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_745-7363...

Psyche Vid: finishing this up while watching the Villars lead final replay. Was thinking I'd unable to be psyched at the prospect of Janja (I assume) effortlessly cruising everything again. But then: Megos in the mist - amazing performance in what looks like appalling conditions youtube.com/watch?v=M9XDP0aj7G4&t=2356 Happy to see local-ish boy Sebastain Halenke doing well too - I remember years ago watching him & not-yet-famous Megos facing off against each other as teenagers in local bouldering comps 

AJM - glad to hear the DWS season is off to a good start. Did you get anything done in the Peak on your family visit?

Ally Smith - any decision on an ambitious DWS target?

biscuit - "Tried The Bloods (7a+) ... but still another bolt would be nice". I often think that on old school Frankenjura classics. Often just one extra bolt would make the whole thing quite reasonable - it doesn't have to be like at the wall. Hope the tweaky elbow is behaving?

Liam P - glad to hear parenthood is going well. Very respectable amount of training in the circumstances.

planetmarshall - was listening to a podcast with Tom Randall in the car yesterday, in which he was very sceptical about combining a serious amount of running effort with climbing training. But I guess if you enjoy the trail runs and they're not pushing you too hard ...

Ross Barker - so, learning to tolerate if not love modern indoor setting? Did you get any sessions in this week?

Si dH - "Sorry for all the slightly depressing waffle!" - not feeling alone with those thoughts & feelings is a large part of what this is for.

Somerset swede basher - hope the new finger tweak doesn't amount to too much?

the sheep - on your bike sunshine!

Tyler - another vote for "Ixtlan doesn't look much like bouldering to me". The toe & ankle issues must be frustrating

AlanLittle - don't worry too much about disappointing performance in shit conditions. Will be interesting to see if the board strategy pays off.

Thanks Alan!

In climbing terms, a rest week. I packed climbing stuff for the weekend but with the weather trimming a bunch of the outdoor time (especially first thing in the morning, which would have been the best time) there just wasn’t space to fit it in. Another time...

Monday - stuck with everyone at home, awaiting a Covid test for miniAJM who had a hacking cough. 

Tuesday - negative test, so they could go back to nursery, but catching up on Monday took up the free time

Wednesday - work drinks for a friend leaving, plus packing

Thursday - drove to southern peak, went for a very pleasant walk in Dovedale

Friday - nice weather - farm tour in the morning (miniAJM an enormous fan of sitting in the tractor, unsurprisingly), then pub lunch and paddling in the river at Youlgreave

Saturday - grey and wet to start and finish, but in the middle we managed to sneak to Matlock Bath, meet Rebecca briefly, and do some good strolling and pottering

Sunday - touristing in Derby plus the drive home

A nice long weekend, even if non climbing. Not quite sure how this week will pan out. I’m booked in for the wall on Tuesday, then my parents are down the second half of the week and my in-laws at the weekend. The main job whilst they are able to entertain the children is constructing the home wall for miniAJM (and me!). If I can, I’d like to fit some climbing around that as well, but I think the wall has to be the priority since we need to have the children out of the way to do the build.

Bit of a conditions/planning cockup this weekend. Didn't make plans to go out because of an iffy weather forecast, then the weather actually turned out pretty much perfect for the first time after weeks of heat & humidity. Oops. But still managed a good day out in the mountains - reminding myself that sport climbing isn't everything - and a couple of solid wall sessions. Could have been worse.

STG: Fill out my couple-of-goes pyramid around the 6c-ish level before moving onto to any more harder projects.
MTG: Autumn 2021 trip planning - a group of my DAV buddies are planning a trip to Leonidio in November so that looks like my plan sorted (assuming no fourth wave / third lockdown). Ditch the lockdown weightbelt (3 to 5 kgs) beforehand and get fit 
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber by 2021. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: bike one hour
T: Boulderwelt, kilter board. A good session, in which my 40° flash grade rises to the giddy heights of 5B. Still focusing on things I think I can flash / get in a couple of goes, in order to get mileage in and get my body used to the board style of movement. Also because projecting things that initially feel hopeless is so discouraging - will have to get back to doing it some time though (MTG: Bleak House on the moonboard) Skin is proving a bit of challenge in the humid weather, both at the crag at the weekend and today on the board.

