UKC

Merry Christmas.

I guess the most significant thing to have happened this week (apart from Ross and Ed's BIG ticks) is that we are now into longer days which always feels a bit of milestone to me, it’ll be a while before we notice the difference and still the two coldest months to go (for some that’s a good thing, I guess) but I’m definitely starting to get excited about the spring now.

Lots of planning of routes for next year in this weeks thread which is great for the psych, Derek in particular is going to be busy! I’m personally looking forward to a FC meet at Sanctuary Wall.

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:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_874-7665...

Randy - I’d say being that close to your previous numbers with your exercises is pretty encouraging given the time off you’ve had, should give you a good foundation to smash in some new PBs soon. Doing a block of fitness training with only repeaters is going to take some mental fortitude, I wish you luck! That said I bet it will be of enormous benefit.

SSB - The end is now here - rejoice! I admire your commitment to getting out but your Millstone session just seemed unnecessarily masochisitc! I’ve become increasingly perplexed by the concept of “junk miles” but am left wondering if your Foundry session falls into this category and if not why not?

Alan Little - Hope your feeling better, I expect resting up until you are pretty recovered is of more benefit than some marginal gains from training. re. your goals: I got shut down by a Kilterboard 6a on Wednesday and that was using most of the good holds so I can’t imagine a 5c being anything other than a sandbag!

Ed Booth - Second font 8A is massive! Huge congratulations and should give you good confidence for next year. Weather has been pretty shocking this week so I expect if you have managed to get out its to the ever reliable Dug Out?

Derek Furze - Nice to hear you’re psyched for some projecting. The weather gods owe us some long dry spells this year so plenty of opportunity to get stuck in without the ever present dread of routes seeping before completion. Enjoy your time in Devon, you’ve put the training hours in this year so you well deserving a break.

Ian Parnell - Is everyone doing finger block lifts these days, is dead hanging a bit passe? Glad you managed to get out in Hambrook, a venue for people who find the Dug Out a bit too mainstream? What’s climbing without arbitrary numbers, did you manage your 50?

Steve Claw - Talking of esoteric venues in the SW we come to the poster boy for them! I can’t believe there is still so much being turned up, sounds really exciting down there. What is the Nightmares project, is it a good one? I’d love to see photos of all this development, is there a blog or UKC logbook ticklist? Was your improvement on Nightmares due to new beta or are you stronger?

Ross Baker - Sorry you are under the weather but I bet Lizard King is giving you a warm glow. Well done sealing the deal when the weather has been so shit, it really does look like one of the best around and your first mountain 7C? Huge!

Ally Smith - Good to see the low grade illness came to nought and you were back on form by the end of the week. The volume of hard stuff you get on in a session is really impressive especially as I’m sure I heard someone on a Lattice podcast saying the Moonboard favoured shorties! Perhaps you should share your skin management tips with us as those Moonboard holds are not the most forgiving and you never mention splits or anything.

Biscuit - Bored of plastic? Seems like you’ve only been home a couple of weeks! Sounds as though you’re in good place to pick up where you left off from your last trip so looking forward to your trip report.

AJM - Did you get back in the training groove? That said no shame in easing off around Christmas it’s only climbing whereas Christmas is Christmas!

Tom Green - A light travel week for you, only 2.5 hours between venues! Is getting on a 7c and D9 a declaration of intent for 2024? Good to see

mattrm - Really pleased to see you get a run in, would have been easy and excusable to not bother but I think this is indicative of a mindset change this year.

Liam P - Another one with the block lifts! I’m going to echo Ed’s question about your head point list as you only mentioned one of them!

SteveJC94 - The wrist injuries seem like distant memory now, are you back to full strength? Good effort getting to Dinbren, it can feel a bit exposed up there in the winter but you should have plenty of company when the sun comes out (if you want it!)

Small Step - Lot of colds around but hopefully you are over that now. Heartening to read what you said about FC and we’re all rooting for you. Hopefully the nightmares are over, if not at least infrequent enough to be manageable. Looking forward to seeing the goals when they arrive, seems like you’ll have a reasonable fitness base to start on them from.

In reply to Tyler:

I did a lot more this week, simply because I worked from home and even then only for 3 days. Our work policy is 40% office time but the last couple of weeks I was in the office 4 days each week with some of those being away (Bristol and Edinburgh). Its easier to get disrupted with training time when I'm also travelling.

So, in terms of my week:

- Monday I did 1-on-1-off on the board. I am unfit.

