UKC

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

Link to last week’s thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_815-7535...

Derek Furze: Good stuff, a bit of routine should be ideal for quality training. Keep it up!

Somerset swede basher: Great wet weather outings! Must've been a pretty hard move on that 7c+ to shut you down - reckon it might have shed some holds?

AlanLittle: Another solid week in terms of training volume, I can definitely imagine you'll be seeing some good results come spring if you keep it going. I'm not au fait with ski training, is there a decent bit of crossover with that and your MTB?

Ally Smith: Ergh, C14, proper minging. Strong board scenes this week. I reckon someone must've turned the gravity down a bit

biscuit: Sounds like a decent week, opening the account on a couple hard lines up at Trowbarrow. Red wall routes are so pumpy despite being relatively short in stature! Best of luck getting mad strong for the cruxy project.

Randy: Nice week getting back into the swing of things - nothing too intense but decent volume. Hope you're fully up to fighting form soon enough.

SteveJC94: Hah, I think I must be quite good at deciding if a problem suits me before I even try it! Interesting pre-Lattice stats. Is that box-split measuring from the outside of the foot? I just measured at 87% and don't consider myself flexible (but long-legged), so should be able to get some quick gains there.

Tom Green: Same as for SSB, excellent rainy day aiding! Any particular plan on finishing off Velvet Pelmet, or just seiging it until you stick the last move?

AJM: Leg woes! At what point will you just cut the thing off? Jokes aside, hope you've found a bit of psyche to start a training routine for the rest of the body, and that leg rehab is as effective as possible.

Steve Claw: E5 slab in holey shoes equates to about E7 I reckon, good work. Bizarre elbow behaviour, hope it's back to normal with no issues. I had a similar thing last year where I just had a weird twang doing a pullup, thought I'd done something major, but it cleared up after a couple days.

Tyler: Sorry to hear the illness is refusing to budge. I presume it's just general coldy sniffly fatigued symptoms? Good to see a toprope session snuck in, especially if you surpassed expectations.

Cheers Ross. El Chorro was good! Nil increase in my onsight grade though, which isn’t surprising seeing as I’m hardly climbing. 28-30c for a few of the days (in November!?) and rained on the last day. If I went again I’d probably go even later in the year.

Sun

Warm up day at Valle de Abdalajis. Probably not the best venue for this as the routes are all featured slabs which you can’t fall off. Highlight was Fasi Terinnal (5c) which had a few good layback moves on a polished flake.

Mon

Lots of faff with food shopping meant we only got to Frontales late in the afternoon. Highlight was the 35m Un Monton de Chatarra (6a) which had a cheeky roof at about 30m. Didn’t really get pumped just out of breath! PE training must be working.

Tue

Forecast was 28c so went to Escalera Arabe really early. Warmed up on the Top 50 Los Timbales (4a) but was dripping in sweat by the top so changed plans. Had a walk up to Poema de Roca (P1) (7a) in the hope it was shaded but was in full sun. I’ve also never seen polish like it. The first holds felt like wet porcelain. Cool sector though with lots of resident swallows and great views.

Wed

Boiling hot again so did the Via Ferrata with comedy zipline.

Thu

Another hot one so drove around to the shaded Desplomilandia. Probably my favourite crag as it seemed a lot less polished than Frontales. Warmed up on the 5c at Desplomilandia then a couple of locals turned up, smoked a massive joint, then projected the 8b+ roof pitch above it - very impressive. They showed us a new 6b+ which was the hardest thing we did all week. Climbed some 6s on the main crag. Highlight was Escacharra (6a) which felt very trad-like with a big layback flake.

Fri

Raining so did a couple routes at the roadside Caliza before it got too wet. Highlight was No mas te (6a+) which was a brilliant 8m Boulder problem incl sidepulls and dyno to a mid-height ledge. Walked the Caminito del Rey which was good, if only to see how scary the 2000-2015 ‘Guerilla Via Ferrata’ on the old decaying path would have been (absolutely terrifying).

Good holiday but wouldn’t rush back. Didn’t find the grades very friendly but may have been the heat/polish. Not an ideal location for onsight mileage.

Back on the training wagon this week!

Thanks Ross and yes, routine is important!

Another decent week, at least in terms of regular training.

Mon went out to Darlton, which had the advantage of never having climbed there.  Did ten routes to 6b+ in damp conditions and can (with relief) say that I won't be going back.  A lot of them were absolutely awful, but probably better than indoors 🙂.

Trained when I got home with five sets of max hangs at 10.1kg on four tips and sixty push ups.

