UKC

I'm not sure from last week whether anyone committed to cover in Tyler's absence?

If you were planning to do it, please shout - otherwise given the lack of imminent microAJM (my main reluctance to commit in advance to covering it) I can probably knock something together later on...

Apologies this is a bit brief, bit last minute.....

Since my wife is due a week Monday I really don’t want to commit to next week - is someone else able to pick it up please?

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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_658-711782

Posters

Powderpuff - one arm hangs on the 45 slopes? Any level of cheat bar standing on the floor classes that as an achievement in my book! 

AJM

mattrm - do you have a plan/intent to try to push back towards 12st, or is it one of those “one day” things at the minute? (Ditto the trad, to be fair - you’ve got some climbing related goals, but my recollection is you haven’t had much opportunity to make progress on climbing related things of late?) Good exercise consistency, very impressed.....

AlanLittle - hope you’re feeling better? Solid goal, opens a lot of doors...

Somerset Swede Basher - how are the elbows feeling? I have to say campusing the day after backing off pull ups with elbow issues feels like a bold move, but it looks like it paid off given no other complaints later in the week?

annak - recovered now? What’s n7 in French/uiaa/somethingimightrecognise?

Ally Smith - when do we see you on the big screen? Film star! Varied training this week.....

Paul16 - at Gandia, L’Os is 7a I think and excellent and there’s a load of other good stuff round there, I can’t remember many names but I’d take a punt that if you can fine something on that bit of wall the right sort of grade it’s probably going to be good.

ianstevens - just noting the bit in your post last week about the possibility of doing some statting and flagging my lack of ability to do it next week.... nice one on the 7B!

Ardo - very jealous! Never been to that bit of Spain, had it in my head as a potential summer trip one year to combine with some of the mountains. Have you shifted to Lleida by now?

Bones - effort on the assisted muscle up. It’s always been something I’ve thought would be cool but the movement has always felt so alien. Should invest some time into it one day...

Steve Jones - for winter days out from Keswick, aren’t you closer to Yorkshire or even Northumberland than the peak?

planetmarshall - best of luck in Turkey!

biscuit - loving the CrossFit description. I’m feeling the need for some biking again.....

SFrancis - interesting your experience on zinc. One on my todo list still...

Liamhutch89 - sounds like you’re in a good peak phase at the minute then? You get back out this week?

the sheep - swift recovery!

Quick one from me; writing from Manchester airport departure lounge.

Week 44

M – BFR fingerboard. 110 mmHg. 12 sets of 15 shrugs (38kg on mobile board) followed by smallest edge hang. 9x 10mm micro then 3 sets Lattice. Kettlebell hammer curl/OHP combo “finisher”!?! An-cap density hangs (3x30s@BW+18kg) & aero-cap hangs 10x 7/3/6/1@BW-18kg (felt quite hard). Rings – I,Y,rT. 3x8reps.

T – Eric Horst tendon pre-hab. Quick DL session - singles up to 122kg (ran out of plates). Later got filled up with vaccines and hence did sweet FA in the evening (okay, I did a little bit of core in front of the TV)

W – Chapel boulder. 1km Erg warm-up, then gradual build up through harder problems. Good session: Managed 2x new V7s on the 30, a diagonal V6 on the 45, then the “7c” extension across the barrel (bashed my head falling off the top on a previous go) and then when tired at the end of the session flashed an apparent V8 on the 45? Stretched when back home.

T – Long duration/tendon density isometrics 3x 30s on/3min off for each of

front3 crimp -18kg

4finger drag +18kg

1-arm face-on 120degree lock-off (+18kg assist)

Later, tendon stiffness protocol “cluster hangs” 3/3/4/2 1-arm, half crimp lattice edge @BW-13kg. Lots of I,Y,T rings in rest period. Finished off with 6x 40s on/20s off core static v-sits. (Should have done some aero-cap also, but dinner was ready!)

F – Nowt

S – Chapel boulder. Gradual build up through harder problems, not quite as successful as Wednesday, but happy to be trying hard on a 45 degree board and working my weaknesses. Put together all the moves on a board 7B and did it in 2. Then did the same with a 7B+ on the barrel that felt burly AF.

An-cap boulder triples with old timing protocol (not Crimpd): Blue V7, Black V6, Black V5 (30) and diagonal V6 on the 45. Felt pretty worked.

3x10 dips. 

S – Last minute sorting of anti-malarial meds (side effects on first lots of drugs) then off on holibobs.

