UKC

Fit club 891

Hi all. Early one this week, as I may not have time later.

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_fitclub_week_890-76979...

Ian Parnell: Sorry to hear about the achilles. I hope you're managing to nurse it back to a comfier state. I feel you're pain about the 'banging head against a brick wall' frustrations of bouldering. Maybe you're right to switch things up a bit and put bouldering to one side -it's just so convenient for cramming in to small windows of opportunity. Perhaps mix it up with nice classic soloing sessions -could feed in to the run climb goal?

Randy: Well done on getting out and don't be too hard on yourself for not feeling in top form on Chasin'. It is a tough metric to measure yourself against this early in the season, with a winter's rustiness to shake off. I wouldn't be surprised to hear it feels loads better next time you get on it. Well done on taking those rest days.

Derek Furze: Firstly, I loved your report of the Llandudno escapades! Hopefully you'll have a drier day for your next visit! Good work continuing to ease back in to the running. Slowly building up after your previous tweaks is definitely the way to go. As you approach the better weather, coinciding with more free time, have you started thinking of climbing goals? Embracing projecting? More new venues?

Alan Little: As excuses go 'I drank my training weight' has to be up there with 'the dog ate my homework'! Just kidding, well done on another decent hill sesh. Sounds like you've got a sensible approach to listening to your body and substituting less leg-intensive biking in to avoid tweaking anything. Injury prevention has to be the number one goal in the lead up to big trips.

mattrm: Well done managing to fit a couple of runs in to your hols. Paradoxically, holidays can be tough to maintain training, so good to keep ticking over. Prior to that you seemed to have been building a really good routine with the running -have you got back to it this week?

Tigh: A solid, well balanced week there, despite the wisdom tooth interruption! Good mountain goals -the Gran Paradiso national park is one of the most beautiful places I've been in the western alps (and the mountain isn't bad either!) Did you manage to hit the four run target this week? Are you including some hill work for that mountain specificity?

Tom Green: Well done sorting out some 'process goals'. Just need to make them happen now. Use silly, arbitrary challenge days to force that trad and onsighting mileage.

Tyler: I want to hear less about Rapture and Penmaen Head and more about ledge-shuffling and trad thrutching. Redpointing Rapture isn't going to get you up La Demande! Good work with the biking sessions.

Steve Claw: Sounds like a great Font trip despite the rain. Given how easy it is to over do it in Font it's maybe no bad thing to have enforced rest days midway through a visit! Great work on Graviton -you made it look very smooth and controlled... I'd have been shaking and slapping at the top! What's on your to-do list for summer now? You must be running out of FAs and routes to clean in the south west by now?!

Ross Barker: Good effort on Bill and Ben last week. Is that your annual quota of roped climbing or will we tempt you out again soon?! Look forward to hearing what climbing you've managed to fit in this week.

Small Step: Glad you've found an area to work on with the back -it's always a relief to have something positive to be able to get stuck in to. Sounds like last week was a great mix of fairly intense upper body and a nice sounding day in the hills. Re: 'discomfort bootcamp' a favourite Andy K quote of mine is 'only a fool practices suffering!' -but actually I've come to disagree with this... I think you CAN acclimatise yourself to the struggle of being outside your comfort zone. I look forward to hearing what you plan for your suffering bootcamp!

the sheep: Haha! Commentators curse in play for last week's swimming. It sounded like a good week for running mileage though. I was wondering where you were up to with the biking for this year's tri plan. Do I remember correctly... is the bike the stage that you feel you need to do least work for?

biscuit: Sorry to hear about your struggles to endure the nice food, drink and relaxation. It sounds awful! Looking forward to hearing what climbing you've got up when fully rested... how often do you climb after such a complete rest? And did it make you feel mega strong?!

AJM: Sounds like a really good week. It must be really satisfying seeing mini and micro getting on routes (although I imagine not without logistical stresses!) It looks like a good mix of trying hard and enjoyable cruising for yourself. Hope the last few days went well?

