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_816-7537...

Liam P: Sounds like a great (if toasty!) week on holiday. Got some good sounding routes in. Hope the training grind is going well now you're back onto it.

Derek Furze: Good effort getting out despite gammy conditions and apparently a disappointing crag! Good max hangs as well. Very specific added weights, what mechanism are you using for this?

AlanLittle: Terrific week, especially with the Covid jab thrown in the mix. Not much else to say but keep up the good work!

Somerset swede basher: Good running and training scenes. Weather has been perkier this week, let's hope that trend continues!

Ally Smith: Yep, count me in for a Christmas session unless we happen to get amazing conditions for getting out! Pretty heavy week even with a lurking lurgy. Hopefully it didn't amount to a full-blown illness and you have shaken it off this week.

biscuit: Great training consistency recently, awesome stuff. I spied a story post you made today, manage a good day outside?

Tyler: Nice one on getting some board moves done. Hope you have managed to get a bit of work done on rehabbing the elbow so you can get a bit more out of it.

Tom Green: Nice ticks at Masson and Slipstones. I still don't understand dry tooling! Manage to get any more STGs this week?

SteveJC94: Good board scenes. Boyager is a stiff one. A really high left heel on a pebble can tame the cut loose, but it still packs a punch!

Randy: Good training work this week. What's the issue with the ankle, something chronic or just a bit of a twist/strain? They can be rather fickle joints at times.

Steve Claw: Definitely agree that holey shoes are not conducive to strong tekkers. Solid effort on getting out on the ropes with busy work life.

AJM: Great rehab work this week. Could rig up a pulley to take some weight off for the offset pullups. Hope the leg can let you tentatively get back on the rock soon.

Thanks Ross. Bit wet at the start of the week but managed to get out yesterday.

Mon. Went to check out The Hanger. Not been before, don't think I'll bother again other than to fit in with others. Bit busy and although lots of the problems were interesting I prefer my indoor problems to be basic and burly. Didn't think the circuit board was up to much either. Nice sociable session though, pitched myself at stuff I could do in 1-4 goes to get some milage in. Pull ups +press ups.

Tues. '20km' on the bike on the rollers.

Wed. Another social session, this time at the foundry. 4x lead 6s to warm up then a play on the auto belays. Pleased to onsight a 7a, 7a+ and a couple of 7bs. Pull ups+press ups.

Thurs. 11km run, nice and steady, 3rd catch up with mates of the week!

Fri. Rest.

Sat. Morning session at Froggatt, went to lay an old nemesis (strapadictomy) to rest and failed! Got the moves for next time though. Consolation prize of Strapiombante (E1 5b) which I tried as one of my first E1s back in 2005 and fell off. No issues today.

Sun. 5km run and 7km kiddy walk.

Great stuff Ross - thanks for the stats again.

An OK sort of week really considering the travel with work.

Monday - work, but completed 60 pull ups in pyramid sets.  Also did eight sets of hip stretching in amongst the pull up sets.

Tues - early covid booster, followed by work, but managed a short set of training.  Five max hangs sets at plus 11.2kg - all to ten seconds so will up this at my next session.  Also completed 5 x 12 push ups and six sets of stretching.

Wed and Thurs - away with work and fairly late back.

Friday - Dyserth Castle Slab.  An okay venue and a good crack.  Failed on Genesis however, which was a bit disappointing.  However, if was fairly delicate and I only had my new shoes with me, which felt pretty clunky as they are not yet broken in...  I'd belayed for a while and got cold, so struggled all round! 

Sat - house guests so no training.  Chopped a lot of wood though, so Tyler will be pleased.  Three sets of dancing at a party in the evening.

Sun - no training, but started garden project and have filled two ton bags with soil, so a fairly physical day anyway.  Certainly I was knackered by the end of it! 

Work stepping up again for the next few weeks, but hoping to keep getting out on one of my spare days at least - just trying to maintain movement skills really as conditions are often a bit limiting.  Also trying to train at weekends and on my office days.

Also Ross, the specific weights are just what I happen to have.  No science involved!  Basically my 'mechanism' is to shove free weights into a rucksack.

On a similar theme, I was impressed with Randy's assisted one armers where he is taking off a few kgs on his assisting arm.  Excellent 

Is the weights in a rucksack for your Max hangs? I find it more comfy to put my harness on and hang them in front of me with a sling like massive metal bollocks!

