UKC

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.

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

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

This week's psyche video - youtube.com/watch?v=brbxoKEgsw0&

Suggestions for the psyche video always welcome.

Last week's thread can be found here:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_666-7138...

AJM - Gratz on the 666 goals.  The 700 goals look nice.  The LED board sounds cool.  Is that at home?

Somerset swede basher - Lots of good sessions there.

mattrm - Getting closer.  Less pies fatty.

AlanLittle - three solid sessions there.  I'm sure the moonboard fitness will come back soon as well.

Paul16 - Did you get out at Christmas?  Good training week.

Ally Smith - Still a good week.  Hope work has improved.  Love the problem names in the 'Cave of Justice' (even better!), well done on the 666 goals you got in

Steve Jones - Sounds like a nice run!  Well done on the V4s.  I like the look of the 700 goals.

Tom Green - Another nice White Goods session.

ad111 - Welcome back!

biscuit - Hope you have a nice holiday!

powderpuff - Good sessions there considering the season.

annak - Glad to hear you're feeling better.

ianstevens - Solid week there.  Well done on the stuff at Bowden.

the sheep - glad to hear the recovery is going well

Sorry it's a bit late, I rather lost track of time.  Happy Christmas everyone.  I'll chuck a post in rounding up the 666 goals and 700 goals so far later on in the week.  If someone wants to start a year round up thread that'd be good.

Thanks Matt. I think I'm going to replace the board 7A goal with something less quantifiable - climbing some basic-style board problems that initially appear unfeasible - because I think that works my weaknesses better and is also less vulnerable to grade skew. I'll also track a generic board grade pyramid in the hope volume smooths out roughness in the individual grades. The board is at the wall, sadly, not at home - I wish!

Twice to the wall this week. 

A good session on Monday. Ticked the 6B+ from last time fairly quickly, failed on the Dyno on my own one for a bit, and then tried a 6C. Felt desperate at first but at the end of the session I latched the top but couldn't hold the swing - so close!

A less good session on Friday. Higher gravity after Christmas. I did an easier 6B+ (first go albeit on the wrong foothold set, then first go on the right foothold set). Couldn't make any impression on the 6C this time. Tried another 6B+ and made some progress, one hard burly move in the middle, long throw off an undercut. One to come back to.

I'd didn't manage anything else. Slightly frustrating. I've really got to get back in the habit of doing things at home. Fingerboard sessions, or pullup sessions, or whatever really don't take that long and the cumulative impact between now and next proper outdoor time would be substantial!

Back to work a day and a half the end of this week. Hoping for 2 wall sessions and I really must do something at home!!!

Thanks Matt. 

Mon. Ticked Blind Ali (f7B+) at Burbage. In the end I did use the normal foothold for the knee bar, just had to adjust it between each hand movement.

Tues. Fast 9km run (4.40/km)

Wed. 100 pull ups, 80 press ups. Both in pyramid sets. 

Thurs. Steady 6km run with Mrs. Swede. 

Fri. Mega wall session at the Depot. Did just over half the V5 to V7 circuit. Full body tired after that.

Sat. Rest

Sun. 25km on the mtb with the kids. The boy is going to have to learn to ride the bike we got him for Christmas pretty soon, +17kgs is getting too much to pull behind me! Beautiful route though, Pateley Bridge to Lofthouse and back. 

Thanks Matt,

I was busy up to Thursday with holidays and then Christmas. Happily all this time off climbing has given me another dose of psyche to get training for the coming climbing season (usually starts in late March/early April if you're like me and don't enjoy freezing to death.

Goals (to be achieved by April):

1. +47.5kg on lattice edge (increase of 5kg)
2. +35kg 2 rep pullups (increase 5kg)
3. Be able to lockoff for 15 seconds on both arms
4. Train core minimum twice a week.

Thurs: Max pulls, Max hangs, stretching, lockoffs + some free climbing

Fri: Core, chest, shoulders, antags + free climbing

Sat: Rest:

Sunday: Free climb + core

2020 Goals: 7C*3

Reckon for 700 I will go for a suitably vague set:

- decent batch of star ticking and ticklist routes on southern sandstone end March

- some sort of progress on any of my Dartmoor long term projects/infeasibilities (setting a vague and low bar here!)

- a decent volume of board problems, and some basic-style problems that initially feel unfeasible (currently, 2 6B+)

- Progress on lattice, 8mm and 15mm hangs (current pbs 67kg, 81.5kg and 67kg respectively).

- Progress on pull-up reps (currently 3 @92kg and 6 @87kg). Something tbc with offset pullups. Other exercises to promote all round shoulder strength/health (regular pull-ups, chin-ups, pushups, dips etc).

- maintaining some sort of vague outdoor competence, but quantification tbc until I figure out what I can arrange and in what style.