Thanks for the encouraging words Tom. Maybe last week was a classic example of expecting too much. I was feeling quite strong during the last weeks on plastic and was expecting it to translate directly to a technical Frankenjura route. So in the end probably just more time on real rock needed, in order to be able to use the strength and fitness that i have gained during the winter.

Mon: One-Arm-Lockoffs: 6-10s at various angles. Block lifts, repeaters, 20mm, 6x12x7,3 with 2 min rest at 21,5kg

Tues: Block lifts, repeaters, 20mm, 12x12x7,3 with 2 min rest at 16,5kg

Wed: Rest

Thur: One-Arm-Lockoffs: 6-10s at various angles with the left arm, right arm was too sore from Tuesday's session. lock lifts, repeaters, 20mm, 6x12x7,3 with 2 min rest at 21,5kg

Fri: Rest

Sat: Indoor climbing, Boulderwelt Ost, Fingerboard at around 80-95% on max on various grips, One-Arm-Lockoffs: 15s @ 90° (i think that is a new PB), 10s with my right arm @45° and 5s with left my arm; Flashed 4/5 Boulders in the 6b-6b+ range which were all my style, on the 5th boulder i messed up the flash trying to break the beta and got it 3rd try in the end, tried 3 technical 6c-6c+ Boulder and could do all but one move on each of them. On the moves that i could not do it was more a technique and beta problem, and i don't think that even significantly more strength would have helped

Sun: Indoor climbing, Boulderwelt Ost; Traverses: 6b for warmup which felt more like 6c in my opinion, got really close on flashing a 7a but messed up the last move, did the 7a in my second try. afterwards checked out a 7b+, did all the moves and some good links, tried the 7a again but so tired that i could only do it in two halves

Decent training week despite a lot of stress at work, which was why i did not did not went to the gym during the week and trained at home. Next week will probably look similar. Maybe i will manage to climb outside next week on Saturday, but weatherforecast is currently a bit mixed.

For some reason I've always found the traverse grades at (new) BW Ost totally sandbagged. Odd: they weren't like that at the old location, and they aren't at the other Boulderwelten either.

Thanks for the stats Tom!

Weight - 14st 7lbs

STG - 10km fell loop in 1h 45m

MTG - 30 mile ultra (July 24)

LTG? keep on trucking?  stay fit? ummm

BHAG - F7A boulder somewhere / kickflip

M - core

T - Indoor routes @ Summit

W - Circuit board - 1h, 4k run

T - Rest

F - 10k run
S - S - Rest (gardening)

Weekly kms - 14k

Diet status - Poor

Pretty good week really.  Two sessions climbing and got up a indoor 6b.  So that's nice.  Running wasn't quite where I want it to be really, but 14k isn't terrible.  Especially as for once the rest on Thursday was really needed. 

The 10k was along the canal which was nice, also much easier than my usual running, so that's a good change.  I think I'll definitely push to do a few more canal runs in the future.  Sleep has been poor at the end of the week, hence not getting any more runs in.  Today has ben gardening club.  I also did a first aid course on Thursday/Friday which was pretty tiring.

Thanks for all your statting efforts Tyler, really appreciate it.

Thanks Tom for comments and insights into gradually getting back to running.  I am taken it very gently to avoid triggering calf issues again.

I think I trailed my week already and like all good Hollywood trailers, all of the good bits were included, so I will just include a review.  Managed another 4 km run early in the week, deliberately slow and free from any incident.  Also, have done three sessions of repeater block lift sessions, all at 21.6kg.  These are going great and I'm thinking of keeping these up throughout the year, as I think they are feeling super solid now.  I've also worked out that they go well with dance music and I can fit in a cycle in a bit over twenty minutes.

Tuesday I did my bigger session, including 100 pull ups, about forty in a pike position.  Quite sore core by Wednesday evening.

Out to Wharncliffe on Thursday - good fun exploring and thrashing about .  Made the mistake of agreeing to Swanage Plantation on Friday, where I really don't have anything left to get on.  Had a fairly uninspired day and decided to avoid Stanage until I can get on the harder things that I have left to do.  I'll just have to find some grit form by going to obscure places instead!

