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/

No Psyche Vid this this week, sadly. They only climbing vid I've watched is the Salt Lake City world cup, and I'm now writing stats in the middle of the semifinal replay whilst trying to avoid spoilers. 

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_739-7348...

AJM - we seem to be thinking in synch at the moment - both the roofbox storage conundrum and the idea of steep boards as the way forward.

Ally Smith - de facto deload week followed by progress on 8A's sounds promising

Liam P - a Dream come true! Excellent. Next stop Concrete Chimney? The route as a whole doesn't quite have the line & photogenicity of Dream, but the middle pitch is utterly amazing, contender for the best pitch at the grade in Wales / the world.

planetmarshall - "probably could have done with a slightly more optimistic attitude to the unsettled weather." Always a tricky one. On the one hand, I'm glad the days of drinking tea by the bucket in huts / Pete's Eats then heading out in desperation to do a Diff in the rain are gone; on the other hand there's always the nagging feeling that one may have given up too easily. Solid training week though.

Rebecca Ting - not sure how much a return to the wall will help with anything on grit, although I'm not familiar with those particular routes.

Roadrunner6 - two weeks out now if I'm counting correctly?

Ross Barker - good back to the wall sessions, interesting thoughts with the contrast baths. I managed to do something similar consistently with a pulley tear years ago while reading bedtime stories to my son - buit since he just celebrated his 18th birthday that option is no longer open to me.

Si dH - interested to hear what the deload week brought. The switch to the crusher board sounds like a smart move with the niggly finger. 

Somerset swede basher - hope the elbow benefited from the deload week. And the car's working again?

the sheep - being fully vaccinated is greats news, and for sure more important than anything else you might have got done during the week.

Tom Green - good dodgy conditions determination in Dovedale. I get the impression from forums that Peak limestone trad is somewhat underrated/neglected these days. I always liked it.

Tyler - thank god for the midgies, otherwise far too many people would be drawn to the breathtaking beauty of the Scottish North West. Hope you have (or are having?) a great trip.

AlanLittle - don't get too discouraged from one weekend of partner motivation issues - things in general are looking better on that fron than they have for a while. And iffy weather now with walls open is less of a disaster than it would have been in March/April.

Cheers Alan. Felt good to finally get the monkey(horse) off my back after bottling it last year - in fact, I think that was the impetus to start training and join FitClub! Was thinking about the Concrete Dream Combo for my next trip. Wen also looked really good.

Back on the Gain Train this week. Rubbish weather so spent the majority of it at the wall.

M:

• 6x Boulder Triples - V1, V2, V3 Fail, V4, V5 Fail (2 moves), V4 Fail
• 3x laps of 5a Circuit Board (72 moves)

T: 

• Parallette Tuck Planche Holds 3x 10s

W:

• Free bouldering: finally ticked a V3-V5 problem. Definitely on the soft side but for confidence purposes I’m saying ‘high-end V5’
• Broken Redpoint: 3x 6a+ Circuit Board (15 moves), 3x 7a Circuit Board (shutdown 1st move), 3x 7a Circuit Board (8 moves)

T: Rest day

F:

• Free Bouldering: V2, V3, V4, V4, same V5 to confirm it wasn’t a fluke, V3
• 6x Foot on Campus (20mm rung): 2x 40s, 4x 25s
• 1on1off: 3.5 laps of 5a Circuit Board (87 moves), 4x 1on1off 5a Circuit Board

S:

• 30km Cycle 1:35

S:

• Parallette Tuck Planche Holds 3x 18s

More of the same this week, and a weekend trip to the Ruckle if the weather holds. Hoping to use my new-found, onsight HVS confidence on Finale Groove.

Glad you enjoyed Dream. It's easy to get stuck in a queue and freeze on it! Like Alan says Concrete Chimney is great.

Thanks Alan.  I didn't really have an opportunity to take advantage of being rested outside, but not a bad week.

M: rest

T: another evening session at the Hangar. Did a bunch more problems in the v5-6 range. A strange mixture of flashing things and getting nowhere on things but I managed quite a lot. Climbing movement is good again now but each visit reinforces to me that I'm going well on problems with big holds but well below par on small stuff. Finished off with some prone Ts.