- Tuesday the same

- Wednesday I did rehab, although I wasn't feeling the strongest at it.

- Thursday I snuck in one more session on the board before we went up to Bristol for a few days family holiday. A chunk of walking in the afternoon

- Friday - rest, went to Aerospace Bristol and saw Concorde and other things

- Saturday - a chunk of walking over to and across the suspension bridge and down to the museum

- Sunday - rehab, then drove to the in-laws.

My aim is to be active all through Christmas, continue with the aero work when we get home (and maybe try some aero fingerboard whilst we are away?) and also keep going with the rehab.

In reply to Tyler:

Cheers for stepping in Ash. Congrats and commiserations to Ross. Great tick and get well soon!

Inspirational from Ed too. That's a (very) strong start to Fit Club.

I was doing a lot on plastic before Leonidio as well. I think I'm just keen to get back onto rock.

M - Rest??

T - Kendal Routes - White 7b. 3 goes, much progress, but it gets harder with every move and ends by making low percentage moves round a corner before you can clip the chains. Terrifying and I let go rather than carry on.

W - Super busy at work nothing done

T - Rest.

F - Kendal routes - back to the white 7b. Got it! Second go. First go I was feeling great and felt like I had it in the bag. One of those where you don't get pumped. Someone fell off an adjacent route (above and out of sight of me) and I felt the air move as they whistled past me just as I was getting to the scary corner move. It popped me out of my bubble and I fumbled the clip and came off.

Didn't think I'd get it after that. It felt like my 'best go' had gone. But delighted to scrape up it second go. I think that was 8th go. The icing on the cake is Leo Houlding said he reckoned it was 7c - so I'm taking that! I realised I had quite a lot invested in that route and it felt pretty good to get it done before the trip. 

That's two routes I didn't get done before Leonidio I've now ticked. Feeling good.

S - Back to Kendal as we'd done all our shopping and wrapping and it was either sit watching telly or get out and do something. The weather very much said go inside. Routes up to 6c+. I climbed on some of the other walls I don't normally get on and was pleasantly surprised.

The 6c+ was on the 'fang' which is a roof panel. Brutal. Took me two goes and was a real skin of my teeth send. Quite satisfying and highlights I need to get better and stronger at the steep stuff.

S - Let the gluttony commence 

We fly on Wednesday. Can't wait. My goals are to onsight more than 1 x 7b, RP a 7b+ or 7c and pick an 8a for next December, which will structure my training over the next year.

In reply to AJM:

Totally jealous of that. One of my regrets in life is I'll never get to fly Concorde.

In reply to Tyler:

Thanks for stepping in for the festive period.

More or less at this point. My wrist doesn't trouble me but I can still feel my finger when full crimping, but it feels 90% of the way there.

M - Rest

T - 2.5hr board session, focusing on volume at 7A

W - Rest

T - Unstructured threshold intervals into headwinds and on climbs. 33km / 422m ascent / 1hr11mins / 191w average power

F - Rest

S - Zone 2 base ride. 42km / 494m ascent / 1hr36mins / 159w average power

S - Rest

Have a good Christmas break all!

In reply to Tyler:

Hi Tyler, thanks for stepping in for Ross. R.E. junk miles - I think something is better than nothing but I don't think my session counts as junk miles anyway. Until pretty much this week I've been limited by my Burbaged finger so when bouldering I've been doing the hardest stuff I can without hurting it but with no rest between boulders which seems to be good for fitness. 

A good training week this week. Term has finished now (yay!) but I'm going to struggle to be near much dry rock or training facilities next week.

Anyway, this week:

Mon. Foundry boulder session. The first week my finger has been able to pull harder. Did the yellow and pinks on the balcony to warm up then hit the blacks on the wave. Only managed one but it was good to be pulling hard again. Even when I was bouldering loads I rarely got more than 3 so not terrible really. 3x10 press ups.

Tues. 10km run.

Wed. Aerocap awesome walls session. 4x 10mins on 10mins off. 6bs for the first 3 sets and 6cs for the last set (up and down). 5x5 pull ups, 3x10 press ups.

Thurs. Rest 

Fri. Depot circuit board session. Normally I use the steep one as I find it much harder but it was busy so I got on the wooden electronic one instead that's a bit less steep. This was one of those sessions where I would have sent a project if it had been dry outside! Flashed all the benchmark circuits at 7a, 7a+, 7b and 7b+. Worked then did another 7b+ then did another 6 different circuits at either 7a or 7a+. No more than 3.5mins rest between anything other than the one I had to work. 5x5pull ups, 3x10 press ups.

