UKC

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fitclub 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.

For those wanting to find out more about training for climbing a number of physical training articles are linked here: http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=274502 

The following training article by Alex Barrows gives an excellent breakdown on training the four main "energy systems" specific to climbing: http://alexbarrowsclimbing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/training-for-sport-climbi...

Last week’s thread can be found here:https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/fitclub_570-679517

Si dH: I was rudely informed during last week that despite it’s name, I should be reversing the movement of the getup back to the floor, so I too have technique work to do!

AlanLittle: “poorer leg endurance this year than in previous years, so my new strategy of not wasting time on hillwalking training is clearly working” Love this attitude!

Powderpuff: Good to identify a weakness- whats your favourite core exercise? (or maybe least favourite would be more instructive)

AJM: Good to see continued progress!

Richard Popp: Welcome back, great to hear about your recovery. I’ll DM you some TRX exercises that were recommended to me.

hms: Enjoy your trip!

guy127917: Sounds too good to be true

Bones: Tell me about the skills you built in Scotland..

MFB: Good job getting the fitness benchmark done- only being able to go for 30s probably isn’t too bad a thing (according to TFTNA theory anyway)- it just means you don’t have a dominant/developed anaerobic system

Climbthatpitch: Hope you arrive in Scotland whilst the beast from the east is still keeping it in good nick! 

Tyler: How was outside- hell or high water[mark performance]?

Cyan: Amazing video!

LauraMorrissey: Thrilled to hear you got your bike back! Hows van acquisition progressing?

Tom Green: How did your rest week go? Have you decided on a plan of attack for your trip?

planetmarshall: Are these injuries things you picked up this season or more ongoing issues?

Dandan82: Congrats on the comp win!

Ally Smith: Sounds good, just give me a shout when you are in town and looking for a training partner. My climbing specific training is pretty flexible at the moment so can do whatever. I’m keen to try Stronghold at some point as well (@cyan)

The sheep: OK so what’s the next waypoint/event for you?

wurzel: Sounds like you have a good approach to making it work. Have you ever done a really focussed fingerboard programme? (ie making it the highest priority for a period of time- for example Si recently did a 5 week block of strength building). 

Andy Nelson: Welcome to another Londoner and another TFTNA’er! 

Ardo: Our trip was excellent thanks, so really great weather and conditions! 

biscuit: A mile of ascent sounds hard to me! It’s always hard grappling with relative priorities of your commitments and goals, but I think it’s better to try and be explicit and  accept it earlier rather than constantly as you go. I find it frustrating when I go backwards with guitar stuff, but it’s just not my priority compared to climbing so just have to live with it (and buy more guitars to try and compensate!)

Just Tintin: Ah no, thats not good, hope not too much taken?! Your trip sounds great though, any cool pics you wanna share?

AWOL: The Fasting, mattrm, leon, Stuart William

Monday: Raining and 7 degrees in the Coire Cas car park, decided to have a rest day. Spent the whole day very grumpy. Made note to self- should deal with this better.

Tuesday: Sneachda to do The Seam (IV 5) and Hidden Chimney (III). Both entertaining but straight forward.

Wednesday: The Curtain (IV 5) and then finishing up Ledge Route (II) and on to the summit. Ice kind of thin but felt pretty cruiser thoughout.

Thursday: Tinsel Town (V 4) Horrendous cornice situation required 50m traverse to exit. Otherwise a very nice line!

Friday: Rest day

Saturday: Travel day

Sunday: 1:20 Z2 run, probably going for casual climbing session later as well.

Photo of Bones and I at the top of Lurchers https://photos.app.goo.gl/CDPQDlbB8FN4NSWN2

Really enjoyable week in Scotland. Except for Monday the conditions were very good- mostly cold and clear and sometimes even sunny! Good to get to a new crag in Aonach Mor, though slightly disappointing not to get out on Creag Meaghie or one of the north western crags. I feel like I achieved my objective of progressing through gaining experience on more winter climbs and am now more confident of my abilities as a mixed and ice climber. Looking forward to Rjukan in March!

This week will be week 1 of my base training phase (24 weeks until Krzygstan). I have 11:15 hours of training scheduled/8:15 of cardio. The 4 exercises I will be focussing on for the max strength training follow. I will be benchmarking these this week. 

Weighted pull ups

Front lever

Box step up

Split bench squat

I haven’t quite worked out the format yet, but will also be looking to incorporate the following exercises into a warmup and cooldown/stretching routine. I’m worried about the impact of the above exercises on my occasional tennis elbow and knee inflammation issues (which could be IT band related or due to ancient meniscus damage). I will try and see an osteopath this week and see if they can suggest anything pre-emptive in these areas.

