UKC

Just a placeholder as I am away until tomorrow.  I should load up by early afternoon on Monday.

Hi all, hope you've had a good week. Looking forward to tomorrow's stats!

A good week from me, a bit of holiday bouldering and a proposal.

Last Week:

M - Rest. Weigh in at 77.1kg.

T - Carn Brea. Did Classic Arete (V2), slapped about on Snoopy (V7) but was a bit warm and short of time. Then had a lot of ice cream. Curiously weighed after at 78.7kg, hah! Then got engaged with my lovely fiancée.

W - Rest.

T - Holywell Bay. Neat venue. Surprisingly brilliant quality rock around the cave entrance, but the sand level was almost 2m lower than in the pictures, so things got a bit high, and the jump start project requires a stepladder! The prow was a cool feature but the rock is a bit snappy, as I found out to my own demise.

F - Rest. Brief dip in the cold sea.

S - Rest.

S - Rest.

Next Week:

M - Max hangs.

T - Rest.

W - Rigpa. A mate is keen on the trav so I'm going in for a low expectation play around.

T - Rest.

F - Rest.

S, S - Bouldering, likely a quick local hit unless I can get my car working or get a lift.

Goals:

Bulletproof fingers.

Crikey, I hope FC MC doesn't imply best man duties!  Many congratulations ❤️ to you and your lovely fiancée - a special holiday for you both. 😍

Congratulations Ross!

Monday - 3x10 chin-ups

Tuesday - nothing

Wednesday - wall with miniAJM. Ok session although at the same time I feel a bit like climbing indoors is the place my hamstring is aggravated most. Much faff with kiddie bedtime followed by some pushups, 20,20,19

Thursday - open hand pickups, to 30kg this time, plus 2x20 pushups

Friday - rest

Saturday - dws! Cave hole for the high tide. Not the best conditions if I’m honest but did a bunch of repeats including a bit of an on-off first go repeat of Bare Reputation (E4 6b) which has a bouldery crux on crimps and then some steep pulls on flatties to really get the pump going. Then a bunch of foot-elevated pushups in the evening

Sunday - an admin day, did a lap of the park with microAJM on her balance bike and then in the evening some 2-finger pickups. Not my finest session on those in terms of achievement but I was pulling hard and that’s hopefully what counts.

I can’t help thinking this should have had more than a passing mention if this was a marriage proposal! Congratulations

Thanks all for the congratulations

Hah, yes, it might be worth more than a passing mention, but it's not gonna get these fingers any stronger

Congratulations Ross & Lucy :-D 

Posting before the stats as i don't anticipate having more than a few minutes between work calls today and tomorrow.

Week 24

M – Travelling to Rotterdam. No hotel gym, so ended up going for a run. A RUN!?! ~5km @5min/km but with various stops for photo opportunities. 200 crunchies in sets of 50.

T – Early start and late finish travelling home from Rotterdam. Shin and thigh DOMS.

W – Board. Too warm to try hard and lost layers of skin.  Managed a few 7B/+. 4x5 axle DL @105kg (5th set got missed off dealing with IT woes in prep for important job interview for my wife).

T – Burnt off nervous energy while my wife had the interview by pulling hard on the BM2K central slot. Turns out my fingers are way strong enough to hold it with one arm, but resisting the rotation is the crux. I topped out at BW+8kg on the L and BW+6.5kg on the R hand, but with 2kg assist from a pulley to keep me stable. Tidy :-D

F – Rest.

S – Gorge. Warmed up with the new 6c and then went bolt to bolt on the project extension. At this point my partner had to bail as his daughter had taken a tumble at soft play. Thankfully there were plenty of visitors and locals an I managed to get a belay for a subsequent working go and a successful FA redpoint 😊 Devil's Advocate (7c) has a tasty little blind cross-through crux.

S – Nowt. Lazy whatsit.

Congrats Ross.

In case anyone has wondered, yes I still lurk on here....

What is an open hand pickup (sounds intriguing)? Is this similar to a using a pinch block?

Similar to a pinch block, yes - I've got a stack of weights on the ground that I'm lifting up with one hand.

I made something that's basically 2 different size edges (a smaller more incut one on one side and a larger one with a more rounded profile on the other), on some backing ply with a cord attachment point, and I'm doing a 2-finger open hand hold on that edge to lift the weights up.