- some new and classic dws ticks.

Cheers Matt. Just about to set off to the airport. 

Last week was as predicted - no climbing. Did a few runs and lots of stretching. I also managed 3 sets of open hand repeaters on the bm2000 bottom rung without my finger exploding. It wasn’t totally happy but it was nice to see it didn’t flare up. I think I’m going to have to keep splinting it on the holiday. 

4x7a onsights and a 7b in whatever style in a day is the rather ambitious plan. 

Afternoon Matt, cheers for the stats. Didn't manage to get out over Christmas - either the weather was crap or I was busy. Training continues though!

M - Shoulder mobility and core

T - Power endurance @ the Chapel.

W - Rest

T - Bouldering @ Substation. Good session, nothing harder than v4/v5. Had a muscle spasm in my upper back afterwards, which was nice.

F - Rest - skipped planned session to rest back

S - Walk - 6.5 miles, 1000+ feet of ascent. Finished in the pub!

S - Session at the Boardroom. Lots of volume, nothing harder than 6b. Wanted to test my back - turns out it wasn't an injury, probably just fatigue.

I've achieved my current set of STG's - "Increase shoulder mobility, use rests correctly on a route i.e. have the correct body position to maximise energy gains. Increase power endurance while maintaining endurance base." - Power is definitely back, endurance base is being maintained and my shoulders are easing up slowly.

To give myself the best chance of hitting goals in Spain I'm going to be strict with my diet until the trip, starting new years day. No alcohol, cake or other "indulgent" calories. Might give caffeine a miss too but we'll see how it goes, maybe just cut back a bit.

STG (Early Feb 2020): Costa Blanca early Feb. Redpoint Kashba @ Sella (6c+). Redpoint some 6c+/7a's at Gandia or nearby crags, and see where I get to on those.

MTG (April 2020): Redpoint Rubicon 7a & Kiss Me Hardy 7a+, head point San Melas E3 5c. On-sight of Wings of Unreason E4 5c/6a/6b

LTG (Sept 2020): Redpoint Indecent Exposure 7b+.

Hi All. Thanks for the stats Matt.

Plans to have a training week entirely unaffected by Christmas turned out to be (predictably) over-ambitious. Aw well... It's time for those unbreakable new year resolutions!

Week 52:

200/180mins Z1; 0/30mins Z3; 1/2 Core; 1/2 Strength; 1/1 Climbing.

M: Hill walking.

T: Rest

W: Rest

T: Road Run. 16.3km, 163m vert, 5:01/km.

F: Core and Max Strength

S: Indoor Climbing -unstructured bouldering up to V4.

S: Rest.

Week 1 Plan:

190min Z1

30min Z3

2 Core + Strength

1 Climbing

STG (End Feb 2020):

Scottish 7

Run the Cheshire Gritstone Trail https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/pdf/ranger-service/countryside-sites/cec_gr...

Weighted pull-ups >+15kg 3RM

Ski tour Drumochter munros

MTG (End April 2020):

Two big alpine routes off my hit list

Jaz &/or Hidden Dragon

Poor week for me what with injury and Christmas. Managed a couple of walks on Saturday totalling just over 10k. That was it.

Think I might have to get the turbo trainer set up again as I can't see much running happening any time soon. Couple more days rest and hopefully the leg will at least cope with climbing (I can just about walk pain free now!)

Reini Scherer "build up" training phase Week One.

STG: Learn to ski
MTG: Be fit for Kalymnos in May; ideally get a couple of decent things done at home beforehand.
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

M: 
T: Wall, Boulderwelt. Rather desultory attempts on my roof boulder projects, but at least I made some effort before giving myself up entirely to booze & goose roasting. 
W: 
T: Wall, Weyarn. Started my weekly harder routes projecting sessions with my first ever 6c+ onsight. Not sure to what extent this counts as "projecting", but yyfy anyway. 
F: 
S: Bike one hour
S: Wall, Freimann. Base mileage. Weird session: felt dreadful to start with, no idea why but didn't feel like I was properly warmed up & climbing ok until the last two or three routes. 3x6a (warm up), 6x6b, 2x6b+, 1x6c.
 

Thanks Matt - great set of stats - thanks for taking up the mantel.

Work light this week, expecting a $hit storm in the next couple of weeks though

Week 52 

M – Boulder. Didn't get up the things I wanted to, but got some extra beta sorted. I'll hopefully hit a rich vein soon...

T – Christmas eve cycle; 17miles on a borrowed bike. Crimpd Floor Core.

W – Very brief walk.

T – Leg weights (Squats & DL). 7/3/6/3 repeaters: -12.5kg F3 strict x3. BW B3 x3. Really sore R pec during warm up.