Yes - loads of goals.  The projecting thing was (in part) a response to Tyler's reaching out for people prepared to put time into something, but I am keen to see what happens.  Mostly, I am aiming at trad, but keeping some sport going to keep building fitness - probably two days trad to one sport sort of ratio.  Mostly stuff targeted is as outlined at New Year, with projecting something the only real addition.

I've got an enchainment on plan, inspired by yourself, which I'm hoping to do in July.

Cheers Tom. You've missed be out but don't worry about it, we had a good catch up yesterday!

Mon. 3km and 1km swim early doors then evening hit at Buda. A handful of family topropes then a couple of routes for me. Managed to onsight Tocame Todo (7a) and then Eduardo Aqui Tienes Algo (7b). The second one was a proper battle. I read it wrong in several places but managed to down climb to a rest and reset for another go. Pleased the recovery training has worked.

Tues. 5km run.

Wed. 3km run and 1km swim. Travel home.

Thurs. All afternoon at Curbar. Spent most of it playing with the kids or giving the bigger one a spot. Had a quick play in the shade and did Gorilla Warfare Extension (f7B) but it's not that much new climbing into a problem I've done loads of times so didn't take more than a few tries. I was quite tired from the last few days so didn't try anything else hard.

Fri. Rest.

Sat. Drove over Tom's way for some early season trad milage between the showers. Lead Gemma's World (E2 5b) which I've seconded before, Swansong (E2 6a) which had a really burly start, Sarcophagus (E2 5b) which was choss, Return of the Gods (E2 5b) probably the best route today and A World in Harmony (E2 5b) which was so windy by that point I've no idea what it was like really! Stupidly tweaked my shoulder seconding, should have gone and got my rock boots on instead of doing it in my trainers and then my feet wouldn't have slipped. Idiot. Instant karma for being lazy, hopefully it's only minor.

Sun. 3km run and 14km bike (both with the boy).

I generally think that the BW grading is pretty stiff. E.g. Stasa Gejo used to train there quite regularly and i remember seing her getting shut down on something which was not supposed to be harder than 7a+ quite frequently.

Regaring the Traverses, my theory with BW Ost being exceptionally stiff is that the walls are not that tall. Hence, they often set moves which are probably fine if you 5 feet and a couple of inches tall.  But you end up being pretty bunched up if you are a slighty taller than average male like me, so i need to compensate that with using more strength.

STG: Kilterboard 5C @ 45°: Tick.
STG: Thalkirchen 5.9 "easy" crack
MTG: Rough Bounds Scottish backpacking trip in May
MTG. DAV Lofoten meet in July
MTG: Im Extremen Fels ticks in August
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 823
LTG: Winter '25 - do an actual off piste ski tour.

M:  Rest day. 

T:    Wall, Element. This place definitely has the best boulder setting in town at the moment. Seems almost a shame to just use it to warm up for a concerted attempt at my kilterbaord goal, but that's what I did. No tick on the goal, but some decent progress on a couple of possibles.
    Shoulders, ring l-sits, bike there & back

W:  Mountainbike 1½ hours in the woods. Suddenly there are leaves on the trees. And I keep discovering new snippets and link-ups of singletrack. Both of which are nice. 

T:    Bike one hour shopping & errands around town
    Half an hour pullups & stretching

F:    Wall, Element. Another concerted assault on my kilterboard goal, trying 5C's at 45°. Flashed two - definitely not at the upper end of the grade, but sooner or later I have to accept that I have in fact achieved the goal. Yay.
    This does not mean that I can or should retreat back to my 20-to-30 degree comfort zone: the steeper stuff is clearly where I have the most to learn and should continue to spend most of my time.
    Bike there & back

S:    Hillwalking, Hohe Kisten. Study of OpenStreetMap - much better these days than the DAV maps - revealed a new previously unknown (to me) route up my most frequented local mountain, and it turns out to be the most scenic yet. Excellent. Still lots of nasty deep & soggy spring snow at the top though, resulting in another strenuous ten hour day.
    Took a jar of venison stew from the practically Michelin starred Farchant station vending machine home for dinner. It was pretty good.

