UKC

I'm starting us off this week as AJM is crushing in Spain.

Link to last week£s thread: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?n=633238
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 gives an excellent breakdown on training the four main "energy systems" specific to climbing: http://alexbarrowsclimbing.blogspot.com.es/2014/02/training-for-sport-climb...

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fitclub 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.

Psyche video of the week: bit of inspiration for boulderers bored of the usual haunts: vimeo.com/153021657

Posters:
Si dH
Robin Brooke - Looks like you're sticking well to the plan, good effort. Out of interest why headpoint E2/3s if you're climbing F7a/+? Especially crack climbs - you'll be over-fit and there'll usually be decent gear.
Curious Yellow - Nice one having a good session on Saturday. Bit more focus needed to have a useful training session when not feeling ideally motivated like (it sounds like) on the Thursday?
Emily - Have sympathy re: conferences and working away. Generally if I don't come home heavier I'm happy!
AJM - Effort on the board problems, sounds like perfect bouldering training. Hope you're out bouldering now rather than reading this - send me a detailed report on all the problems
Nick Russell - sounds like a good session Sunday. I'm impressed how accurate it seems your January goals were?
James Moyle - looks like loads of good generally fitness and aero work. What are you hoping to apply it to? in N Wales?
Joughton - staying psyched and going climbing when feeling demotivated is so important...good effort for getting a session in. More time now you've passed those exams?
Dandan82 - good progress on the elbows, good luck!
flopsicle - re: your Friday session, if you want to get stronger on steeper walls, I would definitely recommend doing fewer harder problems, rather than a whole circuit of easier ones. On easy steep ones you are usually just pulling on big holds which doesn't often translate that well to outside and doesn't train body tension so well either because you can pull on the hold in more ways.
mattrm - maybe try some variety from the disk tucks? You seem to do an awful lot of them.
TonyB - I know the feeling you mean after eating badly. Fish and chips just make me feel really heavy and leaden. Sounds like you had a couple of decent sessions anyway though. I'm impressed with your dedicated to the endurance training.
The Ex-Engineer - great winter mileage!
Tyler - re: the Moonboard, small gains and minute progress it's what it's all about on hard problems - stay psyched!
Ian Bell - good to meet your goals for the week, but is doing 8 6as really going to help get you up 7a+?
hms- is your back ok now? Didn't look like a bad week to me as long as the sessions were of good quality - you got a lot done.
hokkyokusei - good old boozing and hangover. What are your goals?
stevemarkperry - no climbing last week
Richard Popp - stay motivated Rich, the psyche will return! Hope your bum is better.
Joyce - Your writing is a lesson for others in how to stay psyched! By teh way I was listening to Steve Maisch on trainingbeta this week and he advocates training max hangs at your max hang weight (ie, stes at your 10 second limit). Why are you doing only 80%?
Spenser - good luck with continued recovery. Are your roof projects on the main cave or the skips? Can you fit in an extra session bouldering or climbing per week instead of swimming or biking? This would probably help you a lot I think - one bouldering session per week is not much.
planetmarshall - first time back on after an injury is always hard. Just take it slow but keep motivaed and you'll see progress.
Humperdink - cold gone yet? I'm no runner but 60 miles with a cough seems pretty good.
alexm198 - never mind Scotland, there was snow in Burbage yesterday!
Just Tintin - totally gutted for you. Best of luck with the recovery. A story of some inspiration for you - someone I know completely shattered his leg falling off Janus a few years ago and had it in a cage for 6-12 months. He carried on doing strength training and it wasn't uncommon to see him at the wall top-roping overhanging routes with one leg/foot. Before he broke it, I think he was climbing mid-7s. When he got the cage off, before long he was doing 8a (and now climbs 8b). So don't get tooo down - I know it's hard.
biscuit - good luck with the physio, are you highly confident in the diagnosis(es!)? I've had some similar-ish feedback myself this week, will post later.
cha1n - you've probably got £100 worth of training advice there all in a thread. Hope it works for you...just make sure it's motivating enough that you try hard regularly, that's my tuppence.

It's noticeable how many people have no goals by the way - difficult for others to help you (if you want them to) with no context of goals or ability. And even if you don;t need them as motivation, they can be a good way to review your progress.

Hope everyone has some good stuff to report!

Si

In reply to Si dH:


Thanks Si dH. I'm still a punter re: crack climbing (jams, locks), living in London there just aren't many around! By example I enjoyed the embankment routes at Millstone this autumn, but struggled/dogged the upper crack on Regent Street E2 5c. My training base is all indoor so all bolted face. The 7a/+ is recent rather than consolidated, so will need to see how this translates outdoor this year, should have plenty of practice on the long road-trip round France, Switz, Italy & Spain from April. Any route/crag suggestions in my range welcome!

Periodized training, week 3 of 16 (finished Endurance, onto Strength) Good week apart from minor elbow tweak. Strength phase goal is to improve strength endurance for routes - Fingerboard repeaters and core - all advice welcome as I'm fairly new to it…

M: fun leading at castle Climbed in a three. 7a (black), 7a+ (yellow crimpy and meandering line on steep overhang, dogged os attempt, learnt some beta), 6c (red on steep overhang), 4 x 6b-6a.

T: aerocap 3 sets of 35mins (am) + pilates core 60mins (pm) Body & fingers & skin were exhausted today for aerocap, pushed on through with some tape and got the mileage, but not in best style - all 6a+ on a slight overhang - ah well suppose training is meant to feel hard...Pilates/core felt much better in the evening so fatigue is in the climbing specific areas mainly.

W: outdoor swim 1.8km woke up to slight tweak in right elbow, probably from poor form when climbing yesterday when 'exhausted'. Swim felt good, hoping this will help ease the aches and minor tweak in right elbow and fingers.

Th: rested elbow

F: aerocap 3 sets of 35mins (am) + pilates core 60mins (pm) climbed slowly and precisely today to watch the elbow - all 6a+ on a slight overhang and vertical. Pilates/core was lower body focused so saved stressing elbow. Seemed ok, let's see tomorrow. If good, then start strength phase.

S: fingerboard (am) & outdoor swim 2km (pm) 2xsets of 6 repeaters per grip type, 7secs on 3secs off, 3mins rest in-between. BM 1K grips: Jug, large open hand edge, IMR 1-pad 3F pocket, 18mm half crimp, IMR 2-pad 3F pocket, Wide pinch, Sloper 20dg, Narrow pinch. Effective body weight 64kg (-10kg). 20mins warm-up before; stretches, press-ups, pull-ups, light circuit simulation using board and chair. Suspect you'll all think I'm taking too much weight off, got to start somewhere tho! Completed all sets, second sets on (IMR 1-pad, 18m half crimp) involved some grunting…

Su: outdoor swim 2km

STG:
Stick to 16 week periodized training plan
Consolidating indoor 7a and 7a+ indoor RP's during fun sessions
Get my Girlfriend recovered from her Achilles tendon injury asap! Airboot came off on 31/12, walking swimming and bi-weekly physio now, light jogging by end of Jan (didn’t happen yet), get her into climbing shoes sometime in mid/late Feb (yes on a top rope, although her ankle was pretty swollen following day).

MTG:
Lots of 7a & 7a+ RP outdoor in 2016
E2 & E3 HP's in 2016, including AS MANY AS POSS crack climbs (fingers and hands) - Motorhead/Eldorado is on the summer list
Long Euro road-trip starts in April (leave job, leave country, climb lots)

BHAG's
Some current ambitions for future epics, which are a way off in terms of ability, endurance, courage, fitness, but I'd love to get there one day.
La Fete des Nerfs, 300m, 7a+
Mescalito, Paroi Rouge, 250m, 7c
The Nose, 900m, 5.9 / C2
Freerider, 900m, 7c (probably following someone better than me!)

In reply to Si dH:

I definitely fall into your group of people not regularly posting goals. I suppose my LTG has become my MTG. I want to focus on 8a this year, and if successful then think about LTGs. Feeling good after a high volume week.

Monday - short systems board session then continuous climbing (Loughborough)
Hard to measure progress here as I one of the holds had mysteriously disappeared and I had to rejig my systems problem

Tuesday - double laps, core and rings (Loughborough)
Good session, some progress. I'm falling off a few times and really struggling with the 7a into 7a on the 35 degree wall, but whilst I'm occasionally falling I can get back on and fight through, I can see progress here.

Wednesday - short intervals (Derby)
I'm pretty pleased to be getting this session in. I take my son to the kids' club and have one hour to boulder. The interval session takes about 30 mins, so can fit this with a warm up and quick warm down into an hour slot. The circuit board is pretty small, and for the grade the moves seem much harder than at Loughbourgh. Lapping things on here is quite pumpy and a little boring.

