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/

This week's Pysche Vid. I assume all of us who are have opinions about how the Olympic climbing went as a whole, which we will not be discussing here. But THE event of the week for me was clearly Akiyo "not retired just yet" Noguchi's flash of the desperate W4 in the qualis on Tuesday.  I have no idea how/if it might be possible to access Olympic replays in the UK, but if you haven't seen it yet, and you can, then see it. It starts about 3:05:40 in the livestream.  

AJM - wrt to your planche ambitions: I watched some of the Tokyo gymnastics, and was struck by how many of the strongest gymnasts in the world opted for straddle planches, and how few successful full planches I saw. Not to mention one or two failed full planche attempts.

Ally Smith - good tick on the V10. Hope the gut is back to behaving itself.

biscuit - return of the psyche is good to hear. Did you get back on Electric Warrior?

Liam P - very respectable amount of training fitted in around the domestic circumstances. I think all 40° woody grades are sandbagged until one gets used to the particular style. But the same can also be said of "easy" slabs in Font for example.

Ross Barker - Hope the elbow continues to behave itself; I have been carefully avoiding looking at any close up footage of Bassa Mawem's accident. Any plans lined up for your trip next week?

Si dH - sounds like the finger and the hip mobility are both coming along nicely

Somerset swede basher - decently active week there. I get reminded of how crap I am on granite (or gneiss) whenever the weather drives me south across the border into Austria

Steve Claw - priorities on a family holiday are what they are. I hope the kids enjoyed the sandcastles.

Tom Green - at least enough there for a better-than-nothing maintenance week. Hope this week went better.

Tyler - wise words regarding there being no substitute for time on rock.

AlanLittle - good bouldering sessions, both on the board and on the rope on Saturday. An actual send on Saturday would have been better still though.
 

Cheers Alan, a similar week this week with plenty of activity but not much climbing due to the weather and limited time on holiday.

Mon. Rest.

Tues. Went to  Trewortha Tor and mostly got scared on things that probably weren't as high as they felt! Elephant's Arse (f4+) provided some significant fear where I tried to layback the whole way then chickened out towards the top and tried to get in the offwidth, realised I couldn't, leading to a traumatic top out! Lots of high(ish) easy stuff that didn't feel as easy as id have liked it to. The Blob (f4+) was also very good. 

Wed. 10km run early doors and 12km walk in the eve but with 3 pub stops for liquid refreshments! 

Thurs. Rest.

Fri. 3km run with Mrs Swede and 1km swim.

Sat. 32km Road bike.

Sun. 3km run with Mrs. Swede and 1km swim. Drove from Cornwall to Somerset later on. Hopefully get some better weather next week. 

Thanks Alan.

M: nada

T:  evening - hip mobility routine, 3* 30 second density hangs, 4*10 second mono lifts on each finger,  5*5 one arm scap pull-ups with theraband assistance.

W: evening - 4*10 TRX hamstring curls, 4*8 copenhagens on each side, 5*5 one arm scap pull-ups with theraband assistance.

T:  evening - 3* 30 second density hangs, 4*10 second mono lifts on each finger, 5*3 power pull-ups.

F: evening - 4*10 TRX hamstring curls, 4*8 copenhagens on each side, 5*5 one arm scap pull-ups with theraband assistance.

S: rest

S: morning - hip mobility routine, warm-up and 3* 30 second density hangs at home, then a couple of hours bouldering at the Hangar. Fun session doing a few v5/6s and trying a couple of problems from a recent comp that were about mauling big volumes and using hard-to-spot body positions.

Similar sort of week to last week really.

This coming week will be extremely busy at work so I will probably have a lighter training week. Then I'm away with family in the lakes for a week so will probably try to get out once or twice for a quick boulder.

Si

Cheers for statting! Elbow is completely fine, as if nothing even happened. Finger is still going strong, should be good enough for some Northumbrian crimps! Next week the plan is to head up to Northumberland, pick up another pad on the way, and fall off a load of boulders and consume loads of sugar. Get in!

Last Week:

M - Contrast baths.

T - Rest.

W - Gym session. First time locally in a couple weeks, felt I lost my burl quite quickly but fingers were fine, so a decent session overall. Contrast baths. 