First picture here, basically, but on a more homebrew edge!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CZmgB9uorTV/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fit club is a rich community with posters sharing their goals, noting successes and failures and offering support to those struggling to maintain motivation. Anyone interested in starting is very welcome to join, but to get the most of UKC fit club you should aim to post each week, every week, however little or much you have done. By making such a regular public record of your activities and by restating your goals every week this new habit will hopefully improve your training habits and drive you towards achieving your goals whatever the level of your chosen activity.

Link to last week’s thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/fit_club_795-748507

Sorry for the late posting.  Internet has been off since I go back home, so I’ve been scratching around to get work prepared for tomorrow with the challenge of a lack of online access.  Posts are much shorter this week as I’ve not had my usual facilities for a more considered reply.  Undoubtedly, this is a blessing!

Stats:

Liam P:  ‘Still taking it easy’??  Not sure that was obvious from the reported stats!  Max hangs at 23 kg looks pretty good to me and a good set on Sunday on pull strength and stamina.  The return to the campus board looks really positive and reminds me that I still haven’t had a go at this – possibly something to introduce next winter if I can drag myself to a wall with the necessary facilities!

Sheep: A good solid return to things following your break.  Perhaps that shows the power of resting?  The swims look really good – I can’t stand pools so I haven’t done any swimming for years, but did used to enjoy it at one point.  Great for all round fitness!  Running going well and the prospects of a bit more cycling in the mix has got to be useful.

SteveJC94:  Fairly positive news from the consultant I guess, though the MRI will tell all.  At least you can still use it, so that has to be a bonus.  Some useful cycling miles on the list this week and good to see some Dovedale trad being ticked.  Yew Tree Wall is lovely.  There is quite a lot of decent stuff in Dovedale, but you have to move around a bit to get the best from the place.  Last time I looked, so reasonable routes were grown over, so the lack of traffic is having an impact in places.  Forecast looks okay for the weekend, so hope to see some good things done in Wales.

Ross Barker:  Max hangs looking strong as the BM1K lower edge isn’t massive.  Good to find some bouldering to keep up the work on those fingers.  Hope that you manage to both enjoy the holiday and get some worthwhile problems done while away.  Of course, you can always call at the bog walls on the way back past Bristol – I think it will make you wonder why you drove all that way to Newquay when you could have camped in the car park alongside the A4!

Randy:  Some great bouldering at the gym and solid on the pull ups as well, particularly if 5x10 is feeling surprisingly easy.  I always find that pull up capability declines really quickly if you miss them out, so you have a good base level going there.  Good results on the strength tests though you’ve some work to do on open hand (as have I!).  Shame to get a hamstring problem – I am prone to these if I fail to stretch before a session.

The outdoor session looks like a normal session for someone who hasn’t been on the rock much.  I always think that walls don’t really help with actual climbing, though they do help stamina.  Just get some mileage in and the flow will return quite quickly.  Going on something to hard when you haven’t done a lot can be a bit depressing!

Great and detailed advice on Frankenjura training!  A bit more specific than my impressions.

JayK :  Good to hear that the board has been so successful in terms of visible results, even though it sounds as if it arrived too late to help with the original lockdowns.  You certainly seem to be using it plenty with several sessions a week at the core of your training.  Good runs included in the mix as well. 

Great to get so close to the first 8A in six years.  That really is an impressive milestone to (nearly) hit.

Steve Claw:  Pleased to hear that the injury didn’t translate into too much of an issue. – at least it didn’t stop another couple of bunched up climbing days!  A very decent day of routes at Avon and good work trying to get the project dialled – easier beta has got to help if it is at the top of an endurance project.  Also work on a new 7b+, so chapeau for finding all of these.

SSB: I’m not sure my kids would have forgiven me yet if I had missed out on the crawl.  It was always a bit of a family routine that we used to do to persuade them that a walk would be a good idea!

Great progress on the Blackwell Dale stuff – going from ‘impossible’ to ‘done all the moves’ in one session is quick learning.  I don’t know the routes, though I remember messing about on some steep stuff about 40 years ago.  I am clearly too old for this, as ‘steady’ and 70km on a bike shouldn’t be in the same sentence, but I guess it is what exercise you are familiar with – sounds pretty tough to me.

Lastly, it does look like work will generally settle on Tuesdays and Wednesdays for a while now.  I do tend to fix up my climbing days during the weekend prior to each week, so normally can’t change plans without a bit of notice.  However, if you do get keen on Cratcliffe or other trad stuff, then let me know when would work.  Evenings could be workable at times.

