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.

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_761-7402...

AJM - the onset of seasonal gloom combined with sick kids sounds like a toughie. At least you got a couple of board sessions in

biscuit - hope the El Chorro trip is on the up after the poor sleep / rusty bolt start

Derek Furze - come on in, we don't bite

Liam P - happy Fit Club birthday. An eventful year for you - glad to see you've clearly managed to keep your training motivation gonig, and delighted if Fit Club made some contribution to that.

mattrm - one decent session at least. It's good to at least keep some basic level of ticking over going when circumstances don't allow more.

Ross Barker - shame about the poor conditions on Rigpa. Glad the bicep tweak didn't seem to amount to anything.

Si dH - interesting shoulder & finger thoughts and a solid training week. Any progress on finding the winter grit target?

Somerset swede basher - yet again I am impressed by your determination to get out and do *something* despite lousy conditions 

Steve Claw - time on rock >> time on plastic, and the opportunities for it will be reducing drastically soon enough. Right decision.

the sheep - keeping it ticking over. Do you have another event in your sights?

Tom Green - with a recent house move and work pressure, trying to get out twice - and succeeding once - is a respectable effort

AlanLittle - getting better at figuring out beta is way more important than sending or not sending any particular route on any given day
 

Thanks as ever Alan!

A good second half making up for a lacklustre start to the week. Pleased with the orange, and in general how much more solid I felt on the poor feet. 

In general I’ve been feeling a lack of structure this week. I think I actually need to set my priorities for the winter. My initial thoughts:

- shoulder shrugs and face pulls and maybe other trx work and one hand deadlifts. This doesn’t really all fit, but would all help increase levels of burl. Something from this has to go. Probably prioritise the shrugs.

- Hopefully regular at the wall, including regular board sessions. This should keep my fingers and movement skills ticking over. I bought a membership today to try to commit myself…

- Use home board to try to get back baseline fitness. That and maybe occasional high volume indoor sessions. I’ve lost work capacity for big days after several years of dws and short bouldering hits

- I would like to do enough stretching to see some sort of measurable improvement. Ditto L sit into planche and progression onward from it.

However, that’s woefully ambitious for the likely time I have!

Monday - started off ok but as the day wore on I acquired a slowly worsening headache and a feeling of being cold. May not have avoided everyone else’s grot! No exercise, bed early in the hope of sleeping it off.

Tuesday - my body was back in control of its own temperature but feeling achey. Decided more rest for the best. MicroAJM sent home from nursery due to being sick

Wednesday - took the morning off since microAJM wasn’t allowed back to nursery. General pottering with her to the shops. I’m not sure it was actually holiday as much as time shifting as I was still working gone 930pm as a result.

Thursday - home board. 

- Green and double green to get going. 

- Tried orange into double green and got half way round the second lap before flaming out.

- After a rest and a single green lap in the middle, I tried the orange on poor feet. Felt a lot more solid on this than previously, I’ve got to say. Felt like I was pushing into the feet a lot better and a lot more solidly locked into them as a result. Did it in 3 links, then into overlapping halves. There’s 4-5 moves I think to complete the link but dropping down on small crimps for a few moves at the end is a sting in the tail!

Reflecting on this after the fact - definitely pleased with progress on poor footed orange. I think maybe the interests of longer term gainz would suggest I should perhaps inject a bit more discipline into my pumpier efforts - I suspect that whilst chasing the super pumpy linkup red points is more fun a bit more time spent moderately pumped might be the way to build the base stamina I need first. In general I think I’m probably playing more than I’m training at the moment - which is not a bad thing in the short term.

Friday - stretching and a few planche leans and pushups. I seem to have done something to my wrist which dislikes being flexed too far back, so the push work might have to wait until that settles down.

Saturday - friend visiting. Before she arrived I managed a very squeezed session, warmed up, had a few goes on wiring the feet for the second half of the poor feet orange, then after 2-3 unsuccessful attempts I got it! Tricky number and could be neater, but I can work on that. Then about 5 mile walk carrying microAJM.