See you in 2 weeks UK

Good luck with miniMeMk2 Andy/Ali :-D

Thanks for stepping up!

I think it's just where my mate knows. Nothing serious planned just came up in conversation. I'm sure he'd be open to ideas. I know another friend (and strong climber) likes going to Northumberland... I'm open to suggestions!

M - 10k (a slow 53 mins!) doing laps round the park in the rain.

T - 12k including interval session with the club then chatty jog to finish

W - 2 hrs at the wall doing routes - feeling like I've gone backwards of late due to only climbing once a week - resolved to find someone to climb with on Friday...

T - 10k More intervals with the club

F - Weights - 50kg 5x5 bench press plus some more upper body stuff in the 'rest'.  Then 2 hrs down the wall doing routes mainly. Tried a 7a (on the auto-belay) to see what it's like - hard, especially on the fingers! Got stuck leading a few 6bs. The lass I was climbing with, who's a good deal shorter than me and was bossing the routes, commented that I did a lot of the moves dynamically that she could do statically - not sure how I improve that other than practice - any advice? She also got me further up one of the routes that I failed miserably on on Wednesday, so that was nice.

S - hangover and in bed til 4pm

S - 9.5k (320m) over/round latrigg in 53 mins - not sure the foot's fixed...

I'll do next week if no one else better suited to doing stats wants to.

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 3lbs (2 lbs gain)

M - 3 mile walk

T - Rest

W - Rest

T - 3 mile walk

F - S - Ill

Clobbered by the lurgy this week.  It's affected us all, especially the little un and his sleep has been really iffy.  As a result so has our sleep.  Which means the walking has gone to heck.  However October was a 67% month, which I'm super happy about.  My previous best was 56%, so that's a massive improvement.

As for the goals, then I guess I probably ought to rejig them.  The 6b probably isn't out of reach in the medium term if I actually put a bit of effort in.  But I have a long commute, several awkward chronic conditions, toddler and a fairly demanding job.  All that conspires to make me fairly tired, which reduces the psych massively.  Also I used to have an incredibly convenient climbing wall, which was a 10 minute walk from home and was stuffed full of autobelays.  Now I have a 30 minute drive (which will be better when the roadworks are finished) to a bouldering wall.  My joints don't agree with bouldering either.  They do have a bit circuit board tho, which could be good.

Oct - 67%

Nov 0%

YTD - 43%

If you do come to Northumberland and are happy to have some extra people along, please give me a shout! 

Full post from me later, but yes, I can sub in next week on the stats! Will be my first time so any advice appreciated.

Cheers AJM, and good luck to you and Mrs. AJM! 

I find campusing happier on the elbows than pull ups, probably because its easier to warm up at the climbing wall than at home. Just being ultra carful on Monday really. Only 2 climbing sessions this week but managed some CV too. Finger still grumbling so still keeping away from the fi ger board and anything too fingery.

Mon. 9km run - fast (well, fast for me anyway 4.45/km)

Tues. Slow 20km on the mtb with the kids. 

Wed. Cratcliffe. Managed my multi decade nemesis Jerry's Traverse (f7B) happy frickin days! Should have stopped trying to use technique ages ago. 

Thurs. 25km on the road bike. Long drive south. 

Fri. 8km run with Mrs. Swede. 

Sat. Rest. 

Sun. Long drive north. Evening Depot session. 4x up the campus board on the slopers then circuit boarding. Highlight was getting the 7b+ first go.

Thanks for volunteering guys... who’s keenest then?

Im not sure that climbing statically is always better, in the way your wording could imply - doing a move static requires more strength to lock the position as you move and sometimes the right answer is to use a bit of momentum to avoid that. Really fiddly holds you have to hit just right, or where you don’t know what the holds going to be like, or whatever, sure, but not always. Having said that, if she’s doing them static because her body is in the right place and you’re not finding the position so are having to slap, then technique drills or whatever to get you in the right place perhaps. Or it could just be that the routes you’re both doing are easier for her than for you so she can lock the moves out because she’s just stronger than you, and maybe she’d be slapping and popping all over the place on something she finds hard.

It’s hard to say without knowing why, which is my excuse for not really answering your question!

Not too bad a training week for me. Would have been good to fit in one more proper session, but my wife and then son got ill in series late in the week which derailed things a little bit.

Monday I think it was I had a go at benchmarking on the assisted one arm stuff. 15mm I could hang with 63kg, although since a fair bit of that was on the counterweight pulley friction may flatter a little here. I tried 20mm too which was a little higher but again it’d be nice to drop a few kilos off me to make results a bit more comparable with previous efforts (I’ve not used this hold in ages but managed about 66-67kg pulled on it several years back - although since I’ve done that since on the lattice edge too which is a lot harder I hope to make some progress against that when I get into the swing of things.

