UKC

Forgive me Fit Club for I have sinned. My weekend slipped away from me - been ill and broken today so the gaps in the schedule (we're at a wedding today/tomorrow) have been taken up by trying to sleep and recover rather than writing FC.

Stats will be up tomorrow, unless anyone fancies a go in which case you're very welcome.

Sorry about this...

sorry to hear that your weekend has not gone to plan. Lack of sleep does seem to horribly easily let in the lurgy

My week was another busy one both at work and for training. Just coming up to a rest week which is much needed.

M - 4 miles urban walking.
T - Cycle commute. UCR in evening. 14 routes in pairs, inc 5 7as. 
W - Cycle commute. FB 10/3/5/4 x6 with +3.5kg, rest, then same again but without the added weight.
T - Cycle commute.Frustrating day at work, nothing else at all.
F - 2 miles urban walking. TCA - boulder triples, rest, 1 min on/2 min off x10 starting on a hard circuit which meant I was going too slowly. Swapped to an easier one which is a tad too easy. I miss the excellent steep 7a which no longer exists at UCR! Core in evening.
S - Sea Mills traverse - got to within 4 moves of the end. FB 7/3/6/1 x10.
S - FB 5/10/5/3 x6, getting up to a pb of +20kg. 5 miles rural walking.

My sympathies, your week sounds crap. 

Mon: Cheyne Weares. Did The Accelerator and Julie Ocean, both 2nd go. Should have tried to flash the former but got on it cold due to busy crag anxiety. Finished up with a giant Jenga set of a 6b. Guidebook says it used to be a trad route, must have been exciting.

Tues: Wall. Terrible boulder ?tired. Went to pub.

Wedns - Sun: Rest/overeating.

Back on it this week. Need to lose a few kilos :-/ 

Get well soon. My update too will largely be on the theme of being a state of denial about incipient lurgy all week, followed by finally giving in to reality at the weekend.

Ill & broken = rubbish, bad luck.

Goals:

Caviar

Powerband

7B+ on my next Font trip. 

FitClub600, goal: complete an ancap fingerboard session at 80% of max hang weight.

M: Very early start on Caviar. Reworked the start and found a new sequence that works a bit better than I have used in the past. After quite a few goes still skating off and not being sure why, I eventually realised by watching a video that I just needed to tense my core and stand up in to the rock more. Duh! Then went to the Tor to have a quick look at Powerband. Reworked the moves I have done in the past.

T: rest

W:  started a fingerboard session (planned ancap) but sacked it after the warmup. Just didn't feel motivated.

T:  nothing

F: nothing

S:  bouldering session at the Climbing Unit. Few blocs to warm up then most time on the woodie. Felt hard! Not surprising really given the heat and that I've not been on it for a few months.

S: Another early start on Caviar and an hour on Powerband, like Monday. Felt more solid on Caviar and managed to stand on the next foothold for half a second, so minor progress, but then after I'd only had about 3 attempts the sun came out and it became way too hot. Reasonable few goes on Powerband, I managed a link from the start to the hold from which you start Rattle and Hump. So progress there too. Felt my right elbow a bit, I think it's aggravated a bit by the start of Caviar.

Not a bad week in some ways but I'm not feeling motivated to either train or watch my diet at the moment. Work is tough at the moment.  Plus shoulder/elbow still aren't fully right and get aggravated by the ancap sessions so I'll be failing my FitClub600 goal, but I did make some progress.

I'm going to skip a few weeks now - family holiday to Japan starts on Friday for just over two weeks (can't wait, but we are a bit nervous about 12 hours in a plane with a one year old in our laps...)  I'll see how I feel when I get back before deciding what to do next training -wise. I've bought a small portable fingerboard to take away with me...

Si

Get well soon Andy! 

Not a bad week - but not great either. 

Forgot to weigh in this morning so I may well post that tomorrow. 

I did a mock Fiesta at Kendal wall. 8 routes on the main wall matching the pitches. Done in a couple of hours and went OK. 

Repeaters session - rest reduced to 2 min from 2.5min and 7 sets completed successfully. Need to add some weight I think.

I had a session at BUK on the circuit, but despite feeling good prior to it, it was just one of those sessions where nothing felt right. I did finally do the crux move in isolation but didn't get any decent links etc.