Alan: Great to make a start on the Kaly campaign – nice to have something to aim for at the back end of things.  It also sounds like you have hit the Beastmaker hard (possibly too hard given your later post?) over the last week.  I think the head thing sounds very familiar to me – I just need to climb within myself until my focus is on the moves, rather that the falls!  Anyway, very sorry to hear that the shoulder issue is bad enough to cancel your trip and hope that it recovers fairly quickly.

Ger_the_Gog:  Sudden disappearances are taken in our stride, but good to see you back pounding out the miles and with apparently good results.  I quite like the idea of doing the same route as a training route so that you can measure progress along the way.  Mind you, that might go backwards with the very hot weather that we have had of late!  Good to have a target hill in mind as a nice reward for the local training effort.

Biscuit:  Impressive work at Kilnsey as I don’t think you have been doing much sport lately (?).  Going on things that are Kilnsey steep is a bit of a transition from the Lakeland trad that has made up your recent outings.  More trad at Tremadoc with some good routes in the mix, as well as the challenges sorting out the gear – always nice when a route is tamed by a bit of lateral thinking.  Impressed that you fitted in a walk to take advantage of some indifferent weather by the sound of it.

Still up for Friday 24th, but forecast looking increasingly unreliable…  A watching brief I reckon.

Ally: I like the British Cycling levels of attention to detail with the skin conditioning!  How are the callouses developing?

Good work at Moat Buttress.  A very long while since I have visited (when it was originally opened up).  I remember breaking lots of holds and not being that keen on the apparently shoddy rock, but I guess years of traffic may have stabilised things.  It is funny how the easier in theory (6c+) routes can often feel harder that the ones that you know will need a real effort.  Some pretty good numbers on the pull ups – how big are the rough edges?

Tom Green:  The run is (once again) a stand-out from your holiday week!  40 km is a decent way by any stretch and I’d be glad to shuffle half that distance, especially as the terrain sounds really hard work!  A very positive take on what sounds like a challenging day anyway.  Great to get to a new and rarely visited crag – not that many make the trek to Ravenscar.  Good to hear that the ‘must visit’ venues are still on the plan and that you are looking to get on a few when working in the relevant areas.

AJM:  Not a bad quiet week though the absence of stretching is noted!  Nonetheless, some good ticking of stuff at the wall accomplished.  Hopefully, things are returning to normality after the holiday and the training plan for Frankenjura can proceed, suitably informed by Randy’s top tips!  I thought his descriptions were really interesting, though I’m not sure it made me want to go there.

Sudden disappearances (see above) - Tyler and Planet Marshall - -hope all good with you both.

Hope I have got everyone?  Responding this week wasn't my normal method, so there is always a chance I've missed someone or something...

Thanks once again Derek for the amount of thought & attention you're clearly putting into the weekly write up. The shoulder has eased a bit after a week of rest, from catastrophic to merely worse than usual, but I'm going to be very wary of climbing on it until I've seen our local climbing orthopaedist. Meanwhile temperatures in Saxony hit close to forty yesterday, so chalkless sandstone may not have been all that much fun anyway. Do definitely want to get up there at some point though.

In addition to the stuff noted here I've done 20 to 30 minutes of shoulder rehab exercises every day. Firmly slamming that stable door shut.

STG: Get my shoulders working again
MTG: Autumn Kalymnos trip with my son, shoulders permitting
MTG: Winter 22/23 - do an actual off piste ski tour
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M:    Right shoulder suddenly acutely painful if I try to lift my arm above horizontal. No idea what triggered this - I've had some impingement issues for years but up until today they've always been mild & manageable. Cancelled Elbsandstein trip
T:    
W:    
T:    Bike 3 hours in the woods.
F:    About an hour pootling around town on the bike on errands
S:    
S:    Thirty five degrees. Loaded my rucksack up with water bottles - not as training weight - and went hillwalking. Chose the Ammergau Hochplatte pretty much by sticking a pin in a map at breakfast, and it turns out to be one of the most scenic alpine hikes I've ever done - although you'll have to take my word for that since it didn't seem worth stopping to take pictures of heat haze. 

It occurs to me to wonder if the bike might have triggered or exacerbated my shoulder flare-up. Every previous bike I've had had drop handlebars or old style mtb bars with horns, both of which allow a neutral shoulder position. My current bike has straight bars that force the shoulder into internal rotation. Do mountain bikers have shoulder impingement issues like climbers do? Or are any problems in that area masked by their broken collarbones?
 