Wednesday I did a few sets of knee to bar, reps were definitely down on where they were last time I did this, reps of 6 rather than 9 or 10. But it’ll come back.

thurs/fri/sat taken out to various degrees

Today I took the little one swimming in the morning which was nice. He was knackered and fell asleep on me in the afternoon, which was my chance to write Fit Club. Then did a training session. Some trx flies, then 3 sets of knee to bar and although I started better than midweek I faded faster. Then onto the fingerboard. I tried some assisted one arm stuff but it quickly became apparent that my shoulders weren’t having anything to do with assisted one arm levels of load. So I shifted gears and decided to tax the fingers rather than the shoulders by hitting the 8mm edges. Pretty solid session on these, managed to get to a shade under 81kg which is a new pb by a few kilos (up from 78). I’ve not done that much on these edges previously, so it’s not the same scale of pb as something where I’ve done a lot on them before but still pretty pleased with that early in the cycle.

This week is going to be a wait and see really. My in-laws are down from the middle of the week, so if nothing has happened by then I might have the chance to pop to the wall. But otherwise I’ll keep my nose on the home training grindstone and keep dangling off pieces of wood. 

STG: Get over irritating persistent autumn virus. DONE
MTG: Actually get up something in what remains of the autumn season, weather permitting.
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021, starting with getting up something big, steep & classic on Kalymnos in the spring. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

Recovered from multi-week throat infection. Frustrated by having missed what might turn out to be the last couple of weekends of good weather, but easing back into training for the winter.

M: 
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Actually felt healthy today for the first time in weeks, so rushed eagerly to the wall. Where I got on a couple of pre-sickness projects and discovered, unsurprisingly, that I've lost quite a bit of fitness. So did a relatively relaxed recuperation session. 
    More importantly: recruited a couple of mates for a Kalymnos trip in May. 
W: Bike one hour; half an hour shoulders & wrist extensors.
T: Bike one hour. Undecided from a lurgy recovery point of view between exertion in cold damp weather, and sharing public transport with army of virus sneezing zombies. Decided weather the lesser evil.
    Evening max hangs session
F: Public holiday. Weather ok-ish  but a bit too misty & damp for climbing, so went hillwalking for the first time in ages. Haven't done much of this since I stopped alpine training in 2016, and was therefore unsurprisingly slower than I was then. But still just about hanging on to the 500 metres/hour uphill pace that I regard as baseline fitness.
S: Ferocious thigh DOMS after yesterday's 1200 metres of steep downhill.
S: Wall, Boulderwelt. Circuits. I have nice new 7a+ project that is everything a good training circuit should not be: short, more techy than pumpy, with a low percentage crux right in the middle. But it's fun
 

I figured it's be less exhausting, but what you say makes some sense. I've done that route with 2 people both clearly shorter than me and they could both reach holds that I couldn't - one of them completely ignored two holds that I had to use as well! One thing Fridays partner also said is that she is quite happy just palming off the wall, where as I, being something of a beginner (this is my thoughts, not what she said) am still of a mindset that I have to just use the holds. I'm quite happy to smear with feet, but still stuck on 'just' using holds for hands. (The particular route was in a corner so using the 'other' wall for balance or to push off, probably would have helped). She's clearly a lot stronger and has been climbing a lot longer than me, so it's no surprise that she's making it look easy whereas I get chewed up and spat out. But I think I learned from it so that's good!

Trela (7a) perhaps, as well as your previously-stated DNA (7a)? It's a lot longer so feels a bit more like an outing. Cigarillo (7a) is another good tufa-y outing on the more vert walls just right.

Sorry yes, I should maybe post in recognisable grades. n7 is 6c, possibly 6c+ due to the Norwegian grading system getting blurry as grades increase.

This week started well but unravelled on Thursday when I managed to pop a C3 pulley in my right ring finger. To answer the most obvious question, how, it was a hold on the crux of a 7a+ that forced my fingers into an openhand position. Also I have long, hypermobile fingers that are prone to pulley injury.

I have tried and failed to find any record of anyone else ever popping a C3, so I'm going to rehab roughly along the A4 lines: 1-2 weeks rest, then gradually increasing load with pain as a guide.

So far I've been pretty happy about how little pain/swelling there is, which I put down to it actually being a much smaller pulley than the annular pulleys. 

