UKC

Hi All.

Back once again (with the ill behaviour) -thanks to SSB and AJM for solid stats this last few weeks. Some big wins reported... good work team!

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  

Last week’s thread can be found here:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_651-7098...

Posters: 

AJM: Bruges is pretty cool, although beers + pram + child + cobbles? That can only = bad times! Sounds like a good upper body work out to balance out the liquid kCals! What have you got lined up for your allocated climbing days? 

AlanLittle: I find max hang performance to be similarly 'sensitive' to previous heavy sessions (and overdoing warm-ups; and hot/humid cons; and poor skin; etc!) However, I also have the same experience as you, that max hangs (however hard they feel) don't seem to impact on subsequent performance -either later that session/day or the following day. So when planning how to fit them in to your week, I reckon timetabling them for when your fresh will give you most bang for your buck, without too much impact on climbing. What do FitCLub's hardcore fingerboarders think...?

biscuit: Good work dedicating some time to the shoulder rehab -nothing like a tweak to focus the mind, eh?! Is the legwork just for general conditioning or to contribute to something specific? Don't build to much quad mass -it'll be more to pull up in the BOB! Those 666 goals should feed in to BOB prep though?

Somerset Swede Basher: Wow! Kudos for Thursday... sounds like a super casual ascent after the hard work earlier in the year! You need to bottle a bit of whatever you were on that day! Any other nonchalant 8As this week?!

Tyler: Commiserations... busy work weeks are shit -I always resent climbing/training being disrupted by work more than other life disruptions! Did you manage to salvage anything from this week or has working away put another spanner in the works?

Ally Smith: Just to clarify... is that +16kg on the 8mm with one hand or two (please say it's the latter!). Did the lurgy subside without causing too much upset?

SFrancis: Good luck with the elbows... have you kept up with the rehab sessions this week? What's your regime? -unequal dumbbell curls? wrist rotations? Hope you managed to take advantage of yesterday's weather for that sport climbing day out.

Planetmarshall: Oi! You can't pop up to post about Belgian Beers then duck out of your training post!

Paul16: Nice goal routes. Come up with any sport goals yet? Looks like a nice balanced week of training. The commute on fat tyres sounds beautifully masochistic!

the sheep: A solid week as usual! I'm always impressed at the consistency -a great example of building a training habit! What races are you booked on to at the moment? Anything coming up?

Powderpuff: Haha! outdoor climbing... so last season! You'll have to come up with a name for your plastic V6 (and not just "The Blue Next To The Fire Exit")! Good core sesh -especially the 3 x 10 leg raises -they're nearly as hard as stupid L-sits!

Steve Jones: Some good climbing mileage, indoor and out. Are you feeling like you're progressing physically and skill-wise? Sorry to hear the foot is still giving you hassle.

Ardo: A 17 star day? Can't argue with that! How did you like Parson's Chimney?! Ankle and shin behaving this week?

Bones: Belated congrats on the Alps trip -BOOOM! Mega-success!! Really chuffed to hear you finally turned the Matterhorn from dream to reality. Nice one! How has the running been this week? You manage to stick with the plan leading up to your Oct race?

Tom Green: So, what's the autumn training plan?

MIA: outdoors.nick, Niall_li, Rebecca Ting, Liamhutch89.

Cheers Tom.

I had all sorts of things in my head. Basically I wanted a couple of good days, a good tick or two, to finish the climbing year on a bit of a high. There were lots of things in the grab bag - if I name and explain a few:

- Them and Arms Race (I tried Them in 2013, my last really good trad year, and downclimbed twice. Success on that would be a real marker of improvement. Arms race was always high on my list but I always wanted to get Them done first, so never got on it)

- another E4 (the shortening of my climbing year means the 666 goal of E5 is vanishingly unlikely, I’d need more of a base of E3/4 to work from really, but another E4 would help solidify it a bit and leave me feeling like I’d probably got back to 2013 properly - I did 4 E4s then I think, but I was basically unemployed and climbing full time!)

