UKC

In an effort to be better able to comment on training issues I re-read the Alex Barrows document which I think many use as the the foundation for their training (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B-40C59n2E_4aVRyYjY5U1Rtc2c/edit). The good news is that, for the first time ever, the stuff on energy systems made complete sense to me. The bad news is that I was up to my eyeballs with Oramorph and Diazepam so almost certainly did not!

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_660-7122...

Alan Little - I know there are no shortage of route recommendations for Kaly but I will give this route a shout out as it allows you to climb in Sikati on a well bolted route; Mort aux Chevres. Especially good was the fact it was a dry crag dry while Secret Garden was still sodden.

Somerset Swede Basher - I’d say you’ve had a good year, I’m interested to see where you go from here. Some classic hard sport routes in Yorkshire?

Liamhutch89 - I don’t know if the rule applies on bouldering but in sport climbing 7b in a few tries is the equivalent to a sieged 7c, well done on Crusis

Ardo - No point talking training when you are out there doing it on a long trip. If you are looking for more tourist miles then I can definitely highly recommend the Mount Riberi gorge (I imagine you’ve already been though).

Paul16 -Route setting at Stockport can be a bit hit and miss (the answer is usually a really high rockover!) but I don’t see how using any footholds will teach you much about body positioning, as this usually means there are so many options you don't need to consider it. I expect to see some big volume from you this week following a couple of low volume weeks.

mattrm - Nice to see Friday’s 3 miler become a run, more of the same please. I’ve never found it possible to lose weight through exercise alone and on most occasions the opposite has happened.

Planetmarshall - Reading through your post I came to the same conclusions as you re. trying hard outdoors. I think you’re better off working PE rather than stamina for the following reasons: it better prepares you for trying hard moves when fatigued; its very hard to get the low end endurance training done indoors both logistically and from an intensity point of view; endurance is probably already (and better) covered by the trad climbing you do throughout the year.

ad111 - Is the new wall close to you? If so, that’s good news,. Trying to do all the 7A and 7B in a session is impressive if you got close and (as with Liam) suggests your LTG is already well within your grasp.

AJM - Hopefully all is well and AJM 2.2 has had a successful roll out?

annak - Bad luck with the finger. It’s a long winter and there’s no prizes for trying hard this time of year if you are not likely to get outdoors much so maybe worth taking some time off to make sure its not aggravated and then recuperate slowly.

ianstevens - Are you feeling ok about the move from Wales, I guess this is the time of year to do it as climbing opportunities in Northumberland probably outweigh those in N Wales over winter.

Bones - Congratulations on the win! I think you’ve been our biggest improver this year by a margin, very impressive considering its in multiple disciplines

Steve Jones - What’s the prognosis with the wrist?

Biscuit - HTML tags have stopped working for me as well!

Cyan - Welcome back, your return seems to mark some significant changes so expect to see some big sessions from you in the near future!

SFrancis - I spent all my childhood and sometime beyond living within 4 miles of White Goods crags, I went to look at it a couple of times (before there were any routes) and although I was desperate to make my mark somewhere with new routes I totally dismissed it. It’s incredible its somewhere they now have a festival at.

Powderpuff - You are so right, anything is better than nothing and I am more guilty than most of doing nothing in favour of a few hangs or pull ups.

Thanks!

Yes, AJM 2.2 (microAJM) arrived in the final quarter hour of Tuesday. All is going well, as tiring as you might expect but everyone's doing ok apart from that. The main difference so far is the absolute refusal to sleep on things that aren't people, which is leading to a lot of sleeping in shifts and does make life a lot more complicated when miniAJM is also around - I suspect next weekend, when he's at home rather than at nursery and we have no family around to lend distraction, might prove a bit of a crux!

Monday - a bit unstructured, started off on the fingerboard but fingers just weren't feeling the 8mm. Shifted to some offset pull-ups (15mm and 8mm) then sets of pull-ups on the bar at bw+10 (~85), 5-4-4 I think it was

Tuesday - working from home, did more bar work, 3x3 at about 92 followed by sets of 3x4/5 at 87. Then in the dying minutes of the day microAJM joined us.

