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...    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

Psyche vid - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9I9C9CZ3lc&feature=youtu.be

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_706-7255...

Steve Jones - Yup that's the badger.  Lots of good routes, good runs and weights, well done.

AlanLittle - Well volunteered that man.  So start on 710?  Or 711?  Let me know.  Good training this week, I'm sure you're going to crush Kaly!

AJM - 8a.poo, love it.  Sounds like a great week.  Lots of good stuff.  Well done on the 7A+ YYFY!

Si dH - Good training as always.  Northumberland seems like the place to be.  Hope you get the 7A+.

Ross Barker - Tremadog is great isn't it?  Lots of good sessions and glad to hear you sneaked a trip into Wales pre-lockdown!

Tyler - Welcome back!  Well done on the 7a,  weight sounds good.  Glad to hear the psyche is high.

Ally Smith - Glad to hear dodgy bolt spacing isn't just a South Wales thing.  I hear you on the fatigue.  Get some early nights and have an easy maintenance week.  Well done on the 8a and 7c.

Somerset swede basher - YYFY!!!  Well done on Aberration, I'm so happy for you.  Gread job!!!

the sheep - Lots of swimming and running, nice one.

biscuit - I'd follow the plan, but that's me.  I'm sure you'll get it.

mattrm - Well done.  Same again next week?

I might be going away for a few days with my son in his school half term. Or might not - the place we were intending to go is still on Germany's risk list. But assuming it does happen, I'll be available to take over stats starting on 8th November

Thanks again Matt. 

This week was mostly on holiday in Northumberland.

M: went to a small crag called The Stell. Bit esoteric. Flashed a good 6C arete. Tried a couple of 7As but didn't finish either of them. One significant reason was that I had cut my fingernails too late before the trip and then got on a single move mantelshelf problem at the start of this day that required pulling hard on some tiny, slopey crimps. My nails cut through the skin of my fingertips on several fingers and it was really painful to pull hard on anything for the rest of the day. Nice day out though.

T: rest day, went to look at Morpeth.

W: rest day (and wet), went to Newcastle. Never been before. Despite eery quietness everywhere due to Covid restrictions and the high local infection rate, I was impressed, its a nicer city than I had realised.

T: went to Shaftoe again hoping to finish off Timmy Tip Toes (f7A+) from last Sunday, then get on something else. Primo conditions and my fingers had largely healed. I had a few goes on Timmy and on my best attempt got through all of the crux and established on the arete with one more move to easy ground, but I couldn't quite find the right position for my right leg to get in balance. Unfortunately I then had to go home after only an hour so at the crag as my son seemed to have lost control of his bladder

F: Bowden doors. Never been before, really nice crag. I did Transformer Direct Start (f7A) and Dog Eat Dog (f7A), which also gets 7A in the book (probably a bit soft if you can cope well with scrittle at height). Also got very close at the end of the day to Cave Central LH (f7A), my foot slipped off on the last hard move. Really good day.

S:  drive home/rest

S: Had a good board session in the garage. I managed to repeat two of the existing 7As both ways (ie, each of the original problems and their mirror images.) My left arm is noticeably weaker on undercuts than my right, presumably down to bicep differences (or possibly there is something imbalanced in my core, but I think this is less likely.)  I think four 7s (in Si's board grading (tm)) is the most I have ever done in a session.

It was great to get away for a week and have a break, especially as Sefton has now re-entered a different but again very onerous set of restrictions, so I won't be leaving the house as much or doing any socialising for a few more months. I ate and drank a lot on holiday so my diet has obviously been off the rails for a week, but I seem to have avoided putting on significant weight. ~75.5 kg this evening. Planning to get back on the fingerboard for some more max hangs this week.

Si

... meanwhile, what have I been up to?

While being careful not to count my goats before they're hatched, it starts to look as if I might actually make it to Kalymnos next week without being locked down, quarantined or banned from entering Greece. So, tapering.

STG: Kalymnos: tick at least two of either my existing projects or other classic routes 7a upwards.
MTG: 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. Didn't feel fully recovered from the weekend initially but warmed up well as the session progressed. Session goal reached: pulled on, and fell off, some steep jugs.
W: 
T: 
F: Had planned to do a repeat lattice benchmark to see what September's training achieved, but decided in the end not to bother. A disappointing result would only be unnecessarily discouraging, and a positive result wouldn't do me as much good as simply another normal training session. So Boulderwelt, light bouldering to warm up then circuits.
S: 
S: Weather iffy, lots of stuff to get done before holiday; decided against going out for a last warmup day on rock. Instead managed to sell my son on a family trip to the wall (Thalkirchen). His first time climbing since Fontainebleau Easter 2018 - way more important than just another training session.