I was supposed to go back today for that and the comp but I went for a run yesterday which has left me with non working legs. I may have over cooked it a bit. We ended up at Chapel Head feeling very underpowered and tired and performed predictably badly.

A busy week coming up so probs just a couple of BUK visits and some repeaters. 

Hope you feel okay for the wedding Andy.

I've been hit by a tight back this week, I was twisting high up on a ladder and that was that - a couple of days later, it was too tight for work.

All the tightness on the left side, of which there's a lot, is probably down to the laybacking in Swizzy but since I rolled the van, ladder work has been a constant issue and I will not be doing it anymore.

Daily massage has made a huge difference. Not really affordable unless you're a premiership footballer but thankfully, the other half has been brilliant and dug her knuckles, forearms and elbows into me every evening this week and it's now just a matter of regular physio exercises again.

One trip to Paul's board at the start of the week was much better than expected but I need to get back into a groove again. Now I'm living to the east of the town, and working more regularly, I've decided to join the Virgin gym half a mile away. I have to pass it to get home and I know I'll go if it's that easy. I've spent the last three years aware I'm not strong enough in general and it's time I sorted that. Thursdays I plan to go to Pinnacle to rope climb and Saturdays will be day trips to the Peak to boulder or Wales to leg up and down mountains for fitness.

That leaves trips to plan which will probably be of shorter duration than they have been - hopefully that means more of them but who knows? 

Fingers crossed I can crack in this week.

I wouldn't worry about it Andy, I was going to have a go but at least half have already responded so probably redundant. 

Another slack week from me, work is the worst and unlikely to improve and I started revising for another exam (the last of the 'easy' ones) before you have to actually start knowing stuff.

I did go for a couple of strolls to see where we've moved to and test out he ankle on some steeper, rougher ground. Other than that it's been a bad one.

STG: Get back on my lovely new projects in the Frankenjura (and/or cross an old project or two off the growing list)
MTG (2018): Onsight 7a; redpoint 7b multiple times on routes that aren't pure boulder problems
LTG (2021): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60 

M: Bike one hour
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Unable to make my regular evening wall session this week due to other commitments. Fitted in a quick hour of early morning aerocap traversing before work instead. Did 20 minutes ARC to warm up, then tried a couple of harder circuits but discovered to my dismay that I can’t do footwork early in the morning. Early morning ARCing seems like something I could usefully add to my routine though. If I can find the motivation; tricky given that I’m generally more of an evening person.
W: Colleague's leaving do at work. Beer replaced my normal Wednesday evening routes session.
T: Wall, Gilching. Rather weak routes session, hardly surprising given hangover (see above) plus also what feels like the beginnings of the first autumn virus infection. Still managed to get some mileage in though.
F: Rest.
S: Definitely have a cold now. What with that and generally marginal-to-dismal looking weather, bailed from planned Frankenjura weekend. Did some max hangs instead.
S: Was tempted to declare myself fit to go to the wall in the afternoon, but decided back to bed was the wiser course of action. Don't want a repeat of March when I was half-ill, in denial about it and unable to train properly for weeks.

Cheers Andy, don't worry too hard about the stats, I'm sure we can go a week without.

Seems like it's lurgy season on FC, I almost feel guilty to say i had a pretty decent week and don't appear to be ill in any way! (cue imminent sickness)

M: Fingerboard; 10s hang small outer BM2K edge +27.5kg
Core

T: Indoor boulder; 30 moves, 28, 26...12 rest time same as climbing time. x2 sets. really good, hard session.

W: Indoor Routes; 4on 4off at 7a/+

T: Totally forgot to do a TRX session, I just looked back at my log now and realised I never did it, I've no idea why!

F: Portland, Blacknor Central; Bunch of super easy routes back to back in the quarry to warm up, then onsighted Dusty Bedrock in need of Careful Preparation (7a+) which had some good face climbing, shame about the awkward roof finish. Finished off Athenian Tactics (7b+) which I really enjoyed, but I can't see why a lot of people consider it soft, felt pretty solid to me.

S: Fingerboard; 10s hang small outer BM2K edge +27.5kg
Indoor Routes; 30 moves, 28, 26...12 rest time same as climbing time. x2 sets. Sweat fest.