Thursday - rest day for fingers
Antagonists and weighted pull ups at the gym

Friday - fingerboard maximum intensity hangs

Saturday - fun bouldering on the V4-V5 circuit in Loughborough followed by AnCap on the fingerboard. I should be doing this with a pulley system as a counterweight but I due to difficulties in getting this working I went for a foot on approach.

Sunday - rest

MTG - 8a before December

Trips coming up
Feb (in two weeks time) - 3 days in Portland - 3x 7b (if weather is good enough)
March - would like to plan a weekend away, but haven't sorted anything yet. I don't know if it's feasible to climb in Yorkshire at that time of year.
April - Font - complete a red circuit in a day

Training goals
My priority is going to be AeroPow before the spring to put me in good condition for RP in the Peak. I'll keep plugging away at this, but the ultimate prize will be 3 sets of 2x7a on the 35 degree followed by 3 sets of 2x7a on the 10 degree wall with no falls. I'd like to see some improvement on the max intensity hangs too, but am reluctant to put a value on this, as any improvement would be great.

In reply to Si dH:


Thanks - yeah, I think I probably failed at that one on account of a German bakery or two happening to me!


Point definitely taken, I will try and post something for this... my main goal is to be good enough at climbing that I find outdoor climbing more enjoyable and less panic-inducing, which is a bit hard to quantify. (Any help with formulating concrete progressions towards this very welcome! Basically I am terrified of anything slabby or vertical, and not good enough for the grades that you get on steep stuff outside.) I could probably post a weight goal; I'm definitely feeling a bit heavy at the moment...

This week:

Monday - yoga, 90 min class. Felt even stiffer than usual because the room was so cold (despite the mild weather outside!). Lots of chest stuff (my poor shoulders) and quads. Managed to stay up in headstand the whole time this time, including variations.

Tuesday - bouldering at TCA. Bit of an unproductive session; worked on the yellow set but didn't get any new ones. Did get two 6A+s afterwards, but flashed neither and really both were eminently flashable. Tried a 6B+, got nowhere on the hard move. Core after inc situps, pressups, leg raises, side planks.

Wednesday - trampolining, got my front somersault going without the mat. Still twisting out of it; can't seem to spare the mental space to fix this, still concentrating too hard on landing it safely.

Thursday - climbing at UCR, good session. Flashed two 6bs and a 6b+, plus a 6a+ on the slab (hardest of the lot). Felt like I was recovering really well between climbs. Core after inc hanging leg raises, pressups, side planks, bench dips.

Friday - nothing.

Saturday - Ashton court park run (5k, big hill). My worst performance ever in 24:43 for 17th woman. Not great conditions (and I don't handle the damp well - so much coughing after), but various available excuses don't add ~1:40 to my course PB. Really need to work on fitness!

Sunday - climbing at UCR. Flashed two 6a+s on the horrible vertical wall, then worked on a 6c. Came within a whisker of the finishing jug on my third and final attempt! Frustrating, but I know I was really trying hard, so can't be too disappointed.

In reply to Emily:


I also have sympathy with work travel and conferences, as sometimes it's hard to get evenings free. I've also had some pretty good experiences too. Most big European cities seem to have boulder walls and I've been to some great ones when travelling for work. My all time favourite is Boulderwelt in Frankfurt.

In reply to TonyB:

Yeah, I did consider trying to go bouldering in Berlin - but just before I left, it transpired that I was going to have to do a whole bunch of data re-analysis in any snatched free time I could find before my talk on the last day, which pretty much put paid to that idea.

In reply to Si dH:


Cheers. A better week this week, now easing into more regular training.

Mon - Rest
Tue - Rest
Wed - Easy strength session. Core warm up, 4 sets of
- Isometric single arm axe hang (30 secs, -25kg)
- 6x Box Step up with 30kg rucksack
- 10 pressups.
Thu - Rest
Fri - Dry tooling at Rope Race. Just some exploratory work to test the hand out - so far so good. Found a couple of easy routes to incorporate into a circuit next time.
Sat - Trail run. 13km/870m.
Sun - Climbing at The Foundry. Just a few easy routes, mostly overhanging routes with large jugs so as not to stress my hand too much.


Good point, here they are.

STG

A more sustained week with at least 2 strength sessions and 2 trail runs. Do some long aerocap at Stockport AW. Off to Lillehammer at the weekend - try and manage a parallel turn or two.

MTG

Continue to rehab right hand and left shoulder injuries. Week in Scotland in Feb, conditions permitting. Savage Slit (Winter) (V 6), Fallout Corner (Winter) (VI 7),The Guillotine (V 6), and Gully of the Gods (VI 6) are on the radar.

LTG

Recovery of left shoulder and right hand injuries.
Routes:
The HVSs on Hen Cloud and Millstone Edge
Cemetery Gates (E1 5b)
Brown's Eliminate (E2 5b)
Regent Street (E2 5c)
Shibboleth (E2 5c)
Steeple (E2 5c)

Periodized training plan with two peaks, one for Kalymnos in October. Not really settled on particular routes yet, but possibly
Wild Sex (6b)
DNA (7a)
No Sleep 'til Hammersmith (7a+)

Second peak for Winter 2016. Planning on taking 8-10 weeks off for Scottish Winter, Alps and Canada. Routes to be decided but would like some of the Alpine classics.

The North Face (TD+ 6a)

Learn to ski.

BHAG

The 1938 Route (ED2)
London Wall (E5 6a)
American Direct (ED1 6c+)
Something on El Capitan.

In reply to Si dH:
Right, time to get back involved. I've done a little bit of base training and have devised myself a little 8 week plan (2 training phases). Hoping to get fitter rather than stronger this year. So will be trying to work on the Ancap and Aero fitness.

No idea about goals... Problem with goal setting for me is that I have absolutely no idea where I'm currently at. I have climbed twice outside since August (and that was just pottering about at Churnet). My goal really, is to stay reasonably focused and psyched over the next 2 months.

PS. If anyone is about in Llandudno for either cave or routes I'll be around between 17th-22nd Feb. Pray for warmish dry weather.

PPS. I will inevitably end up getting stronger and less fit.

In reply to Si dH:

Goals:
- Maintain a weight of around 11 stone measured Sunday night
- Jan/Feb: Jerry's Traverse (Cratcliffe) and at least 3 other grit 7Bs. [so far T Crack and A Case of Mistaken Identity.]
March: Do Crazy Horse (7B) and either Magic Bus or La Barre Fixe (7B+) in Font. After Font, do Moffatrocity if it's dry, or Wright's Traverse (7B) if Moff is still wet.
April: Moffatrocity if not done in March, then Eastwood Traverse (7B+). Start doing some limestone or Churnet bouldering in the evenings again once the clocks change.
May/June/July: Do a few more Font 7Bs on limestone or sandstone, and do Arch Enemies (F7c+)
August: Continue bouldering (more limestone F7B/+s) and, if Arch Enemies went well, get on an F8a.
September: Do the F8a.
October: Once finished (for good or bad) with the F8a, try Paint it Black (Ft7C) at Blackwell Dale.
November/December: Finish off Paint it Black if it feels doable and stays dry for long enough. Then get on the grit, goals being a Ft7B+ and maybe try Tetris (Ft7C).

As per last week, plan for this week was just core exercises along with shoulder & skin recovery, until physics Friday pm.

M: core. 4 sets similar to last week, but mixing up the lateral abs exercises a bit as discussed. I was surprised how much harder the sideways plank became with the leg lifts! Also tried it with my elbow on the gym ball but couldn't balance - just fell off immediately on each attempt.
T: core as per above.
W: rest/eat too much (my birthday)
T: core as per above but did 6 sets (2 in the morning).
F: rest/eat too much (celebrating my birthday with friends). Also physio appointment with Carol Hayes. Basically I have some minor impingement between my front left bicep connection to my shoulder, and my shoulder blade. However she reckons the main underlying issue is a lack of control over my left shoulder blade (apparently it sticks out at weird angles as I lower my arms in front of me.) This being due to (a) lack of upper back flexibility, (b) overly strong upper trapezoids and overly weak lower trapezoids. I've got some instructions to try to improve my posture, and various massages and low-level theraband exercises to do. She said I can keep climbing and exercising generally but obviously to stop when it starts hurting. I'm not sure yet how restrictive this is going to be.
S: Bouldering at Burbage. Had a poor session - tried the moves on Famous Grouse, West Side Story and Monochrome, but didn't make meaningful progress on any of them. Mitigating factors were (1) first session in 10 days, (2) too much food and little sleep the night before, (3) it was baltic and I only wore a thin pair of trousers, which was a major error. Shoulder didn't hurt whilst climbing (could have been numbed by the cold) but aching quite a bit afterwards. On the plus side, my finger skin held up well.
S: 1.5 hrs at the Climbing Unit. Didn't feel very strong and only ticked a few of the new comp wall Oranges (V3-5) plus did some fingerboarding, but was useful just to (semi systematically) gain more info on what aggravates the left shoulder. The conclusion is that it hurts when I'm pulling downwards on a left hand hold that is outboard of my shoulder, with my arm bent. If it's closer in to my body, that's ok. If it's something out wide that I'm side pulling on, rather than pulling down on, that also seems mostly ok - the rotation of my hand seems quite important. And if I can adjust my body position to stay straight armed, it's ok. One thing I haven't tested at all yet is undercuts but I'd expect it to be ok.

