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... also this - https://www.instagram.com/p/CEGfCg7DbkK/?igshid=4a1o55jwpus2
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_704-7249...
Si dH - Well done on the V6s, very nice.
rossislegend - f7A+, YYFY! Excellent job. Good work on the stretches.
Steve Jones - With the number of routes you're doing the ropework will come easily. Happy Birthday!
Somerset swede basher - Glad to hear you've got the sequence dialed. Hope the snot is all gone? Definitely putting lots of good effort in there.
AlanLittle - Great news that the plan is working. You've put some great effort in.
Ally Smith - That fall sounds horrible. Well done on the 7c. Lots of good board sessions and other sessions.
AJM - Hope you've had a nice holiday.
biscuit - Congrats on the 7a. Hope the TLC went well?
the sheep - No harm in a bit of low volume. Looking forward to this week.
Tom Green - Mmmm Tremadog. Lots of nice running and strength.
mattrm - Eat less food and drink less beer dumbo. Also do a run this week you useless fatty.
> Si dH - Well done on the V6s, very nice.
Thanks Matt, but I only actually did one of them, and that was a repeat!
M: Did a 2-arm max hang session (first for a long time), plus some prone Ts and hamstring curls on the TRX. My 2-arm max hang seems to have dropped more noticeably than my one arm max from where it was a couple of years back. I think absolute fingerstrength has become a bit of a weakness as I haven't really trained it recently, so something I hope can give some quick gains if I train it more.
T: rest
W: Evening board session. Not feeling strong but better than last week.
T: rest
F: morning 2-arm max hang and TRX session again. Hangs were 6 x 7 seconds with +23kg. Felt reasonably comfortable but for the sake of protecting my still-recovering left ring finger I don't want to increase weight too quickly.
S: nominally a rest day, but I ended up walking 6 miles to a beach with 20kg on my back, 15 of which was a wriggling 3-yo, then running a mile to catch a train back to the car (without the 20kg!) later on.
S: Morning trip to Llandudno again. Wanted to tick off off Pillbox Original quickly then do some other stuff, but it didn't happen. The first hour I felt strong, but didn't quite catch the crux a couple of times, then for some reason after stopping for a rest and sandwich, I just couldn't get my core or shoulders moving again. Possibly a combination of lack of sleep, dieting (see below) and yesterday's march with a heavy load. Anyway, I have now done the bottom half of this problem about 30-40 times, and have done the top half of it from a stand start using 3 completely different methods, but for whatever reason I just can't quite link any of them from the sit.
My weight had stalled around about 76kg for a couple of months after initially getting it down from about 78, so I've started trying to diet slightly more strictly this week. I'd like to drop another 3kg off ideally. So far I've done pretty well I think.
Hopefully going away to Northumberland for a week from next weekend, so I'll probably just do a couple of Max hang sessions this week and otherwise take it easy.
Si
Cheers Matt! Was a great day out.
A little quieter this week but the appetite for a big grit-filled winter is growing!
Last week:
M - Stretches
T - 5 sets of 3 muscle-ups with 5 mins rest between. Tough, but will try lowering rest to 4:30 next time to up the intensity. Then 5 sets of 5 dips with roughly two minutes between sets. Finished with stretches.
W - Stretches
T - Consumed a lot of sugar and did a lot of walking around Chester
F - Same as above
S - Had a busy day planned so woke up at 6am for a little trad at Helsby. Just 2nd and TR on a few things up to HVS, not much. I did have a look at Yuppie's Arête and think about the possibilities... didn't get the chance to TR it unfortunately though, it looks tasty, though very spicy!
S - Stretches
Next week:
M - Finishing work early, getting on Tierdrop (f7A+) with a mate. Fingers crossed this is the day, I've been gagging to get back on it for months!
T - Stretches
W - Power session (if weather complies)
T - Stretches
F - Stretches
S & S - Hopefully able to have a day out somewhere, forecast currently looks promising! Maybe Gib Torr?