F – FB max hangs. BW+42.5kg x6. 3x10 OHP @32kg. Crimpd Hanging Core (I’m crap at windscreen wipers!) Then Aero-Cap FoC 1on/1off x10 (maybe time to get the weight vest on again?)

S – Nothing but walking around the sales.

S – 34km flat bike followed by floor core. Upped reps on every exercise.

Kept forgetting to mention I got some technique training tools for Christmas in the shape of p.widdys Crack Climbing.

Very detailed, lots of info, some cool pictures and in particular I thought the sections on feet and movement were really good - in the sense that teaching someone the concept of a hand jam or stack jam is something that there's a fair bit of material out there on already, but what to do with your feet and how to turn the whole thing into upwards progression (especially for offwidths in both cases) was something where I felt I was a lot less clear. And obviously sections on proper taping and tactics and all that just add to it.

Looking forwards to further digestion and a chance to try it out...

Hi mattrm, 

Thanks for prosiding over fit club again.

Predictably I didn't do much last week.

I did manage one session on the beastmaker, did 6 max hangs and a new pb of 31 pull ups. Also managed 3 sets of 20 sit ups and 3 sets of 10 eccentric wrist curls....Later on in the same day I took the little ones to the wall, I managed to climb half a dozen easy problems up to v3.This session hopefully maintained SOME strength and technique gains.

Hope everyone had a good Christmas.

Drink responsibly later on today!

Just realised I never posted up my 666 results...

6 Crack routes of each size:

Not a complete tick (partly as I only counted routes where the whole line was a crack) but quite chuffed with my progress over summer. The big milestone that made me realise that deliberately working on crack technique was starting to pay off was drawing the short straw and getting the first pitch of the Contamine Route (TD) This was a mix of hands, fists and offwidth, which felt like a savage wakeup call straight out the blocks, so I was pretty psyched to get up it in good style and good time! 

A mate has given me Pete Whittaker's book for Christmas so 2020 can be the year of the crack!

Fingers 2/6 -need to get more mileage on these. A lot of 'classic' finger cracks are actually more like thin hands for my dainty little mitts!

Hands 6/6 -good mix of routes. Feeling much more comfortable on thin hands and baggy hands now.

Fists 0/6 -did quite a lot of routes with fist jams, but none with continuous fist cracks (i.e. more than 3-4 consecutive moves). Quite like fist jamming, so this was probably my least weak crack size.

Offwidth 1/6 -never got back to Ramshaw to revisit Melvyn Bragg, not did I get on any of my other wide objectives... bring on summer 2020!

6 Roof routes

A poor effort, with just 2/6. However, I enjoyed the two, so I'm pretty psyched to get more horizontal mileage in this year.

6 E-points in a day

Nope! This was always going to be optimistic, especially as I switched focus to dry tooling early in the autumn. Best day was 2 E-points! This will happen if I just make the effort to get more days out...

Looking forward... these goals have been good in helping me focus on areas of weakness and should be good goals to keep/adapt for future progress.

Last week was Xmas insanity, driving up and down the country to visit all and sundry. 

M: rest

T: run 5km / 28min. Fingerboard session on the portable fingerboard, openhand impossible on it but 4 finger crimp feeling more normal now. 5 min abs. 

W: rest

Th: run 5km

F: fingerboard session on rock rings, deeper holds than the beastmaker but both crimps and open hand feeling pretty good. Surprised myself by being able to do more ambitious ab stuff with no complaints from the laporoscopy sites.

Sa: came down with a fever

Su: fever gone, also voice gone. Flew home communicating entirely in mime. Shattered.

The week ahead: hoping to get some very easy indoor sessions in. Also regain some strength, it's always a shock how fast it disappears (but also how far it comes back). Note to self: eat enough to make the muscles! 

According to Strava I managed 261 active days (74%) in 2019.

398 hours total, 242 hrs running, 87 climbing, 39hrs on the bike, plus some other bits.

Ran 2342km with 83087m of climbing. Cycled 933km with 5384m.

June was a crazy month where I didn't run on 3 days, and cycled on one of them and did over 500k that month - August is when the stress fracture occured...

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 5lbs (STS)

M - 2.5m run

T - Rest

W - Rest

T - Push ups

F - Push ups

S - Rest (DIY club)

S - Push ups

Well at this point, I know I've just about scraped the 50%.  I've definitely been feeling the load the past few days.  It's been harder and harder to keep on doing even a little bit.  Lots of aches and pains have sprung up.  Which I guess in a way is a good thing, it's actually working and doing some good.  Compared to the last few years it was nice to hit that.  The last few have only been knocking around 20% or so.  So this was quite an improvement I think even if it's just a lot more walking and the odd bit of climbing and running.

Dec - 83%

2019 - 50%