Weight last Sunday night was 11st0lbs.
Feel like I've eaten really badly over the last fortnight. I've had three different birthday meals (with my parents last week, my wife and with friends this week) and also my Christmas present was a gourmet night 2 weeks ago. Fortunately I've been healthy enough in between that I've not really put any weight on. Ideally I'd like to lose a pound or two before Font in early March.

Mixed feeling about the shoulder - it's good to have a diagnosis but after 10 days of rest, while the pain had subsided a lot over that period, it hasn't become any less sensitized to climbing (ie yesterday's session made it hurt). It's clearly going to be a long term thing that I'll have to manage. Some of he problems I wanted to try in the near future should be ok with it, but others not.

The core sessions felt useful. From this week I'm hoping to be training more normally again, so won't be keeping up the level of core exercises in the last 10 days, but will probably try to do one session per week.

Si

In reply to Emily:

>... my main goal is to be good enough at climbing that I find outdoor climbing more enjoyable and less panic-inducing, which is a bit hard to quantify. (Any help with formulating concrete progressions towards this very welcome! Basically I am terrified of anything slabby or vertical, and not good enough for the grades that you get on steep stuff outside.)

To be honest this is usually just about mileage, which I know is hard. Some people advocate fall practice indoors first. Is it falling that you are worried about specifically - and are you keen to do more sport outside, or trad?

If sport, I would advocate trying some proper redpointing (ie no attempt to onsight/flash) - it usually seems a lot less scary to go for something if you have already worked the moves well on top rope or bolt to bolt.
If trad, I would advocate trying things that make use of your strengths/fitness from your training rather than psychological skills! ie, well-protected wall climbs, which usually means limestone. Grit is much mroe psychological and the mountains can feel more intimidating.

Hope this helps(!)

In reply to Si dH:

I guess so, but they were always pretty conservative. I posted those mid-December when I was experiencing a definite low psyche period, so didn't want any performance-related goals really. It definitely worked: psyche is higher now and I feel like I have a decent base

Booked a trip to Margalef mid-March so I'm gearing up to that now. The plan is basically to get some volume sessions in through February. I know the routes there aren't super-long endurance pumpfests, but they're longer than the average UCR route and more endurance could help with more climbs per day, more attempts per climb, etc. I'll keep up the fingerboard sessions through the period, and then spike the start of March with some bouldering then back right off in the week running up to the trip.

If anyone has any better ideas than the above, I'm open to suggestions. 6 weeks isn't long enough to run a whole training period and taper.

M - 9km run with 10x{1:00 on/2:00 off} intervals. Got a really sore L quad and blister on my R foot. Neither of those have happened before. Not sure what went wrong.
T - TCA. Poor session mostly due to really poor sleep recently. Still managed a couple on the softer end of the red circuit. Core.
W - Trampolining. More somersaults
T - am: 6.8km run.
pm: UCR. Flashed orange 7a+ on the prow. Mint 7a above the arch took 3 attempts. Classic hard last move. One attempt on blue 7a ('corkscrew wall'). The hardest of the bunch, I think. Core.
F - Rest day.
S - am: Ashton Court Parkrun. 20:27, slowest time ever on that course. Also placed lowest ever. Not encouraging for my running goals, but quad was still sore. Time for a bit of rest, I think.
pm: fingerboard, going for the middle two hangs. Surprisingly good. This seems to be working.
S - UCR. 4 attempts saw off the blue 7a. I've now done every route at UCR at 7a, 7a+ and 7b, since Christmas. Core.

STG - Ticked all STGs up to January. Now onto last-minute trip prep. 13th March departure to Margalef.

Volume/endurance training: 8 sessions during February.

Keep up some strength: 5 fingerboard sessions before trip.

Don't get injured

MTG

spring: keep the pressure on the E4s. Still have to get on Central Wall (E4 6a), Star Wars (E4 5c), Mother Africa (E4 6a), Pacemaker (E5 6a), ...

summer/autumn sport trip: Ceuse or Frankenjura? Route objectives TBC when I actually plan something.

Sub-90 half marathon (Bristol half, September). Benchmark 10k (sub-40 in Bristol 10k, May).

LTG

varied E5 onsights

Snowdonia marathon I'll be up at midnight next New Year!

BHAG

The Long Hope Route

In reply to Si dH:

Yes, you're definitely right about the mileage - I need way more outdoors. Haven't even touched any rock since September... I do a decent amount of fall practice indoors (could/should probably do more), and I find this helps up to a point but doesn't transfer brilliantly to outdoors, especially since bolt spacing is usually significantly wider. I prefer sport, I guess, but primarily because of the fear factor, because outdoor sport routes at grades I can do have an unfortunate tendency to be a bit crap.


Yes, agreed - this does really help and is my best way of approaching outdoor routes. Onsight/flash attempts are a good way for me to end up lowering off the second bolt shaking and crying, and accomplishing nothing else for the rest of the day. Makes a difference inside, too.


At least I'm in the right place for that (Bristol) - but I don't have much intention of leading anything that I find difficult on trad any time soon. If I ever manage to lead a VS that would be a minor miracle as far as I'm concerned! I sometimes quite enjoy seconding harder trad though and it's a useful thing to be happy doing partner-wise.


Yes - thank you!


Edit: realised I failed to answer this bit, partly because it's hard to answer. I don't mind the actual feeling of falling off per se - in fact find it quite fun. But most of the time when I fail to do a move it's because I'm petrified, and I don't see anything to be scared of apart from falling off. Can't handle the uncertainty of whether I'll stay on or not? It might be partly that I have quite a dynamic climbing style (I think), partly due to lack of reach, so a lot of moves aren't reversible once I've initiated them - no tickling the hold to see what it's like before committing. I get a lot of unwelcome thoughts about how much slack is out, how many nasty ledges and sticky-out bits of rock there are, whether my belayer is really stable just there, how many times I actually checked my knot, how likely it is that my foot will get caught in the rope, how likely it is that I'll flip upside-down, how I'll probably scrape my face down the horrible slab, etc etc etc. Knowing intellectually that the fall is safe doesn't really help much (although forcing myself to take the exact fall several times on purpose does).

In reply to Si dH:
Long time Fit Club lurker (I'm Kathryn btw!) I'll come up with more specific aims in the next few weeks, but for now it will be to be more consistent in the V4-V5 bouldering range and translate this bouldering ability to leading (indoors for now).

Every day I try to do 10 minutes core workout when I wake up...
Sunday - casual bouldering session with friends (Hangar). Ticked two V4s that I hadn't finished the last move on.
Monday - very productive bouldering session (Hangar). Worked mostly in V5-V6 range. Got a V5 slab, and worked some moves on new routes.
Tuesday - hot yin yoga in evening
Wednesday - leading at the Boardroom. Lots of mileage around 6a-6b+ range. Took a massive fall on 6a+ due to hard clip position and lack of slack..
Thursday - rest day
Friday - new set at Hangar. Flashed up to V3 then struggled on V4/V5 circuit due to massive last moves on overhangs. Will get them when not as tired. Also got a V5 after struggling on the last move for absolutely no reason (had to try at least 10 times)
Saturday - rest day

That finishes this week! Pretty good week overall. Trying to fit in two gym sessions somewhere, possibly Tuesday and Thursday mornings.

In reply to Si dH: Thanks for holding the fort this week.

A rather interesting week weather wise, but it ended on a high note today with a gloriously calm day in the Cairngorms and another grade VI, although my mate lead the crux this time.