Movement (Warmup)

Dynamic leg stretches

Hip rotation

Twists

Indian pushup

Cossack Squats

Turkish get up (light)

Prehab (Warmup)

Stretch forearms for elbow issues

Theraband work for shoulders and elbows

Theraband twists for elbows

Core (Warmup)

Strict situps

Windscreen wipers

2 point 3 point

Kayaker

Side plank with DB

TRX roll out (Y/I)

TRX pikes

Isometrics/Mobility/Skills (Cooldown)

L-Sit

Bridge with extension

German hang

Frog stand

Handstand

Jefferson curls

Butterfly 

Pidgeon

Spine rotation stretch

Thanks again Guy. Looks like you had a great week! Some of my friends bailed on Tuesday due to warming temps: sounds like you two did well to stay.

A quick question as I get the impression you know a decent amount about resistance training. If I want to build short term power endurance in my shoulders and core (ie bigger muscle groups rather than forearms) do you know what sort of protocol (reps, rests etc) I should follow? Objective is the equivalent of boulder 4x4s for forearm training, ie so I can keep pulling hard for 30-60 seconds.

Thanks 

Si

I think the keyword you need to search for that is "metcon" or metabolic conditioning. Think crossfit style workouts. I was just reading about it in Overcoming Gravity 2 last night- I could send you some pics of the 3 relevant pages if you want?

I developed my skills of how to keep calm under pressure and not panic. Also my mixed climbing improved along with my confidence. Didn’t really monitor my fitness very accurately as forgot to turn watch on or off a couple of times but looking at the figures I do have there is a general trend of improvement. After the first day (5% in zone 4) I was not in zone 4 or 5 at all on the walk ins whereas previously I was always going into zone 5 at some point. Average time spend in zones over the 9 days:

Zone 1 - 59%
Zone 2 - 22%
Zone 3 - 16%
Zone 4 - 1%
Zone 5 - 0%

I will be completing another three weeks of transition, going back to week 6 (which ended up being more of a rest before Scotland) and then going on to the base phase of TFTNA.

Transitional phase - week 6 plan:
Aerobic activity - 367 mins
Zone 1/2 (walk/running/stepper) time - 277 mins
Climbing sessions - 2
Fingerboard sessions - 0
Strength (and core) sessions - 2

Monday: weather enforced rest

Tuesday: Sneachda again to do The Seam and the last pitch of Hidden Chimney. Really enjoyed both. Good climbing and felt my mixed skills were improving.

Wednesday: The Curtain (IV, 5) on the Ben then soloed up Ledge Route (II), which was beautiful. Incredible difference on the walk in this year compared to last! Felt great. Walked to the top of Ben Nevis for the first time and was well worth the time. No boggy walk offs in the dark this year. Boggy walk off in bright daylight instead. 

Thursday: Tinsel Town on Aonach Mor (V, 4). Got the gondola and then cable car up which saved a lot of time on the approach. Chose to climb Tinsel Town as the planned route, White Shark to the left, was taken. Some good mixed pitches which tested my technique but I felt pretty solid on them. Turned into a bit of an epic towards the top as there was a massive cornice, nowhere to belay and snow that just fell away at a touch. We both ended up at the top under the cornice and Guy traversed off to the right to find a way over. There were some miraculous moments of walking on air and somehow being held on to nothing! Unbelievably, even with a 50m rope it ran out on the traverse and so I put a sling on the belay and gave out the extra metre or two of rope for Guy to get over the cornice. Then I went and traversed the 50 metres to the top as it got dark. It was an eventful day and I was buzzing afterwards!!  Also, any communication tips in cases were you can’t hear each other?

Friday: Rest and nervous energy

Saturday: Rest and homebound

Sunday: Lead climbing session with the new bouncy rope.

LTG:
To climb a big wall - El Cap
Lead 7a+ 2018
Run a trail marathon
Lead E1

MTG:
The Matterhorn 
Lead 30 x VS trad routes
Lead 5 HVS trad routes
Lead The Great Slab at Millstone Edge (HS 4b)
To lead one 7a lead indoors from each reset
Run a trail half marathon
To complete the TFTNA training plan starting with the 8 week transition phase
Goals for Australia in September tbd

STG:
To build some skills in Scotland - tick
To work a 7a on lead once a week when I have a partner - hopefully today
To flash 2 6c/6c+ indoor routes for every reset - hopefully today
To plan my week every Sunday - tick

if you can't communicate easily, strip down what you need to say. If you know that the only thing your partner is going to try to communicate is "you are safe to climb" (ie who cares about "off belay", "safe" etc - just pay the rope through the belay plate as it gets taken in, it won't kill you) then it simplifies. 

And lots of rope tugs. Feeling for 3 rope tugs you could mistake for someone trying to untangle a rope. 6 at a steady pacing on the other hand is far less likely to give a false positive. 

??

Thanks as ever guy. Your warmup/prehab/etc looks like it involves more than my entire training! 

- Wall on Tuesday - didn’t get either project done before reset but I did get a few other things done and tried hard.

- Thursday my plans for a decent training evening were thwarted by a power cut and a restless child. I managed a very quick few sets of shoulder engages at 71kg pulled. 

- The plan had originally been to go out yesterday but MrsAJM has been pretty wiped with lack of sleep so we decided to stay in and try to rest up.

