UKC

Happy New Year Fit Clubbers – current, past and future!  I hope you’ve all had a decent festive break and are looking forward to what 2023 will bring.  I’m back for a stint that will run through until the end of March.  I will be hoping that someone else will pick up from 2 April onwards, but more on that as the time draws near.  Stats follow and I have tried to pick up some of the end of year reflections provided on the other thread, though that really needs three screens!

A shout out to those who we have missed recently – New Year a great time to get back on the training wagon.  The Sheep with those phenomenal swimming marathons and some impressive running sessions as well; Planet Marshall with some great trip reports on the Dollies and Scottish and Welsh destinations; Ger-the-Gog pounding the hills with enormous bags of weights.

Ger – I have some thoughts of ticking of some Welsh classic rock this year.  Shout if you want to join in.

Lastly, I'm thinking we are starting with some goal setting in this week's responses....

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.

Link to last week’s thread:

UKC Forums - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_823-7551...

Stats:

Tyler:  The board is beginning to get some regular attention now.  Not sure whether the ‘lengthy sieges’ you mention are a reference to the time spent developing it, but great to see that it is paying off as an exercise tool.  You would think judo mats should be designed for ‘repeated, uncontrolled falls’ – kind of their raison d’etre really…

You do seem to have struggled for a long while with injury, though you acknowledge that this may be partly poor rehab (?).  I lived with sore elbows for a long while until I sat down to actually do rehab and was then surprised how quickly it cleared up.  Andy’s book is excellent on all sorts of injury fixes and prevention and I’ve enjoyed looking through it despite having nothing in need of attention at the moment.  I did like you annual recap – more on there that looks genuinely memorable than I had remembered and I’m inspired to do Amphitheatre Buttress now!

Happy to help with goals of 7a onsight and trad days.

Alan:  You should be in the midst of Greek limestone clipping by now, so hope you do managed to find people to do stuff with while you are there.  A good way to start the year with a focus on your climbing goals, before you begin the balancing act of chasing both ski-tour skills and Kalymnos preparation prior to April.    The great thing is that you seem to have recovered really well from last year’s injury and seem to be back to a good standard quite quickly.

I like the 2023 focus on 7a or above, presumably with a push towards your anti-style included.  There are good lessons in that restated pre-pandemic goal for myself – pick something and build around that singular aim, rather than dabble with all sorts.  Certainly, I shall be trying to put this principle into action on sport routes this year.  As you’ve noted in your summary, there are opportunities along the way for surprising successes anyway – your Zugspitze day for example.

AJM:  Great to see an enthusiastic response to SSB’s Swanage classics suggestion and to Liam’s ongoing battle with Mr Choo Choo.  Oddly enough, I almost put Swanage onto my list of target places to go (never been although it would have suited me at one point), but I didn’t want my list to get out of hand.  However, if a trip does develop, I may well join in as I have a mate down south who could meet me there.

I agree with Ross – good to see the psyche is back!  I don’t think I saw an annual summary from you, but your DWS successes mid-year were pretty special.  I know you have struggled with a long-term injury, alongside the usual life pressures of young family, work, getting out regularly and so on, but I do remember from last year that your goals prioritised family / partner stuff (and reduced doom scrolling), which is probably where the real successes have been.  My children are all mature adults, but they regularly remark on some long-forgotten (by me) aspect of their childhood that means much more than any E4 that I managed back in the day.  I do remember balancing parenting with being an enthusiastic climber was difficult – I effectively became an evenings only climber for about fifteen years!

Ross Barker:  Dodgy A2 – a second plug on the thread for Andy’s book, which has a good section on this.  Mind you, I have the impression that you know your own way around some of these injuries!  Anyway, regardless of all this, you’ve got some good board sessions in and it doesn’t appear to have held you back significantly.  I do still follow the board progress and looks like a great training tool, but I have managed to avoid the wall completely this year.  I’ve definitely got more time coming up, but I will probably invest it in the outdoors.

Your annual reflections were great.  I like the idea of pad carrying being an important measure for the dedicated boulderer – probably accurate as I’ve carried mine exactly as far as the garage.  Interestingly, you had one on your top boulders (Piss) that I certainly messed about on years ago when I used to boulder quite a bit, so it sort of reminded me that I used to enjoy the short challenges.  Again, I’ve definitely got more time coming up…

Good reflections on having fun as the primary point of what we do.  It is easy to lose our way on this one.

