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_688-7197...

Psyche video - Suggestions please?

AJM - How's the mobility stuff going then?  Those work/childcare days are not very restful are they?

Si dH - Two good sessions and a nice walk, sound good to me.  Hope the sunburn has gone.

Tom Green - It is hot at the moment, so take the grease excuse.  Lots of good sessions there.

Somerset swede basher - Glad to hear you're over it.  Hope you've had a nice relaxing week.

the sheep - Really sorry to hear that.  I hope the results are negative?

AlanLittle - Looks like a lovely place to walk.  Seems sensible to avoid the crags a bit.

Ally Smith - I'm nicking 'lockdown cba'.  Sounds like a good week.  Glad to hear you've got a KOM back.  Lots of solid board sessions there.

Bones - That's a decent amount of running all in.  Which week are you at?  Staying fit will help in the early months, so it's well worth doing what you can.

mattrm - Try for a run this week?

In reply to mattrm:

Cheers Matt, 

Make sure you get that run in next week! I've had an ace week. Not done anything really hard but tonnes of mileage on rock. It's been half term this week so not had much work to do but have had kids all day everyday. Had a good routine taking advantage of the light evenings. Kids to bed then out the door by 7.30pm and climb somewhere close til it's gets dark. Mrs. Swede has been very happy with this too as she's doing research for a book she's writing so is glad of the piece and quiet. Winner!

Mon. Went to  Hurkling Stones for the first time. Did the 6s on the main block then spent the rest of the session trying left wall sit start. Got it from standing but ran out of light and skin for the sit.

Tues. Went to  Bell Hagg and soloed about 20 easy routes or boulder problems. Nothing harder than VS. This was the only place I saw any other climbers all week and was easy to distance.

Wed. Walked up Gate Side Clough (Summer) (Grade-1) which was nice after all this dry weather.

Thurs. Back to Hurkling Stones and ticked off Left Wall Sit-start (f7A+) and the stuff in the outlying boulders.

Fri. First visit to  Carl Wark where I soloed 20 easy routes including the first recorded route in the burbage Valley Lime Juice Chimney (HVD)

Sat. Went to check out  Priddock Wood which I eventually found. Did Tarkus (f7A+) and most of the steep 6Bs which were great.

Sun. On the 7th day he rested! 

In reply to mattrm:

Thanks Matt. Did hip flexibility again this week, a bit smaller a group so was able to get a bit more feedback on the positions etc, felt stretched. I ought to note down a few takeaways from this to form a session of my own really.

Otherwise this week was a bit of a disappointment. My planned rest led into unplanned rest which was then followed by a few rushed days trying to tidy everything off before disappearing on shared parental leave. I basically trained on Monday and today - and no campus, no weighted pull-ups or much of the other stuff that formed the basis of my stgs. But hey ho. It’s done now and I’m down to about one day per week for 5 weeks. Looking forwards to an opportunity to catch up with life and to do some climbing. I want to try to check out some bouldering and some dws, but given all the furore at durdle door this weekend I’m thinking it might be best not to go to Lulworth to dws quite so soon - but the tides are rubbish for Portland and I’m not going to Conner on my own! Not sure how that will end up yet.

Monday - 3x10 side raises with about 7.5kg dumbbells. Some goes at front levers - I need to video it really but it felt a bit like I could do a front lever with one leg tucked with reasonable form for a very short time, although this may be self flattery we shall see. Then hip flexibility in the evening.

Tuesday - planned rest. MicroAJM pretty unwell most of the day which led to quite a high stress day and also lots of bouncing and walking about which is always far harder work than you would expect given the actual weight of the child. They always seem to find a way to max out some sort of small stabilising muscle you didn’t otherwise know existed! Thankfully better by the end of the day.

Wednesday - unplanned rest. Tired from Tuesday and from a poor nights sleep.

Thursday - madness with work trying to get everything tidied up and handed over before ShPL. Like the rush to tidy everything up before going on holiday, but more so.