M - Sport @ Moy Rock (Dingwall) - Climbed Fighting off the Vultures (6a+), Moy Bueno (6b), Pebbledash (6b), Little Teaser (6b+) & The Dark Side (6c) before rain stopped play.
T - Trad @ Logie Head - The Moray coast was pretty much the only dry place anywhere North of Manchester. Lead Sea Pink (VS 4c), Sea Anemone (E1 5b), Dark Star (E1 5b) & The Cull (E1 5b), 2nd Anti-Matter (HS) & Fallen Star (VS 4c).
W - Mountaineering on Ben Nevis - Climbed Tower Ridge (IV 3) for the second time within a week.
T - Mixed climbing @ Cairn Gorm - Cairn Lochan - Managed both Deep Throat (V 6) and Savage Slit (Winter) (V 6) (rpt, 2nded in '03).
F - rest day
S - Bimble up to No match for crag id:11434 - Waded through some snow, failed to find any frozen turf (or gear) and bimbled back out again.
S - Mixed climbing @ Cairn Gorm - Cairn Lochan - Climbed Fallout Corner (Winter) (VI 7) (rpt, lead in '03).

In reply to Si dH:

Cheers Si. Yes, i'm more than happy with the physio. He was explaining as we went along and doing a complex movement - which i was rubbish at - and then isolating muscles to see where the problem lay. So i felt myself where the weak bits were - mainly through lots of uncontrollable shaking. Well worth it for me.


Last weeks targets

Complete 2 x AnCap - DONE
Fun session x1 - routes. Too much college work to catch up on. NOT DONE
Physio x5 - DONE
Lose 1lb and .5% fat, Last week 153.lbs 18.9%. This week: 154.4 18.9%

Stg’s

Complete An Cap sets and then adjust problem difficulty.
I'm not setting indoor route targets as its training not performance.

Bringing in an cap in Feb then an pow in March for a small first cycle before Easter.

Mtg

Chulilla at Easter - 7a+/b on sight. Re-assess where I'm at then before assembling next training cycle to peak end of summer. 12% bf or lower by Summer.


Nothing much of any excitement this week. An Cap seems to be about right from what coach told me and from the discussions on here. Looking forward to seeing what impact it has on routes when I finally tie back in again. Had second session last night and failed on the last move of the last set. I guess that's about right then. Going to change it this week.

I warmed up on the autobelay, which was promising. 6A+, 6b+, 6c+, 7a+. No resting, just a quick look at the route each time, as they were on-sight. I fluffed the 7a+ 2/3rds of the way up as got too high with my feet, bunched up, and peeled off, wasn't too pumped. Didn't feel that great on the first set of An Cap though so may stick to bouldering warm up in future.

Got all my physio done. Not been dieting as such, more watching what I eat,but had an indulgent weekend which has led to me holding steady rather than losing. When physio says I can get running again I’ll get on that to boost things along.

This week:

Complete 2 x AnCap – complete 4 sets on current problem and then change it.
Fun session x1 - routes now i think. Fingers crossed for this week, really looking forward to tying back in again.
Physio x5
Lose 1lb and .5% fat. This week: 154.4lbs 18.9%

In reply to Si dH:

Morning all.

Fair point on lots of 6as not getting you up 7a+. Certainly don't think it'll be physically exerting me enough but the logic is;
- trying to eliminate some bad habits technique wise and concentrating on doing easy ones perfectly for that
- spent lots of last year injured and still not right so want to start this year slowly, if I can stay healthy and slowly gear up the intensity till Easter I'll be OK in France I think. Was close to a 7a+ in Jan in Tenerife and that was with almost no climbing at all for 6 weeks or so before. Body still doesn't feel quite right enough to push yet.

STG = 2x swimming and 2x climbing this week. 2x15 mins yoga.
MTG = 7a+ by end of Easter France trip (either France or UK)
LTG = 7b+ pyramid this year, at least 3x7a+, 2x7b,1x7b+. Done plenty of 7as over the last few years.
BHAG = 8a by 40

Previous STG = 2x swimming and 2x climbing this week. 2x15 mins yoga. DONE

Mon – WW routes. 3x6a, 2x6a+, 2x6b, 3x6c.
Weds – 1,500m swim
Thurs – 15 mins yoga
Fri - WW routes. 6 @ < 6a, 2x6a+, 2x6b, 2x6b+
Sat - 15 mins yoga
Sun - 15 mins yoga, 1,750m swim

Another week ticking along. Plan is for one more week of general swimming / climbing and then going to try some ARC training for 4 weeks or so pre France.

In reply to Si dH:
thanks Si. Back still not right but the only time it is bothering me at the moment is waking me up far too early. Haven't done any bouldering this week as jumping/falling off problems seemed a bad idea. Got a considerable amount of other stuff done though.

M - cycle commute
T - cycle commute. UCR in evening. 14 routes in pairs, inc a good attempt on the mint 7b - was tickling the jug on the massive throw. Also a good try on a 7a+ (the orange on the prow) but it has a big sideways dynamic move, going leftwards. Couldn't find where to push with my feet to get the movement started and was nervous cos of left shoulder.
W - cycle commute. swiss ball wk 3. S&C x 2 (would have been x3 but was interuppted to go and do family stuff)
T - cycle commute. Psycho-coach session with Max. 3 circuits to warm up then 22 routes in 90mins, in batches of 3 or 4. Included a 6c onsight folloed by downclimbing it again. A touch tired by the end.
F - 5 miles urban walking. Swiss ball wk3. TomR 'easy' core managed 1 whole set in reasonable style then another 1/2 set.
S - 2 miles urban walking. Fingerboard. Long warmup doing 6/4/6/2 on ~dozen different holds, then short ramp up the weights, then 10sec hangs with +15kg on 3 finger 25mm, 4 finger 20mm, 3 finger 20mm. The one I was struggling with this time was the 4 finger - I seem much stronger if I keep the pinkie off.
S - Redpoint. 11 routes. Ticked the orange 7a - main issue was the clipping - then came within a whisker of lapping it. Had a go on a white 7a+ which I did in 2 halves with 1 move in the middle that I couldn't suss. TomR core 1 iteration when I got home.

Really pleased with the volume. Had noticed that my head was not as straight as I'd have liked so have been taking lots of falls as well which has been very helpful.

As far as goals - there is but 1 and it's already been stated: 8a before I finish being 50 (I'm currently 49). First major step towards this should be Costa Blanca in 3 weeks when the STG is to actually get on one, something I haven't yet done.

In reply to Emily:

which 6c were you trying?

In reply to Nick:

Talk about horses for courses! The mint 7a took me 3 goes, but the top move doesn't have to be dynamic- there is a sneaky splat on the LH wall. The blue 7a on the corkscrew wall I was cross not to onsight as I fluffed the final move. Once again, there is a splat on the side wall at the final clip which changes getting the clip in from v onerous to a breeze. Of the 7a routes they have at the moment, I'd say the bright yellow crimpers is the hardest, even though it's a style I really like. Would have been the orange opposite the tea hatch but that's been replaced with one of those soul destroying comp things - really easy until suddenly it really isn't!

In reply to TonyB:



Spanner Eyes (7b) and Twangy Pearl (7b) would be my recommendations, or if you want ot push the boat out then arguably the best route on the island is Zinc Oxide Mountain (7b+) but seems to divide people between onsights/ quick redpoints or protracted sieges, might not be ideal for a 3 day visit.

In reply to Dandan:

Thanks for that. I had Spanner Eyes in mind because my friend wanted to do Englands Dreaming. Any recommendations on the East Coast?

In reply to Si dH:


Thanks Si, more of the same this week, keeping my sensible head on and seeing nice steady progress

M: Elbow friendly Strength and Conditioning, all felt excellent, bicep curls are now completely do-able
T: Climb, indoor, 14 routes up to 6b
W: Cardio circuit, 10 exercises, 40 seconds each, 3 consecutive sets. I added 5s rest between each exercise as it takes a little time to get into position for the next one, basically this means I was doing the full 40s of each exercise instead of 35s last week, this made it considerably harder! Heart rate reached 184, I doubt it 's done that since about secondary school...
T: Climb indoor, 14 routes up to 6b+
F: Shifted a couple of tonnes of slabs across the garden (with a wheelbarrow, I'm not insane)
S: Climb indoor boulder, just mooching at The Project in Poole, they have no grades so it was tricky to make sure I kept to easy routes, but I don't think there was any harm done.
S:

As if 4 sessions wasn't amazing enough last week, I've only gone and done 5 this week, and 3 climbs too! This pleases me greatly.
Elbows are still on the up, although I do have to be careful how far to push them, they respond well to a little aggravation which seems to help them keep healing, but it's easy to push them too far so I have to rein it in sometimes. So far I have managed to use my head and keep a limit on things, hopefully I can keep that up and not get too giddy.

Last week's goals:
Touch my toes by the end of the week - not quite!
2 more climbing sessions, 12+ routes up to 6a+ - TICK: 2 sessions of 14 routes up to 6b+ and a bonus boulder session!

