UKC

Afternoon FitClubbers!
The dog just ran across the keyboard as I pasted this post in, so if there is a random chunk of gibberish somewhere, then you can blame Mavis and not my addled brain.

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.

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...

Last week’s thread can be found here: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=668012

Last Weeks Posters:

AJM - How was the first week of tiny person management? Who turned out to be the boss?
TheFasting - Well done on the two peaks! It’s great when training manifests itself as obvious performance increases
Hms - How are you feeling about storm warning? Short links is good, is it a long route?
Tyler - Great week, i’m very jealous of you being able to get to such a good crag 3 times in a week! Does project Deluded/Possible have a name?
Ally Smith - I’m glad the injury never materialised, bullet dodged. Great looking week, your project sounds like it’s going to be a monster!
The sheep - 3000 is going to fly by, very impressive consistency to your miles all year!
Planetmarshall - Did the weather permit your trad goals? It’s been a bit up and down around here!
Mrchewy - Try to rest until the under-the-weather feeling passes otherwise you might just drag it on for ages
Dandan - Please do not break yourself. Thanks.
AlanLittle - What was Cafe Kraft like? I have to admit to being a bit of a fanboy of famous indoor walls, i’d love to go visit.
Hokkyokusei - How is the shoulder? I hope coaching Mrs Hokky doesn’t end in marital strife!
Biscuit - Glad you had a good holiday, coming back without an extra few pounds in weight is a definite bonus!
Mattrm - Congratulations!!

In reply to Dandan:


I didn't cry once,so I'm claiming victory!

It all went ok. No big dramas but it really is quite wearing - miniAJM is mobile, but incompetently so. This is good in some ways (he can't go that far and some of the usual crawling baby issues are still in the future) but bad in others (risk of toppling over still fairly high and so he requires a lot of attention). When he's awake there's a limited range of stuff I can really do unless he's strapped into a buggy or something. But on the other hand when he's asleep I can do training. And we have been out for a fair few walks so I've pushed him round for several hours all told as well.

- So, this week I did a 1-on-1-off on Monday on the foot on campus setup.
- Wednesday I did another one, although 2-on-2-off for variety, and then also a wall session. The wall session was good, I got some decent problems ticked and made some progress on a good if quite hard one at the end.
- I rested thurs/fri/sat because my wrist was feeling sore - it might have been that hard problem (it didn't hurt at the Time but there's a 2-finger undercut pocket on one of the hard moves which is a bit wristy) or maybe something unconnected.
- Today we were pretty wiped out but I did a third 1-on-1-off which felt good - I'm sure I did a harder set of moves for the same pump level.

Hopefully doing outdoor climbing-y stuff Friday and the weekend this week, supposed to be out for a walk and blackberry picking tomorrow, not sure on Wednesday yet. Plan is to keep smashing in the 1-on-1-off, adjust the setup to enable some more base level continuity (flip the pinches on the side to create some bigger holds), and hopefully try a lattice decay test to measure progression since June when I last did one.

In reply to Dandan:

Sound advice Dan - I'm a bit rubbish at resting when I don't feel 'that' ill and sometimes things can drag on. Wasted two months in Spain doing the same thing and only climbed 8 days one month.

Mon - Rest after Rubicon
Tue - Training on Paul's wall. Traversing 1x 10min 5deg 1x5min 5deg 2x5min 10deg with 5min rests. Then big slots on BM1000 4sets of 8x7/3 with 2min rests. Then 3x 1min on/off at 10deg.
Wed - Stretching front of shoulders mostly. 12hr sleep as still felt rough.
Thu - Paul's board. 4x5min on 5deg with 5min rests. 5x1min on 3min off at 30deg. Tried pullups, maybe 1 if I was a bit cheeky starting. Some antags.
Fri - Still feeling rough - 14hrs of sleep
Sat - Lots of stretching and then a load of slow squats, trying to not stress the knees too much. Then went out and got rather inebriated until 3am...
Sun - A bit tired obviously. Rubicon. Put the draws in myself on Point of No Return 6c but the big move at the last bolt had me stumped for feet. Got Dan to run up it. Had another go and his beta works fine for me. It's a really nice move, plus the holds up to there are big - will get on it again. The most comfortable I think I've ever felt on 6c, so all the back rehab is paying off. Had a lot of crap goes at Kudos and I think Dancing Fish Standing but more because I felt I should - the night before's beer kicked my arse if I'm honest.