Sat. 7km run.

Sun. 6sets of repeaters, 5x5 pull ups, 3x10 press ups. 9km family walk.

In reply to biscuit:

It's not a bad museum as it goes, with a purpose built hanger for Concorde. You can go inside it, plus there's a load of stuff about the history and all that. The one they have is the last one ever to have flown (unsurprisingly perhaps; it flew from Heathrow to Filton by the museum). There's a great photo they have of it going over the Clifton suspension bridge on the way in.

In reply to biscuit:

I've not flown on it, though have been on it for a look around.  However, I had the Concorde chefs on a training course with my company at one stage (I used to run international management development for BA back in the day).

In reply to Tyler: great start on stats Tyler. Finger block lifts have been my go to for a while firstly to save my dodgy shoulders which niggled when I started hanging at the beginning of the year. Secondly I’m struggling with my weight and would be battling body weight hangs at the moment. Finger block lifts allow me to see improvement in the fingers which might be obscured by my lardiness in finger boarding (I guess there’s a bunch of ego in that but good I need some little wins at the moment!). Thanks Ross for you statting and a big bell yeah! For the Lizard King, great finish to the year.

STG (this month) – maintain a grip on daily life, get going properly again on strength training. 1. Climb 50 (46/50) Grade 6+ boulder problems before the end of the year.

MTG (next 2 months)– 1. Give me strength – shoulders and core. 2. Climb some grit E1/2 nemesis routes.

LTG (next 6 months) – 1. Give me strength – fingers, steep stuff and slopers. 2. Get properly to grips with safe Grit E3s. 3. Rheinstor Lower Traverse?? 4. Attempt 2 on run climb project. 5. Trip to Sanctuary Wall

Mon – Dead lifts 5 reps at 45, 55, 60, 60, 60

Tues –  New Mills Tor. Bit of desperation. I got a window late in the day, so went in search of dry rock. A fun hour in the gathering gloom. Managed Fresher's Flu (f6A). Got to last move of Viaduct Wall (too high), got to last move of Grim Reaper traverse and lost my feet (too dark). So got to explore my large rack of excuses!

Wed – Depot – endurance. Warm up 20 probs, then drop intervals, 6 problems gradually getting easier (red-green) back to back, 2-3mins rest x 6. Real arm-blaster of a session. Good.

Thurs – 2mile run in 20 mins on the treadmill to test out my calf. Very gentle start but eventually got up to normal speed.

Fri – Shoulders, heel hooking, toe hooking and full body strength and conditioning. 8 exercises coupled in supersets 8 reps x 3 sets (although on one pair of exercises I did 2 sets out of caution). Discovered weakness in places where I didn’t know I was supposed to have strength.

Saturday – Awesome Walls 8 routes 5+, 6a+, 4 x 6c, 6b+ x 2. Grades felt all over the place, got up 2 of the 6cs cleanly but they were probably easier than the 6b+s which I fell off at their finishes. Woefully short on power endurance but I guess that shouldn’t be a surprise as it’s been 18 weeks (!!) since I properly led a route.

Sunday –  3 mile run (plod) before work, calf felt fine. Repeat of Fridays S&C session.

Reflection - hard week at work including working today. Pleased therefore to just about manage a full training week after a few light weight ones. Taking things super cautious running wise but good to be starting again. Contrasting climbing sessions. Amazed to discover it’s been 18 weeks since I did a route or a circuit harder than VS and boy did it show. Feel bit down at moment but suspect I’m just knackered and need a break. Have a relaxing stress free Christmas everyone.

In reply to Tyler:

I've joined FCLC (Fit Club Lurgy Club) with 'swimmers ear' which has me in quite some pain and struggling to heat.  As I'm away with the family, this may be a blessing 😂.  Prior to it worsening for Crimbo, I had a tricky couple of days at work, struggling to hear during complex discussions with clinical teams!

Mon - a good six set session including max hangs progressing to plus 15.9 kg, which feels pretty intense.  Also did BW pull ups 6,7,8,8,7,6 and 6x20 push ups.  Included weighted pull ups - sets of three as worked up through max hangs.  Lots of stretching.

Tues - went climbing.  Felt like a hopeless prospect at the appointed meeting time, but rain stopped.  Went to Horse Thief assuming might get an off route done and ended up doing seven - all damp, but manageable.

Wed and Thurs work.  This now involves some dead time in Birmingham so in the new year I think I will hit the bouldering walls.