SSB:  Your current training levels look pretty solid.  +32kgs on your lightweight frame is a good percentage lift – is must be close to 50%?  Also, sets of 5 with +10kg is strong.

An equally solid end of year report (shows good progress) despite the change of focus that you introduced.  Given that you then spent only half the year on the new aims, you got a great tally going and I see are already making plans to do more of the same this year.  Good to see that some of the HR trips were memory making – the Old Redoubt in particular!  Striking also that you managed to get good results across such a number of different disciplines – I remember being impressed with your dedication to getting Scarab done and that doesn’t even make your list!  I’m definitely good for Chee Tor when it dries out and will push myself to get some gritstone fitness going so that I can get to Cratcliffe at some point as well.  I’m also wondering if you have Castellan on your list?

Biscuit:  A great start to the Calpe trip.  I hope it has continued with decent weather and optimum clipping conditions.  I have a place up the road near Gandia and have spent a Christmas there staring out at torrential rain.  My experience is that when it rains, it really goes for it!  Relaxed is good I think as getting things done without to much fuss is good for confidence and helps when you do go on something that you expect to be a challenge.  Happy holiday.

You’ve not sent in an annual round up.  Can’t imagine what your excuse might be.  Perhaps been busy with authoring articles and the like…  That’s the third plug for your book already on this thread, so I will probably install a Just Giving Button on the page somewhere.  Joking aside, I’m finding it really interesting and is helping me think through a few adjustments to my training goals.`

Steve Claw:  As I’ve mentioned up thread and before, I did suffer poor elbows for a long while.  When I eventually got down to some rehab work, it did clear up really quickly.  I used that method that you can find on UKC and it worked well, but you have probably found it already.  If it helps, the diagnostics in the accompanying link was useful for me, because mine would clear up while climbing, then return soon after.  (Dodgy Elbows – Dr Julian Saunders)

I don’t think I’ve seen an annual round-up from you either – my guess is that it would take too long to write!  From my perspective, you’ve had a really good year, spoiled somewhat by the late onset of injury.  Lots of new routes, lots of hard climbing and some great advice provided on the threads as well.  I look forward to you coming back strong from rehab.  Take your time and look at the advice Biscuit has put together – excellent stuff.

SteveJC94:  Another one on the injury list, but glad to hear that it is improving.  You had been going very well on your gritstone bouldering season objectives, so hope you can get back to it over the next two or three months.  I think you hoped that you could recover over Christmas and it also sounds like an injury where you may be able to avoid the sorts of loads that would aggravate it (Disclaimer;  I know nothing)?

Some recent strong sessions on the woody with impressive returns.  As with Ross and Ally, your reports often make me think that there would be big gains from this approach, but I struggle to make time to get down town to get on a board.  Silly really, as I think there is a reasonable one at Marple, so I don’t even have to go all the way to Stockport!

Hope you are recovering well and able to get back to training at least.  At the moment, probably too wet for any serious stuff outside anyway.

Liam P:  Good application to the stretching!  I find hamstrings hard (a legacy of a lot of football), but I do see immediate benefits from stretching, so kick myself when I miss it out of my schedule through being too busy.  Like most others, I think I’m not flexible, but I really notice the difference when I have done something to improve it.  Probably an easier gain than ‘training’ is you see what I mean.  My daughter has got me following a guy on insta about mobility which is interesting.

Good progress on some of your strength goals including OAPU Club.  I am looking to make weekly progress now that work is calmer, so (as ever) I shall be benchmarking progress against yourself and Randy.  As I have noted before, this is a fool’s errand!

I liked the round-up.  It did honestly reflect some of the challenges you have had, but I’m impressed with your commitment to training despite the relative lack of opportunity to put it to good use.  Good to see that there are plenty of volunteers to help with rope holding on the 7a.  I’d join in, but I am five hours away!  A good and challenging set of specific training goals where progress should be easy to check.