Tues - pull ups.  Single pyramid to 8 so 64 in total. All this while prepping for work.

Wednesday and Thursday - work.

Friday - out to the crag again.  Damp again, so not the conditions for pushing things.  Did six routes to 6a+ before proper rain.

Sat - six sets of max hangs to 11.2kg.  Two sets of 3,6,9 repeaters.  8 sets of fifteen push ups and eight sets of hip stretching.

Hoped to do stuff today, but not well so rested.

Evening all. Feeling decently strong at the moment, shame the bloody rock is too wet!

Didn't get any antagonists in, but managed a decent stretching session.

Last Week:

M - Rest.

T - Rest.

W - Weigh-in at 78.5kg. Moonboard. Managed two low-7 benchmarks, "Feet Cutting Var" and "Battle of The Pudge". Soft, etc, you know the drill. Rest of the session was trying various hard/futuristic/reachy things but nothing complete yet.

T - Rest.

F - Rest.

S - Moonboard. Strong session. Flashed a couple 6B+/C benchmarks, then also "Plastique", "Monday to Monday" and "Smash Dubbed Pick Up". Lower body stretches after dinner.

S - Rest.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Moonboard.

W - Rest.

T - Rigpa if weather and partners line up.

F - Rest.

S, S - Bouldering.

Goals:

Antagonists.

Bulletproof fingers.

Rigpa.

Thanks Ross. I'm hoping the cardio base from MTBing will transfer well to the uphill part of ski touring, and I guess in general it won't be making my legs any weaker. But there's a whole bunch of ski specific leg exercises that I haven't been doing and maybe could be. Will have a think about that. Meanwhile ...

STG: Winter 22/23 - do an actual off piste ski tour
MTG: April Kalymnos trip with my son: tick at least two things from my wishlist
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M:    rest
T:    Stretching & fingerboard
W:  Wall, Thalkirchen. Kilterboard & rings. Not ideal to do this the day after fingerboarding, but I wanted to get a session in today in case my covid jab tomorrow knocks me flat (which - spoiler alert! - it did. See below). And actually had a good session - though sadly no "parent of the kitchen staff" discount on my salad afterwards
    45 minutes bike there & back

T:    Covid booster. Decided that an hour on the bike into town & back didn't count as strenuous exercise
F:    Fairly wiped out from the covid jab.

S: Wall, Thalkirchen. Spraywall, kilterboard, rings
S: Wall, Thalkirchen. Had planned to do routes with my son, but he pleaded a hangover and dropped out. I could have skipped the session altogether, having worked quite hard yesterday, but otoh I do want to get better at climbing hard on consecutive days. So had quite a pleasant play on some harder (7a) routes on autobelay, although my forearms were pretty weary from yesterday so I kept the session short.

We did the old broken down Camino on my one visit to El Chorro in the 90s. It was mostly ok apart from one section where the concrete walkway was completely gone and you were just walking the steel i-beam. Somebody had installed a cable you could hold on to iirc. It was less scary than the railway tunnel in the dark without headtorches.

Nope!

Thanks Ross, don't think it's lost holds, maybe we were just sh1t! Some great looking conditions on Thurs and Fri this week which unfortunately I couldn't take advantage of.

Mon. Circuit board at the wall, 3mins rest between laps, 6a, 6b, 6c, 7a, 7b, 7b(fail right at the end), 7a, 6c, 6b, 6a. Then 5x5 pull ups 1min intervals, 3x10 press ups, crimpd lower body flexibility routine.

Tues. Rest.

Wed. Hilly 7km run.

Thurs. Very late finish at work. 6x Max hangs (+30kg), 5x5 pull ups, 3x10 press ups.

Fri. Long drive south.

Sat. 6km kiddy walk and 5x5 pull ups, 3x10 press ups on the park gym equipment.

Sun. Awesome 11km trail run across the Quantock Hills. 230m ascent, 5min4sec/km which felt really fast in the mud and roots. Long drive back north.

Thanks for the comprehensive stats Ross.  I've successfully chipped away at the varied Lattice online assessment this week, along with much less successful attempts at Moonboard benchmarks.

Week 44

M – Zilch. Still fighting off a bit of a nursery cough/cold.

T – Board and fingerboard warm-up. Played on a 7B an 7C+ BM. Both felt feasible, but skin and conditions not the best and wanted to save myself for the Lattice aerobic test @50% of max. This equated to BW-4kg and was pretty unpleasant level of pump (far, far pumpier than recent RP efforts on a >50move 8c).  Low row test also pretty hard. Suspect this is going to be an area for improvement?

W – Long day at the desk lead to some neck discomfort, so nowt on the exercise front.