Goals:
Rehab A2 tweak (been feeling good lately, I'll take it off the list next week if no issues)
Tierdrop (keen!!!)
Old King Cascade
Indifference
1-4-7
One arm pullup
Cheers Matt.
A reasonably light week prior to re-starting again this week.
I got my Lite plan and it starts tomorrow. It said what i thought it would - fingers are strong, fitness is OK, strength is borderline, flexibility is dreadful. So flexibility and conditioning are going to be the focus of off the wall work. I tried out some of the Lattice conditioning sessions this week to see how they felt.
M - Nothing
T - BFRT for elbows
W - Lattice conditioning and my own hip/leg workout which i over cooked. I've still got DOMS in my adductors today.
T - Trowbarrow Red Wall - Did the traverse minus the start (7a+?). I got on at the easy part to warm up and accidentally kept going. Tried Shallow Grave (f7A+) but i'm too short for the easy start so spent the session trying to get the first two moves sorted. Played on a couple of other problems too. Didn't feel very strong.
F - Lattice conditioning. BFRT for elbows.
S - Bike ride round Hathersage 46km. 957m. 20kmh. Cake.
S - Coaching at the Roaches. Did a few problems myself up to V5 Stretch and Mantel (f6C) being the highlight. Great problem. More cake.
Cheers Matt. Feeling a bit despondent this week. I was hoping it was going to be 'send week' for both my projects but it's been 'new high point' week instead. Which I guess is still progress but I feel like I've been on both for a long time now. Every session (I think today was no. 4) I get a bit higher on Aberration, I was literally eyeballing the rest today but just needed 2 move moves to get there. I can recover in the rest so I think I'll do it if I can get there. On the Heeley boulder (which has been great as a close to home hit) I got my finger tips round the edge of the finishing 'jug' but not quite over enough. Maybe next week! 3x climbing sessions and 1x running this week with a very busy work week in between.
Edit. I nearly forgot, I did get a nice consultation tick warming up on a nice 7a+ this morning.
> T - Trowbarrow Red Wall - Did the traverse minus the start (7a+?). I got on at the easy part to warm up and accidentally kept going. Tried Shallow Grave (f7A+) but i'm too short for the easy start so spent the session trying to get the first two moves sorted. Played on a couple of other problems too. Didn't feel very strong.
The move up to that left hand pocket is hard, I wouldn't be despondent if that was what you were struggling with.
PS. How comprehensive is the lite plan assessment for conditioning and flexibility stuff?
Yeah that's the move. I tickled the pocket a few times. It's very local so i should get back to it.
I've been impressed with the Lite plan. From what i can see they've done a good job of making it fit for me. The sessions are just what's on the crimpd app. So they are general. But for someone who does little/no supplementary work (me) they will do the job.
This week i have only 3 climbing based sessions and 10 conditioning/flexibility sessions. I expect DOMS. I'm going to try and follow it to the letter. The reason i've done it is to make me accountable. I'm terrible at not sticking to my own plans. If i've paid for something and someone else is setting me the sessions i'll do them.
Thanks Matt.
Extended week to include last weekend too.
Saturday - a few hours at Brimham on the way up. Tried Jokers Flake, could get the sloper but not match it. A bit humid and showery, not the greatest conditions.
Sunday - Shaftoe. Rather windy, hard work walking pads into it! Got roundly spanked by the Font buttress, slopey topouts and a new rock type and so on. Went to the Smith buttress at the end and did some nice easier stuff
Monday - Kyloe in the woods. Did some great easier problems and tried Monty Pythons Direct, classic 6C+/7A+ stand/sit. Made decent progress on that, linked from sit to stand no problem and got to the final move or two on the stand.
Tuesday - Rothley. Did a few easier classics including the excellent Hanging Arête.
