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_695-7219...

Psyche video - vimeo.com/277235993

Si dH - Glad to hear you're recovering ok.  Gratz on the f7A+, looks cool.

AJM - Sounds like a great week.  Lots of nice stuff done.  Great job on Phat Slapper.

AlanLittle - Yeah, I hope people will rejoin as walls start opening in the UK.  Martinswand sounds lovely, I did a bit of googling, it's just a crag?  Still looks pretty.

the sheep - Ohhh, 800kms, very nice.

Tom Green - Glad you liked the video.  Thanks to Ally for it.  Great flashes at Harmers Wood.  Good week all in.

mattrm - Don't forget to do the walk this week...

Hey Matt, I hoped I'd get in just in time to post for the previous week but I've missed it. Darn. Here it is anyway...

week commencing 6 July:

Mon: rest

Tues: due date and a couple of miles running just cos I can.

Weds: rest

Thurs: labour

Fri: Reginald (Reg or Reggie) was born at 7:28am.

Saturday: rest and home from the hospital

Sunday: 3 miles walking to Mile End park to hang out at a guitar live jam

Last week (wc 13 July):

Mon: 4-mile round trip walk to go catch up with Barber's gym 

Tues: rest

Weds: rest

Thurs: couple of miles walking with a massive package and a tiny baby

Fri: 3 miles walking

Sat: rest

Sun: 2-3 miles walking

Love walking! I might have to move over to UK hillwalking soon ;p

Unbelievable scenes!

Massive congratulations to you all!

(also, are you actually superwoman? I’m pretty sure if I had a baby -unlikely, I know- I’d be taking a month of rest days afterwards!)

Congrats!

Great effort getting some exercise in most days too. Hope you are all healthy and well!

Glad to see you're out doing stuff again so promptly! Have to restart the fit club family weekends from days gone by soon...!

Thanks Matt. Another steady week trying to help my finger recover this week. It's reached the point now where I can crimp with it if I warm up well but it feels like it's still prone to go again if I'm not careful, so I need to avoid over enthusiasm.

M: rest

T: did some fingerboarding first, a mix of low load crimping and then bodyweight 2 finger pockets. Then did a short board session focusing on pinches and moves not requiring left hand crimps.

W: rest and drive to Kent

T: I had my portable fingerboard, a rope and some free weights with me. I arranged it to do a series of finger curls on the fingerboard upside down, pulling from a full open hand to a full crimp and lowering again. I did 3 sets of ten with a bigger edge (30mm?) then 2 sets of ten with a smaller edge (20mm?) all with about 26kg weight I think. This is basically intended as rehab work for my finger. It didn't seem to do any harm at least! Some people watching me in the Travelodge car park probably thought I was weird.

F: same as Thursday.

S: drive home.

S: morning trip up to Trowbarrow. Today was one of those days where you just get spanked on everything. I'll blame it on the heat and not having slept well. I couldn't even manage the 6c+ I had planned to warm up on! Long ago learned to take the positives though - I used a variety of holds today and the left hand held up well. Since getting home this afternoon I also had to carry a bathroom full of tiles up two floors which definitely worked my biceps, back and shoulders a bit!

Si

Congrats. A walk 2 days in is incredible! 

Thanks Matt. Got another 6C+, also good, done this week. A slightly frustrating end to the week as late deterioration of weather meant not much done at the weekend - had I known Sunday would be a no show I would have tried to train both Sat and Sun.

In terms of laying groundwork for future glory I spend Sat night in a tent in the garden with miniAJM which went well - he slept like a log, admittedly I didn’t so much but I’m never good first night somewhere different - which means I am hoping to be able to try a weekend away with him at some point to let me get a bit further afield than the New Cuttings. Dartmoor in particular scores very highly on the child accessibility front but is really pushing the edge of what might be considered sensible day trip fodder for a perma-tired non-Londoner (it’d be about 5 hours round trip which is a long way with mainly my own company to keep me awake).