S:    Rest day. Bumped into a couple of acquaintances at the annual DAV alpine flea market whilst successfully not buying anything.
    Half an hour stretching before bed
 

Hey hey everybody. What brilliant weather this week. Well, compared to the crappiness that's been going on for ages at least.

That's my annual quota, yes. I am vaguely interested in going back, but not badly enough to work on clipping and head game!

Speaking of weaknesses, my wrist/forearm mobility, and lower body mobility (sciatic nerve tension in particular) has been highlighted as something that is not particularly good, so it might be good to do something about it. Goals have been adjusted as such, and I'll do some work on that next week.

I've had a decent week this one, two days bouldering outdoors is always a treat, even if the indoor day was a bit of a dud.

Last Week:

Avg weight 79.9kg

M - Rest.

T - Bouldering. ~30 minutes doing things up to a steady flash level. Right ring felt very slightly sore, so stopped and decided to get some controlled loading. 5s 19mm pickups working up to 50kg, then 15kg assisted OAPUs. Some easy laps on the circuit board to finish.

W - Rest.

T - Rest.

F - Ippikins Rock. Pleasant evening, and plenty dry. Worked on linking Fielding (f6C) into Bollo (f7B) via the lip, turns out to be quite pumpy and has a heartbreaker of a finish. Two halves with a move overlapping. I think as I get the first half more dialled it should start coming together, but simply powering out. Might not hurt to get the second half dialled in too and maybe get further overlapping halves to get used to doing the crux tired.

S - Rest.

S - The Roaches. Mostly social pottering but tried hard on a few things. Undercut Dyno (f7B) felt kinda close but I need to be a bit springier, exploding out of such a position is not something I've much practice with! In the evening I did some individual finger testing on one of those mono devices...

Index R 20kg, L 20kg

Middle R 17.5kg, L 17.5kg

Ring R 12.5kg, L 13.75kg

Pinky R 13.75kg, L 11.25kg

Interesting that the left middle (injured then tweaky for many months) is not measurably weaker than the right. Also interesting is the disproportionately strong index fingers, I suspect the middles could be stronger but the lumbricals may be the weak point there. Right ring is weak as well, which is probably related to the tweak from earlier this week. Shout-out to my right pinky for apparently picking up the slack!

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Climbing.

W - Rest.

T - Climbing.

F - Rest.

S, S - More climbing!

Goals:

Rehab left middle finger.

Improve wrist mobility.

Improve lower body mobility.

Louisville Lip.

Rigpa.

Ippikins Link.

Thanks for the stats Tom. Great minds think alike. As I can’t do anything intense at the moment I’m planning on sorting my soloing head out over the next couple of weeks.

STG (this month) – maintain a grip on daily life, get good weekly routine going. 1. Get some solo milage in. 2. Attempt 2 on run climb project.

MTG (next 2 months)– 1. Give me strength – shoulders and core. 2. Climb some safe grit E3 routes. 3. Rheinstor Lower Traverse??

LTG (next 6 months) – 1. Give me strength – fingers, steep stuff and slopers. 2. Trip to Sanctuary Wall. 3. Redpoint a 7b+.

Mon – Nothing. Achilles too sore to run (did a bit of rehab). Right hand 3 fingers strained from foot on campus on top of bouldering.

Tues – Nothing

Wed – 90 min home board session with 2 mates. One of us climbing 5a problems, one 6a and one 7a (English). Good session apart from I got too excited and overdid it on the last problem tweaking a finger as it twanged off a hold.  

Thursday – Nothing. 13 hours driving

Fri – Nothing

Sat – Carcing 30mins. Another long drive.

Sunday – Got home from long drive at 4pm, but keen to touch rock before the rain returns so grabbed an hours soloing at Stanage. 6 easy routes finishing with Hargreaves' Original (VS 4c). Tired and clunky movement (felt car seat shaped). Perhaps good simulation for soloing when fatigued at the end of the run/climb thing?