Wednesday - no sleep overnight so rest

Thursday - also rest

Friday - managed to sneak to the wall for a micro session, 45m on a lunchtime pass before meeting the family and my parents at soft play. Just went for climbing as many problems as possible really, get the movement going. A good if short session...

Saturday - sore back from too much picking up of miniAJM, who is getting less mini by the day. Decided to rest given that and a sore shoulder probably from too much awkward sitting/lying trying to act as a cushion for microAJM.

Sunday - my parents went home so the full faff of a 2+2 household was revealed for the first time. Failed to do anything during more normal hours, and now miniAJM is asleep I need to get my head down rather than train. At some point in the early hours when it's my shift on cushion duty I intend to watch Rot Punkt - can I count that, or is that next week?

A tough week adjusting but I did at least manage to get some stuff done. I think that weekdays next week will be the sweet spot, might try to load any training I do into that rather than relying on being able to do anything next weekend. Might manage another micro wall session, it gets us out of the house if nothing else, plus ideally some sort of home training...

Congratulations!

Thanks for the Kaly tip. I belayed my partner on Mort aux Chevres while I was working Pirates. Looks intimidating but amazing, it's definitely next on the list. Then Armata. All three would be a spectacularly successful day. Or holiday. Or entire year for that matter.

STG: Get partners to commit to dates for spring Kaly trip. Target is early May
MTG: Actually get up something in what remains of the autumn season. Looking unlikely barring a dramatic change in the weather.
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

Burned midnight oil in the office this week preparing really good slides for an important meeting, which I then presented really badly . Go me. Not much energy for anything else.

M: 
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Considerable improvement over last week: pumping out near the top of 6b's.
W: 
T: Beastmaker max hangs
F: 
S: 
S: Wall, Boulderwelt. Actual bouldering, of which I haven't done nearly enough for the past year and a half. Focusing on roof problems, probably my biggest area of weakness. My core tension is I think not too bad for a fairly tall person, but I get confused easily when things get all upside down & three dimensional. 

I too have been digging out and re-reading old downloaded training plans, in my case an intermediate level plan by Reini Scherer. Who he? Former Austrian national coach, worked with basically everybody from David Lama and Angie Eiter to Jakob Schubert & Jessie Pilz. Probably knows a thing or two. It is, conveniently, five months long. I'm going to do it.
 

Er, isn't this actually Week 661 though? 

Congratulations to you and the expanding family!

I'm still on the meds!

I got on MaC because because I thought doing a warm up first would intimidate me so just decided to stick clip as a warm up. As it was I got to bolt 8 without even trying

Good call. The 6b+ warmup to the left that nearly everybody probably does is a polished horrorshow.

a good watch, recommended.....

thanks Tyler and Alan too!

Hi Tyler,

The new wall is pretty close - but I'm lucky enough to have 7 walls within a 20 minute drive so if I'm willing to spend the money and go to a wall I don't have a membership at I can always get some new routes.

In terms of my LTG I like to think I'll get my 3* 7C next year. But I spent a significant portion of my outdoor bouldering time this season projecting 7C and whilst every time I thought I'd manage next session it never happened.

• Monday: Max hangs +30kg poor form & max pulls +14kg
• Tuesday: Projecting comp slab routes (wierd volumey, slopey, slipery and dynamic i.e. awful) + Core + pullups on the minute 8kg
• Thursday: Projecting the routes a failed at in the comp last week - no success + Core + pullups on the minute 8kg
• Saturday: Rope climbing and then bouldering

Progression: Feeling some benefit of all the pullups I've been doing and definitely progressing fast. Finger strength feels like it's stagnating but I have put on about 5kg so perhaps I've made progress I just need to lose weight to see it.

Goals:

• STG: Increase Pullup 2RM from 22.5kg to 30kg
• MTG: Maintain good form with max hang on lattic edge +35kg. +review pullup progress.
• LTG: 3* 7C next year

Hi All. 