W: Rings: supports, l-sits, skin the cats, false grip hangs.
T: bike 40 minutes

F: Boulderwelt, kilter board. Flashed a couple of 5C's at 40°, feels like I'm starting to get to grips with the whole board movement style thing. So I can do two decent board sessions in a week, as long as they're three days apart instead of three - but that only fits into the week if I'm not climbing on Saturday.

S: Hillwalking in the Kaisergebirge, Ackerlspitze.
S: Wall, Freimann. Tired and legs aching from yesterday,so a fairly relaxed comfort zine session - eight routes around 6a+/b, and some falling practice.

Thanks Alan. 

M: rest

T: evening - 3* 30 second density hangs, 4*10 second mono lifts on each finger (10 kg with pinkies, 15 kg the rest), 5*5 1-arm scap pull-ups with theraband assistance.

W: evening - 4*10 hamstring curls, 4*10 copenhagens each side.

T:  evening - same as Tuesday. Left shoulder felt a bit weaker on the scap pull-ups than earlier in the week.

F:  evening - 3* 30 second density hangs, 4*10 second mono lifts on each finger (10 kg with pinkies, 15 kg the rest), 5*5 1-arm scap pull-ups with theraband assistance, 4 * 10 hamstring curls, 4 * 10 copenhagens on each side.

S-S: weekend away camping with Sol, no climbing or training.

Si

Thanks Alan, finger mending well, will take it easy still this week just to make sure.

Mon. Rest

Tues. Some traversing about for fitness at rubicon. Repeated all the traverses in both directions. 

Wed. 8km walk with a big bag. 22km roadbike spin.

Thurs. 8km walk with a big bag.

Fri. Some more traversing around. Managed to get next level pumped!

Sat. 9km run.

Sun. Rest. 

Thanks for the stats Alan

M: Brief visit to the Cuttings as we moved camp to Durdle Door. Lead up Another Notch in the Gun (6b) which was unusually (in my limited experience) pretty straightforward for Dorset. Also excellent. On the way down I worked the crux on Live by the Sword (7a+). I worked out an unlikely sequence then tried from the ground on TR, fell once but didn’t feel like I’d do any better with another attempt, excellent route with brilliant holds and rock in the top third. 

T: DWS acclimatisation training (I went in the sea 3x for three minutes!)

W: DWS acclimatisation training

T: DWS acclimatisation training

F: TRing at Winspit. Shut down by one 7a, got another after stick clipping up it and flashed a 6c on TR.

S: DWS acclimatisation training (now up to 9 min reps!)

S: Kilnsey 2x TR Face Value (without boulder start)

Bolt to bolt on Vizzy Vu (7b) then one TR when I had to dog the top groove. 2x TR Face Value (without boulder start). Pleasantly sociable albeit a bit muggy (spectacular lighting for a bit too). Toes very sore.

Back to work this week which is a shame after two weeks off. Really love the climbing in Dorset, really interesting moves on routes at all grades (and obviously the weather is better than up here as well!)

Cheers Alan. May have spoken too early about the chilled out Baby! A few long nights this week, but he likes a walk in the pram which makes me feel remotely useful. 

Total Pram Shunting - 3:45

Mon:

• Route Pyramid - 10x routes up to 6a+
• 3x1 Frenchies

Tue:

• 4x12 7:3 Repeaters (40mm)
• 3x6 Psuedo Planche Push-up (Feet on Swiss Ball)

Wed:

• 3x1 Frenchies
• 3 sets: 50” Swiss Ball Plank, 45” Side Plank, 30” superman hold, 3 Leg Lowers

Thu: 

• 3x2 Frenchies 
• 10x Woody. After 5 sessions I’ve finally made some progress! Linked 0-1-2, 1-2-3-touched the top hold. Just need to hold the finish then link the moves. I’d like to say this was due to strength gainZ but I swapped out some stiff downturned Solutions for my old baggy Evolvs.