Reflection - Poor week, very busy with work and life stuff (22.5 hours driving in 3 days). Some of my numerous niggles are beginning to feel like proper injuries. Finger followed by Achilles are the worst. A few weeks of rehab ahead and definitely need to reduce the intensity, which feels a pity as it’s been a battle to get the tiny gains I’ve managed so far.

Well done on the Kilterboard. Also I'm hoping you're going to give us weekly reviews from the Michelin starred vending machine. 

Thanks Tom,

I'm not completely sure what I want to do over the next few months.  As ever, there are always new lines to find, they just sometimes take a bit of exploration to uncover them.  As with most years at springtime, I want to explore the trad side of things a bit more, hopefully this time I will not get distracted by sport.

M - Checked out a new hard line, but a key hold broke, possibly making that section unpassable now, so have sacked that idea off.

T - Avon Trad.  Climbed the classic Padansac (E3 5c), which I last did 20 years ago.  It lost both its pegs a few years ago and it quite a bold lead now.  Then TR on Edgemaster (E6 6b), which I tried last year on a hot day, and it felt nails, however this time it was straightforward and went first try.  I have to lead it sometime now, but as it only has 1 peg and 1 bolt in 20m its a bit airy even by Avon standards

W + T nothing

F - Very tired, but had a quick TR on Smog of Things (E6 6b), which turns out to be much easier that I thought (got it first go, but still hard).  Slab moves on small holds, favouring the tall, so it suits me perfectly.  To get some exercise, did it 3 times to refine the beta and get into the style.

Don’t worry I’m very happy to never talk about Rapture ever again! That said if you are hoping for dispatches from the trad front line you’ll be disappointed.

M & T: Nothing, as quite tired and knee a bit knackered from cycling. 

W: Beacon, lots of try hard, disappointed to drop a 7a OS as my penultimate route which I guess is progress

T: Didn’t fancy the bike due to rain so risked a short run, first for 18 months I think. Started ok so pushed up a hill and surprised myself. Got to the downhill and the path was closed so ended up doing doubling my route back and adding in some more uphill. Last 1.4km was an ordeal. 

F: Rest

S: Pen Trwyn late start because of rain. Fell off Contusion then dogged King Krank, worked a sequence for the crux. Long break because of heavy rain, managed through the crux from the ground but fell off the top slab which is surprisingly tricky.

S: 2hr bike ride, difficult because of DOMS from Thursday! Log chopping for my dad. 

Hey Tom. Yeah I'm really looking forward to Paradiso. It seems to have been pitched as an acclimatisation climb for Mont Blanc, and I get that, but I'm gonna treat as more of a separate climb and really try to enjoy it. I'm quite conscious that conditions may not allow an attempt on Mont Blanc and so don't want the trip to be all about getting up MB. 

Another good training week done with a step up in running mileage

M - strength session

T - 8 km easy 

W - 10km easy 

T - Strength 

F - Tempo Run 8km 

Su - 19km with last 6km moderate to hard effort. 

This week will be 3 runs and 2 strength session and potentially a hike. Will up long run to 21km 

Have a great week all

Hey hey. 

Week 15:

M: Trail run. 12.2km, 413m vert, 6:46/km.

T: Bouldering. Success on STG A Spade (f6B)

W: Strength sesh.

T: Sport climbing. Back on Slobberlob (7b). Should have gone this session, but top holds damp. Dropped it after the crux on my first redpoint go due to a damp crimp. Moves wired and tactics sorted, so should go soon.

F: Trail run. 12.5km, 463m vert, 7:09/km.

S: Trad climbing. Awful sesh! First trad of the year (not on tools!) and I could tell. Onsighting felt hard, gear felt fiddly to place, didn't trust the gear, didn't trust the rock (kinda with good reason -broke a few holds including falling off seconding when a big side-pull detached). Reinforced last week's decision to do lots of mileage on moderate trad and sport onsighting.

S: Rest. Felt pretty worked. 

Week 16:

M: Strength sesh.

T: Run.

W: Climbing.

T: Strength sesh.

F: Rest.

S: Climbing.

S: Run.

STG (end of May):

Average 35km/wk running.

