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

And for those looking for more theoretical background, there's a useful subject index of published research studies on the Beta Angel project. Not sure how actively maintained if is though. https://beta-angel.com/research/research-inventory/

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_727-7315...

Psyche Vid for AJM: Magnus Midtbø gets some gymnastics tips from members of the Norwegian national team, including a couple of minutes of planche progressions youtube.com/watch?v=RuTxc22B2Rs&

Fit Club fourteenth birthday next month. What are you doing fourteen of by 25th March? 

AJM - I particularly liked the old school & controversial small edge pull-ups: 

alexm198 - impressed by your (or your partner's?) knowledge of far flung corners of the Bavarian Alps. Everything west of Ammergau is basically a blank on the map for me except for a couple of sport crags.

Ally Smith - sounds like the forearm rehab worked with Sunday's pb. 

BarneyLoosemore - never mind the training, how's the board diy going?

biscuit - 926 whatevers (?) in a week certainly sounds impressive. Impressive enough for Kleptomania in three weeks to be realistic, assuming the weather plays ball?

Liam P - another display of Deload Discipline. How did it go afterwards?

Ross Barker - now that's what I call deloading! Liked the "tape too tight" excuse too.

Si dH - renewed strength & vigour after the deload week?

I'm noticing a theme here. Personally, having reached a point where fingerboarding is one of the *least* boring aspects of everyday life, I'm finding it hard to summon the discipline to stick to planned deloads. But if one doesn't plan them, they'll inevitably plan themselves at some point anyway - so well done everybody who is actually managing to do them voluntarily.

Somerset swede basher - if not ice then grit. Your track record of snatching every fleeting opportunity to get out on *something* remains exemplary.

the sheep - the bike as a lower impact option sounds like a good idea in the circumstances

Tom Green - return to boarding along with all the prehab sounds good, and your board sounds enviably diverse. Will the fourteen crack laps be up-down-up, or jump off & start again?

Tyler - I've been wondering for a couple of weeks: I take it Outhouse is your home wall, not some public climbing wall you mysteriously have access to?

AlanLittle - the not-too-bad first day out after lockdown is very encouraging.
 

I saw that. I've never tried the splits sort of planche they did, and I suspect my flexibility would make it quite hard (i.e. my legs would stick back a lot way so create a lot of leverage). But it was interesting to see that his tuck planche isn't that different from mine - his is better, I think, but it's not like he was jumping straight into advanced or straddle planche. The difference in baseline-from-climbing between his planche attempts (straight arm pushing) and his iron cross attempts (straight arm pulling) was crazy! 

25 days left..... 14 solid relevant training sessions so I can come out the gates crushing come the 29th? I'm not sure what else I could suggest....

Yeah, it's not common, but I guess a lot of my training this winter has been about mixing it up a bit and doing different things. Time will tell if it makes any difference!

Thanks Alan, the first half of the week went pretty well, then from Friday onwards I've been battling family illnesses and associated lack of sleep.

Definitely get that. I failed to stick to an unplanned "deload" that I should have taken due to illness today, which I think is sort of similar... I couldn't face a whole week without doing at least a few actual climbing moves.

M: Lunchtime - 5*5 pull-ups with bodyweight +22kg. Felt pretty good doing these. Evening - hip mobility routine and 3*10 second L-sits.

T: Evening - five sets of 30 second scap pull-up exercises (8 seconds engaged, 2 seconds relaxed x3) on an incut edge with bodyweight +17kg. Then tried a couple of one arm scap pull-up sets on the lattice edge jug with bodyweight - 8kg, to try to tease out if I have a big imbalance. On my right side, doing 5 reps like this was fine. On my left, I managed them but it felt uncomfortable on both my shoulder and elbow, which makes me think my form was bad. Did a few reps with -17kg, which felt better, but I think I should stick to two arms for now.

W: rest

T: afternoon - 6 sets of repeaters on the incut edge making sure I had good shoulder engagement. I added 5kg and did these as 7 on / 5 off. I want to power out rather than get pumped like I did doing 7/3 before my rest week. 7/5 like this seemed fairly steady. Evening - TRX. 3 sets each of low rows, IYWs, reverse flies, flies, hamstring curls.

F: rest - canned my planned hip mobility routine and floor core session as my son got ill the night before and none of us slept much, so I felt terrible.

