UKC

Hi All.

This week I was amused by this thread https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rocktalk/do_you_even_train-702597 which questions the role of training in climbing -a real and present danger to the very fabric of Fit Club! (gasps...)

However, it does raise a very good point and so this week, I am posing a few questions for us all to mull over: 

1. Do you think that, in your own personal circumstances, you would get more climbing improvement from an extra training session per week or an extra climbing session per week? 

2. If your climbing was improved equally by a three hour training session as by a three hour climbing session, would you drop the training sessions or do them as fun in their own right?

3. Is your current balance between training and climbing based on your idea of what will give you biggest possible improvement or more based on what you can practically do with available time/resources?

No need to reply, but you can if you like -I know I'd be interested to hear people's musings!

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.

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 3 4 

Last week’s thread can be found here: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_627-702322

Posters:

AJM: top job holiday planning! Nothing motivates like getting a trip booked in to the diary. Fairhead is a great shout, and I love the goal of 'everything'! Also, thanks for kick-starting the trad mailing list.

Tom Green: Good to see training start to become a habit again. Keep it up! Just need to nail down those new 666 Goals and start working on the weaknesses.

Ianstevens: Congrats on the podium finish! That's a great result and two successful comps in two different sports in successive weeks -smashing it! Bon voyage for the trip... I hope work doesn't get in the way too much and that you manage to keep both the running and the climbing ticking over nicely. We look forward to the mega write up on your return!

Somerset Swede Basher: Great humblebrag about the max hangs test! -not owning enough weights is not a problem I ever have! What was your final max weight? Kudos as always for getting prehab done. But, most importantly -did Shit happen?! 

biscuit: Good work getting the sleep and diet nailed down following on from the lurgy -especially in context of revision and pre-trip chaos. Hopefully that's paid off in terms of you hitting this week's trip in full health. Have a cracking time on the Haute Route -we want some photos to get jealous over when you get back!

Alan Little: Sorry to hear about the bike thievery (did you notice powderpuff was expecting a new bike this week? -I'm not one to cast aspersions, but it seems a bit of a coincidence...) Zellerwand sounds good and it's great to hear that some of your winter focus is actually translating to solid results, both physically and mentally.

guy127917: Some quality problems going down last weekend. I've got to confess to having a good laugh at your L'Horla epiphany about needing to increase the AnCap (you 4 weeks ago: "I'm hoping that a few months of strength training will make E2/3 on grit feel easier so I'm not scared, so I won't get pumped!") Sounds like your pretty strong right now though, so should be relatively quick to build some endurance? And did you get your three runs this week?

SFrancis: Fantastic weekend ticklist -a great collection of stars there! Nice to see the recent focus on jamming put to good use. Did you manage to escape the lurgy? Interesting about the legs, especially with the previous chat about your plans for big days out... If you've already got plenty of leg muscle it may be a case of NOT doing loads of strength work (squats, etc) but rather doing more 'muscle endurance' stuff (long weighted hill walk sessions etc). These should give you the results you're after WITHOUT increasing muscle mass significantly. Some ideas here: https://www.uphillathlete.com/vertical-beast-mode-what-is-muscular-enduranc... but just be wary as the sessions are quite intense and it wouldn't be that difficult to get injured if your legs aren't used to the punishment!

Ardo: Thanks for the Charming Crack empathy! And well done on two trad days. Good point about some training exercises seeming to fall in between the different 'energy systems', like your lattice pyramids. For that reason, I tend to avoid those 'borderline' intensities, as I'm never sure what they are training or whether I'm getting less 'gain' for my time and effort? 

Powerpuff: Confession time... did you nick Alan's son's bike? If so, I hope it's been useful in this weeks training! How has the post-holiday week gone? Full of energy after a few days R+R or totally hectic catching up after a week away?!

the sheep: one of the old Himalayan wads used to recommend hungover runs as good practice for altitude (Whillans?)! Good work on the consistency through the week -that running mileage is clocking up nicely. What's your running total for the year so far?

mattrm: Good 666 goals, especially as they all build towards this year and next years plans. Loving both of your plans, although the scuba diving would be well out of my comfort zone! I know little or nothing about swimming, but I assume the principles are the same as running in terms of building up duration and intensity, etc. One to pick the sheep's brains on!

alexm198: Rubbish time to get the lurgy (is there ever a good time?) -I hope it didn't impact on your Alps trip. Did you manage to follow the Steve House line of 'one easy training day for each ill day'? Anyway... to business: what did you get done this weekend?!

Cyan: Recovering from the lurgy in style by getting straight in to the grit classics! Nice work. I bet Rivelin was dreamy on that Sunday -it must have been glorious chilling on top of Croton Oil. What's the next trad destination?  

Tyler: The big question: is the ceiling of your house still intact? I've had visions of your scaffold construction crashing in to the room below, with you still hanging a one-armer off it! Secondary question -what's the plan for using it? Fingerboard/woody/circuit board? Liking the goals a lot. Parois de legend gives a lot of scope for some wild routes!