T - Rest.

F - Rest.

S - Cave session with Ally, learning the tricks of kneebar wizardry. Still much to learn! Managed a new 6C+ I'd not done yet, and had a few decent burns at some harder stuff. Contrast baths.

S - Morning core.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T onwards - Lots of climbing, I reckon!

Goals:

Rehabilitate finger (going rather well).

Reckless.

Rigpa.

Thank you Alan.

Another week all over place as I'm away lots, so can't get regular training. The rest of the month isn't looking any better.

M - Still on holiday, so nothing

T - Drove home, basic BW Stuff. 3x25 Press-up, 3 x 10 Pull-up  3x20 Dips

W - working near Cheddar, so took Rope solo kit up to the Remnant. Tried both The Wrist Business (7c+) and Right-Hand Man (8a), however I just don't have what it takes to do these types of moves on steep ground.

T - Indoor session. First fingerboard in a while, 10s hangs +10kg with 1m planks during the 2m rest. Followed by a real go at the Woody. Made up my own problem that was easy enough I could do it, and practiced technique. As Ally and other have said its about staying square on, so did that, toe in well and press hard as you go. It really worked, I managed to stay on! Did the problem 4 times per side (8 Total with good rests). looking forward to progressing on this (however I'm still a bit sore 3 days later)

Fri-Sun - Took my boys to Scout camp, and stayed as a helper. Not done any Scout stuff before, but have to say they really are good with them, teaching skills, independence etc, and allowing them to experience danger in controlled situations.

Cheers Alan. Hope you had a good one in Frankenjura. Much more of the same this week - a few trips to the wall between baby wrangling. My big ticks were a Frenchie 3x3 and an almost 6c+ Woody Send (which means it’s likely over-graded).

Mon

• 4sec Frenchies 3,3,3 (will up the lock-off time to 5sec)
• 3x 5 Pseudo Planche Push-ups 
• 20x pulls on the Woody. Found a good PE Project. A crimpy 6c+ that I can climb both halves of but not link. Psyched.

Wed

• 5x IYTs
• 5sec Frenchies 1,1,1
• 6x pulls on the Woody proj

Thu

• 5x IYTs
• 5sec Frenchies 3x 1&1/3
• 10x Woody proj
• TRX Core 15s
• Rings Turned Out Push-ups 3x3. First time trying these and would highly recommend if you’re in to the ‘Overcoming Gravity’ routines. Seem like a good step towards RTO Dips which feel impossible at the minute.

This week will see more work on the 6c+ Woody Project and I should finally get around to hanging my fingerboard in the new house. 

Have a good week!

Cheers Alan. Yeah, that’s interesting about the planches - I guess Steven Low from Overcoming Gravity does say that a good form full planche is really hard (far more so than using a few cheats/poorer form versions) so maybe at the standards required for a gymnastics competition it’s hard enough not to be worth the risk...

Week started well and then went downhill. A small silver lining with a good wall session today. 

Next week will be difficult, although if I try to look at a half full glass the weather looks good and all the rest of us can still leave the house, so I’m hoping to get out. And self isolation doesn’t extend so far as to ruin our holiday next week, which is a blessing.

Monday - rest

Tuesday - Liquid Sun session #4. Met Si (the guy with the dreads from the videos I linked) down there. He was trying Frankenstein, which is a fully chipped pocket problem just round the corner on the old bolt on boulder with some bizarre moves. Looked kind of cool even if entirely artificial. I picked up a useful beta tweak from him on Liquid Sun - adding in another heel move, and for some reason I can’t quite fathom having the heel on a slightly better hold makes the “toe scum to shuffle heel” move feel way more solid. The only thing I can think is it’s actually the different hand position - slightly better hands allows you to roll the weight onto the feet better maybe. Anyway, this proved the key to unlocking a far more steady sequence on the first half. On my best go I got to within a few moves of the end - if the heel had stayed on I think there was a hand move, then a toe/heel shuffle to get the heel onto “the jug” (all is relative. It is not really a jug), then the finishing rockover begins which uses probably 3 more handholds.