- Paradise Lost (wanted to do it for ages, it’s been at that point where I’ve kidded myself I should wait until I’m going well enough to try to onsight it for ages, this year firstly I’m being less precious about that sort of thing and at the same time more likely to stand a chance than in previous years, been onsighting fairly well this year)

- some more DWS. Something at Funky Ledge (exorcise the demons of previous psycheouts, plus loads of classics), Berry Head (so many stars!), maybe Underbare (really cool hard-ish tick), anything that fills the cv out with some good quality climbing.

however, my shoulder, which I think I hurt on Underbare last time I tried it (campusing because you can’t use your feet is probably high risk when you start to get tired), flared up again this weekend. So now I really don’t know what’s best. A very nice weekend, but not exactly overfill with achievements, out of a sum total of not very many left..... keep pushing hard and hope it’ll be ok, drop the grade and aim for quality, or just wind up a bit early and spend a bit more time with the family before it expands!? I don’t know.

I had a glorious day out on Friday at Haytor. Did Haggis which was really good. But then the shoulder flared up as I said above. Dropped the grade a bit, but did some nice routes, and such a lovely day.

Saturday I went to Long Quarry Point. It was nice to ogle Blue Planet in the flash, one of my 666 goals based on recommendations of its quality and it certainly looks mint. Had all been going well I wanted to get on a few easier things and then Arapiles oh Arapiles. And then maybe do some trad. But the chop in the back of the zawn made a lot of the easier stuff inaccessible and Arapiles probably isn’t the thing to do with a wonky shoulder. So I did the Long Traverse, stared up at sanctuary wall, and that was basically it.

Welcome back Tom. Fairly quiet week for me on account of lots of family duties revolving around my son starting sixth form college: (AJM spends some nights wondering whether his son has any plans to go to sleep; I've started spending mine at weekends wondering whether my son has any plans to come home)

STG: Get back on some local projects, weather permitting. Maybe next weekend
MTG (2019): Double digit 7's including Frankenjura 7b+ project. Currently: 2, no chance.
LTG (2021): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60. This is looking pretty unfeasible, rethink ongoing.

M: 
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Starting to try to break my 6b+ish plastic plateau by trying harder things.
W: Half an hour stretching/mobility/shoulders
T: Beastmaker. Crimpd max hangs. Finished the full set/s weight this time, but with 2½ minutes rest instead of 2.
F:
S: Beastmaker. Crimpd max hangs. Tried strict two minutes rest, but two kilos lighter. (And if two minutes rest isn't enough for full recovery, is it then really  max strength protocol? But I shall continue to put my trust in Tom'n'Ollie, at least for a cycle or two to see what happens.)
    Bike two hours.
S: Wall, Freimann. Good session - ticked last week's 7a, did the moves on another. The one I did suited me very well style-wise: vertical, couple of bouldery sections separated by a good rest. The other was more typical plastic: thirty degrees overhanging, no really hard moves but no good rests either. Will do me good.

Thanks, it was pretty sweet!

Any other nonchalant 8As this week?!

Actually yes! The send-tember crush train stopped at station Raven Tor again this week (too much time spent around boulderers recently?) Although it was a proper fight and nothing nonchalant this week.

Mon. Rest.

Tues. Did, Lets get ready to Rumbleweed (Font8A) which is just a different finish to the problem I did last week. I was really confident driving to the crag but it took me 5 goes to get through the start then as soon as I did I fell out the heel toe a few moves later. Got it after a rest though. Really happy with this, that's the last of the big 3 Font 8A links that link cave problem and weedkiller done.

Wed and Thurs. Rest

Fri. Went to Griffs and managed to do Ovine 7B. Took at look at some of the lower starts and links but need some video beta as not too sure where they start and what's in/out etc. 21km on the road bike late eve.

Sat.rest

Sun. Tried to have a session at Wyming Brook but everything was very green and overgrown. Managed 3 very easy problems that were clean and a VDiff in the best of styles, the Flip Flop Flash (FFF)! Took at look at superbrook but stopped after the initial moves as the top was scary and I couldn't work out which direction I might get spat off in and didn't fancy missing the pads. 

Work was particularly annoying this week as it was mostly spent trying to fix other parties cock ups but on the whole I am enjoying the project /I'm on and after 3 years working from home I'm even enjoying being in an office three days a week. 