Wednesday - rest
Thursday - back to Kyloe. A few more good easier problems, ticked Jocks and Georgies (6C/7A stand/sit) from the stand (and climbed well into the stand from the sitter, but need to get the sequence more engrained). Then got on the stand to Monty Pythons and smashed it first go.
Friday - Shaftoe, arête lands. The grades here are a bit scattergun - the nominally 7A I flashed was one of the easier problems of the day - but the climbing and position is good and I did a decent set of problems.
Saturday - planned rest day for the skin - had toyed with doing the classic Rothley VS but didn’t have time
Sunday - unplanned rest day - cloudy forecast has turned out to be fog and mizzle.
Northumberland is great. Visited some really good crags so far and hoping to go to Bowden and Back Bowden the next couple of days which are probably the other “big” crags to visit (within our constraints of sensible walking distance for children, there are higher moorland crabs with longer walkins that we aren’t really looking at). Some difficulty at the start dialling in the child logistics - microAJM has first dibs on the child rucksack now which means that miniAJM travels by a mix of walking and being carried - sorting out the least uncomfortable way to manage the latter with multiple pads and our kit took a few carries to sort out.
Done a 6C and 6C+ so far as well as a lot of good easier stuff. Encouraged by progress on Monty Pythons sitter in that the hard move of the stand is the first one and climbing up to it from sitting doesn’t feel unachievable - not sure when we are due back there but it’s nice to feel like I stand a decent chance on what would be a fairly benchmark/classic tick at the grade. Getting used to the style, not sure I’ll necessarily be flashing that much stuff but still able to figure it out.
2020 goals:
- either some classic ticks or finishing one of my projects in the last few weeks of my dws season [Cavewoman, Russian Roulette]
- solidify 1.5-x-5 on the campus board. 5x5 @95kg. Progress on some sort of deadhang
- do some classic boulders and trad in Northumberland [some classic boulders done - Hanging Arête, Classic Arête, Slapper, Monty Pythons, Jocks, Bad Company etc - no trad yet]
- Coronation St with Rebecca?
- make it one of my best bouldering years [by 8a.poo points - 6203 versus 6668/6759/7106, making progress]
- start using the wall again, probably mostly post Northumberland.
Hi FC. Thanks for continuing a strong run of stats, Matt.
A holiday week for me, which was full of good intentions, some of which were carried out!
Week 38:
M: Not much
T: Bouldering at Shaftoe -horrifically greasy until the sun went down, which is my excuse for getting utterly spanked! Shut down on all of the harder problems at Areteland and in the end was pretty happy/relieved to get up my 'warm-up' after some heavy projecting!! A good evening for the ego reset, the moves and the craic.
W: Long day walking.
T: Trail run. Fairly chilled 7km, flat, 5:30/km.
F: More walking and a startlingly cold swim in the Low Force plunge pool on the River Tees.
S: Hill Run. 97min Z1/2, 15.7km, 507m vert. Max Hangs. Elbow and Shoulder Prehab.
S: Board Sesh. Limit bouldering, hand crack laps (felt v hard for some reason), aerocap circuits.
Week 39:
2 runs.
2 Core sessions -need to prioritise these.
2 Strength sessions
2 Climbing sessions
2 Prehab sessions
STGs (end Sept):
Max Hangs: 82kg total
3 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 (This is probably going to be October now)
> Cheshire Gritstone Trail (This is probably going to be October now)
What does it involve?
Thanks Matt. Training effort continues , as does failure to reap the benefits of it
STG: Sport: 7a redpoint, hopefully reducing the large & growing collection of projects.
MTG: Autumn Kalymnos trip. Do a beginner ski tour in spring 2021
Dolomites summer 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, Thalkirchen. Steep walls, big jugs, falling practice. Autobelays are all very well for doing systematic endurance training without boring a belayer to death, but being restricted to more or less vertical walls is a major limitation. Need to get my roof head sorted out before heading to Sikati or the Grotta.