So - dismal attempt at everything especially pullups and FB, about one third of my power and endurance has survived this past year but on the positive side, I'm climbing as well as I ever have, so pretty optimistic about future progression. A friend was working Trunk not Punk, so jumped onto the bolts next to it, which turned out pretty well. I'd have had another couple of goes but the hangover was punishing me but keen to get back on it. I'm totally at full stretch on the crux, which is good. I love Rubicon.
Need to do more left shoulder rehab for this impingement issue and get back to all the other shizzle I used to do.

Also back working fulltime again.

In reply to Dandan:
I'm a bit of a climbing wall fanboi too. Quite proud of having (briefly) touched the hallowed brick edges of the Leeds Uni wall a long, long time ago.

Cafe Kraft is very good - big, creative setting. Definitely worth a visit if you're in the Frankenjura (and it's raining, of course). Although the big upstairs training area - the one in the famous photo of Alex Megos on the campus board in front of the famous photo of Wolfgang Güllich on the campus board - is closed for refurbishment at the moment.

STG: book flights for Kalymnos
MTG (2017): Redpoint a 7b that isn't a 6-move boulder problem.
LTG (

In reply to Dandan:

The link to "last week" is to 2 weeks ago btw

In reply to AlanLittle:


Ah yes, that would because I'm an idiot. Sorry about that, I can't edit it any more, sad face.

While I'm here, I'm off to Kalymnos next Monday so I can do FitClub next weekend but not the following 2, would anybody like to step up for a bit? I don't know when Guy is due back?

In reply to Dandan:

Looks like you're not the only one whose keyboard slipped. A slightly less truncated version of my entry would have looked like this:

STG: book flights for Kalymnos
MTG (2017): Redpoint a 7b that isn't a 6-move boulder problem.
LTG (<= 5 years): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60.

Sideways down the Pegnitz

M: Frankenjura family canoeing expedition. In previous years we have rented canadians; this year the lad, who is in the kayak club at school, wanted more independence so we took single kayaks. Third time in my life I have ever sat in one; they turn out to be bloody hard to keep in a straight line in a current. And for this kind of active rest activity, the more incompetent & therefore inefficient your technique is, the higher the training value. Excellent.

T: Stopped off on the way home from Frankenjura kayaking for a couple of burns on the Weissenstein low traverse (6C). This is a classic Frankenjura power endurance training/testpiece , and is exactly sort of thing where I fall apart on lead: steep, decent handholds, but needing to make quick decisions about foot & body position. The only way to get better at it is to do it. Managed to work all the moves but still feel some way off linking.
W: Chilling at home. (Although "chilling" feels like the wrong word in yet another bloody week of 30+ temperatures)
Beastmaker max hangs & shoulder stabilisation exercises
T: Fly to .uk for Family Holiday Phase 2
F: Quick visit to Highball in Norwich. What an excellent wall - top contender for "best climbing wall in a location where one would least expect a great climbing wall". Received another ass-kicking, just as I did on my first visit this time last year. (Managed to scrape my way up a couple of blacks & bees, in case any Norwich locals are reading, but also struggled mightily on some yellows)
S: Family visit / rest
S: ditto

In reply to Dandan:
Thanks Dan. Storm Warning is about 20m in a dogleg. There is a so-so bridged rest possible after the traverse (the really good rest on the route one's just joined in banned on SW!). All told about 30 moves to the final draw then a droppable and run-out top. There is one short and very hard sequence, the rest is just relentless and unforgiving. Now trying to bribe D2 with icecream to belay me on it.