Bones: A good week for bouldering mileage. No wonder the tips are suffering! Have you tried ClimbOn or any of those beeswax concoctions? Maybe next weekend's venue should be on a more forgiving rock type (or do you still have a score to settle at Gardoms?!) Kudos on the kitten skinning improvements... Inspired by your vid I've had a crack at it this week, and it turns out I can barely skin a dormouse! 

climb that pitch: Waddage! I love how you've got to a point where a day off means an opportunity to just smash out a casual mid-week ultra! Looking back twelve months to when you first started posting the running improvement is MASSIVE. It's really impressive to see the consistency paying off so well. 

Ally Smith: Top job with the relaxing! -I actually mean this seriously... After a pretty intense year of training and uber-sends one (or even two) 'deload' weeks is probably not going to be enough to really get recovered and ready for a new training cycle, so your Cuba trip and a couple of light weeks either side is probably just what the doctor ordered. Talking of doctors -are you recovered from last week's ills?

Rebecca Ting: Glad you're still there! Sorry to hear you've had to cancel next month's trip. Make sure you get a replacement planned!

MIA: Lornajkelly, Planetmarshall

Thanks Tom.

just to bring out separately that as you say I did start that trad round robin email earlier today, so if you were exp3cting to get it and haven’t then please just drop me a line, on here or via email, and I’ll try and get you added in.

The question seems to be based on the assumption that "training" is things like campusing, fingerboarding and weights, and climbing is not training. Which I strongly disagree with. If I'm doing laps on circuits at the bouldering wall, or taking long rests between goes on limit boulders - or basically doing anything more structured & intentional than just pottering with my mates - then I'm training.

Meanwhile, having rejected the entire basic premise of the question: I seem to be getting as much wall time as my forearms and pulleys can take at the moment, so if I did find time for another session it would have to be something in the direction of callisthenics / antagonists / mobility.

cheers. I never found more weights but the basement did yeild some empty 5L water carries so I'm just going to use them as weights. Weather has been good this week so not done any training as such just been out making hay while the sun shines.

Mon. Rest. 

Tues. Back to Higgar, repeated Piss 7B first go then manage the low link to make Shit 7B+ second go. Really pleased with this. Anything over 7B is a significant tick that is likely to take me more than 1 visit so well pleased. Had a play at a new line but its too hard for me at the moment.

Wed. First visit to Secret Garden near millstone. Lots of easier stuff which all took me more than one go, found onsighting here hard! Also managed The Harder Side 7A and the 7B elinate version which is probably soft.

Thurs. Usual prehab stuff. 

Fri. Cave Dale, managed to do Sheep Eggs 7C. this was my 3rd session on the problem. Never did work out a good way of doing the start, endurance training meant I could still keep going though so really pleased that's paying off.

Sat. Long (20km) but super slow (like 7.30mins per km) run. 800m of ascent taking in Oaken Clough which was a bit rubbish and Wilderness Gully East which was great.

Sun. Rest, beer, prehab stuff. 

When it comes down to it, I could probably do with both (why don’t I, you ask, given that the training bit is essentially within my control?), but given that I’ve identified fitness as my main requirement and have acres of vert sport and trad to get fit on near home I’d have to say climbing.

In the longer term, probably strength training (the bouldering round here has some good bits, but I couldn’t just train on that forever), but for this year certainly climbing mileage.

I do enjoy the challenge of training for the sake of training sometimes, if that’s what you’re asking. Given my answer to qu1, if it was one or the other then I’d just get out climbing, but if the training was additional I might well still do it.

Practicality. Especially in the winter. In the summer I’d hope to do some weekend climbing plus an evening out per week, but if I compare that to earlier years when I had no family to worry about and a less demanding job I’d be on a full weekend each weekend and 1-2 evenings per week then.

re Fairhead - I’ve only done a moderate amount of proper crack climbing, and never really more than E2 or low end E3, so I’ve got tons in that range that looks brilliant and could well be very challenging... but then of course all the *** E4/5s look absolutely mint as well! Play it by ear when I get there I figure...

Not a bad week for me. I’d have been happier with an extra session on Thursday, but my sons been ill all week and up in the night a bit and so on, so to honest having managed what I did is far better than it could have been.

Monday - I’d stupidly managed to get a splinter in my fingertip, so anything to climbing specific was out. So I did sets of knee to bar and I/Y on the trx, more reps than usual, to try to get a burn going and work on some shoulder and core stamina.

tuesday - I could feel Monday. Wall. Again, focused on volume, I didn’t really count but notably more problems than I’d usually do, a little bit of time spent opening accounts on a few things but a lot of the session was working on volume of easier stuff

wednesday - rest. Aches.

thursday - should have done something. Didn’t. I blame the child!

friday - rested enough, but with Saturday coming up I didn’t want to be over tired.

saturday - down the Ruckle brilliant day out, lots of folk about.

- Did Diagonal (HVS 5a), on which my pitch was not terribly hard but a wake up to pulling gently and moving cautiously. Didn’t pull anything off, but it all felt rather shattered.