S: another bad night, another rest (in this case planned)

S: another bad night and this time woke up with a sore throat and blocked nose myself. On the plus side my son's covid test came back negative. Decided to see what happened if I tried a board session, didn't push too hard but it turned out ok. Made up a new problem that is probably 7a-ish, didn't quite tick it but should do next time. Also did some prone Ts this evening.

Week was going fairly well until illness struck so I'm just hoping we get over it soon. The little one is still pretty rough after 3.5 days.

Si

Cheers Alan - going very well actually! DIY's never really been a speciality of mine but have been enjoying doing up the board lately. Sanded the wood + did two coats of wood-stain, replaced a few iffy T-nuts, attached a new heavy duty tarp on the back, and got all the new holds on. Took most of the week doing bits and bobs at lunch, but looking a lot nicer now! The mini-Moonboard is a lot more accessible (less tweaky) now the woods (B/C) are up and had a great time cleaning up a few of the easier BM's on Sat. No running this week which was a shame, the left shin has not been happy - more recovery for climbing training gains though I guess!

M - floor core, curls, push-up variations

T - finger curls, stretches

W - rest

T - reverse flys, density hangs

F - frenchies, curls, push-up variations

S - wall finally (re)done! Density hangs, then a long-ish limit session - climbed a few easier benchmarks. Then activations and bar core in the evening

S - shoulder mobility/stability, weighted core

Cheers Alan, actually getting out is what it's all about for me. I started the week feeling a bit despondent training wise wondering if I've got this winters training all wrong and wasted my time but some very successful sessions in the week made me think otherwise. 

Mon. Rest. 

Tues. Unfortunately it was wet up at burbage by the time I'd done enough work to get out so headed down to the cemetery park boulder instead. After several dry days and today rain coming on a strong southerly wind I suspected the north side would be dry and it was. It took me 2hrs but I managed to do the middle linking section on Infinite Power 8A which means I've done all the moves in 3 sections now (albeit on 3 separate visits over about 6 sessions and 2 years). Keen to link it all together but it's climbable in the summer and grit isn't so I'm not in any massive hurry.

Wed. Rest. 

Thurs. Tried to do some max hangs but after a 12hr work day I was struggling by the half way point. Experimented with scap pull ups, found that pausing at the top for 3 seconds made them much harder but didn't have the time/motivation to get set up for one arm action! 3x10 press ups. 

Fri. Rest. 

Sat. Sport in the sun. Got on Little Plum (pitch 1) (7c+), 1st tie in did all the moves except the crux, 2nd tie did the crux and then crux to top, 3rd tie in successful redpoint! Maybe all that fingerboarding has made a difference after all. Very pleased with this. Tried my partners beta on a top rope 4th tie in to see if it was better than mine but was too stretched to do it that way. 30m 6b+ to warm down.

Sun. Flat 6km run at 4.34/km

I've been thinking for ages I should try to dig out my picture of Jerry & Andy P working on the FFA of Little Plum. (Also for the Old Skool Cool thread on ukb) But I fear if it still exists at all, it will be in a box somewhere in my brother's attic in England.

STG: Weight back below 85kg - eat when hungry not when bored. Start Couch To 5k.
MTG: Go climbing after lockdown? Get vaccinated before I get infected. 
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Beastmaker. Having been advised by Stu on the other channel that I might need more than two points on the curve to calculate my Critical Force, I doubled my dataset by doing 7/3 repeaters to failure at 80% and 60% of max. Plotted the line as per equation in Dave Giles of Lattice's article, and found that my Critical Force is 38% of max. Seems ok: average/respectable is supposed to be ~40%. And interesting that it's still average/respectable despite not having done aerocap exercise or performance of any kind since October.

T: Rest day (which I should really have taken yesterday after the busy weekend). Half an hour stretching, calf raises.
W: Beastmaker repeaters, weighted pull-ups & assisted scap pulls, l-sits, calf raises
T: Half an hour on the bike to warm up followed by ten minutes of *very* cautious jog-walk intervals with ... no calf explosion! Result!
    Half an hour shoulder press, wrist extensors, stretching & mobility
F:    Bike one hour. Lovely singletracking conditions in the woods: snow all gone, no mud yet.
S: Climbing, Schönhofen. Ten pitch mileage day getting my lead head back together. I really like climbing
S: First big hayfever attack of the year pretty much wrote the day off.