Wednesday - rest

Thursday - feeling wiped, microAJM keeping us up at night

Friday - I had in my mind trying to work out some sort of training session involving dynamism on the rubbish dome feet on the board - sort of trying to mash up campus training and keeping tension through the feet. I couldn’t seem to get it to work on the campus rungs - the feet kept coming off, I guess too much reliance on momentum perhaps. I set a problem on the board itself which certainly felt like I was having to push hard through the feet and which involved a bit of popping between holds. I can’t help think this sort of session would be good to get right, I’m not sure this was 100% it but good to have a go.

Saturday - MrsAJM not feeling tip top, I had a bit of a perma headache so a bit of a battle of a day keeping the tiny terrors entertained. Not much done. Helped MrsAJM finish a rack to tidy up my weights and other training clutter, and screwed a couple more holds onto the top of the board. Could really do with sorting the second row of feet out really...

Sunday - the plan had been to wait for the morning rain to pass then get back out on Liquid Sun. However I was feeling wiped again - maybe caught some of what MrsAJM has. And our day and entire pre holiday plan was rather upset by the news that microAJM has to self isolate all this coming week due to Covid at nursery (plus it’s closed for miniAJM some of the time too due to lack of staff). Work and child wrangling means a heavy week ahead. After a failed attempt to nap after lunch, I took miniAJM to the wall - no real expectations, pre-bought sessions expiring soon so might as well, keeps him occupied for a bit. Actually had a surprisingly solid session. Maybe I should have gone outside! Last hour of the last session before the reset and I ticked both my main outstanding projects - some green lozenges on the comp wall with a big rockover on a heel on a volume, and some wide slopey orange pinches on the 30 where the key seemed to be to squeeze both sides of a pinch with the feet just hard enough (pull too hard with the heel and you came up short, pull too little and the feet cut) and then to get the feet up to pop into an undercut.

STG: plan autumn sport trip, assuming no delta 4th wave / 3rd lockdown
STG: Board power phase: any moonboard benchmark, kilterboard 6A @ 40°
MTG: Summer 2021: Fill out my couple-of-goes pyramid around the 6c-ish level before moving back onto harder projects. 
MTG: Autumn 2021 sport trip. 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. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Half an hour box step-ups - just in case I get any alpine weekends in this summer, although with continual huge thunderstorms, and giving priority to sport climbing, that's looking increasingly unlikely

T: Olympic qualis livestream (and actual meetings!) put paid to my lunchtime kilter board session today. Evening moonboard session instead. And ... starting to feel like I might actually be getting somewhere! Four 6A+'s, three of them flashed. (No benchmarks yet though)

W: 
T: Busy all evening with domestic stuff; managed a quick set of max hangs before bed
F: Bike 45 minutes

S: Frankenjura, Leienfels. A minor crag but with a couple of classic 6b's that I've had my eye on for a while. Seemed like a good way of easing myself back into the climbing style & bolt spacing, since I've barely spent any time there since before the pandemic. Got one of the 6b's second go just before rain stopped play a couple of hours earlier than forecast - a good reminder of just how much easier Frankenjura routes are once you know which pockets are the good ones.

S: Frankenjura. Not raining, but cool & cloudy - not ideal drying conditions. Mooched around the Krottenseer Forest looking for dry rock. Didn't find much at the (damp) Maximilianswand or (soaking wet) Vierte Dimension. Stood underneath Wallstreet and Action Directe & admired somebody's project draws. Finally found a couple of dry - and excellent - routes at the Spitzer Turm and was pleased with a third go redpoint of Sempre Pace (6c+) just before the next thundery shower rolled in.

STG thoughts: my board power phase has gone well, I'm definitely feeling more confidence & oomph at forty degrees than I was when I started. Surprised to look in my log and see that it's been ten weeks - in the past I've generally plateaued out long before that. Maybe do one more session each on kilter & moon to actually successfully complete the STG. But then time to get started on some serious aerocap work - the clock is already ticking towards an autumn sport trip.
 

I wrote my planche comments after watching the combined final. I subsequently watched the actual rings final with the real rings boiz - little stumpy legs and a positive ape index on their shoulders alone. THEY could do full planches.

Hi all. Thanks for the statting Alan -glad you got a good weekend in.

A better week this week -only dropped one planned session (fingerboard).