Randy:  Like you, I’m still thinking about goals, but I am close now to putting something out there.  I’d reflect that you’ve been an example to us all with your training and if Fit Club gave out awards, I’d be nominating you for dedication – impressive commitment to keeping your training going (and progressing consistently) amongst a lot of travel, work and other disruption.  I agree with getting into shape for getting into shape…  I guess sometimes maintenance is enough and is certainly better than nothing.  For me, I decided that (at my age) I wanted to control some of the factors that I could control and I wanted to know that it wouldn’t be strength or basic pulling power that inhibited me on the rock.  It isn’t, so the whole thing has worked to that extent.

I look forward to seeing your objectives if you find the time.  I know you are off travelling again soon, so you have that challenge to work around, but I hope you can make good progress with your actual climbing goals as well this year.  It seems like your training needs to find a positive result on the rock, though I know it is a worthwhile pursuit by itself!

In reply to Derek Furze:

part two

Tom Green:  Impressive amount of festive faffing in the weekly report.  Got to be commended.  Excellent effort getting out on Christmas Day – I did as well, but only to parties…  Also went for a walk on Boxing Day, but only to New Mills to visit the Shrub Club.

You had a massive list of targets and a pretty decent rate of completion, including some of the really tough ones that were on the list.  The ‘year in numbers’ approach is interesting and I might try some statistical analysis myself at some point.  As I said before, I remember Raindrop with some affection as well.  I was on the crag with Neil Foster and Bernard Newman that day, which led to the Grand Alliance photos in Extreme Rock.  To date this we had Bat out of Hell on the car stereo (tape I guess) on the way home.  Elder Crack is a good one as well.   I like your enchainement concept as well – I am thinking of a roped route on each of the Llangollen crags as a long summer day with a nice walk.

Ally: Lots of DOMS on your recent reports, prompted by the lock off exercises I guess.  Good to be focused on training a ‘weakness’ however!  You’ve seen some good stats lately though across quite a lot of your training goals, particularly the one-arm max hangs, which I don’t think any of us can get near.  One to add to the list of variations for me I think, though these are easily dropped when time is short.

Post-match report looks very positive as well, particularly the new routes and the standards attained with a youngster in the mix.  I note the one-handed hang challenge with rotation being a problem – definitely something I notice and relate very much to shoulder power.  Again, something I hadn’t really considered as an issue, but definitely noticed this year was a limiting factor, so a good target for work over 2023. 

Edit to remove old material on template!

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thank you Derek and welcome back as the new stat man.

I do not have much to report this week, as been away and enjoying Christmas.  I'm currently sporting about 2.5kg extra weight due to the mince pie season.

I did start a self made rehab of stretches as per Lattice and Eccentric exercises as per Dave Mac.  However the amazing Mr Biscuit came to my rescue and has put me on Density Hangs, that I started today.

3 times a day

 - 6 x 30s density hangs to provoke a response.  Currently using Body Weight and the Jugs on my Beast Maker 1000.

Hopefully I will start to see some improvement by next week. 

In reply to Derek Furze:

Happy New Year Fit Clubers and thanks for stepping up Derek, you’re going to have your work cut out if you are going to write that much each week!

Possibly not, my last session severely aggravated my elbow, I’ve been meaning to buy Andy’s book, maybe I’ll make that my goal for the week!

I dare say there aren’t many 53 year olds with a history of musculoskeletal injuries still doing Judo but with my bouldering mats they are more than adequate. 
M: Annex, just about managed all the moves on the anti-clockwise red-yellow circuit but literally one hand move at a time. Obviously overcooked it as elbow was sore for rest of week, might not be golfers but regardless a major setback. 
T - S: Moping and eating

Su: Climbing Hut, first visit. Was supposed to be going easy and when I started climbing my elbow felt fine but then I over cooked it again dicking around on some parkour type problems. Ended with a few goes on the circuit board, turns out I have set it too hard but fortunately Pete had turned up with a bag of holds for me. 
Plan for thé week

Stick holds on wall and do a couple of easyish short sessions

Daily rehab

Buy Andy’s book

Sort physio appointment

Eat less

In reply to Derek Furze:

Another honourable mention to JayK, who slipped off our thread while off on an alpine jaunt at about the time of my handover to Ross.