T – Board. Warm-ups 6B+ to 7A. Got shutdown by “Poopmeister” 7A because of my garage wall being too close to the edge of the board. There’s a few things that would be way easier on a commercial board with no side wall! - Christmas session @Ross?

Tried “Just Training” 7C+ BM half a dozen times and tickled the hold a couple of times. This is apparently one of the easiest 7C+ BMs, but for me it’s really hard. Horses, courses, and all that.  Next up, more lattice profiling tests. 70% anaerobic test. Less pumpy than the 50% test, but still fairly unpleasant.  Max pull-up test was not nice either and caused some elbow discomfort, even at ~1.5BW.

F – Rest.

S – Board session. Lots of 6B+ to 6C+. All flashed. 8 goes at “Just Training” 7C+ BM. No improvement on Thurs.  Tried a few other things; couple of 7B BMs, a 7C BM and two more 7C+ (non-BM) that all feel doable.

S – Density hangs @BW+20kg. 5x5 bench press @62.5kg. Continued Lattice tests. Max no. pull-ups. Maxed out the stamina plank tests.  Just shy of maxing out the hollow-body hold test.

Started a feel a bit achy, tired and lurgied by the evening, so taking it easy today and hoping the lurgy doesn't come to much...

Cheers Ross. Though Red Wall is known for being perma dry this weather will not be doing it any favours. So, no rock this week.

M - 10min on/10 min off x 3 on 6b circuit

Weights - chest and back 28 sets over 7 exercises

Stretch

T - Board session at the new Rockover in Bolton. Problems up to 6B+. I've got a lot of progress to make on boards.

W - Density hangs

1min on/1min off x 10 on 7a circuit - completed. Circuit is being re set this week. This 7a was a bit soft so hopefully the new one will be a bit harder as the 7b circuit was too hard for doing this with.

T - Gym - legs 16 sets over 5 exercises. DOMS until Sunday with these new exercises.

F - Rest - went for a lovely meal

S - Broken halves: 15-20 moves of hard circuit, rest 3mins. 4x. 10 min rest and repeat. Used the (very hard) 7a wood circuit at Lancaster. Felt about right.

S - Gym shoulders and arms 30 sets over 9 exercises

Another consistent week. I should be getting an updated plan this week with a focus on the Xmas trip to Spain.

Thanks Ross, not a lot to report. Cold seems to be getting ever so slightly better, pulled on to my wall and did some moves so now to work on making it better, making up some circuits and problems and adding some holds. Unfortunately it highlighted my elbow is not recovered which is disappointing so may not be able to use it anyway!

Hi FitClub. Thanks for statting, Ross.

A mixed week. Some STG ticks, but dropped a couple of planned training sessions due to various work and life chaos  

Week 44:

M: Dry tooling at Masson. Got straight on The Velvet Pelmet (D7) and smashed it first go. Maybe warming up is just tiring me out! Cherry on top was seeing off one of last season’s grudge matches on the second tie-in ...B4UGOGO (Coz I'm not planning on tooling solo) (D7+)

T: Prehab.

W: Fingerboard and strength sesh. Prehab. 

T: Bouldering at Scugdale. Not very productive. Thought trying Stewker in the dark might be the key to not worrying about the landing, but it was not!

F: Bouldering at Slipstones. STG tick of Overhanging Arete (f6A) Tried this in Feb a few weeks after getting my cast off my leg and it felt scary and desperate, but this session it felt very chilled. Funny how much of a mental game it all is!

S: Trail run. 13.5km, 496m vert, 6:40/km.

S: Nowt.

Week 45:

M: Strength and prehab.

T: Bouldering.

W: Rest.

T: Run.

F: Fingerboard and Strength.

S: Bouldering.

S: Run.

STG -end Dec:

Triglav N Face (TICK).

Stewker (E1 5c)

First of Many (none 5b) (TICK).

The Night Watch (VS 4b)

Gauche (VD)

Minion's Way (HVS 5c)

Roof of the World CD Problem 4 (V1)

Angel's Wall (f5)

The Cruel Crack (f5)

Overhanging Arete (f6A) (TICK)

Delstree (HVS 5a)

Tufted Crack (E1 5c)

Chelly Express (D7) placing gear.

Three big mountain days >1500m vert.

Ultra-distance run.

Weighted Pull-up: 85kg. Max Hangs: 80kg. (Adjusted down to reflect recent lack of training)

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: 5/15

Visit at least five of my 'why haven't I climbed here' list: 3/5

Get at least one session at each of my 'I should climb more at this crag' list: 5/8

(For lists see FitClub 772)

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

At least two big, classic alpine goals -TICK!)