Sunday - after my friend left miniAJM and I went to the wall. Some new easier problems from the recent comp, then a bit of time on the woody trying a hard roll through move. I’m not sure whether really I should be trying bigger moves on slightly larger holds mind you.

edit: also had a go at raising interest in some Feb half term sunshine this week, to get something in the calendar. A slow start but see how we get on…

Easy one to do this week. Monday to Wednesday I felt like I might be developing a cold so I did nothing, Thur and Fri the cold arrived so I did nothing. Saturday I decided to go to Malham anyway but stick clipped halfway up F&E before deciding I’d had enough (wind was blowing across crag and my fingers weren’t warming at all). Unfortunately it’s impossible to turn back at this point so continued up before stripping. Had a go on something my mate was trying but cold and split boots got the better of me here as well so I lowered down after a few easy moves. Total waste of a day.

Today I got up to change the date of an exam I had booked as I’ve done no work for it to discover I’d accidentally booked it for quarter to midnight tonight so it’s too late to change. A fitting end to a shit week which has also seen the house move come perilously close to collapse (now looking more likely to fall through than succeed).

Cheers Alan. Finally managed to tick my Frenchy goal, which is great as they were getting a bit unpleasant!

RecoveryClub Goals

• Recover (another 5 weeks in the cast until my next X-ray)
• 3x3 5sFrenchies (tick!)
• 20s 20mm +12kg (currently on 8kg)
• Bent Arm Planche (nowhere near)
• Full 20x Core Circuit (tick)
• Front Lever (on half straddles)
• Maintain <175lb (so far so good)

Mon

• 3x 38 Dips
• 2:10 Plank
• 5x 8s planche leans (36” foot-hand)
• 4x 8,8,6,6s one (bent) leg Front Lever

Wed

• 3x3 Frenchies. Finally! 5 sec hold at top/90deg/120deg, full pull-up and lower between each, 3 times through without touching the floor. 3 sets with 15mins rest between. On to the Offset version for more pain…
• 5x 20 Half Crimp 20mm (7kg)

Fri

• 5x 4s planche leans (35” foot-hand) Feels almost impossible to hold so will spend the next few weeks at this distance and raise my feet.
• 3x 30 Dips (5kg)
• 4x 4s half straddle Front Lever

Sat

• Scap Pulls 3x 8 (8kg)
• One arm Scap Pulls 3x 8 (BW)
• 3x 1 Offset Frenchy (5s hold). I offset my hands by using the BM Jug & 40mm hold, the idea being I’ll remove fingers. I’m not sure whether it’s better to put a sling over the jug and lower one of my hands. Will have a play this week.
• 5x 10s Half Crimp 20mm (8kg)

Weight: 173lbs

Have a good week.

Thanks again Alan.

Mon. 3x10 shoulder shrugs, 3x4 one arm shoulder shrugs, 6x Max hangs (+24kg), 6 x repeaters (+5kg), 5x5 BW pull ups, 3x10 press ups.

Tues. Feeling pretty beat up after yesterday. Circuit board session, had to up the rest to 3mins between laps as tired but managed 6a+, 6b+ (2laps), 7a+ (6laps), 6b+ (2laps), 6a+.

Wed. Social routes session. About a dozen routes 6a - 6c+ with lots of natter in between. Good loosen up. 

Thurs and Fri. Rest and drive up to the Lakes. 

Sat. Wet and windy so sacked off the hard Rock plans and went classic rock ticking in the rain. It was a full waterproofs on from the car kinda day so we set out for an adventure and did The Wasdale Crack (HS 4c) followed by Needle Ridge (VD) and then Pinnacle Ridge (M). Great day out although napes needle was actually quite hard in the wet! Nice to finish the final route onto the summit of Great Gable though we were pretty wet and cold by then.

Sun. Rest and walks with the kids.

I've been struggling for three weeks with illness, so have not been keeping to my usual routines.  However, made a gentle start back this week, which felt predictably difficult of course!

Sun A gentle start back after illness - 5*5 pull ups at one minute intervals

Mon  Max hangs on slopes and three finger slots at bodyweight plus 11.3 kg.  3 sets of each

Tues  Nothing - in recovery still

Wed  Nothing - in recovery still

Thurs  Nothing - in recovery still

Fri  Stockport wall (I should say I struggle to go to walls) - managed 5 long routes up to 6a+ and 20 minutes bouldering before heading back to work

Sat  10 sets of 4 pull ups on one minute intervals; 7:3 repeaters on two different grips; 4 sets of 10 push ups

Very busy with work through the next couple of month, so hope to keep the training going at least.  

