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_698-7229...

Si dH - Lots of good sessions.  Glad to hear the reset worked!

AJM - Good job on the V5.  Sounds like it was a nice weekend.  Don't beat yourself up about the week.  That's just how it goes sometimes.

Ally Smith - Gratz on the FA!  I guess you need to get on the stamina train now then?

the sheep - You've got a nice solid running base there.  Well done on the half. 

AlanLittle - I can't say that I blame you, that's stupidly hot.  Well done on getting so much training done.

Somerset swede basher - Eskdale fisherground is lovely.  Nice one on the f7B and A

Tom Green - Well done on ticking Dream.  Such a iconic climb.  Sounds like you had a great time on it.

mattrm - Try harder you muppet.

Thanks Matt as always.

M: rest

T: planned morning fingerboard session. I forgot to take any chalk away with me, which made judging the difficulty of hangs difficult. Unfortunately on this day I warmed up too hard and pulled a muscle in my left shoulder a bit so had to stop fairly quickly.

W: morning fingerboard session, mostly focused on crimps. Much better, more akin to Sunday's session. Shoulder was ok. Drove home in the evening.

T: rest/back to work

F: evening board session. Mostly trying a new 7A that I set the other week but didn't finish off. No tick again, it was a bit hot and sweaty, but I felt fairly good. Both left ring finger DIP and recent shoulder niggles were fine.

S: rest/gardening. Also bought a fan from Screwfix for £35 for use in my garage when climbing on the board.

S: morning board session. Really good session, I ticked two of my three ongoing projects (all 7A/+) and got close on the other. Felt quite strong and the fan worked well.

Had a nice week off relaxing and seeing family. I got over the sore throat by about Tuesday. Managed to keep up the ring finger DIP rehab and gradually keep building strength. It seems to be back to normal now but I need to remember to keep being careful and slow when warming up. Didn't feel psyched to go outside in the heat this weekend so decided to spend it all doing family stuff, but had a really good session on the board this morning.

Si

STG - 14st / 30 minute 5k

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

LTG - ???

Weight - 15st

M - Y Fal

T - Rest

W - Chainsawing

T - S - Rest

Got straight into it on monday night.  Nice walk, lovely views and had a nice (distanced) chat with another local on the way back down.  About 2h 30ms again, which is a good standard I guess.  Need to up it to two a week to see any real speed increase I reckon.  Or try and properly run it.  Then on Wednesday did a load of chainsawing, getting the last load of wood from last year chopped up, ready for winter.  Just need to see if it's actually dry enough.  It should be, it's been in 1m lengths since last year, but not actually properly chunked up.

Thanks Matt

STG: Alpine rock trip next week. Forecast for the Dolomites looks dismal; settled on Ötztal instead but it'll most likely be mainly sport climbing
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: Wall, Weyarn. Kaly is ten weeks away and I have zero endurance. Desperate times call for desperate measures: lattice/crimpd 50/50 aerocap session on the autobelays. Hard work, but I suspect Tommy & Co are actually quite clever. It's not just about the physiological effects, there are mental & tactical lessons in there too. Absolute focus on economy of effort even on really easy ground; keeping it together when tired on moderately hard sections.

W - F: Skiing, Hintertux. 
    I tried summer glacier snowboarding once before, years ago, and hated it. But I promised my son he could try it, so since this is the summer of not venturing too far from home(*) for holidays, why not? It was more fun than I expected/remembered, although still nowhere near the top of my list of favourite activities.
    Staying in an Austrian b&b also puts stretching / sauna / stretching IN sauna on the list of apres-ski options, resulting in not too much muscle soreness despite the beating my quads felt like they were taking on the pistes.

S: Wall, Weyarn. Lattice/crimpd 50/50 aerocap session #2
S:

(*) Although the British, Polish and Finnish national youth squads clearly had no qualms about venturing far from home for their summer training camps. And that's just the ones who skied past me slowly enough for me to be able read their logos.

Cheers Matt. Another week of lack of training, and it has to be said in this heat I fear the coming one may not be much better, especially with parents visiting the second half of the week.

Did get a decent dws session in Tuesday, and a social session in Saturday. A few discoveries in terms of the linkup I’ve been trying - would be nice to nail this really this season, be a tangible result to add to what has otherwise been a fun dws season so far but without significant ticks. Have been thinking about it and with a trip to Font still hopefully on the cards for a decent chunk of September I just don’t see this as a year for big fitness oriented stuff, but I’ve also been thinking that this winter I really should build a more well rounded base with some fitness work as well as the inevitable fingerboarding.