Yes, and it does get quite uncomfortable when the weight is higher (not a consideration at the moment!).  I am planning to get a strap for hanging the weights bollock style as you suggest!

Good evening. Moderate week from me. Two outdoor sessions, both great socially, but not really feeling particularly performant on the rock. Not feeling particularly inspired by much outdoors at the moment from a difficulty perspective, and the days getting a little short for big exploratory days out. Quite keen to finish off a particular problem at Ramshaw, but the landing is a little naff.

Got next Friday off work though, so hopefully weather is good that day and I can get out and do something.

Last Week:

M - Rest.

T - Moonboard. Good session. Did a handful of fun low-7s, and set a newbie: "Virtute". Probably around 7A, maybe a touch soft, I'm sure Ally will confirm finished off with push ups and lower body stretches.

W - Rest.

T - Weigh-in at 77.8kg. Rigpa (V9). 14⁰C, quite warm, but also very breezy. Same highpoint but only managed once, holds felt small. Possibly not too well rested from the previous MB session. Happy to touch dry rock again.

F - Rest.

S - Rest.

S - Original plans of fine southeastern grit were clagged up, so we went to a very coarse and exposed Ramshaw Rocks. Tried Monologue (f7B+) but there's a ratty RH sidepull which was aggravating my DIP joints, then Ram Air (f7B+) again which was absolutely baltic, then Mansize (f7A+) which I got all the moves done but time and tiredness meant I had to leave it. Very fun moves, and great people to be at the crag with, so still a successful day out.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Moonboard.

W - Rest.

T - Rest.

F, S, S - Bouldering.

Goals:

Antagonists.

Bulletproof fingers.

Rigpa.

Thanks for still thinking of new things to say to me each week! You really don’t need, you don’t expect to be doing much between now and Christmas but I’ll still tune up for a whinge anyway!

This week I had to decamp to Manchester for most of the week, I got to blochaus twice for short sessions but unfortunately my elbows are a bit upset with me. I’m going to go for light sessions 2.5 times a week either on my board or at a wall and see how that goes. 
Cold or whatever it is continues to be a low level irritant. 

Thank you Ross,

Working away again, but got some bits done in the few days I was back.

F - Sport routes 6b, 6c+, 6c, 6a+ 6b. Also Hatti Jacques (E2 5c), which is bold even by Avon standards, lovely climbing, not that hard, 1 bolt and 1 peg for 18m, must be E3 5b.

S - Pulled a quick TR on my Rocksteady 7c slab project, as it took a month for the finger to heal up after last time.  Its a goer, so will get on that very soon.

S - Went indoor bouldering with my 7 year old, had a great time together. Having not climbed indoors for months, it went ok and still around the V6 level.  Have a membership now, so will be indoors a lot more.

In case anyone actually reads this and wants to know, Yes all the above were done in the holey shoes.

Good innit? I’ve started following someone on Instagram who has a stump grinder so that’s what I want to try next

I quite like those splitting cones that attach to a drill

I view them in the same way as some people object to knee pads in climbing!

Cheers Ross. Annoyingly I’ve put my back out! I could feel it was going to go as well, but cracked on regardless.

Tue

• Pinch Block 5x 7s (18.5kg)
• Crimpd 80% Repeaters @+5kg. 6x 7:3 (2x 20mmHC, 2x 20mm4FD)

Thu

• Pinch Block 5x 7s (19kg) 
• Crimpd 80% Repeaters @+5kg. 6x 7:3 (2x 20mmHC, 2x 20mm4FD)

Sat

Indoor Bouldering session. Warmed up and got on a few V4-6 before the back went!

Lots of Ibuprofen and stretching this week…

No log splitting for me this week, but some Bicycle Repair Man action (not the route!)

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:    Wall, Thalkirchen. Routes with my son: taking the opportunity to focus on the steeper stuff: it's what I mostly want to improve at, but doing much of my endurance training on autobelays tends to keep me within my more-or-less vertical comfort zone.
W:   MTB just managed to snatch an hour in the woods late afternoon before it got completely dark.
T:    Wall, Element. Bouldering - volume session on the standard gym boulders for a change from boards. Less strength, more movement repertoire: both important.
F:    Having acquired one of these babies as an impulse buy while shopping for chalk & slings - https://www.yyvertical.com/collections/training-nomade/products/le-duo - and inspired by a recent listen to a Dan Varian podcast about the importance of pinkies, I did a round of single finger benchmarks. Quite pleased to beat my previous mark by a couple of kilos, despite having done the previous one during lockdowns when I was doing nothing but fingerboarding. But last time I used a sling: am open to the idea that the new toy might be ergonomically superior so not directly comparable.