NEW STG:
Touch my toes by the end of the week again
2 more climbing sessions 14+ routes up to 6b+
Read my gymnastic/bodyweight book and work out a new antagonist session

MTG:
Stay healthy for Margalef so that I can at least climb something

In reply to TonyB:

Spanner Eyes is fantastic and it would be rude not to do Englands dreaming while you are there, it's even better.

Oh, for East coast you could try Road Rage (7b+) at Cheyne weares if you like crimps, although it's a bit of a pain to get to and that area was a little loose/dangerous (not Road rage itself but areas nearby so not much to warm up on)

For something with easier access, Sign of the Vulcan (7b+) is a boulder problem with one hard move or Live by the Sword (7a+) is a quality face climb but no pushover at the grade.

Just don't do Want Out (7b+) it's horrendous! You'd have much more luck with Hall of Mirrors (7c) next door if you have anyone there to unlock the sequence for you, definitely soft for the grade.

Hope these help

In reply to Si dH:


Yes, motivation is key.

I've just finished a 6 month block of my first ever foray in proper training with a coach and I was really psyched to try it as I hadn't done so before. Unfortunately I didn't get on with it, the ratio of having fun climbing to lonely training sessions was off and I lost the psyche. That being said, if you're really motivated and are prepared to make sacrifices to do a structured plan then I recommend having a coach to guide you.

I'm now back on my old ethos of 'just climbing' but this time around I'm going to try and have some structured stuff thrown in there to begin with and see if I can find a better balance than before. This time I won't feel guilty if I miss the odd session though!

In reply to Si dH:


Thanks for doing teh stats.


m: 2 hours drills, plyometrics, core & circuits - felt good but had a bit of shoulder trouble
t: no time to get in a run
w: travelled to Scotland for a wedding
t: huge kilt-clad piss-up at wedding in Scotland
f: travelled home
s: Horton parkrun in Bradford - 25:11 not a great time, but it's a very up and down route - I'll do better next time
s: was meant to be going running, but mate cancelled and apathy descended

Not a fantastic week all told!

Weight 82.8kg, body fat ~20%

Goal-wise:

STG - Qualify for Three Peaks Fell Run. To that end I'm hoping to do the Wadsworth Trog this coming Saturday.

MTG - Get around the Three Peaks Fell Run within the cut-off times. New PB at 5k, 10k & half marathon. Do more off-road running. Get weight down to 80kg and keep it under that.

LTG - 5-6000m peaks in Peru. Get body fat down to 15%.

In reply to cha1n:



Hmmm! How realistic was the plan that the coach built for you? I know a lot of people say they're busy but I REALLY am at the moment. Every hour of the day is planned out and often stressy. My coach took all this, and lots more, into account before setting me a structure that would work for me. I've missed one session and had a couple of half hearted ones. Pretty chuffed with that. He did plan in a 'fun' session every week as well that I've missed out on the last couple of weeks, but I don't feel 'bad' about missing those. What he made for me has worked, so far. Nothing worse than being set up to fail and a good coach should question you about motivation and time available etc.

You really don't need to do as much as many people think. There are lurkers on this thread who essentially climb indoors, twice a week, really hard, give it 100%, rest, and have made it to 8a outdoors without periodised this that and the other. Just a bit of focus will make a big difference.

In reply to biscuit:

I think the plan made for me was realistic considering the information I gave the coach. The time available, the current psyche, etc. I didn't really miss that many sessions over the 6 months, I stuck to it for the most part but because (as everyone has seen) I had such a bad endurance base, most of the 6 month period was fairly low intensity endurance base related training. I had also had a bad pulley injury 3-4 months before starting training, so he was limited to what he could throw at me and a large percentage of AeroCap had to be done on a fingerboard (yawn).

I agree about not having to be as structured as people may think. I got to Font 7C and Sport 8a without and specific training really but I think that if you want to progress to the higher grades you have to do a depressing amount of hard training to get there. Anyway, I'm happy to hover around the 8a mark and not have to do all of the hardcore training!

In reply to Si dH:

Hey Si, thanks for doing Fit Club! Probably should've just gone to Burbage then eh? That wouldn't have been a 10hr drive...

Good week this week, nice to get back into the swing of things after a couple of hectic weeks.

M: Climbed Njupeskär (WI-4+). Good day out, nice to be on the ice again. Felt good after the first few moves! Grim 6hr drive back to Stockholm for an early flight.
T: Rest, got back to London at about 7:30am and went straight to work on 1hr sleep. In bed by 8pm!
W: 1hr general strength workout with core routine warmup. Felt good despite recent missed sessions.
T: 8.7km Z1/3. Nice and steady until I got to about 7km, then decided to see how hard I could push it. Forgot how fun it is to run fast haha. Great session.
F: 10hr Mick Fowler London-Scotland drive...
S: Tried to head into Sneachda/Lochain, got shut down by the weather, got no further than the car park. About 3hrs Z1 on the walk up from the snow gate and back down.
S: Good day in Glencoe despite a late start. First grade VII in the form of Agag's Groove (Winter) (VI 7), which my partner reckoned was more VII 7 than VII 6 in yesterday's conditions. Led the crux. Really happy with this - first route of my season and also my hardest to date, more of this over the next few months please! Got back at 5am this morning, currently at work bashing away on my keyboard in a zombie-like state of sleep deprivation.

Last week's goals:
Climb Njupeskar [yup] 1 workout [yup], 1 run [yup], go to Scotland if the weather looks good this weekend [yuuuuuup].

STG (this week):
2 runs, 2 workouts, get back up to Scotland this weekend if the weather improves!

In reply to hms:

The black-and-green-spots on the same wall as the blue 7a. Small holds at the top, but I found them not so terrible if I actually made the effort to pull hard on them. Couldn't quite find enough power for the very last move at the end of the session though.

In reply to Si dH:

Ta mate.

Feeling mega psyched for climbing again at the moment. I've slowly started easing myself back into it over the last 3 months or so and each time I go I feel really satisfied. Like I'm on the right path again. Buggered up a bit this week due to spraining my thumb at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu on Monday night.

M: 30mins recovery on turbo. 1hr BJJ nogi. Sprained thumb during sparring.
T: 1hr sweetspot intervals on the turbo. Icing thumb.
W: Rest
T: Rest
F: Race moves on turbo. 15 on (at 9/10 intensity) / 15 off, 30/30, 45/45, 60/60, 45/45, 30/30, 15/15. Rest 5 mins. x3 sets.
S: Weights (weighted twists (core), weighted crunches, pullups, pushups, curls) & stretching. DIY.
S: 2.5hr walk in the Peak around Mam Tor, Loose Hill, Castleton area - wet, windy! Indoor bouldering, climbed well and feeling strong. Up to V3 due to thumb still being weak from Monday's BJJ. Feeling really good at the moment. Time to up the climbing volume.

Plus an hour walking the dog most days, longer at the weekend.

Current weight: Dunno but feeling agile, powerful and strong so I'm happy.

In reply to robbiebrookie:


Best you know sooner rather than later i suppose - most of the cracks on motorhead are not terribly well suited for jamming. It was one of the first routes I did after a fortnight in orco and I expected it would be such good training, but actually I just didn't do that much jamming at all. A lot of the cracks are in corners and so suit laybacking better given the slabby angle and there aren't so many face-on cracks to jam up.

In reply to hms:
Yeah, quite a contrast. I found the blue 7a at least as hard as either of the 7bs in there!

I had a go on that one at the end of the session. When it looks like it's jugs up to the headwall, and it says 'comp route' on the card, that's exactly what you'd expect... Unfortunately it's the only 7b+ in there at the moment.

In reply to Si dH:

Thanks for doing the stats this week Si. I am trying to get down to the wall/ out climbing more often but I have quite a lot of stuff going on in the evenings with IMechE lectures and MSc lectures which I need to go to. Going swimming tends to be a before work activity and has been quite helpful as physio for my ankle which I broke 4 months ago. I've got a lot of stuff going on at the moment and have some none climbing goals which I am currently working on that are taking up a lot of time so I'll be taking a break from fit club while addressing them (they're part of the reason that things have been very up and down since I started). My two main projects recently have been on the skip, the black comp problem (now done with some beta from a friend) and the green (I have the start wired, just need to have some energy left for the end of it!).
Monday: Bouldering at the unit (did my project)
Tuesday: Swimming before work, lecture after work
Wednesday: Rest day/ lecture after work
Thursday: Bouldering at the unit (working my way around the new orange set which is really cool, managed to do a couple of the problems so I am nearly back at the standard I was pre-break).
Friday/ Saturday/ Sunday: Nowt, had some family stuff happen that curtailed any plans.
About to head off to the unit now!