W: hip mobility routine (I've decided to make Wednesday a rest day from any upper body work as in recent weeks I have always felt tired after the wall session the evening before.)

T: 5 * 10 second crusher board hangs (half crimp +10kg), 4 * 10 second lattice edge hangs (front 3 open hand + 14kg), crimps floor core routine.

F:  2*5 pull-ups with bodyweight +23kg on the lattice jug, then 3*4 pull-ups on the incut edge with the same weight (on the incut edge is slightly harder so I dropped a rep.) Then 4*10 face pull/overhead press combos, 3*10 TRX hamstring curls and 3*8 Copenhagens on each side.

S: had my vaccine at lunchtime. Hip mobility routine in the evening.

S: short session at Pex Hill in the morning, no side effects from the jab except a slightly achey arm, phew. Did a few half crimp hangs on the crusher edges too.

We are expecting a 4th family member in October So I've got a job on my hands working out what climbing I might be able to do and when... I'm planning to take some shared parental leave and hoping I might be able to fit in the odd trip out with one or both of them. Otherwise I'll need to sort out this finger well enough to be able to climb on the board a lot again!

Si

Being on that hanging belay in a queue doesn’t bear thinking about. Definitely one for a quiet day.

Congratulations on the baby news!

Easter Font trip might be quite early days!

Easter next year is quite late so they'll be 6 months... possible but not sure yet. (Sol was only 8 months on our first trip and that was fine...)

I need to look at dates actually, second half of April isn't that great for me so a late Easter might tricky. Making school hols and work quiet patches match up may be my challenge for next year!

Hah! With no garage, I am leaning towards “under a tarp on top of the wood shed”, currently.....

Another lacklustre training week if I’m honest - lots of furniture moving early week and all the training apparatus taken to pieces or packed away to permit it - but a lovely day out Saturday despite a cold wind - and up to 10% on the “why haven’t I...” ticklist now with Suspension Flake and Aviation both done.

Heading up to Yorkshire the end of next week for the start of our Yorkshire/Lakes trip. Hope to maybe see some FC people along the way...

Monday/Tuesday - another administrative start to the week - having some very elderly carpets replaced meant a lot of moving of things from one room to another which sucked up a lot of free time and effort. So no training time. Still, the house looks a bit smarter.

Wednesday - was supposed to be nipping out in the afternoon, but work dragged on a little tooo late, then I had to pop to the shops, and by the time I got back the window of climbing time before having to be back for nursery had been eroded away such that it wasn’t really worth it any more. Frustrating.

Thursday - nothing, whilst trying to sort out a plan for Friday and the weekend amidst ever changing circumstances

Friday - weather provided little promise of climbing and a flat tyre on Duncan’s car was the final straw so worked the day; drove to Devon after work.

Saturday - out on the moor. 

- Showery to start, so started off easy and uncomitting on Hound Tor. A bit of easy bouldering, seconded a VS and an E1, and led Suspension Flake.

- then as the weather brightened we headed to Hay Tor for bigger things and did Aviation. I led p2, very blowy! We then decided it was too cold in the wind for further routing...

- so headed to Bonehill where I showed the others a few things on a circuit until everyone was suitably tired and felt like they had made full use of the day

Sunday - wet, and I was achey and thin of skin. Headed for home.

STG: Weight back below 85kg. 
    Start Couch To 5k. 
    New Project STG: link from the third clip to the end of the hard climbing on Dookie.
MTG: Complete one of my local (Zellerwand) 7a projects - short, sharp power endurance. Complete Couch to 5k
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Rest day. 

T: Wall, Boulderwelt. They have a newly installed adjustable angle kilterboard, which turns out to be a far more approachable (re-)introduction to the harsh world of boarding than a moonboard. Pretty much exactly what I need right now - do it regularly for a few weeks and see if I get more bouncy/powerful.

W: Rest. Should have rested harder though, because ...

T: Wall, Boulderwelt. Attempt #2 at a kilter board session, *much* weaker than Tuesday. 48 hours between intense board sessions clearly not enough for me at this stage in post-lockdown life. Gave up & shuffled some volumes instead.