Friday - see Thursday

Saturday - nothing really, feeling a bit knackered - went to the beach with miniAJM in the morning before the crowds arrived, and did a few km pram pushing in the afternoon to get microAJM to nap. Watched (via social media) the scenes at Durdle door with increasing degrees of “aghast”.

Sunday - beach again first thing, then homemade pizza for lunch, very nice. Had to do a bit of work in the afternoon to close things off, but did 10, 10, 9 knee to bar (I.e. pulling from hanging into a tuck front lever and back down again) at dinner time. This felt pretty good, I can’t remember what my best efforts were when I was doing these as a more regular session but it won’t have been any better than that. Watched the lattice high intensity core session; some things to try perhaps?

STG: 

- do some climbing

- get back on top of life

- figure out some sensible benchmarks/stgs for offset pull-ups and get back on the fingerboard

MTG:

- 70kg one arm assist on the 20mm edge

- 5x5 @95kg [5, 5, 5, 4, 4 @91.5]

- solidify 1-3-5, 1-2-5, 1-4-5 campus despite bunched positions [got on ok with some 1.5-x-5 moves but not enough mileage to say solidified]

- ladder the 15mm extra small rungs

In reply to mattrm:

Hi All, hope you're well. Thanks as usual for the stats Matt.

This week felt like a good one, despite a couple of days not going to plan. Need to make sure the prehab doesn't slip through the net... as always!

Week 22: 

M: Strength Sesh. Scap shrugs, pull-ups (BW 5x5 on-the-min), Max Hangs (+3.75kg), TRX Crimpd Compressions.

T: Board Sesh. 6-in-6. Circuits (cut a little short as crammed in between jobs).

W: Hill run. 12.5km, 610m vert gain, 7:55/km.

T: Core and Prehab. Deadlifts (78kg, 4x4). Killer Core (2 circuits). Thorough elbow and shoulder sesh. 

F: Strength. Scap shrugs, pull-ups (BW 5x5 on-the-min), Max Hangs (+3.75kg).

S: Bouldering. Harmers Wood (shame to see so caked in chalk -especially some pretty shit donkey ticks) highlights were March Hare (f6A+) and The Scoop (V2). Then TRX sesh (Crimpd Compressions and Tensions). Then chilled 5k with Mrs G.

S: Hill run. 16.6km, 680m vert gain, 6:52/km. Pretty dreamy, even though I still have to walk the steeper sections to stay in Z1.

Week 23:

Still need to sort a rack so I can do heavy squats.

180min Z1

40min Z3

2 Core sessions

2 Strength sessions

3 Climbing sessions (3 Aerocap; 3 Strength or Ancap)

2 Prehab sessions

STG (End July):

Max Hangs 78kg total 

Weighted Pull-Ups 90kg total 3RM 

Squat 70kg 3RM 

Deadlift 85kg 3RM 

3 sets of core circuit. 

Cheshire Cat, Stigarete.

Curfew, Gaza Strippers.

Clean shunt of Marlene in the Corner (E5 6a)  Imagination (E3 6a) 

Run the Stretton Skyline

MTG (End Sept):

Eliminator, Yates' Layaway.

Grid Iron, Traction Control.

Black Wall Direct, Red Square, Digitron.

Cheshire Gritstone Trail

In reply to mattrm:

Thanks Matt. I've been more sensible and used suncream since!

M: bank holiday family day out for a walk around Frodsham hill; I had a couple of hours on  Frodsham (Hoopla buttress) doing some of the easier classics. They are a bit high and I went up and down quite a few times before committing. My head is still definitely "getting back into it."

T: planned evening session but was too tired after little sleep and a busy day at work

W: tried an early morning session to replace Tuesday's, but sacked it off after the warmup as I had no oomph.