Fri:

Made a 9” Pinch Block with some offcut and an eye-bolt (I’m still staggered Lattice charge £60 for these!)

• 3x6 7:3 Pinch Repeaters (12kg)

Sat:

• 3 sets of AeroCap Circuits (3, 2, 1)

Got a house move this week so I’ll see what I can squeeze in!

Difficult to know how much the conditions affected the men’s finals but the women’s final was amazing!

Yeah - but then I guess it depends what kind of level you're trying to achieve? No one is ever going to achieve extremes of performance at both scales - no one is going to be doing 9a sport routes at 8000m, or V15 boulders with a speed ascent of the Eiger - but I think it's perfectly possible to combine modest gains in both disciplines, particularly if your aim is intrinsically cross-disciplinary like Alpinism, UK Mountain Trad or Scottish Winter.

100% agree with that. You have to be able to at least get to the start of the route in a reasonable state. There was an interview with Üli Steck in DAV Panorama a few years back where he said baseline fitness for high level alpinism was the simultaneous ability to climb at 8a and run a sub-3 marathon.

I recall reading about a team involving Yuji & Daniel Woods doing one at over 4000m in Borneo. Not one for the your LTG lists folks, it subsequently fell down in an earthquake.

Last Week - Lattice Week 8 (Recovery)

Missed the benchmarks I was supposed to do this week in favour of getting a few days in the mountains.

Wednesday

Drive up to the Lakes. Took the drive over the Honnister Pass which was great, if mentally exhausting. Late arrival at Wasdale

Thursday

Lazy morning start. Hoofed gear up to  Scafell Crag and somehow managed to persuade Eli that Central Buttress (E1 5b) would make a good first multipitch experience. Took the Great Flake direct (mystified why you'd want to do anything else - but I did take a No.5 Camalot with me) so actually Central buttress (Original) (E3 5c) - though E3 seems extraordinarily generous, with the big cam it still feels around E1 to me (or Peak HVS). The fact that I found the "strenuous layback" fairly straightforward is maybe a suggestion that some of this strength training is paying off, or I may just be climbing better.

Routefinding was tricky, as it's a route you do for the history, not the line - found myself on P4 of Ringwraith (E6 6b) at one point which was less than ideal. Managed to reverse and get back onto the route proper. Another Hard Rock tick (not that I'm counting...).

Friday

A slightly more relaxing day for me with Tophet Wall (HS 4b), and Eli's chance to lead her first multipitch climbing. Camped up on the Bealach between Great Gable and Kirkfell

Saturday

Started to chuck it down midmorning so abandoned any prospect of any more climbing and headed back down to the valley for a steak sandwich and (half) pint. 

Definitely feeling a bit rusty on multipitch systems. Had the chance to practice both block leading (led all pitches on Central Buttress) and swinging leads (P2 on Tophet Wall) - opened up my copyof Coley and Kirkpatrick's "High" as soon as I got home for a refresher. Definitely a few things I'd forgotten.

Last Week's goals

• Try and get a couple of days in the mountains, Lakes or Snowdonia. - Done
• 13km trail run or equivalent - Done (Counting the mountain approaches as "equivalent")

This Week's goals

• Do missed benchmarks from last week
• Lattice Week 9 - back on the training wagon
• Two leads at E1 or above
• Two sport routes at 6b or above
• 30km trail running (10% increase) - split this into 3 runs

Is this the one on the RedBull Documentary? Dan Woods tries to lecture Yuji about his purchase of 60x Snickers and Factor 50 Sun Cream. It cuts to 2 days later and El Gringo No LikeO!

Nothing more than idle wonderings - Prime DWS venues (Devon, Dorset & Pembroke) are an awful long way away and it'll probably be another year before I do anything in that style again...

Back to work today and back to training for local projects.

