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_689-7201...

Psyche video - Suggestions please?

Somerset swede basher - Lovely mileage there.  Well done on the f7A+.

AJM - Avoiding the honey pots seems sensible.  I hope you enjoy the shared parental leave, I loved it.

Tom Green - A great packed week.  Excellent bouldering ticks there.  Good runs as well.

Si dH - Two sessions on rock is good.  Pity about Whistler, but sounds like you were largely there.  It'll all come back quickly.

Ally Smith - Kilnsey sounds pretty hardcore.  Glad the peg held!  I'd love to see those photos.  Yes too much coffee is deffo a thing!

the sheep - YYFY!  Bet that's a relief for you both.  Lots of nice running, sounds like a good week.

AlanLittle - Yes, training works!  Must have been nice to get out on Saturday and I bet the hillwalking on  Sunday was lovely.

Bones - I honestly didn't realise you were that far along.  You're doing great with exercise then.

mattrm - Run again?

STG - 14st / 30 minute 5k

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

LTG - ???

Weight - 15st

M - S - Rest

Still struggling with sleep and diet.  Bit of an odd week this week, as on Thursday the slide and playset that we'd bought for our son turned up.  I'd assumed it'd be in bits to be bolted together, but it wasn't, just a big pile of wood to be cut and screwed up.  So I've just spent the past two days doing that and it's still not finished.  So any chance of going for a run has been clobbered.  It'll be worth it in the end, but it's been a lot of work.

Thanks Matt. After all my deliberations on Sunday, by Monday night it became apparently that the estate really wanted people to stay away until the noise died down a bit. I reckon I can live without for a little bit, plenty of other places I can go in the interim. I feel your and Si’s pain on the sleep, I’ve been feeling pretty wiped at points in the last week (/few months!)

A good week. I went climbing! Also managed a strong fingerboard session today, very pleased with that, and a few other things besides. In terms of things I missed, I didn’t do any open hand fingerboarding and nor did I really work out a benchmark session for offset pull-ups.

Monday - shoulder mobility. 2 data points is not a strong sample, but given that both the times I’ve tried to train/climb on days following this I haven’t felt tip top I think the shoulder mobility might have to be recategorised: unlike the hips I’m not convinced it’s a rest day activity, some of the active mobility work does involve pulling quite hard.

Tuesday - climbing!!! I went to St Aldhelms to the cliff top quarry. Which has a wonderful view of the Jurassic coast, Portland and the sea. Really nice. My footwork wasn’t tip top (quite front wheel drive) nor was my move reading on vert limestone walls, and my skin thinned out pretty quick. As you’d probably expect - it was 8months ago to the day that I last went rock climbing. But it was brilliant. Did some problems to 6B, had a fair few goes on various wrong sequences on a 6B+, I think I eventually got a sequence so maybe next time. Had a quick look at some of the harder things, there’s a 7B which looks quite good, a 7A whose sequence I just couldn’t see and a wall with a 7A-ish and 7B+-ish thing on it which both look worth a look. Worth another trip, and there’s a few nice looking things in the Undercliff too. Should have got there earlier, I suspect even in the shade conditions weren’t the greatest and the sun comes round by about 1130-12 on the quarried tier. I also played briefly with trying out jams in a wide crack and got a surprisingly bomber fist and hand:fist stack going on.

Wednesday - rest

Thursday - fingerboard. Assisted one arm on the 20mm edge. Got to 68kg, previous best. Then 3 laps of the local park with the little one which is probably nearly 3 miles (impressive for him not me!). Had to jog some of it in order to be chased.

Friday - my working day for the week: busy. 10, 10, 9 knee to bar in the evening.

Saturday - beach in the morning, but then ran out of energy when I got back. Just felt exhausted all the rest of the day. Didn’t really have the ability to get the head in gear for really hard stuff - takes a certain degree of mental arousal to really try hard so I stuck with slightly higher rep things that are hard cumulatively rather than needing that “grr” from the first rep. I managed to do a few sets of woodcutters from the lattice video with 10kg which felt hard, 3 sets of dips 8, 7, 8 and some archer rows, only 2 sets due to having to do child bedtime but 2x6 each side.

Sunday - having gone to bed nice and early I woke up with more energy (so far - fingers crossed!). Really solid fingerboard session on the 8mm crimps, pushed onwards from 83.5 to 86.5kg total weight which is really good progress! I tried assisted one arm at the end to see if having fingers properly energised would help - inconclusive, felt like maybe yes on the 20mm but not on the 15mm. Maybe one to experiment more with.

STG: 

- do some climbing [tick]

- get back on top of life [got a moderate volume of admin done]

- figure out some sensible benchmarks/stgs for offset pull-ups and get back on the fingerboard [progress on the fingerboard but not really the offset pull-ups]

MTG:

- 70kg one arm assist on the 20mm edge [68kg]

- 90kg on 8mm; try to hang 6mm [86.5kg]

- 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

Cheers Matt, very much relieved indeed.

