants to climb there, so I’ll replace it with På kanten (4 pitch grade 6)

Weight: 67.0kg
M: hiking for 3.5 hours, some small outdoor bouldering in streetshoes afterwards
T: bouldering indoors, non structured session, tried to repeat the routes from before the holliday, managed most of them
W: climbing outdoors, warmed up by repeating a 6, than gave an onsight try on a 7-, but fell 3 times at the same place before the crux, then cruised the rest including crux. Thought it would go 2nd try, but fell at the same place again, hopped immediately on and did the rest, so for me the crux is at a different spot. Was tired afterwards, so repeated a trad 6.
T: rest/ small walk
F: took my girlfriend on her first trad and ‘multipitch’ route, a 2 pitch grade 4 slab, she really enjoyed it.
S: running for 15 minutes + some antagonist and core afterwards
S: climbing indoors, did a stars and stripes (medium) boulder, after they removed 2 holds, before I never managed and now with a dyno I did. Roped climbing afterwards went bad.

In reply to Joughton:

I somehow doubt 7c is true for From a Distance, i.e. it might be an equivalent to OS'ing a 7c whilst placing gear, but a TR/HP ascent would probably be easier?

I friend recently OS'd it - i can pick his brains if you like?

I think Tombola is desperate, but i've seen it done by more technically adept people with ease. You'd want to be in the trad groove for this, rather than being fit.

Yukan has settled at E6, but i couldn't tell you much more than that.

In reply to Ally Smith:

Thanks Ally. Arrived at the comp with 1 hour to put in a score so didn't do that well. Everything may go to pot in the next six weeks as a house we were interested in buying a couple of months ago came back on the market. Have gone from viewing to mortgage application and instructing solicitors in 4 working days and it's stealing training time and stopping me from sleeping. Need to stop whining and keep my eyes on the prize: if I buy a house I can have a moon board and trampoline...

M - rest
T - Boulder Brookes poddling. Getting further on the sloper tension problem on the V5-7 circuit than most, but will put that down to flexibility/compressibility rather than skill.
W - rest
T - Opened an account on round 4 of the Big Rock SLL. Loving the 7a.
F - SBL worst score so far, but can afford to ditch that one as only takes 3 best scores.
S - Boulder Higgar Tor
S - Boulder Birchen. Remembered that midgey highballing is not my speciality...

In reply to Ally Smith: A little bit of general beta about the overall feel of the protection and 'onsightability' would be great actually, thanks!

Yeah Tombola would be a HP goal I think. Shame about Yukan II being down-graded, I'd had that planned for my first E7 for ages haha!

In reply to Ally Smith:

Cheers Ally, sneaking in just before the deadline

M: am - jog to work 15mins, pm - jog home 15mins
Tu: am - jog to work + strides
W: pm - Watford Open graded 800m. Felt OK but not amazing and was struggling at the bell and felt the lactic with 300 left which was a bit early! Held on ok for 2:01.47 - a seasons best but still not sub-2.
Th: am - jog to work, pm - 5/6M steady in 38:10
F: am - jog to work, pm - jog home
Sa: am - 18M on the bike accompanying the wife on her marathon training run, pm - grass session, 33:23 to warm up then 6 x 30secs hard (2min recovery). Just focussed on staying relaxed and strong. 8M total, tired
Su: v.tired, 7M in 51:14

Total 39M, ok race on Weds, two races left before the end of season, so just need to keep rolling....