M: 4x4 bouldering and antagonist/core session

Tu: bouldering, 3x yellows, all flash I think. The yellow routes seem to be either flash or can't manage them at all, which leaves me in doubt as to whether I should be trying something harder.

W: rest

Th: lead climbing, had a try at leading a 7b for the first time, did it with one fall and one rest. Definitely feels plausible. Then tried my 7a+ project and snapped a C3 pulley. Bugger.

F: rest / feeling sorry for myself

Sa: rest

Su: went for a walk in the woods

This week: maybe some cycling, antagonist stuff, possibly some really easy climbing that I can do with 1.5 hands. Or maybe not.

Thanks for stepping in AJM!

Been a mixed bag for me this week. Bit of proper flu book-ended by some decent ARC + core sessions.

M - Rest
T - ARC @ Chapel - 2x30 with 10 min rest. 30 mins of core work as warmup. Felt hard - was wiped out by the end. Went home and struggled to find the energy to get out of the chair...
W - aha, tiredness explained - I was coming down with flu type virus!
T - In bed with flu
F - In bed with flu
S - Feeling better but didn't do much
S - 5 mile walk in the hills followed by: ARC 2x30 with 10 min rest, 30 mins core @ Chapel - over the virus, this felt like a good session. Met Ally from this parish at the Chapel - was good to have someone to talk to whilst doing the session!

Next week was supposed to be a rest week but given I've been resting for most of the week already I may cut that short. Just talking to Jude about the plan but another week of rest seems overkill. However, I will wait for Jude's opinion on it.

Spain is now booked for first week in Feb. Got a few routes added to my wish list on UKC for crags in the area. We're staying just outside Gandia for a week. Haven't climbed at Gandia before but heard lots of good things about it so pyched to get there. AJM - thanks for the recommendation, will have a look at it.

STG (Early Dec 2019): Build a base of endurance and good movement habits. Improve shoulder mobility and awareness of tension.

MTG (Spain, 1st week of Feb 2020): Trip to Costa Blanca. Kashba @ Sella - I didn't finish it last time due to rubbish endurance. Otherwise looking to redpoint some 6c+/7a's at Gandia and Bellus.

MTG (UK, March 2020): Redpoint Rubicon 7a & Kiss Me Hardy 7a+, head point San Melas E3, on-sight Wings of Unreason E4

LTG (Sept 2020): Redpoint Brachiation Dance or Garderobe, both 7b+

 

Go on then, I'll take it on for one week only! Then Tyler is back right?

Cheers! Hopefully it's sorted for next week now and I'll sub in. No real achievements this week, conditioning heavy on the lite plan and feeling pretty tired. I expect this is because the boys and girls at lattice know how to write a plan. Did bump up may pull up 2RM by 4kg though.

Last Week (44; Lattice 1.4)

M: 1) Yoga; 2) Bike commute 9km. Tired.

Tu: 1) Yoga; 2) Valley: warm up (including some hang board stuff); Crimpd Style Triad (1/2); 3) Stabiliser conditioning, press and row (16.5/26.5kg); 4) BC 10.3km

W: 1) Yoga; 2) Stabiliser Conditioning; 3) Hip and Leg Flexibility; 4) BC 8.2km 

Th: 1) Valley: warm up (inc board, hung the BM2K bottom holds for 10 secs @ BW, first ever try at this); 1 on/1 off @ 6c; ARC @ 6a; 2) BC: 12.7km

F: 1) Yoga; 2) Stabiliser conditioning, pull up 2RM (now 86.9kg total), press and row (16.5/31.5kg - unplanned increase but got the weight maths wrong and survived).

Sa: 1) 56.3km bike (787 m elevation); 2) Tired Bowderstone session - no tops and struggled with keeping the my feet glued on. 

Su: 1) Yoga; 2) Press and row (16.5/31.5kg); 3) Hip and Leg Flexibility

Can definitely relate to some of that! I'm glad my commute isn't too bad. But the lack of energy, definitely there's more evenings now where I get to the end of bedtime and think "what I need to do is sit down and have a beer" rather than being able to raise the psyche for training...

Not your fault, I'm just lazy!

I've really enjoyed my time there and would definitely head back, though maybe at a different time of year. Slowly getting to Lleida, as to quote the film, 'I've gone on holiday by mistake' and very much enjoying it.

Mo: 2 routes at Teverga, with rp of 6a+, that's at least 6b and been given 6b+ on UKC.

Tu: no belay going, so pack van to start heading east, then drink too much.