A big thanks Tyler (and Ian) for picking up statting! It's nice to be back to inconsistent posting of my mediocre training again!

Apologies for the few weeks absence. Won't try a full catch up but...

Week 42-45:

Highlights: ticked Don't Tumble (D6+) (this really isn't that hard but had become a bogey route!); rediscovered the alps outside of Chamonix (why has it been ten years since I last climbed over east?!); got back in to a reasonably consistent running and training routine (even managing to keep going during a week working away).

Lowlights: Alps trip was pretty much a failure (first trip in a while where I didn't achieve anything particularly worthwhile -with positives/'learning' not being sufficient to stop it seeming like a giant waste of time and money).

Week 46 Plan: 

2 x Core & Strength Sessions

3 x Shoulder Prehab

1 x Climbing

3h x Z1 Hill Running

STG (End Oct -Summary):

Front Squat 3RM: 55kg (TICK)

Deadlift 3RM: 65kg (55kg -would almost certainly be a tick but I've run out of weights -need to pick up more!)

Ice tool One-arm Hangs: +5kg BOTH arms (+6kg TICK!)

Minimum 500m running vert gain per week (TICK! -have hit/passed my target of 15km vertical for the year -on runs only, not walks/approaches/climbing)

Redpoint Subculture (D6+) (Not tried since rockfall) and Don't Tumble (D6+) (TICK)

Tick off 666 goal routes. (Running out of time!!)

MTG (End Dec):

666 Goals

Redpoint Jaz

Two big alpine routes from my little black book (FAIL)

Welsh 3000s in a day.

LTG (End March 2020):

Scottish VII

Two winter alpine routes from my little black book!

SkiMo summit (TBC).

666 Goals:

6 Crack routes of each size (Fingers 2/6; Hands 4/6; Fists 0/6; Offwidth 1/6)

6 Roof routes (1/6)

6 E-points in a day

Thanks Tyler!

As predicted, pretty much no exercise this week. I do have a new job and flat though so haven't been idle!

Heading to the wall tonight.

Leonidio goals - 3x 7a and 1 7a+/7b given that I'm going to be quite unfit, I'll see how it goes! 

Cheers Tyler,

Yeah, I'm really happy with this years haul of problems and routes.  While going to Yorkshire would be great anything hard needs to be closer to home as most of my sessions are after work.

Finger starting to see some improvement this week.  Still staying away from hardcore fingery stuff and consequently getting quite fit!

Mon. Awesome walls Sheffield. 12x variations of 1-3-5-7-9 on the big slopers.  Got on the auto belays.  Managed to onsight both the 7bs and the 7a.  Shame they haven't got some harder auto belay routes.

Tues. rest.

Wed. Lamp session at Burbage. Thought id get on a previous nemesis, The Terrace.  Its still hard and still a nemesis problem!  Watched a few videos at home after and maybe need to try some slightly new beta.

Thurs. Foundry. 12x variations of 1-3-5-7-9 but on the bigger finger edges this time.  Finger felt good.  Onsighted the 7s on the auto belays afterwards then did a selection of the mid grade problems on the wave.

Fri. 8km trail run

sat. crimpd static core (which is really quick to do)

sun.  Depot Sheffield. 8x 1-3-5-7-9 on the big finger edges. Got on the circuit board.  7c first go then 7b+ first go.  (pleased with that!) Failed at the 7c+ and 8a but did all the moves (7c+ in 2 overlapping sections).  Had a little play on the micro edges.  Could hold 10 seconds bodyweight on the 8mm but didn't want to risk the 6mm.  Hard to avoid full crimping these - do most people still half crimp on those tiny edges???

Feeling distinctly discombobulated - been awake 32 of the previous 36 hours while travelling home from Tanzania.

Very little exercise (a few token pull-ups and leg raises) and a vast quantity of delicious food on holiday - more to follow as I'm about to head to London for work.