S: Wanted to go out on the mountainbike in the woods, but had some maintenance chores to do on my other bike first. LED dnyamo lights on a town bike are great until the rear one dies, then you have to dismantle half the bike to get at the cable run to replace it. By the time I'd finished with that and a few other bits & bobs it was nearly dark, so instead went for a test ride into town. Where I narrowly avoided buying a pair of Patagonia touring salopettes in tkmaxx.

S: Climbing, Frauenwasserl. Roadside crag not far from where I live, and in an area where I've done a lot of walking, but the guidebook was out of print until recently so the climbing was a bit of a mystery to me. Now armed with a new guidebook edition I thought it was time to start trying hard on something again, and had spotted a 7b that looked like a potential winter project. Nope. Turns out it's (a) slighty east of south facing, so in the shade in the afternoon and (b) desperate. Enjoyed trying it though, at least until my fingers went numb.

Cheers Ross. A busy week with life stuff but started to get in a rhythm a bit nevertheless.

Monday - post weekend admin

Tuesday - post weekend admin

Wednesday - rehab

Thursday - rows 3x10, pushups 2x20, chin-ups 3x9@bw+6

Friday - rehab

Saturday - a busy day celebrating the third birthday of my tiniest tyrant with my in-laws no actual training but a bunch of activity carrying microAJM on my shoulders and that sort of thing

Sunday - more carrying and so on. Then in the evening a couple of sets of pushups & rows.

Cheers Ross. I agree, a good run of board sessions for me, but little opportunity to test that strength out on real rock. Sadly, that continued this week but it was for a good reason rather than just crappy weather.

Week 45

M – Taking it easy and hoping the lurgy didn’t grip too tight...

T – Thankfully felt significantly better than Monday. Board warm-up 6B+ to 7A, new 7B BM in a couple of goes, half a dozen more failures on Just Training, then finished off the remaining Lattice assessments.

The overarching outcome of Lattice online assessment is that in almost every metric measured, I’m stronger and fitter than each of my current projects.  Areas where there’s room for improvement to help bridge to the next grade; lever-lift, low-row and pull-up strength (might be joining OAPU club) and my 1-arm hangs are off the pace compared to 2-arm maximum.

W – Rest. Read up on “Sweetspot” FTP training. Curious to investigate how that might be applied to a fingerboard setting.

T – Lunchtime board. Forearms felt a bit worked, but alright once warmed-up. Ignored Just Training and concentrated on the 7B benchmarks I’d previously played on. Did 2x 7B BMs and even managed the last of the 7A benchmarks (Problem 20 – more like 7B though). Unfortunately popped a blood vessel in my ring finger and have bruised franken-finger. Later, box splits in front of the TV.

F – Bench press: 5x5 @62.5kg. A bit tweaky on left pec.

S – Rest. Sore pec. Gentle stroll in the morning and a lovely evening out with my wife celebrating her birthday.

S – A gentle day followed by a short FB session. Warmed up on the FB before 1-arm dead-hangs. Crimpd timings; -2kg LH and -3kg RH x6 hangs on BM2K central slot. Smashed it. Stretching and Crimpd static hold core while watching TV.

Cheers Ross. Rachel had just got back from a week climbing in Spain the day before so we went for a big walk in Langdale. 

M - Lancaster wall 3 x10 min on/off

Chest and back 21 sets 6 exercises

T - 40 degree board at rockover. Poor session, tired.

W - 55 degree board at BUK. Much better session. Tried hard, failed lots. 

T - Gym - Legs - 28 sets 7 exercises - this wrecks my legs, in a good way.

F - Circuits at BUK. Just been set. I think I flashed up to 7a/+. Got the 7b+ circuit in two haves and come good links on a harder one. Grades are yet to be decided. Not a structured session as I was just getting to grips with the new circuits.

Lots of driving for a family thing

S - Lots of driving for a family thing. Couldn't be bothered with planned evening gym session.

S - Got up early to go to gym. It was closed, they've been evicted. They've been in business for over 7 yrs. Such a shame for them. Now trying to decide if a set up in the training room is worth investing in. 