Monday - rest

Tuesday - climbing in the morning. Not the most auspicious start - grey, rain overnight, wet road, tired. But my last half day off for a few weeks so I went out anyway. Went exploring down in the southern end of the boulderfield. Did a few warmups and then got stuck into Snowflakes which is a 6C+ up an Arete. It’s in a bit of a pit so there wasn’t much breeze and it was still and a bit muggy/soupy. However, after a few goes I got it. Spent a while on the start, which adds two grades in two moves to get you 7A+. I managed to work out plausible beta for the first move - I could get off the ground and slap at the sloper but not really make contact or hold it - and from there I think if feet stay attached the second move, matching it, should be a bit easier. One to return for at some point. I went to look at problems on the undercut boulder and decided I probably needed a spotter, so wandered up to new cuttings thinking I could scope some things out for a future visit with miniAJM. However, when I got there the sun started to come through a bit so it became hazy sunshine, high humidity and no wind. Warm soup! Had I known it would do that I should probably have stayed in the boulderfield and tried to find something catching the breeze. Wandered around having a bit of a look at things but enthusiasm in those conditions waned so I didn’t climb any more.

Wednesday - rest

Thursday, Friday - my parents came down to visit, which I thought would lead to plenty of training time in gaps between work whilst they distracted the children. Instead, I got slammed at work and time around that was taken up by actually socialising with them. So nothing.

Saturday - pub lunch with parents. Jerk pork, beer and ice cream in a sunny pub garden overlooking Corfe Castle. 

Sunday - rain overnight and a grey morning seemed to scupper plans to get out. Frustration high and motivation low. Eventually did a few sets of flies, some front lever pulls and holds of different progression, and a few bicep curls. That way at least I’ve done something!

Hi all. Well done for keeping at it everyone. I was still feeling a bit bleugh at the start of the week but back up to full power by the end. 

Mon. Nothing 

Tues. A very chilled trad trip to Stanage with Mrs. Swede. 2 VS routes then off to the Fox House for lunch! Nice to do a couple of routes that were super steady but not something I fancied soloing.

Wed and Thurs. Rest and short walks with the kids.

Fri. Feeling a lot better I went to Lees Bottom and did Chiggers with Attitude (f7A+) that I'd worked last week and also Goose Lee (f7A) and Goose Grease (f7B) that I'd not been on before. They didn't take much working so it was a short session and I left feeling like I wouldn't need a rest day afterwards.

Sat. Evening visit to the cemetery park boulder. Did a couple of 6C+ problems I've not tried before then managed The Concrete King (section 2) (f7C). Really pleased with this. I'd spent a few sessions trying it before lock down but couldn't work out one of the moves. Went quickly with a fresh pair of eyes today. Tried to repeat the first section with a view to doing the full link but couldn't manage the first section crux today. 

Sun. Mostly rest and a family walk round Longshore and Padley. 

Great effort on the Friday/Saturday. It's always satisfying to do lots of stuff quickly!

I was a bit confused by Goose Grease when I went there. The guide says to start in slots but the only holds I could see that made sense to do a big move to a big sloper from were jugs rather than slots. I wasn't completely sure I was in the right place but felt like it couldn't be further right if it needed the warning about staying off the holds on the overhanging block. Did you start on the big jugs, or was I in the wrong place?

Don't get too excited. It's a huge valley crag with two tiers of multipitch - both about 5-6 pitches high. Moderate slabby stuff up to 6b at the bottom, steeper & harder up above. I've only ever done routes on the lower tier. There's lots of single pitch sport too, but being on the outskirts of Innsbruck it's polished worse than Stony Middleton and utterly sandbagged.

The main plus is that it's south facing and with a very short approach, so good for shorter days in winter or - like last week - when you need something that dries quickly after rain. The main minus is that it's directly above the autobahn and the noise bugs a lot of people.

No Short Approach Sunday this week though:

STG: Finalise planning & book huts for July Dolomites trip - now looking more like August if at all due to partner's ankle injury.
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: Boulderwelt. Another good session - got on a problem that felt ridiculously hard when I tried it in my first post-lockdown session, and this time it went in half a dozen goes. 
T: Box step-ups. Shame not to do my alpine cardio outside but my son currently has my only working bike, until my other one gets repaired or his new one gets delivered.
F:    Wall,Thalkirchen. Circuits. And another session of normal service slowly being resumed. Did my first post-lockdown 6c+, and was encouragingly close on a 7a when evening dampness on the outdoor wall stopped play.
S: 40 minutes mobility & stretching while watching *Birth of the Extreme*

S: Karwendel: Koflerturm SW Ridge, 400m V+/VI-. Proper alpineering today: two hour approach with lots of scrambling and tricky routefinding; thirteen pitches; ab off the other side and even longer descent down the next valley to avoid having to go back down the hairy approach. With hut for a beer halfway down, hurrah!