- Then onto Strongbow (E1 5b) where I led the main pitch. Didn’t faff too much on the actual crux, but spent more time than I probably should committing to pulling out of the fault line, because it felt a bit far from gear and coming out of a bunched rest into steepness.

- Then Elysium (E1 5b) to finish, which I’d seconded years ago but never led. Really good, got a bit draggy by the top and it has to be said the grease under the roof and in the corner after that did cause some excitement. 

All in all a good day out. 2 tough E1s (Strongbow anyway, Elysium with the grease), despite the usual early season faff of pumped legs, sore calves, never finding the right size wire first go, and all that. 

Sunday - aches today. Did some light dumbbell exercises and some stretching. Plus a lot of pram pushing with a grouchy boy who has not been well all weekend.

Next week - Tuesday at the wall, maybe something Wednesday, train Thursday, then either Sat/Sun (if Sat outside) or Fri/Sun (if Sun outside). Or something different if it rains. But if I can get out, I’m keen to push onwards, ease back up the grades a bit and keep getting back in the flow of things.

I thought similar, those threads sometimes bring out the “oh, I’m too cool to train” sort of thing, and with it the assumption that whatever you’re doing, it isn’t that “training” thing that those obsessive do. I have to say the “I have never really trained for climbing, aside from all that building of running and walking volume in preparation for alpine trips” one was a favourite. I mean, here it gets called Z1 (I think?), but it’s entirely the same thing...

I drove to Hull yesterday to swap for some smaller, narrower tubes to preserve the ceiling and my marriage. At the very least I'll hang a fingerboard and some TRX from it, I'd like to add a small campus board for foot off campusing.

Training-wise it's been a slack week (one trip to house of pain only) but now the frame is up and clocks have gone forward things might change. I've also been to fetch my bike but unfortunately snapped the chain within two meters of getting on it.

Regarding your question, I've always been someone who climbs at my best after a period of intense climbing outdoors (a form of training anyway) but there is no doubt in my mind that I would benefit from a period targeted strength training but I never seem to get any results so give up. I think I try harder outdoors hence why I get stronger during the summer.  

STG: Left leg pistol squat. Have been slacking on this a bit this week.
MTG (2019): Double digit 7's including Frankenjura 7b+ project 
LTG (2021): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60 

Another relatively light week due to family commitments. Need to up the ante a bit in April.

M: Bike one hour.
    40 minutes shoulders, core, pistol progressions
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Routes. What I learned today: when you have put time & effort into figuring out a workable crux sequence on your project, the first redpoint burn may not be the right moment to try something new. A good evening nevertheless.
W: Bike one hour.
T: Max hangs - still babying my right hand due to a recovering sore pulley. Left hand also a bit down compared to my previous max: not surprising considering I've been doing almost all endurance and too little strength maintenance work for the last few weeks.
F: Bike one hour.
S: Unable to persuade the crew to return to Zellerwand, headed to Nassereith (just over the border in Austria) instead. Where I made the mistake of getting on a couple of potential projects too early in the season and making very little progress. Should have continued on last week's path of getting a bit more onsight mileage in first. Still, a pleasant day out in the sun with friends.
S: Wall, Weyarn. Having failed to rustle up a partner at short notice for another day out, got some autobelay mileage in instead (training!) to compensate for yesterday's inadequate amount of climbing.

I'll answer these and do my week post separately

1. Do you think that, in your own personal circumstances, you would get more climbing improvement from an extra training session per week or an extra climbing session per week? 

If I did less than 3 sessions a week I would just climb, at 3 or above I start phasing training in alongside climbing activity. At the start of a new phase (ie after a big trip or something) I'll go back to just climbing for a while before phasing training stuff back in. 

2. If your climbing was improved equally by a three hour training session as by a three hour climbing session, would you drop the training sessions or do them as fun in their own right?

At some points I get really into training and am happy doing that rather than climbing, and the reverse is often true as well. I start training more if I feel I am stagnating from just climbing and climb more if I get bored of training. 

3. Is your current balance between training and climbing based on your idea of what will give you biggest possible improvement or more based on what you can practically do with available time/resources?

Right now it is based upon life balance- I plan to do 3 climbing sessions maybe plus some trips at the weekend and am happy seeing how I progress with that. I previously said "what is the most I can possibly do to improve" but alongside a job and other interests it just gets a bit much.

Good morning FitClubbers, it's me, i'm back!

I've spent my time doing a lot of thinking about where my climbing is going and what I want to do in the future and I think I have a plan.

I think my apparent love for training 6 days a week and fingerboarding until I can hang one-armed off a crease in a plastered wall was all just a front to hide my real passion for the outdoors - I'm going to become a walker!

The fingerboard has gone on the bonfire, replaced with some hooks to hang those weird walking pole things and my soon-to-be acquired collection of £500 waterproof jackets.
The gym equipment is gone, i'm building a small bar in it's place, serving only real ales.
The Rockfax Portland guide is in the charity bag, it's only Wainwright walks and a Good Pub Guide from now on.

I look forward to sharing training tips on how to, er, walk more better, and discussions on what angle of slope does walking stray dangerously close to climbing and should be vigorously avoided - 15 degree incline? Less?

