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

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_668-7143...

Somerset swede basher - Always nice to spend some quality time with the family.

Steve Jones - Looking forward to see what you do in the new year!

biscuit - Nice to hear you're having fun in Costa Blanca.  Hope the 7bs have gone well?

Ally Smith - Hope you're feeling better now.  Looks like a good week of training.  Liked the video.

Tom Green - I reckon that you must have been tired at Ramshaw.  Well done for getting out.

ad111 - Definitely a good week considering.

annak - Glad to hear the recovery is going well.

ianstevens - Definitely a good week.  Hope the lattice assessment went well?

Si dH - Welcome back!!!!  Great to see you back.  Glad to hear you've got your mojo back.

AJM - Good gains all in.  Hope that you're less twingey this week?  Things must be tiring, maybe worth having a quiet week with some sports massage and lots of good sleep to help recovery?

AlanLittle - New Years bivvy sounds amazing.  I think that having the ski touring stuff will be worth it in the long run.  So it's all good.

Powderpuff - Good sessions.  Hope you get a few more in this week.

Paul16 - v5 is still good.  Spinning is good and all, just make sure that you're not putting too much leg weight on.

Bones - Massive congrats on the pregnancy!!!  It's amazing!!!

mattrm - Less laziness please!  Eat less pies!!

No psyche video this week.  Suggestions very welcome!

Thanks Matt. 

2020 goals are currently:

- Visit lots of new crags 

- Keep up a reasonable rate of progress with Ft 7A/Bs outside (unless I find a harder project that I want to focus on) 

- Lose 5 kg (starting point ~78 kg) 

- Do some power endurance training - maybe aim to complete one of the crimpd ancap fingerboard sessions at the correct weight (80/70% of max) as this is currently way beyond me

- Do a long-ish Ft 7B+

M: rest

T: climbing hangar after work. Did a couple of V6s and worked another couple of V6/7s.

W: rest

T: climbing hangar after work. Worked a few more V6s and a long modern-style V7 in the cave although didn't actually finish anything off. 

F-S: nothing as we were away visiting friends.

Should hopefully have a chance to get outside again next weekend. 

Si

First full week back at work so time to get back into some kind of routine.

Monday, 1km lunchtime swim and 5km run in the evening. First post surgery goal met with the 5k

Tuesday, 1km lunchtime swim. Pushed the pace and managed spot on 17 minutes, only 50 seconds off last years PB so not much fitness lost there.

Wednesday, 1km lunchtime swim and 22km ride home. Hard going!

Thursday, 1km lunchtime swim followed by stretch class

Friday, 1km lunchtime swim and 16km ride home. Tough going again.

Saturday, rest day. 

Sunday, 8 km trail run with the wife and youngest daughter. Slow but lots of fun in the mud and jumping in puddles.

All in all a good week. Not pain free but discomfort is kept to a minimum and exercise doesn’t make things worse so all good. 

Cheers Matt, 

Lots of trying hard but not much success this week. 

Mon. Session at the works. Some campusing then some random problems. Catching up with someone I've not seen for ages but still tired by the end.

Tues. Rest. 

Wed. Burbage North for another go at Submergence. Got the top wired now and getting into the crux everytime from the start now but couldn't do the crux today. 10km run by headtorch later on.

Thurs. Rest. 

Fri. Back to Burbage. Close but no cigar. May need to change foot beta slightly.

Sat. Took the kids to Awesome Walls Sheffield. Some playing on the auto belay then some campus board and kilter board action. Nothing structured just squeezing things in between playing with the kids. 

Sun. 10km run. 

Weather forecast not looking great for the coming week. Boooo. 

Good sleep would be favourite! I seem to have a brain which switches on too quickly when it's woken up which is a right pain in the middle of the night - I wake up for whatever reason and then something gets into my head and I can't quiet down and drop back off again. Frustrating. Not a good week this week for sleep.

Still feeling a bit creaky. Apart from a very pottery wall session earlier in the day before my physio I didn't do anything. I went out to see some people on Portland today which was great, nice chat and lovely weather to be out, but no climbing.

I've got a 5 day week this week (no more midweek days off) so between that and the children I doubt I'll make it to the wall. Need to get stuck into the open hand fingerboard, it is my rehab after all. And I did say I wanted to work on my shoulders this winter, which isn't going to do itself. My sister is here at the weekend so probably not get much done then. A chance to get stuck into a sensible home rehab/training regime, or something!

January is an cap / aero cap, so lots of sub max mileage. 