F: Overcoming Gravity session #1: ring supports, l-sits, skin-the-cats, rows. Wall handstands. Not entirely surprising but nevertheless mildly shocking how much I've lost through seven months lockdown, not just specific strength but also just general familiarity/comfort with being upside down. Things will improve again. Gradually.

S: An hour walk/jog in the woods. Still very muddy from the weather lately despite a couple of dry days, doesn't bode well for climbing conditions tomorrow.

S: Rain. At least now we can go to the wall on rainy Sundays, which I did. Thalkirchen - still easing my way back into plastic endurance climbing.
 

Thanks Alan. Some minor niggles but generally feeling a lot better. Car back from the garage with its new clutch feeling as light as my wallet!

Mon. Rest

Tues. Beef Buttress session. Good chunky milage session again. 3 7As and 2 7A+s plus some easier stuff.

Wed. 13km run.

Thurs. Wondered round some woods looking for a crag that turned out to be wet (thanks Ally for being office based communications and logistics manager!) Aerocap hour in the attic. Set off with the intention of keeping it light but ended up spending a lot more time in the steep than the vert and could still feel it two days later. Great session but perhaps not the intensity I should probably have gone for.

Fri. Rest.

Sat. More boulder milage, Gypsy Buttress this time, 2 7As and 2 7A+s (including a couple of flashes). Got really close to another 7A at the end but ran out of beans so hopefully that'll be a quick tick next time.

Sun. Unintended rest day after getting back late from visiting family.

Will be a busy week at work next week but I'm going to be in Shropshire for the end of half term week so I'll post on fitclub nearer the time to see if anyone fancies a trip to the Dug Out or maybe Nesscliff. 

Hi All. Thanks, as per usual, for the weekly post-mortem, Alan.

I feel like every rainy day that I've not had on previous Pembroke trips has been stored up for this month. What an utter shitshow of bad weather this week has been...

Week 20:

Awful week with no climbing and little/no training. I should probably just be thankful to have survived near hurricane conditions whilst working on Thurs/Fri though!

M: Alpine start & finish for work.

T: Alpine start & finish for work.

W: Happily and afternoon job cancelation coincided with the one good day of the week. However, somehow made a total balls of reading the range schedule and merrily romped up to Castlemartin with the intention of soloing a bunch of the easy slab routes at Flimston only to find myself under fire. Didn't really have time to relocate to somewhere with plentiful soloable routes, nor had I got kit for shunting harder stuff with me so, after a small but intense tantrum, went for a run instead. Once I'd stopped being a baby, this was actually awesome -ran from St Govs to Barafundle in glorious, tops-off sunshine. 16.1km, 347m vert, 6:00/km. Felt like I could run forever.

T: Alpine start & finish for work. 

F: Alpine start & finish for work.  

S: Mrs G visiting for weekend so pootled around in the sun, seeing the sights.

S: Trail run. Lucky hour of sunshine after a day of monsoon. 10.5km, 186m vert, 5:47/km. Therapeutic loop above familiar cliffs with not a soul about.

Week 21:

Last week down in Pembroke. Must try to fit in some decent climbing if the weather windows arrive...

Also, need to stop using 'I'm tired' and 'I'm busy' as excuses not to do prehab and conditioning.

STG (End Q2):

Max Hang total 85kg

Weighted Pull-up total 88kg

Thug circuit 1-on, 1-off

Eliminator (V4)

Grid Iron (6c)

15 E-points (1/15!)

Edale Skyline and/or Cheshire Gritstone Trail

MTG (End Q3):

Yates' Layaway (f6B+) 

Jack the Smuggler (7a)

Black Wall Direct (E2 5c)

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

2021 Goals:

35 E-points

Run 30km vert and 1000km

Salop! I'll be keeping a keen eye out, the weather looks like it might finally take a turn for the better towards the weekend!

Congrats Si. Big news!

Thanks for statting Alan!

Contrast baths are doing well so far, might be a bit of placebo but my finger feels generally a bit better already. I have a chat planned with a physio of this parish on Monday, so hopefully I'll get a better grasp on the strain to get it sorted, I'd like to be able to plan trips without having to veto crimpier areas like Portland or the Lakes.