M - collecting D2 from heathrow so Oakwood is obviously on the way! Knee started to play up before I'd even finished my warm-up so ended up doing 42 routes of ~6b on the auto-belays in blocks of 6.
T - late night after Heathrow so drove to work. Couple of mile walk in afternoon.
W - cycle commute. UCR in evening. We got there a bit later than usual and it was heaving and sweltering. Got fed up after 6 routes of people climbing adjacent to me with overlapping holds. Went to try the new circuits but knee got unhappy so I couldn't risk falling off, which does tend to hold one back.
T - cycle commute. FB. 5/10/5/3 using 5kg assist for half-crimp, 8kg added for 4 & 3 finger drag. Did each grip twice. Then 1:1 x10 using 1/2 crimp and 10kg assist to maintain good shoulder posture throughout.
F - 2 mile urban walking. Rehab: TRX flys, weights.
S - and theraband which I forgot to do on Friday. FB 7/3/6/3 35degree slopers x5, reducing assist from 12kg down to 10kg by adding weights to pockets. 7s 1-arm hang x4, 1:1 x10 on slots. This was deliberately not a fingery session as I knew I'd be at Armistice next day.
S - Armistice with D1. 3 decent length TR goes. Found another hold on first section, although 1 move twists my elbow rather nastily. Middle section felt slightly more possible but is extremely hard - there are 6 tiny sidepulls roughly alternating side to side, 1/2 pad 2 fingers at best, so feet & weight positioning are crucial. Annoyingly had totally forgotten how to do the top so had to work it out again.

Knee is worrying. It is fine when climbing but really objects to squidgy mats and being landed on. I've got a Velcro support thing so will gently try that out next week.

In reply to Dandan:


I can step in for a couple of weeks, stats would probably be Monday morning instead of Sunday though?

In reply to Dandan:


Yes, the project is most definitely a monster; I finally got around to visualising the whole thing and counting moves whilst infected with lurgy this weekend. 50-ish-metres of climbing/114 hand moves with complicated foot-work, which breaks down as:

28m/54 move f7b/+ start. A combination of Sidekick (7a+) & True South (7c) which has some very good rests on it in the first half
12m/27 move resistance 7B-ish section (including the perma-damp pocket) - this is the new section of climbing on this project
15m/33 move f8a+, the entirety of Freakshow (8c) post-crux. The first half of which is f7b jugs, followed by a 7A+ boulder to get into Mandela.

Week 32
M - Nowt; crisis meeting at work due to failing at science.
T - Nowt; more failing at science. Baked cookies as stress relief – very domesticated - not sure this is normal male behaviour!
W - Pi$$ed off with working late last three work nights, so knowing that this would probably happen again, started late and did a FB session before starting work.
Lopez max-hangs on BM2K-AA. Progressive sets building up in weight, then 1x 10s@BW+46kg
3x10s @BW+49.75kg on BM2K-AA slot (only just made each hang for 10s, so will stop at this level for a week or two).
3x10s @BW+19.75kg on 35 degree slopers.
Alternating 31kg barbell 12xOHP & 20xrows in rest periods.
Worked late again, stretched in the evening.
T - Hideous traffic getting to Kilnsey. Crag very damp when I got there. Tie-in#1; dogged project and stuck tin-foil in the 2 wet pockets. Tie-in#2; wet start made the 7b/+ bit harder than normal; fell before crux due to spoogy holds and 1st tin-foiled pocket being too restricted with tin foil. 2nd wet pocket (which scuppered weekend RP) worked a treat though. Climbed through crux and despite wet holds continued to next (very wet) crux and sorted out some draw lengths. 50-for-5/The Ashes link-up was wet at the top, so repeated “I ain’t no sponsored hero” and then stripped project. Bit of a wasted journey, but still learning stuff on the project.
F - In glorious retrospect, I should have heeded the warning signs of impending lurgy and done nothing…
…31kg barbell complexes (snatch & squat) and shoulder/core work on the rings & bar.
S - #SuperDOMS & viral lethargy, made a millions times worse by having to sprint 5km on the bike home from Tatton Park to meet the decorator for a quote. House tidying.
S - #UberDOMS & viral lethargy; house starting to look tidier though - the lounge floor has made an appearance for the first time in 6 weeks!

In reply to hms:


Very vague, but good right foot on a hole on chulilla, left foot in a good but hard to see pocket, both hands over to the right. Maybe guppying something with one hand, I don't know.

Work on it. Comparatively I was quite fit at the time but I got a really good recovery there. Really good. I recall thinking if I ever actually did Chulilla I'd take that over the awkward bellyflop rest out right, if that puts it in context.