A very quiet week for me.  

Managed a session on Sunday of five sets of max hangs repeaters using Si DH's method of 3/6/9 - it is an interesting experiment and a change of stress.  Push ups (12s) and pull ups (pyramid) - 5 sets of each.

Climbed on Monday at Crowden Great Quarry.  That was an experience.  Two recent enormous rockfalls make the place seem a bit temporary.  Did four routes with some effort to avoid the areas within touching distance of the bad bits.  An exercise in careful climbing and was not at all inclined to push things.  Enjoyed the climbs once up them.  Not sure I would go back.

Tuesday work

Wed Fly to Guernsey.

Thursday - climbed at Gull Zawn and Icart.  Did the island's premier E1 https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/gull_zawn-3868/after_the_gold-rush... and https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/crags/gull_zawn-3868/rock_of_ages-66993 - both were great though the first had a hard and serious start.

Then escaped the incoming tide and didEpiphany (HVS 5a), by which time the temperature was debilitating.  Great to get some island classics done though.

Did a few miles of coastal walking on the one damp day we had.

Thanks for posting this week's thread, Derek. I hope you had a good weekend break.

It was a real scorcher here last week so I took it easier than the previous two weeks training, which were quite intense (for me). I managed a couple of maintenance outings though and swung the weights around a bit. The highlight was yesterday's outing though. More on that below...

Mon:

13kg dumbbells: shoulder press, 3x10. Arm curls, 3x10.

20kg dumbbells: bent over rows, 3x10.

Tues:

5km local crosscountry circuit, 209m ascent, 22lb pack. All walking.

Weds:

Rest.

Thurs:

8km local crosscountry circuit, 319m ascent, 22lb pack. All walking.

Friday:

13kg dumbbells: shoulder press, 3x10. Arm curls, 3x10.

20kg dumbbells: bent over rows, 3x10.

Sat:

Rest.

Sun:

Elidir Fawr from Nant Peris, short loop. 10.17km, 831m ascent, 15lb pack. Went much better than I feared it might. 1:40 to the summit, direct. Plenty left in the tank & legs. Not bad for an old fat lad. Next time we're going on to Glyder Fawr. Finished off with a pint in the Vaynol. A fantastic afternoon.

https://i.postimg.cc/6qxPFpVT/IMG-20220619-145808970-2.jpg

Yes my bad - though there wasn't much done previous week other than visiting the physio and a couple of Peak Lime routes

• Tut's Anomalous (E1 5b) - felt daft for falling off this - faffed around putting some extra gear in that wasn't really necessary then a foot slipped and I couldn't hold the position. Pulled myself together and did it second go.
• Yew Tree Wall (E1 5c) - enjoyed this though the crux is quite a reach for me. Are all those in-situ threads really necessary? It seemed perfectly protectable on lead, but I guess as the threads are mentioned as such in the guide then that's that. Seems odd though.

Physio thinks the shoulder is basically fine, that is not damaged just slightly irritated probably by the long drive to Lewis (and back). There is a longstanding muscular imbalance though which was immediately obvious to the physio just by looking at it. So new medium term goal is to take steps to address this.

Last Week
---------------

Thursday

Preempting another trip to the physio in a few weeks time and have started doing some unilateral shoulder exercises to address the imbalance. Starting with single arm standing shoulder press. Still doing the deadlifts and front-squats but will probably ditch one of these in favour of shoulder work for the next 2-3 months.

Saturday

• Megaton (E1 5a) at  Pillar. Struggling to give this route its 3 stars, it was dirty and the bold second pitch is a bit contrived. Comparing it to other 3 star routes I've done in the Lakes, say Nimrod (E1 5c) and Central Buttress (E1 5b) and it's just not in the same league. Enjoyable though and nice to climb somewhere new.
• Soloed Slab and Notch Climb (M) because it was there

Sunday

Was meant to be another day at Pillar but the crag was wreathed in clag for much of the morning. Some optimistic souls were walking up from the valley but there wasn't much psyche among our party, myself included. Better conditions lower down but by that point most had gone home - should have brought my bouldering mat! (but then I'm supposed to be taking it relatively easy).

Next Week
---------------

• At least 2 strength and conditioning sessions focussing on unilateral shoulder exercises.
• At least 2 trad leads at E1 or above. Would like to do some more peak lime but depends on partner availability.