I think I always secretly preferred the walk-in over actual climbing anyway, who doesn't love a mindless trudge, and even better if there isn't something horrendously energetic at the end like having to climb rocks.

See you on the hills! (But not the steep ones)

Cheers Tom, just a bit more de-loading than planned, courtesy of the lurgy! I certainly feel refreshed and the elbow grumbles I was experiencing in Spain have disappeared.

Week 13

M – Nauseous. No exercise.

T – Nauseous. No exercise.

W – Less nauseous. BFR training of half-crimp (x2) and back-3. 30 contractions; 6x 10s lift on each hand (23kg); 10x hammer curl (8kg kettlebell).

T – Just about better? Pseudo max-hangs, i.e. they weren’t that close to max. BM2K-AA. BW+40kg 10s x 6 with 3min rest. Abs felt worked more than fingers.

F – Gardening Club

S – Decorating Club

S – Decorating Club

Trying to sort partners/plans for next 2 weekends as i'm free both days of both weekends and want to get some early season mileage in.

Cheer Tom, this last weeks running took me over 400km so far this year which im happy with

April sees the final month of my wifes marathon training so we are both on a mission to achieve the remaining body changes that we want, essentially before i take the plunge and spend a shed load of money on a triathlon wet suit i want to be in the best shape possible. Therefore it means less wine and more mindful eating, just about got the exercise lark sorted. Had an eventful week gone by due to norovirus rearing its ugly head for my wife and youngest daughter, week went as follows;

Monday, just a 1km swim at lunch.

Tuesday, 2km lunchtime swim and 26km cycle home

Wednesday, 2km lunchtime swim and interval sprints with the run club in the evening

Thursday, norovirus hit and the wife spent the night trowing up. Went to work and managed a 2k swim and stretch class

Friday, quick 1k swim and as the wife had been ok since Thursday morning drove down to her parents for their golden wedding celebrations

Saturday, was due to do half marathon distance but youngest decided to throw up all night so we packed our bags and went home. When we had unpacked I escaped for a gentle 5k run to loosen the legs after 3 hours driving.

Sunday, daughter all recovered so nice 8km trail run

Best April Fools I've seen so far

Hi Tom, thanks for the stats and good questions. 

Probably an extra climbing session per week, though in my particular case it's moot because climbing when London-based is exponentially harder than training.

I'd probably stick with the training for fun in its own right, though I'd ease it back a bit. I get a lot of enjoyment out of running outside, and I have actually really enjoyed getting more into strength training this cycle. As Guy says, ideally I'd climb when I felt psyched to climb, and train when I felt psyched to train.

If you'd asked me this a month ago I'd have said it was based on what would give me the biggest possible improvement. I'm pretty happy taking long runs over cragging at the moment. However, now that the 'specific' period of the TFTNA plan is looming, I'm wondering more and more about practicalities. From London, it's just not feasible for me to spend 4 weeks getting into the alpine multiple times a week. So in this respect my training will likely become more limited by practicality.

Last Week (Base Week 19/30)

M: 90min Z1 run. One of those brilliant runs when you feel completely invincible. Very psyched.

T: Rest

W: Rest, fly to Geneva. Didn't manage to hitch up to Le Tour to our intended accommodation so ended up dossing in someone's basement in Chamonix...

T: Approach to the Dru north face from Montenvers. I foolishly hadn't realised that the old Charpoua ladders have been chopped, so we ended up searching in vain for them, then calling the OHM from the Mer de Glace and then climbing up a different set of ladders below the Moine South Ridge, traversing the whole Charpoua basin, going around the base of the Flammes de Pierre and then slogging up to the Dru Rognon. About 1400m of ascent and several kilometres of horizontal. All in all, about 8h.

F: Alarm went off at 3am for an attempt on the Allain-Leininger, but my partner promptly declared he didn't feel up to it and insisted we go down. Walking back to Montenvers in blazing sunshine and blue skies, it's an understatement to say I was livid. Booked a cheap flight back to London that evening.

S: Rest

S: Rest

Really feel like the wheels are coming off my training a bit at the moment, and with this partnership jeopardised a bit it's unclear how my Bugaboos/Caucasus plans are going to be affected. Need to take some time to regroup, I think, so the next week will be focused on getting lots of Z1 mileage and hopefully getting out climbing/running in the hills next weekend.

Last week's goals:

[x] 7h Z1 volume (inc. alpine approaches)

[-] 1x muscular endurance workout (3 times through the circuit)

Goals

This Week

• 10h Z1 (not including the weekend)
• 1 muscular endurance workout
• 1 wall session
• Weekend running/climbing solo objective if weather plays ball

STG (End of April 2019)

• [Rolling average: 6.6] Average 8.5h Z1 across the 7 weeks between now and end of April
• [Current: 3] Build up to 5 times through the muscular endurance circuit
• [Current: 0] 2 alpine lines >700m (not necessarily rock)
• [Current: 0] 1 alpine rock lines >700m >6b in preparation for Bugaboos (might be touch and go with conditions this early)

MTG (End of July 2019)

• 2 more alpine rock lines >700m >6b in preparation for Bugaboos 
• All Along the Watchtower (5.12a)*
• Bob Graham round (probably over two days)

LTG (End of September 2019)

• 6x5000m peaks on the Bezengi wall, Caucasus.*

*may need to be changed.

