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_708-7262...

Si dH - Kentmere is lovely.  Good ticks as well.

Ross Barker - Lots of solid training again.  Hope you managed to get out?

AJM - Put micro in a carrier and do some max hangs?  Sounds like a nice family week.

Ally Smith - Congrats to your wife on her thesis submission.  Well done on the 7C.  Enjoy the R&R.

Tyler - Plenty of fun training there.  Pain is weakness leaving the body an all that...

Alan Little - Your partner is a slacker.  Congrats on the 6c.  Looking forward to hearing about the crushing!

Steve Jones - Amazing amounts of running and weights again this week.

Tom Green - Nice job on Haardvark (ace name as well) and lots of good seshs.

Somerset swede basher - Ohh, cheeky f7C, noice.  Lots of other ticks at the park as well.

the sheep - Great volume at always.  Enjoy the new shoes.

biscuit - Well done on the nutrition.  Good routes session and good job on getting out (in the rain!).

mattrm - You're hopeless.

Bit of an insomniac post, so hopefully I've not missed anyone off.

Thanks Matt, a post at half midnight... that's dedication to fit club!

Mon. Went to the Tor. Managed to do Weedfiller (f7B) fairly quickly. Surprised it doesn't get done very often, I thought the moves were great. Spent some more time on Converter. Came up with 3 different methods to do the start but none that allowed me to release the foot. More work to be done there.

Tues. Rest

Wed. Quick hit at cemetery park. Did Chew me and the kids (f7B+) which was cool. Worked something else but the top was too wet to finished it off. Run in the evening 13km Hill reps session.

Thurs+fri. Rest - legs tired and fingers in need of a rest too. 

Sat. Session at Lorry Park Quarry. So close to 8a in a session (which I've not managed before) trying Dark Energy. Warmed up on a 6b then 1st tie in did all the moves except the crux, 2nd tie in did the crux, 3rd tie in RP attempt and fell between the last bolt and the top. I was please that I slipped off a poor foothold rather than got too pumped so hopefully, if it stays dry, I might be able to do it next visit.

Sun. Rest. 

Thanks Matt.

M: think I did just a very short max hang session.

T: rest

W: did some warmup type hangs and a couple of harder ones, plus TRX before dinner, then a board session in the evening. I ticked off the 7a I had set last week but then got tired quite quickly.  Every time I try a split session either side of tea and putting Sol to bed it doesn't really work, but the temptation is great to get going if I'm feeling psyched after work.

T: rest

F: had a decent board session. Set and finished one 7A, set and didn't finish two which are harder.

S: rest

S: first time climbing at Craig y Longridge. I spent a long time on Big Marine (V8) and then a while afterwards on Fertile Delta (V7). Got to the last move of both but didn't do either. Both really good problems so I'm keen to go back to do them if the crag stays dry for a while longer into autumn. (Not much seepage around today, but the more polished holds all felt a bit greasy.)

Missing a max hang session really this week. Need to focus a bit more. I definitely have a weakness in pure finger strength on small crimps at the moment. I wanted to try a thing called Grow Wings today which is a 7B sit or 6C+ stand. I couldn't even dead hang the holds on the 6C+ stand! Admittedly conditions weren't great, but even so that was a bit of a surprise. I'm thinking about getting some sort of plan to give me a bit more structure again for a while.

Si

Christ, don't let Mark Twight hear you say that! Anyway, this week's tip from the book is "We can't learn the virtue of tolerance from society. Alpinism, however, teaches it well". I've no idea what it means but it sounds like I need to get out to them hills!

Apart from one dead hanging session and a good session in the outhouse today I've not done a lot.

What I want to ask the hive mind is how much DOMs is too much? I did some squats on Wednesday and yesterday I was still in pain, so much so that after a long easy my back was sore from all my tensing up. At first I thought I'd gone too easy on the squats but now know that obviously isn't the case. So should I do fewer reps or lower the weight (the aim is to get better at walking up hill), I'm presuming fewer reps as when time permits I can go and walk up a hill.

