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.

Link to last week’s thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_875-7666...

Tyler: Big thank you for taking the helm in my absence! Nice work on the big numbers at the Beacon, soft or not they probably still present a good challenge and good training stimulus. Either that or the seasonal overeating leads to immense power gainz! Hope you have had a good Christmas and managed to get out in the occasional weather windows.

AJM: Sounds like a pretty good week, getting some good work in. Not feeling the strongest at rehab could be a good indication that you're hitting the right parts! Hope you've had a good Christmas and have been able to stay reasonably active during the festive period (even if it's just the odd walk!).

biscuit: Plenty of good scenes for honing one's fitness! Hope you had a good Christmas you're having a good time in Leonidio! Hopefully feeling on good form and not too full of turkey!

SteveJC94: 90% there is a great progression. Minimal climbing but good cycling fitness at what seems to be your usual standard. Unfortunately I know not enough about cycling to provide further comments, so hopefully you've had a good Christmas and keeping up the exercise amongst the gluttony!

Somerset swede basher: Strong week! Looking strong and well fit to boot - I presume this is for sport/trad goals when spring rolls around? Looking on good form either way, hope you've managed to have a good Christmas and got out in the occasional dry period.

Ian Parnell: Sounds like a productive week, you've earned yourself a good restful Christmas break. Glad the calf is improving as you'll be needing that for your next big run-climb project!

Derek Furze: Hope the swimmers ear clears up, at least for when Christmas is over and you need to listen to belayers/colleagues/partners attentively again! Good couple of days training and getting out in the leadup though which is good. I'm looking forward to see how Redpoint-Menace-Derek does next year, I think you might surprise yourself!

AlanLittle: Easing back into training, oosh! Good to drop the ego upon returning to the board, your approach and consistency will be rewarded with bountiful power and strength. In time of course, let's not rush. You must be pleased to be back!

Tom Green: I'd be excited to see what you can siege your way up. Llanymynech being so accessible will help with that, Cul de Sac has been the scene of quite a few! A great second half to the week leading up to Christmas, have you managed to get out any more in these challenging conditions?

Ed booth: Those go karts without power steering are surprisingly tiring indeed. Nice work on Christmas eve getting the hard Dugout links done, you must be well chuffed. If only you'd put those beans down on the Moonboard hope you see you getting further up that leaderboard next year!

Steve Claw: Exciting prospects for the new guide. Those new 7cs sound excellent too, if not desperate! Hope you have a good Christmas break and may the new year be blessed with dry weather and crimps that don't snap off.

Randy: Solid week, those OAPUs do put a lot of strain on the shoulders, I've found the same thing a couple weeks ago when I started doing them. Hope you give the shoulders the food they need over Christmas!

mattrm: Sorry to hear the cough is persisting. Unfortunately they're very good at that! Hopefully a little time off and some Christmas food will do you some good for recovery.

Small Step: Hurrah to training! Looks like you've had a good week, nice work. Christmas will probably interrupt routine as usual, but hopefully you can stay active and it'll all be good.

the sheep: Flying down the stairs sounds pretty horrendous, no broken bones really is quite lucky (although it might not feel that way!), getting little runs in is great effort. Slow and steady back into it. Hopefully they haven't affected Christmas too much!

Ally Smith: Sounds like some good scenes at the dugout once up to speed, I wish I was there to cheer everyone on. If it feels game-on in smeggy conditions then you should be in good stead for when it's crisp! Hope you've had a good Christmas and enjoyed subsequent visits this week as well.

In reply to Ross Barker:

Thanks Ross glad you’re feeling better.

STG (this month) – maintain a grip on daily life, get going properly again on strength training. 1. Climb 50 (50/50) 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 – Nothing

Tues –  Morning at Stanage Plantation – got out just after 9 so got a bit of the sunshine. After failing on 3 6As in a row I was thinking it might not be my day, then managed Crozzle Arête Right-hand (f6A), Crozzle Slab Arête (f6A+), Slot Sitdown (f6A) and Rubber 'ose (f6A+) to get my 50 x 6s. The latter problem felt the best, particularly as without a spotter I had visions of me rolling all the way down to The Pebble.  

Wed-Fri - Nothing

Sat - 16 hours travel (6 more than planned) for skiing holiday. Despite the delays did better than other family members due to join us - my cousin only realising once they’d arrived that they were at the wrong resort in a different country, and my sister and family who after being delayed for 2 days have given up and gone back home to Scotland!

Sunday – 3 hours skiing

Reflection - complete download this week as I felt exhausted. Lots of stress worrying that my youngest  wasn’t going to engage in Christmas (they did in their own way) and would refuse to leave the house meaning either my wife or I would have to stay at home (we got all 4 of us here yippee). Going to treat this as a good break before returning to the fray in 2024. 

In reply to Ross Barker:

Thanks Ross and good to see your end of year success - nice work!  

A week full of family action and long drives, including a fairly horrible trip back from Devon at six and a half hours in awful weather.  However, since return I have got through two training sessions, both experimenting with the finger lift block and repeaters as part of the set.  I found this much more approachable than repeaters on the fingerboard - just the timing is easier apart from being able to precisely control the loads.  I'm pleased with this as it provides some endurance base work in the mix.

Importantly, I've also set out a plan for my next two cycles taking me to the end of March.  I just need a couple more pinch blocks,, a big hold for one-arm lock offs and a modified footboard for my campus plan and I'm away!  As noted midweek with my humble bragging, I've also got to source some additional weight plates.

Also working on my wider targets for the year to include the projecting plan, so I will add that to a subsequent post.  I'm still reading my way through Redpoint, but am close to nailing down my list.