2 off E2 list.

1 x VS Challenge Day.

2 x Sport Onsighting Marathon.

A Spade (TICK)

Slobberlob.

MTG (end of July):

Average 45km/wk running.

1 x Mountain Ultra (Welsh 3000s; Tea Round; Corris Round).

3 off E2 list.

Maybe sneak in an E3.

2 x VS Challenge Day.

2 x Sport Onsighting Marathon.

Yates' Layaway.

Sorry for the lack of stats! Don’t know how I missed you out… not fully in the stat-man zone yet!

Impressive mileages there Tigh!  You are definitely going to have fit legs!  Slightly humbling compared to my own very gradually improving plods

Good effort getting back to Slobberlob and getting close so quickly!  Very inspiring to see such rapid progress.

The trad session (assuming it was with Swede?) didn't look too shabby either and Llangollen lime is a bit tricky with somewhat shoddy rock in many places.  I've certainly climbed down a thing or two because I didn't think any gear would actually hold - good placements, but no confidence in the rock.  That said, I still have a lot of affection for the place!

Thanks Derek. I was happy with last night's effort as it was a step up and managed it okay apart from general aches and pains. But it's been a long time coming. Have been running slow and easy and very gradually built it up over 4-5 months so I would say keep going with the plods. With running consistency of plods has a slow but compounding effect. 

On another note I'm intrigued by your pull up sessions. I've just added assisted pull ups to my strength work and it's a struggle so far! Are you doing a hundred in sets of a particular number? I'm doing 3x10 in my session and slowly reducing assistance. 

Thanks for encouraging thoughts on running!

On pull ups, I vary the sets depending on what other things I have on the plan.  The 100 the other day was 2 cycles of 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 - each pyramid is 50, but in the past I have done all sorts.  I am building this back up as I used to do 100 twice a week during lockdown, but have let it slip a bit.  More recently, I did a few weeks where I just did 5 sets each session, starting with 5x5, then 5x6, 5x7 etc. until I got to 5x10.

Experiment a bit - a single pyramid (1, 2, 3...10 and down again) is 100, but it is quite tough around the turn!  Initially, I'd advise lower reps and more sets as your form will be better - 10 sets of three in perfect, crisp form is probably better than 3 sets of ten where the last few are a desperate struggle.  A bit like running, put the groundwork in and the results will build.  Pyramids have the benefit of giving you a bit of both, so 2, 4, 6, 8 x 2 gives you 40.

If you are struggling to do them without assistance, then definitely lower reps.  When I started back in lockdown I got a great piece of advice to work on 'greasing the groove'.  Don't worry about reps or sets, just do one or two every time you pass the pull up bar and gradually over a week they will start to feel solid.  Then build slowly.  My mentor who gave me this tips is my age (66) and he had just done a 1000 - 167 sets of six on the minute!  I have done 180 in sets of six on the minute, but I've got other things in my life!

Hope that helps.

Thanks Tom -

Most likely another rest week, but hoping to start some gym work soon. Some pullups, presses, hangs and such like should be possible but deadlifts and squats probably out of the question!

Will have to acquire myself a new helmet at some point which will of course need a new design. Most likely will stick with the Lion Rampant design, though at one point a unicorn and accompanying rainbows was suggested...it is Scotland's national animal, after all....

Climbing with the family is always more of a logistical stress, but it can be very rewarding. I find it's a bit more binary just the four of us than with the group we were with in Orpierre - as a four I'm very much the one responsible for providing all my own psyche if I want to get things done, and if the kids aren't playing ball then with no others to act as distraction its basically curtains - but on the other hand it's slightly more my agenda in the smaller group, so when everything clicks it can work pretty well.

Monday - Buoux Face Ouest. Really cool sector. Good routes up to 6b.

Tuesday - rest, rain overnight and a dank morning.

Wednesday - bad night's sleep, very tired. Did a route or two. MiniAJM led a route, his first ever. He needs to learn how to clip one handed before next time!

Thursday - back to Buoux main sector, just did some mileage on routes to 6a+ incl some really nice techy numbers.