In reply to Derek Furze:

My own week!  Christmas celebrations to start, but got on pull ups on Tuesday (5x5 bw) then into max hangs on a new grip on Wednesday (six sets testing - 9kg, 11.2kg, 14.5kg, 15.6kg, 15.6 kg and 16.7 kg).  All ok, so will push on during my next session to find 1RM.  Good stretching sessions to accompany these.

Thursday to Sunday - both down with a bug.  Didn't go out for New Year! 

Have been considering goals and will try to declare later today.

A last reflection would be to comment that FC is incredibly helpful in terms of insights into training options and benchmarks.  As someone who has struggled to keep training going regularly with work pressures, I find it a very motivating discipline as well.

In reply to Derek Furze:

No time like the present... so now for the targets

Decided on a slightly different approach, based on the experiences last year that delivered most satisfaction.

Undertake at least one overnight trip every month from March to October (0/8 – weather adjustments allowed!)

The aim here is to get to the sort of destinations that are a bit of a stretch for the day, but which are a comfortable two-day trip – Dinas Y Cromlech, Dinas Mot, Cloggy, Gogarth, Rhoscolyn, Gimmer, Reecastle, Scafell East, Sergeant Crag Slabs, Gable Crag

Within this, put together at least three longer duration trips to enable some far-flung targets to be reached.  This includes revisiting the Culm Coast with Lower Sharpnose a must-do; continuing to chip away at Pembroke and starting an account in Scotland. (0/3 – one substitution allowed)

Visit five of my ‘why haven’t I climbed here’ list?  Ten on the list for flexibility and conditions.

Cyrn Las, Craig Yr Ysfa, Llech Ddu, Craig Y Forwen, Lleyn anywhere, Moelwyns anywhere, Shelter Crags, Black Crags (Wrynose), Yew Crags, Grey Crags (0/5)

Do something slightly off-piste – an enchainement perhaps?  I wonder about a roped route on the Llangollen trad crags (World’s End, Craig Arthur, Twilight Area, Pinfold, Monk’s Buttress and Dinbren).  I think this would be a fantastic day out and there are some ambitious routes on every crag to target – one for a midsummer day! (0/1)

I’m also inspired by SSB, Tom and Tylers’ classic rock bagging exploits, so two single trips to Wales with scrambling or easy climbs on the agenda as part of a mountain day.  (0/2)

Local must do list.  Chee Tor, High Tor, Beeston.  That’s it, I want to climb outside of the Peak more often.  (0/3)

Standards to hit are the same…Get back to E3 trad.  Get up a 7a onsight.  Project something (either trad or sport) as an experiment.  Use my bouldering mat.  As last year, be climbing E1 by the end of April and E2 by the end of May (achieved in 2022), then the next step of E3 by the end of June. (0/4)

Training.  Push my PBs a bit, but mainly keep the work more consistent over the year.  Max hangs to 130% on a full range of grips including slopes.  Pull ups – undertaking fewer, but working towards bigger sets (more strength, less stamina) – three sets of fifteen would be stretching.  Weighted pull ups to plus 10 kg.  BW pull ups on fingertips as part of the routine.  Reintroduce cardio – some running needs to be in the mix again. Continue to stretch as I think this is a big area for gains – increase box split percentage (currently 81.4%).  Palms on floor hamstring stretch is a pipedream.

Most importantly, stretch myself by extending the circle of people that I climb with beyond my usual crew.  I always value the lessons from stepping outside my comfort zone, so I owe a few people some time – SSB needs introducing to Cratcliffe and I think the last climbed there I took Tom Proctor up Boot Hill; Tyler wants to up his trad game and we have been trying to meet up for a while now; Biscuit has some shared targets in the Lakes that I’d love to support; Duncan – not on UKC – I definitely want to rekindle our partnership in the mountains.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Happy New Year to all! Thanks for the taking over the stats again Derek. I need to think a little bit more about some realistic goals for the next year and will post something later this week.

Recap last week:

Mon: Early morning indoor bouldering session, before continuing the christmas holidays with my family. Felt kind of tired and just repeated a bunch of 6b/6b+ problems and kept the session short. Finished it off with weigthed pullups + 10kg with 3 min rest: 3x10,9 

Tues: Indoor Bouldering, Elements Wall. A high volume low intensity session. Did around 60-70 boulders in about one hour way below my flash level (probably around 4b to 5b), down climbing most of the problems and keeping the pump level to 5/10 maximum. So basically the bouldering equivalent of an aero cap session but in  my opinion much more fun then doing the same over and over again on an auto belay.