STG - back up to 100 pull ups every other day.  Max hangs to plus 20kg.  Repeaters with plus 5 kg.  Keep getting out on real rock.

MTG - try 'proper' sport climbs next Spring, rather than treating it as stamina training and onsighting everything.  Get back to E3 on trad.

Cheers on the stats Alan - last week if I'm remembering correctly? Been a good stint, will be much missed!

Yeah, conditions are a bit more finicky than I anticipated - I was blessed last year with a bitter cold winter, then the buggered finger before it got warm. I think my bicep was suggesting I don't try one-armers without a bit more warning, haha!

A good week this week, missed a late session but I wasn't in a fantastic place so rested. Saturday was a blinder, a good opening to grit season, and today has yielded more good news...

I'VE BOOKED A WEEK OFF IN MARCH FOR FONTAINEBLEAU!

About bloody time I got myself down there. Keen to perform reasonably well, so any good Font-esque boulders or effective training methods would be much appreciated.

Last Week:

M - Rest.

T - Gym. New set upstairs on the steep stuff which was pretty fun, some hard moves and some easy moves. Shoulder shrugs, an extra one on each side compared to last week. Half hour social Moonboarding up to 6C. Coaxed into trying one-armers again which were a bit better - the left almost got to 90⁰! Mostly just having a good time with mates. Peer pressured into trying a 1-6 which actually felt doable, might try when fresh.

W - Thankfully not too wrecked after yesterday! Rest.

T - Rest.

F - Rest.

S - Big grit day. Started at Chatsworth Edge, managed Tantric Pony (f7A) relatively quickly but with mad dabby swings, so can't really claim the tick there. Tried Compression Sickness (f7B) too but it's mega-nails. Desperate pull-on and still hard after that! Then hiked up to Birchen Edge and had a jolly good time, managed Cabin Boy (f7A), played on Gritstone Megamix (f7A) (need a couple extra pads and the crux sloper is slick!), has a surprise flash of Thing on a Spring (f7A) from a sit, then bashed out MP3 (f7B) pretty quickly! A late-light flash effort on Kiss Me Arse (f7A) yielded nowt as I was just powering out on the slopey moves beneath the top. Shame, as it was probably the only thing that wasn't so soft!

S - Rest. Forgot how post-grit skin feels!

Next Week:

M - Rigpa? Maybe gym.

T - Rest.

W/T - Moonboard.

F - Rest.

S - Halloween gym comp. Gonna pull hard and have a good time.

S - Rest.

Goals:

Rigpa.

Suavito.

T-Crack.

Big Al Qaeda.

Thanks Alan. I've a few potential ideas in mind for projects and just want to get out and get on things until I get stuck in to something. Not managed to get out this week due to illness but hoping I might tomorrow.

M: Morning - 5*5 one arm scap pull-ups on the pull-up bar. Light theraband assistance for the first three sets with left arm, then no assistance for two sets. No assistance with right arm.

T: Morning - crimpd app hip/leg flexibility 'B' routine. Afternoon - 3*30 second density hangs, 4 sets of 3/6/9/12 half crimp hangs on the 23mm edge with bodyweight + 20 kg. The 12 second hangs were hard, I failed early on the last one. Afterwards I did 3*3 wide grip power pull-ups.

W: Morning - 5*5 one arm scap pull-ups on the pull-up bar. Light theraband assistance for the first three sets with left arm, then no assistance for two sets. No assistance with right arm. Starting feeling grotty in the afternoon. Afternoon - took son No.1 to the wall for the first time. He seemed to enjoy it which is great, although I can't climb myself unless I take him to an organised class, as I obviously need to supervise 100% of the time and he isn't allowed on the mats except in the separate area for 4-6yos.

T: Caught a cold from son No.1, ill. Not covid, at least according to LFT

F: still feeling coldy

S: wanted to take son No.1 out climbing but still feeling coldy. Did some finger boarding instead. The usual 3*30 second density hangs and then 4 sets of 3/6/9/12 half crimp hangs on the 23mm edge with bodyweight + 20 kg. That's a full 4 week cycle of the protocol so I'm ready to retest my max 12 second hang and start again now. I think I'll probably be able to add a little more.