I'm pretty sure it just means the jugs. That would be consistent with the wording of the pdf for the problems further right that all start off the juggy rail and the pdf calls them slots. There were some other guys at the crag also on the same problem or had done it and they all started in the same place as me. 

I went from the juggy 'slots' ... RH up to a good crimp, Rheel on the starting hold, LH to good crimp then go again LH to the sloper then go again LH to the horizontal pinch just above it, RH crank straight up to a smaller but more positive hold just right of the obvious one (didn't bother using the sloper on the way through but you could do), Lheel somewhere left and cam the toe in, LH to undercut (tricky keeping the Lheel on) then big throw with RH to the jug which for me involved a cut loose and then finish up to the jugs above.

I don't think you'd want to use the holds on the hanging block but you do need to make sure you don't use it for your Lheel which would make moving to the undercut and the throw to the jug a lot easier. There were a few more foot moves in there somewhere but those were the key footholds. 

Hope that helps!

Hi Fit Club. Thanks Matt for the continued statting.

A mixed week, in that I ended up dropping a couple of sessions, but it was for the greater good -an STG tick! 

Week 29: 

M: Board sesh (AeroPow and AeroCap) and then a Core sesh to finish.

T: Rest.

W: Strength/core/prehab. Max Hangs, TRX, elbow prehab. (Slightly tweaky shoulders -need to up the shoulder prehab sessions).

T: Road run. 9.8km, 151m vert, 5:48/km. Steady one just to keep the legs ticking over.

F: Trad at Wilton. Felt great returning to my old stomping ground despite it being super-humid and greasy. Highlights were Dawn (HVS 5b) and Cameo (E1 5a). 

S: Rest.

S: Hill run. Stretton Skyline (STG Tick!) 33.3km, 1536m vert, 7:34/km. Chuffed that this didn't feel too bad -felt strong, with late splits comparing well to early splits. Just a slight niggle in my right thigh/bum/hip which I'm struggling to pinpoint.

Week 29:

A bit of a deload week (in terms of running volume at least)

180 min Z1

1 Core session

1 Strength session

3 Climbing sessions (2 Aerocap; 2 Strength/Ancap; 1 Aeropow)

3 Prehab sessions

STG (End July):

Max Hangs 78kg total (TICK: 79.5kg)

Weighted Pull-Ups 90kg total 3RM (TICK: 92kg)

Squat 70kg 3RM 

Deadlift 85kg 3RM 

3 sets of core circuit. 

Cheshire Cat, Harmers Arete.

Curfew, Gaza Strippers.

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

Run the Stretton Skyline (TICK)

MTG (End Sept):

Eliminator, Yates' Layaway.

Grid Iron, Traction Control.

Black Wall Direct, Red Square, Digitron.

Cheshire Gritstone Trail

Many congratulations and welcome to the world Reggie 

Cheers Matt, had a good week gone by. Mixed things up nicely and kept active.

Monday, 15km trail run, did some trails i haven't been on for a while which were well and truly overgrown. Great fun.

Tuesday, open water swim. New venue for the daughter, I have been there before so knew what to expect. Lovely warm clear water. You could see the reeds and the fish. I loved it, daughter not so keen on being able to see the wildlife! She preferred the more murky lake. On the plus side her swim coach popped down an said she was doing really well, her stroke still was great and she would be well placed to move up to the performance squad which was on the cards before lockdown Watch failed to record but we guessed at around 2.5km distance wise

Wednesday, had been asked to volunteer as a run leader by our group for one of the paced groups (small groups so more leaders needed). Popped out at lunchtime on the bike to scope whether there would be any cow issues on potential routes as some of my group have had issues before and are rather wary. Covered just over 10k on the bike. Evening run with the group went well and we did 8.8km which was pretty much spot on for the required pace. No cows 

Thursday, had to be onsite which was nice for a change, even if it did mean going into Leicester!! Commuted on the bike so 15km in taking the direct route and 30km home going the scenic way (once out of the city)

Friday, Nice hilly 6km trail run.

Saturday, rest day

Sunday, 17km trail run, upping the distance to get a half marathon in at the end of the month. 