- Managed to sneak out for a short hit today. Back to the boulder field - so many nooks and crannies that actually the cold wind wasn’t too much of a hassle. Managed to get Hot Ride (f7A+) after a few goes, cool problem, very nice. Then I decided to go and do some more benchmarking of progress or not on Workshy (f7B) - “the hardest 7B I’ve ever been on” (https://www.instagram.com/p/Be0tKsuFatp/?taken-by=jonnykydd). Progress was there, albeit still on a timescale that makes success a long way off. I mean, it’s basically a board style 7B (/+?) that packs the entire grade into basically 3 hand moves. Not my bag. But, anyway, my progress was:

- I managed to pull off the ground and throw at the hold for move 1. I didn’t hit it, but I did pretty much cover the distance. I don’t think I’ve got off the ground before.

- if you whack a toe hook in, the second move is ok. My progress here is that I can now release the toehook and start to think about setting up for the big throw move 3 without swinging outwards and falling off. I still don’t feel anywhere near throwing the distance for move 3 mind you!

More progress, although I wish I’d done more in the week. Supposed to be on Dartmoor this weekend for 3 days but on the current forecast it’s going to be bitterly cold so may be more about walking in the woods, pub lunches and a token woodland boulder rather than getting up onto the exposed high moor and crushing dancing queen. But it’s early days yet, who can say?

Weight came down a bit this week, although I may have reversed that with a pub lunch today. This mornings wight, if sustained, would leave me with 1kg or so left to get down to what I’d sort of declared was target (71kg)

STG by Easter
- 7B pyramid (1 7B, 2 7A+, 4 7A, some 6C/+) with the Font 7s being from at least 3 different areas including Font. [0/1, 1/2, 5/4, 1/some … 2 areas]
- some trad?
- some sport maybe from - RR, FT, HoM, NS, BHB, LAT
- >90% bw on the lattice rung and some improvements in other PBs. Improvements in shoulder strength/on shouldery problems too.
MTG 2018, a bit early to say:
- solid dws season
- good autumn trip
- build a base for long term progress - keep getting stronger
BHAG as ever - E5s, Tom et je Ris, ~7c-8a onsight/flash, big adventures that these bring.

Thanks Guy. I've just done a bit of reading but if you are happy to pm me those pages that would be cool. I'll use the advice to tailor my shoulder exercises a bit more.

Thanks!

 'it just means you don’t have a dominant/developed anaerobic system'

Interesting idea, failed to get on the TFTNA this week, but really enjoying Whymper' s Scrambles in the alps

M- return of the man flu

T- Middlefell butress 250m

W-Bike 30mins am, Scout crags 'route 1' (200m) in afternoon, with insane rock fall person!

T- 5 x overhanging up and down, 2x vertical up and down, finish up a 6b and down. Autobelay

F- Bilberry Butress Raven crag (200m), chilly (off to Scotland)

S -Buachaille Etive Mor - Curved Ridge II/III 3 *** 700m

Nice relaxed day, great weather, up at six, off by 7, finished by 11.30am, home for 5pm

Just time Middlefell Buttress D *200m

S- Stickle tarn 350m 25mins, Jack's Rake 250m

STG -Ticked a Scottish winter line but struggling to climb harder than VS, rock climbing conditions are pretty challenging, the Scottish road trip involved many many calorie so won't jump on scales till Wednesday.

MTG- do some anaerobic stuff, read TFTNA

Cheers Guy - back on board now I'm back from Spain. Just paid for a month's membership at Pinnacle, that'll let me use the autobelay for a while but I'm thinking skin will be the limiting factor as plastic has been happily avoided for much of the last three years.

Goal - Get ready for Salbit West Grat in the summer. ED1 1000m 32 pitch.

Sat - Warm up in the boulder room. 25min x 2 rainbowing, 20min rest. Stopped due to hot skin.

Sun - No warmup. 30min rainbowing, 20min rest, 40 min rainbowing. Skin stopped play.

My rainbowing involves any holds for any limb, some small moves, some big, rarely dynamic (to save skin), lots of holding rest positions, quick spells, slow as possible, use every hold for feet on one lap and some downclimbing too. Happy to drop to the floor as Salbit has plenty of hands free rests. On Motorhead, I took roughly 10min per pitch, so I need to get up to maybe 6 x 1hr stints on minimal water and food. I reckon I might need to find some gloves to use to save skin but I'm using tiny crimps at times, so it all needs to be balanced. Lots of Liz Arden moisturiser and garlic for the tips. Had the shoes resoled with 5.5mm C4 for support and it's helped the left big toe no end, 40min was no worry.

I'm making a right effort to engage the shoulders whilst resting and climbing, trying to use the back three to improve the use of a right arm lockoff and now the left shoulder is finally responding to treatment I'm trying to climb on a straight left arm, which is scary having never being able to. Mind over matter!