Wed: 2x20s L-Sit, Handstand training, 10 fingertip pushups, 30s V-Situp, 30 Pushups, 15 Lunges, 20 BW Squats; further improvements in my handstand. Getting closer to holding it for 10s again.

Thurs: Indoor Bouldering Session, repeated a bunch of 6b/6b+ problems. Then did 6b+/6c problem after a couple of tries. Projected a crimpy 6c/6c+ on a steep overhang; could do some good link-ups but did not have the power to send the whole thing. Weighted pullups + 10kg with 3 min rest: 4x10

Fri: Indoor Bouldering, Elements Wall, another high volume session like on tuesday. Increased the difficulty slightly by throwing in a bunch of 5c/6a problems.

Sat: Indoor Bouldering Session, Elements Wall. Back to the Kilter board. Briefly tried one 6c boulder problem and then flashed a bunch of 6b problems and did two in the second go. Weighted pullups + 10 kg: 3x10,12

Sun: Rest

All in all a very good high volume week. I think i've improved my fitness level a lot this week and also my pullup shape is getting closer to the shape that i had last fall before my Corona infection. Still missing a little bit max power to send some harder boulders, but it was to be expected that i can't improve much in that area with this amount of volume.

In reply to Randy:

A good week Randy.  What happened to eating half a mountain and drinking a large lake?  Really impressive amount of climbing there.  Take your time with your aims. 😃

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek. Yes, +33kg would be +50%. I got a new fingerboard for Christmas so I'm going to experiment with more one arm hangs at some point. Defo keen for Mortlocks and some stuff off windy ledge too as well as Cratcliffe. Castellan falls into that difficult ground for me of being probably too hard to onsight but not quite hard enough to justify dropping a top rope down. I always used to set my limit at E6 or 6b to justify a toproping which I upped to 6c a few years ago. I think I need to bring it back down to 6b in order to actually get on stuff.

Mon. 50 pull ups in the park.

Tues. Hill walk with the kids and 30 press ups.

Wed. 8km run.

Thurs. 6x Max hangs (+32kgs), 5x5 pull ups (+10kgs), 3x10 press ups.

Fri. 4x 10mins on 10mins off auto belay, 5x5 on the min pull ups, 3x10 press ups.

Sat. 6km run.

Sun. Rest, short kids walk.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Happy new year all, and blimey that's a lot of words Derek, good effort!

That is a good point. I've chatted with Andy about this type of injury before a while ago, so it probably would be worth me picking it up just to reference and make sure that I am doing rehab (which has been pretty minimal since Christmas threw all routine out the window!)

I do have unfortunately have a decent bit of experience with A2 strains, and there's still much to learn, but the most important thing is discipline with backing off on aggravating moves and keeping up with rehabilitation.

I've had a pretty stellar week, given some hard ticks at the Dugout and a new Moonboard PB of benchmark 7C (7B+ for the long, and not just saying that to be a sandbagger!), plus kicking the year off with a decent approach to a hard but seemingly feasible boulder.

Last Week:

M - Weigh-in at 79.7kg. Heaviest yet, but of course no surprise! Couple hours at The Dug Out afterwards again, tricked my way up Shropshire Lass (f7A+) and repeated In His Head (f7A+). Now that's both halves of Douglass (f7B+) done, which would be a great thing to get linked. Might need to pick up a second kneepad though...

T - Rest.

W - Rest.

T - The Dug Out. Began by trying to find an efficient sequence on Doug which would be compatible with Shropshire Lass (I only have one kneepad!), so once that was sussed it was onto linking them together. Expected this to take a couple sessions but was very pleased to get up Douglass (f7B+) third or fourth RP attempt!

F - Rest.

S - Moonboard. Warmed up, bashed out the new 6B+ benchmark and then got onto "Salathe". Managed to barely stick the crux move after a few goes, and then sail to the top. Very pleased with myself, possibly the hardest single move I've ever done, an excellent way to end 2022.

S - Rest. A2 a bit sore. Think I need to lower the MB intensity on the left hand.