Friday - travel to Paris. Walking around Montmartre.

Saturday - Paris. Busy day touristing

Sunday - early Eurostar, then tube, then train, then rail replacement bus, then taxi. Home at last! Washed a bathful of dirty water out of my rope.

First time doing a climbing trip en famille by train. The Eurostar/TGV combo is great for getting places, and I can avoid any guilt associated with flying.

I really enjoyed buoux, far more suitable for a family climbing venue than Orpierre imo. The grades are obviously pretty special, but I'm so far away from peak performance at the moment that it doesn't really matter to me. Some nice lines, some really thin and tech bits of climbing, less than an hour from the train station - why isn't everyone there?! Already plotting to go back.

A few reflections:

- sleep was a notable determinant of how much I got done, unsurprisingly. I didn't sleep that well in either place.

- lots of rehab and very short board sessions doesn't really translate to all day work capacity. A thing to try to improve before half term.

- I was better by Buoux, so some of it but not all was maybe about cobwebs being blown out, but a definite hesitancy to push on into the unknown on the featured greyness at Orpierre, which probably ultimately comes down to a fear of falling and/or failing.

- I didn't have any grumbles from my shoulder all trip, I don't think.

Keen to try to continue to build onwards from here. Maybe it's time to restart some strength training, whilst trying to get bigger days in as the weather hopefully improves to work on my climbing specific fitness and my general work capacity.

Crikey!  That's a lot of driving!

Clearly need to work on the injuries, but should be able to design some training around the issues to maintain the gains?  I'm sure that is what a physio might say...

Thanks Derek

I’m looking forward to getting back on Slobberlob, hopefully it won’t hold up too much longer (I don’t really want a project!)

The trad with SSB was something of a fiasco (for me, SSB was cruising!) but it was my first real trad of the year (and I hate/am crap at that type of limestone at the best of times!) so I’m not being too hard on myself about it. It definitely highlights the need I’d already identified for lots of trad mileage though. Bring on the dry weather!

Cheers Tom. Quick report on the way to the airport. 
 

I didn’t feel mega strong. The opposite really. Overindulging took a few days to get over. I felt sluggish. 
 

The local climbing is really good. But South facing and really hot. We got out twice. One day was just too hot so I clipped up a couple of routes as future projects. The other had me baffled on a 7b+ that felt like it would go, but I just couldn’t work out the beta at the top. We found a local guidebook eventually and it did say it was hard to read - but didn’t give any clues.

The last two days we went to  Martinetto Area which is a 1 minute walk in north facing crag. Unusual rock. Mostly Big moves on big holds with the cruxes then being small moves on small holds. Great climbing though. 
 

Ticked Acqua (7a) Marea (7a) and Cometa (7b).
 

All good and we’re planning a return trip in Autumn.

Back to training tomorrow and let’s see what the weather does. 

Just reflecting that I rarely have a 'few days' between 'overindulging'.  Perhaps this explains things 😂

Good week that 👏 

Where the heck did you go for your first trad experience of the year? That sounds traumatic!

Cheers.  It was cool to get in several different types of climbing and to steal a session between the showers that didn't look like it was going to happen when we arrived.

Haha, just Dinbren. Only traumatic because I was being a softy! Just need to get my trad head (particularly my trad lime head) back on!

Hey that's great advice, thanks. 

I tried a pyramid this morning just as a kind of baseline test. Got to 3! So did 1,2,3,3,2,1. Total rep count of 12 so definitely as weak as a kitten when it comes to pull ups. I see the logic in just doing them as and when and also getting rid of the assistance. The pyramid approach seems a good one. I think I'll build towards 5 which would be 30 reps if I do 2x5. Then start increasing in twos towards 10. 

What time/rest are you taking between sets in a pyramid ? 

Hard to say about rest times, because I normally mix up my exercises and do supersets of sorts.  So, I do my pull-ups, then straight onto push ups, straight onto a stretch, then do a core exercise, then back on to the next set of pull ups.  Given that some stretches will be two minutes, it might take four minutes between pull-ups, but it isn't really 'rest'.