Monday - recovering from the weekend

Tuesday - climbing! Dws in the morning. Usual warmup circuit but also did a few things I hadn’t done before - digging back into the CC definitive to pick out a few lines not in Deep Water - including a fairly nice 6b Samurai in Autumn which may become a regular part of the circuit. I did a few things in terms of putting pieces together for the linkup I was trying last time. 

- First was investigated getting into the crux from the start a bit further, which it’s fair to say didn’t go that well, lack of base aero fitness means I’m definitely a sprinter these days and struggle to shift pump. A good warmup seems to help.

- Second was getting into the crux more directly (I.e. without the full intro) where I made good progress - I think a foot dance (I.e. bed the left foot onto something not very good with more commitment, shuffle the right foot across to an ok slanted edge, stretch the left foot out to a really good edge/ledge) was basically what stood between me and the end of the difficulties. 

At the end I had another go on Swinging Nineties, but whilst I ruled out some options that’s not really substantial progress. I think I need to sort my feet out a bit and go big.

Wednesday-Friday - slammed at work, failed to make time again.

Saturday - hot hot hot! Couldn’t face the idea of sunny child friendly bouldering so joined what turned out to be a big crowd at Cave Hole for DWS. Mostly I chatted and helped miniAJM throw rocks in the sea and clamber about but some friends very kindly entertained him for long enough for me to get 2 quick climbs in - nothing new, things I’d done before, but good nevertheless and I scoped out that the left foot I didn’t think was very good on Tuesday ought actually to be fairly reasonable. Good to see people out, to see people trying stuff I’ve not seen folk on before, good for the psyche. Then we had ice cream.

Sunday - beach in the morning, about 9 til 1030. Nice to be able to get down there before it got too busy. Lots of picking miniAJM up and stuff because he decided he wanted to actually get involved with the sea for once.

Thanks Matt, it's a lovely setting, I can see us going back in the future.

Mon. Last day in the Lakes. Family trip to  Diamond Crag. There are only 6 easy routes there, I soloed them, Mrs. Swede top roped them and Small Swede did his first outdoor climbs with 3 laps of Vague Groove (M). Had a quick boulder after and did Strong Arete (f7A+) and No match for climb id:536611.

Tues. Back in Sheffield, had a session on the cemetery park boulder. Managed to do the linking bit on The Concrete King. Also made a couple of good links through the first section, linking bit and partway through the second section. Hopefully this will go soon with fresh arms.

Wed. Went for a rumble (run and scramble) 16km with 600m ascent at 6.22/km taking in Grindsbrook Clough (Summer) (Grade-1), Left-hand tributary (summer) (Grade-2) and Crowden Clough Right-hand Finish (Summer) (Grade-2).

Thurs. Rest and drive down to Somerset. 

Fri. Boulder traverses at  Brean Down. Did Hand to Gland Combat (7a) which is a total sandbag and more like 7b+. It was probably graded when the beach level was lower making it a lot easier. Then did Hand to Gland Combat High (7b) which is about right at the grade and not highball at all anymore which I guess fits with my beach level theory.

Sat. Rest. 

Sun. Epic day on the mountain bike with Mrs. Swede. along the Exmoor coast. 54km, 1600m ascent and several tonnes of ice cream! 

Thanks for the stats again Matt: Another FA this weekend. Got a few more lines I want to complete before arrival of little 'un in December.

Week 32: 

M – 33km @ 29kph. PB on Artists lane climb.

T – Orme equipping; wildly windy. Bolted a route and cleaned majority of it. Managed to snap my clipstick and had to abandon a jammed ab rope: Expensive evening!

W – Crimpd Max-hangs: M2 (+36.5kg), sloper (+20.5kg), 8mm (+21.5kg) & pinch-block (18kg). Pretty happy with added weights after a few weeks off the fingerboard. Bench: 4x 8rep @55kg.

T – Pec n’ deltoid DOMS. 10x 7/3/6/1 @ ~40% (-20kg; maintained F4SHC). Nice, gently building pump. 23km @ 29kph. Felt hard work in the evening heat and humidity.

F – Still some light shoulder/chest DOMS. Rest.