Thanks Matt. 8a.nu is a strange site, but I do quite like the theory of their points score - it’s the contribution of the top ten scoring ascents, so you can’t pad it out beyond a certain point with volume and I think it correlates reasonably well with the years I feel are good and bad. 

Northumberland week 3. Having got a big tick in last week I went a bit more experimental this week and tried a few things which I would say were less my style. Monty Pythons was probably my sort of thing in that it was a reasonably comfortable angle but also the sitter didn’t have any particularly hard moves on it - the trick is being able to do it efficiently enough that you can still do the hard move on the stand, so more about a greater cumulative effort than about having to do a notably harder individual move. From a more route climbing background, the cumulative effort is more my comfort zone. So this week gave fewer ticks but good learning. 

Monday - felt busted. Rested.

Tuesday - Hepburn. At the end of the day I did a few easier things, but the main thing I tried was A Northern Soul, which is a classic 7A+ highball slab. Now I don’t do any smeary slab climbing really as a matter of course, it’s not the local style down in Dorset, so unsurprisingly perhaps I didn’t get up it. But it was good to try - some standing up on small holds leads one to a shallow/slopey/flared finger crack and I think from there with sufficient slab nous you can step up through a fairly blank section for the feet to some better holds. I think that might be the crux, judging from videos, but I don’t know. Either way, I fell off that bit quite a lot, but it was good learning to try...

Wednesday - wet 

Thursday - Shaftoe. Quite a cold wind and a shady sector so took me some time to get enthused about taking the downie off. But eventually I did and got on Timmy Tip Toes (7A+), which has some pulls on slopey crimps round a roof to start and then turns a bit more balanced once feet are above the lip. I made better progress on this than I had expected - on my best go my heel popped, but had it held and I managed a scuffly high foot placement of the other foot I would have probably been at the transition into the balanced climbing above which I’m told is a bit easier. 

Friday - Bowden. Tried Transformer Direct (7A), which pulls out across a roof, via a heel on the lip, to get to a good hold and the final moves - a big lock off a high foot - on the (stiff) 6A+ original. I managed to get to this lock move twice but never with quite enough grunt to get the foot up and seal the deal. Also tried Dog Eat Dog (7A) which is a slightly highball wall with some thin crimpy moves low down and some slightly gritty and therefore slightly scarey slopey moves high up. With some encouragement and the moral support of a big pad I managed this after a few goes. Pretty pleased with that - not the hardest climbing for the grade but on the other hand it’s a bit sketch and feels a bit more committing than the average boulder.

Saturday - packing out and then six and a half hours of long wet drive home

Sunday - unpacking, admin and faff

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 [yes, definitely a lot of boulders - a bit of trad, probably as much as I should have expected but less than I had dreamed ]

- Coronation St with Rebecca?

- make it one of my best bouldering years [by 8a.poo points - 6500 versus 6668/6759/7106, making progress]

- start using the wall again, probably mostly post Northumberland.

Another good week for me.

M - Morning easy 5k, lunch weights session, afternoon run over Latrigg (19k, D+363m)

T - Morning 50k bike round Skiddaw massif (D+ 750m) followed by Brown Slabs Scoop (HS) (have I said I love this route?) and Brown Slabs (D) with dad, then back just in time to make it to club training (15x 1 min up latrigg - just about keeping in touch with the real fast lads, so hapy with that).

W - Weights at lunch and an easy flat 6k round town in the afternoon

T - 16k on the bike in the morning. Easy 5k followed by weights (heavy squats and deadlifts to make up for no club training on Thursdays any more).

F - morining run round Latrigg (10k, D+250m) then weights in the afternoon.

S - weights - low weight, high rep squats

S - easy 5k in the morn, weights at lunch at 7.5k (D+300m) over Latrigg in the afternoon.

Have a possible MTG - work towards a 7a at Bram Crag over winter. Dunno what the conditions will be like, but if I'm still not working full time I could get some days there. According to the app there are 20+ 3* routes in the 6's so plan to work on those and see what happens. UKC only gives a dozen or so 3* routes, and after last weeks adventure there on what was never a 5a I'm not inclinded to trust the Wired guide app, so more research is needed, but it could be fun.

Yes I very much enjoyed Tremadog! Would be nice to lead or alt-lead some things too next time I'm there. Jealous of AJM and Si dH in Northumberland, I have always wanted to go, even had a trip planned for last April but you can imagine what happened to that

Bit of a quiet week for me, but relatively productive despite piss-poor weather.

Last week:

M, T, W - Rest. Fell into a bit of a slump so had no motivation to do anything (except order a new portable fingerboard!)

T - Board session at a friend's house. Warmed up nice and gently and my A2 felt fine. Did probably 6-8 problems ranging from about 6B to 7A, nothing mega desperate but we came up with a few tricky ones!

F, S - Rest.