Injury-wise, I came back from Spain happy - the shoulder plays up when I don't roll the thoracic which makes it easy to keep on top of, well, now I've worked out what it is that actually helps. The last three climbing days of the trip, I felt happy enough to go 'a muerte' - since I rolled the van and stuffed up the back, I've been climbing within myself if I'm honest, taking care not to go backwards. Gave it some welly on a 3 bolt 6b+ in Chulilla and peeled off before the first bolt, decked out (purposefully didn't use the clipstick), got back on and peeled off before the second bolt. A tiny belayer meant an interesting fall but I was just so happy I hadn't thought about her or falling. It felt good. Then in Albarracin ticked the first 6B since rolling the van, jumped on 7A etc and tried some shouldery 6A mantle for while. No complaints from the shoulder. Got a bit further on a 7a project in Siurana, got on 7a+ in Chulilla, managed to avoid falling rock in Montserrat... and made a load of new friends. A successfull trip!

A month of training now and then Siurana for a week.

Favorite core exercise would be leg raises as they really make an impact for me. Im terrible at remembering the names of exercises so i may have to watch videos of exercises in your planned core workouts, it may encourage me to mix up the variety.

All I managed this week was one core work out as the dreaded lurgy came back!

I feel better today thought so hopefully the coming week will see some actually climbing! 

M/LTGs from April: 7B in Font, Eastwood Traverse, Mentalist, Caviar

M: rest

T: Climbing Unit woodie. Pretty good session. Did a 7A, then spent the rest of the time trying another which is a real sandbag.

W: Shoulder TRX stuff I think

T: I had a go at the Lattice pullup training workout as shown on their ukc video this week, but on the good pockets on a bm2000 rather than a bar. I thought 80% of 1RM for 4 reps (x 5 with good rests between sets) felt too easy to be strength training. I could have managed it with closer to 90% 1rm I think.

F: rest

S: Roaches. Good day. Mostly on Tetris. I got up to falling off the final slap up the arete again, which is where I fell on a lot of my good attempts last year. Pleased to get back there in a session and was feeling strong despite being a bit heavy and not having slept well.

S: Did a bit more shoulder stuff this morning.

Fell off-plan with dieting again this week. Wednesday/Thursday/Friday evenings were terrible -- pointless snacking on bread and cheese before bed ("I've already eaten too much today so it doesn't matter" sort of approach.)  Then over the weekend I decided to take a break from counting completely. From tomorrow I'm going to set a less restrictive kcal target in the hope I can stick to it better, but which should still be a slight defecit.

Weight this evening is 74.8kg. Hopefully that's a blip.

Focus for next few weeks now is to do Tetris if I can before the weather warms up, while losing a little more weight for Font. Hence also my request above about shoulder power endurance. I just run out of clamping gas by the top.

Cheers,

Si 

Good effort on Hot Ride. Workshy looks really good. How come not trying Force Majeure again?

Conditions for Dartmoor are surely perfect in a freezing wind, no?

Haha I'm trying to build work capacity, unfortunately that means doing a lot of work! I may not do all of that every session, I'll see how long it takes. Once I've done a new set of exercises a few times I can usually squeeze quite a lot into 1-1.5hours with supersets, mini circuits etc.

Yesterday it might have been a goer - today too much swell. Neap high so a reasonable amount of water and swell rolling in due to the strong easterly. We did drive down to the Bill at the end to confirm my gut feel - would have been a no go.

theres freezing and there’s freezing. I’ve not checked this afternoon but I saw a “feels like” of -11 predicted for Haytor Vale and unfortunately I don’t think Saddle Tor would be sheltered from that wind direction!

STG: Addressing the head game: fall or jump off every time I have a rope on. 

Top out on the Big Intimidating Roof sector at Thalkirchen.

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: Resumption of max hangs, plus p/rehab shoulder, elbow & wrist extensor weights.

T: Rest. Half an hour elbow eccentrics & armaid.

W: Had planned to go to Boulderwelt with my son to start our run-up to Font at Easter, but he has a knee strain from skiing last week. I was feeling a bit under the weather too, having returned from the nice clean fresh mountain air to a virus-filled office that feels more like a plague ward. Stayed at home and did some more max hangs instead.

T: 

F: 

S: Font preparation: shopping. The little cheapie mat I bought in Arco seven years ago having been deemed inadequate by the rest of the team, we are now proud owners of a brand new shiny yellow Ocun Dominator. Nothing can possibly go wrong.

S: Wall, Weyarn. An hour's bouldering, and had then hoped to get on the autobelays for an aerocap 4x4 - this being the reason I had driven to a wall out of town, it's the only place for miles around that has them. But Sunday evening surprise routesetting stopped play, had to be content with 2 x 15 minutes ARC on the bouldering wall instead. Very boring.

I have been all over the place this week. Moving onto a boat in the next week or so, at some point I have a lot of stuff to sort out.

Mon: Rest.

Tues: Wall. 5x 3 repeats at V5/hard V4. Circuits.

Wedns: Rest.

Thurs: Rest.