TOTALS FOR JANUARY

THE GOOD

Fingerboard sessions: ten

Z1/Z2 cardio hours: thirty, mostly hillwalking. 

General strength & conditioning sessions: eight

THE IMPROVED

Stretching & mobility sessions: nine. Significant improvement

Actual climbing/bouldering: two days. Yay!

THE NOT IMPROVED YET

Average weight: 85.3 kgs. Lockdown ballooning almost levelled out at least. I suspect actual loss will have to wait until I'm no longer spending all day, every weekday, sitting bored & frustrated within a couple of steps of the kitchen.
 

Bit of a slump this week. Head wasn’t really in it so had a bit of a break. 

Done some replanning after Boris’ roadmap announcement, so have a vague holiday plan for the rest of the year. I suspect my annual goal of a June to June bouldering record may not be unachieveable - whilst I’ve still got some time off round home over Easter I don’t see as much potential there as when I was going to be away for longer in the middle of the peak with a fairly untapped seam of problems to go at - it’s a longer drive from home to Portland and I’ve done more and so got less readily available to do. Plus when I set the goal I wasn’t anticipating being so restricted over the winter itself. But I think Sept to Sept might be reasonable, in that what I’d hoped was a frankenjura routes trip in June will now probably be uk trips and fairly boulder focused, so hopefully a delay rather than anything more severe. That might put the sport aims in some difficulty though!

Monday to Wednesday - rest. Just felt pretty all over tired and a bit flat, so decided to take a short rest break

Thursday - 3 sets face pulls and 2 sets of facing up Ys. Tried pistol squats with just a stretchy band; limits me to about 4-5 but definitely caps the assistance I can get. Not sure - maybe a second stretchy band would up the reps whilst still limiting the assistance? Also did some tuck front lever holds in the evening.

Friday - nothing

Saturday - about 4 miles along the seafront with the family (and carrying microAJM) in glorious sunshine. Stopped to eat lunch in the middle - felt very subversive, was this creeping too near to being a picnic? Very enjoyable.

Sunday - about 2.5 miles round the park carrying microAJM again. Then messed around in glorious sunshine in the garden making a vastly improved pinch block. Tried it briefly this evening - similar weights to the old one but a lot more pleasant to use. Result!

With new holiday plans kind of in place I’ve got out of my slump and looking forwards to getting back on the wagon tomorrow...

Cheers Alan.

Psyched on this week’s Psyche Vid! I’ve never had anything develop strength as quickly as the rings (even free weights). I spent about 8 weeks training the Iron Cross but could only hold 45 degrees - crazy he got it first try.

Very happy with results after the deload week (even got a few PBs). I have one every 10 weeks which seems to be working for me, both physically and mentally.

Mon - Hangboard Moving Hangs 1:40/1:40/1:00

Tue - 3x3 HSPUs (head 4” off the floor) PB. Max Hangs 15mm edge for 7s at 127%BW PB & another of my lockdown goals!

Wed - Hangboard Moving Hangs 2:00/2:00/1:15
One Arm Push-ups 4/3/2 PB

Thu - 3x 5mins Hero & Pike stretches, 3x 10s Bridges, 3x5s LSits

Fri - Weighted walk 70lbs 90mins 6km

Sat - Hangboard Moving Hangs 4:00/2:00/1:30 PB & only another 10minutes of hanging before my very implausible Fitclub Birthday goal! 3x 1.5 HSPUs (Head 3” off floor) PB

Sun - Rest Day

Weight dropped back to 182.6lbs during the week which is where I naturally sit. I don’t count calories at all so will likely sit around this weight until I can get back outdoors.

Now there’s a date for the end of lockdown I’ve pencilled in my first trip back to the Big G. Plan is to jump straight on Dream (without psyching myself out on the promontory this time). Hopefully see some endurance gains beforehand.

That sounds very cool. Did you take the picture? I'm keen to take a look at the longer version going through the top roof but it's wet at the moment. Might take a while to dry out too as we were getting dripped on at the belay!

Hi All. Thanks as per usual for the excellent stats, Alan.