S: DIY club clearing out the sideway by the workshop ready for paving. Had to move the water storage tank that I filled with 300kg+ of excess concrete 2 years ago, me and my mate Archimedes soon had it shifted much more easily than I expected.

Injury status is good, everything just ticking along, elbows keeping quiet, finger on the slow mend, all good.

STG: (last week)
* 1 min hamstring stretch every day - 3/7
* Get outside at least once - TICK
* Every session on plan - 6/8
* 1 handstand push up remaining balanced for 2s after - Never tried this week

STG: (this week)
* 1 min hamstring stretch every day - 
* Every session on plan - 
* 1 handstand push up remaining balanced for 2s after -  

MTG: (up to Kaly in September)
* Onsight 7c in Kaly, suggestions welcome
* 7c in a day on Portland
* 3 good ring muscle ups in a row
* Squat and Deadlift 100kg - Sq-80kg DL-100kg

LTG: (This Year)
* 150 ticks in logbook - 104/150
* tick 3 x 8a - 0/3 * tick 10 x 7c/7c+ - 4/10
* Squat and deadlift 2x bodyweight
* Go to Kilnsey - August with Ally?
* Get to December without any new injuries
* reasonably static muscle up
* Enter BLCC and don't come dead last

BHAG:
* Onsight 8a+/Redpoint 8b+ in a day by March 2022 (40th Birthday)

Forgot my FC600 goals:

FC600: 6000 seconds of handstanding - 4930/6000 seconds. Stretch goal - 60 second hold! - 51/60
+60kg pull up - +60kg!
6 onsights 7a or higher in a day (in Kaly) - Picked Secret Garden as a potential venue...

Last week's goals - 

* 4.5 hours Z1
* 2 AeroPow sessions
* 2 Strength sessions
* Keep up the E1 mileage.

Only really succeeded on the E1 goal, though that's probably the most important. Still struggling with getting the aerobic work done.

Mon - Gogarth (E1 5b) with Laudi. Led the scary traverse and the 5b top pitch, which was excellent.

Wed - Temperatures dropped - finally - so did some bouldering at  Burbage South Valley Boulders. Rediscovered how shit I am at bouldering.

Thu - Trail Run

Fri - Beer

Sat - Prep weekend for the Ama Dablam trip at Jagged Globe HQ. Bought some massive boots.

Sun  - More prep for Ama Dablam, messing around on fixed lines at Lawrencefield. Another insanely hot day, In the afternoon went to  Staden Quarry, Led The Nails (E1 5b) again, this time with the HVS finish and also Sunai (E1 5b).

STG

* 5 hours Z1
* 2 AeroPow sessions
* 2 Strength and Conditioning Sessions
* Some bouldering
* E1 Mileage

MTG
- Ama Dablam Nov 2018

 - Routes : 

The File (VS 4c)
Suicide Wall (HVS 5b)
The Hen Cloud HVSs

The Right Unconquerable (HVS 5a)
The Left Unconquerable (E1 5b)
Flying Buttress Direct (E1 5b)
Brown's Eliminate (E2 5b)
The Rasp (E2 5b)
Regent Street (E2 5c)

- Problems

Crescent Arête (f5+)
Banana Finger (f6A)

LTG

- US/Canada trip in Winter 2018

BHAG

London Wall (E5 6a)
The 1938 Route (ED2)
American Direct (ED1 6c+)

To add to my post I weighed myself this morning and am down to 11.3%. That’s progress! 

DQS score was over 20 everyday and sometimes into the high 20’s. 

Happy with that at least. 

No worries Andy - I dodged the lurgy last weekend by being lazy and doing virtually nothing for 2 days, though the lady has now come down with similar.

Week 35

BHM – (As reported previously) Cornice. 6c warm-up feeling sluggish and incompetent. Dogged project. RP#1 new highpoint tickling undercut. RP#2 also tickling. RP#3 same. RP#4 same as previous session's highpoint. Surprising progress – shows you what good connies can do for you. 7b+ flash warm-down ????

T – Rest.

W – Brief boulder, L shoulder went twang so stopped early.