Boot camp will commence on Thursday - I commit to >30min exercise per day between now and FC666, be it climbing, conditioning or just general activity - anything to shift the lard!

Week 45

M – Travel

T – More travel & start of safari

W – Safari

T – Safari

F – Safari - Painted dogs!

S – Safari - Simba!

S – Safari

Week 46

M – Safari & travel

T – Stonetown

W – Stonetown

T – Beach

F – Beach

S – 2x Scuba dives

S – Last minute swim then 24hrs of travelling

Congrats and good luck!

Afternoon Tyler. Thanks for the stat's and the questions.

"Paul16 -Route setting at Stockport can be a bit hit and miss (the answer is usually a really high rockover!) but I don’t see how using any footholds will teach you much about body positioning, as this usually means there are so many options you don't need to consider it. I expect to see some big volume from you this week following a couple of low volume weeks."

Would like to have ramped up the sessions this week but I was away for a few days so not as full a week as it should have been. Next week promises to be full on though.

To clarify - when I'm climbing any colour for feet I'm looking to create specific movement patterns, such as low hips, straight arms, driving upwards from my feet, keeping hips into the wall, using momentum to make moves efficient, etc. It also trains my brain not to look for green/yellow/purple blobs when I'm outdoors

M - ARC - 2x35 mins, 1x20 mins with 10 min rests. Hardest climbing session ever.The pump was fine, just bloody tiring being on the wall for so long. Which is the point I suppose.
T - 30 mins intense core, then foam roller and stretching.
W - AW lead session on routes as set - on auto belay and either the grades were a mile out or I was having a really bad day. Instead of a long lead session, turned into a short lead session doing red pointing!
T - Holiday
F - Holiday
S - Holiday
S - ARC - 2x35 with 10 min rest. 30 mins intense core. Dropped the extra 20 mins as my skin cannot handle that long on plastic.

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+

 

Good luck with your new addition to the family.  Welcome to climbing on your own at increasingly unsociable times!

i don’t have my thumb on for the 8mm. My main knuckles are probably about level with my finger tips (where for a full crimp you’d expect those knuckles to be above fingertips to bring the thumb into play). I can’t hang the 6mm. 

And thanks to you and to Tom!

To be honest I never used to struggle too much over the winter - lots of psyche for getting out I guess! Ironically despite Wales rep for being damp everything up here has been perma-damp since I moved here - just at is looks like drying there's another wave of drizzle. Good to have alternatives such as Yorkshire and the Lakes within day-trip distance though.

Last Week (2019.46; L1.6)

Halfway through the lattice plan already, how time flies! Celebrated by booking a full assessment just before Christmas - interested to see how this goes and hence what the next plan looks like. 

Managed to bust my bike so less commuting on it that normal.

M: 1) Yoga; 2)Conditioning - stabilisers, 5 x 5 pull ups @ 78kg, floor core, static core; 3) Bike commute 8.2km.

Tu: 1) Yoga; 2) Valley - easy warm up (inc some BW hangs), then strength intervals @ 6C; 3) Weighted pull ups 3 sets x 5 @ 79kg, compression; 4) BC 10.2km

W: 1) Yoga

Th: 1) Valley - easy warm up (inc hangs); linked boulder on sections of 8a circuit, one on/off on 6c circuit; 2) Press and row 16.5/31.5kg

Fr: 1) Yoga; 2) Valley easy WU (no hangs) and 45 mins trying random problems <7A. 3) Intermediate campus x 1/2, managed 1-4-5 for the first time. 4)H+L flex

S: Walk around Helvellyn, 12.4km 779m

S: Nothing- day escaped me!

I managed to keep the thumb off on the 8mm but when I set up to hang the 6mm I had to have my knuckles so high the thumb kind of engaged itself. I figured it wasn't worth trying to hang it if I couldn't half crimp it.

Jealous! Love a good painted dog!

Congrats on the new arrival, and on getting 3 sessions in afterwards!!

You flatter me - 1 was after, 2 before (although I have done one yesterday too, so I am keeping on trucking to some extent...)