Yes, feel lucky to have the space and resources for a fun home set-up. Although getting outside for the first time in ages highlighted how the real thing is INFINITELY better than even the best training board!

Week 8:

Ticked all planned sessions except swapped out a strength sesh for an extra climbing sesh.

M: Prehab (legs and arms).

T: Prehab (arms).

W: Max Hangs. Strength sesh. Prehab (legs).

T: Board sesh (AnCap triples, crack laps). Prehab (arms).

F: Bouldering at Grinshill. Awesome day, big mileage session mostly on steep juggy stuff. Highlight was getting Attack of The Picaros (f5+) first go (I’d struggled previously in this... feels like training has made the difference).

S: Bouldering at Grinshill. Went back with tape for a quick sesh on some of the crack problems I’d spotted the previous day. Fun flash of Scream (V2) and added the topical The Munch Finish (f5+) -eliminate and probs done before, but fun moves topping out by awkward flared finger locks. 
Then went for my first post-lurgy run -just a gentle 5k but felt amazing (and reassuringly ok) to be back doing cardio.

S: Max hangs. Prehab.

Week 9:

Daily prehab

2 x climbing

2 x max hangs

2 x strength

2 x run

14th Birthday Goal:

14 consecutive crack laps: 1 lap is up+down A lap may be on hands, fists or mixed.

STG (End Q1):

Max Hang total 79kg (on target at 77.5)

Weighted Pull-up total 83kg (on target at 81)

Jug circuit 5-on, 3-off

Board Problem 'GTH'

Curfew (6b+)

Run average 25km/week and Edale Skyline (These are unlikely given the four week lay-off, etc)

MTG (End Q2):

Max Hang total 84kg

Weighted Pull-up total 88kg

Jug circuit 10-on, 10-off

Board Problem 'Le Grimpeur' (Tick!)

Eliminator (V4)

Grid Iron (6c)

Black Wall (E1 5b)

Run average 35km/week and Cheshire Gritstone Trail

LTG (End Q3):

Yates' Layaway (f6B+) 

Jack the Smuggler (7a)

Black Wall Direct (E2 5c)

Cairngorm Classic Rock IAD, El Cap nose-day (880m climbing) and Welsh 3000s

2021 Goals:

35 E-points

Run 30km vert and 1000km

Often jealous of your exploits and this is another example - I tried this a couple of years ago but didn't manage the RP in summer heat. Fancy going back and linking in the top pitch too?

Was it you who briefly stuck you head around the corner at  The Dug Out on Saturday? >waves<

Cheers Alan; great stats again. My "de-load" week wasn't planned but seemed to work out okay

Week 8

M – Rest

T – Crimpd 6x6 an-cap. Still mainly 7A+’s but starting to throw in some cheeky 7B’s and a “7C”. After squiggle bedtime, light aero-cap grippers; 7/3/6/1x15@”30%” with a metric shit-tonne of crunchies (12x40 reps) and easy press-ups on knees (12x12 reps).

W – Minor ab DOMS dissappeared warming up on the board; put to bed a Ben Moon 7A that was proving troublesome (bunched dynamic lunge) then on to Crimpd Density hangs @BW+21kg. Hard, but finished everything fine.

T – 16km flat n’ fast ride at 4pm – kept it short to avoid being out at rush hour/sunset.

F – Rest / drive to in-laws for childcare bubbling.

S – Grinshill Dug out. Very cold at start. Faffed a while warming up then did Nick’s new problem in a few goes (7A?) More faff working out consistent beta on crux of “In his Head” before doing the 7A traverse and link-up A Mon With A Spade In His Head (f7B+) (7B+?) Finished with some concerted beta faff on Douglass (f7B+) (7B+ IMHO). Afternoon of gardening / tree pruning.

S – Nowt / tree pruning / manhole cover deadlifts!

Thanks for the continued statting, Alan. Glad to see your run went smoothly!

The Rubihorn (for some reason) seems to be a sort of hallowed Allgäu mixed climbing venue. Not entirely sure why as there seem to be bigger and better things in the Wetterstein and Berchtesgadener alpen, and presumably elsewhere too. But it is good!

Week 13:

Fairly bread and butter running week. Really struggled for motivation this week (same as the last 'rest'/consolidation week). Managed my one core session (woo!) but was lazy on the shin prehabs again, which really needs to change as I can feel them getting tweaky. Set a half-marathon PR on Sunday which was nice, but again unplanned and symptomatic of me failing to keep my ambitions in check. 