M - North Wales. Took the pads for a steep walk up to Mallory and tried Cosmic Wheels (V9). Got most of the hard moves done, the others didn't feel far away either. Definitely going to return in the future, though it's not a walk I want to do too often! Finished off at RAC Boulders just having a nice time.

Next Week:

T - Rest.

W - Rest.

T - Indoor session.

F - Rest.

S, S - Bouldering.

Goals:

Sort out the A2 injury.

Antagonists. Need to get back on this when back to routine.

Rigpa.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks Derek and happy new year to you all. Quick write-up live from the Greek action:

STG: Xmas - New Year 22/23: find climbing partners in Leonidio - so far so good
STG: Winter 23 - do an actual off piste ski tour
MTG: April Kalymnos trip with my son: tick at least two things from my wishlist
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 823

M:    Rest & pack
T:    Travel day. I've taken to stopping off in Athens on my way to and/or from Greek climbing areas. I find it a lively and interesting place to spend an evening or two, and a more relaxing start to the holiday than hopping off the plane and straight into a hire car.
W:  Drive Athens - Leonidio
T:    Leonidio: Hospital (don't worry, name of a sector!) Went for a walk around to check out some sectors, met up with a couple of Greek guys and spent a very pleasant afternoon getting a few long 6a/b pitches in.
F:    Leonidio: Douvari. Taking it steady, start of the trip and an unknown belayer I met on facebook. He turned out to be fine, and we did half a dozen routes in the 6a/+ range including the excellent Metaxotos (6a+)
S:  Despite not trying anything hard yesterday, I'm simply not used to banging out multiple 30-40 metres pitches a day at the moment, so was quite weary. Rest day
S:    Leonidio: Orama. This sector is 6b face climbing paradise - did half a dozen long  pitches, rounded off with a flash of the much-more-appealing-than-its-name Septic Flesh (6b+). A good start to the year.

Hi Fit Club, I've been lurking for a while and have appreciated the sense of community and camaraderie.  So if you'll have me, I'd like to join!

My goals for 2023:

• Trad: become a well-rounded HVS leader.  This should be well within my climbing abilities, but I've not climbed regularly enough to feel completely secure at the grade, and have sometimes lacked experienced partners.  But I've begun climbing with people who are better than me, which should help, and I've put together a ticklist of HVSs within an hour of home, to help plan days out when the weather improves.  I also have a week in North Wales in the summer for some bigger mountain routes.
• Indoors: become competent at redpointing 7a at my local wall (the Warehouse in Gloucester).  I'm planning to do this through a mixture of projecting sessions and, for the next couple of months, working on my endurance.  In a good week I can get to the wall three times.
• Running: covering 1000km over the year.

Last week

This past week has almost entirely been taken up with family things, but I snuck away to the Depot in Nottingham on Tuesday and did the black circuit (supposedly V2-V4?!) and have managed a couple of 5km runs.

This week

M - short run

T - rest

W - indoors (social session)

T - longer run

F - indoors (projecting session)

S - indoors (4x4s)

S - longer run

In reply to inglesp:

Excellent!  New Year; new member.  Welcome to the group.  I had a quick scan of the ticklist, many of which I have done as I used to have family in Worcester and I lived in Bristol myself.  Some brilliant and very varied routes.  Avon needs a degree of care, but is good for technique.  Shorncliffe also needs care as it tends to break!  I think the Wye Valley is lovely and gives a good grounding in some challenging formats.

Shout if any questions at any point.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Happy new year everyone.

2023 Aims/Goals:

1) Stay happily married and be the best dad I can

2) Have a whole year of healthy elbows, shoulders, hips, knees and fingers (i.e. keep up plenty of conditioning and (p)rehab)

3) Climb 3x more new sport routes of 7a or harder (I’ve lines bolted and waiting at Kilnsey, Devil’s Gorge and on the Orme)

4)  ≥Bodyweight 1-handed dead-hang on the BM2K lower middle rung with good control of rotation

5)   ≥8a redpoint (preferably a newbie – Kilnsey or lines in/next to Parisella’s fit the bill)

6)   Outdoor 8A+ / Moonboard 8A

7) Go to 3x "new to me" venues in UK (either bouldering or routes)

8) Rebuild foot-on campus board and get some decent stamina back.