In reply to AJM:

thanks - I had a feeling there should be something better than the rest I was getting, given other people's logbook comments, but was failing to find a right foot. Wonder if I was at the wrong level. Will explore further next time, as getting this sorted will be key to putting it all together.

The Chulilla belly-flop rest is a bit special, yes!

In reply to hms:

Hold on chulilla, not hole. Autocorrect! I think it was one of the big face holds you use once you break out the groove to get to the break

In reply to Dandan:


Hello!


When I say Mrs, she's really my GF, so if there's strife at least it won't be marital

At the physio last week the physio suggested that I make an appointment with my GP, to try and get a scan to confirm I have an inflammed tendon. It normally takes a couple of weeks to get a non-urgent appointment so I was a bit surprised to get one the next day. Doc said that it would be pointless "at your age (cheeky sod!) normal wear and tear would make it hard to see the wood from the trees in your shoulder". But he reckoned the physio's diagnosis was spot on and gave me a cortisone injection there and then, which I wasn't expecting. There was an immediate improvement, but that was probably just the anaesthetic. Was very painful where the injection went in the next day. Cortisone should be kicking in about now and last for a couple of weeks, so I'll see how I go.

m - 5k off road
t - 8.5k canal run/walk
w - 5k run home
t - 7.5 k mixed terrain run
f - rest
s - Fountains Abbey parkrun 24:14. Not my best time by far, but it was hot and I was tired and hung over.
s - rest

STG
Keep my weight down - seem to have got this under control. My 30 day moving average weight has stabilised at about 77.5kg.

MTG
September - Yorkshireman off-road half marathon
October - Budapest marathon

In reply to Dandan:

Cheers Dan.

Another week of no climbing - placement and kids put paid to that.

But I did get lots of bike commuting in. About 130 miles done over the week I think. I got back on strava on Tuesday and forgot it one day so not recorded everything. I forgot how motivating strava is and I had sore legs over the weekend.

Not been closely monitoring diet this week. Had a bit of a break whilst doing lots of cardio. Don't think I've done any damage despite eating out twice and having some puddings.

Looking at getting out at least twice this week and indoors a couple more times, all weather permitting of course.

In reply to Dandan:

Thanks me, not broken yet although I am feeling a little ragged around the edges!

M: Indoor Boulder; doubles on system board (woody) now using problem that is considerably harder than my last problem but i'm making similar progress. 4 sets instead of the required 6.
Boulder combo; 25 moves hard circuit followed my medium boulder flash attempt followed by 15 moves of circuit. 2 sets instead of the required 3

T: TRX; low rows, front flys, reverse flys, typewriters on rings - did sets of 5,5,4,0 which is much improved over 3,3,2,2 a couple of weeks back.
Lower body stretching

W: Indoor Boulder; hard problem repeat 7 times with 2.5 min rests. Only did 2 sets of the required 3
Lever lifts and kicks; various front lever progression holds and lifts

T: Wedding, at which I may have inadvertently got incredibly drunk.

F: Antagonist Theraband; various shoulder movements.
Failed to do boulder session and fingerboard session due to hangover

S: Outdoor, Portland; Finally got on Prison Sex (7c+) and it was worth the wait! Pure power endurance on small holds, 18 moves from the floor to safety with some great climbing in between. I did and linked into and out of every move by my second tie-in, and the whole thing in 2 hangs on my 3rd tie in. There's a vid on YouTube of my friend Louis climbing the route which has given me some alternate beta for some moves, I definitely need to take a bit of intensity out of some parts for it to feel like 7c+ to me. I might need to skip the final hard clip too, which will make it spicy, I just can't see a way of clipping it without extending it so far that it's barely worth it.

S: Fingerboard; 2 hand, 10 sec hangs on AA edge and lower outer BM2K edge, lower edge at +20kg.
Lever lifts and kicks; as above, big improvements coming here.

The other exciting thing that happened this week was I got a new Clipstick! It's a new product from a couple of climbers in Dorset, the company is called Pongoose, check them out on the facebook.
It's a fantastic piece of kit, very well developed, versatile, well made and it looks cool too. I won't bang on about it too much but it clips draws and ropes up so much more easily than a beta stick, it also removes draws really easily which impressed me. The best bit is putting up clips mid-route, it holds the draw so solidly that you can lift it up towards your bolt and pull rope from the floor instead of having to pull a load of slack into your lap to take the weight off the stick so the draw doesn't pop out. It's so much faster to use, and much less faff.