M Rest.

T 6.55km Z1. Supposed to be 10km but it got to 7pm and I was really struggling to get out the door, so decided to give myself a break and do something short with the intention of making up for it later in the week. Felt really tough (possibly carried fatigue from the weekend?! Possibly poor diet/sleep in recent days). 

W 9.01km Z1.

T 10.40km speedwork, 2km warmup, 4x long hill repeats, 3km cooldown. Shin prehab.

F Core routine.

S 21.89km run, supposed to be comfortable pace but ended up just going for it and did a 1:44:08 half, which I'm pleased about. Mustn't forget how to run slowly though, fast kms aren't going to be much use on the ZUT. 

S Had planned to climb the Zugspitze nordwand but my partner got a bit spooked by 1cm snowfall on Saturday morning and suggested we postpone to allow it to settle. Have to admit I was surprised by this level of caution, but typically more is better than less in that department. Boring 8.11km Z1 instead. 

Last week's goals:

• 56.3km running [55.96/56.3 - calling that a tick]
• 1 core routine [tick]
• 3 shin prehab [1/3 - do better!]
• Zugspitze nordwand? [-]

Goals:

STG (This Week)

• 75.6km running (blimey that seems like a jump!)
• 1 core routine
• 3 shin prehabs
• Zugspitze nordwand?!

MTG (End of June 2021)

• Finish the Zugspitz Ultratrail
• Himmel und Hölle on the Zugspitze Nordwand
• Optimism on the Schneefernerkopf Westwand
• Eiger nordwand if borders are open and partners can travel [I see this was climbed this week, in what seem to me morally dubious circumstances...]

LTG (End of 2021)

• Himalaya Expedition (or plan B)

Very much so, I suspect the top will take a while to dry though. It was -2 at the car but warmed quickly once up on the ledge in the sun. I can see how those footholds would be a nightmare in the heat but they were fine.

I have in-laws in lilleshall so would be keen for a Grinshill or Nesscliffe session in the summer too. 

Nope, not me... I'm still not entirely sure where the dugout is! Grinshill is such a maze (or maybe my navigation skills are just crap!)

It was pretty busy at Grinshill on Saturday though... popped over to the prow for a brief staring contest with Eliminator and it was swarming with the Shropshire wad scene! I should have taken advantage of a) their good beta and b) their enormous pile of pads, but I was feeling wasted from the previous day, had exhausted the hours on my pass out, and also felt a bit weird bouldering with other people -Covid appears to have institutionalised me more than I thought.

Shropshire is the new Sheffield for FitClub these days ;-p

Tape too tight is a classic excuse of mine - but it is genuine! I notice the tip of the finger is always ice-cold and then it gets in my head.

Last Week:

M - Local secret crag. Did a 6A, then two around the 6C mark. One not valid because I couldn't match the top hold, absolutely soaking! Very excited to come back in daylight.

T - Total of 60 pushups.

W - Rest.

T - Rigpa. Managed crux once more, good effort on last move but still falling an inch or two short of the lip. Lots of expletives used.

F - Rest

S - Secret crag again. Repeated 6C FA, then campussed at around 7A. Repeated a friend's thing at around 6C+, some great moves on that! Then moved onto the hardest looking line of the crag, involving a few very steep moves on some very small holds, then a spicy heel hook to avoid swinging a long way down the hill. It went, very difficult though! I wanted to say 7B as it felt harder than many 7A+s I have done, but as it still took me <10 goes it might be a bit bold to grade it do highly.

S - Lovely walk in the sun, 2.5-3 miles or so.

Next Week:

M - Rest

T - Rigpa

W - Rest

T - Antagonists

F - Rest

S - Rigpa or secret depending on conditions.

S - Rest

Goals:

Don't get injured

Suavito (on hold)

Tierdrop (on hold)

Rigpa (going rather well for something hard)

A beautiful sunny Saturday and you spend it in the cold cave? Sacrilege!