I neglected to mention the London factor but you pretty much said what I would have. The line between indoor bouldering and training is a lot smaller than cragging and training- I can just chuck a few sets of campus rungs in at the end and call it a sesh. I skipped ME last year because its just a massive PITA!

Oh man, that seems like a massive ball ache, what a shame.  I was going to ask why you didn't descend from the Grande Montets but I guess that's not operational? Even so is it not easier just to go straight up the moraine opposite the Montervers (as you do when skiing the pas de chevre?) Those ladders up to the Couvercle hut are pretty spicy with a big sack eh? 

First things first...

1. Do you think that, in your own personal circumstances, you would get more climbing improvement from an extra training session per week or an extra climbing session per week?

YES! Definitely!

2. If your climbing was improved equally by a three hour training session as by a three hour climbing session, would you drop the training sessions or do them as fun in their own right?

I would still run, but I would probably never do core, strength work or indoor climbing again (assuming that I have the time, money, weather and partners to always be able to climb where I want, whenever I want!)

3. Is your current balance between training and climbing based on your idea of what will give you biggest possible improvement or more based on what you can practically do with available time/resources?

Probably a bit closer to what is practical than what is ideal (but not that far off 'the plan').

I don't think you read the question properly

A fairly good week. More or less on target for sessions (and volume within sessions).

Week 13: 

M: Rest

T: Indoor Climbing. Max hangs, AeroCap 50:50s. Slightly short session between work meetings.

W: 45min Z1. Trail run. 7.3km, 353m ascent. Avg 6:13/km. V hilly, quite techy.

T: Core and Max Strength. 

F: Supposed to be a rest day but was working near Cheddar Gorge so went for a cheeky post-work solo. I'd forgotten what an awesome place the Gorge is... went in to a great big fuzzy ball of nostalgia, sat on top of the French Pinnacle, watching the baby goats playing in the haze of a golden sunset... Poetry! (Then nearly died descending the scree back to the car in my smooth-soled work shoes -back to the harsh realities of life!)

S: Indoor Climbing. Max hangs, Limit bouldering and AeroCap. Slightly frustrating session -the max hangs didn't feel max enough and the limit bouldering turned out to be beyond my limit! 

S: Supposed to be a core and general strength day but back and L shoulder felt sore and creaky so I skipped it.

Week 14 Plan:

Some social commitments are going to mess this up a bit, but...

3h Z1

2 Core sessions

1 Max Strength session

1 Climbing session.

STG/Q2:

Average 300+m vert running per week (Currently 692m)

Bowland run/climbathon

N Wales El Cap Day

Welsh 3000s

MTG/Q3:

Cuillin ridge traverse

Average 300m vert running per week

Some of: Salbit Westgrat, Piz Badile Cassin, Grand Montets ridge, Innominata, Cordier Pillar, etc...

666 Goals:

New goals to try and work my weaknesses...

6 Crack routes of each size

6 Roof routes

6 E-points in a day

I did... that was my answer!! ;-p

STG - 14st

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

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

Weight - 14st 10lbs

M - 4 mile walk and 'HiiT'

T - Rest

W - Routes and 3 mile walk

T - Rest

F - Rest

S - Rest

S - 4 mile walk

Mar overall - 51%

2019 - 40%

Only just made 51% this week, mainly by fluke.  But still that's nicely up to 40%.  Need to push a bit harder from the off next week to make 60% or better.  Got down to WICC for a passable session.  Went out for a walk by the river on Sunday which was ok.  If I'd spread the sessions out sensibly, I'd have bumped the numbers up a bit better.  Oh well.

Yeah I think I've been shown the error of that line of thinking! I suppose doing an extra 40 mins-1 hour of routes after limit bouldering every now and again can't be that painful. The castle just makes it so unpleasant sometimes! The hardest thing is actually ancap- you just can'y get on a boulder wall consistently enough to get pumped because it's so busy. I've done AnCap successfully on top rope routes and foot on campus ladders so may have to revisit that.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: Z4 45 mins run

Wednesday: Rest

Thursday: Fingerboard and general bouldering, managing to flash quite a lot of the v5/6 circuit and complete most of it nowadays. FB record- down to -12.5kg on the bottom row, middle BM2K incut hold one arm half lock off. I used to hate lockoff holds but this is feeling better and better. It's good for me to work on because it forces a half crimp on both hands (normally on most holds I struggle to half crimp on my left hand and end up in an open position or drag).

Friday: Rest

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: General bouldering at the castle- more of the v5/6 circuit and a bit of fruitless wave bashing.

Overall a pretty chilled week- failed to run according to my goals. Will try and get back to discipline with that this week and start building volume back into climbing training. Hope to get out to Peak or maybe Portland this weekend depending on weather.

Thanks for doing the stats again Tom.