My fingers are still not fixed but not any worse which is nice, easier week this week then it's 10 days of tufa wrestling which should give them a good rest.

Last Weeks STG:
* don't agitate fingers, Kaly is 2 weeks away - Tick
* get on Prison sex this weekend - Tick, it's amazeballs

new STG:
* don't agitate fingers, Kaly is 1 week away
* get back on Prison sex this weekend, refine beta, do it in 1 hang.
* Solid 5 second front lever, perfect form.

MTG: (next few months)
* Maybe an 8a in Kaly, Sardonique is a prime target
* Remain uninjured to allow me follow through Tom's plan - Finger back on track
* Visit Kilnsey (never been)
* Saskatchewan Uranium Miner (7c)
* Illusions (7c) - TICK
* Detonator (7c)
* Prison Sex (7c+)
* Nightmare Scenario (7c)
* The Breathing Method (8a)
* Monoculture (7c+)


LTG: (This Year)
* 3 Holidays - 2 done and 2 more booked!
* Niña Mala (8b) in October
* tick 3 x 8a - 2/3
* tick 10 x 7c/7c+ (to round out my logbook) - 2/10
* Remain uninjured, don't return to cocky idiot mode
* +bodyweight pull ups (2 reps) - +54kg so far
* Enter BLCC and don't come dead last

BHAG:
* 9a by March 2022 (40th Birthday)
* Stage 1 of BHAG is 8b by the end of the year

In reply to Dandan:

I'm back Was just laying low for a week, I can resume duties this week, unless you actually want to do it for a couple of weeks Ally? I'm probably away for a few weeks at end of August so won't be able to do it then.

In reply to guy127917:

No worries - why don't you take the mantle until you go away, and i'll step in then?

In reply to Ally Smith:

I'll get my coat then.

In reply to Dandan:
So yeah, back from a great trip to Canada. We did a real mix of trad, alpine and sport climbing, and I don't think I was limited by finger strength or endurance at any point, so I consider my spring training programme successful! Hardest sends were 5.11b sport (6c), 5.10b trad (E1/2) and AD 5.7 III. Because of the mixture of places and climbing styles, we didn't push particularly hard on anything, but I learned a lot of stuff and gained valuable experience.

My main takeaways from the trip-
- 2 on 1 off isnt sustainable for 5 weeks, especially with some 12+ hour days!
- Granite crack climbing is a totally different set of skills, but is great fun. It hurts so bad, but in a good way.
- The Canadian Rockies are chossy as f***
- I will progress faster if I pick one style of climbing and focus on it for a period/season rather than randomly doing each.
- Mixing travel and climbing is great, but I need to leave expectations/strict goals behind to relax and enjoy it.

Favourite routes were probably:
- South Ridge Gimli (5.10a)
- North East Ridge of Ha Ling (AD 5.6)
- Original Sin (5.11a)

I'm taking a couple of weeks of recovery- was really exhausted by the end of our trip. I'm aiming to take advantage of this period of non-serious training to get good control of my diet and lose a bit of weight (came back from trip lighter at about 79kg). I then have another alpine trip at the end of the month, so will do some light cardio and climbing for two weeks after recovery to get back into things.

Last week was rest week 1- I went bouldering on Saturday. Felt extremely strong/dynamic, presumably because of the 3kg I've lost since last boulding. My fingers/hands were quite tender though- wonder if because I haven't bouldered for 6 weeks?

In reply to Ally Smith:

Sounds good

In reply to Dandan:
cheers Dan, its no coincidence I've ended up living this close to Kilnsey but I am still grateful every time I get some climbing in after work. The project is the Bulge, one you'd love I'm sure.