Week 52

M – 3mile Boxing day walk with Squigg in rucksack.  After lunch 2hrs back at the Dugout attempting another link.  Tried hard, but failed on the last hard move before a no-hands kneebar. One to come back for.

T – Epic, wet and blustery 39km ride on rolling Shropshire hills to christen my new Wahoo.  Rehydration with grape juice was a tactical error.

W – Back at the desk; achy.

T – Warm-up of 5x5 pull-ups @BW+5kg and @BW on rough edges for skin conditioning. Gradual FB increase from +15 to +45kg. Then full set 6x10s @ BW+55kg. Followed by BW+5kg on RA pockets (B3 left, F3 right). Crimpd static core with 7kg dumbbell.

F – Unstructured board session. Very humid in the garage. Despite this, managed a new 7B benchmark. Sacked it off after that and did some TRX (Crimpd “Compression”).

S – Long loop on the road bike; 49km including Alderley Edge hills.  Bed by 10pm owing to Squiggle being unsettled recently.

S – Refamiliarising myself with 10x 7A+ benchmarks for future An-cap sessions. Retro-flashed 7x of them and the others were 2 or 3 goes. Superset combo of Crimpd Bar-core and shoulder-press/push-up sessions.

BHM – Car shopping and DIY. Crimpd static core with 7kg dumbbell.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Thanks for the welcome!

In reply to inglesp:

Hey dude, Welcome

Looks like you have a very doable list there.  

If you can always climb a 6b+ indoors then you are probably going to be good on most E1's.  The trick is often to move fast placing the gear so you don't run out of steam.

If you at the Suspension Bridge in Avon then Suspension bridge arete is great, but a bit soft.  Baby Duck, Limo and Howhard, are good E1's

When doing the Lich and Corpse, I would consider adding in Bon Bogies, Zombogies and Maltravers.

I'm not that well travelled in the Wye Valley, but if you want any info on crags Bristol and Mendip then I'm all over it.

In reply to Steve Claw:

Good stuff Steve.  I had considered adding some Avon recommendations, but realised my memories were from 1977 - possibly unreliable!  Thought you'd be along soon beating the drum.  Must try to revisit this year.

In reply to Derek Furze:

Happy New Year FitClubbers! Welcome back Derek, thanks for agreeing to take the next stats stint.

Whereas last year's goals were basically low pressure/high enjoyment, focussing more on skipping around having a lovely time, this year I'm putting a bit more focus on making some specific goals happen. The big objectives are geared around:

1. A trip to Mingulay in May: having enough climbing fitness to make the most of this.

2. A need to stop day-dreaming about some of my alpine bucket list and get them done before life passes by and they become harder to achieve.

Week 52:

A bit of an unstructured week of just fitting in whatever bits I could.

M: Nothing productive. Went for a Boxing Day swim in the Dee, but it was so flipping cold I only managed a paddle. First time of having hotaches in my legs! Didn't realise you could get them in places other than hands and toes!

T: Indoor session: max hangs, an-cap bouldering, min-on/min-off aerocap on the autobelay.

W: Dry tooling at White Goods. Amazing to be back visiting this old friend! Repeated a couple of easies to warm up then went bolt to bolt on Jaz. Got all moves sorted, just need to have the combination of stamina and climbing efficiency to link the whole lot. Doesn't feel a million miles away but I've thought that before!

T: Trail run: 10.1km, flat, 5:40/km. Knee felt a little better.

F: Rest.

S: Indoor session: max hangs, limit bouldering, min-on/min-off aerocap on the autobelay.

S: Dry tooling at Masson. Awful session! I think I was a bad combo of fatigued and unmotivated to try hard. Made sure I put some moves through the arms anyway.

Week 1:

M: Rest

T: Run, fingerboard, strength.

W: Dry tooling

T: Prehab, core.

F: Fingerboard, strength.

S: Run

S: Hill run/walk

STG (end Feb):

10 winter routes.

Average 27.5km running per week.

Max hangs: 92kg

Pull-ups: 97kg.

Weatherproof and rebuild home board.

MTG (end Apr):

The Jim Grin (7a)

4 of my big UK mountain day list.