Only one climbing session this week, and missed two baths, but five out of seven ain't too bad I think. Would really have liked to get out to The Roaches on Saturday but I had things to do and friends flaked out due to changeable weather

This Week:

M - Contrast baths.

T - Contrast baths.

W - Churnet evening hit, intended to try Crash Damage (f7B+), spent a good 45 minutes or so just trying to find some finger-friendly beta for the lower section shared with High Speed Imp Act (f7A). Eventually found it just to discover that cranking on the mono is actually pretty bloody hard. In hindsight maybe I should've accepted the poor hold and given it a proper good go anyway. Fumbled around on a few other bits as well. Churnet probably ain't the best destination if you have finger injuries! Justified it as a friend was keen to go and not much in Shropshire would be dry.

T - Rest.

F - Contrast baths.

S - Contrast baths.

S - Contrast baths.

Next Week:

Generally alternating between rehab hangs and rest, would be nice to get on dry rock, especially on the latter end of the week.

Aiming for at least 6 out of 7 contrast baths.

Goals:

​​​​Rehabilitate A2 pulley.

Suavito.

Tierdrop.

Rigpa.

Big congratulations! Hoping for good conditions on local rock during your paternity

That area around the Lily Ponds and Barafundle really is breathtakingly beautiful isn't it?

It often occurs to me that I have the entire eastern Alps & Frankenjura on my doorstep these days, with multiple lifetimes' worth of world class climbing. But for sheer scenic beauty places like Bosherston, Cheedale, Diabaig (...) are pretty unbeatable

Yes. Absolutely stunning. And the upside of the awful weather is that the place is deserted at the moment! On last nights run I was the only person on Barafundle... I felt like Robinson Crusoe!

This is going to take some jumping at things in the gym practice for me to commit as even with my extreme bridging flexibility, it's a jump job due to the T rex arms...

Rockfax Description
Start as for Wing Buttress to the flake-crack that runs up to the overhang. About face, flop across the gap, and swing rapidly round the arete to easy ground. Weird and not recommended for the short who may end up with a cleft skull! © Rockfax

Great news; congratulations to you and the (growing) family

m; 4 mile rail trail run 7:30 pace.

t: 7 miles, 2 mile wu, 3 miles at MP, 2 mile cool down.

w: 5 mile trail run on the local mountain with the dog

t: pm: 3.5 mile trail run with the dog

f: am: 4 mile road run

s: am: 1 mile warm up. Newport Marathon, 5th in 2:44:34, 1st old man. Best paced marathon possibly every, 1:22:07 and 1:22:27 splits with the second half of that course being much hillier. About perfect execution. 6:17 pace and the last few mile was down at 6:00 pace. 6th fastest marathon and fastest marathon since 2014. Had my best training block and with 3 kids and 41 I'm happy to be back pushing down to the low 2:40s.

s: 90 minutes in goal. Won 6-0. sore. pm: 3 mile trail run with the dog

How were the legs at the footy!?

Not good.

Luckily we were on top and my team play football right from the back so I never have to kick it long. I had two saves to make, one took me about 5 minutes to stand back up from. I had a one on one and the guy tried to chip me and I stayed stood up and pushed it over the bar. He was laughing after the game saying why didn't I dive down like he expected me too and I said I literally couldn't.. 

TBH I was worse the afternoon after the race. With 14 month old twins you're constantly chasing after them trying to stop them from killing themselves. The boy one likes to sneak away and drink from puddles..

Cheers Alan, very happy to be fully vaccinated 

Had a good week volume wise, although very pool heavy, enjoying getting back to swimming however need to balance it out a bit more.

Monday, 1.5km swim at lunchtime and 12.5km trail run in the evening

Tuesday, 1km swim

Wednesday, 1km swim

Thursday, 1km swim

Friday, 1.5km swim

Saturday, rest day. However as it was our wedding anniversary (22 years) we actually went out for dinner, sat inside the pub and had a fantastic time

Sunday, raced around after the kids and cooked up a huge roast dinner

Lost track again: Think I did a fingerboard session and an "hour of power" board session last week and can't remember much more.  

In the Lakes for a week's holiday at the moment.  Bowderstone or Langdale boulders at some point this week. 