Not been as active this week. Work ramping up as I’m preparing to get researchers back into labs. The downside of which is as I’m still working from home, a lot more time on the laptop. As I’m a big bloke with wide shoulders it’s caused neck ache with pain down into the arm. Got a USB keyboard now  but it still hurts so haven’t run since Tuesday.

on the plus side the niggles I was having in my feet and knee are sorted  

Thanks Matt. Another good week this week I think.

M: board session. Was ok but still strongly affected by the heat.

T: lattice edge repeaters in the evening. Not a full set but enough just to get a light workout and build confidence in my left ring finger. I've had no pain in it this week.

W: rest

T: afternoon out with Sol again. We went to another new crag for me - Harmers Wood - and this time Sol let me get a bit more climbing done without sitting on the mats! There was another group there and to keep my distance I spent almost all my time on Yates' Layaway (f6B+). Although only 6B+, this is very much not my preferred style these days (off vertical, poor feet, monos and a highball finish) so I expected to find it difficult. I was pleased that through the session I got noticeably better on the feet and by the end I was pretty smooth on most of the moves. Also it's really good.I didn't top it out but I did get my fingertips to within an inch of the finishing hold...one to go back to. I think some of the stuff at Harmers would probably also be good practice for the harder steep slabs at Pex in future.

F: rest

S: morning board session. A good, long session, felt pretty strong. Got very close several times to finishing one of the current two problems, which are harder than anything else on the board at the moment and will definitely be worth board 7A+. Shoulders were well worked afterwards.

S: morning board session. Got a reasonable amount done, but definitely still feeling yesterday's session.

I had been hoping to get a short session back at Harmers Wood this morning but everywhere was damp early on so it'd have been wet. Hopefully I'll have another outside opportunity next weekend.

Also pleased to report I've been making a bit of progress with bodyweight. For 4-5 weeks now I've been doing an intermittent fasting diet with the aim of cutting out lots of late evening snacking. It's sort of 15-9 rather than 16-8 (eating between 10am and 7pm) and I'm a bit flexible about it if I've done some evening training or fancy a beer on Friday night. But over a month I've dropped up to a couple of kg I think. I weighed in at under 76kg / 12 stone before breakfast this morning, which is the lightest I've been for at least a year. I'd like to get down to about 73. Edit: although it's our anniversary tomorrow and we have a takeaway and fizz planned tonight so I will be going backwards a bit!

Si

Thanks Matt, continued to effort on the stats. This week I've tried some harder stuff rather than quite so much mileage. 

Mon. Went to  Odin Cave. Did Short Circuit (f7A+) then started to look at The Dark Room (f8A) which is so cool it makes up for the fact the cave is rank. Managed start to crux and last knee bar to end but didn't try the crux today. Immediately ordered a second kneepad over the internet when I got home!

Tues. Went to  Eldon Hole and managed to get up Independence Day (E5 6a) first go. Cavers have removed the bolts/ pegs/ fixed gear so we used knots in a hanging rope to clip where these used to be. It was a bit of a faff needing 3 ropes but good adventure climbing. Considering I've not tied into a rope for 9 months I was pleased not to get too pumped!

Wed and Thurs. Rest. 

Fri. Headed down to the cornice at chee dale. Spent the session trying Cordless Madness (7c) which I sort of had a sequence for by the end but never managed to redpoint it. 7c is one of those grades that I could get 2nd go or it might take me 3 sessions. Hopefully it will feel easier with fresh arms! Really happy to tie in again. 

Sat.rest

Sun. Still pretty tired after Friday so just had a 20minute plod round the jugs on the less steep side of my board. Enough to wake the muscles up and hopefully promote some recovery but not enough to get tired. 

Thanks Matt. Relatively quiet week for me. Currently more motivated to get on some long alpine rock in the summer than to push back into hard (for me) sport climbing; otoh one of my regular sport climbing partners has expressed an interest in signing up for Kalymnos in October, which I definitely want to be sport climbing fit for. Alpine stuff = aerobic base mileage?

STG: Return alive from Munich DAV Elbsandstein Expedition
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: 
T: 
W: Wall, Thalkirchen. Circuits - have to start working my way back up to some level of endurance. Skin stopped play.
T: 
F: Beastmaker max hangs.
S: Rainy day hillwalking - went to check out the approach to a route on the Zugspitze that I have my eye on for the summer.
S: Rainy day exterior climbing wall, Augsburg. Feels hopeless - endurance & lead head completely gone. But I have faith that it will come back quicker than I fear.
 

Thanks for the stats again Matt - very much appreciate your weekly efforts to bring this together.

Funny week: felt knackered and struggled with back pain but managed 2 productive climbing sessions.  My left ring-finger feels grumpy after 40min dogging the same move yesterday. Not decided if it’s a lumbrical or flexor unit strain; felt "okay" to climb on so long as pinky was engaged so it’s probably the former.