This week I went to the hotel gym twice and did my 4x4 weights exercises and then to Depot Sheffield for a bit on the way home on Thursday evening. 

Saturday I took Fi on her much requested trip to Idwal Slabs which I enjoyed more than I thought but when we whizzed over to Pen Trwyn I felt too wiped out to do anything.

Today I more or less finished painting the attic

OK I'm back in the game this week! Was really happy with Alps trip a couple of weeks ago, Matterhorn was mega fun- I'd highly recommend the Hornli Ridge to anyone who enjoys a good (long) scramble!

I am going through a period of low motivation generally but hoping that getting back to posting will help me get some structure back. I have really just been doing some gentle runs and general bouldering. We changed wall to Mile End a few weeks ago which has been a good change up- setting seems to be more interesting than the Castle. I got on the ME woody this weekend, which is a plain 45 degree board, which is probably better for me than the Wave at the Castle. To me (at the moment at least) board climbing is much more appealing and enjoyable than comp-y problems. 

Monday: General fairly lame bouldering session:

Tues-Thurs: Nothing

Friday: Boulder session at Barbers Gym- cool tiny wall/training gym. 

Saturday: Board session #1 set myself 2 project routes. 30 min easy run

Sunday: Board session #2 - progress on project routes. Identified a weakness to work on- cross through hand moves on small holds. Feels like missing some stability (in shoulder maybe?) required to pull off. Will post video for analysis because this was a problem on my last 'season' of board work too. 

This week- 3 runs, get back on the board, post progress.

Cheers Tom. The leg issue is a large disparity in strength and function in my left leg. It dates back 20+ years from an ACL. If I don’t keep on top of it it seems to weaken much quicker than my right and I get a bit of hip and knee pain. I haven’t kept on top of it for a while as I haven’t had the need to as it wasn’t stopping me doing anything – mainy because I wasn’t doing very much. It’s not noticeable in day to day stuff and 2018 had lots of biking which kept it going and pain free.  If I can get it to pistol squat strength I reckon that’ll be a good benchmark.

Last week: plan versus reality

Mon – Rd 4 of The Depot SBL before coaching. Circuits. Shoulder. Legs. Evening bike ride. All done apart from the bike ride. No pain/reaction from shoulder

Tue – BUK climb. Target V6’s. Circuits. up to V5 as shoulder got grumbly. Did circuits

Wed – Depot Rd 4 or possible return to Giggleswick S to finish the 7a+ off. If outside then do some easy circuits before or after coaching BUK again. Up to V5 again as shoulder got painful. No circuits this time, too sore.

Thur – Shoulder. Legs. Recovery hangs rest day. Recovery work done

Fri – Shoulder. Legs. Max hangs Back at The Depot. Warm up, tried one more SBL problem and got it. Volume work on reds. New set/holds are very good for volume/compression/heel/toe technique work. Circuits – the purple 7a felt the living end

Sat – Rest

Sun – Conditioning and general bouldering whilst coaching done. Shoulder felt good enough to give some V6’s a go towards 666 goals

Diet - over 25 DQS and 100g protein. managed 5/7 days. The days I missed were rest days so not bad

Plan for this week:

I feel like I’ve made some good changes of late that have now become habits. My sleep and diet are much better and I’m doing what I should with my shoulder and managing to climb a lot. I’m not doing so great at fitting in/finding the motivation for other activities like hangs and legs. It seems I can manage one thing at a time and the shoulder is the priority. I managed to climb 5 days this week, being sensible with the shoulder issue for once.

I do feel like I’m climbing better indoors atm and I may be getting on top of my shoulder issue.

I’m going to do another week of volume sessions to test it out before moving into more specific strength sessions.

Doing this to then compare what I manage and don’t manage.

Mon – Rest. Recovery hangs. Shoulders. Legs

Tue – Start a new job. Shoulder rehab and legs at least but may be nothing depending on how brain tired I end up..

Wed – Auto belay before/after coaching

Thur – Volume boulder session and circuits

Fri – Away in Edinburgh for the weekend. We’re visiting Ratho so routes will be on the cards. Need to fit in leg and shoulder work as well.