Weight has gone back up because Fi bought a tin of Cadbury Heros for Xmas and then opened them. They've all gone as have most of the Celebrations she bought to top them up. My attempts at dieting are being sabotaged from within!

Cheers Matt, training is going well and I'm really starting to enjoy it now, weird for me as I never considered myself one for training. Quite lucky actually as on Thursday my partner had a notification that she's been in contact with an infected person and as a result has to isolate until next Friday. It doesn't require me to isolate but I feel like it would be foolish for me to have a day trip with mates given the situation.

This week:

M - Rest

T - 6x10s max hangs, 2m rest, +5kg, box split stretches to finish

W - Rest

T - Box split, butterfly and hip flexor stretches

F - 6x10s max hangs, 3m rest, + 7kg, box split stretches between reps, feeling good progress all round, definitely getting more comfortable pulling hard on the hangboard. Hopefully I can get an option to reduce edge size soon as I've a limited number of weights!

S - Rest

S - Solo session at the ever so esoteric  Cliffe, on the project. Would've gone to the Newstones with mates but would've been stupid in my aforementioned circumstances. Good progress on the project, not done any more moves but slowly figuring the crux out. The beta I was convinced of previously simply won't work, I am about an inch too short to reach from the massive rockover, but thankfully there is a sharp little flaky crimp, common on the Shropshire sandstone. I tickled my middle finger onto it, then my index and ring followed, then the hold snapped off. Bugger. So then I had a play with a few other methods, two shortlisted to try again when I'm next there - high left foot and do a deadpoint throw for the pocket, or high left foot, high right foot and a weird bendy static drop knee thing.

Home now and having a big old toad in the hole, might do some stretches before bed, equal chance I might not.

Next week:

M - Rest

T - Power session at the bars if weather behaves, else max hangs.

W - Rest

T - Power session if unable to on Tuesday, otherwise max hangs.

F - Rest

S, S - Forecast looks shite in the Peak but will play it by ear and have a hangboard session if I can't get out.

Goals:

Tierdrop

Old King Cascade

Unnamed Local Project

Thanks Matt.

The week of juggling work and children was challenging as expected, but I managed to sneak a few things in - a session trying one arm assisted shoulder engagement, and a base aerobic session.

At the weekend, I took microAJM out both days walking again - round Lulworth in glorious sunshine on Saturday with Ally, and then (after a terrible night's sleep last night) a shorter walk around Durlston and Swanage seeing a friend today.

Busy at work this week, but with the little ones returning to nursery Tuesday it nevertheless might be a bit easier, we'll see.

Cheers Matt.

You're not hopeless. You just need to find a way in. What can be done to give you the time/energy/opportunity to train? I never feel like doing much in a morning. But never get round to training if i leave it until after work. I feel like i would perform better in the afternoon. I now train first thing, which feels 80%. That's better than not getting them done at all!

Diet wise focus on just one aspect at a time. You can't change everything. I went for sorting my protein out first. It felt a priority for me as I rarely eat meat and don't have much dairy. So i just did that (no calorie counting, no trying to monitor/improve other areas). Just sort the protein. Once that was a new habit i was doing without thinking - which took longer than i thought - i looked at other areas one at a time. 

Start small and keep going! 

There'll be loads of ideas on here for how people manage to squeeze stuff in. But if your life is full of other stuff and stress and load it may mean that needs to change before training can start in earnest.

Talking of which this week has been very full of other stuff and stress. Next week will likely be the same, but i am on leave then and so will have a bit more time to get stuff done. I'll also be driving past BUK each day so have the chance to get to the wall.

I got all of my Lattice conditioning done: static and floor core, press and row, compression TRX, shoulder shrugs, forearm conditioning x 2, hip flexibility x4 and my own leg routine x2. I also got my max hangs done at +24kgs. It should be 29kgs but i've not done them for a while so took 5% off. It felt fine.

I couldn't get to a wall - or outside - to do strength intervals, linked boulders and 50:50's. All i had access to was a campus rung for most of the week so i did 3 lots of 7:3 to failure at bodyweight. Ow! 