Fri: Wall. Too cold and tired, lasted about half an hour then gave up and went for chips.

Sat: Winspit. Climbing in a T-shirt, win Few onsights and repeats up to 6b, fell off the top of Queen Anne's Men (6c), thrashed on a 7a. 

Sun: Wall. Working stuff. Good progress on a couple of V6s.

By the way: any FitClubbers in Font just before Easter? I'll be there with my son from the 24th to the 29th (already established that we won't overlap with AJM & family, unfortunately)

I'm glad you replied this as the first thing I thought was wow that's a lot I really need to up my game  

Outside was great, very good for the soul although my performance was middling at best.

M: Went to BUK can't remember anything but assume I tried some of the comp problem s I failed on .

T: Rest

W: Went to BUK with half of team Binns, best ever session on the black circuit. Managed all moves and did some good links. Half a beastmaker FB session.

T: Other half of beastmaker FB session. Managed a couple of comp problems, I tried not to do too much as I knew I was climbing on Sat but probably over cooked it.

F: Rest but giddy with excitement about going to Malham tomorrow. 

S: The big day! Great to be back, crag was busy but mainly with familiar faces and there was a real back to school feel..... Oh dear, warm ups went badly, mainly hip related but fingers weren't great either. Got on MO. First go up did very few moves but eventually clawed my way up crux move. Next go did much better with crux but still didn't do bottom half and couldn't manage last hard move at all. Third go, managed all moves.

S: More great weather but decided it'd be more fun (for me at least, she might not agree) to spend some time with my wife. Spent an hour at BUK as they have reset the warm up wall. It's now no longer a warm up wall. First three went fine but spent most of the session trying to do the moves on the 7a.

Weight: 10 stone 13 this morning after take away and ice-cream last night. Proper diet required, unfortunately. Much better with pre-hap (press ups and military press).

I thought you were joking when you said you only 'get up'. My trainer said you should drop to 20kg to do the full range of movement. 

Cheers Guy, my only prize was a big pot of ego massage oil, but it was a lot of fun.

A good week just gone, my only aim was to keep a level head and not do anything too silly, after the mysterious peak last week I felt it was just the kind of time when I would typically push too hard and break something.
I had noticed a little occasional twinge in one shoulder and a slightly tender finger, both of which I have manage to eliminate this week by not being a cocky idiot.

M: Core; back to back dish, crunches, plank, hanging leg raises. Repeat x3
  TRX; low rows, prone flys, reverse flys, typewriters

T: Indoor Boulder; 4 problems ascending in difficulty, 1-3 good goes with good rests between. I couldn't tick my project route that I managed last week, I also couldn't do a move on one of the comp problems that I flashed last week, it was definitely a peak week! With that in mind, I did still manage one of my benchmark woody problems in very good style which says to me that even though i've dropped back off whatever peak I was on, my base ability has still improved over the last few months which is really encouraging.
Aero 6:1's; 3 min on 30 sec off easy climbing x3

W: Core as above
  Lower body flexibility

T: Conditioning; dumbell press, hanging shoulder depressions, low rows, reverse flys, prone IYT, rotator curls
Indoor Boulder; 7 reps of problem at about 80% difficulty, with 2.5 min rests. 1.5 sets. I hit the difficulty bang on with this one, good old woody!

F: Indoor Boulder; Aero split; 3x boulder at 75% then 6 mins of easy climbing. Repeat x3

S: Outdoor Routes; West coast of Portland was absolutely glorious, a cold start but when the sun came round it was tops off weather all afternoon! Quite a chilled out day for me as I have no projects at the crag we were at so I concentrated on onsight practice. I managed very comfortable onsights of 6c+, 6c+, 7a, 7a (retro flash) and 7a+. I felt I moved really well and was never really pushing hard. There are a bunch of 7a+/7b routes a little further along that i'd like to try and onsight in one go next time which should be a little more of a challenge. Best route of the day was Turned to Stone (6c+) which was 3 star flowstone fabulousness. Best performance of the day was Mrs Dandan who bagged her first 7a+ by flashing it! She's clearly not trying hard enough routes...

S: TRX as above, the prone flys are really coming on and the typewriters barely upset my elbow at all.
  Lower body flexibility

STG: (last week)
* Stick to plan, no extra-curricular climbing unless outdoors - TICK
* 30 second handstand - FAIL, stability improving all the time but no long holds

STG: (next week)
* Repeat woody project as part of a session
* Stick to plan, no extra-curricular climbing unless outdoors
* 30 second handstand 

MTG: (next few months)
* Pull on Nina mala/flash over in Margalef in May
* 7c in a day on Portland
* 8a in a day in Margalef in May
* Pick a lattice max moves target for May based on result from todays test

LTG: (This Year)
* 150 ticks in logbook - 31/150
* tick 3 x 8a
* tick 10 x 7c/7c+ - 1/10
* Go to Kilnsey
* Get to December without any new injuries
* +bodyweight pull ups (2 reps) 
* Enter BLCC and don't come dead last 

BHAG:
* 9a by March 2022 (40th Birthday)
* Stage 1a of BHAG is 8b by the end of the year

Thank you. That's good advice. The reason I ask is because the situation I found myself in the other day was complicated by the fact that the rope was running out (ran out) on a long traverse which I couldn't see as I was around the corner (there really was no way of setting up another belay to bring me around) and I also had quite a high chance of falling if I started to climb and dragging us both off if he hadn't finished climbing. Would you use rope tugs more as the leader to communicate? I worry about doing this when belaying because I don't want to pull them off the climb.