Thanks Derek for the stats and no problem with the delay of posting them. You are probably right, for a first outdoor session i could probably not expect much more. Managed to two outdoor sessions in last week due a public holiday in Germany and they wen't much better.

Recap last week:

Mon: L-Sit 2x10s; handstand against the wall, 2x8 pike pushups,  2x12 bodyweight squats, 30 pushups and 30s V-Sit Up; left out the lunges but kept in some squats to test the leg and it was feeling fine, so i probably got lucky and just tweaked it a bit last week.

Tues: Another gym bouldering session. Still felt quite tired from Sunday but somehow managed to get two boulders done that i could not sent last session and managed to send two 6b/6b+ boulders.

Wed: Rest

Thurs: Outdoor climbing at  Amphitheater. Did Rotphase (6b) onsight as warmup which felt suprisingly easy. Then tried to onsightStressechokardiogramm (6c) and fell on the last hard move of the first crux after going for the wrong beta. Blew the last move before the anker on the second go, resulting in a nice 25 feet fall. Then my foot slipped on the third go in the bottom half till i finally kept it together and it sent it on the 4th Go despite many beta mistakes. Finished the session by taking a quick look Gladiator (7c+), a steep roof followed by a nasty Offwidth crack. Made it relatively easy through the first 2/3  roof going bolt to bolt, and then could not do the crux at the end of roof, though it did not felt far off. Decided to call it a day and don't try the offwidth, to the disappointment of my belayer. Definately a route to come back to.

Fri: Rest

Sa: Another outdoor session, but this time not in Frankenjura but in the bavarian alps at the  Kochel. Felt quite tired at my warmup already and the condition were also not great (~27°C). Repeated Tigerwäsche (VII+) (6b+) on the 2. Go after missing a crucial hold on the crux in the first Go. Repeated Die heilige Dreifaltigkeit (VIII+) (6c) which felt easier than the 6b+ but was probably more my style. Tried Feuchtes Loch (VIII-) (7a) afterwards, a short hard bouldery route. Gave it 4 tries but could not stick the crux move when coming from the ground, a hard lockoff to an undercling pocket.

Sun: L-Sit 2x15s; handstand against the wall, 2x8 pike pushups, 12 lunges  2x12 bodyweight squats, 30 pushups and 30s V-Sit Up; 

Continued to improve this week, though i can slowly feel the volume of the last weeks. Most important was that i lead head is started to come back. I still was not 100% comfortable, when i was standing above a bolt, but i could commit anyways and also collected some airtime. Hopefully i can get another outdoor session in next week on saturday, though weather forecast is currently mixed. Afterwards i will be traveling back to india on Sunday for another 3 week trip (at least it is now as hot in Munich as in Chennai).

Thanks for the info. Something I was thinking of making myself!

Much appreciated 

Hi Team. Thanks for the stats, Derek. And glad to hear you got sorted for some Guernsey climbing.

A good week for me, although had the conundrum of training vs having fun... Each week at the moment I seem to be putting off strength work and fingerboarding because I'm either tired from the 'real thing' or don't want to be tired for the real thing! I don't really have a solution, as I'm obviously not going to deprioritise the good stuff just to train... do I try and do double session days to avoid detraining fingers etc? Or do I just sack structured training off until it's rainy season?!

Week 24:

M: Fingerboard. Shoulder and elbow prehab.

T: Rest (well kinda! Alpine start/finish for work).

W: Solo/bouldering at Wainstones. Ticked another off the local to-do list Sphinx Nose Traverse (S 4a) then some nice boulder problems up to f6A+. (Too nice for the scheduled fingerboard and TRX!)

T: Hill walk and trad. Solo link up of Lakes classics: Gillercombe Buttress (S 4a) (absolutely brilliant) then loop around Gable and GlaraMara to Corvus (D) (what a pile of crap -the stars and positive comments must surely be the result of some sort of mass delusion/hypnosis?). 20km, 1700m vert. Had initially planned to run, but knees felt tweaky after big miles last week.

F: Rest. Think I may have done some prehab? Or maybe not!

S: Solo/bouldering at Scuggy. Got another of my local must-does with The Prow (E1 5a) as well as lots of easy mileage up to VS.

S: Bouldering at Park Nab. My third local must-do tick with the utterly brilliant The Lion King (HVS 5c) -took a lot of up-and-downing before I felt able to commit, especially without spotters/hecklers. Pretty delighted to get this one done.