Because of these 2 flare-ups, this week I'm going to concentrate on rehab, antagonists, core (you can never have enough kneebar stamina!) and biking.

Week 23: 

M – Knackered. Zilch.

T – Moonboard session. Felt a bit off the boil but managed 12x benchmarks including a couple of 7B (no flashes this week; ticked off the majority of 7B soft touches now).

W – Nothing. Attempted a 30min online yoga class with my wife but sacked it off after 5min as my upper back spasmed. Did some stretches and foam rollering to try and ease it off.

T – Also nothing.

F – Used up a day of leave that was leftover from not going to Spain. Back on the Kilnsey roof project. 1st go: warm-up and check holds weren’t wet/dirty after the rain. 2nd go: high-point falling at the lip after a massive faff on the crux trying to weave my feet around a dogging draw that had been placed on Freakshow.  3rd go: bish, bash, bosh and the longest roof in Yorkshire is complete; Lockdown Fatigue (8b). Home in time to do 40min of yoga with my wife before dinner.

S – Painted the downstairs cloakroom. Rock and roll!

S – Cornice. Early start to avoid the Covidiots; needn’t have bothered as the rain kept the majority of walkers away. Sketchy damp 6b+ to warm-up. Dogged K5 (8b). Failed RP on K5. Spent 40min trying crux in various ways. Stripped it. Spoke to FA; he's beta was encouraging enough to have another dog and discovered the cunning footwork needed to turn the abject crux move into just a slightly cruxy section.

Hi Clubbers. Thanks Matt for statting.

A slightly mediocre week in some ways... Only half of the Strength and Core sessions planned, but on target for running, prehab and board sessions.

Week 23: 

M: Prehab. Shoulders and Elbows.

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

W: Trail Run. 10km, 279m vert gain, 6:03/km. Strength Sesh (Max Hangs, TRX, swapped Pull-ups for Elbow Prehab as elbows a bit tweaky).

T: Core Sesh. Two sets. 

F: Board Sesh. Max Hangs, Shoulder Shrugs, Limit Bouldering.

S: Rest. Very gentle stroll over hills for a couple of miles.

S: Hill run. 16.6km, 655m vert gain, 6:52/km. Slightly tweaky R hip/butt (IT band?) so walked a bit more uphill than intended.

Week 24:

200 min 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 (TICK)

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/TR 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

Glad you like Harmer's -I think its a great little venue. Yate's Layaway is on my current to-do list so let me know if you find any magic beta! The hard moves seem to coincide with it also getting scary, so I struggle to commit to the thin moves when the seam-arete thing runs out. 

What have you got your eye on at Pex? A long term (probably never to be realised!) ambition is to commit to the upper section of the Knife... I've bouldered out the bottom half but the whole thing is well above my pay-grade ;-p

Congrats on the Kilnsey proj! Although slightly disgusted that you celebrated with more training!

Combination of monos, sidepulls, small feet and a heel to reach the thin crimps at the top of the rib. From there I got a high left foot on a decent smear just left of the rib (it's about level with the highest mono on the right) and locked out my right arm to reach for the good holds. I came up just short. I'm sure if it'd been lower down I'd have reached that extra inch though...

I'd like to do Catalepsy at Pex. Probably need to get a lot better at highball sandstone slabs first tho!

I think it’s committing to that high smear that I’m struggling with. I probably just need to get on with it, as I guess pad-parties are going to be off limits for a while longer! 
 

Catalepsy would be a great problem. I think that Lady Jane wall is the best bit of rock in Pex. Need to get back there at some point. 

I have no partners round here. If you want to team up in a socially distanced way for either of those places I'd be up for it. I own 5 pads although a couple are way past their best!

Send me a pm if you are keen and I'll keep in touch re: when I'm free...tend to be a bit late notice around parenting...

I used to stop off at Pex couple of mornings a week on my Manchester-Liverpool commute. Great place.

I remember one of the routes near the entrance - Tequila Sunrise? - used to have a little blind deadpoint finish to a tree root jug over the top. Imagine my joy when I went back years later and deadpointed happily to the finishing jug ... that wasn't there any more  

Excellent! :-D 

Thanks Matt, yeah not long now until it's here and I am so exhausted I never move again!

Mon: We actually got to go climbing. Guy and I went to Harrison's Rocks (Southern Sandstone) and got on a few routes. Finally got to try out my full-body harness (thanks AJM - https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17871533443753889/) It was so good to be climbing again. Apart from me being awful on soft sandstone and being pretty weak, it felt great! 

Tues: run, 31:49 min, 3.69km/ 2.29miles, (8:38min/km) 

Weds: rest

Thurs: rest

Fri: rest

Sat: 5-6 miles walking around and around the park (I have started to count walking on the flat as reportable!)

Sun: More walking probably another 3 or so miles.

Didn't get out running as much as I would have liked. Will attempt to run a couple of times this week although I think the potential climb we had planned will be cancelled due to rain.