Week 31:

M: Climbing at LLanymynech. Clip-sticked up Jack the Smuggler, then a couple of laps on top-rope solo just so I don't forget the moves. Felt hard, hopefully just because I forgot my chalk (idiot!) and the thin crimps are quite polished!

T: Hill run. 9.5km, 373m vert, 7:09/km. Felt hard on the steep untracked stuff.

W: Fingerboarding.

T: Board session. Limit bouldering then aerocap circuits. Felt surprisingly strong given that I've mainly been pootling around on real rock this summer. Turns out rock climbing is good training for the plastic! ;-p

F: Nowt

S: Hill Run. 13.6km, 436m vert, 6:40/km. Atrocious weather and doing this fasted made it feel a bit attritional!

S: Nowt 

Week 32:

M: Run

T: Climb 

W: Prehab

T: Fingerboard

F: Run 

S: Core & Prehab

S: Fingerboard

STG (End August):

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

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

Red Square (E2) and Black Wall (E1 5b)

Edale Skyline

2021 Goals:

35 E-points -currently miles off this, need to get out more.

Run 30km vert and 1000km -got a LOT to do to get these, but heading in the right direction!

Right, back on it again after a couple of weeks of minimal exercise. Kept up with pool time but very little in the way of running and cycling. However with the sprint tri a month away it really is time to get my arse into action!

On the plus side last weekend was spent in Essex collecting our first caravan resulting in a first tow of 120 miles back to Leicestershire. Thankfully all went well and we have already booked a couple of weekends away in Dora

Monday, knackered from the previous days towing etc. so pottered around sorting the caravan out. Moved the internal layout around a wee bit so the kids get a bigger sleeping area.

Tuesday, 1km swim and 6.5km run

Wednesday, 1km swim and 6.5km run

Thursday, 1km swim, the pool has been very quiet of late however today there was someone i knew in and quite a good swimmer so an incentive to up the pace and put in the effort. Pleased to put in a 16 minute km so pretty much up to pace. Followed the swim with a stretch class

Friday, 1km swim

Saturday, rest day. Kids had friends over so spent most of the afternoon making bespoke pizzas 

Sunday, nice 5km run with the wife.

Roped solo on steeper ground is a PITA. Even top rope / high clip with a clip-stick can be an arse pulling into positions from a top rope - great to find holds but lead dog is best way to actually work moves on steep ground.

Get in! :-D (Apart from the DOMS bit!)

Thanks once again for the weekly stats Alan. 

Week 31

M – Gorge. 3 repeats of a bone dry and clean The Smoking Gnu (6c) while making 3 laps up roof project, making some chunky links and familiarising myself with the choss headwall of Cave Wall (E4 6a). The last 20ft is particularly "New Quarry" in solidity.

T – Short bench-press session; 5x5 60kg.

W – Aero-power Broken Quarters. Less pumped than Monday night efforts.

I need to make a more sustained downclimb as despite using the harder side of my wooden circuit I didn’t get that pumped doing 7B->down, 7A+->down, 7A->down, 7A->down. Failed on the last up move of last problem in 4th and final set.

T – Nothing

F –  Also nothing - travelling

S – Visiting in-laws. Wet weather meant  The Dug Out was the only real option. Surprisingly dark and humid in the hole with leaves on the trees. Tried the Sub Moron (f7C+) and had some semi-successful furtles but in reality was miles off. Struggled like mad with Doug's Belly (f7A+) until locating a key foothold hidden in the gloom. Feeling tired by now but after a couple of abortive starts got through that bit, only to dab the central (out of bounds) pillar. Decided to continue and got surprisingly good rests at the start of the 7A crack and halfway along the lip traverse. With Ross doing a fine impression of the Dave Graham “fan-man” I somehow recovered here enough to link in the final 7A/+ boulder and (not really) complete FA of that link. Sodding dab! Needless to say, I was spent by then and shoulder was grumbling too.

S – Nothing. Roast dinner gluttony to compound the steak dinner from Saturday. Annoyingly, groin tweak seems to have come back. Going to be very vigilant with this as it cocked up my climbing for 18mths last time it was full blown tendonitis.

I agree, and rarely do things that steep on TRS. However, I use a semi static and a Taz Lov3 that does get round the bouncy rope issue, and moving down.