T: rest

F: day time board session (childcare day off). I had a proper session this time, but felt quite weak throughout. I think the main problem was the heat, it seems to make a really big difference to my ability to pull hard on the board. Still, I think it was good training!

S: rest

S: first session out on my own since lockdown. I had my first trip to  Woodwell.  Had a good time and will definitely go back. I got on Whistler (f7A+) and promptly flashed up to the deadpoint move at the top, but then proceeded to fall off there for the rest of the session! I did do it once, but then managed to fall off on the last hand move to a jug, rushing too much rather than staying calm. Had a wander round the rest of the crag too.

Training in the week this week was very poor. The heat didn't help and otherwise it was the result of trying to fit 4-5 days work in to 3 days without enough sleep.  However Monday and Sunday were both fun days out and I was pleased to be feeling quite strong on Sunday. I think the move I kept falling off was mostly down to not having been climbing outside much and both my head and technique being a bit rusty; there's an obvious solution to that!

Si

Edit to add that I've been keeping up with the shoulder mobility exercises before climbing and once on most other days, too. I'm going to keep this up.

In reply to mattrm:

Morning all!

Thanks again for the stats Matt.

Week 22: 

BHM – Big K roof project reunion. 3 long tie-ins; draws in and moves sorted. Even got a superior sequence on one section. Bone dry at the moment; fingers crossed for Saturday…

T – 25km quick paced ride.

W – B’day challenges:

Moonboard 7C - tick (El Tren; still need to do a benchmark at 7C though.)

4mm edges; 3s hang – PB 

Bench-press; warm-ups, then smashed 75kg 1rep max – PB, but a smidge short of bodyweight 

T – 2 hours gardening then fast & flat 25km ride.

F – Rest.

S – Kilnsey. 3 tie-ins on the project with much faff of organising a static for photographer, and then waiting for them to get into position each time.

1st was warm-up/rigging go.

2nd was an alright effort but wasn’t moving quick enough so hung and refreshed myself on the moves.

3rd go was a high-point; all the way through Mandela crux but powered out and didn’t get the lip clip. 30+ft swinging fall onto a shite aid peg! Draft photos look boss – should be fully edited and ready to share later this week.

S – Cheedale Cornice. Was surprisingly physically okay after digging deep yesterday, but struggled with a headache for much of the day (too much coffee? Is that actually a thing?) 6c warm-up. Quick dog of Nemesis (8a+) confirmed it’s not for me – too much injury potential on L ring-finger. Cleaned and dogged Gran Techo (8b) twice. Nice progress on lower wall and found an extra hold in the roof which might curtail the swing if I can keep my feet on long enough to get it… Finished with quick dog of K5 (8b).

Feeling wrecked this morning. Won't be going back to Cornice on a weekend anytime soon; way too many grockles walking through on the path with no concept of social distance.

In reply to Ally Smith: 

Yes. I had an idiotic episode a few weeks ago where I had bought what I thought was a jar of decaf because it was in a blue jar (Nescafé decaf is blue.) In an average day I will drink 3 proper double espresso americanos and maybe 4-5 mugs of instant decaf, it is just my go-to drink when I'm working. After 3-4 days of headaches and feeling really tired and grumpy/angry about minor things, Ruth pointed out that blue jars of Kenco contain caffeine and I had been overdosing on about 8 large mugs of coffee per day. Oops!

In reply to mattrm:

Cheers Matt, got the results back today and its benign 

Had a good week exercise wise despite the wait.

Monday was the youngests birthday, we went for a nice sunny 5k run with her in the morning and we all sat out and had a picnic in the afternoon. Cold wine and fizz may have gone down too well as Tuesday was a rest day.....

Wednesday afternoon I did a mini duathlon, 5K run 10k bike and 2.5k run. Boy was it hot!

Thursday, 10k run but legs were tired

Friday I had to go into work so had another rest day

Saturday, 7k run with the wife

Sunday we did a 10k together 

In reply to the sheep:

YYFY!!!!