Average 37.5km running per week.

Average 2 board circuit sessions per week.

Max hangs 96kg

Pull-ups: 102kg

LTG (End July):

Sula (E2 5b)

Classic Envers rock route.

One of my Grande Course wish list.

In reply to Derek Furze:

An impressively detailed set of stats to kick off the new year Derek! Some goal setting to start off sounds like a great idea - here are mine:

Trad - E6 (and onsight E4)

Sport - 8a

Boulder - 7C

Training - 155% of bodyweight on a 20mm edge. Avoid any major injuries this year! 

Travel - climb on 5 new crags and visit 2 new climbing areas

Thankfully my shoulder's continuing to improve and I was even able to manage a couple of sessions last week:

M/T/W - Rest and shouler rehab

T - 5 hard problems on the MoonBoard (6C+; 6C+; 7A; 7A; 7A+)

F - Floor core (plank; side plank; twisting crunches; superman)

S - Rest

S - One minute on, one minute off on the circuit board x 10 (6c; 7a; 7a; 7a; 7a; 6c; 6c; 7a; 6c; 7a)

In reply to Derek Furze:

I finally managed to get an end of year roundup done. Needed a bit of thinking space to get the thoughts to be vaguely ordered!

Last week... 

Monday to Wednesday I was at my in-laws and tried to do rehab each day. Went out to see friends on the Tuesday and did maybe a half hour walk as well.

Took both kids to the Cuttings on my own on Thursday. It was quite windy and I assumed they would get cold but actually they played dinosaurs for hours and I got cold - if I had known their persistence in advance I probably could have made the effort to keep warm and grabbed another few routes! As it was I nabbed a belay from friends on a random 6a.

I can't remember what I did Friday, some rehab I think?

Saturday I had a good wall session, got some projects done

Sunday I did leg rehab and stretching

Will think about some goals some point...

In reply to Derek Furze:

Cheers Derek, and thanks for taking on the stats again.

Barring a few stretching sessions, I fully committed to the festive season this week. I believe the modern definition is ‘Goblin-Mode’.

See you next week!

In reply to Randy:

As promised here are my goals for 2023

Climbing:

• Climb 7c consistently in three or less sessions 
• Climb Chasin' the Trane (Helmut Albrecht Gedenkweg) (7c)
• Onsight at least one 7a in the Frankenjura, preferably a classic like Dampfhammer (7a)
• Have at least 50% success rate for onsight and flashes in the 6c-6c+ range

Fitness:

• Improve two hand max Hangs on 20mm egde to 160% BW 
• Improve one rep max Pullup to 180% BW
• One Arm Pullup with clean form on both hands
• Be able to consistently do a clean Handstand for 10s (at least once per session)

Process:

• Prioritize Sleep, get at least 7h per Night
• Plan deload weeks every 3-5 weeks
• Get into each session with a focused and positive state of mind
• At least 30 days outdoor sessions

In reply to AJM:

1. Return to full body functionality. Rehab my hamstring, regain the ability to heel hook, sort my shoulder out, try to work on flexibility too (part of hamstring rehab too)

2. Get out of Dorset a bit more. Aside from actual holidays, I didn’t get away much last year, got into a bit of a rut of local things. Even if it’s just short weekends to Dartmoor or day trips to Avon or Wye, every little helps. I’d also like to sort out some cool holiday trips as well.

3. Work out a sustainable balance of family and more focused climbing. MiniAJM seems to be really enjoying toproping and MrsAJM has got back into climbing a bit more recently. But at the same time almost all the local trad and much of the better sport is in fairly child unfriendly locations or needs child unfriendly time windows (eg Portland west coast evenings), so working out a way to do some more focused days or evenings and some family days and getting a sensible mix.

4. I said it last year, but I’d like to get more trad done - even if it’s just easier starred stuff - although preferably back into the E grades.

5. More dws. I’d like to build the CV at Portland, Swanage and/or Devon, and I’d like to get to the point where I’m falling off the top of Mark of the Beast like all my mates rather than wussing out of the scary bit at the bottom. Or ticking it, obviously.

6. I’d like to try hard on some sport again, be that some good onsight attempts or some redpointing.

7. Progress on the eternal ticklists and the guidebook graded list.