T – Short & sharp session to stay nicely recruited for the weekend; shoulder feeling “okay”. 1-arm max-hangs. 3x 8s on lattice edge -13kg assist. 3x 10s on campus rung -5kg assist. 3x 10s 2-arm RA grip +8kg. Mild T’s/reverse T’s and rows. 2x 6rep 80kg DL.

F – Rest.

S – Cornice. Repeat Martial Music (7a) to warm-up. Used really high feet on the bulge instead of lank and still found it just fine; but guess it could feel horrid if you’re trying to lank without the necessary lank! Back on the project: Go #1. Draws in and repeat crux to end; minor foot beta tweak. Go #2. Good familiarity and speed through first section, but whipper tickling pocket after undercut. Go#3. Bish, bash, bosh. 4 fingers in the slot and smashed on to the chains. Needs a name and a decision as to whether it’s 8b or 8b+? (8th session including 1 for Jug Jockey/Easy Rider, so certain it’s not the bottom end of 8b!!). “Warmed-down” by getting on Gran Techo (8b) twice. Go#1 very dogged. Failed to do one move on lower wall and crux roof match/foot-clamp. Did lip to jugs after working. Go#2. Was spangled by then, but made progress on roof foot clamp.

S – Shoulders aching beautifully in the car driving to UBMC reunion BBQ – tw*tishly spannered my ring finger by jumping on a child's zipline and crushing/bruising it heavily. It’s now sausage sized and purple. Eegit.

Steady progress, but not sure i've enough time to fit in 6 more ticks? 8b/+ x2 (1/2), 8a/+ x5 (3/5), 7b-c+ x10 (7/10)

Congrats on the new route, I think anyone would be happy with that ticklist as it stands, really impressive!

Nice one Ally, best year ever for sport routes?

Hi All. Get well soon AJM (and everyone else! -surely it's a bit early for lurgy season?!)

An ok week -start of new TFTNA cycle was slightly stymied by work/life commitments, but hey -it's the transition period of the cycle!

Last Week:

Ticked apart from dropped one Core and General Strength session.

M: Road Run (66 min Z1, 11.5km, flat)

T: Rest

W: Long work day

T: Rest

F: Shoulder prehab

S: Climbing (poor session, supposed to be easy mileage but couldn't get in the zone and only climbed 8 pitches, highlight was VS solo). Trail run over Bleaklow (60 min Z1, 9km, 170m vert)

S: Short Trail Run (12min Z3/4, 3km, flat). Core session (felt hard after time off) and General Strength session (working out new weights for required reps -faffy).

Next Week:

135 min Z1

Short Z3

2 Core sessions

2 General Strength sessions

1 Climbing session

STG/Q3:

New routes in Kyrgyzstan (/)

Start new TFTNA cycle (/)

Try one anti-style route per week (1/5)

MTG/Q4:

Jaz (D8)

North Face Original Route (ED1)

LTG/Q1:

Scottish tech 7

Improve off-piste skiing (need to make this more specific!)

The Ginat (ED1 5)

Cheers guys. 8a.poo says 2014 was better, but their point scoring is skewed by on-sights. Best year for redpointing for sure.

Plenty of time for a Spanish trip to get some OSing done. 

Ouch, hope you are feeling better soon! Wife and eldest daughter have both had the lurgy of late and its hit them really hard 

Had Monday as a rest day being the bank hols and all that

Tuesday, ride to work, 16km, 1km lunchtime swim and 16km ride home again

Wednesday, school uniform shopping, absolute hell

Thursday, 1.5km lunchtime swim and stretch class

Friday, 1.5km lunchtime swim and 25km ride home

Saturday, kick started half marathon training with a 13km run, need to work on upping the distance as there is only 6 weeks to go

Sunday, rest

Only dislike 'cos I don't have any leave/spare brownie points for a Spanish trip

Get well soon!

Last Week:

M: Rest

T: 50min Z1 stairmaster.

W: General strength w/core routine warmup. Felt really good after a few days off. Finished with a 15min Z1/recovery pace warmdown run on the treadmill.

T: 35min Z1/recovery pace run.

F: General strength w/core routine warmup. Felt a bit sluggish towards the end.

S: Rest

S: Mellow bouldering session at the wall, focused on packing in maximum mileage on super easy problems. Finger strength has become truly abysmal over the last few months, so will probably start incorporating some fingerboard work to remedy this.