Fri and Sat Crimbo prep.  This included a fair bit of partying 🙂

Sun travel to Devon.  Surprisingly smooth run down.

Some very nice reflections on last week's thread.  Heartening really.  That said, I've progressed to 'psyched' for some projecting when I really offered a bit of belaying, with the hope that I'd learn something.  Hope I don't disappoint, but I am actually keen to give it a real try and am secretly pleased that loads of you have offered 'support' 😀

Love it really.

In reply to Ian Parnell:

It's very sensible to dissociate the two, particularly at this time of year when there's the occasional temptation to overeat!

When I was doing more serious training I always used to measure the total weight I was hanging, not the bodyweight "+x", to make sure I was looking through any changes in weight.

In reply to Tyler:

Merry Christmas FitClubbers!

Covid symptoms largely gone, and a negative test. Still very tired but trying to gently ease back into training.

STG: Regain full health and resume normal training
STG: Kilterboard 5C @ 45°
MTG: Summer '24 uk trad trip with my son and/or Rough Bounds Scottish backpacking trip
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 823
LTG: Winter 24 or 25 - do an actual off piste ski tour.

M:    Tindeq peak load pulls. Did these to get a benchmark for my winter training: strict half crimp on a 20mm edge, average of my best three attempts is 47kg right, 44 left. Getting these up to 50 each side seems as good an arbitrary target as any.

T:    Bike 45 minutes, to my current favourite coffee roaster & back to stock up on beans before they close for Christmas.

W:    No-hangs, pull-ups, bulgarian split squats, ring supports
T:     
F:    Wall, Element, first time climbing since covid. Pretty ok session considering. Warmed up on the normal 3's & 4's, then onto the kilterboard. Angle dialed up, ego dialed down, and spent the rest of my session at 40° fighting hard on things with names like "V0 warmup #13". This wil pay off if I stick with it.
    Rounded the session off with some sets of shoulder strength & stability stuff: kb presses, aidans, one-arm scap pulls.
S:    
S:    Christmas Eve pub lunch with mates. Recruited a team for a New Year's Eve summit bivvy, weather permitting
 

In reply to Tyler:

Happy Christmas everyone! Thanks for stepping in with the stats, Tyler. Hope you recover in time for the big day tomorrow, Ross.

Dogging around on 7c and D9 wasn't a conscious ploy, but I am definitely less in awe of bigger numbers than I used to be. 2024 has some other priorities, but at some point I'd quite like to see how high I can push the numbers with 'proper' sport climbing sieging. Other than Jazz(!) I've never really sieged anything, and my joint hardest number sport climb (7a+) was done in one session, so I'd be interested to see what a real siege could do... maybe not much higher!

Week 51:

Still a bit lurgied at the start of the week, and had an annoying muscle strain in my neck/back, so dropped a couple of planned sessions.

M: Nowt. 

T: Rest.

W: Strength & Prehab. Took it steady, but actually ok.

T: Rest. 

F: Cross county run. 14.3km, 106m vert, 7:09/km. Pretty rough terrain, despite being flat. A footbridge had been washed away, meaning I had to ford the waist deep river. Had a brief moment of panic as the current took my legs from under me, but fortunately managed to avoid being a very unfestive newspaper headline.

S: Bouldering at Ruthin escarpment. Usually pleased to get new crag points, but I must admit I don't really love limestone bouldering (sorry Dom!) Got Fritillary Flake (f6A+) quite quickly, then tired myself out falling off Three flappers (f6C) repeatedly!

S: Bouldering at Monument. Less productive than it could have been due to the heinous gales making bouldering mats totally useless. Clawed up some easy stuff, trying not to get blown away. Then worked out the moves for Square face traverse (V4) -actually good enough to come back for (despite my previous rude comments about limestone bouldering!)

Hill run -aborted after a few km due to a sore hamstring. 4.3km, 189m vert, 7:07/km. Not sure what I've done to the hammy -hopefully it disappears quickly.

Week 52:

M: Strength  & Prehab.

T: Dry tooling.

W: Run.

T: Strength & Prehab.

F: Climbing.

S: Climbing.

S: Run.

STG (end Dec):

Maintain finger strength -average 2 sessions/week 

Increase core focus -average 2 sessions/week 

3 off big mountain day list (1/3).

Yates' Layaway (Probably not going to happen unless the weather seriously ups its game).

Hidden Dragon (TICK!) or White Wall (Masson, not Millstone!)

100m D6/7 in a session.