Thanks

Plus ARC training indoors is beyond tedious...

Last Week

A quiet week after Geyikbayiri. Uneventful apart from my first foray back onto the trails after breaking my leg in January. 

Sun - Trail run. 5.47km/164m Coniston/Torver. I was staggeringly slow and the implants are still a bit painful but I can at least 'mechanically' run.

STG

Put together and start on a new training plan incorporating Tyler's advice and my own observations. Also start adding Aerobic work and some Mixed Climbing - specific exercises. There's lots of crossover with rock climbing training here.

MTG

Continue pushing to try and get my leg implants removed. Might go private if it looks like it's dragging on.

Thinking about some early Scottish Winter jaunts and if I'll be able to manage the walkins. Need some goal trips for next year. Possibilities include

 - Indian Creek (April-ish)
 - Kalymnos/Leonidio (April-May)
 - Lofoten (September)
 - Alps (September)

Baby-weighted hangs should have just got much easier than they were with M... 

Finally got an operation date, soon will be rid of this bloody hernia. Can rest over Christmas and get back training in the new year. Week 666 may even see the start of a new training plan! Happy days 

Cheers Ash. Hope it's all progressing well with the hip.

AJM - Congrats to you both on the arrival of v2.2 and well done on managing to fit a session in. Very impressive.

I've not got time to look at the html issue so a quick type up will have to do.

I had a session at BUK on the circuits, didn't manage an auto belay before/after coaching at Stockport. I got a few circuits in on the (very hard) board at MCC on Sunday. BUK session was better than the week before. Not massively but an improvement.

Routes at Kendal - warm up and then doubles on the main wall on 6b+ and 6c+ and then a couple of warm down routes. I didn't manage the 6c+ due to getting a move wrong in the 2nd third. It was too hard to do wrong on the second go.

I think that was about it. Can't remember if I did a xfit? I think I did.

After my grumpiness over my sore finger last week I have made a protector for my finger during climbing. What's hurting it now is pressure on the pulley itself. This stops it hurting, but is a bit bulky and makes 2 finger pockets a bit tricky.

My shoulders are feeling tweaky again. I think this is from xfit and squat/front squat positions and lack of shoulder mobility. I can't front squat at all, I have to use a cheat grip. This was a bit of a surprise as the usual climber issues (post capsule, lats, internal rotation dominant) are OK for me but when you look at the flexibility Olympic lifters have it's v impressive and can't do any harm for me to aspire too. 

I'm starting to find the enjoyment in getting pumped again and psyche to push on for the trip post xmas.

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 (STS)

M - 3 mile walk

T - 3 mile walk

W - 3 mile walk

T - Push ups

F - 3 mile walk

S - Push ups

S - Rest

I agree on the weight front, I have to eat sensibly to actually loose weight.  When it's been to grim to walk or I've not had the time, I've just been doing a load of push ups in the house.  Not much, but I guess it's something.

Hopefully on the mend - it's been two weeks with no climbing on any weight training in an effort to let it heal, and with other stuff going on this coming week it'll be three weeks rest before I try climbing.

M - Latrigg run (7k, 300m, 45 mins)

T - Club sesison 12k including interval work out, about 90 mins in total including faffing around.

W - Nowt

T - Club sesion, similar to Tuesday

F - Nowt

S - 'Long' run - 15k, 400m, 90 mins

S - Nowt

Not a great week, but at least got 3 solid runs in

Well its pretty dank, and as far as i could tell basically falling down, so I can see why it was deemed not for rock climbing.

Did remind me of some of the wye valley.

Week 11/11 -  17/11

M: Woody session. 

T: Relaxed bouldering

W: rest

T: rest

F:  In South of France headed to Chateauvert, as Verdon was snowing and drama with car hire meant we didn't leave Nice until gone 12. Climbed a few brilliant routes.