This Week:

• 100min Z1
• 30min Z2
• 2 general strength sessions w/core routine warmup
• 1 alpine route
• Prioritise sleep, avoid alcohol, don't get ill from weekend alps exhaustion.

Goals: (will add more/refine as they become clearer)

STG (end of October)

• 2x long alpine routes, TD or above, 800m+
• 3x E2 O/S

MTG (~end of January, maybe a little later)

• 2x Scottish VII O/S
• 3x WI6 O/S
• 1x M8 O/S

LTG (~end of 2019)

• New route in the Cordillera Blanca
• Bugaboos trip
• Caucasus trip

Given what people have said I’ve done some micro-stats, to help me keep on top of next weeks FC600 updates if nothing else.

Welcome to our returners, Alex and Bones. And kudos to everyone for getting out there and doing stuff!

Fit Club 600 goals:

AJM - some DWS (Gates of Greyskull, Crazy Notion, Z-Cars, Crab Party, Freeborn Man, Window of Opportunity, Rainbow Bridge pt1), some E2/3 (2x E2), 10/13 weeks of consistent weekday training (failed by now)

Dandan82 - 6000s handstand (4388/6000), +60kg pull-up (tick!), 6 fr7 onsights in a day, 60s handstand (51)

Richard Popp - a new 7a

Ally Smith - 8b/+ x2 (0/2), 8a/+ x5 (3/5), 7b-c+ x10 (7/10)

Si dH - Ancap routine at recommended load (75-ish/80)

Planetmarshall - E2 onsight

Tom Green - 600m new route in Kyrgyzstan (Tick!!!)

Rebecca Ting - more DWS (splash splash sploshing away), Animal Mag (tick!), something in Cham (Petit Aig Verte and Cosmiques), solid base of E1-3, convincing handstand (tick)...

Tyler - 6 new routes (4/6),  6 new >E1 (0/6), 6 crags that you’ve not visited in the last decade (1/6)

biscuit - Trowbarrow traverse (tick!), black circuit, 11% body fat, Fiesta-at-Kendal

My bank holiday Monday was good, as previously reported, did the first half of Rainbow Bridge.

i didn’t manage anything else for the week. Just not feeling much psyche for training at the minute. I think I’m slightly in denial in that my elbow seems mainly fine climbing outdoors but if I start doing foot on campus indoors it might highlight the fact probably that that’s avoidance rather than cure. Having admitted this to myself, I’m going to try to go indoors this week at least once to try to get a handle on my shape with only a month or so to go before Smith. I’ve done a fair bit of mileage this summer, on dws when I’ve been committing well 7a/+ has been a ~2 go, 7b a ~3 go and Gates at 7b+ was maybe 6 goes thing, which even assuming that team beta trades out for a ground-up style evenly (I’m not sure it does) isn’t too bad. And my one roped session on something hard was fairly encouraging. But then Smith and Lulworth aren’t exactly similar in style, and I’ve had occasions when my ability to commit to standing on my feet has been poor (see: Swanage).

So who knows. Any thoughts from the hive mind?

After much trying I failed to organise any trad climbing this Saturday. I woke up tired and we went to Dartmoor. I did The Hidden Traverse (f6B), which is excellent (although I’m not sure where you go L-R to make it easier, as the end, dropping back to the sit start on the R-L felt really hard), and Mezzotinter (f5) which is also really good, biffo jugs as soon as you get to the roof so the high bit feels steady. I tried Bjorn Again Extended Start (f6B) too, did the hard start fine but there was a rock over on some crystal crimps I wasn’t too psyched about without a spotter, who had a miniAJM to attend to. A deep lock on the right arm trying to find them also aggravated my elbow.

i felt like I tossed and turned all night, then woke up with a bit of an unhappy stomach, cramped legs and a sore lower back. And there we’ve come full circle back to my start post! I went to the wedding, enjoyed the meal after administering a Vitamin I, but was still in bed by 930, which allowed me to survive the midnight fire alarm and wake up today feeling thankfully recovered.....

hoping, as per last week, to do some trad this weekend. I think I’m going to call time on weekday evenings now and get to the wall, as per above.

Sorry to hear you've been under the weather AJM  

No need for confession though, the God of fit club is too forgiving for all that!