Year Goals:

110 days climbing for the year (currently 107).

1000 km running (TICK! -currently 1172km) with 40km vertical (currently 38.8km) for the year.

MTG (end March):

2+ off Scottish VII list.

1+ of Alpine Winter list.

Maintain finger strength -average 2 sessions/week.

Get ski practice in: 5+ sessions Dec-Feb.

In reply to biscuit:

Nice! Sounds like a great plan... shopping for a big project is exciting!

In reply to Tom Green: So we’ve got a new thing to add to your usual training week Tom - getting swept away in a river!

In reply to Tom Green:

Good work in the river. I knew our downfall ascent a few weeks ago had to be good training for something!

In reply to AlanLittle:

Your New Year plan sounds brilliant! (yet another example of how all the best plans happen in the pub!)

Enjoy!

In reply to Ian Parnell and SSB:

I am definitely a land mammal!

In reply to Tyler:

Have a great Christmas everyone. 

I'll bung up the additional '2023 round-up' thread at some point next week if people want? 

In reply to Tyler:

Thanks Tyler. Was still feeling unseasonably battered following go-karting last week. Really hadn't expected it to destroy my arms quite so much. 

M - Nothing.

T - Boardroom. Not much of new set for Round 4 was ready. Did all the problems that were ready. Nothing probably harder than V6/7. 

W - Boardroom. Went back after deciding to bail on Rhiw Goch due to short on time and the fact it was still raining (Good effort Ross who stayed out and fortutitously moved round to Lizard King). Most of Rnd 4 set up. Did most but 2 harder ones to go back for. 

T - Rest

F - Rest

S - Rest

S - Back to Dugout with Ally of this parish and a few others. With the move of Sub Moron fresh got involved in other links and managed the In His Head link. Carried on going from finish holds which has just been done and is called Finest Moron. Nice to get another 8 before the year is out.

Next week: Try and get out between xmas and NY. Back to Boardroom. 

STG:

Get back into regular Moonboarding and Fingerboarding at home. Do something active at work every shift.

Boardroom Rockwork Orange winter bouldering league - 2.5 rounds to go

Sub Moron-Shropshire Lass ✅  In His Head LH finish ✅ 

Outdoor bouldering. Only things I'm loosley interetsed in are Bytilith Wall, Nazgul's, and maybe Crafnant stuff but gets a bit dank up there through the winter. Dugout links rekindled some psyche for Parisellas. 

MTG:

Go back to St Leger, love that place! Maybe Spring.

Unchi Maka on the Sialouze. Looks amazing. Hopefully in the summer. 

Build up more trad mileage again and hopefully go to Pabbay next Spring/summer.

LTG: 8c. 

Have a great Xmas everyone!!

Ed

In reply to Tyler:

Good evening all, happy Christmas eve and big thanks Tyler for picking up the stats for me.

A week of two halves. Or rather, two good days and then the worst cold/flu/lurgy I've had as far as I can remember. Constant headaches and painful sinuses, would not recommend. Still quite present so it'll be an interesting Christmas...

Last Week:

Avg weight 77.5kg

M - Ice baths before bed.

T - Rematch with Lizard King Middle (V9). Took a good while to warm up and rehearse the last hard move, but scraped my way up it in the end. First 7B++ not bad considering I had a burger, pizza, and loads of chocolate the day before! Spent maybe an hour working Jerry's Roof until complete muscular failure. I still haven't tried it fresh yet! Ice baths before bed.

W - Feeling the onset of a lurgy in the afternoon and evening.

T - Worst nights sleep in recent memory, fully lurgied up now.

F - Still fully lurgied. Slight improvement by the evening?

S - More lurgy.

S - Lurgy still. Blegh.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Climbing.

W - Rest.

T - Climbing.

F - Rest.

S, S - More climbing!

Goals:

Self-delurgification.

Rehab left middle finger.

Manage session load and build better habits.

Improve ability on tiny edges.

In reply to Tyler:

M&T: planned rest

W: Beacon, intended to boulder but the new set didn’t have grades. I did a few but hard to motivate yourself when you don’t know what you’re letting yourself in for. Did a few problems and messed around on the auto belays. Still trying to work out of its junk miles but as SSB says better than nothing (and I enjoy it)
Thu - Sat - Christmas faff and began the seasonal overeating.