S: feeling a bit better this morning. Did 5*5 one arm scap pull-ups on the pull-up bar, no assistance with either arm. Then did a crimpd app hip/leg flexibility 'B' routine.

Illness annoying but I feel almost over it now, and fairly pleased with progress in the training sessions I did.

Hoping to take son No.1 out tomorrow and do some bouldering (maybe at Earl), fingers crossed for weather and health.

Si

Thank you Alan.

Been away a bit this week, but still managed to eek out a bit more outdoor time when the weather allowed.

M - away

T - Indoor session. Max hangs 6x10s+17.5kg found very hard to get past 7s. Then rope session mostly at 7b.

W - rest

T - TRS in Avon. Straight and Narrow (E5 6a), New Horizons II (E2 5c) and Bold as Love (E6 6b) which I dropped on the last move, but happy as I've not been up it in a while and had to make up beta on the spot, so not very efficient, only had time for 1 go at it.

F - Cheddar for Crow (WW) (E3 5c) Mega adventure, just the right amount of everything to feel right on the edge, but within my limits. Technical climbing, loose rock, vegetation, grassy mantleshelfs (x2), rusty pegs and mega exposure! Rat fed.

Sat+Sun- Away with family as its half term.

STG: Actually climb something. See Saturday.
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: 
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Climbed like shit, depressing.
W: Bike 40 minutes
T: Wall, Boulderwelt. Return to the 45° circuit project after a couple of weeks break; improved my previous high point from the start by one move. Which is more than no moves, so better then Tuesday.
F:
S: Zellerwand. A little pre-holiday confidence booster with a redpoint of a 6c I tried a while back and wanted to get off my to-do list. Quite nice climbing, and physically very steady for the grade, but poorly placed bolts with loose ahngers made the lead a bit of a mental challenge. Expecting more & better bolts on holiday.
S: Wall, Boulderwelt. PE circuits

Heading to Greece next week. Thoughts on where I'm at in terms of training & preparation: I've spent most of my time since lockdown bouldering and/or projecting on short punchy routes - mostly unsuccessfully . I haven't done nearly as much volume as in previous years so am probably less fit in terms of aerobic capacity. But set against that, I feel like I'm in a better place with regard to trying hard and falling off, and that might compensate to some extent for lack of physical fitness. We shall see. 

I'm also a couple of kgs down from my lockdown lifetime weight peak. Not as much as I was aiming for, and still at a level I would have regarded as shocking pre-pandemic - but nonetheless a confidence boosting step in the right direction. Now I just need to say no to the loukamades for three weeks!

Hi All. Thanks for the final stats week Alan -it's been a great year for wisdom and encouragement -thanks for coaxing us all along.

A better week this week. Need to keep the momentum going for the rest of the year!

Week 42:

M: Nowt.

T: Crimpd Floor Core and Static Holds.

W: Trail run. 13.1km, 322m vert, 6:15/km.

T: Bouldering. Mini-session on my way home (I'll be driving past Caley and Almscliff a lot so, although not local, should be here quite a bit). Initially thought I'd made a terrible choice, as everything seemed gipping, but then bumped in to a lad who'd just soloed Psycho which meant I had to re-evaluate cons! He also very kindly lent me a pad (I only had shoes and chalkbag with me) so I had no excuses but to crack on! Repeatedly bottled it on Otley Wall (f6A) but slapped my way up Chicken Heads (f5) so got something from the session!

F: Rest. 

S: Dry tooling. At Masson Lees to kick off this year's tooling and surprised myself by getting my season project done on the first day of the season! YYFY!! Need a new project now!

S: Trail run. 18.9km, 450m vert, 6:02/km. One segment of the Cleveland way done. 

Week 43:

144 mins running.

2 x climbing

2 x core and strength

3 x prehab

STGs (end 2021):

Heavens Above (TICK!)

Chelly Express (replacement for Heavens Above)

Run all segments of the Cleveland Way (1/9)

Average 1 E-point per week (1/3).