Sat –

Sun –  

Long term goals

7c in 2020 – route to be decided. Would make sense to look at Chapel Head/Hollywood bowl

Medium Goals 2-6 mths (Nov to April)

Costa Blanca trip after Xmas. 9 days of climbing potentially.

Onsight 7a x 4

RP 7b in a day

After trip change back to strength training until end of Feb.

7B (outdoors) in Winter 2019/2020 – local (so limestone) and in two styles. Ned’s Problem looks good and steep and I have been supplied with a list of vert/techy problems to look at with Discohesion sit probably being the favourite.

666 fit club goals

6 x V6 slabs – 1 done

6 x V6 vert – 2 done

6 x V6 steep – 4 done

To be done at BUK for ‘proper’ grades

Short term goals 1-2 mths (to mid Nov)

Battle of Britain 19th October

Rehab left shoulder in time for BOB going well atm

Rehab niggly elbows in time for BOB not got any worse despite lots of volume

Leg strengthening. Pistol squats bi laterally by BOB (can do one (ish) on my right leg only atm)

After BOB change to fitness for Spanish trip

Do some fitness even after a bouldering session

Diet– DQS 25+ per day. 100g+ protein.

Morning Tom, thanks for your stating; +16kg on the micros is indeed with both hands! I can't even one-arm the Lattice edge, so there's no way I'd be doing it on the little crimpers! Lurgy did indeed subside with no more incident than sore ribs resulting from my wife rousing me from a sustained bout of snot induced snoring!

Week 37

M – Feeling pooped; lurgy taking a bit of a tighter grip. Very tight and achy right rhomboid.

T – Gentle day; groin physio/Compex and some foam rollering.

W – Still not quite over lurg, so took it relatively easy. An-cap/Tendon density hangs; 3x30s @ BW+18kg (Crimpd work-out, but very close to what I had tried out based on Tyler Nielson info). 5x5 on-the-minute wide pull-ups at 18kg. HARD! Various preacher curls/OHP/rings.

T – Crimpd aero-power 7/3/12/4 @50% (-8kg) x6. Pretty steady as an aero-power session; felt a little powered out at the very end, but not particularly pumped. 6x20 OHP with 15kg. Groin rehab & compex.

F – Pretty much nothing.

S – Back to Devil’s Gorge. Clips up and psyched I managed the boulder problem first go. 1st RP go, Underworld (7c/+) went well; still some pump to recovery from at the half-height chains. Hades bit felt alright (even managed a little shake-out where I fell last time) but then the fight started!

From then on, every move had it’s own pitch of power scream; escalating from guttural growl to a finish that the Beegees would have been proud of! So surprised I made it through to the Grand Canyon chains, but my recovery wasn’t good enough to have a proper go at the extension, so for now I’ve written the route up as a 20m pitch. Named after my moggy, Rupert “The Bear” Smith, 8b. (Also dogged up the other project – some of my hold stabilisation has been very successful – other bits, ah, um, less so...!)

S – Life admin getting house sorted and packing for holibobs.

Physically I'm getting a little stronger I think, but that's off-set by getting fatter..! Skill-wise getting better too, but do feel like I'm stuck round 6a on indoor routes and anything from V2-4 still causes problems which is slightly annoying, but I realise I can't just get a grade a week better just by turning up!

M- Rest Day

T - B'day - 42!! Strength training in eve - then pub!

W - Hungover hour at Kong in morn, 45 mins turbo trainer intervals in afternoon

T - Rest

F - Walk up Catbells (90 mins) in morn (followed by a second breakfast) - foot felt OK

S - More strength stuff

S - Hour at kong in am, 1hr turbo session in afternoor (FTP test -20point bump!)

Not the best week. I've moved the bike/turbo traininer from garage into a room down stairs for now in an attempt to use it more often. Hope to get 3-4 session climbing in this week, maybe even outside (weather permitting).