Week 25:

M: Short run.

T: Climbing.

W: Long run.

T: Climbing.

F: Climbing.

S: Prehab.

S: Fingerboard, strength, prehab.

STG -end June:

Arc en ciel -TICK!

Ultra distance hill run. (Almost! 2km short on my McPhies run!)

Eight of my big mountain day list (at least two on consecutive days). (3/8)

Keep injury free (elbows, hips and knees).

MTG -end Sept:

Two big alpine routes.

2022 Arbitrary training goals:

Weighted Pull-up: 100kg.

Max Hangs: 95kg.

Weighted hill climb: 2 laps of RT in 30 mins with 15kg.

2022 Climbing goals:

7a (Possibly one of: Arc en Ciel, The Jim Grin, Rock & Roll, Clink) -TICK!

ALL of my local must-do list: 4/15

Visit at least five of my 'why haven't I climbed here' list: 1/5

Get at least one session at each of my 'I should climb more at this crag' list: 0/8

Start properly getting to know: Brimham 2/3, Almscliff 2/3, Caley 0/3, Slipstones 2/3.

(For lists see FitClub 772)

At least two big, classic alpine goals.

I found it quite useful as a mini crag warmup tool, for bouldering in particular - it's useful if there aren't any particularly good warmups near the problem I want to try or more generally if the rock is sharp it's a way to get the fingers going without losing skin. I use it either with a thick stretchy band or a sling round a spike or my foot or something in that context 

I also like it as an alternative for a fingerboard - more customisable for lower loads (I'm doing 25-30kg per side with these 2 finger hangs, which would imply a pretty hefty counterweight if I tried to hang that at bodyweight, and doing it with monos would be outright unfeasible) and also I can do this when my shoulders might not necessarily be up for heavily weighted hangs.

Yes, fair cop on the stretching!

Frankenjura is great. Pleasant rolling countryside, brewery in every village, good cakes, Tom's of rest day cultural opportunities, generally fairly friendly crag surrounds for the children, accessible walk-ins, great rock, thousands of routes...

OK - sounds good, though cakes are not on my diet plan!  The routes do sound very specific in style though - tough on the fingers and difficult for the feet!

I am the same during the summer. Just make hay while the sun shines! The finger board can always wait til it's raining. 

Thanks man! That’s the permission I needed! 

I've decided that tomorrow evening I'll grab my pad and wander over to a bouldering spot that's 10 minutes from home: Goldilocks Boulders just off the A5 neat Bethesda. I'm not sure how I'll get on, or even if I'll identify the correct lines, but there's a video of someone doing one of the V2 problems (Jaws) on YouTube so I can at least have a crack at it, even if I can't get my arse off the mat (sitting start). Hah, should be a giggle. 

Thanks for the stats Derek. Having never been to Dovedale before, I was very impressed - though some gardening skills to access the routes would have come in handy! 

Last week:

M - HB Max (6 x 10s on a 20mm edge at 90%[BW+16kg]), then a boulder pyramid

T - Rest day

W - 10 hard problems on the woody up to 7A+. 3 x 10 push ups; 3 x 10 dips; 5 x 5 pull ups; 3 x 20 Russian Twists; 3 x 20 toe touch crunches. 

T - Rest day

F - Rest day

S/S - Reasonably dry but cold weather. Took a few friends out on their first day multipitching, with highlights including Brant Direct (HVS 5a), Phantom Rib (VS 4c) and bumping into Mark 'Zippy' Pretty on the Superdirect (HVS 5a) belay ledge.

Quite a light week planned:

M - Campusing and boulder triples

T - Zone 3 bike ride

W - Rest & shoulder MRI

T - Boulder 4x4s

F - Rest

S/S - Up in Newcastle for a friends Stag Do so not a lot of training will be taking place! 

Congrats Ross, a great way to round off the holiday!

Cheers Derek, and congratulations Ross!

Nippers’ first birthday this week so lots of party preps, hosting and baby wrangling. Managed to squeeze in a few short sessions.

Tue

Fingers

• Max Hang 20mm4FD 5x 7s (23.5kg)

Wed

Leg Rehab

• RDL 5x 8 (50kg)
• Calf Raises 3x 38
• Leg Extension 5x 15 (L/R 10kg/BW)
• Box Stepups 5x 15 (BW)
• Leg Press 5x 15 (L/R 35kg/5kg)
• Wipers (Bent Leg) 3x 10

Fri

Pull Strength

• Weighted Pull-ups 4x 5/6/8 @ 27kg/16kg/5kg

Have a good week!