In reply to AJM:


Agree, one tough layback pitch low down, one hard conventional move high up, but it's mostly about moving easily up lots of slabs with run outs. Don't remember any jamming of note although it's nearly 10 years since I did it.
Awesome route!

In reply to Dandan:

Lol, I thought it was really good and got it 1st redpoint, 3rd tie in.

In reply to Emily:

I think the last moves has quite a lot of people off that one, yes. The yellow 6c on the same wall is very good too but a comp route so the top clip is noticeably harder than the rest (although still fairly reasonable).

In reply to Nick Russell:

Unless it has been stripped v recently indeed, there's an orange 7b+ on the LH side of the arch through to top roping. Jak was v enthusiastic about it when he set it - which I took as a warning sign so I've never been near it! There is also an absolutely nails hard 7a+ there too - a yellow one - have you tried that?

In reply to hms:

Unfortunately those have both gone. I was planning on doing the orange not-comp 7b+ so this was quite disappointing!

In reply to Si dH:
You're probably right about dish tucks. I'm just used to doing them now I guess.

STG - Keep doing some climbing

Weight - 12st 10lbs

M - 35 routes at the rec (inc 5 6a)
T - 200 dish tucks
W - 3.2k run
T - Rest
F - 200 dish tucks
S - 5k run

Ate much better. Dropped a few lbs. Hope to be back to 12st 7lbs next week. Then I'll continue the charge to 12st. I'm doing a 5 week 'diet cycle' in the run up to my holiday at the end of Feb. Then it's a one week 'not get fat' cycle.... Felt very tired/drained over the weekend tho. Wonder if I've got an illness. Tis odd. Tho it could be the diet that's doing it.

In reply to The Ex-Engineer and Dandan82:


Now I'm curious! Anyway thanks for the suggestions. Always good to have something in mind.
Cheers, Tony

In reply to Si dH:

Thanks for doing the thread Si. Yeah I'd say that was a fair cop!

Mon - Rest.
Tues - Rest.
Wedns - El Chorro. Arrived late pm, 2x 6a+ before dinner and an early night.
Thurs - Encantadas. Working Generacion Limite (7b+), bit of a shock to the system after a few months of very little climbing...
Fri - Makinodromo. Epic walk there and back from the Olive Branch. Los Siete Larrys (soft 7b) third go.
Sat - Walked up to Escalera Arabe before concluding we were broken and sacking it off. Not my best planned rest day ever...
Sun - Back on Generacion Limite, linked in 3 sections breaking at shakes/rests but lacking time and fight to make serious redpoints. Sat in the glorious sunshine and ate chocolate biscuits before heading home

In reply to TonyB:

Want Out took me ages... I'm firmly in the 'it's brilliant' camp though!

In reply to Si dH:

Thanks Si.

LTG - Have been doing more research the past week and I think the Matterhorn is probably off the cards this year, purely because the guiding costs are too high. Still plan to go the Alps and build experience of PD and AD routes. Lots of tasty peaks in mind.

M - RUN - 9.2 km - 253m ascent
T -
W -
T - CYCLE - 20km. sprints
F
S - fantastic day around Carneddau. Did Craig Lloer Spur scramble (3). Quite icy but not quite enough to use crampons and axes. Then continued around Carnedd Dafydd and Llewelyn. Very windy. Total height gain - 1270m
S - a bit of a bimble around Cwm Idwal - weather was nasty

No weight change this week. 12st8 so down 6lb overall - MTG to get to a weight between 12 and 12st3. Should be possible by the end of Feb?

In reply to AJM:

Thanks AJM and Si dH.


Awesome route!

Yep I've had a look at Motorhead and a lot of it looks like the slabby friction climbing I did in Norway on a Granite dome called Hægefjell, run-out bolting and some natural pro, with a couple of steeper corner type pitches.

The appeal here is more long multi-pitch fun. I'll be seeking hands and finger cracks elsewhere. appreciate the heads-up tho.

We will also be heading to Orco (for the first time), any routes / sectors you'd recommend?

In reply to Curious Yellow:


I just remember firmly saying 'never again' once I had ticked it, I had a proper nightmare at the very top, powering out and barely dragging myself over the last lip accompanied by plenty of undignified scrabbling and swearing!
I think perhaps it was close to my limit at the time so I had a real struggle on it, it's not a bad route as such, I do remember the crux being a delicate step-through above your clip which was pretty exciting...

In reply to robbiebrookie:

I enjoyed most things I did in orco. The slab/wall climbs are a specialised art though.

If you look at my logbook for late June 2014 I probably left comments on most stuff I enjoyed. Sergent was good, as was the classic thing a bit lower down the valley (below the tunnels, forget the name but we did a classic 5c or so on it)

In reply to Curious Yellow:

That's a long walk. By which route does one get to makinodromo these days - are the tunnels still OK?

In reply to AJM:



Wow you did a lot of climbing in 2014!! Looks like you were on a road trip, covering lots of places we plan to visit in our van. Good tip, I'll have a proper read through the logbook later for ideas.

In reply to robbiebrookie:

Pretty much, yeah. Drop me a mail if you have any questions or want any beta or anything. My blog from the trip is linked from my profile too.

In reply to robbiebrookie:


I've also been climbing on Hægefjell, it was absolutely beautiful and I can really understand the draw to more of the same. I have a fun memory of doing one route, I think it was Mot Sola and the first 60m is really really easy low angled slab (probably about French 2 but impossible to grade). Our Aussie friends left to do this a few hours before us, and when we got there we saw them coming to the 1st belay at 60m. They were crimping on tiny edges and rocking up on the tiniest indentations with tens of meters between terrible pro. To their surprise, my friend I just picked up the ropes and walked 60m up the slab without hands. It was one of those funny moments, when as soon as you stand up it was just like walking up a steep hill, but it took some courage to do it. The Aussies then blasted to the top far quicker than we could have dreamed of as they were way better climbers.

In reply to TonyB:



Hey Tony,

Yeah we did Mot Sola, lovely route. I think those first two pitches you refer to we just treated as part of the approach to the route proper i.e. just walked / solo'ed up them. First real pitch if I remember was a groove. Have great memories from that day, unusually good weather, good partner, some pristine granite, beautiful views, and wild camping at the base. Happy days.

In reply to Si dH:

Morning Campers,

Thanks for doing the stats, Si, it's a good job well done! Regarding max hangs at max weight, I've found several coaches/gurus who advocate training at 80% of your max hang strength as you still make significant improvement with a much lesser risk of injury, mainly because you're not quite trying to 'perform' at the limit every session you're strength training. Lopez, Maisch (on his website) and Bechtel all endorse this, and I think Bechtel had an anecdote about a weight lifting lady who couldn't break through 180lbs or summink. So they, racked her back to 155lbs and got her really got lifting this for a while. When she next tried to perform at her max she roared (possibly literally) well into the 200lbs with her best lift. Macleod also says that to do 1,5,9 on the campus board, you should get really good at 1,4,7 rather than throwing yourself at 1,5,9 all the time and then going for it once 1,4,7 is well wired which is kinda the same idea. I've also adapted things slightly by taking on Big Ally's advice to HMS to up the weight a little each week - seems to be working alright this week...