M: cycle 10km

Tu: bouldering, an cap, 4x4s, repeaters

W: got knocked off bike by a car, somehow managed to jump off the bike onto the car bonnet at the last minute and got away with just some bruised ribs. 10km cycle. 

Th: climbing, 8 routes up to 6b+, Arc 20 min

F: ribs starting to hurt. Tried to boulder but impossible, the bit the hurts is the bottom of the lats and top of obliques so all pulling and twisting is hard. Gave up after the warmup and went on the fingerboard instead.

Sa: ribs now agony, took 5 mins to work out how to get out of bed. Paracetamol and ibruprofen together help a lot. Ran 7km slowly. 

Su: starting to improve but cancelled climbing plans and did another 7km run instead. 

Not entirely sure why it took the ribs a few days to really get painful but Dr Google says that's normal. Hoping it passes fairly quickly, I was really starting to get back into things after the op! 

Good ninja skills! 

Hope the ribs aren't too bad. 

Bloody hell, not what you need for your recovery. Hope it’s not going to set you back too much.

Thanks Matt. Can I post  a psyche video of Hermann Maier? I'm assuming "I am Hermann Maier" is the skiing mantra equivalent of "I am Jerry Moffatt".

Ski School Weekend Two, largely putting paid to what should have been Reini Scherer "build up" training phase Week Three.

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: Ski School Day Two, St Johann. Made it to the top of the baby slope. And down again.
T: Too much other stuff going on the get to the wall. Beastmaker max hangs while listening to the thoroughly worthwhile Adam Ondra/Charlie Boscoe Q&A
W: Bought roofbox, fitted it to car - rite of passage for becoming-a-skier. Was still able to get in & out of garage. Yay.
    Half an hour mobility/shoulders/wrist extensors
T: Wall, Boulderwelt. Power endurance circuits. On reflection probably not a good call: while I can only fit in two sessions a week, aerobic + strength would probably be a better compromise than anaerobic + strength at this stage in the season. Lesson learned for next week.
F: 
S: Ski School Day Three, St Johann. Still doing drills on the baby slope. My son thinks it's hilarious that I'm doing exercises he learned at the age of four.
S: Ski School Day Four, St Johann. Graduated to blue slopes, go me! Suddenly snowboarding experience starts to feel relevant & useful. Knowing about snow conditions, choice of line, familiarity with the general situation etc. doesn't help at all on nasty little tight baby slope slalom curves, but suddenly does on proper pistes. And already on the second weekend draglifts and flat sections are *so much* easier than on a board. 
    Arrived home from ski school with enough time but not, as it turned out, enough energy for some max hangs on the beastmaker. Desultory semi-session; at least I tried.

Cheers Matt.

The rest of the trip went well thanks. I was aiming for 4 x 7a onsight/flashes and a 7b in a day. In the end I got 2 x 7a on sights, 1 x 7a flash and 1 x 7a+ beta flash. I got a 7b second go after putting the clips in but messed up on the one from last week that I spent a full day on. When it came to the send I did the crux lower half but totally fluffed my beta up high and climbed into a dead end. Brilliant route though.

With my finger stopping proper training before hand (and some moves whilst there) I am pleased with that. I weighed myself just before the trip and I appear to be a few kg's heavier than for quite some time too. So there are hopefully some easy gains to be made.

The next few weeks will be grabbing climbing where I can. Family stuff is taking up weekends and I've got a ski trip to Tignes first week of Feb.

I'm going to aim for short, efficient, mid-week, sessions until March time. I should be able to make gains if I drop some lard and now my finger feels ready to up the intensity.

STG - end of March 2020

Get on my scales and find an average weight and fat % to work from by next week - determine a goal from there.

Have a go at the Kendal and Manc Depot WBL's. I think they're both in the 3rd round now and I've not entered this year due to my finger. It'll be a good benchmark of where I am up to and how the finger is under a bit of pressure. 

Sort out my hip problem.

Build a routine of stretching every day for upper body.

MTG - Up to 1st July when Chapel Head opens

Wishlist routes at Scout Scar

LTG - 

7c at Chapel Head - probs looking at Super Duper Dupont. Routes with a BIG crux at the end are my anti style so it can only be good for me.

Xmas 2020 - 7b onsight and 7c in a day

Morning Mat - thanks again for your effort in pulling together stats.

Working week was pretty hellish - on Monday the workload went from 0-60 in seconds, and hasn't let off since. Thankfully the weekend lurgy eased up quickly as I'd have struggled like mad with work volume with a virus in tow.