In a really stripped down scenario, does the belayer need to communicate? You can't get anything nuanced like "5m left" through in this scenario, movement tells the leader you're climbing, and you're abandoning stuff like "off belay" in the interest of simplicity.

Edit: if the rope stops coming, but the leader keeps hauling on it anyway, it's always difficult. But if they haven't started retreating after a few minutes you've got to assume they've judged that continuing moving together is the best of the available alternatives?

Yes, that is an interesting point. I suppose in that situation the leader would probably be aware that there is little/no rope and would either retreat if they can or wait until the belayer starts climbing. I hadn't fully thought about how much information the leader can also get from rope movement: whether it has run out, belayer is climbing etc.

I know it is not an answer to your original question and in winter running it out further can save tine but if a complex traverse is coming up some times it does benifit and save time to do a shorter pitch. My experience is more summer than winter but I am guessing the same principals would apply.  

Yeah I was wondering if perhaps that would be better in this kind of situation. Minimising the complications such as no rope, communication etc. In the particular scenario we were in last week I think it would have been very hard to do that as there wasn't much in the way of belays in the cornice snow but it is definitely something to consider.

All true words. There are only so many plates you can spin at once. But it won't stop me grumping about it now and then Actually BUK have graded the comp problems now and it appears on the day I was flashing V5, which is my standard level there. I had two climbing sessions this week. One at BUK mainly just having unfocussed fun and trying the (kids) final problems and then some circuits. The new 7a is hard (i didn't get it in a couple of goes) and the new 7a+ is hard and grim (i didn't get that one either). At The Depot I did some circuits on the board I normally avoid. 6a+. 6b+, 6c+ all done. 7a+ felt brick hard. 

Biking wise I did well this week. A couple of work commutes and then a 100k/1800m ascent ride on Saturday and a 50k/1000m ride on Sunday. Tired legs today but happy with that. Just looking at improving my diet a bit and stopping using the fact i'm burning a lot of calories on the bike to eat pies.

thanks guy. duly did a taper week, flew out saturday. tried hard on a 7c on sunday. did all the moves and some links. v cold. more sun today at a s facing crag. 7b flash!

Thanks Guy - very appreciative of your on going stats efforts. 

I'm down in London village f.c. 19th March if you and Cyan fancy trying out Stronghold? 

hms will reply when we've got some solid wifi...

STGs for final 2 weeks before trip:

- 3x lap of the Depot 7a (fail – been reset) and 7a+ purple circuits (tick – super pumpy)

- Less steep 7a on teeny footholds ("7b") – fail - reset

- Double lap of the orange 7b+++ (fail – reset)

- Complete Lattice (Tick - sort of) and FoC benchmarks

- Stretch more regularly (tick).

- Complete double set of pocket repeaters wearing 5kg weight vest (tick – only just)

Week 8

M – Sore back. Warm-up inc. 500 core movements, & 3x barbell circuits (25kg). First time full 2x set repeaters with +5kg (STG tick). Lots barbell exercises between sets.

T – Climbing rest; biked 25km/50min/~450kcal

W – FoC to failure with lactate curve x2 (STG tick). Bizarrely set #2 was 10% better than #1. 282s best effort - compared to other trips, I'm at 7c/+ OS level at the moment?

T – Back sore; last minute sports massage.

F - Went to look at a house with excellent board potential!

S – Siurana. 6b warm up. Then dogged Escarmala/Ramadan link, 8a. Got all moves quickly, but no time for a RP.

S – Margalef. Very cold 6b slab. 6c+ fail! 8a dog. One hand move & one foot move missing. 7c+ failed OS. Dogged it, tried RP. Did 7b (+?) variant at the end of the day by the skin of my teeth.

From previous post: statement of intent:

STG : April - Le Flipper Font 6B (not the sit start) 

MTG: Aug -  Swim 1km open water

MTG : July 31st (hut booked) Matterhorn via Hornli (or similar objective depending on weather)

Last week, was kinda mixed, started well but then had a few low days. Did however get the commute to work (bike) back on though, adds about 4 hours of zone 1 cardio a week to general load. Total hours training, approx 10, exc, weekend activity.

M:
a.m. zone 1 stepper - 1h:10m
p.m. 

T:
a.m. gym - core work for 45 minutes
p.m. 30 minutes bouldering V2/3, 5x auto belay - really hard, even at Grade 3 and 5. HB felt too weak so quit after 1 go. Felt pretty weak and quite low. Assume because of super early start this morning
 

W:
a.m. nowt
p.m.  dinner with Nick.