Thanks Derek, 'steady' as in not too fast rather than not too far!  I can do tues evening next week for cratcliffe?  I could be at the parking for 4pm ish?  I'll text you.  I don't know how much sun it gets, hopefully it won't be too hot.

Mon. Rest.

Tues. Return to Stoney to lead Scarab (E6 6b).  It all went smoothly despite the fact it was very warm and a bit greasy and I was left feeling a bit hollow for having preplaced the gear.  It’s done now though and I’d rather get on something new than go back to place three wires on lead!  Thought about an attempt at Bitterfingers, made various excuses about the heat/daylight/tired then decided against it and toproped All Systems Go E6 6c instead.  Managed it in one go to the top break but need to suss the (much easier) top crack out.  Its both harder and bolder than Scarab… but still E6.  Gotta love English trad grades!

Wed. 5km run.

Thurs. rest.

Fri.  Braved the heat for a session at Lees Bottom.  I think my fingers might need a deload week.  I struggled to get warmed up and never really felt good. I did Under the Greenwood Tree Right Hand 7C in two sections from standing but struggled with the start which isn’t supposed to be the hard bit.  Watched some videos when back home and it looks like it starts further left than where I was which is a relief!  Warmed down on Sweet cheeks (f7A) which is a link up of things I’ve done before but I couldn’t remember how to do them so it still took a bit of working.  Left feeling utterly trashed.

Sat. 5km run.

Sun. rest.

Not sure what to do this week.  Maybe some easy soloing to keep the fingers moving but allow some proper recovery.  The last few weeks I’ve had a lot of long and really intensive sessions and I think my forearms need some continuous low intensity work to clear everything out properly.

Cheers Derek, im lucky that the pool at work (Uni) doesn't get very busy so most lunchtimes i have a lane to myself, there is the added bonus of a hot top, steam room and sauna    Had a good week which went as follows;

Monday, 1km lunchtime swim, 7.5 k trail run with the wife whilst our youngest was swim training. Actually saw a badger whilst we were out. First time I have seen a live one out in the wild!

Tuesday, 15k ride into work, 1km lunchtime swim and then the same ride home again. Got home to find eldest's swim training was cancelled due to the coach having Covid. Drove back into work with her so she could do her set in the Uni pool, knocked out another km myself.

Wednesday, 1km lunchtime swim

Thursday, stomach upset, everything just went straight through me all morning. No activity

Friday, afternoon booked off so spent a lovely time at Stoney Cove open water swimming with the eldest daughter. Spotted peregrine falcons on the cliffs and little grebes carrying their babies on there backs. Really lovely time in the sun. Total distance of 1,5km 

Saturday, swimming cancelled for eldest so back to the uni pool, 1.5km swim. Home to watch Leicester Tigers win the rugby with a few beers 

Sunday, youngest daughters swim cancelled so again back to the pool at work, anoth 1km swim in too.

This week will be a lot less swim centric as the pool at work is closed due to lack of chlorine!

Thank you Derek,

A good week of climbing and out having fun.

M - Went to Brean to have another go on the 7c new route project I was working the week before.  Went for a tactical approach, secretly knowing that I often have the most strength on the first burn.  Quick coffee and some Kendal mint cake, I went up saying it just a warm up, got the half way break (which is a no hands rest).  Feeling good, I got my partner to pass up the clip-stick to put the 2 quickdraws in the crux, then blasted through it before I had a chance to feel tired.  For something I struggled with for a while, it was all rather straightforward in the end.  May be its only 7b+?

T - Nothing

W - Easy day in the Mendips with a friend, finishing with a quick TR of the local test piece Possessed by Smaug's Wife (E5 6a), which it definitely tech 6b and I got first go!

T - More Mendip fun. Cleaned, bolted and climbed a 7a in the heat. Also climbed a 6b and a 6c.

F - Too hot 

S+S Camping with the family

Well that was me completely intimidated by that V2 boulder problem then. To the point that I didn't pull very hard. It kicked my arse before I even tried it. I did get my arse of the mat but my fingers felt soft as cheese on the sharp, starting right-hand hold.

That said, I had a chuckle. A pity chuckle, but a chuckle never the less. I need to get some time in on easier problems and revisit this one again in a few months. Need to toughen these soft fingers up big style!