Sun - Beacon, problems now have grades, turns out I flashed two V5s and managed 4 more today (including one from the old set I couldn’t touch on Weds). This would be a good session from me at any time but I think the setters have been generous. 
At the moment we still have a shit tonne of food in the house after the first of our family meals so the over eating will continue into next week but hopefully I’ll start getting out from the 27th onwards. Keen to meet up with anyone else around N Wales in that time.  

In reply to Tyler:

Thank you Tyler for taking over the stats.

There is still stuff to be found if you have the right eye for it, and are willing to put in the time where others in the past had walked by assuming it wasn't worth it.  Lots of what is found is not that great, but every so often you find something brilliant that makes it all worthwhile.

Both guidebooks are now printed and done, and contain most of the photos.  I'm not a big Blog/Intstagram person, but I do plan to put a ticklist or 2 together.

Not sure.  I find that when you first try to unlock a hard new route, it can take a lot of effort to get the working beta the first time.  With existing routes, even if the chalk is washed off and they have had few ascents, you can usually see signs of use and clues to where the holds are, and a grade to guide you. 

Nightmares is a 12m high, 10 degree overhanging limestone natural shearline, with almost no holds.  I think the end grade will be 7c, as each time I refine the beta it got slightly easier.

Another quiet week, and failure to RP another hard route, that I should have had in the bag.

W - Avon TR on Dragon (E3 5c) after checking a rockfall, then tried and failed to find beta for the very tricky The Real St Werburghs (E4 6b) which is nails for supposed 7b

T - Out in the stormy winds to try and get an RP on another new 7c I got ready a few weeks ago.  Conditions just were not right and constant drying of holds with tissue, along with a small hold snapping leaving a razor sharp matchstick edge.  I left with a bleeding finger pad and despite climbing the crux 6 times, I didn't quite get the RP.

Currently just a slither under 73kg running into Christmas, which is light for me, so see how much that increases over the next 2 weeks.

Next week will be a nil return as I'm taking a full rest.

  

In reply to Tom Green:

The shopping is the easy bit. The delivery company leaves something to be desired though - more Evri than Amazon....

In reply to Tom Green:

You never know unless you try!

The benefits of refining beta and being relaxed on a route do sometimes mean that you can get up stuff you don't expect to. You may surprise yourself by what you can do.

You need to join Derek's Projecting Club. There's a lot of tactics involved in bringing a route down to your level!

There is a little known book called Redpointing. I'm not sure if it's still in print? It's a mine of info in the dark arts.

In reply to Tyler:

Merry Christmas to all!

It is actually not that bad, imo. Takes about 30 minutes that i can spent watching youtube, listening to podcasts, etc., and the sessions are not really hard. Compared to that Arcing feels way more boring to me.

Recap last week:

Mon: One-Arm Pullups with a light assistance band: r: 4,3,3; l: 4,4,3; 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 20,5kg, 6x12,7,3 with 2 min rest. 

Tues: 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 15,5kg, 6x12,7,3 with 2 min rest

Wed: Rest

Thur: One-Arm Pullups with a light assistance band: r: 4,4,3; l: 4,4,3; 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 20,5kg, 6x12,7,3 with 2 min rest. 

Fri: L-Sit 2x20s, 2x10 Pike Pushups, 50 Pushups, 45s V-Situps, 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 15,5kg, 6x12,7,3 with 2 min rest

Sat: Rest

Sun: One-Arm Pullups with a light assistance band: r: 4,3,3; l: 4,3,3; 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 20,5kg, 6x12,7,3 with 2 min rest

Decent week, though i've started to feel my shoulders during the session on the sunday. I probably should not underestimate the One-Arm-Pullups, although i am only doing them every third day. Compared to that my fingers feeling very good and i've started to notice some fitness gains already. Will probably increase volume next week a little bit on the easier Fingerblock lifts but keep intensity the same.

In reply to AJM:

I was studying for my PhD at Bristol the day concorde made it's final flight.  We were allowed up on the roof of the chemistry department to watch the flyby.  Great memories. 

In reply to Tyler:

Small Step - what a lovely post the other week.  Glad to hear you get so much out of fit club.

Ian - VD is about my kind of level these days.  Still looks like an awesome crag.

Derek - welcome to lurgy club!

Happy Christmas everyone.

So my cough is persisting into a third week now.  Decided to try and go out for a run.  Didn't get far down the road before several really bad coughing fits made me think that discretion was the better part of valour.  Also I didn't fancy hacking up my asthmatic lungs in full view of the world so I limped back home. 

In reply to mattrm:

I have tentative mountain plans for New Year's Eve, but the possibility of something similar happening to me after my recent run of (non) health is very real. We shall see.