Week 2

M – Feeling a bit viral and grotty. Gentle floor core.

T – Work kicking off; evening stretches.

W – 10x6 pull ups “on-the-minute” (after listening to the Lattice YouTube on pull-ups). 15x 1on/1off FoC (steady - maybe add 5kg vest next time?) Floor core.

T – Depot – chanced upon a round of the winter boulder league – completed 28/30 with 25 flashes. Might have got 29 with more time/better skin, but 30 felt impossible. 7a circuit OS to warm-down.

F – Random gym session. Unstructured bench/squat as stuck with Smith machine instead of free-weights. 400 kcal aerobic intervals on rower/x-trainer.

S – 4hrs gardening. Swinging a heavy hedge strimmer around overhead is a great shoulder workout!

S – 4hrs gardening. Crimpd hip flexibility. Subtle change in position finding some room for improvement in a couple of their stretches vs my normal routine.

Costa Blanca trip booked for end of March. Need to work on my pocket strength/resistance as Forada is the best looking crag for warmer weather in the Blanca.

Hi all. Thanks for the stats, Matt.

A bit of a mad week... light on training but bigger on climbing.

Week 2:

266/200mins Z1; 0/30mins Z3; 0/2 Core; 0/2 Strength; 3/2 Climbing

M: Shoulder & elbow prehab

T: Z1 Run. 6.8km, 307m vert, 6:41/km.

W: Dry tooling at White Goods. Highlight was flashing Guava Half (D7). Opened account on The Bold Start (D7)

T: Indoor bouldering. Limit bouldering, focussing on antistyle. Up to V4.

F: Rest. About 4 miles chilled walking.

S: Supposed to be winter climbing, but cons were against us. Drank a lot of tea, caught up with mates and did a token wander up Curved Ridge (Summer) (M) in monsoon conditions. Thoroughly soaked. Not the Scottish Winter experience I was after, but a bit of Z1 and uphill mileage!

S: Walked in to the Ben, again getting pretty drenched. Decided we were too wet to try anything hard (didn't fancy long belays with soaked clothes!) so went for Gutless (V 6) -mediocre route but good to get something done.

Week 3 Plan:

210min Z1

35min Z3

2 Core + Strength -priority

2 Climbing

STG (End Feb 2020):

Scottish 7

Run the Cheshire Gritstone Trail https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/pdf/ranger-service/countryside-sites/cec_gr... 2 2

Weighted pull-ups >+15kg 3RM

MTG (End April 2020):

Two big alpine routes off my hit list

Ski tour Drumochter munros

Jaz &/or Hidden Dragon

LTG (End 2020):

Run 25km vert. 

Run 1000km

50+ days climbing

Thanks - I'm full of grand plans that rarely come to fruition.

M - 30 mins easyish on the turbo traininer testing my calf - held up ok

T - Weights (squats, pull ups and bench press plus some strethcing and other bits)

W - 2hrs 15 doing routes at Kong

T - Wanted to hit the weights again but was feeling sorer today from the last 2 days so gave it a miss.

F - 2hrs 20 at kong bouldering. Got my first V5 with the help of an 8 yr old, and made progress on the slabby 6c+ - can now do all the moves, just need to link them, then lead it. Was also good as went down with mates from work of various abilities but we could all do stuff together, unlike running where having to go at the pace of the slowest would have been tedious.

S - Man-flu and a hangover

S - Crimpd 'Stabaliser Conditioning' and 'Press and Row' workouts.

Should do the crimpd core and conditioning workouts more!

Lurking.

Over Christmas achieved some more feast to counterbalance usual famine so:

• 3 core sessions and 2 pull-ups sessions in the week before Christmas
• Star Wars IX dressed as Lando Calrissian. Photos available on Facebook. Need to work on my moustache.
• Ski touring in Austria plus evening 17m lead wall routes boot camp. Awesome tour one day involving crossing a waterfall into a secret valley to pop up at the top of the Hintertux glacier, missing the turning for the ski run down in the dark and then blagging our way onto the last cable car down. One gear takeaway was that the emergency mini petzl headtorches in our packs are too mini to ski by... new crampons are ace though as is the shell I'm currently testing.
• Trad climbing trip in Morocco VS-E2. Goal was volume and we averaged 5 pitches per day. Nice to have no internet and just eat, sleep, climb, try to stay warm - had the revelation that this is the only trip we do that offers that. Europe and North America trips are just a better version of normal life, whereas Morocco trips are a purer kind of life...  Had horrible cold by the end of the trip but its nice to know that 1-hour walk in, 6-pitch HVS, 1-hour walk out is achievable feeling like death.  One route off completing the Nicklist now. 