That made me chuckle!  Worth getting your movement going on something a bit easier?

Haha, yes indeed Derek. That was a big reminder of how only time on the rock can prepare you for time on the rock. I'm chuffed to bits with my fitness, strength and weight loss progress over the past few months but I'm gonna need to be getting my mitt's around something bigger than that for a bit (actress, Bishop?).

It was nice to get out in the woods though. A lovely spot. It looked recently climbed too.

Edit:

It was this problem (someone else's video, if that needs saying, hah.)

youtube.com/watch?v=aMqEAOQSdes&

Didn't spot that lower starting foothold for the left foot. Sharp as ever.

Couple of busy work weeks now until it all calms down for summer.

Monday

Board session 60 mins (felt crap - finger with flapper hurting) (this has now healed up)

Tuesday 

Run (10k)

Wednesday

Nothing - working all evening. 

Thursday 

AM 10min stretch

PM Nothing - working in the evening.

Friday

AM 10min stretch

PM football. Jarred my ankle which has now swollen up.

Saturday

AM 15min stretch

Warm up on board

Max hangs (assisted 1 arm). 3 reps each arm with -10kg x 3 sets. Felt tough, but useful.

Sunday 

Run (10k)

Congratulations Ross!

Who asked who?

Thanks Derek. Kilnsey steep suits me. It's the terrifying teetering about on sabs above gear that I find really hard.

I am trying to keep my sport head in (and with recent weather have been doing more than I wanted really. Either 7a onsights or 7b in a day are the goals - hence Something Stupid and 50 for 5.

M - Run - 30 min, Knee rehab, shoulder rehab

T - Langcliffe - tried 7b in a day In the Line of Duty (7b). A bonkers route, but bonkers in a good way. Very hard to read and techy. Super thin slabby moves, a dynamic double thumb sprag and a half pad finger lock. Very fun. 4 goes up it to figure the beta but I had a tweaky A4 that throughout the day progressed to a bit ore than a tweak so I didn't go for the send.

W - knee and shoulder rehab

T - rest

F - Supposed to be trad but had to go to my mum's in Manchester. Spent the day emptying her garage (it's a VERY full garage), dragging an old freezer out, putting a new freezer in and then refilling the garage on a gloriously warm perfect high crag climbing day.

S - Shoulder and knee rehab

S - Langdale - the plan was Gimmer String (E1 5b) and then Spring Bank (E2 5c) and/or Equus (E2 5c). Got to the crag, very windy, started raining. People were talking about making the best of it and dropping the grade and doing VS in the drizzle etc. I had a tantrum and waked all the way back out again.  Went to  Raven Crag (Walthwaite) and seconded Protus (HVS 5a) (great route) and then led Deuterus (E1 5b). I obviously got the tricky start wrong as I think I did two consecutive 6a moves. I will be a glass half full person and say that it's a positive that I did some hard moves on the lead, rather than dwell on the fact that I couldn't solve the puzzle.

I ate/drank a lot that weekend too. Father's day and two meals out. I have been pretty good recently so it shouldn't have caused too much damage.

Did you see Keith Sharples re-climbed his retro-bolted E5 6b at the new grade of (hard) 7b+ the other week? That'd be a shock for an onsight. 

All good with me and thank you for remembering me. I’ve no excuse for not posting other than I’ve been busy but at the same time doing nothing, meaning I’ve been out lots but not in a structured way. I’ve had a few trips to the Orme pottering around on easy sport, and did the The Snowdon Horseshoe (Summer) (Grade-1) with my wife which had been on her bucket list for ages so that was great to do and I don’t remember the scrambling up Lliwedd being so good but that would be a nice trip up on its own. Similarly, last Monday I did Daear Ddu Ridge (Grade-1) after work which I didn’t even know was a thing but turns out to be nearly as good as some of the classic Lake District scrambles. Weekend was family time in the Lakes but I did manage a couple of very sweaty 6km runs on the hotel treadmill.  
One other thing that’s slowed me down are my injuries, knees seem to be getting worse (note to self, chase up consultant), I’ve failed to address my golfers elbow so that’s deteriorated and out of nowhere a shoulder injury has appeared. 

Great to see you back, injured or not 😁

Was that one of the Chee Tor routes?  Kristian recently cleaned up and bolted an old neglected E5 of Gary's that we think never got a second ascent and gave it 7c!

Yes those were the ones. Grades were tough back in the day!