Congratulations. Amazing that you were exercising all the way up to due date.

Thanks for all your continued efforts for weekly stats. Double week update as I've been staycationing at the in-laws. I've out on 1.5kg from all the food n' booze over the last week, but managed to get a decent mileage in on top of climbing/training. 

Week 27:

M – Devil’s Gorge after work; scrubbed extension project. Glued together the 2 snapped holds and did all the moves bar one (felt hard linking things on the shunt as it's steep). Taken a lot of effort to bring this line to life. A brief boulder; retro flashed Pantys Down, but Fire Starter seems to have changed a bit and needed a couple of goes. Be Ruthless felt a fierce as ever!

T – Foul weather = rest.

W – Train. Board warm-up, then test max pinch lifts; ended up lifting 23.2kg for 4s with right-hand. Focused on hard moves/projects for 30min; got very close to another 7C. Then Moonboard benchmarks; flashed a bunch of 7A+’s. Minor elbow grumbles afterwards. 4x10 press-ups with variations.

T – Strength training: 35 degree sloper max-hangs @BW+24kg (10s hangs). Micros 8mm @BW+20kg (7s hangs). Rolling thunder; 50 kg x8 reps x3 sets. RH went feeble + LH stayed strong. 25km @ 30kph.

F – Rest/packing.

S – Last board session before holibobs. Slow getting started – lots of 6C/+’s to get blood going.  Then after many goes nailed Bubble Gump for my first 7C benchmark 10oz steak to celebrate!

S – 40km @ 26kph. Lots of crappy tarmac around in-laws house. BBQ gluttony.

Week 28: 

M – Lazy. 1hr afternoon snooze – realised just how knackered I’ve been for the last couple of weeks. Train; pinch-block repeaters 7/3/6/3 @ 15.5kg x3 each side. Grippers; RH only (find the motion plain weird at high intensity with LH). CoC#1 3x10s holds. “200lb” 3x10s (~2mm short of closing?) Attempted some hub lifts but power was gone by then.  

T – Museum walking, then 28km @ 27kph on squiggly back-lanes. Katsu curry - another huge dinner.

W – Nowt

T – Bickerton bouldering. Managed a few problems upto (Reckless (f7B)) but failed on the best line there; The Ramp Up (f7B+) after slipping and landing on corner of pad, giving myself a neck twinge.

F – Pre-lunch pootle with the lady; 10km @ 19kph; then 43km @ 27kph after lunch. Neck sore.

S – Nada.

S – Devil’s Gorge. Dog, dog, surprise RP on Broccoli ext. It Takes Glue to Tango (7c+) So close to taking a whipper on last move! Quick go at repeating Cerberus – fell on roof section.

Thanks Tom Haha, I'm not so sure that you would. I think I was just lucky that my body would let me, I probably wouldn't have kept going if it had actually felt hard. It was weird how good and 'normal' I felt.

Really looking forward to getting back to it but not too quickly. I'm too obsessed with Reg to leave him right now.

Thanks Si We're all really good and very happy.

Thank you Yes, would absolutely love to get out and do some fit club weekends. We just need to figure out the whole car seat thing and what it is like to drive long distances with him. I'd def be up for getting out soon. Even if it's just to touch some rock.

Thank you SSB. I had a good 36 hours of sitting around and eating lots first to regain my power ;p 

Thanks so much

Thanks Ally. Looking forward to getting back to it once I have had a bit of rest.

If the driving proves insurmountable there's always the train then hirecar/taxi option if you can do something that doesn't need much kit (or can team up with other people providing it). Maybe not the cheapest option but obviously depends how psyched you are and you won't have to do it for that long until they're more tolerant...

Nice one Ally. Looks like somewhere I should try to get to one day.....

STG - 14st / 30 minute 5k

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

LTG - ???

Weight - 15st

M - S - Nowt

S - 6 mile walk with 500m ascent

Chopped the walk down from 2h 45m to 2h 25m.  That's a nice improvement.  Happened to see a friend who's a top notch fell runner.  She does the same loop in 1h 20m, which is a nice target to aim for.  I had been thinking that 1h 30m would have been a good time.  1h 20m.  That's scary fast.  It was lovely up there.  Hardly anyone on the hill and it's super quiet and the views are amazing.