Training Diary WC 25/01/16
Strength Cycle/Wk 2

Monday – Strength session: max hangs on fingerboard based on calibration from earlier in the week. Weakest grip first: 2 finger open hand (18mm pocket) – hangs 1-3 body weight (BW)– 2.5kg for full 10s (hang 3 felt very hard so hang 4 was changed to BW – 3.75kg and managed 10s. Grip 2: 35&#730; sloper: hangs 1 to 4 BW +15kg for 10s – spot on. Finally, grip 3: 4 finger half crimp on 18mm edge: hangs 1 to 4 at BW + 17.5kg for 10s.
Tuesday – Aero Pow in Supershed: warmed up then got on some ‘max strength/limit’ bouldering for half an hour and was nowhere compared to last Saturday – forearms obviously still tired from last night’s max hangs. I tried some steep slopers and got nowhere so quickly moved on to a decent 38 min Aero Pow 1 on: 1 off session on the pink 6b+/6c circuit. I tweaked it a bit and took rests at 30s less than I’d just been on or 90s, depending on which was longer and this helped to sustain a really good pump. Reps were between 20 and 30 moves.
Wednesday – Progression Run: 11.2km in 50:24 at 4:29m/km pace. GAP at 4:18m/km as 186m of ascent. Ramped it up for the last 3K, doing each one in >4:00m/km. All on country lanes or off road on a cloudy night but only had my head torch switched on for the off road bits as I thought it was low on battery (turns out it still had loads of charge) - doh! Marvellous.
Thursday - Strength session: max hangs on fingerboard. Weakest grip first: 2 finger open hand (18mm pocket) – hangs 1-4 body weight (BW)– 3.75kg for full 10s (felt OK so will reduce assisting weight next time). Grip 2: 35&#730; sloper: hangs 1 to 4 BW +15kg for 10s – touch easier – will up to BW + 16.25kg next time. Finally, grip 3: 4 finger half crimp on 18mm edge: hangs 1 to 4 at BW + 17.5kg for 10s – OK so up to BW + 20kg next time. Also, sets of pull ups: 8,8,7, with 3 mins rest between sets. Typewriters: sets of 4, 3 and 4 with 3 mins rest between sets.
Friday – Recovery.
Saturday – An Cap session: began with an aero cap warm up on neon yellow 5+/6a circuit on 20° – intervals of 7, 6 and 9m with 5m rest. Impressed with my improved confidence to hang in there, shake out, recover and carry on – up to 70 or 80 moves and approx. 32m of climbing per rep. An-Cap on 35° panel: 3 sets of 4 reps of 10 – 16 moves on parts of 25 move F7A/+ circuit at 1:3 climb/rest with 10 min rests between sets. Spent afterwards in a glorious proper job powered out way.
Sunday – Intervals: 7 x 800m intervals at 18:00m 5K pace (168s per interval). Missed on all of them by a few seconds. I think this is because the intervals were ‘out and back’ so the turn cost precious time and, having gone out off the back of about 2 ½ hours of kipping bambino cuddling, my legs weren’t fuelled up so couldn’t operate at a high enough speed – more tucker pre-run and ‘one piece’ intervals next time methinks. Oh, and the International Headwind of Destiny showed up again too (maybe I’m just getting my excuses in?!!).
Short Term Goals
Up the difficulty on the ol’ Aero Pow intervals to 6c/6c+ - getting there, reset THIS weekend.
Slopers, slopers, slopers, heel hooks, heel to hand matches, getting feet up and onto hand holds following a cut loose on overhangs (and other weaknesses) – no.
Do more routes outside or inside to fix lack temporary lack of rope clipping ability - nope.
Keep up with the antagonistic stuff - nope. At least one fingerboard session a week – yup, 2. Core stuff: 3 sessions -1 core session (doing core for fingerboard warm ups though…)
Write a new training plan – it’s in my head, just need to get it written down.
Add in 2 sessions of ‘pull muscles’ strength training to max hangs sessions – started, this all depends on if I’m needed for bambino stuff.
3 Core sessions featuring the best of DanDan’s workout and L hangs, knee raises, windscreen wipers and front lever thangs (2 – ish).
Medium Term Goals
Climb The Loop from the ‘horn’ (nope – more interested in ‘The Poop’ than ‘The Loop’ just now).
Climb Underhand (7B+) at Almscliff in February Half Term.
Implement and stick to the new training plan.
Weight = 71.2kg

Love from,
Joyce,
XXXX

In reply to Si dH:


Cheers Si.


- V6/7 (7A/+) in Albarracin (2x 7A), Bishop (not been yet) and at home (1x 7A). Try a local V8
- short trip 8a send (Mediterraneo (8a)?)
- local things to look at - Hall of Mirrors (7c), Nightmare Scenario (7c), maybe Fighting Torque (8a)
- get the regular weight logging back on track and manage the weight back down

MTG - 2016
- get on Infinite Gravity (8a+). Also try Fuel My Fire (8a+), The Cider Soak (8a), and some harder west coast 7s (Tennessee (7c), Saskatchewan Uranium Miner (7c) etc)
- maybe some onsighting if I can get a trip together
- get trad mojo back, get more E4s done, try to break into E5
- another adventure trip, back to wendenstock perhaps
- build on dws - swanage and Devon classics, push the boat out at lulworth.
- buy a house, do the Dragon Tour, other non climbing goals.

BHAG
- its been in the back of my mind for a while, and its a monstrous step from where I am now, but Tom Et Je Ris (8b+). Its probably even further away than 8a was when I started thinking about 8a, but you gotta try, right?
- single pitch E6, big adventure E5s and all the adventures that would bring (alps etc)

25/1 - rest
26/1 - wall. Had some good goes on a hard project. Another chunk of a 7:3 but it was hurting my skin a bit.
27/1 - wall but so so busy so left straight away. Short fingerboard session at home, really pulling hard. Double pullups at 95.3kg, 96.4kg (new PB), 97.6 (even newer PB), 98.7 (hell f*cking yeah), and finally 100.2kg (whoop whoop!). Thats +6kg over where I started these double pullup measurements at. Base weight of 73.5kg at time of session so 136%.
28/1-29/1 - pre- Albarracin rest
30/1 - Albarracin afternoon. Went to the biggest sector to start off. Ticked some cool problems up to (classic and hard) 6C - Spiderpig. Cool heel beta from Gaspar. Also tried Liquen bastardo which is 7B in the guide but apparently 7A/+ in reality. Managed to get to the hard stand-up move (there are hard moves below too) rocking up onto a good foot but with a sloper and a pebble, very grit. Didn't do it but fun to try.
31/1 - Albarracin. In retrospect it was muggy and not so good conditions, but I just thought I was being a bit shit. Problems to 6C, and spent a little while trying A Cieglas which is an ace 7A+ prow. Was working the hard moves only (end of a day) but managed the first hard move consistently but the hold was a bit greasy andI was too weak to get anything much out of it. Brilliant problem though.
1/2 - Albarracin. Mega day. Lots of problems up to 6C. Managed to tick off 3 6Cs (1 flash, and 1 which was totally my anti style sort of thing so was really satisfying to get - La Morrena) and 2 7A - Zarzamora and Empotration. Even if (and I don't know, I really can't grade boulder problems on grounds of total inconsistency in my personal level) theres some holiday grading going on its still my best mileage day on boulders ever I should think.
2/2 - Albarracin. After yesterday I had nothing left! Boulders to 6A. Tried a 6B but couldn't top it as I kept sweating through my tips, and tried a 6C but just couldn't pull hard enough any more. It got humid towards the end too.

Brilliant little trip. Ace venue and good to get a STG done as well.

Good progress on the benchmarks the week before too.

A few more weeks to keep pushing onwards until Spain in 2.5 weeks. Weight this morning isn't too far off pre-Albarracin weight so just got to keep pushing it downwards - aim for sub-72kg if possible before Wildside. Got some foot on campus to try and do soon so be good to see where I am against that benchmark compared to where I was pre-Chulilla.

In reply to Si dH:

Thanks Si,

Goals for Jan/Feb were/are:

Jan - Top 3 at county XC (tick!), Beat last years performance at South of England XC (see below)
Feb - Best last years performance at National XC

M: am - 5M in 35:23, pm - 7/8M easy in 52:12
Tu: Fly to Glasgow & Back! when got home did road session: 4 x 5:30 controlled off 90 seconds jog. Felt ok considering the travelling but right hamstring tight and a bit sore
W: Still could feel hamstring, am - 5/6M easy in 41:33
Th: am - 4/5M in 31:08, pm - massage which was needed!
F: 15min jog + strides cold/cough much better but still there a bit.
Sa: pm - South of England XC Champs. Cold but bright for the annual slog in the mud at Hamstead Heath. Despite my brain telling me the course looked ok it was just a heavy as ever when the race started with knee deep mud in places, ankle deep mud in most over places and a few bits of good running! Got out ok up the first hill but felt like I was working a bit hard after the second hill. managed to relax a little and started to move through and after half a lap was in a group of 5 or so. Stayed on the back of the group over the next lap but going into the last lap it was every man for himself! Got lots of shouts but despite this couldn't quite move up any more on the last lap. Still, finished highest I ever have 23rd in 52:33 for the 15K with around 1000 behind me! Sadly last minute dropout affected our team and we came 3rd (we should have won but thats another story!) so a good day at the office. The wife beat me position wise (she was 13th) but was disappointed as her cold affected her and she could easily have been inside the top 10. Did a long cool down which resulted in a complete sugar low but eat plenty afterwards. Total 14/15M

If you want an idea of what its like you can watch this (its about halfway into the first lap of 3 - you don't have to watch all of it!!) youtube.com/watch?v=qJrrPpmnx_0&

Su: Knackered! Did an easy 9/10M in 65:22

Total: ~60M again, low but that was due to tapering for the race. Really pleased with the result, just got to hold form now until the national in a months time.

In reply to robbiebrookie:

Hey all

As I embark on my finger-boarding journey (learning) I'm working with repeaters (strength endurance) and found lots of info out there on protocols / training detail.