Week 25

M – 20min Moonboarding (6B+ to 7A) as warm-up for fingerboard session:

F3SHC (BW+8kg) 7s x4 (felt a tiny bit tweaky, so backed off 2 kg)

B3 (BW+35kg) 7s x4

M2 deep (BW+35kg) 10s x4

All these felt a bit harder than last week, even with slightly lower weights. Beastmaker definitely flexing a bit more than normal.

T – Aero-power boulder intervals (20x 6C/+ benchmarks in 20min).

W – Drive to Devon.

T – Lovely walk to Budleigh Salterton, though path wasn’t a pram friendly as advertised.

F – More walks.

S – 26 star day of DWS and 2x routes at Coastguard North. Hardest DWS to date with a flashy OS of Underbare extension (7B+).

S – Fairly shattered from yesterday and Squiggle not sleeping super well in holiday accommodation. Brief shopping pootle and evening to Beaver watching on the local river.

Week 26

M – More holidaying.

T – Walk along cliffs at Ladram bay.

W – Drive home.

T – Board session. Warm/greasy and felt off the pace. Managed 3x 7B.

F – Rucksack walk with Squiggle in and around Youlgreave/Alport (Pure coincidence AJM was in same vicinty).

S – More boarding: Started with Fingerboard: 1-arm max-hangs (BW-11kg) and finished with aero-power boulder intervals (20x 6C/+ benchmarks in 20min). Try and up this to 6C+/7As next time?

S – Very wet 32km ride with Artists Lane climb. Later, 10x 7/6/3/1 aero-cap @~40% and some static hold core.

Is that how style is defined these days when you've already climbed all but about fifteen feet in the middle of the route

(More seriously, out of curiousity, I had been led to believe that it was easier to get to the top out of Underbare by continuing down and left from the kneebar on Hooked than it was to get there along Underbare itself i.e. that the second half of the Underbare Extension traverse was a lot easier than the first. Is that right, or not?)

Can't really call it OS as I'd done the underbare bit already. Not really a flash either as the beta provided was useless!

That ext bit was certainly harder and pumpier than the Hooked traverse, but a chunk easier than the Underbare pockets.

Why does SHC stand fro in F3SHC?

That Hooked->Underbare link is vaguely on my list to have a look at at some point. Presumably fills in the otherwise large grade gap between Hooked and Bare Rep, since 6b-> 7a+ is a pretty big step especially given how crimpy Bare Rep is!

"Took the Great Flake direct (mystified why you'd want to do anything else - but I did take a No.5 Camalot with me) so actually Central buttress (Original) (E3 5c) - though E3 seems extraordinarily generous, with the big cam it still feels around E1 to me (or Peak HVS)."

Because its brilliant!  Teetering across the front of the flake is really exposed, the route isn't obvious which seeds doubt in your mind and it would be tricky to reverse once you commit to it.  When we went up the whole of the flake was wet so direct with no big cams wouldn't have been a wise option.  I suspect that is the experience of many who choose to go left.  I remember it really well as it was my first big mountain route.  The scariest bit was watching my partner lead one of the easier top groove pitches, the hand jams were slimey and his feet were like road runner in the ming!  Glad I didn't have to lead that bit.  I think its one of those routes that gives you a full value day out whatever way you go.

I wondered that too- strict half crimp?

Front 3 Strict Half Crimp - i.e. my weakest grip

Hi FitClub. Thanks Alan. Sorry for the no-show last week.

Two similar weeks -a lot of work, poor training, but some good climbing days.

Week 25:

M: Long work day.

T: Long work day.

W: Max Hangs.

T: Nowt (a bit of a tennis knock-about!).

F: Long work day.

S: Hill Run. 8.6km, 343m vert, 5:59/km.

S: Nowt.

Week 26:

M: Max Hangs.

T: Long work day.

W: Wimberry. Six routes. Highlight was Freddie's Finale (HVS 5b) although I kicked myself for forgetting my tape/tape gloves. Actually found it more awkward than anticipated -took ages to figure out how to pull up from the starting niche/ledge -it basically transpired I needed to stop trying to be clever and pull hard!