I did very little last week as work was MENTAL with a capital M.

-2 sets of the usual exercises one evening.

-And I did also get to the wall and climb on jugs one night. Finger was still too sore to pull on easy crimps. However I'm at the wall right now about to test that out .....tune in next week to see if I've reinjured my finger or made progress in my rehab

Glad to hear you recovered sufficiently to enjoy the wedding breakfast.
•Tu: Commuting walk, 6.2m.
•We: Commuting walk, 6.9m.
•Th: Commuting walk, 6.0m.
•Sa: General walking, 7.9m. 3 trad routes, alt lead.

Back to work, which was a shock to the system. Meant to go training, but felt really tired, which wasn’t work, but a developing cold. Some sleep, loads of vitamin C, so got out for some trad on Saturday.

Working on goals and training plan this week and hoping the good weather lasts.

Hope you’re feeling better Andy. 

Still not got time for training but I’ll take 3 days on rock! 

M - berry head DWS falling off the crux of rainbow bridge interspersed with a jaunt up Moonraker with MrsAJM. Awesome.

T-F - lots of work and cold develops...

S - Burbage South mileage including Burssola (HVS 5b), Millwheel Wall (E1 5b), a rarely dry Hades (E1 5c) and the not dry enough Coldest Crack (E2 5c).

S - millstone with a pad and put together Keyhole Traverse 2 (f7A) before popping to Yarncliffe with Soph to continue the the rarely dry crack theme and see if Zapple was in (close enough!)

Back in the UK as of yesterday, so thought I'd do a quick update on my Krygzstan trip and then get back into training and FC next week.

Overall the trip went well- climbed 6 new peaks in the central At-Bashi range in total, 11 new peaks total for our whole expedition group. In getting to those peaks we established 3 really good quality routes, a PD glacial stomp to the highest peak in the range (4767m) (summit pic: https://photos.app.goo.gl/rJUrEAZuX2T2czUe9)

, a D- ridge traverse of two new peaks (4504m and 4496m), and an AD+ traverse of another two (4616 and 4608).

I thought the organisation/setup of the trip was OK- there was a bit too much tourism for my liking, we probably could have spent a couple more days climbing. All climbing was guided, which I expected, but meant a more conservative approach than I probably would have otherwise (with regard to route choice and potential weather etc). 

Other notable points:

- I didn't acclimatise well initially. When first arriving at BC (~3800m) I was pretty hypoxic at 62% o2 sat and had to spend the evening/night covered in every piece of down I took. Took a chill day and then was fine after

- Fitness was acceptable but I would definitely benefit from more training on uphill (ie same observation as after Bugaboos trip)

- Vodka doesnt really give me a hangover, even when drunk at 4000m

Sounds like a great  trip 

Awesome. Great work Guy! 

By the way... is that oxygen saturation a typo? Or just an unusual scale? Or are you a medical miracle?!

Mmm now you ask I'm not sure... I wasn't in a coherent state when the numbers were being taken. What exactly do you mean?

I’m extrapolating from animals(!) but think the ranges are similar for humans...

Field measurements would usually be by pulse oximetry (clip on finger) which uses various algorithms to give a percentage saturation. For pulse ox the normal range would usually be 95-100. 90-95 is hypoxic. Less than 90 is heading towards non-recoverable organ damage. 

I wondered whether your measurements were using a different scale or whether 62 was a typo for 92. Always curious about this stuff as I find mountain medicine really interesting (although part of me thinks that ignorance is bliss when it comes to high altitude physiology!)

Good summit selfie by the way!

Also, any cool wildlife?

Well I dont think I have any non recoverable organ damage, so must be wrong!

There wasn't an abundance of wildlife in the range... mainly a lot of vultures and eagles, marmots, yak and horses. We did see a single hoopo. Definitely no snow leopards

STG - 14st

MTG - Goblin Girl (6b) 6c at Navigation, then WFD

LTG - Probably bouldering, bearing in mind Trad will be hard for the next few years...

Weight - 14st 4lbs (2lbs gain)

M - Rest

T - 5k run

W - S - Rest

Still not feeling great but I managed to grind out a 5k run.  I did go down the Rec, but it was closed sadly, so no climbing for me this week.  Lots of other life stuff going on, so didn't get to re-schedule.