That's great news.

In reply to mattrm:

In a bit of a weird headspace at the moment. Formal lockdown (phase one) may be over, but my feelings of dislocation & isolation aren't. Still more inclined to solo activities than a resumption of normal social life. Trying to climb hard again seems like a rather distant aspiration.

STG: Vary my post-quarantine training to include more general strength & mobility. 
      Weight back down to pre-lockdown level
MTG: Autumn Kalymnos trip? Do a beginner ski tour in spring 2021
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Signed up for DAV Elbsandstein outing mid June. New STG: return alive.

T: Max hangs. Stronger than last week - probably benefited from having had a deload week after multiple weeks of rather too much fingerboarding during lockdown.

W: 75 minutes box step-ups. Am doing nearly 20% more steps for the same level of perceived effort than I was two months ago at the start of lockdown. I'm sure this isn't all physiological gainz - there's a major mental effect of learning how to pace any new kind of endurance activity - but some of it must be. Training works!

T: Had planned to go to the wall, but since only the exterior section is open a huge hailstorm made the decision for me to stay at home and hangboard like it's 2020 instead.

F: Bike 1½ hours - went into the office for the first time in nearly three months to pick up some things. Empty & eerie.

S: Bad Heilbrunn. Slabby quarried sandstone with some pretty wide bolt spacing. Makes a change to work the feet and the head instead of all fingers all the time.

S: Ammergau Hillwalking Club contd

In reply to AJM:

Totally! I remember venturing onto hut walks in the Kaisergebirge & Dolomites with the offspring in a child carrier, thinking "I've carried ten kilos up hills loads of times. No problem". Normal rucksack loads aren't compact, perched up high and jumping about. Went to a shop on the evening of the first day & bought my first ever pair of trekking poles in hopes of gaining at least some stability.

In reply to the sheep:

So glad to hear that. You must have been incredibly worried. I bet any of those runs after the results came in felt especially good.

In reply to mattrm:

Just finished writing my post and clicked on a link by mistake. So starting again. doh.

I am 35/40 weeks, 5 weeks left to go so around 8 months pregnant.

I have counted any movement as exercise this week ;p We even managed to get out climbing yesterday! WOOOOO...couldn't wait until next week to post about it. Was great to get on rock again.

I am planning on getting out running a bit more again this week and doing some more leg sessions. Sometimes I'm not really up for it but most of the time it is just a case of getting off my arse. I definitely don't feel particularly tired, or pregnant so that isn't a good reason not to go, do need to avoid the midday sun though.

Mon: run, 40:17 min, 5.37km/ 3.33miles, (7:30min/km) 

Tues: rest

Weds: rest

Thurs: Day one of helping my friend move house. A small about of packing and unpacking boxes into the van. I count this as my weight lifting for the week!

Fri: A couple of hours casually cycling around London to see the sunrise and enjoy the quiet. Legs felt pretty tired on the last mile home.

Walked roughly 4-5 miles to the park and back today with a long chill in the middle.

Sat: Day two of helping my friend move house. Another small about of packing and unpacking boxes into the van.

Sun: rest

In reply to mattrm:

STG - 14st / 30 minute 5k

MTG - Goblin Girl (6b) 6c at Navigation, then WFD

LTG - ???

Weight - 15st

M - Rest

T -  Weight lifting

W - F - Rest
S - 4k run

S - Rest

Spent a lot of time in the garden and part of that involved consolidating the massive pile of mud from two piles to one.  It's really quite large, we've done a lot of garden remodelling.  Coping a lot better with the awful sleep we're having at the moment due to what we think is a growth spurt.  Managed to squeeze in a run.  Diet is improving, but still got a lot of effort to do if I'm going to actually loose some weight.

In reply to mattrm:.  Coping a lot better with the awful sleep we're having at the moment due to what we think is a growth spurt.  

didn't realize that was a thing- think we might have been suffering the same...