Obviously back in famine mode again now... weekend turned into a couple of good sessions bouldering at the Unit. The new Boulders is due to open in Cheltenham in the Spring so having a decent wall 8 mins away will hopefully be a turning point for midweek training.

Thinking of some FC700 goals... 

1. Smiling Cricket

2. Finally complete the Moroccan Nicklist

3. Do something good on a boulder. 7B?

4. TOYP in the autumn? Contingent on having a summer trad season though...

5. More 4000m ski tour peaks

6. (EDIT) And some more fun DWS in the Southwest...

New wall in Cheltenham? Good times.

Happy to play support on 3, 4 and 6 (I don't even know what 1 is, and 2/5 I lack the time and/or skills!). Let me know...

Morning Matt, cheers for the stats.

Last week felt like a major break through. I've been plateaued at around the 6b/6b+ range for ages but suddenly 6c's feel easy. All those ARC sessions and the PE I've been adding seems to have worked. Pumping out has always been the problem for me on routes but not any more! That's 4 months of work to reach this point. Had a chat with Jude on Sunday night and it was all really positive, she was stoked at the progress.

My current training cycle is aiming to peak for Spain in a couple of weeks and going by how I'm feeling I'd say we're bang on target. Can't wait to get on some Spanish limestone - I've even been watching YouTube GoPro footage of climbers on 6a's in Costa Blanca. Tragic?

M - Power endurance @ Chapel. 20 moves long, rest between attempts is twice as long as the climbing takes.

T - Spinning at home, shoulder mobility

W - ARC - 1 x 40 mins, 1 x 30 mins with 10 mins rest between.

T - Rest, stretching, etc. Saw a physio who diagnosed my shoulder problems as scar tissue on the shoulder capsule from previous frozen shoulders (both sides!). Got some painful stretches to break up the tissue so hoping to see improvements over the next 3 months.

F - Power endurance on the auto belays at AW Stockport @ 6c (set by Ian Vickers - the setter does make a difference!) Same PE rest strategy - 2 x climbing time

S - Spinning, stretching

S - Session at the Boardroom, volume at on-sight grade. Discovered 6c is consistently my on-sight grade indoors unless I read it wrong.

Had some alcohol over the past week - a few glasses of wine. Otherwise sticking to the "healthy" plan.

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+.

Cheers Matt,

M: Max Hangs, max pulls, core, rings, stretching

T: Projecting

W: Rest

T: Tried projecting and hurt fingers, core, stretching

F: Rest

S: Max pulls, rows, rings, core, stretching

S: Rest

Good week except for the fingers. I feel like it's pretty minor and probably just needs a few days of rest and then a week or two before more fingerboarding.

Thanks Matt, looking forward to the challenges ahead! I have a week 700 goal, is that for the 17th of August? My goal will be to do a fingerboard session 50 times between now and then. 

Mon: gym - these sessions have changed from being very much squat days to being barbell days doing a mixture of heavy-ish weights. We did clean and press, back squat and deadlifts all with a different type of carry in between. I quite like doing this at the moment as it doesn't put too much strain on any particular place.

Tues: gym - this was working in pairs to do 10 x bench press, 10 x bent over row and then 10 calories of work on the rower or ski thing. Did this until we had completed 100 of each.

Followed by a boulder session on the woody which went pretty well. Need to make a note of what I do in the future as I can't quite remember but felt fine, just was a bit unsure about making big last moves and then falling as I am not sure if the impact is ok.

Weds: gym - This is normally a calisthenics day and I am finding it a bit tricky to do some of the core exercises and the ones on the bar like banded muscle-ups. I managed to do a couple of muscle-ups on the rings using a band and think this is what I am going to have to do for the time being.

Thurs: a short run of 4.98km which took 32.08 mins. Had quite a bad headache after this but didn't last too long.

Fri: gym - movement day, I swapped the box jumps for box step-ups and instead of hill sprints I just jogged up and down the hill for the entire time.

Sat: I have been wanted to boulder on Portland for ages and a bunch of us went at the weekend. I absolutely loved it even in the cold and wind. We spent the day in the Cuttings Boulderfield, really enjoyed working some routes on The Tank.