Box splits is measured by distance between inside of heels. 

Measured like this I got 89% of height and still feel like it could be improved.

Thanks for the stats Ross. 

It's measured between the centre of each heel for the lattice test. I know a few people who can box split more than their height and it's definitely an area that can give some good gains! 

Quite a light week volume wise, but quite high intensity. 

M/T - Rest

W - 5 limit problems on the board (7A+; 7A+; 7B; 7B; 7B+)

T -Rest

F - A day on the grit. Shredded my skin on Boyager (f7A+) so didn't manage to get much sent. Compression style problems are a definite weakness for me so I'm trying to work more problems of that style to become a better allrounder

S - Rest

S - 10 problems on the board (6C; 6C+; 7A; 7A; 7A; 7A+; 7A+; 7A+; 7B; 7B). Followed by a power endurance session of 20 problems in 20 minutes which really empties the tank! 

Not there yet, but getting close to being in shape for getting in shape

Recap last week:

Mon: Rest

Tues: Ankle was still bothering me so fingerboard session instead of gym bouldering:

• 6 repeater sets (6x7,3) on 20mm edge using a half crimp with 85% of my bodyweight
• Assisted one arm pullups using a light resistance band (~ 10kg -15kg) of assistance: right arm: 2x 1,5 reps, left arm: 2,5 reps, 1,5 reps
• Normal pullups: 12,12,12,8 with 3 minutes break

Wed: Rest

Thurs: 

• 6 repeater sets (6x7,3) on 20mm edge using a half crimp with 95% of my bodyweight
• Assisted one arm pullups using a light resistance band (~ 10kg -15kg) of assistance: right arm: 2x 1,5 reps, left arm: 3 reps, 2,5 reps
• Normal pullups: 12,12,12,9 with 3 minutes break

Fri: Rest

Sat: 

• 6 repeater sets (6x7,3) on 20mm edge using a half crimp with 90% of my bodyweight
• Assisted one arm pullups using a light resistance band (~ 10kg -15kg) of assistance: right arm: 2x 2 reps, left arm: 2,5 reps, 2 reps
• Normal pullups: 12,12,12,10 with 3 minutes break

Sun: Another volume session at the  Weissenstein doing a lot of easy mileage as i did not wanted to stress my ankle with anything where i have a high chance of falling. Did about 10 routes with difficulty ranging from 4a to 6a+ in about 90 minutes with basically no break between the routes

Slowly getting back to fitness, but there is still some way to go. Ankle is still giveing me a little bit of problems, so indoor bouldering is currently not an option, but outside is fine as long as i don't take any bigger falls. Some good progress with the pullups and i feel i am getting close to pre-covid shape with them. 

Some good work there Randy on the back of illness.  Great progress on assisted one-armers!  Yes, getting into some shape for getting into shape is a nice idea!

Thank you Ross,

Working away is still causing quietness on the climbing front, and with autumn here I really wanted to be back inside training by now.

T - Sport new routes 6b, E3, 6b, 6a

F - Sport 7b+ was seconding, but nearly got it first go. In new shoes, which felt so much easier than working with the holey ones.

I do sometimes consider working with old shoes to be a form of training, as you have to work harder, not sure its great for technique though.

Thanks Ross. Uncharacteristically late one for me.

Monday - walked to and fro physio in the morning. Some progress on the good legs strength, and ok progress seen overall until middle last week when I tweaked myself at the wall. So it was probably working until I broke it, effectively!

Tuesday - snuck in 2x20 pushups in the morning and then once I finally finished the “work/dinner/bedtime/more work” thing at about 9pm I did 3x10 chin-ups at bw+6kg, plus 7, 6 pull-ups with the same.

Wednesday - I can’t actually remember. I don’t think I did anything.

Thursday - wall. 

- I did some offset pull-ups, with about a foot spacing, which seemed to be absurdly hard to cleanly do the very top of, presumably because that particular spacing leaves the lower hand in a very weak position to provide support in that range since the lower hand is in the pull-push transition zone at that point. It’s obviously a huge weakness but otoh is my rep count so low that I need to find some other way of training it? 

- Also some campusing. Usually I’ve tended to do this very much as two separate moves, with a bit of setup to try to really max out my effort on the pull through. This time I tried to do it as much in one motion as possible, starting the pull through move as soon as I hit the first one, which felt a lot harder but I can see this being good.

Friday - nothing, work then driving for weekend away

Saturday - really solid rehab session amidst seeing friends

Sunday - nothing, I don’t think, caught up in seeing friends