In reply to AlanLittle:

My Christmas present from the lad is Moderne Zeiten: 100 legendäre Freikletterrouten in den Alpen. Sort of a German language version of Parois de Legende, or an updated version of Walter Pause's Im Extremen Fels - the book that inspired the whole Hard / Classic / Extreme Rock genre. Turns out there's one route in it that I've already done, and since it starts at around VI+/VII- there's a few other things in it that I already had on my mental to-do list. So that's my next couple of summers planned out. 

Yes, Heinz Mariacher's Tempi Moderni (VII+) on the Marmolada is in it. No it's not on my "might realistically ever be able to do that" list, since I've seen suggestions that old school alpine VII+ in this case equates realistically to something like sketchy trad 7a.

In reply to Ally Smith:

I’d have loved to have seen that. I’ve broken the sound barrier, but in a little plane. Such a feat of engineering, vision and confidence. 

Now we can’t build a railway.

And I feel very middle aged having typed that. 

In reply to Tyler:

Thanks, Tyler, for your comments and support.
Healthwise the gradual improvement continues – almost there.
Thanks for the support with the nightmares – also to mattrm, and Tom and Ian last week. It’s touching to read that the support is there. This stuff can get pretty lonely at times, just mulling / pondering over / interpreting a nightmare means that you tend to turn in on yourself for a day or two…and they therefore quite simply isolate me…the strange thing? On Christmas Eve, the day I posted, I was visited by another nightmare. First in about three months. Unbelievable. I’m not putting that down to the daring-to-hope post here in the Fit Club, that would be hocus-pocus cause & effect 😉 – it’s just the time of year…in any case, the last three months have been terrific and I’ve tasted / felt what it can be like without them…I’m actually keen to see what happens next…(here, a shout out to Sheep, if he calls in and browses the thread - chin up...)

Meanwhile, there was some training done - hurrah:

Mon: stretching
Tue: finger board – felt good, all things considered, doing quite nicely
Wed: light jog, 25 minutes, stretching
Thu: wall, Thalkirchen, 8 routes, first session with leads in three weeks…5c, 6a, 6b, 6b+/6c, 6c, &b, 6c+/7a (top rope), 6a+. Went far better than expected; couple of pleasing ticks (not the top rope, though – a project for me)
Fri: upper body exercises & stretching
Sat: wall, Bad Aibling, 9 routes: 5c, 6a+, 5c, 6b, 6b, 6c+, 6c+, 7a, 6a+; no ticks on the harder stuff but climbed them pretty well – all definitely in my range. Enjoyable session.
Sun: light jog, light upper body exercises, stretching.

Another couple of weeks getting up to speed and then some plastic winter goals. For rock, I need to get the basics in place first – the infrastructure as it were: partners, timing, etc.

Wishing all a good week and better health for everyone still under a cloud. And good conditions for Biscuit...

In reply to biscuit:

I've been repeating it as a mantra all day, but it hasn't made me feel middle aged.  Disappointed isn't the half of it 😂

In reply to Small Step:

Thank you. Best wishes to you too. It's so easy to turn in and isolate yourself. And yet people are so often super keen to help/listen. It's an odd thing we do to ourselves.

In reply to Tyler:

Back to posting again (pun intended!)

managed to go flying down the stairs, a couple of weeks ago and completely screwed my lower back

huge amounts of bruising, and the only positive was no broken bones 

managed a 1 mile run yesterday and today

so time to build in the New Year and really hit my goals for turning 50 😊

In reply to the sheep:

Lovely to see you back.  Hope the bruises heal quickly.

In reply to biscuit:

Couldn't find one called Red pointing, but did find 'Redpoint' which looked like the sort of thing you described - only £6 so ordered one anyway.  Thanks for the tip

In reply to Tyler:

As requested:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/ticklists/best_of_bristol_sport-7750

In reply to Derek Furze:

Oops! Yes Redpoint. By Hague and Hunter who wrote the Self-Coached Climber.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Redpoint-Self-Coached-Climbers-Sight-Climbing/dp/0...

£2.95! Bargain! Or £158 for the hardback version.......

In reply to Tyler:

Cheers Tyler and Merry Christmas FItClub!

Yeah, enjoyed the change from hangboarding. I’ve been doing them for Sets/Reps and plateaud at 54.5kg 1RM on the Lattice 20mm block. Gonna switch to repeaters for a while as my Strength Endurance is shocking. I’m feeling strong on ratty crimps and slopers…but only for a couple of moves.