Sun: More Portland bouldering on the Cuttings Boulderfield. Flashed Low Ground Clearance (f6A+) - I think a V3, on the boulder opposite the Tank. Was next to a really good little traverse that we did called Little Bones (f5). This boulder (I forget the name but begins with B!) was a proper hand shredder! Did a couple of other routes on the tank and had a good go at the left f6c+. Then went to the new Cuttings at the far left around the corner and then a few very sore finger attempts at the f6b traverse.

From last week:

1. fingerboarding 2 x week - None last week. I will need to start fingerboarding this week otherwise I won't reach my wk 700 goal or get any stronger!

2. running 3 x week - only managed one run. It's quite difficult to fit in 3 when we're away at the weekends but could definitely manage 2.

3. keep working at the gym with the things that feel good - yup

4. track my workouts so I have stats to back-up how I am doing rather than my own deluded ideas of what is happening - 50% did this

5. continue bouldering/top-roping where possible - yup

I know right! In the week prior to this I kept reminding myself not to get carried away when climbing because I was worried that an impact to the body would be bad for the operation wounds, but I guess if I'm healed enough to have no ill-effects from bouncing off a car I'm probably ok down the wall

Hi mattrm,

Tue:
Went to the wall climbed V4, V5, fell off top of another v5! Theraband for shoulders. 3 sets of 20 push ups and sit ups. 3 sets of 10 leg raises. 3 sets of 10 eccentric wrist curls.

Friday: climbed two v5's again and then worked on a v6

Sunday:6 max hangs, pull up set

Need to get back to biking to wall and upping my antagonist exercises.

Shall we go and do Coronation Street and just not ask the lady in the booth this time too?

(EDIT) I promise not to force you to take an inverted 6m catch...

Slow to the party - welcome back!

Yup, at this point I'll take anything!

Definitely, take the positives and move forward.

It's been a bit of a stuttery start to the new year, but hoping to get a bit more consistency.

Last Week - 

Friday

Trail run - 6.5k/303m (Hope - WinHill loop)

Saturday

Aero 4s and Winter League problems. Depot Manchester.

Actually only managed 4 sets of about 1.5 times round the 6a circuit so there's some way to go here. Did about 15 or so of the Winter League problems.

Sunday

Unstructured session at Substation Macclesfield, looking for some good strength projects.

STG

Get a bit more consistency through the week. At least 12km of trail running. Doing some coaching with Katherine Schirrmacher which starts on Saturday, so quite looking forward to that.

MTG

Finally got the ball rolling with getting the implants removed from my leg. Hopefully this should happen within then next three months so holding off on making any concrete plans until I get a surgery date.

Thanks Matt. In contrast, this week was actually not a good one - clearly a bit of a premonition. Struggled a lot in my wall sessions and performed very poorly on the lattice assessment - I was expecting some of it (my endurance is pretty poor compared to my goals for example) - but some was just an indicator that I was tired. So this week I'm going easy on myself and forcing a rest before starting the next training plan. Plus side of things is that I expect my next plan will have a bunch of hangboarding in, which is great because I love it.

I also spent some time refining my warm up. My footwork has been getting a little sloppy of late, and I've got a couple of weaknesses I can work via some drills. I've added in some proper footwork drills, and some stuff on the campus board. Jumps to rungs (matched) to help wire in this movement to my mind/small improvements to contact strength, and massive pulls on the campus board using a very wide foot to drive off. Aim of the latter is to keep the foot on, use that to generate and really engage the core - the idea being that I can then do this on real boulders. 

Last Week 2020.2

M: Bike commute 7.9km, 85m

T: Yoga

W: 1) Yoga; 2) Lattice Assessment; 3) Short boulder session at Higgar Tor, mainly working out Witness The Gritness (f7A). Will go fine.

T: 1)Yoga; 2) Sports massage/mobility stuff

F: 1) Yoga; 2) Valley. warm up including new drills and some light hangs. Boulders < 6B* and some lethargic attempts on low 7s.

S: 1) Yoga; 2) Valley. Same warm up routine, same boulder routine.

*When I can't go above 6B inside, it's a sign I need a decent rest...

Here you go then. Never mind the music, feel the scariness!

youtube.com/watch?v=3EdaClq6xG4&

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 6lbs (1 lbs gain)

M - Rest

T - 3 miles walk

W - 3 miles walk

T - 3 miles walk

F - S Rest

S - Push ups

Back into the swing of things a bit more.  Sadly the sprog seems a bit ill on Sunday evening.  Otherwise ticking over well, sleeping nicely and feeling pretty decent.