We: Leon, carajillo and vino to take the edge off, as feeling rather pokey.

Th: Burgos.

Fr: Legroño, mmm, vino, tapas, could be here a while.

Sa: maybe just one more day.

Su: time to move and it's onto Zaragoza.

Didn't get chance to attempt the rp of 7a project, so a reason to come back. Gentle drive east, enjoying the wine and tapas, definitely too much. Move onto Lleida and try and climb something….. probably.

Waves...

Good selection of routes, maybe you could push yourself to headpoint some steeper trad instead of dangerous slabs?

Fair point. San Melas went on there because I've had my eyes on it for while after climbing around alpha buttress. It's definitely serious to the break but confident in the gear and moves after that. Otherwise I haven't really looked at E3/E4/6a-ish routes and don't have any experience on those grades. Now you've pointed it out it seems an obvious gap in my MTG.

Ideally I'd find an e3/4 on Hen Cloud, so need a trip to have a look. Anyone got a recommendation? From a quick scan Caesarian fits the bill and has good gear. 6b might be a bit much for an MTG, maybe a better LTG. Comedian might work as MTG but no mention of what the gear is like.

Are you not meant to stand on the floor? dam I've been doing it wrong all year

I hope the little one makes a safe entrance into the world, best of luck to you and the missus. Dont worry about next week someone will take on the mantel and if not we'll figure it out, you appear to have a much bigger job to do ....or your wife does anyway!

Monday: biked to the local wall in shorts..bloody cold, bit of a shock! Winter is here! New set of problems, climbed v3,v4,v5, started working on a v6 and v7, felt tired. 2 sets of 20 sit ups and press ups, and 2 sets of 10 eccentric wrist curls and leg raises.

Wednesday: 5 max hangs on beastmaker, 35 degree slopers with cheat.

Friday:Went to a different wall to add some variety into my training. Warmed up and climbed one of the v3-5 circuit, felt up for a challenge and tried the v4-6 circuit instead of the v3-5 I normally try. Great failures on 4 more problems but still managed to do quite a few hard (for my level) moves.
Theraband for shoulders.

Sunday: took a while to warm up, not feeling it and then after 3 easy hangs I feel up to 5 max hangs on beastmaker, 35 degree slopers with cheat. 26 pull ups...shit I had a rep of possibly 2 more in me arrrrrggghhh. 3 sets 20 sit ups . 3 sets of 10 leg raises.

Fantastic I cant remember the last time I trained 4 days in a week, pleased with that even if 2 were short fingerboard sessions.

Aim for november is a v6 and v7 at the wall.

In reply to AJM:

Thanks! Hello from, Geyikbayiri.

Last Week

Sunday - First visit to  Ramshaw Rocks - rather embarrassingly as I live 25 minutes from the crag. The Crank (VS 5a) and The Great Zawn (HVS 5a). A brief attempt on the hilariously graded Masochism (E1 5b).

Monday - So this was a strange one. An opportunity came up to climb with one of Tom Randall's visiting American friends as Tom was working. Where do you take an American offwidth expert from Utah? Ramshaw, obviously. So I picked Mary Eden up from a carpark in Chapel en le Frith and made my second trip to Ramshaw Rocks in as many days to receive a bit of an education. She climbed Masochism (E1 5b) on her second attempt - choosing to invert on the initial crack.

We then moved to Melvyn Bragg (f7B) which she completely walked. She then did it a second time. Then while I was recovering from instruction in the art of inverted offwidth climbing, she did it a third time to warm up. Actually, I was not a million miles away from doing this, there's a reasonable chance it might go on second or third attempt. Which would make it my first V8, having never actually done any V2-7 (inclusive).

But what has she done on Ray's Roof?

Thanks for doing the stats this week. I hope all goes well with the new baby delivery.  Imminent!!

I had a bit of a slow one last week. I think with the muscle-up if you have decent upper body strength and core it's mainly about technique. One minute it's impossible and the next I can do three just from changing a few little bits like hand position. It's fun to keep trying and has sort of taken over from front lever stuff at the mo as it feels more obtainable.

Last week I didn't do very much. Been very tired and found running hard so been trying to get a little more sleep.

Mon: rest

Tues: short run - felt very out of breath and had to walk some even though I didn't go far or fast.

Weds: gym - core, front lever stuff. Three muscle-ups with the help of the purple band. The least assistance so far.

Thurs: gym deadlifts

Fri: rest

Sat: bouldering

Sun: bouldering hungover, not my best session.