To be honest with my climbing I cant really say I have ever done any structured training. I have always just turned up ad climbed. At my level of climbing I think I can get more improvement from just spending more time on rock. When (if) I get to the higher grades then I suppose training would come more into effect then.

Personally if I had a choice to go out and climb vdiff outside all day or go inside and train I would pick the vdiff all day. So I think climbing would win for me hands down every time even if I knew it wold make me weaker.

Mine is based more on what I can do with time

Thanks. I am going to drop my running down now I am going to start climbing more but would still like to keep the base fitness. I was thinking just putting in 3 1 hour z1 runs a week. Not sure if I should do it this way or do 2 runs and make 1 of them 2 hours and 1 a hour. Really don't want to lose all my running fitness.

Goals

The Angel's Girdle (VS 5a)

Kaiser Wall (E3 6a)

Vulture Squadron (E3 6a)

A Dream of White Horses (HVS 4c)

Gogarth (E1 5b)Flying Buttress Direct (E1 5b)

Suicide Wall (E1 5c)

Along the way I really want to build up my e1/2 millage. With mainly having weeknights my goals are a bit closer to home and hopefully get some weekends where I can go away to get bigger goals completed

M - Indoor bouldering up to v4

T - Rest

W - Climbing at Symonds yat. Climbed Exchange (VS 4b), Peacock (VS 4b) and The Ankh (E2 5c).

T - Indoor bouldering up to v4

F - Rest

S -Run, 7km, 36m accent, 5:00 min per km, z2

S - Climbing at fairy cave quarry. Climbed Smell the Glove (E1 5b), Halfway to Kansas (HS 4a) and Jive Talkin' (E1 5b).

Lee

Probably an extra training session but only if it was planned properly (to a level I've never planned to).

I'd drop the training session.and go climbing, ever time.

My current balance is based primarily on the weather /conditions, work commitments and family commitments. If I can get outside I will, training is something I do when I can't get outside which is why mine isn't especially periodised or consistent. 

I'd probably add to that that this mostly works because I'm really just bouldering at the moment. When I was climbing a lot of trad about 10 years ago my training was to go bouldering once a week to gain strength. I've essentially always lived near enough to rock to make sure I do a mix of disciplines outside to keep me well rounded as a climber. I think if I had lofty expectations like 8B font or 8c+ sport then I'd need to be much more organised but as a relatively strong bumbly I'm happy with what I do. Having said that, I've climbed at a similar grade on and off for over 10years so if I really wanted to improve then maybe I should be a little more serious about training. 

I'm baaack!

Successful adventures to Munich and the Bavarian alps, then straight over to Plas y Brenin for rock climbing instructor training course. 

In hindsight, probably should've planned a few days rest between the two because I'm now fairly burned out.  Live and learn!

There hasn't been time for training but through the course I toproped a few routes in the region of 4b/4c, back on rhyolite and dolerite which is a pleasant change from grit (which I'm not the biggest fan of).  I definitely need to remind myself that my feet will stick to small dolerite smears, and I think by the time I'm next over in Wales my brain will have caught up sufficiently to do that.

For the questions:  For me training is climbing because most of my problem is in my head.  I need to keep myself desensitised to height and remind myself what my hands and feet can stick to.  Strength and endurance that come from that are for the most part secondary. 

Thanks for the article. Interesting way of formalising the "classic" way of preparing by doing a few big hill walks with a heavy bag, Particularly like the idea of using water bottles, and the fact the training is done a couple of months leading up to the trip with quick gains. Rather than some year round sustained focus, so I think i will ensure i get at least a few weeks of this in before I head out.

The lurgy was present but I managed it, by increasing sleep, ensuring good nutrition, reducing alcohol and slightly reducing training volume.

In answer to your questions:

1. As we move towards better weather, I tend to start focusing a bit more on actual climbing, hoping to transfer the training into performance. The other option I used last year, was adding in trad as a recovery / light day. As I enjoy the mileage, its not so strength critical, and I see massive improvements in slickness (choosing right gear), and getting into a relaxed position to place gear, something I tend to have forgotten about after weeks in the bouldering wall.

2. I would drop the training, although i do enjoy it in a perverse way. In a weird way i think if the option was just 3 hrs indoors each time, I wouldn't have the discipline, and may get bored / not actually do 3 hrs. Climbing outdoors all the time would be my preference.

3. Bang for the buck, I think its clear I can achieve more in the time available by training. This tends to change throughout the year, and my time available. I like to at least maintain what I have achieved, a lot of things such as fingerboarding are quick and provide easy to track metrics.

Week 25/03-31/03

M: Chilled out.

T: Felt tired, core and legs tired from weekend. A few boulders, a 3 x 7-53 1/2 crimp (100.8 kg), 3x3 pull ups 95kg.

W: Warm up, scap pull ups x 10, 4x4 boulders (very pumped), FoC small rungs 4 x 1min on/off sets, Crimpd floor core, 2 x I,Y,T, 2 x10 shoulder supersets (9kg dumbells), 3 x 20 push ups

T: Cycled into work from train station ~27 mins up hill Z2ish.