Next week is planned as a rest as i new this was coming. But it has been this week that has been difficult. So i'm going to hopefully have next week as a full one. I certainly feel fresh enough after two easier weeks.

I complained a couple of weeks ago about feeling climbing fit but not training fit. I certainly feel a bit better conditioned at this point. It'll be interesting to see how the climbing based training hits me this week. 

Hi Matt,

First time posting in the Fit Club Thread. I lead VS within a couple months of climbing, and 8 years later I’m still around HVS! I think training may move me on to bigger and better things, and this thread is a great way to keep accountable.

I read the HVS-E4 article last month and have started on the Eric Hörst ‘Training for Climbing’ programme - just finished week 3 so still on the ‘max climbing’ phase. Goal is to get confident on HVS.

Mon: 4x Aid Climbs at the wall. Couple rope lengths of jumaring.

Tue: 4x Top Ropes at the wall (Max 6b). Tweaked elbow so finished early.

Wed: Yomped 7km with 55lb in 90mins.

Thu: 3 hours at the wall. Lots of 6a overhanging leads. Elbow still not happy.

Fri: Yomped 7km with 55lb in 90mins.

Sat: 3 easy leads at Swanage. Hardest route - Balcony HS 4b

Sun: Rest Day

Last week of the ‘Max Climbing’ phase tomorrow.

Hi all. Thanks Matt for the stats and for generally keeping Fit Club vibes upbeat.

After a couple of busy weeks it was good to get away last week, particularly as the Pembroke weather was like summer (and proper summer, not shitty UK summer!). Had an absolutely wicked time, which will hopefully provide a bit of psyche to get me through the next few months of uncertainty.

Week 42:

M: Rest

T: Sat out the morning monsoon and then were blessed with glorious sunshine and a perfect drying breeze to give great cons for Mowing Word. Highlight was Snozwanger (E1 5b) but was also pleased to fight my way up the (very antistyle!) top pitch of Heart of Darkness/New Morning (E1 5b) -steep cracks are much less of a nemesis than they used to be.

W: More antistyle routes at Mother Carey's -highlight being Joyous Gard (HVS 5a) -had to concentrate not to get psyched out by the unlikely looking moves out of the cave. Fell off Petit Blanc (E2 5c) (or rather slumped pathetically on to gear) after not wanting to commit to the upper section as I couldn't see any gear from below. Not sure whether this was justified prudence or lack of faith in my ability/the grade!

T: Back to Mowing Word for more classy lines including The Razor's Edge (HVS 5a) and seconded the excellent Sealhunt (E1 5b) 

F: Elbows were screaming after a few days of steep pulling, so went to Carreg y Barcud for some slabs. Was pleased to be brave on Be Brave (E1 5b) -what a great route, with just the right amount of spiciness!

S: A weird day, in which I woke up with a splitting headache that never really went away. Sadly this stopped me appreciating Riders on the Storm (HVS 5a) as I wasn't concentrating and just wanted to get the lead over with. Pulled myself together to get on Shape-Up (E1 5b) which needed a bit more concentration so stopped me whinging about my head-ache until I got to the top at least!

S: Felt a bit too last-dayish to get much done. Did Ganymede (HS 4b) twice -once for fun and then once to escape after we failed to get up First Blood!

Week 43:

Need to get back to disciplined elbow prehab.

Also need to get back to regular hill runs.

STGs:

Basically I need to stop prevaricating, make some decisions as to goals for the next six months and write a training plan for Q4 to match these. 

Classic Twight! 

Re: DOMS -I had exactly the same thing when I started doing squats... five days of savage DOMS, to the point where I was wondering if it was actually something worse! I didn't actually change weight or reps, but just repeated the session again when my legs felt normal again and after the third session was down to normal levels of DOMS that disappeared after 24h. Obvs YMMV, but thought I'd share in case it was useful!

Additionally, squats definitely seemed to help in terms of not getting achey hips/glutes/IT band when doing a lot of steep, slow uphill, so I try to use them in combination with hill work, rather than instead of it.