Cheers Alan, looking like the 14 new things i will be adding are lb's to my waistline if i dont stop eating like im still putting in the distance runs! Still had a good base level of activity throughout the week and to top things off I have ordered some lovely new wheels for the road bike 

Monday, 5km run, had to stop a couple of times to stretch

Tuesday, went out to do another 5k but only got 3.5 in

Wednesday, in work all day so no exercise

Thursday, 5km run no stopping

Friday, stretch session

Saturday, 50km bike ride. Going to keep using the heavier commute bike so that when i get the new wheels for the road bike i will really feel the difference. 

Sunday, 6km run/walk with the wife and kids 

Gonna have to switch the psyche vid location, I think Leicestershire is pretty much quarried out at this point

If you're moving from Leicestershire Esoterica to Shropshire Esoterica then this is my current psyche video...

vimeo.com/10217852 

Partly because it is my (longstanding!) project. Partly because the soundtrack cracks me up!

On a less esoteric level, I was going to suggest a Sean Villanueva O'Driscoll video in honour of his utterly mindblowing recent Fitzroy traverse. One of my faves is The Whistler, the Wizard and the Racoon -classic Sean combo of slightly unhinged fun, some almost accidental shots of how beautiful Patagonia is and wild (like, WILD!) moves -think 'that' pitch on the Quarryman but 600m off the deck with condors!

Big up Shropshire! It'll be home to the UK's first 9A+ boulder I'm sure, especially once a few holds snap off

Surely you cant be serious, with so much quality climbing in the county you could go on for years 

After a quick google i found this gem.... and its even a problem I have done 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_svXvzFm9Q&feature=emb_logo

Thanks Alan.

The workload score is calculated from the CRIMPd app. I find it handy to keep a track of what i am actually doing versus what i think i'm doing.

864 this week, so it was lower but a bit of a struggle at times.

I'm not going to go into great detail as it was 'just another training week' but i am going to bend the rules a bit and talk about my day today.

Trowbarrow - Red Wall

Red warm traversing to warm up

1xV4 - flash

2XV5 - 1 x flash and 1 second go

1x V7 - second go

A few goes on Shallow Grave (V7) smashing my previous best of not being able to do the first move. Now feels like it will go. 

Shelterstone

Got distracted by Funk Phenomena (V7) a powerful 2 move problem on the back side. Had about 6 goes but my elbows started to grumble. Close and feels like it'd go. 

Ned's - V8 - which was supposed to be my actual goal for the day. I had 7 or 8 goes and hit the last move everytime. Changed my beta for the last couple and unlocked it. But my elbows were screaming and energy was on the wane.

Snatched a V6 variation of the groove.

WHAT A DAY! All i can say is everyone should get a home board. 

This is the biggest step forward i've taken in climbing in a long while.

After a few years of just managing to maintain this last 12 months has been consistent structured training and the board has been the icing on the cake that has brought it together.

I didn't get my project but i'd already done what used to be a full days bouldering before i got on it.  I know the moves on Ned's and Shallow Grave and ones that felt hard now feel easy. I'd have been very happy with a V7 and chuffed with a V6. I just felt good.

I am deffo fatigued though. I was going to carry on this week and then my girlfriend and i are both on a deload week together (syncing deload weeks - it must be love) with hopefully some nice weather. But i think i'm going to drop all supplementary training and just have a board sesh on Thursday and see if the weather lets us get out on the weekend. I feel on the edge of injury, especially with my elbows, which was actually aggravated by introducing 30:30's on the board for ultimate pump getting ready for routes, so rest is in order before getting my pump on for routes season.

Rest, recover and get even strongerer is the plan for the next fortnight - and fix my elbows!

The Outhouse is a friend's board, its a couple of miles away and is in their garden with a separate entrance from the road so I think its legit. It has a few circuits of 19-30 moves (each circuit can be done with screw ins or tracking) and now we have a nerdy spreadsheet with a points system on Google docs so we can keep an eye on each other! 

W: Outhouse good progress

Sun: Bridestones, went with a mate at a distance. Great day out but reinforced the ludicrousness of grit grades especially at this most grit stoney of venues! I actually climbed at least as well as my mate who climbs 7B/C fairly consistently but I think was purely down to better skin but neither of us will be bragging about it! Smacked my ankle and tore a flapper on the very last go of the day (after I'd already decided to pack up several times) but totally worth it.

Re. the 14 year anniversary I reckon I'll try and do 14 yoga sessions before the date as I have let this slip