M: Run 7.2kms
T: Kilnsey, Bulge was similarly damp so stick clipped to hard climbing, tried the move to and from the bowling ball, relived to find its not the crux
W: Was going to go for a run but it was raining so randomly picked a yoga course off YouTube and started my 30 day yoga course.
T: Kilnsey, Bulge was too wet, got on Metal Guru didn't like it, might have got the second crux once, didn't bother with the first crux as its awkwardly bolted so best tried above a mat. Left in the dark, the nights are drawing in....30 mins yoga
F: Run 8kms, 30mins yoga
S: Run 8kms
S: Kilnsey, Bulge had dried back a bit, no real progress other than I manged the bottom groove (6b+ apparently!) in a oner, still not been able to get on roof bit (it might be the crux!). It even took the Peugeot three goes. Tried the moves off the deck on MG. 30 mins yoga

Injuries: elbow was wrecked after Thursday and tweaked finger in horrible left hand pocket on MG. Hip sore after running
Diet: Pretty bad, weight still hovering around 10'10" though
Inspiration: Belayed the Durham Dark Horse on Thursday, I want to climb like him!

STG: Back to Kilnsey when it allows, stick with the yoga and running
MTG: Get something ticked before summer's out
LTG: L'Escalmadres and Mandragora in Dec

In reply to Tyler:


- it definitely is the crux on RP - get it wored, and not just pulling off a rope with your fingers pre-arranged in the split-finger pocket


- give yourself f6c, it's pig awkward and maybe nearly impossible until your yoga flexibility kicks in...


- you are using the hold on the left wall, right? It's slightly sequency, but not the crux. The crux is the top boulder problem - get up there and get it wired

In reply to Ally Smith:

I think, for me, both the RP crux and the crux itself is the final throw for the finger jug above the last bolt, this is still very low percentage (one in three at best), the move into the bowling ball feels fine (relatively).

its always been awkward but I genuinely think something has come off, I OS'd this in 2011.

reaching from the vertical slot in the groove to the flat jug on the left wall should be ok (not tried properly) it's reaching up to the slot and getting my feet positioned on to the right wall I'm concerned about.

Just seen some pics on FB and it's looking wetter than Sunday which is disappointing, don't want to have to do Metal Guru instead!

In reply to Tyler:


Has someone told you to do a drop-knee in the porthole pocket instead of doing it as a powerful outside edge?


Yeah - just seen the same - I might abort a mid-week session and hope it's dried out a bit for the weekend

In reply to Tyler:

In reply to Ally Smith:


^^^ This ^^^

In reply to The Fox:



Is the port hole the good hold your reach the bowling ball from or the bowling ball itself? I did look at various drop knee options but they all left me too short of the mini jug? Didn't know you'd been on this, did you RP it?

In reply to Tyler:
***** BETA ALERT****

never got round to full RP, did in 2 halves, didn't get back.



i can't quite recall... deep pockets thing with good lip. i didn't quite drop knee, but did find a toe in and twisting the leg for tension makes the move over the lip much less of a throw and much higher percentage. i seem to recall that when exactly you place the foot in makes a difference (before or after a hand move?) but can't quite recall.


EDIT *** VERY VAGUE BETA ALERT ****

In reply to The Fox:

Ok, so the route still has value!

Cheers, I'll have a look if I get back on it, although I think you may be taller than me.

In reply to Tyler:




better looking, funnier....

In reply to The Fox:


Damn these non du plumes, I was pretty sure I knew who you were in real life, now I've no idea.

In reply to Tyler:



He is deceptively tall when he actually stands up straight.

I seem to remember that it worked for me and we're about the same height. It turned a very low percentage move into an OK move (if it wasn't for all the other moves before it wiping me out).

In reply to Dandan:

The Goal - Climb Western Front Direct (7a)

Weight - 13st 12lbs

M - Hospital
T - Hospital
W - Hospital
T - Hospital / Home!
F - S - 'Rest'

We're finally back home. After a fairly quick and straight foward birth, we ended up having to go to the hospital cause my Son developed Jaundice. Finally came home on Thursday. We're settling into a routine. Doing ok, but I am impressed if you can fit training in with a newborn. So serious props to AJM and Si. However I am loving fatherhood. Tiring, scary, but otherwise great. I hope to get down the wall next week. But we'll see.

In reply to mattrm:


Our wall trips in the early days were only possible because Ali also wanted to go, and did involve a certain amount of cafe time and faff time! Besides that I was doing simple things like fingerboarding, which can easily be done at home, can have fairly flexible breaks in them, and basically don't take too long.