Rounded off with 20 minutes core on the rings, and a few rounds of feet-on campusing because jumping off every couple of moves isn't particularly pumpy.
W:
T: Wall, Weyarn. Lattice Capacity Power session #4, and another post-lockdown nemesis route ticked.
15 minutes rings core.
F:
S: Sport climbing, Zillertal. Hmm. Arrived at the crag just as the sun was coming onto the 7a+ I wanted to try. Went & did some easier mileage while waiting, then by the time the route was in the shade again I was tired.
S: Sport climbing, Zillertal. Went to a slightly obscure sector that my partner was eager to check out, mostly for the easy routes. There were a couple of harder routes, but going by various online logbooks they seem to get hardly any traffic. The 7a that I tried, Schwarzer Hase, looked really good and had excellent climbing as far as I got, would probably be excellent given a bit more traffic. But after pulling of a key undercut and then deciding not to commit to a mantel onto a head-size detached block, it became clear that I was not going to be making any further contribution that traffic.
Pulling holds off turns out to be a great way to get some falling practice in without that unpleasant anticipatory fear that comes with voluntary jumping off.
All in all a pleasant but also frustrating weekend. Need to get my day planning tactics and project focus better sorted.
It’s one of the ‘recognised’ long distance paths that the Uk seems to have loads of these days. A lot of them make really nice long (for me!) runs.
I ran the sandstone trail a couple of summers ago which was great. The gritstone trail is a similar distance but slightly more vertical gain.
The gritstone trail comes in at 55km and 1600m vert. Should be fun! In a very type two style!!
> Bouldering at Shaftoe -horrifically greasy until the sun went down, which is my excuse for getting utterly spanked! Shut down on all of the harder problems at Areteland and in the end was pretty happy/relieved to get up my 'warm-up' after some heavy projecting!! A good evening for the ego reset, the moves and the craic.
What were you trying?
"Steve Jones - With the number of routes you're doing the ropework will come easily. Happy Birthday!"
Cheers. Still at a stage where I think I know stuff then when the pressure is on and I get to a crag it all vanishes!
M - Planned to do Troutdale Pinnacle (S) but set out to late so did Little Chamonix (VD) (2nd) with a friend the lead Brown Slabs Scoop (HS) and Brown Slabs Face (HVD) - really enjoyed the Scoop - my kinda climb!
T - Sunrise run over Latrigg (9.5km (341m D+) - bloody lovely. Afternoon 24km ride (285m D+) around Newlands and Derwentwater with a friend. Also lovely.
W - Another aborted atempt at Troutdale Pinnacle (too busy, no parking) so did Bowderstone Pinnacle (S 4a) (2nd) then lead Wimpey Way (S 4a) and Woden's Face Direct (VS 4c)
T - Latrigg again (7km, 288m D+) in the morning, then Honister by bike in the evening (30km, 439 D+) which was hard going on tired legs!
F - Morning bike over Whinlatter and round Lorton Fells (50km, 8446m D+) - a cracking loop that I'll do again. Afternoon run over, you guessed it, Latrigg (6.5km, 288m D+)
S - BG Leg 2 (just for fun). 24.5km, 2018m D+. Sunny, but quite cold in the wind. 3hrs 30 for the leg so whacked Steel Fell on the end before my lift home!
S - Knackered. Ate lots.
Cheers Mat - got away fairly lightly with the sideways fall - could easily have been worse.
Week 38:
M – 28km at 29kph (plus down time for pinch flat)
T – Nice weather but only 90min free, so board session it had to be. Humid in the garage and felt clunky warming up. Cleaned up the new 6B+ to 6C+ benchmarks and did some 7A/+ too. Then set about finding another 7C to get stuck into; anti-style for max training effect! “School’s Out” involves campus/jumping moves so definitely a weak point for me, but went surprisingly quick in just 30min of tries :-D
TV COMPEX on core (strength) & forearms (recovery).