Just had my 2nd proper go on the Woody, at Flashpoint this time and really stoked with progress, worked up through the grades and did a 7a!  The one in Redpoint is definitely harder to use, (or Flashpoint grades are softer).

Cheers Alan. Sterling statto effort as ever.

The last week turned into an unexpected rest/performance week, which is predicting good things for the trips we’ve got booked. I wanted to be in primo condition (for me) for a Chapel Head session on Wednesday so took two rest days – then it rained and was really hot on Wednesday. So we went tradding and I then treated the two wall sessions as fun sessions with no structure.

On the subject of booked trips our hopes of Arco have been dashed. Italy are requiring quarantine on arrival and will not review that until end of August. We were due to go on 2nd September. Too close for comfort. Sorry Alan, that could have been a great meet up.

So the holiday roulette wheel, mounted on a merry go round, continues! We’re now going to Costa Blanca on 18th Sept. El Chorro is still looking good for October, hopefully.

M – Regeneration hangs, mobility

T – Mobility

W – Trad at Black Crag, Wrynose. Good day out. VS, HVS, HVS, E1, E2, E3, E2 were the grades. I led the E2’s and E3. Yellow Fever (E2 5b), Needle Arete (E3 5c), Glass Slipper (E2 5b).

All felt fine pleasingly. I spent about 15 mins faffing with gear before the crux on the first E2 only to discover a bomber No 8 one move further on, but I never felt in trouble or struggled, which was a very nice way to spend a trad day. I seem to be getting my trad head back.

T – Mobility

F – Kendal wall – 6a, 6a+, 6b, 6c+, 7a all onsight on the big wall. Very pleased with the 7a as it was an Emma Twyford route and they’re generally nails – which it was.

I tried her 7b but got shut down then tried a short and punchy 7a+ on a wall that is dual auto belay/lead. It appears clipping wasn’t in the setters mind. I gave up when resting for the 3rd time.

S – Rest

S – Boulder UK – great session – 4 x V6’s and 2 xV7’s. BOOM!

I currently feel in about the same shape as I did in April before I got ill. It feels good. I was excited then for the Summer ahead. Now I’m excited for the Autumn of clipping bolts in the sun – hopefully. I need to figure out what to focus on. Onsight attempts/quick ticks make sense. But I’d also like to look at in a day targets where I’d clip my way up something and try moves etc and have 3 or 4 burns in a day.

If possible we may well come back to Costa Blanca at Xmas so I may use the chance to pick a multi-day project to come back for.

Nice! Pretty solid week for a rest week!

Cheers - it was a rest/performance week  

One of those days where the guide says 5c and i thought 5b (UKC says 5b i notice but votes say otherwise). Then i thought needle arete was a 5c not a 6a move (UKC again says 5c but with votes saying 6a) and Glass Slipper felt about 4c. Just a good day. Keen to push on a bit - by which i mean consolidate at trad and start trying hard on sport.

I stand by then (for me) but as I discovered this week there’s a time and a place….

M: Deserved rest

T: Was going to rest again and but a friend wanted to get out so I thought I ought to take the opportunity of a belay to get on the route seeing as how it was going to rain the rest of the week. Put the clips into the penultimate bolt (wet above) without a stick ok (first time) but felt pretty wasted. It was getting on by the time I had my next/proper go and fell very low. As it was getting gloomy I lowered off to give Neil more of a chance  I don’t usually go backwards on projects but I was out at one of the most atmospheric  crags in the England on a school night so not much to complain about.

W: Rest

T: Yoga - at last!

F: No yoga - boo

S: Stockport - New routes but still no OS harder than 6c but felt I climbed well despite that and 8 tie ins is an improvement  

S: Decided to sack off climbing and went to gym. Treadmill 5km @2% in 30 mins, a bit dispiriting but to be expected 3kms on rowing in 14mins then walk on treadmill @15% for 150m vert. Also did 3x5 bench press @20kg, not sure why and not sure why this feels so much harder than doing more weight with dumbbells, or was I just knackered? 

Sorry to hear about the cancelled Arco trip.

We're currently thinking in the direction of Leonidio in November, but I'd only put the odds at about 60:40 that we're not in lockdown again & actually able to go.