S - Short hangboard session this morning, spent ages figuring out how to warm up effectively without a wall or anything and found something which works well for me - hang 10kg from my fingerboard and hold the 19mm edge for 8 minutes, swapping hands each minute, effectively 4 sets of 1 minute on, one off. Not particularly intense but pumpy enough to warm up my boulderer fingers! Then did Crimpd's max-hang thing, 6 sets of 10 seconds with 2 min rest. Didn't add any weight, just 70ish kg bodyweight on the 19mm edges.

Eventually I want to make some sort of mount for the fingerboard so it doesn't swing, and then whip up some shims to easily make the edge smaller when I fancy upping intensity. Anyone ever tried anything similar?

Next week:

M - Rest

T - Power session, didn't do one last week due to a combination of naff weather and lack of motivation and discipline, would be nice to get back on it.

W - Rest

T - Max hangs

F - Rest

S - Weather looks changeable, but there is potential! Hopefully can get a few hours out somewhere, maybe a nice circuit at  Newstones and Baldstones?

S - Rest and a lot of food (like, a LOT of food)

Goals: 

Rehab A2 tweak (Felt dead fine this week. All goes well the next two and I'll consider it pretty much done)

Tierdrop

Old King Cascade

Indifference

1-4-7

One arm pullup

Thanks Matt although I'm finding out being psyched is totally different to actually being motivated to get off my arse and do some training!

Second week of self-isolation and work has not been as quite as hoped, I've also spent a fair amount of time revising (concentration is awful so learning to time ratio is poor). So having got my excuses in:

M - Finger board session, the FM I'm using doesn't have a decent intermediate edge so the session goes down pretty quickly, I/ tried to stretch it out by doing some foot on.

T-F - Nothing

S - Fingerboard, same as Monday but without the foot on stuff. Need to recover my BM2000 from the garden although what state its in after a summer in the elements....

S - Walked up and down the stairs for 250 meters (27mins), as boring as it sounds, think I need to add some weight to get the intensity right (or buy TFTNA and do it properly). Watched a documentary about Geraint Thomas. Not relevant, the only thing we have in common is how much rice we both eat, it's on iPlayer if anyone is interested.

This week I plan to go to the outhouse and see how far I've dipped. Weight:11'6'

Thanks Matt for your long run of stats

Fatigue just about under control and didn't feel the need to take a light week; concentrated on home sessions to continue to support wife's thesis writing.

Week 40:

M – Ride: 24km at 28kph. Steady apart from an all-out kilo sprint. 6x 40/20 planks and 4x2 40/20 side-planks.

T – Fingerboard: 35 degree slopers 6x 10s@BW+22.5kg; 6mm micros 6x 7s@BW+2kg. 3x10 bench @50kg. 1-arm shoulder engagements/150degree lock 5x10s with 10kg assist. Close to failure on each rep with right, but left (normally my weaker side) felt fine.

W – Aero-cap: 10x 7/3/6/1@40% (BW-20kg on Lattice Edge) 10min rest, then did it all again on BM2K-AA.

T – Ride: 25km @ 28kph.

F – Evening Moonboard. Warmed up then started trying the remaining benchmark “7A’s” – desperate! Moved on and chipped away at Honeymustard, 7C. After a dozen goes, I caught the big wide move and thankfully didn’t fluff the last two moves. 20min break to get dinner on, then while it was cooking tried another 7C (“Statik” – did all but last move in isolation) and completed a couple of 7A+’s.

S – Rainy 25km on the bike – not very fast (26kph). 1-arm max-hangs on Lattice edge BW-15kg. 6x 10s/2min rest. Aero-power “Broken Quarters” 4x 6B+ up, easiest “6B+” down on Moonboard. Not quite the pump I was looking for; felt half-way between pumped and powered out.

S – Rest.

Hi gang. Thanks for all the effort keeping FitClub on track, Matt. Much appreciated.

A couple of pretty awful weeks from a training perspective -mostly due to work and other commitments, but also in part due to the fact that I'm struggling with motivation. I think this is because I keep rewriting my plans for the next six months... usually this would be when I start gearing up for winter, but with so little guarantee of safe/sensible travel to the alps I working on the assumption that I won't be going. So was planning on a big season of Scottish winter instead, but there's a fair chance that won't survive a second wave either. So I feel a bit directionless -I should probably train as if Scotland/Alps WILL happen, but I'm a bit under-psyched. Also, White Goods has just been put off-limits which is an additional blow. 

Week 39:

M: Long work day

T: Bouldering at Grinshill. First go at Eliminator (f6C) this year. Actually felt ok -would be a good winter project if it wasn't dependent on having a couple of consecutive dry days. Bloody sandstone!

W: Long work day.

T: Holiday -long easy walk.

F: Holiday -long easy walk.