Thanks Alan. I missed last week - apologies. Change of working days and getting my treatment room up and running at Boulder UK threw me a little.

M - Long easy circuits after work - 6a, 6b, 6b+ 6c all done twice apart from the 6c as i was quite pumped. 

T - Nothing

W - Boulder at BUK. Good first proper session back there. More try hard than last time. Ticked up to V6, tried a V7 and a V8. Had planned to do hard circuits later in the day but it felt a bit much

T - Nothing other than a morning stretch 

F - Kendal wall bouldering due to rain. More volume than try hard and probably up to V6 ish.

S - Trad in Eskdale at an FRCC meet.  Gate Crags were wet - one to go back to for some great looking lines in the HVS - E3 range so we bailed to the granite of  Hare Crags. Did Slit Wall (E1 5b) and Spiked Hare (E2 5c) and seconded a couple of others. Spied a potential new route to go back for before the guidebook is published.

S - Rainy admin day 

I feel i've got a routine now and some energy is returning from 2 months of feeling below par. Still got a week or two to wait for my lymes test, but for now i am feeling more energised. I have put some timber on over the last two months which i am optimisically hoping will magically disappear now i am more active.

This week should be more of the same - indoors during the week and outdoors at the weekend. N Wales trad and sport is hopefully on the cards.

We mentioned previously, but just to say from the bank holiday we are then in Yorkshire for a week followed by lakes for two weeks if you are around. 

If you have an "andy........s84@" email address or a phone number ending 94 for me those are still current - drop me a line of you want to do anything.

Great time! Well done

PS you're not old yet

I'll take a look after. 

We're around this weekend but the next couple of weekends we're looking at getting away - destination unknown. We may even end up in the Lakes for some vanning and trad so lets stay in touch. 

Hey! Thanks as always Alan - sorry it's been a while since I last posted, work has just been so manic! The good news is that things should calm down a bit in a few weeks (or at least I hope..). Not the best period of training, and I've picked up an annoying wrist tweak that won't go away - given everything I may take a week off next week to reset? Seems wise..

M - rest

T - floor core, stretches

W - rest

T - board session: the mini-MB is kicking my arse at the moment! Ah well, I suppose the plus side is it makes other forms of climbing feel relatively straightforward in comparison? Then stretches and volume pull-ups

F - rest

S - 5 on 3 off, then linked boulders

S - board pauses

M: pretty knackered from yesterday’s massive walk but more concerning was the state of my feet. Towards the end of the walk I taped my big toe but evidently that rubbed against the other one creating quite a deep sore. My big toe arthritis was more painful than ever so I could barely walk. Needless to say a setting up camp and rest day near Reif. 
T: Bandaged the toe, necked some painkillers and scrambled the Stac Pollaidh traverse. Fortunately fairly short walk up and the hill/scramble lived up to expectations, stunning and the bad step means I had the summit to myself. 
W: Was supposed to be a rest day but the forecast for the end of the week was for high wind so more painkillers and tape and we headed for Suilven. This was Fi’s main objective no chance we wouldn’t do it. Alpine start to get parking but as it turns out that’s not a problem and luckily you can now park at the lodge which knocks a mile off in either direction. Again stunning hill and views, I thought I’d nip to the ‘other’ summit and was very surprised to find this was a very exposed scramble, felt quite adventurous and again got to enjoy some solitude on what is a relatively busy hill (for the far north of Scotland, it’s not like Tryfan!)

T: Windy so we had a look around the cliffs of Reif (no intention of climbing) then drove Norht for some sight seeing which was, you guessed it, stunning. Saw lots of huge cliffs (including what looked like it would be a brilliant limestone sport cliff) that aren’t in UKC logbook.

F: Rain overnight so drove back through more stunning terrain. 
S: Depot Manc, but aimless as there’s nothing new I can do, managed one purple (oddly in the new section where I can’t do most of the reds). 
S: Stockport lead wall, 9 tie ins. Lots of doggging but got on some harder routes (7a+7b) and didn’t feel out classed. Keen to go back. Fi paid for a sports massage for me after being stuck in a van listening to me whinge for a week, she will have been pleased with how much it hurt!