T:
a.m.  general gym strength routine (#3 routine now established)
p.m. rode to biscuit, failed to meet buddies, tried to self motivate for an hour, climbed probably 10 or so V2-3, plus three laps of traverse. Felt shite. Finally got rock shoes back on though, so broken toe no longer an excuse. The ride home made it 2 hours of zone 1 today

F:
a.m. Zone 1 stepper - 1h:10m
p.m. travel to Geneva

S:
a.m. nowt
p.m. 3 hours skiing - actually turns out to be pretty low intensity

(And propose to gf, now engaged

S: 
am. nowt
pm 3 hours snowboarding - actually turns out to be pretty low intensity

Plan for this week,increase zone duration, Gen strength Tuesday morning, Climb with london mountaineering club Tuesday eve. Probably climb Weds too, date night thursday, with a morning gym session, Friday. Then... Snowdonia for weekend solo. Expecting frikkin cold, but keen. Tryfan and glyders horseshoe I reckon.

Keep the momentum. Should baseline test some basics this week too. To track against, not sure what though.

Congratulations

Nice work! Fill your logbook in so I can stalk you!

Defiantly not a good plan without any belays

Thanks for doing the stats guy.

Well I really should of wrote down the route names last week while I had a guidebook to hand. I will post more about what I learnt last week.

1. I have a really wimpy left arm . I could hold on forever and not get pumped but swinging the ice axe was very hard at the top of a steep pitch. Need to train with a weight over my head and replicate the swinging motion more for next year.

2. Don't try and high step out far as you can because you see a nice little ledge and realise that your axe is stuck quite far back from you and you cant get a good stick with your other foot and everything starts getting harder with one axe placement and 1 crampon placement. Quickly learnt smaller steps are better.

3. Don't forget to put your one warm sock on when getting ready in the morning. Was wondering why my one foot was cold all day and I had to dance on belays.

Overall had a great trip, beginning of the week was very cold at -13 every day. Managed to be leading grade 3 quite easily. One day the team dropped a rope down a 5 for me to top rope which I got up just about but it was right at the top of my limit, would not of wanted to be doing multiple pitches of it.  Some photos in the link below

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006211816877

Went for a 1 hour run on Sunday.

I have finished the transition phase for TFTNA now and going on to max strength

This weeks goals

6 hours z1 running

30 min z3 running

1 Max strength session

1 re test on alpine combine

1 climbing session

Congrats

Congratulations - let the wedding planning commence!

Is this perhaps just a need to get acclimatised to the rock type?

What was Dando Brea like? (Logbook stalker) Is it worth a bit of time? I've eyed it up in passing a few times...

Congrats 

Cheers, next up is a duathlon in mid April then a tri in early May (sprint distance but both a first for me). Best get working on those brick sessions!

Last week went as follows;

Monday, 1km lunchtime swim

Tuesday, nothing

Wednesday, 1km lunchtime swim and 5k afternoon run. Hit the sub 25 minute STG 

Thursday, 1km lunchtime swim and 30km cycle home

Friday, 2km swim

Saturday, 7.5km trail run

Sunday, 6.5km trail run

I generally only do fingerboard stuff if I can't climb the full number of days I hoped. My last finger injury was fingerboard-related, so I tend to be cautious, but it's certainly something I will consider.

STG: another 7a indoors or outdoors.
MTG: 7a+ indoors or outdoors.
LTG: 7b indoors or outdoors.

Session 01: 5 mins autobelay warm up. 10 routes 6a to 7a+. Harder ones clip to clip on bits I could do.

Session 02: 5 mins autobelay warm up. 10 routes 6a to 7a. Harder ones until I fell off.

Session 03: 5 mins autobelay warm up. 20 routes 6a to 6b+ over 2.5 hours.

Session 04: Fingerboard 7s on 3s off over 2 mins. Three repeats. Plus sit-ups, press-ups.

STGs, (Jan-Mar)
• weight target 10st 7lb/bf 15% (started at 11st 1lb/18% 1/1/18)
• e1 trad leads
• lead 7a indoor

MTGs, (Apr-Jun)
- weight target 10st/bf 12.5% (started at 11st 1lb/18% 1/1/18)
- e2 trad leads
- lead 7b indoor, 7a outdoor

W/C 19/2/18, (recovery week)
Mo: General walking, 6.9 miles. Rest day, (boxed after weekend).
Tu: General walking, 6.1 miles. Rest day, (still boxed).
We: General walking, 6.6 miles. Bouldering, (18 problems).
Th: General walking, 6.5 miles. Rest day.
Fr: General walking, 8.4 miles. Rest day.
Sa: General walking, 6.2 miles. Bouldering, (18 problems).
Su: General walking, 8.1 miles. Trad, (6 routes).