S – Back to the Orme with hms (formerly of this parish). Techy and surprisingly pumpy 6b+ warm-up. Alternated efforts on freshly bolted line; hms pulled small block out of a crack which turned out to be a keystone and after some trundling resulted in a very smooth section appearing. Thankfully hms scoped out and succeeded on making FA of “Red Wine is My Kryptonite”, 7a which takes an alternate right-hand exit. A few minutes later I completed the FA of the direct finish “You Don’t Make Friends with Salad”, 7c. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDpJTL_DPha/

S – Looking for more local venue, we ended up at Frogsmouth Quarry. Sketching about on damp and sandy holds and looking at a desmond, I grabbed the 2nd draw on a sandbag 6a+ warm-up. Not an auspicious start to the day!!! Dogged Rosetta Probe (7c+) but linked into top of neighbouring “6c+” instead of the original E5 crack finish. The finishing wall/slab on this Ivan Jellical (7a+) was nails! RP next go; no idea on the actual grade. hms was not a fan of the venue, so went to Frodsham for some delighful bouldering/top-roping. I managed to eventually haul my ass over the roof and hideous graunchy mantle of I Was a Teenage Caveman (f7A+) (Cough cough! Even with the tech knee I contrived, this felt way harder than 7A+)

All in all a great weekend, but suffering from various itchy bites this morning and a distinct lack of skin.

Hi Y'all! Top statting, Matt. Thanks, as per.

A week which was geared slightly around not getting too tired prior to the weekend.

Week 32:

M: Atrocious fingerboard session -turns out a week of just climbing doesn't do much to maintain finger strength.

T: Muscular endurance session -2 sets. Felt quite hard -forced to dig deep on the second set.

W: Rest, I think.

T: Max Hangs, Core Sesh, Elbow Prehab. 

F: Rest. 

S: Had a crack at doing all of the Cairngorm Classic Rock routes in a day (inspired by https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/rock_talk/cairngorm_classic_rock_routes_i...). Didn't manage it (by quite a long way) but had great fun trying. The final score was a 60.7km run/walk/shuffle from Lochnagar to Coire Cas plus Eagle Ridge (Summer) (S) Squareface (VD) and Cumming-Crofton Route (Summer) (S). At the time, we thought we were moving too slowly between routes, but on looking at the numbers it turns out that most of our lost time was faff -pauses for eating/drinking/shitting/map checking all added up, even though we thought we were being efficient at the time. Very encouraged by how I felt -pretty strong and fit throughout and (luckily!) my worries about knees falling apart were unfounded. My main issue was horrifically bruised feet -need to have a think about how to avoid this.

S: Rest.

Week 33:

280 min Z1 

2 Core session

2 Strength session

2 Climbing sessions 

3 Prehab sessions

New STGs (End Sept):

Max Hangs: 82kg total 

4 sets of my muscular endurance circuit.

3 sets of my core circuit. 

Cheshire Cat, Harmers Arete, Eliminator, Yates Layaway.

Curfew, Grid Iron, The Deep.

Black Wall Direct, Red Square, Digitron.

Cheshire Gritstone Trail

MTGs:

TBC

impressive in itself! Kudos

Cheers Matt,

Tried to get a little more variety into last weeks training.

Monday, rest day

Tuesday, open water swim. Around 1.5km

Wednesday, early morning 5k run 

Thursday, cycle in to work, 15km. Took the scenic way home at 30km and 1.5km open water swim in the evening

Friday, gentle 5k run with the wife, and eldest and youngest daughter

Saturday, rest day, did some back to school shopping with the kids. Not too bad!

Sunday, 8km trail run, hot!

Cheers mate! It was a cool test of how much ground I can cover without bonking or having my legs fall off. It feels like it opens a few doors for other big days...

"Don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years!"

Since having my hip replaced in November I've done very little and it shows. I topped the scales at 11'9" which is 6lbs heavier than I've ever been and over a stone above my fighting weight. In the last 5 weeks I've made real efforts to lose weight and exercise more and I've managed to lose a grand total of 2lbs. I put up a fingerboard outside during the hottest weather but never used it. I've been doing a bit of cycling with a view to doing the Mary Townley Loop. I've also done some running (it was the only thing the surgeon told me I shouldn't do as it might wear the new joint) but my hip was feeling a bit clunky so I thought I'd loosen it up a bit, it worked after while but just as I felt I was actually running rather than labouring my hamstring started hurting. 

Decided to rejoin Fit Club after hearing about some climbing buddies doing the Cumbrian and Deep Blue Sea this weekend. The first of these is one of my three dream routes and the other just looks amazing bit not one I've ever considered.

M: Nada

T: Outhouse, managed yellow but no improvement from last visit

W: Outhouse, couldn't even manage yellow.

T: Bike ride, I've now found a great off road route next to me which is a lot pleasanter than the usual rocky terrain around here - first bike ride I've actually enjoyed all the way.

F: Drove to Lakes.

S: *another* new low!Started up Gazebo but bottled it and finished up Via Media (S 4a) which is brilliant for the grade. Accidentally bought some trail running shoes afterwards as we're going to Scotland in September.

S: Did the first two sections of the MTL, thought it'd take 2-3 hrs but it took over four and I didn't think I could turn another peddle, very glad Fi was there to drive me back!

Wooo, Welcome back!