T: Long work day.

F: Nowt.

S: Llanymynech. Very chuffed to do all the moves on Jack the Smuggler (7a) on top rope. Feels like this should go with another session or two (which probably means it will take ages!).

S: Nowt.

Week 27:

Need to prioritise training over work! Looks like dodgy weather, so a good week for training.

Run x 2

Fingerboard x 2 

Strength and conditioning x 2

STG (End August):

Eliminator (V4) and Yates' Layaway (f6B+) 

Grid Iron (6c) and Jack the Smuggler (7a)

Red Square (E2) and Black Wall Direct (E2 5c)

Edale Skyline and Cheshire Gritstone Trail

2021 Goals:

35 E-points

Run 30km vert and 1000km

I'm sure I'll get the opportunity to try the other variations at some point. The route was dry as a bone and the flake is so inviting it didn't take much to convince myself it was worth a go (particularly as I'd brought No.5). Hopefully will get back up there later in the Summer, though I want to look at some of the routes on East Buttress.

Definitely worth doing the variation if you ever go back. Albeit 15 years ago now, the only bits of the route I can concretely still remember are the moves on the front of the flake and the belay at the top of it (pretty special in the mist with no-one about). They were definitely the standout part of the route. Although, I expect the same can be said of the flake route if you go that way

Good effort downgrading an E3 crack to peak HVS too

Cheers as usual for running the stats!

Love is a strong word, the centre has good sets and bad sets, but as long as I'm not having a bad day I can put up with it

Quiet week on the climbing front as we had two little non-climbing trips, but managed to wrangle a little session into our journey before the weather turned.

Last Week:

M - Rest.

T - Rest.

W - Rest.

T - Gym session. New set, mostly flashing things. Couple of nice soft V5-7 bits, didn't feel strong but I had a good time so who cares?

F - Little greasy play on The Calf boulder en route to the north. Hard stuff was all too hard, and the easy stuff had a sketch factor I wasn't too comfortable with during a solo hit. Good workout if nothing else!

S - Rest.

S - Rest.

Next Week:

​​​​​M - Rest and rehab.

T - Gym. Might go to a different one which is further away but less time sat in traffic.

W - Rest and rehab.

T - Something. Gym? Outdoors? I'll wing it.

F - Rest and rehab.

S, S - If the weather pans out then outdoors for a couple hours, else another gym hit!

Goals:

​​​​​​Rehabilitate finger.

Suavito.

Tierdrop.

Rigpa.

Cheers Alan, things seem to just be ticking over at the moment, no great desire to push pace or distance as yet.

Monday, 1.5km swim

Tuesday, 1km swim

Wednesday, 1km swim and 7km run

Thursday, 1km swim and stretch class

Friday, 1.5km swim

Saturday, was supposed to go on a group ride but eldest daughter was at a uni open day which over ran so missed the leave time. Consoled myself with pizza rugby and beer 

Sunday, more running around after kids

Perfectly legitimate, as Tom who I see has recently done Freddie's Finale (HVS 5b) will no doubt attest to.

Yep, very much enjoyed the ‘peak hvs’ comment!

(Even more so after dogging up Blue Lights Crack… that made FF feel like a path! What a sandbag at HVS!)

Is it a downgrade? I thought "grit HVS 5b" in particular was a well established box into which routes of almost all grades >HVS could comfortably sit?

There are certainly other examples. This discussion had reminded me of our contradictory opinions on Grond... undoubtedly planetmarshall should get on that next

What was my opinion of Grond at the time? My logbook comment is unhelpful as to a grade suggestion, although it reminds me that I tried to jam the bottom in an effort to play along with the idea of it being a jamming crack rather than just laybacking up the edge until it got bigger.

Guidebooks have traditionally gone for either E1 or E2, right?

It was a jamming crack, all the way. The bottom bit was easy! That was what made me laugh about your comment

My comment (I was good at cracks back then as long as I could fit my thumb in them) - "Awesome jamming crack. Fairly soft for E2? A tricky bit in the middle where the crack got a bit wide but otherwise it was more like Peak HVS? I had to shunt cams almost all the way up as only had 2 that fitted 90% of it."