S: Drove to Cap Canaille, to climb Bienvenue chez Damoclès (6c), epic finding the start of the route. Thought the walk in was a bit extreme, realised we had traversed the half height ledge. Got to bottom of the route and could see a waterfall from raining down from the top route. Decided it wasn't worth climbing through the huge roof to find the top slab was unclimable, so bailed.

S: Up early and walked into Calanque Devenson to climb État d'Urgence (6c). The wind was unbelievable, since found out its known as "La Mistral", it felt like scotland. 50Mph wind and feels like -6C temp. Decided not to ab into the route, as the climb was taking the full brunt of the wind. So walked out again. Headed to find a crag at calanque Surgiton, got lost. Decided to give up.

It was hard to be upset as the scenery was just stunning and I've never been to the Calanques before. Decided we would chalk this trip upto "a Recce Trip". Aim to head back next year to finish what we started.

Hi Tyler,

Thanks for doing fit club...interesting you mention pull ups as I set a new PB last week.

Tuesday:climbed v4, v5 , worked v6 , then did a board style v4 which felt more like v5, super enjoyable session.

Friday:I really cant remember...but I did definitely climb!

Sunday: 5 max hangs on the beastmaker,  then new PB of 28 pull ups! Sort of did 29 but the form was so bad on the last one I couldn't allow it

Thank you Ash ! I am getting pretty into the Hackney Wick comps! Hmm, I am not sure about the improver bit but I have certainly been enjoying bouldering and there has been some improvement! I've been taking it easy this last week due to feeling pretty exhausted and am just about to go away for a couple of weeks hiking, bouldering and surfing in Morocco so will let you all know how that goes if it goes!

Once I am back I plan to continue running more regularly again to keep up some momentum from the October 10 mile run and to keep prepping for next years. I'm not going to do a weekly breakdown this week as I have left it too late and cannot remember what I did, plus I need to leave for the airport asap but it involved 2-3 gym sessions and some bouldering!

I hope you all have a productive couple of weeks and I will see you in December.

Cheers Tyler. Super late post for me, was away last weekend. Yeah I know I have more to lose than to gain right now, I was just so psyched to spend November getting stronger instead of lying about getting fat. It's so boring being sensible!

M: rest

Tu: rest

W: gym session - a couple of VB boulders to warm up, but primarily a core/antagonist session.
New PB weighted pullup - 12.5kg.
In the last few months I've been trying to both strengthen my shoulders and convince my mind that my shoulders are good enough to relax onto - one of my exercises has been the dangly monkey - just hanging on one straight arm from a bar. About a month ago I managed this for the first time; today I managed to dangly monkey with my shoulder engaged for the first time. The IYTs are paying off

Th: rest

F: Long weekend in Montserrat. What incredibly weird conglomerate rock, and basically impossible to lead. Also we arrived after lunch and the sun went behind the mountain at 3pm, it was blowing a gale and freezing, too cold for me. Managed a 6a on topropoe before numb hands stopped play.

Sa: Montserrat. Man I hate trying to lead when I'm injured. I can't concentrate and even on easy grades my whole body is screaming at me to stop. Gave up trying to lead and just toproped a few routes.

Su: Montserrat. Starting to understand how to climb here, lead the first (very easy) pitch of a multipitch but p2 was a tight chimney that my partner was too big for, so we bailed. Found a different mutipitch that was mostly in the sun and sheltered and let myself get dragged to the top.

Not heard of Mount Riberi gorge, so probably not climbed there. Where is it?

Mo: climb at Camarasa, very bad day. Cold, shaded crag and climb like a dog.

Tu: 2 routes at Os de Balaguer. Warmth, sun and lazing, enjoying not shivering, so only muster the energy for a couple of routes.

We: rest day.

Th: another rest day, as partner decides to take day of after morning rain.

Fr: nowt.

Sa: 2 routes at Camarasa.

Su: prepare to travel home.

A tough climbing week, but not in a good way. Didn't climb much or hard, so lesson on communication with partner learned, but can think of worse places for it to happen. End of the road trip, so next, (this), week for travelling home, c'est la vie.