But I'm also interested in future to use the board to build strength specifically max hang strength. It's proved harder to find info on protocols for this i.e. what do you do in detail for warm-up, actual max hang strength work-out (duration, rest, sets, which grip type or types), how do you programme this i.e. number days per week/rest and for how many weeks, how did you calibrate at the start.

Grateful to anyone willing to share a bit of the detail of their approach (ps. I can see the performance some are acheiving, just less clear on some of the detail to help me plan in future). thanks in advance!!!

In reply to robbiebrookie:

You can probably overcomplicate things, and as far as in aware there's no consensus in the science as to what is actually best. Anything you do will do something and with equal dedication to actually doing it most values of "something" will probably be fairly similar.

But basically warm up really carefully, recognising that warmups should include stuff that's actually relatively tricky (up to at least 80% of your intended aim, say?).

Hang for a short period (5-10 seconds?) and rest for a long period (2 mins at least?) between hangs.

I don't know if there's much evidence to differentiate between true Max hangs and doing stuff that's controlled to be 80% or whatever. Probably, in reality, you'd only know the difference if you had the rest of your training very controlled.

Work whichever grip positions you think are most in need of work, being careful with tweaky ones.

You'll get most out of this when fresh. Trying to do it third day on is not wise!

In reply to AJM:

thanks - good advice

In reply to Si dH:
Cheers for the thread Si!

"... if you want to get stronger on steeper walls, I would definitely recommend doing fewer harder problems, rather than a whole circuit of easier ones. On easy steep ones you are usually just pulling on big holds which doesn't often translate that well to outside and doesn't train body tension so well either because you can pull on the hold in more ways."

I have multiple issues with overhangs! I struggle like hell to 'read' them and often find I waste a bucket-load of energy moving my feet around, I'm not that strong even in the arms (never mind fingers), and whilst I've been climbing just over 3 years, the first half I didn't believe I could do them at all, then did them badly (frog'o'riffic), then watched Neil Gresham, got confused and gave up for another 6 mths! In the last year I've made sure they figure in a good chunk each week but even huge blobs still get me scratching my head to try to do them in style. I do the harder comp problems too but like a kid with their sprouts I'm now eating my overhangs, not quite 5 portions a day....

Anyway - last week:

Mon - 2 mile hilly run

Tues - 2 mile hilly run

Weds - 2 mile hilly run. Lead climbing night, did the headwall, some other bits then went back to my project. Worked hard so I was pleased. #

Thurs - nowt!

Fri - Bouldering and ropes, more on project.

Sat - As above.

Sun - 4.5 hrs at the wall!! Mega mix of stuff, really pushed myself and got a bit freaked out leading. I want to be braver. I know I 'should' practice falls but, there in lies the problem, don't want to fall. Anyhoo, worked hard so onward and upward.

Oh and - My first run recorded on Strava was Jan 30th 2015.
In the last year I have run 472.8 miles over 202 runs climbing 41,673 ft and running for a total of 86hrs. To reward my efforts my scales added 5lb to my weight when I replaced the batteries. Life is cruel.

In reply to AJM:
Do your 7:3 hangs come under AeroCap? I think mine were, but I had to do them at a lowish intensity, maybe 60% bw, though in practice I was so bad at them that I had to do them at 40% bw.

I only ask because I wondering if these are quite important. I was quite bad at sticking to doing this exercise as all the FB work was hurting my elbows and shoulders but I've noticed that after 7 months of doing regular low intensity AeroCap buy traversing for 8 min on 8 min off, that it's not really effected anything. Perhaps I need to do more of this higher intensity AeroCap too? I might try doing it on a FB to gauge intensity and then try replicating on a wall if that's possible. Maybe it isn't.

In reply to cha1n:

7:3 certainly work up a pump for me rather than anything even close to strength. Could be completely wrong but I thought this was working more AnCap than AeroCap. Will be happily corrected though as I'll use it to change my current plan.

I've increased the resting time and decreased the number of fingers for strength work now. We all seem to be adding weight now instead of aiming for 1 arm hangs? Or is that just in addition?

In reply to JayK:

Thanks for the reply, note that I was doing it at a reduced load (40-60% of bodyweight). I assume that 7:3 at bodyweight would work something completely different!

Per earlier post, thought I should write up some goals. I'll put them in my post next time round.

Short term (Feb)

• get weight trending downwards. More actionably: pay attention to food with this in mind
• 2 runs/week per my plan in prep for Bristol 10k (1/8 in Feb so far)
• do some high-volume climbing sessions
• do fall practice in every volume session

Medium term (Feb, Mar, Apr)

• follow running plan for Bristol 10k (4/39 planned runs done so far)
• climb with good attitude in Spain (mid March) and have fun even if I suck!
• climb something outside in the UK if the weather ever cooperates

Minor miracle level "maybe someday" wishes

• redpoint something beginning with 7 indoors?
• redpoint something beginning with 7 outdoors??
• lead a VS??? (don't care whether onsight or after seconding a billion times, but this does include placing the gear myself)

In reply to cha1n:

Yes, they do. 60% or 70% or something. I have to confess they're my least favourite of all Toms exercises but I try to force myself anyway on the grounds that if I hate them that probably makes them a weakness.

Theyre basically 1:1 (on a macro scale at least, ignoring your 3sec rests) so why not just do 1on1offs if you want to do it on the wall.

In reply to JayK:

It probably depends on what else you do (how many 7:3s and what rest between blocks and what have you) but they aren't ancap for me. Tom has a 10:3 protocol for ancap on a fingerboard iirc.

I enjoy assisted 1 arm work more but its hard to do with my home setup. Plus 2-arm stuff is what the plan says and allows me to benchmark how much weaker than Ally I am as an additional side benefit.

In reply to Si dH:

Thanks Si. Having a grumpy week getting used to trying to get to work. Not climbing and generally being being static and swollen. Thankfully it doesn't hurt, but too long upright makes it swell a lot and push against the boot. Tried a few puny sessions at the wall (one-legged starts and generally crawling around) and now have a basic set up at home with my rock rings slung off a pull up bar so I can do basic lock offs lying down on a boulder mat in the doorway. Pull ups also possible but with leg down it fills with blood and swells, so need to magically be able to do L hangs for that one to be of much use. We're trying to work out other options so have bought some power balls too. The muscle wastage on calf is ridiculous already. If you're all really lucky I'll post some broken ankle pictures at the weekend!

Thanks for the moral support everyone. I'm pretty down but trying hard and hope to have a more upbeat plan next week.

In reply to Si dH:

I was meant to be starting my training program, days one to three went well and I stuck to the plan (3 days rest!) then it went off the rails and I was forced into two more days rest. In the end I just did what I always do and went to the bouldering wall at the weekend. Given work and DIY situation coming week will be the same

In reply to AJM:

Thanks Andy. Agreed, one of my least favourites too and my elbows and shoulders stopped hurting when I sacked them off!

In reply to Tyler:

what exactly are you resting from?

In reply to Si dH:

Hello,
I was away for 10 days in France; no climbing. Took rock shoes but didn't boulder (no mat and a bit spooked by that). Did a fair bit of walking.
First day back, seemed really weak, but by a couple of days later it was better. Had a go on a couple of 6c's on top rope; got half way up one, but not off the ground on another. Suspect one has a 6c crux and the other is more sustained.
Managed to fail my internal assessment at the wall for work. I'll take it again fairly soon. No great drama but a bit disappointing. CWA assessment is still a way off - will need to do some work at other walls. Feel humiliated and rattled but never mind. Was told I taught well but need to stick to the wall's standards more closely.

to AJH - no I didn't quite tip upside down, got my feet sorted just in time through sheer chance. Scary and sobering.

This week I'm going to aim just to climb indoors twice and walk as much as possible. Will be away visiting friends in Hellsinki from Thursday to Sunday.

In reply to Dandelion:

If you have the chance to go climbing in Helsinki, I'd recommend it. The climbing wall in Salmisaari is amazing and possibly the best wall I've ever been too. It has a 28m lead wall. The competition wall is 16m high and overhangs 11m. The setting is really good and they always have stuff across a huge variety of grades. For bouldering Boulderkeskus Konala is an amazing place and I haven't been to a better boulder wall in the UK. After 8 years in Helsinki, I'm happy being back in Britain, but I really miss the world class climbing facilities and never realised how lucky we were at the time.

In reply to TonyB:

Oh that's fascinating - I confess it hadn't occurred to me to try to climb there - it's just a short visit and my husband no longer climbs. I LOVE the sound of the big wall you describe but maybe I'll just take my shoes and give the bouldering a go. Thanks!