W – Gentle ride; 16km in 45min.
T – 15min cave boulder to warm-up. #1 Dog #2 RP effort on newbie by lantern. Went really well, got through crux mono move, and recovered well at the post-crux kneebar. However, balls up a clip and then fluffed the lip sequence. Confident it’ll go next time.
F – TV stretches.
S – Free day while the lady writes her thesis. Decided on Wales in case further lockdown(s) prevent getting there again anytime soon. Rhiw Goch boulder. Lovely sunny spot – just about cool enough for the sharp holds. 6C & 7A OS/flash. An hour to work out optimal sequence, then do Badgers in the Mist (f7C). Lunch, then 90min flailing/failing on Moria (f7B). Might have done it if I’d stuck around and rested 30min, but skin was trashed by then and threw in the towel.
S – 9km hilly walk at gentle pace. 5x5 weighted pull-ups @BW+30kg (hard!) 3x12 bench @45kg. 6mm micros 6x 7s@BW+2kg. 35sgree slopers 6x 10s@BW+20kg.
Trying and failing on Classic Arete (f6A)
Eventually managed to get up Problem 22 (f5+)
It all felt desperate!
Last week
Week two of operation recovery. Hobbling around a bit without the Air boot, but initial signs are positive - it's so long since I've been able to walk around without a level of background pain that I've forgotten what it's like.
Been eyeing up the new Athletics track at Manchester Regional Arena for when I'm recovered...
This week.
The third week since the operation, I'm due to have an appointment to have the bandage off at some point this week.
Planning the renovations for my house. All a bit pie in the sky at the moment but have been eyeing up a patch in the garden for an outbuilding large enough to take a Moonboard. The trick is the height - a prefab won't be tall enough, so will have to be bespoke. Spoke to a company in Cheshire who can do it but not cheap. Early days though, have been putting a few 3D designs together.
Cheers Matt, much better week gone by.
Monday, 6km trail run
Tuesday, 4km race, kids Vs parents progression race with youngest daughters run club. I defiantly need to work on pace at some point!
Wednesday, busy with work so a rest day
Thursday, Lovely day so a nice steady 13km trail run
Friday, rest day as Saturday was supposed to be a 10 mile run event
Saturday, No race, wife had a migraine and middle daughter tonsillitis so spent the morning ferrying youngest daughter to and from swim and run training. Managed an 8km run whilst eldest daughter swam in the afternoon
Sunday, nice gentle 8km trail run to finish off the week.
This week sees the gym at work open up again so back to the pool it is!
Best start being more public about what I've been doing.
M: Rest day after a 8km trail run on sand the day before.
T: 1 hour (ish) Zone 2 road run.
W: 1 hour bouldering. Second session since the local wall opened and started to feel more comfortable with grip.
T: 7.5km run with 5km tempo/threshhold effort in the middle. 43 minute total time out.
F: Rest
S: Rest
S: 1 hour bouldering at the wall. Ran there. Much more confident with grip and movement. Immediately followed by just over 10 mile road run in Zone 2. Some hip flexor pain yesterday and today, but should be fine by tomorrow.
I found the grades pretty scattergun! Lots of easier things felt hard (that Long Reach thing and the 6A+ on the right in particular). The hardest graded thing felt fairly easy! Weird...
Haha! Glad it wasn’t just me. I’ve got used to flashing 6A or at least doing them in a couple of goes, so to be so brutally shut down was unexpected, although I haven’t climbed in the county for a while so I should have seen it coming!
Ah well... It’s good for me to have a lesson in humility now and then!
STG - Y Fal 2h door to door
MTG - Y Fal 1h 45m door to door
LTG - Y Fal 1h 30m door to door
Weight - 15st 1lbs
M - S - Rest
Really can't remember anything about this week. Ah yeah, we were supposed to be on holiday, but had to cancel cause we all got a sniffle from the nursery. Hence not much happening.