Big walk later in the morning in Langdale. 11 miles 1300m ascent (but the last 2-3 miles were flat so it was quite brutal). Fuelled by cake and chocolate. 

This week will be more consistent training and taking a look at my body composition to see what all this gym work and over eating has done.

Could be worse, eh!

I hope that it is not something chronic . It started two weeks ago after my first climbing session outdoors after Covid. Did not felt any pain during the session, but when i woke up the next morning my ankle was very sore and hurt when i was walking, as if i had sprained it. In the meantime it has gotten better and i suspect it is maybe just a little bit inflamed and needs some time to fully heal.

Recap last week:

Mon: Rest

Tues: L Sit 2x 20s, Handstand against the wall, 2x8 Pike-Pushups, 6 Fingertips Pushups, 30 Pushups, 45s V-Sit-Ups

Wed: 

• 6 repeater sets (6x7,3) on 20mm edge using a half crimp with 100% of my bodyweight
• Assisted one arm pullups using a light resistance band (~ 10kg -15kg) of assistance: right arm: 2x 2 reps, left arm: 3 reps, 2,5 reps
• Normal pullups: 12,12,12,11 with 3 minutes break

Thurs: L Sit 2x 20s, Handstand against the wall, 2x8 Pike-Pushups, 6 Fingertips Pushups, 30 Pushups, 45s V-Sit-Ups

Fri: Rest

Sat: 

• 6 repeater sets (6x7,3) on 20mm edge using a half crimp with 102,5% of my bodyweight
• Assisted one arm pullups using a light resistance band (~ 10kg -15kg) of assistance: right arm: 2 reps 1,5 reps, left arm: 2,5 reps, 2 reps
• Normal pullups: 4x12 with 3 minutes break

Sun: Back at  Weissenstein. One of these days where you need to leave your ego at home. Needed 4 tries to send Erste Affäre (6b) as i had suboptimal beta on the first tries. Tried Akku (6b+) afterwards, a badly protected classic: 3 bolts on 20m, sustained sections way above the bolts, hard clip for the 2nd as well as 3rd bolt and guaranteed groundfall when you blow one of them. Decided to stick-clip my way up after i nervously fought in the 2nd clip. Gave it a toprope try afterwards was too tired to send it.

Hi y'all. Thanks, Ross, top write-up as usual.

Dry-tooling seems ridiculous until you try it, then it still seems ridiculous but kind of makes sense!

Mediocre week this week. Dropped a few planned sessions, but did manage to get another local STG ticked.  

Week 45:

M: Nowt.

T: Nowt.

W: Prehab. 

T: Bouldering at Scugdale. Finally got Stewker (E1 5c) climbed (STG tick) with a beta change which made the move much harder but meant that the direction of the fall would be less likely to maim me so stopped it being as scary!

F: Trail run. 16km, 532m vert, 6:57/km.

S: Trail run. 6.8km, 343m vert, 7:45/km.

S: Fingerboard, Strength, Prehab.

Week 46:

M: Rest.

T: Fingerboard, Strength, Prehab.

W: Weighted hill carry.

T: Run.

F: Climbing.

S: Fingerboard, Strength, Prehab.

S: Run. Prehab.

STG -end Dec:

Triglav N Face (TICK).

Stewker (E1 5c) (TICK).

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: 6/15

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!)

Thanks for the stats Ross. Good to know there's some extra beta on Boyager for next time! 

Last week was pretty good, just upping the volume prior to the Lattice plan starting.

M - Rest

T - Hangboard repeaters regen session - 6 reps of 7:3 repeaters for 15 sets at 30% of max (varied grips, 20mm edge). Followed by 5 hard problems on the board (7A; 7A; 7A+; 7A+; 7A+)

W - 4 x 4 routes

T - Rest

F - Max Hangs - 6 reps at 90% of max (half crimp, 20mm edge, 10s hang). Strength & conditioning: Push ups 10 x 3; Dips 10 x 3; Shoulder press 5 x 3; Russian twists 20 x 3; Bicycle crunches 16 x 3

S - Rest

S - Quick hungover session at the Cromlech. Managed to tick The Edge Problem (f6C+) and The Edge Problem sds (V6). Had a bit of a play on Bus Stop (f7B+) but couldn't get close to the big dyno up to the porthole.

Lattice have managed to expedite my plan so I'm now into week 1 of my 12 week plan. The main focus is on maintaining finger strength in varied grips and improving my woeful flexibility!