That's cool that your project is at The Cliffe! I discovered it out on a run last week and thought it looked like a proper little gem of esoterica. Hope the weather stays dry enough for you to get it done this year!

I'll echo biscuit's good advice -you aren't hopeless... far from it. Previously you seemed to do really well using your "% days active" metric -aiming for an annual goal, but breaking it in to weeks and months. Could this be a good way of using achievable chunks of effort to build up to the bigger goals?

It's a neat little venue, unfortunately it's quite dirty and unloved but that's the way it's destined to be. I discovered it when Grady opened the Shropshire Bouldering site, hasn't really got much else rock that is climbable from what I've seen, but there might be other little outcrops/quarries dotted about the area!

Think you'll ever take the pads out for a session there?

Thanks Matt - lovely to be away for the week and catch up on sleep. Good to see AJM on Saturday and meet microAJM who seemed remarkably chilled - really hoping our new-born is equally comfortable in a rucksack carrier.

Week 42: 

M – Spa gym: 1-arm max-hang (BW minus approx. 15kg) and small edge hangboard @BW. 5x5 pull-ups. 2.5km row. I think this was also the session I tweaked my groin while using the leg press machine; dumb! Lots of spa “hydrotherapy” spread out over the 3 day stay at the spa.

T – 2.5km row. 5x5 pull-ups/5x5 bench.

W – Morning light gym/swim. Afternoon pram shopping.

T – 9km Lyme-Charmouth walk. Then 39km @ 22kph very hilly road bike (850m+ ascent!)

F – 11km Beer-Branscombe walk. F3 and small edge hangboard @BW. 5x5 pull-ups.

S – 10km Lulworth walk with AJM. Hip/groin in proper grumble mode overnight.

S – Drive home and split with more pram shopping.

Yeah definitely. Keen to get on Cliffe Burton (f6B) and Cliffe Richards (f6C+)

Top choices, best two at the crag!

Classic Twight!

Anyway, I've taken your advice so lets see where I am tomorrow!

Regarding Petit Blanc, did you carry on to the top? I did this last year and would have backed off but for the fact that I'd already backed off the E1 next door and couldn't keep messing my belayer around, as it was there was plenty of gear but because it comes in pockets rather than a continuous crack it still felt bold. Great route though, if it wasn't overshadowed by the iconic routes to the right I'm sure it would be considered a mini classic

Lowered off and abbed for the gear. But didn’t have much of a look at the top section on ab, as i didn’t want to delay my mate from getting on Brazen Buttress (we were running out of light!) 

From what I did see I felt like it would have been ok if I’d committed. Need to trust the grade and just commit!

Agree that it’s a cool route though. (But Great White... phwoar!!)

Oh, and good luck with tomorrow’s DOMS!

Kalymnos trip week one

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
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Telendos, Pescatore & Eros. Pulled on to a couple of the steep intimidating 7's at Eros but wasn't feeling it just yet so early in the trip. But did onsight/flash a couple of steep, pumpy 6b+'s, which was good for my lead confidence since it's only one grade off my best ever onsight level.

T: Forecast was for an afternoon thunderstorm, so stayed local and headed up to Kalydna in the morning for a look at last year's project Ixion (7a). I got rained off this last year whilst working the technical crux; got all the way to the chains this time, but there's another hard and quite pumpy redpoint crux a couple of bolts above the technical crux, and I'm not confident that I have the necessary endurance beans. Fantastic route though, so will hopefully find out at some point.

W: Ghost Kitchen. One of the group had organised a coaching day with Simon Montmory focused on tufa technique. I have a *lot* to learn here, and I doubt if I ever will given that I have no tufas to practice on at home & am not sure if it's a climbing style I even really like.

T: Rest day. Half an hour stretching

F: Stankill. A frustrating morning climbing in a painfully slow team of three, but then in the afternoon had a go on Sunrise (7a). The crux boulder at the top turned out to be a poor choice for another attempt at my first 7a onsight, but an utterly lovely route & definitely one to come back to.