Cheers Tom, got a race coming up on Saturday, 10 mile off road course with a big hill at the end. Looking forward to it  On the down side however I have bee diagnosed with a hernia that is going to require surgery so will have an enforced layoff at some point. Thankfully the doctor has said its fine to continue with cardio work as long as im not in pain. Anyway week went as follows;

Monday, rest

Tuesday, 1km swim and 5k evening run

Wednesday, 1km swim

Thursday, 2km swim and stretch class

Friday, 1km swim and 26km ride home

Saturday 14.5km trail run, proper jungle bashing at times, legs stung to bits and bleeding. Type 2 fun 

Sunday, rest and a trip round the zoo with the kids.

Cheer Tom. Thanks for doing the stats.

I've chosen Kiss Me Hardy at Chee Dale Upper as my medium term target (6 months to red point it). Long term, so 12 months, is Brachiation Dance at Water-cum-Jolly. I reserve the right to revise those once I stand under them though!

This week seems to have gotten away from me, so mostly its been overall fitness through biking. Which is no bad thing, and I'm definitely feeling less heavy. I need to get the scales out. A couple of month ago I was 89KG, and my rather unscientific goal is to lose 5KG and see what effect that has.

M - MTB, 7.5 miles, 1650 feet of ascent. Sessioned downhill in the forest.
T - Worked late so enforced rest
W - 4x4's at Awesome walls. Average 6b. Found some good routes to use and probably was more power endurance on a couple of sets. Felt good and recovery has improved massively since starting a couple of months ago.
T - Rest
F - Bike to work, 24 miles round trip.
S - The day slipped away from me, nothing beyond some dog walking.
S - 46 miles on the MTB on roads, with 4000 feet of ascent, but with skinnier tyres now!

Kicking in to a new training cycle and (one whole week in!) feeling a bit more psyched than I have over the last 6 months. Hopefully the psyche will continue. One thing that I miss with being current FitClub statto is not having someone directly critiquing/evaluating my previous week's write-up. I need someone to hold my lazy self to account! However, I think I'm going to have to step down from statting at the end of October (ADVANCE WARNING! Who wants it?!) as I'll be away for three weeks and then have some pretty hectic weekends on my return, so whoever takes over can be bad cop for me!

Anyway, back to a TFTNA-style 'base phase' focussing initially on strength for the next eight weeks.

Week 37:

M: Rest

T: Rest

W: Long work day

T: Indoor climbing at Boardroom. Max Hangs and ARC -slightly abbreviated as chest/shoulder still sore.

F: Road Run. 30min Z1. 5km, flat.

S: Trail Run. 90min Z1. 14km, 370m vert gain, techy.

S: Indoor climbing at Boardroom. Max Hangs, AeroCap (Minute on - minute off on circuit board) and ARC.

Week 38 Plan:

3 hours Z1.

2 Climbing Sessions.

2 Core and Strength Sessions.

Start prehab habit.

STG (End Oct):

Front Squat 3RM: 55kg 

Deadlift 3RM: 65kg 

Ice tool One-arm Hangs: +5kg BOTH arms

Minimum 500m running vert gain per week 

Redpoint Subculture (D6+) and Don't Tumble (D6+)

Tick off 666 goal routes.

MTG (End Dec):

666 Goals

Redpoint Jaz

Two big alpine routes from my little black book!

Welsh 3000s in a day.

LTG (End March 2020):

Scottish VII

Two winter alpine routes from my little black book!

SkiMo summit (TBC).

Welcome back Tom, racked up the stars and had..... an experience on Parson's Chimney?!?! I'm still not quite sure whether I enjoyed it or not. Will either chuckle at the memory or wake up screaming at some date in the future perhaps.

Shin ok, with majority of swelling and/or bruising having dissipated, though the ankle is a bit 'cracky'. Maybe get out in the Peak for a longer walk to test it out.

Steady week of climbing with a gentle day at Stanage punctuated by an onsight of the Link, followed later in the week by failure on Suspense, sad face emoji.

Mo: General Way walking, 7.7 miles.
Tu: General walking, 8.0 miles. 6 trad routes @ Stanage.
We: General walking, 7.8 miles. DIY day.
Th: General walking, 8.9 miles. DIY day.
Fr: General walking, 7.2 miles. 3 trad routes @ Lawrencefield, including E2 dnf of the excellent Suspense, damn.
Sa: General walking, 9.6 miles. ~6 mile park walk.
Su: General walking, 7.7 miles. 4 trad routes @ Turningstone Edge.
Weight: 10st 9lb/bf 16.8%

Next week's plan
Same as last week:-
Rehab ankle/shin.
More climbing/ do some training?