- weight 10st 7lb/bf 16.1%

Feeling very tired after winter exertions and no training targets due to recovery week. Managed to maintain weight, despite a big curry night and a few beers watching rugby. Feeling better toward weekend, culminating in a potter on some Stanage classics, (dry rock, sun and not absolutely freezing!).

Good point Dan - Margalef is pretty anti style for me. Generally intense pocket pulling on sometimes blind rock isn't great for on sighting until you're familiarised with spotting holds and sequences quickly. 

Despite yesterday being declared a semi rest day i did a few 7's first go without much hassle. Mostly came down to the sun coming out and not having numb hands...

Dando Brea is the epitome of anti style for me: 8a in 4 bolts of 60 degree roof. Felt doable once I'd fathomed some footwork subtleties, but think it would be a multi day effort and potentially tweaky as crux is yarding on a middle2 pocket.

I have to report nothing but total lazyness.   I did go for a walk to crinkle crags on Saturday & took a look at Black Cragg for a bit of inspiration.....But then got back to a broken car at the top of wrynose (no reception to call AA) and lost it again.  Time to geek out on some guide books and remind myself what the training would be for!!!

Wrote a long post yesterday which i may have for got to post-duh, abbreviated version is.

Learnt so far-coming back is tough and repeated goes at my limit will probably trash me quite quickly.

Short term goal-start writing exercise down properly and set up diary for the coming week. Have a 6b+ pyramid indoors and outdoors.

long term goal-No change 7a onsite, 7b/+redpoint

M-Yoga, rehab weights

T. UCR-8 routes to 6a+, 2 hours.

W. Yoga, repeaters, 5x5x5, ok.

Th. total Body Conditioning class, bloody hell, never done an exercise class before, got to learn to pace myself, stuffed.

F. Sore, long day at work.

Sa. TCA, bit of an aimless boulder, ticked a couple more greens (5+-6B) Circuits feel hard.

Su-long days drive to parents, rehab weights and stretch.

An OK week but need to get focused/outside on the rock.

Hi all. Thanks for the stats, Guy. 

Just a quickie as on phone on trip.

Last week was a complete non-event.

Mon-Wed: resting, thinking healthy thoughts and trying to throw off lurgy prior to Cham trip. 

Thur-Sat: working in Poland, drinking as little vodka as was polite, hoping it was pickling the lurgy bugs rather than helping them. 

Sat night: train from Heathrow broke down after ‘running out of electric (sic)’. The excitement of a ‘train to train relocation’ was tempered by getting home at 3.40am prior to...

Sun: get up at 5.30am to travel to Cham. 

So, what will the outcome be of this pre-trip preparation? Tune in on Sunday for the next instalment!!

By the way, congrats to Fit Club in general... seems to have been a pretty high achieving week (especially in comparison to mine!)

Well done all. Inspired!

Thanks Guy - I probably do and may get round to a retro-instagram (Retrogram?) later. I need to do a proper reflection on my poor climbing start to the year but will do that on next post. A few minor climbing injury niggles and lots of ski touring may be the culprit!

M - 11 miles back down - man I hate my pack.

T - pre-fly boulder at Earth Treks Golden. Smashed the V5-6 circuit which was unexpected at 1.5miles high and with little climbing for a fortnight!

W - F flying back, work, post-burglary admin (the bastards took my hoover so I can't even clear up)

S - coaching/bimble at Big Rock

S - conditioning

Bit of both. The back spasms have largely been resolved, I can now do hanging core exercises which I wasn't able to do for the past couple of weeks. Bench Press is still out due to shoulder injury, but is coming along gradually.

Last week - 

Sat Walked into Beinn Bhan with Susan Jensen for an attempt on Gully of the Gods (VI 6), one of my major route goals. Had been beaten to the punch by Nick Bullock and partner. We'd walked up from the bottom, and while we sat at the bottom of the corrie deliberating whether to wait and follow them up, a second party came in over the top. We decided to come back the next day.

Sun Walked into Beinn Bhan, again. Came in over the top this time, about 30 minutes faster by our reckoning, and were first on the route, though a second party was close behind. Susan stormed up the first pitch, I found it incredibly hard and didn't have much left in the tank. The second pitch was massively intimidating, and I opted to abort. Susan completed the route with the party behind and I met them at the top.

A bit disappointed not to complete the route, but I know I made the right decision - I was too close to my limit for comfort. Too many injuries, and not enough climbing this season. Left it for another day.

STG - Re-establish exercise 'normality' and loose some weight
MTG - 6c at Navigation, then WFD
LTG - Probably bouldering, bearing in mind Trad will be hard for the next few years...

Weight - 14st 4lbs

M - T - Lazy
W - 10 routes at wall
T - 30 pushups, lunges, squats

F- S - Equally lazy....

Very tired this week.  Really struggled at the wall to grind out 10 routes.  Still it was good to be getting out.  I'm not sure if skating to and fro the wall is helping, as I suspect it tired me out a bit more than the stroll did.  But it is fun.  Managed to get some squats, lunges and push-ups in, I'm doing them in sets of 10, then three sets.