F: Rest felt ill

S: Headed to portland, a few failed attempts on a 7b, easy moves but unable to climb with any pump or recover. Had few goes, got very pumped, really good PE. Possibly should be choosing cruxier routes, as i feel very strong but have no endurance but felt like good training. Beautiful sunny day, with good friends.

S: 30 min run.

Dear FitClub

For a long time I regarded doing routes  indoors as a useful & important form of endurance training, but didn’t really enjoy it. Lately – having successfully worked on and improved my endurance – I find myself actually having fun on the lead wall. Should I seek help?

No, wait, that wasn’t the question. The question was: how important is short term strength maintenance? I’m going to Kalymnos in five weeks. Should I bother trying to fit in one bouldering session per week, or follow my inclination just hammer the route endurance for four weeks solid?

Hey Tom, thanks for another entertaining post

I like that she feels she needs to justify having 6 months off to climb by working solidly for the other 6 months of the year. That's living!

Currently climbing around 3 times a week and then at weekends and finding that I need to recover in between or my performance is pretty lame. My weaknesses seem to be power and possibly finger strength so I think a more specific session such as an added fingerboard/campus session would definitely help rather than general climbing. Plus it is easier to measure progress training this way rather than just general climbing. I can say for sure that I have improved on the campus board if I couldn't do 1,2,5 and now I can (I can't) but hard to say if I can do a certain grade because I am at a different wall, the style suits me, grades were soft etc.

I would climb if all were equal.

At the moment I am mainly just climbing a lot and trying hard but my improvements have slowed. I started to think the other day watching Guy's improvements on the fingerboard that I really should add in a regular fingerboard and/or campus session. The training I am doing is specifically for my front lever (and general body strength) plus doing one wave session (overhung gorilla board) a week for power. In reality, I have the time to do quite a lot more but I am gradually building up habits and my training so that I stick with it.

I actually use the berts bees tin which as apparently very similar to climb on but much cheaper. I think it is slightly greasier but it's nice if you wipe off the excess. I am lazy about putting it on though because I generally hate having any substance on my hands.

I have a lot of scores to settle at Gardom's. The more I climb the more scores I need to settle! My fingers aren't sore anymore and I have forgotten the pain so ready for the next round.

Front lever - Hahahaha, very funny, skinning a dormouse. I have found it is all about making a stupid face. I can definitely see an improvement each week which I am pleased about.

Mon: Gym - leg session

Tues: Gym - arms. Bouldering with my beautifully resoled genius' and testarossas

Weds: Gym calisthenics session. Front lever progress being able to get my back horizontal. This is it on insta (the finger is there so I know when to stop, not to hold me up!): https://www.instagram.com/p/BvOYlBlBMRd/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

Thurs: Bouldering - tried a couple if overhung v5/v6 in loft. Getting close with one but the other seems hard.

Fri: rest

Sat: rest

Sun: Bouldering - completed a previously uncompleted V5/V6 overhanging route (the one that felt hard on thurs) and made progress on the one that seemed easier! Trying a yellow Coxey-style dynamic move with a pop to a right hand and a left toe hook. So far just got a bruised foot. Closer on a slab, crimpy V6.

STG:
Power: Complete a wave route and 1, 2, 5 campus on each arm -  no progress. Pink wave, got 5 moves now.
10 pull-ups - I actually forgot to try my max but I reckon I can do 10. Will update this week. I am also trying to up my weighted pull-up. I believe it is currently 10kg.

Thanks for the stats Tom. When you heading back for Charming Crack round 2? Not sure whether to try and get back asap or give my memory time to forget the pain and effort it took to udge millimetres.

I understand your point about 'borderline' intensities and 'gain' for my time/effort. I'm going to persevere with the pyramids because they 'feel' ok, rather than any science. One for the lattice chaps? Personally it seems to be capacity, moving from AerCap to Ancap, which to my mind replicates route climbing, so happy to stick with it, (for now).

Mo:    General walking, 7.6 miles. 3 sport routes.

Tu:    General walking, 11.8 miles.

We:    General walking, 7.9 miles.

Th:    General walking, 8.4 miles.

Fr:    General walking, 8.6 miles.12 probs; MH: 4*12/180; IDH: 5*4*10:10/60; LB pyramid: 12321/90".

Sa:    ~2.5m run. General walking, 5.2 miles.

Su:    General walking, (leg DOMS included for free), 7.7 miles.

Weight: 10st 4lb/bf 15.4%

With meeting family, Mothers Day and work, took this as a rest week. Good sport on Monday, repointing 6c. Only one midweek walk to and from pub this week, though, once again, it had a noticeable effect on weight and bf, as did weekend beers and food. Need to get diet back on track. Short run on Saturday morning to start some general cardio reminded me:

1 I don't like running

2 I'm not very good at it

3 I need to warm down properly

4 see 1

Next week's plan

At least one training sesh and two outdoor.

Review STG and MTGs.

Aye, rather annoying!