S: Telendos, Lambda. This has been one of my favourite sectors on the last couple of visits, and I only had a couple of routes left to do. Turns out I saved the best for last: El Alamein (6c) took me two redpoint goes to find the right sequence on some big but slippery pockets but deserves every bit of its musical note in the guidebook, and General (6b) is probably the best 6b I've ever done.

S: set out for Sikati, but a scooter breakdown meant we only made it as far as Arginonta. Not an ideal place to be on a warm & humid day so different year, same shit - got on my 2017 project Sex in the City (7a), but by the time I had a viable sequence figured out / remembered for the bouldery, crimpy crux I was running out of skin and the sun was coming round. The warm up and cool down routes, though, Borhok (6b) and Le Bleu du Ciel (6b+), make a trilogy of utterly stunning 6b's done this weekend.
    Evening massage appointment with the excellent Dimitrios. My traps & rhomboids are like blocks of cement.

So no actual crushing to report just yet.
    
GLASS HALF FULL: I am on holiday in a beautiful place with good friends, when given the (covid) circumstances I was unsure if it was really going to happen right up until I left the terminal at Kos airport. I have climbed some really excellent routes and laid a good groundwork for some project successes in the coming week.

GLASS HALF EMPTY: I am climbing at exactly the same level, sometimes on exactly the same routes, as I have for the last three years. All the time, effort and emotional energy I have invested in trying to get better at climbing has achieved precisely nothing. I'd better pull something out of the f*cking bag next week, otherwise I might as well just go home and take up dominoes or something.
 

Other positives:

Its only week one - you are still getting back into the swing of things.

You are climbing at your previous rested limit almost every day despite not having rested.

You've identified that your weakness is bouldery sequences - which means you can pick non bouldery routes for feeling good and you know what you need to work on for next time.

I'm guessing its quiet out there so access to a project should be easy.

One big tick and confidence/psyche should soar and you'll probably get a stream of them after that!

I’m calling BS on your half empty glass! It sounds pretty close to being brimful! 

Seems like a classic case of putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, with predictably counterproductive effect! If you’re doing 6c’s in a couple of goes, then the elusive 7a is well within reach, provided you chill out and don’t attach all of your raison d’etre to the send. All those cliches about ‘enjoy the process, man’ are overused for a reason!

Also, if you want a real glass half empty story, spare a thought for me scratching my way up my Huntsmans Leap E2 only to find that Rockfax gives it E1 (Rockfax seem to be on a crusade to counter the Pembroke soft grade tradition) -I was furious!! I’m still repeating “it’s not about the number” over and over!

Cheers Matt, very quick report whilst munching a bacon sarnie and putting off decorating the kitchen. Oh the joys of half term

Monday, 1km swim

Tuesday, 2km swim

Wednesday, rest

Thursday, 0.75km swim. Fire alarm prevented the full session but still got to do the stretch class. 8km run in the evening 

Friday, 1km swim

Saturday, chauffeured kids around the county

Sunday, lovely 10k trail run

That looks more like the final dregs than a glass half empty!

You've raved enough about the routes in the rest of your post that I feel like dominos might be a bit much!

The other thing I would say is that unless people are very good at converting physical training to outdoor results, then 2020 is likely to be a challenging year to improve in. Obviously a number of pros have done very well at quickly converting focused indoor training gains into outdoor performance; elsewhere others will undoubtedly have made serious gains from addressing weaknesses over lockdown; but where it takes people longer to convert, or where their weaknesses are less easily addressed at home (tufa technique, perhaps?), it won't be as easy.

I never normally get insomnia, but I got it bad that night, so stayed up to silly o'clock working on stuff.  Thought I'd get the FC post done on time as well.

This is very true. People responded to / recovered from lockdown differently. I took two or three months to feel like I was back to firing on something like all cylinders, mentally and physically - my regular partner took two or three weeks. I just checked my logs, and I did almost exactly half as many routes in the twelve moths prior to this trip as I did prior to the previous trip. On which basis, perhaps I should be chuffed that I'm managing to (almost, just about) maintain my previous level.