MTGs (end March 22):

Lots of Scottish mixed at VI and VII

Something long, hard and suffery in the Alps.

Cheers Alan, had a lovely week off as its the Leicestershire offset half term break. Met up with the inlaws for mon-fri for a caravan holiday at Grafham water. The wife and I got out for a couple of runs but otherwise not much to report other than over eating and lots of wine in the evenings 

As for events next year, I will defiantly do the Battle of Bosworth Tri again with better training so i can beat this years time. Im also looking for a coastal tri as I fancy one starting in the sea. Had my eye on the Gower tri as it looks great but sadly that already clashes with when we are booked to be in the peak district next year. Also wanted to do the Island Races half iron man as that was based on the island where my wife grew up. Sadly they have ceased trading so may well end up doing it as a stand alone fixture. Hopefully can persuade the wife to accompany me on the half marathon round the island   

Welcome to FitClub!  Nice goals there.

STG - Maintain diet for 6 weeks.  6a at the wall

L/MTG - TBD

M - Rest

T - Session at wall

T - S - Rest

Weight 15st 3lbs - no difference

Steady progress on various routes at the wall.  Enjoyable session, even if I did (as is tradition) feel utterly wiped.

Sadly on Sunday my mate let me know that he can't make it.  However I've found out there is a slightly nearer wall with a bigger bouldering area and three auto-belays, so I'll give that a bash.  Also see if I can't get out and do a run of some kind.

Which wall Matt?  Can make a world of difference to the target!

Are we all supposed to declare our weight?

Thanks for support re targets, which I plan to refine further.  When I looked back they felt a bit too open-ended to me.

I've never really liked running, but have got to a place where I look forward to going nowadays and am making improvements.

Lastly, joining has had a useful effect in driving me to shake off the last of this illness and do something every day.  I have stopped reporting to my circle of partners as well, so I imagine there are some relieved climbers out there!

Oh god no, you don't have to declare your weight at all.  I'm just a right fatty and I find that if I'm constantly recording it, I have motivation to keep it under control.

As for targets, some people like the whole SMART thing, but honestly, as long as it motivates you, do what's you like best.

Last week it was WICC/Summit/Rock UK (it's probably best known as WICC, but it's had several names) near Merthyr Tydfil.

Thanks Alan, is this your last slot? It's been great, thanks. You've been a fine captain of the UKC Fit Club ship.

Just a shame i can't report a positive trip to end your stint on.

Basically poor sleep continued. I tried hard every day, took some big falls and had a lovely time. I could have ticked a couple of 7b's if i'd given them another session, but i didn't and moved on to try others as that was the plan. 5 tried. 5 failed. I just didn't have the last bit of oomph to finish things off.

The two weeks between trips were VERY busy with life/work and with some poor sleep on top i was just below par.

I learnt a lot about my strengths and weaknesses and am totally psyched again now i've remembered how good climbing trips are. 

Currently resting (i predictably got ill when i got back) and planning this week. I'll have a plan for next year by the next post. Looking after myself better is top of the list.

Reiff in May, Lundy in Sept are booked. Possible France road trip in April (font, sport, font) and UK sport will be the main focus as well as a fair helping of trad. Then Spanish Winter Sports routes. I just need to pick some goals.

I need to add in flexibility training to my weekly load.  I've tried yoga previously and can return to that discipline, but wondered if anyone has some good suggestions for leg and hip flexibility aimed at climbers in particular?

There is a bit on the crimpd app although I've never tried it. Scroll down to the conditioning section then across til you get to flexibility and its in there. 

Thanks - will take a look

I am using one of the crimpd app routines at the moment. I've recently spent a while following this routine too:

youtube.com/watch?v=_yk_EMQDM_Q&

That YouTube channel is pretty good in general I think. He's knowledgeable and presents things very clearly. There are loads of videos on there including some other flexibility ones.

I'm not sure what the best routine is and it probably varies by person so I wouldn't venture to suggest which of the above is more effective. However I'm of the view that the most effective is probably one that you enjoy enough to keep doing, so I'd try a few out.

Yes, I found that yesterday while looking around and thought it looked helpful.  I also thought the Lattice channel looked good as the routines are short (which is one aspect of manageability 😀).  I will experiment by way of warming up