S: Nowt.

S: Fingerboard.

Week 40:

M: Prehab.

T: Good board sesh. Crimpd 'Board 10' and circuits.

W: Long work day. Good training for alpine starts/finishs!

T: Sport climbing. Last day of Dinbren being 'open'! Knackered from previous day, but pleased to get up the (badly bolted, chossy) Resist and Exist (6b) and also have a productive couple of dogs up The Orgasmatron (Aid) (7a) -did all the moves in two sections, should go if the county ever opens up again!

F: Worky work work.

S: Fingerboard and max strength. Good sesh with max hang and pull-up gains.

S: Road Run. 15km, flat, 5:38/km Zone 1 Shuffle. Didn't feel as bad as I deserved having not run for two weeks.

STGs (End Oct):

Think I'm going to rewrite the plan for the next couple of cycles... I just don't know what with!

Thanks Matt, I was really pleased too and great effort on your extended run of stats.

Mon.  rest

Tues.  Called into Odin's on the way home for a speculative look at reversing the Dark Room.  Managed the first half and could get hands on to the crux holds but got stuck after that.  I think I've spend too long route climbing and was trying to do it too static, need to embrace the swing and slap! Couldn't do the end bit either.  I don't think I'll pursue this one, feel like I've spent time in that grotty cave this year! Maybe if i get some beta off someone whose's done it I might take another look.

Wed. 5km run at 4.47/km

Thurs. Tried Basic Instinct on the Cemetry Boulder.  Its a 3 move 7B, I could do the first 2 moves fine but I can't quite span to the last hold making it a desperate jump. Its not far but its over a bulge and you can't see what your going for.  I never managed the move even in isolation but I'm keen for another go.

Fri. rest

Sat.  Despite a minging forecast (and minging reality) we went to Two Tier and found some dry ish but smeggy rock.  I managed to redpoint Lightweight (Spizz Energy finish) (7b+) was good fun taking the E5 finish on an old peg and some mouldy tat! I'd like to have done the left hand finish too but it was too wet.  1st tie in did the moves, 2nd tie in failed redpoint right at the top when I grabbed the wrong hold, 3rd tie in successful redpoint and 4th tie in another lap on toprope as pretty much everything else was wet by that point.

Sun. 25km on the roadbike, 25kph with 420m ascent.

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 2lbs

M - Rest

T - 4 mile walk

W - S - Rest

Weight is still bumping around 15st.  Did get out for a bike ride with the lad.  Then went for a walk in the evening by the river.  That was nice.  Nearly went out for a walk up Y Fal on Sunday, but was just so tired and I gave up in the end.  However I now have a fancy Petzl Swift RL so I can easily do a bit of night time hill walking.

Cheers Matt. Kids are training more both in the pool and running so the wife and I are adapting our training timetables yet again. Managed a good week volume wise but finding time for running is tricky now.

Monday, 1km swim

Tuesday, 10km trail run

Wednesday, 1km swim

Thursday, 1.5km swim and stretch class  (OUCH!)

Friday, 1km swim

Saturday, ferrying kids round the county for training and races

Sunday, very wet 10km trail run including knee deep water where a river had broken its banks. Great fun 

Well done indeed - and i hope you manage the same this week.

Week two of Lattice:

M - Supposed to be max hangs but fingers feeling tweaky after two days on at the weekend. Fingers are in no way a priority so i did density hangs and BFRT recovery work.

Legs - my own leg rehab for my wonky hips

T - Density hangs and BFRT again

Core - static holds and floor core

Hip flexibility

W - Press and Row

Density hangs and BFRT

Hip flexibility 

Legs

T - Strength intervals - on the DTB board at Kendal. Felt good.

50:50's - didn't get this right. Powering out not pumping out.

F - Hip flexibility 

S - Linked boulders - busy wall, hard to find suitable problems and get the correct timings. I gave myself 75% completed. Good workout though.

S - Compression

Shoulder Shrugs

Forearm conditioning

Stabiliser conditioning

Week review:

Weight stayed the same. Calorie intake went through the roof. Sleep good.

Despite doing no other activity or 'real' climbing and eating and sleeping well i felt physically tired.

I think i'm discovering i am not training fit. Last weekends poor performance makes sense now. I couldn't have climbed well this week if i'd needed to.

But this means there are (possibly easy) gains to be made.

I promised i'd stick to the plan and this week is a rest week. It's hard.....

Message arrived last night from the advance party of my group sitting in Fatolitis bar on Kalymnos. I too am still not locked down, quarantined or banned from entering Greece - starts to feel like this might actually be happening.

I know a couple of people out there now from the U.K. My partner is due to go to Arco next week. Somehow Italy didn’t get added to the list. 

Everything crossed for you. 

Thanks. Arrived safely - game on!