Nar then youth, I've got Kiss Me Hardy and High Society on my wishlist, as well, so let me know if you need a belay.

I'm getting my hip operation on 11th of Nov so can probably do from Sunday 17th Nov for a bit

Thanks Tom. Loving the ill behaviour...

Another AWOL summary for me - the inevitable happened last Wednesday so we’re mainly funeral planning and sorting stuff.

List of minor achievements:

- yoga at least once a week

- one Pilates class

- bit of falling off Hidden Traverse at Saddle Tor - no stamina!

- DWS - repeat Long Traverse and did The Plimsoll Line and almost part 2 (6C+) of Watchtower Traverse onsight.

- a lesser travelled E2 at Symonds Yat. As Matt and AJM will attest, SY grades are weird so hard to know what grade that means in real life. I’ll take any E numbers at this point  though...

Cankle variously behaving and not. Rheumatic getting up in the colder autumn mornings means it can take hours to feel like something might work. Similarly hot also bad - suntrap of Telegraph Hole meant I couldn’t get a climbing shoe on to do the trad i had intended!

Goals rapidly being adjusted as 666 slipped away to cankle and family circumstance. Watch this space!

Thanks for doing the doing the stats as always.

For rehab I've been doing a lot of eccentric wrist curls, the stretch Tom Randall made popular and push ups. Staying away from slopers and locks off moves.

Week 09th - 15th

M: Warm up and boulder. FB - 1/2 crimp max hang ~94kg x 5, 3 x OH max hang ~90kg, 4 x 3 pull ups 2 sets at 94kg and 2 sets at 88kg. TRX - I,Y,T and prone I - 3 sets x 10

T: ANCAP boulders, core workout, and flex.

W: 10km ride am, and 44km bike ride in the evening. Felt great, shame I missed out on riding much this summer. 

T: Warm up, Single arm hangs at around ~80% max (~20kg) 6 on each side, Few harder boulders, broken 30s, TRX (push ups, prone I, and leg crunches). Felt ruined.

F: Rest

S: Late notice paragliding cancelled so we headed to Portland, arrived a little late climbed Stalker's Zone (6a+), and then got on Halfway to Heaven (7b) bottom was very greasy, had a couple of goes but fell right at the top and landed with shins across the roof bit, so gave up. Definitely did not feel recovered from Thursdays session, so wasn't too hard on myself.  Had to wade out, lost my sunglasses and got soaked in the ensuing wave madness.

S: Headed to coastguard south unbelievable grease climbed Xavier's Wall (6a) felt pretty wild with no clipstick for first bolt. Gave up and headed to Wallsend, tide was out and unbelievably I found my sunglasses unscratched in some weed. Warmed up on Trad Free World (6b) very greasy. Met some people I knew who had the draws in Troll Team Special (7a+), was told it wasn't greasy so went for it, it was very greasy. Slipped off crux, and then climbed to the top. Climbed it next go, when sun had baked the grease off. What a route, great moves! Should def be a top 50. Finished with a swim in the sea.

Next weeks goals:

Keto diet seems to be going well, did drink a beer at the weekend, and did find i needed to eat some carbs during climbing. Managed the cycle ride without.

FBing and a few strength workouts.

Hoping to get one day out this weekend, or possibly friday depending on weather and work.

What alpine routes you thinking of trying in Nov/Dec or do you not want to put anything down in writing?

Welcome back Tom. Where are you off to in October?

Thanks, was a pretty awesome week and the Matterhorn couldn't really have gone better. It was such a good climb and we got back in plenty of time for the cable car down.

I have been running 3 times a week, the plan was for 4 but I am finding that tough to fit in with gym and climbing. Going to the gym running club on Sunday to see if I can get some tips on style/training. 

I have not really been doing any climbing-specific training other than trying hard and getting on the woody/training board so will start thinking about that in the next couple of weeks to decide on some specific goals. This has made me think back to your question about goals and what goals are. I always struggle with this as I really just want to get better at bouldering but I have no specific aspect to work on.