Also, you are what you train. I have been diligently working my aerobic base with a lot of autobelay mileage and voila, I can do vertical 40 metre 6b's all day without getting particularly pumped. I would probably be in great shape for something like Left Wall on the Cromlech. But I have done very little bouldering and almost no hard route projecting, so it's not entirely surprising that I don't have much by way of higher gears when I need to step it up a bit.

This is the bandwagon which I am now clambering back aboard, after a reasonable (/excessive?) period in which my base fitness volume has been very low.

Just finished a 5-3-5-3-5 on the foot on campus.....

Cheers. Was supposed to be more of the same this week all loaded into the weekend helping out with a triple Bob Graham Round, but things don't always go to plan...

M - Weights session

T - Flat 5k round the park followed by some heavy squats

W - More weights

T - Rest day

F - Alpine start. Got to Honister for about 4:30am expecting the contender about 5am. The tracker was broken and by about 5:30am we were wondering at what poin we should call mountain rescue. Team eventually turned up at nearly 6am and the contender was v ill - had been puking all the way round leg 4, combined with nav errors in the dark, so bailled on the triple after round 1 leg 4! So a couple of us just ran back to Keswick anyway - 17.5k, (7000m D+)

S - As the triple was off I had the option of doing a bit of Leg 3 with friends, so looked at some extended options for leg 3 (Pavey Arc and Loft Crag). 20k (1150m D+)

S - Rest

On the Monday I had seen that Crusher Holds had their screwless fingerboad mount back in stock, so after a few emails back and forth decieded it'd probably work on my squat-rack thingy so put in an order. Was hoping it'd be here before then end of the week, but am still waiting (should be here tomorrow apparently). With this in mind I have had a fresh look at the 'Training for Sport Climbing' document linked above.

I can get my head around the basic energy systems, but when it mentions strength (section 2.6) is it referring to finger strength  - and if so how is this different then the 4 energy systems, especially as far as training it goes - or does it mean strength in general (pull-ups and the like)?

As regards training the 4 systems, I'll obvs be sticking to the 'base phase' for a while, but with only a hangboard to work with it looks like (going off the Crimpd app) I'll be stuck with 7:3s at various percentages and 'density hangs' to cover everything from 'areo/an cap' to 'aero pow'.  Are there other sessions I could use for variety to target 'aero/an cap' that don't rely on having access to more than a hangboard? I have a Moon Phat Boy (2nd hand) and plan get the Lattice triple double to go on it as well. As the board will not be overhanging, will I be able to get two row's of holds on, or will the lower one get in the way of using the upper? Would it be best to put the Lattice holds higher up (I'll prob use them more), or vice versa?

A few thoughts:

- Strength - likely to be fingers for most climbers but if you know you have pipe cleaner arms and fingers like claw hooks then obviously get some pull-ups on! I tend to see it as a spectrum, with strength being at one end, beyond AnCap (which otherwise is probably the most strength-y of them)

- any holds on the top fingerboard that don't stick out beyond the depth of the lower one will prob be hard to use. If you have the nous you could build a 2-step backing board?

- you could put feet on a chair or the floor and walk your fingers round the fingerboard for aerocap/continuity. I basically do that with a foot on campus board, put my feet on the floor beyond it for the 5-3-5-3-5 (minutes on/off) I mentioned in my last post

- having profile stalked you I would suggest at your current grades not complexifying too much - don't let perfect be the enemy of good. I do like Alex's doc - I helped him proof it and when I was training more in the age pre children that was the structure I tried to use - but you don't need that degree of structure to see improvements up to fairly high levels. Definitely not saying don't get involved with it, more don't worry if you end up doing something different or more simplified or whatever.

Agree with all that AJM said.

Finger strength is something you train distinctly from the 4 energy systems. Think of it as the maximum output your tendons and muscles can instantaneously achieve when fresh. The energy systems are different ways of applying your strength that are more useful over various different periods of time.