I struggled when I went back to work because whilst the new baby is obviously hard work it's peaks and troughs into which I could make holes to do stuff, whereas work is a solid block around which things have to fit.

Not much has changed on that front - now I do short sharp foot on campus sessions that fit within a 45 minute nap cycle on the days I'm at home!

In reply to AJM:

Out of interest, how soon did Ali manage to get back to/feel motivated to do stuff eg. fingerboarding/wall/outside climbing? Inspired by you guys proving it possible, but suspect will find her angle much more helpful

In reply to Just Tintin:

Ali has rarely been consistently motivated by fingerboarding!

But her first trip to the wall was at about the 2-week mark. A few points on that, since it likely appears unusually short:
- volume and difficulty very low - we are probably talking about a few laps across a vertical warmup traverse wall total. This was a marker point in the ground, and also we used a wall/cafe trip as a "safe" (we know lots of the staff, it's fairly low pressure) place to get out of the house in the early days regardless of how much we did. We had unlimited passes still at that point so volume achieved wasn't too important.
- by most measures Ali was quite active (climbing, circus, etc) prior to getting pregnant, was fairly active during pregnancy and had a fairly uncomplicated experience giving birth which meant that she was probably towards one end of the spectrum as far as post-natal recovery went.

She did a (single) route outside on toprope after about 6 weeks, and we went bouldering outside over Easter which was at about 10 weeks?

In reply to AJM:

Thanks very much to you both for sharing. Gathering data to inform future decisions and the idea of X months out seems unbearable, so nice to hear about people keeping active until the third trimester and getting back to something (even if light) relatively quickly.

In reply to Just Tintin:

Ali's last climbing trip was to Spain in mid-October (just over 3 months beforehand), but a certain amount of that was a dislike of climbing in the dank UK autumn after the glories of Montserrat. That trip was a fair amount of walking and multipitch climbing (combined with fairly active tourist walking) and that (relatively high) activity level was just about on the right side of the line as far as tiring goes.

We did keep doing other outdoorsy stuff (walking, essentially) after that. My guess is that the last month to 6 weeks was when she started to find things tougher and start to noticeably want to slow the pace down a bit.

In reply to AJM:
I read an article about a woman who ran a marathon (in around 6 hours I think) on her due date. But she had run a lot of marathons in her time before becoming pregnant.
Ruth definitely felt pretty tired by 38 weeks (largely shortness of breath from compressed lungs, and the extra weight) but she was still fine walking as long as we didn't go too fast.
I talked to her at length about this and we concluded that exercise within the bounds of what you normally do is possible (and good) well into pregnancy, but starting something new is likely a non starter.

Ultimately though this is obviously different for everyone, like what comes afterwards...

Edit: this was the article. It was actually a week before her due date. She still beat her bloke! The baby obviously decided it was time to get out though.

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/jun/16/experience-went-into-l...

In reply to Si dH:

I had to stop cycling at about 5-6 months, mainly cos my bike is a tourer with a crossbar so getting on and off wasn't ideal, and my knees were hitting the bump when I cycled. Walking was ok with the same breath proviso. Afterwards it was hard to do much exercise at all for a while cos D2 was an emergency Cesarean, which totally wrecks your stomach muscles. The battering my abdominal muscles went through with two kids probably wasn't put right until I started having to really use my core then I started climbing 10 years ago!

In reply to Si dH and hms:

Thanks both (and Ruth!)

In reply to Dandan:


Cheers, late update this week as I have been up north with the kids, anyway last week went as follows;

Monday, 1km lunchtime swim

Tuesday, 1km lunchtime swim and 7.3km evening run

Wednesday, 1km lunchtime swim

Thursday, 15km cycle, 1km lunchtime swim

Friday, 15km cycle, 1km lunchtime swim and 15km cycle home again.

Saturday, 9.5km run

Sunday, rest

In reply to Just Tintin:

I've obviously no direct personal experience of this but a few years ago I was feeling very pleased with myself having redpointed L'Ob Session (7c+). My regular climbing partner mentioned she needed to get back to lead it having only top roped it in a oner. After a fair amount of gloating from me (it was rare indeed that I did a route before her) I eventually asked her why she hadn't redpointed it, "oh, I was seven and a half months pregnant when I top roped it and didn't really feel like it". That shut me up