I think it was all over very quickly. Most of the logbook comments seem to suggest it is hard E2. They must all be soft!

My recollection was that I couldn't really get my thumbs into the bottom, which was why I found trying to jam it difficult. I assume I was also trying to bridge, because the "4 limbs in a line" movement pattern of a jamming crack is quite alien to the unpractised, which would probably have made things harder.

Cheers Alan. The elbow is behaving but i have randomly ended up with an infected foot and the antibiotics are not agreeing with me so i don't think i'll have much to report next week.

But on the plus side last week was OK.

M - Hip and ankle mobility. Aero Cap on fingerboard

T - Nothing

W - Ancap and Aero Cap sessions on the fingerboard

T - Hip and ankle mobility

F - Mayfair wall - my plan of smashing out The Bloods and then looking at other things was de-railed through stupidity. It was V hot and 95% humidity. After 3 or 4 goes trying to figure out why i couldn't get up it when it felt OK last week the wall went into the shade properly and cooled down. Route ticked and then i had a look at the crux of Bloodsports. I think i've got a way to do it now. My skin was v sore so left it at that for the day.

S - Gogarth - great trad day planned. Forecast showed rain at 10. That happened as forecast. So if the forecast could be believed it should be dry by 2. So we went to the beacon for a mess about boulder. Got back at 2. Geared up, just about to ab in for a glorious evening of sea cliff climbing and it threw it down. Properly stormy. We hung around and got wet making sure others in our party got back out OK and retreated.

S - Got up, drove back home in the sun on a glorious day as we had family stuff to do.

Ah well. I still enjoyed the weekend away.

This week was due to be a training week due to a COVID delayed christening this weekend. I've not done anything so far due to feeling bleurgh. But my general plan is to bring back my weekly (indoor) boulder session, up the AnCap to 2 sessions per week and introduce AnPow ready for possible trips away in September and October. I'm not holding my breath though...

Training plan and MTG thoughts. 

Thinking about plans and targets for the rest of this year (assuming there's no delta wave third lockdown). I don't have anything definitely booked as yet, but the main target looks like being a sport climbing trip in October/November to somewhere endurance-y in Greece or Spain. On that trip I'd like to be confident and consistent on quick ascents of endurance pitches in the low 7's - maybe come back with three or four of them in the bag, rather than one or two as in previous years.

I won't be making my usual UK family visit in August due to delta, so sadly no FitClub summer meetups either. Thinking of trying to rustle up partners for a few days in the Dolomites instead, depending on Italian travel restrictions.

My training during the week  at the moment is mostly steep board bouldering, addressing what I see as a big power and confidence deficit on steep ground. Progressing nicely with it so far. Not sure how it fits into a scientific periodisation, but my experience with previous moonboard phases is that they're self limiting anyway. Progress always seems to hit a wall hard or even drop off after a few weeks. When it does, that would seem to be the point at which to switch to mileage-focused endurance training for the autumn trip.

Lockdown weight gain is a big issue - I'm at my lifetime weight peak and it's proving more stubborn to shift than it was last year. Need to do something about that, but in the meantime I tell myself that if I'm doing ok with the built-in weightbelt - which I am - then I'll absolutely crush when I do manage to get rid of it. We'll see.

I did a technique/movement session with a local coach back in April and have anorther one coming up in a couple of weeks - I feel like it made me more aware of some things and some of the drills and ideas he gave me are making a difference - let's see what he thinks.

You have time to make some effective changes but if you don't know where/what style that makes it a bit trickier.

My number one priority would be aerobic work. Lots of mileage to practise your technique, better recover = more days climbing on your trip and more goes each day and ability to hang around and figure sequences out and correct mistakes = more ticks.

Keep some An Cap going in the background and smash the aero pow 8 weeks before the trip.

Just my 2p. I'm great at telling people what to do, i need to get a bit more consistent at doing it myself.....