Front lever plan daily exercises: hanging leg raises, dragon flags (something like that), skin the cats, front lever holds in tuck/one leg positions. Dragon flags are near on impossible but hoping daily practice will make them go. I'll try to post a video on instagram next week to show you what I mean by these.

Mon: gym, 5 x 53kg deep back squat - this is the most weight I have done on these. I find the very lowest bit of the squat very unstable with more weight.

Good boulder session at Mile End.

Tues: gym, bench press 5 x 40kg - haven't done these in a very long time and my technique needs work to go heavier.

Woody session at Barber's - power and crimp strength showing improvement.

45 min run

Weds: gym - the dreaded dragon flag and sissy squats which look ridiculous. Dragon flags are basically lying on the floor in front of a vertical pole (solidly attached to the ground), holding the pole behind your head and bringing your legs up as high as you can so they are pointing towards the ceiling until you are just on your shoulders holding the pole behind your head and then gradually lowering your feet/legs to the ground keeping your body (legs and back) as straight as possible. grim

Boulder session at Mile End. Hands/fingers not feeling great climbing three days in a row.

Thurs: easy 30 min run

Fri: gym in morning and boulder session in the evening. Starting to feel quite tired and low on energy.

Sat: easy 30 min run then away for the weekend in Salisbury

Sun: away/rest

Missed time to post in the last one but have been doing lots despite getting a giant flapper on the middle finger tip.  

Taped it up and managed to get done:

Barry kingsize sit start 7A+ at crookrise - felt easy! 

Pedestal arete at Caley 7A+ - again felt easy!

The one to the left of new Jerusalem at caley. It has no name on ukc but I've seen it referred to as cruel arete. Apparently gets 7C but I think 7A+ is fair

Pulled on to the crystal method 7B+ (very hard) and juju club 7B+ (achievable in not too long I think) and worked out most of Ben's groove (7B) so will be looking to put that away as my hardest boulder yet this week.

Got in 2 max hang sessions too 

Haha, the curse of saying them out loud!

The main reason for an autumn trip is to try and catch a few things that are (used to be!) possibly more likely to be in good nick.

I’ve a long-standing ambition to get on the Schmid route on the Matterhorn N face, which has probably seen more ascents at that time of year than any other... but probably won’t be in given the summer(s) we’ve had. 

So who knows?! In some ways, it’s probably the worst time of year to be out in the alps, unless the Matterhorn calls our bluff! Always something to do though!

Depends a bit on weather, but maybe following your lead and heading to Zermatt! We’ll have the van though, so the plan will be to just follow the good cons!

Sorry to hear about the family stuff. All the best with it. 

Well, as long as statting doesn’t interrupt your post-op R and R then it would be great if you could take over for a bit. 

I’ll be good up to (and including) Oct 20. If you’re willing to pick up from mid-Nov that only leaves a couple of weeks to get covered.

Thanks Tyler. 

I'd offer, but microAJM is due early November and that means a bit too much risk of being in the "not sure what day of the week  it is" phase of sleep deprived!

I might be able to do a stint once we get to the "bit of a routine but not really doing that much" stage...

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 9lbs

M - 3 mile walk

T - 4 mile walk

W - 3 mile walk

T - 3 mile walk

F - Rest

S - Rest

S - Rest

Again a steady week's trudging.  Rather fallen off the fit club wagon I'm afraid.  But at least I'm ticking over.  So I keep telling myself.  Friday was a bit odd.  We were supposed to be going up to Orkney, but on the way up we got a text saying the ferry was cancelled and the next free one was on Tuesday.  So we had to can that and after a night in Carlisle at a premier inn we ended up in Bowness in the Lakes for a week.  Hopefully a nice chilled week.

Do you have something specific (sets and reps, written down)? Otherwise I would bet there is no way you are actually going to start a new habit with this vauge of a statement xD

Oooh fantastic. Can't go far wrong going in that direction. The best bit of advice I have is buying the dehydrated Denner mushroom risotto - delicious! If you go to Zermatt will you park the van somewhere and travel in? Are you planning on staying in the van?