Re: putting feet on chair and moving your hands around a fingerboard, this is what I used to do occasionally for aeropow training (pushing the chair back to get the right amount of weight on my arms), was very effective at inducing mega pump.

"If you have the nous you could build a 2-step backing board?"

D'oh, yea, of course - Don't have much nouse but could probably cope with that! Will See what it looks like when I get the board and take it from there. Am not a fan of the Phat Boy, so may just get a couple of smaller wood holds for variety and try and organise it sensibly.

Also, complexifying is a great word! I do like to do that. And with so much time on my hands atm I am probablay reading and thinking a bit much - but when has that been a bad thing... I do like plans and structure and using my training time effeciently. But then end up doing to much and getting injured (see next weeks post...). Pre-lockdown I was breaking into 7a indoor, and always preferred crimpy stuff, and noticed with what I've done outside recently that my fingers aren't as strong, or I don't trust them as much maybe, as a few months ago, so even if doing this is psychological it'll still help me progress I hope.

In reply to AJM & Si:

I feared that'd be the answer - I was hoping for something less tediuos. Still, needs must.

Especially if you want to do the foot on fingerboard stuff then something that looks/feels a bit more varied could be better for motivation? I made a bunch of holds early in lockdown which is pretty easy in small quantities if you have the right sort of kit (sander, saw/jigsaw, some clamps, maybe a spade bit or similar for pockets). I'm not sure there's much way round it - aerobic training without a wall is unlikely to be super fun, but you can do it in quite a effective way (i.e. it's quite good bang for buck for the time that you do invest).

Fair enough in that case - if it helps then go for it!

Ah, sorry, I had a look at the recent ascents bit on your profile page so hadn't clocked that!

" Especially if you want to do the foot on fingerboard stuff then something that looks/feels a bit more varied could be better for motivation? "

Good point. The PB might take up a bit to much real eastate but the differant texture my be a bonus. A lot to think about.

"> > Pre-lockdown I was breaking into 7a indoor

Yea, that's still not that great I know, but I was down the wall 3 times a week for 6 months or so, but I just can't afford to do that now, so need something to replicate that consistancy.

For moving hands around on a fingerboard, get wood, otherwise you will be limited by skin. 

I always used a beastmaker but anything with holds (reasonable crimps, not 10 mm! ) at a couple of different levels would work fine. There are lots of wooden hold makers about in the UK post lockdown if you just want to buy a few individual ones.

Edit to say that if you buy individual holds, look out for the fact that most designed for overhanging boards have a reasonable incut on them. You need some that are flat. 

After talking with my mate at the shop I went with the Metolius 'Prime Rib' (it's wood), got my hand on a power drill thingy, and went to fix it to the backing board. Due to my complete lack of aforementioned nous I can't get it to sit flush against the board. I got the top screws right through the backing board but now the screws won't pull it any tighter, if that makes sense... so fustrating!

Last Week

• Thursday: Returned to climbing and had a slightly imperfect onsight of The Blurter (HVS 5b). The top section was exceptionally green so escaped rightward after doing all the hard bits. It's good to be back climbing again, though.
• Saturday: Walked half or thereabouts of the Edale Skyline (Hope to Edale) 13.5K/570m

This Week

More climbing if possible. Try out the leg on some actual running.

More stressful than it should have been, but I finally have a hangboard up. I even managed to get the Prime Rib level (the whole thing has a slight overhang by a degree or two). Two more Crusher pinches to go on (as pinches, right in the middle) if I think they won’t get in the way.

Looks good!

Definitely think about ergonomics of hand and arm position before fitting the pinches.

I suspect a narrow pair of pinches mounted straight vertically will be very difficult to use. I mounted them like that on my foot on campus board thinking I could get strong on twisting and pinching tufa stylee and found with the feet as far back as they were I couldn't do anything with them!

That was what I was thinking. Might be better to put them on the underside if it's wide enough. Harder to hang but you can always put some weight on a chair. 

In a word nowt.  On all fronts.