Snuff Mills is only 10-mins from my house and has a load of good highballs/routes on the quarried back walls with tree anchors at the top: Ninja Warrior, (S)end Train, Apokalypto etc. I can do all the moves on Apokalypto but I’ve only linked up to the crimpy headwall. I’m not sure how likely a lead/highball is as the top crux would be pant filling without a toprope. Think I’ll get a copy of the new Bristol Sport guide, try some of Steve’s local routes, change my LTG to Redpoint List, and join Derek’s Proj Club!

Festive season in full swing now but I did get out for a couple hours on the Friday.

Fri

Bit damp so checked out Bourton Combe to test my new ‘Big Arse Harness/Petzl Torse’ combo and shunted Flax Factor (6c). Finished off by climbing End of It All (E3 6a) Stand and Sit problems at around f6A+. I dropped off at the highball finish and caught my foot on something on the way down. Flipped over and hit the pads pretty hard (lucky I had two!)

Another week of festive decadence so will be a no-show on Sunday!

In reply to Tyler:

Welcome to the hinterland betwixt Christmas and New Year! Lurgy has revisited out family, with all of us having a cold/cough. Taking it easy and regrouping for the next Dugout session.

Week 50

M – 5x5 on-the-minute pull-ups, then aero-cap repeaters; 7on/3off x6, 1min off, x10. “40%” load, based on a 6mth old max-hang value = BW-20kg. These weren’t as bad as feared, and given the total lack of warm-up I was happy that the first couple of sets were pumpy but then I settled in and completed the lot without too much fuss. 

T – Rest. Stretching only.

W – After dinner board. Sub-par session, really struggling to engage core with it full of high-fibre dinner (damn those healthy vegan choices!) 8x 6B+ to 7A+ flashes, then struggled with individual moves on BM objectives. Ended up doing mileage on 6x 7B-C+ non-BMs. Did 4, 2x too hard and quit these after 3 attempts each.

T – Nowt

F – 3x40s BW "Density" hangs on textured edges for skin conditioning. 3x10 hanging leg raises. Evening stretch.

S – Packing/friends visiting/driving to in-laws

S – Festive Dugout meet. 7 attendees at peak times. A bit smeggy to be honest and took an age to feel like I could pull hard. No tick, but learnt plenty to deploy when I get back to Shropshire’s answer to Parisella’s… (Repeated all 4 finishing options for Sub-Moron, with tweaked beta on the RH version to eliminate a 50-50 heel-hook. Found a different foot position for the crux throw to the break and did it in isolation for the first time. Degloved a large pinky callus and got another split, but it’s game-on for next visit).

In reply to Tyler:

Just reporting in that I've joined Finger Block Lift Club with 12 sets of repeaters on 20 mm at 18.2kg.  I have already run into the problem that I can't fit enough weight on the lifting pin, so will have to source some big metal plates.

Just for research purposes, I can report that the positives are that a) it is easier than BW on the board (both technically and physically) and b) it isolates the differences between hands (which surprised me somewhat).

I enjoyed repeaters this way, whereas previously I was close to hating them.  Looking forward to more variety across the training plan (now titled 'Redpoint or bust')...

In reply to Derek Furze:

Always knew you were a training beast.

In reply to Derek Furze:

#humblebrag

In reply to AJM:

Haha!

My weights are the sand-filled sort that seem to be about 2.5 inch thick.  Given that I have two 4.5s and a load of 2.3s and the loading pin only carries six weights, I've hit my maximum already.  I want to include max hangs with the blocks (as well as repeaters) so yes, my training programme will grind to a halt by next sesh without some cast plates - probably two 10kg to start.

That should see me through the first week 😉

In reply to Derek Furze:

I did consider that a cheaper solution would be to step down the edge size (16mm is next), but it feels like a tweaky place to start.  

In reply to Derek Furze:

I think the key is whether it's comfortable and whether you think you can go to max on it - I would avoid anything that feels like it might be "pingy" because that will hamper you from making sure you're properly going to max. The nice thing about pickups is that you can probably do that at a wider variety of edge sizes than you can a fingerboard. For me one of the benefits of pickup edges is that sort of granularity - I've done it a lot for pocket specific training - e.g. I can't do bodyweight deadhangs on monos, but I can get my fingers used to them via a pickup edge.

In reply to AJM:

Good advice - thanks Andy.  Yes, I've noticed the wider range of options that the pick-up block creates.  Looking forward to some exploration over the next few cycles.