Yeah Grands Montets still a smouldering pile of ash as far as I am aware. Bochard is currently broken too, apparently, which means that the only other approach to the Nant Blanc basin is to get the Herse chairlift and skin up to GM and down the Poubelle Couloir. In retrospect, we should have done that, but as we didn't have skis I was slightly concerned it was going to be less shit to go from Montenvers. Rookie mistake. 

Not sure about the moraine. That whole bank looked like a tottering pile of death choss and was spitting rocks down everywhere so we stuck to the ladders. And yes, spicy!

Hi Tom, I  can confirm I did not steal Alan's son's bike! I hope it turns up, i would be seriously annoyed if i was him.

I did however retreave mine from my sisters garage on Tuesday

M: climbed 3x v4 and 3x v5 problems at the wall and did 2 sets of the usual exercises.

TH: biked to the wall! 3 x v4 problems completed

SAT: 4 x max hangs on the beastmaker, a mixture of combinations using the 45 and 35 degree slopers.Then pull ups, 4 on the 45 slopers then 20 in an open handed drag position on the biggest holds you would normally crimp.

Weight 12 stone

Depends what routes your planning I guess, I’ve found my favourite routes have been bouldery sequences with good rests. I haven’t found too many routes there that I’ve failed due to endurance, and that’s probably my weakest area. 

If your looking for a good 7b Tornado Lou (7b) is well worth a go, fantastic route. A few big moves lower down, followed by a sit down rest and a fingery finish. 

Thanks. My proj on that crag is Biloute (7a), which actually is a pump-fest. At least by my standards.

Thanks for statting!

Not tons to report this week, still trying to shift the lurgy, making sure I sleep a lot and eat well (with the exception of an alcohol accident at the weekend). Definitely burnt out, weird injury followed by a chest infection and then a cold within the space of a month is unusual, I'm generally fairly healthy.

Couple of boulder sessions, did a fair amount at V4/5. Plan for this week is the same and then hopefully some trad this coming weekend depending on weather...

Ah Biloute, know it well, it was the GFs project from last trip. It's definitely of the more sustained variety, although with a nice double kneebar hands off rest before the top section. Have you done the Crack (7a) next door, possibly preferred this one, and my GF had much less of a battle with that one. But both great routes, Tornado Lou is different but probably not much harder, different style though.

I gone down it a couple of time and it's shallow enough angle not to be dangerous but unpleasant even in descent and it was a lot shorter then - you know your getting old when you can measure time by glacial retreat!

ooh, would you mind adding me into the emails too?

No problem, just message me with an email address...

Cheers Tom, and thnaks for the stats. Climbing will be suffering pretty hard - I couldn't manage to find a partner so didn't even bring my stuff along with me, bag space being at a premium. Did bring a a small hangboard though, and can obviously do body-weight conditioning easily enough.

Goals

STG: 1) Max hangs on the AA slot to 96kg total by 30/03 (YES); 2) 7 x 7a routes by 31/04; 3) Complete planned sessions to end of March (34/36); 4) Feel like I've run well at Nant yr Arain (YES) and Lake Hayes trail halfs (23/3 and 19/4); 5) Weight to 70.5kg by 01/05 (current ??).

MTGs: 1) 100kg on the AA slot by 01/06; 2) Parkrun PB by 01/06; 3) Cadair Fell Race PB (currently 1:44:08); 4) Find a 7c project for the summer (Orme or Quarries probably).

LTG: 1) Do the project (see MTGs); 2) Under 7.5 hours in Snowdon Skyline (Sept).

Last week (2019.13)

Monday: 1) Yoga; 2) Max Hang Assessment - managed 96kg on the AA slot so goal ticked there; 3) Got my TT bike out of the metaphorical shed and made sure it still works (about 10km)

Tuesday: 1) Climbed outside. Did some trad - Karwendel Wall (HVS 5b) - but it was not as warm as it looked at soon switched to bouldering. Got up Jerry's Wall (V6), nice to get another 7 (even a soft one!) done.

Wednesday: 1) Yoga; 2) 6 x 90% hangs @ 86.8kg; 3) Run: laps of a local hill to get 13.6km with 821m elevation.

Thursday: 1) Yoga; 2) Had a load of goes at Tempest (f7A) and got about as close as possible without actually doing it, and manged to wreck my skin in the process. Always find it hard to warm up at Tany, and was suffering from "summit fever" which meant I kept panicking and dropping the last tricky move. Annoyed.

Friday: Mad work dash before going away, and drove to my parents (5 hours) for a lift to the airport Saturday.

Saturday: 1) Indoor bouldering at the XC in Hemel Hempstead. Setting as uninspiring as I remember, and grades soft. Did most of the alleged V6+ problems and literally everything below. 2) 5 x 5 body weight pull ups (in addition to dull setting, training facilities are lacking).

Sunday: Sat on a plane, ate terrible food, slept badly etc. Forgot how much I hate long haul.

This week (2019.14)

Monday is an airport/travel day again, then I've got 6 days of holiday to go and play outside. Lots (and lots) of running on the cards! Going to have a break from the fingerboard until at least Saturday as I've done a load of continuous training over the last 4 months and probably need the rest.