In reply to Ross Barker:

Happy Christmas all. Thank for your stats stint Ross. Yes, I've never trained fitness before, always prioritising strength instead but I do feel like I've seen some fitness gains with hopefully only a relatively small drop in strength.

Mon. 6km run. Application letter to lurgy club submitted.

Tues. Finger board session cut short due to lurgy club acceptance letter arrival. 5 sets of repeaters, 4x5 pull ups, 2x10 press ups. Long drive and a 4km family walk.

Wed. Upgraded to lurgy club premium. Another 4km family walk.

Thurs. 9km family walk. Downgraded to standard lurgy club membership.

Fri. Another family walk. Long drive home.

Sat. Feeling a lot better but tired. Had a play on the auto belay while small swede was at climbing club. Pleases to onsight the 7a, 7b and 7b+ routes but needed loads of rest between them for my heart rate to return to anything approaching normal.

Sun. 12km family cycle, slowly.

Enjoying everyone's 2023 round ups! Will try and write mine later.

Ian - I'm going to head to the depot at 10am tomorrow morning when they open if you fancy a session? Edit. Scratch that, just noticed you've gone skiing!

In reply to Ross Barker:

Thanks Ross, Happy New Year to one & all

More easing back in to climbing training, and I got over a big hurdle that had been worrying me in terms of my general health & fitness

STG: Regain full health and resume normal training
STG: Kilterboard 5C @ 45° - sort of but not quite, see Friday
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:    Took the mountain bike out into the woods for an hour before settling down to an afternoon of goose roasting. Very pleasant, surprisingly un-muddy after the big thaw.

T:    Wall, Freimann. Routes with my son, first time in ages. Moving ok but, unsurprisingly, quickly pumped & tired. Was pleased to get all the moves on a 6c+ first go, although I then messed up the sequence and fell on the second go redpoint attempt.
W:    
T:     
F:    Wall, Freimann. A good kilterboard session: made my first serious attempts on The Proj at 25° since September, and had my best session on it yet: two overlapping three move (out of six) links. Then cranked the board down to 45° and ticked two 5C's. But they felt really soft compared to others I've tried, and on checking my logbook I found I'd already done both of them at 40°, so I'm scoring those at less than half an STG tick apiece.

S:    Not Quite New Year's Eve Summit Bivvy. The weather forecast for New Year's Eve is poor visibility and sleet, so we decided to bring our summit bivvy forward by a day (thus also avoiding the need to be awake at midnight to watch fireworks). Evening hike up to the Brunnsteinspitze in the Karwendel.
    I was quite worried that I might have been severely compromised by nearly three months of respiratory illness(es).  Turned out better than I feared: obviously I've lost some fitness, but the basic ability to plod steadily uphill for a few hours in big boots with a biggish rucksack appears to be intact. So that's good. The only real problem was aching knees on the way down, but that's a form of activity specific fitness that I've found comes and goes pretty quickly.
    I also had some concern that taking my full-on winter sleeping bag for a forecast temperature of minus two might be overkill and a sweatbath. I needn't have worried: we bivvied directly on the ridge for the best views in the morning, and it was quite windy in the night so I was glad to be well wrapped up.

S:    Hike down from the Brunnsteinspitze
 

In reply to Ross Barker:

Weight - Don't want to know.

STG - Maintain diet for Jan.

MTG - flat 10k 1 hour

LTG - 30 mile ultra (July 24) and 86 mile (Sept 24)

M - S - Rest

S - 2k run

Weekly kms - 2k

Had to go back quite a few weeks to pre-illness me.  Cough is mostly gone.  Still there, but mostly gone.  So got out for a run today.  Hoping to do around 10k next week, but we'll see how everything holds up.  Aiming to get back on the sensible eating train next week as well.  In fact that's probably going to be the main focus.

Extra thing.  Sounds like training my fingers using pinch grips would be much better than full on fingerboarding, given my lack of recent climbing and weight.  That sound sensible to anyone?

In reply to Ross Barker:

Happy New Year everyone! Thanks for a great stint on the stats, Ross. Solid effort keeping us all in order!

Feeling fully recovered from the pre-Christmas lurgy, so managed to get out and about.

Week 52:

M: Christmas max hangs and prehab for extra smugness! 

T: Dry-tooling at Llany -five laps of A Dry White Season (D7) did a good job at blowing away the Christmas cobwebs. Had hoped to do eight or nine laps to hit my STG of 100m tooling in a sesh, but had nothing left after five. Could barely grip the steering wheel on the way home!

W: Hill run. 22.1km, 1039m vert, 9:22/km. Playing catch-up after a couple of weeks with lurgy/injury, so headed over to Eryri, hoping that the forecast was incorrect. It wasn't, so ran an unimaginative loop over Snowdon (just wanted to stay on big paths to remove the need to navigate in the heinous wind and rain!).

T: Rest/driving. 

F: Winter climbing. An amazing day, despite not actually getting a route ticked! Thought Crest Route (V 7) would be a gentle first route of the season, but it was not gentle enough! The climbing was pretty straightforward, but it was buried, so every single hook need digging to be found (even some ledges were invisible due to the amount of snow cover making them look contiguous with the wall above!). My partner (sensibly) backed off the third pitch. I should have gone up to take a look, but because I'd taken ages excavating the second pitch, we didn't have much daylight left! Made the decision to pre-empt the epic and go down. But it was such a nice day and the climbing that we did was so good that I wasn't really that disappointed to bail! 

S: Drove home, punctuating the journey with a tiny run, solely to hit my target of vertical metres! Felt a bit guilty doing such junk miles purely for the numbers!

S: Bouldering at Monument. The mats stayed put this time and I thought I was going to finish the year on a high, but just couldn't hold the final move on Square face traverse (V4).

Week 1:

Going to take this as a fairly complete rest week. May do some small runs and some finger boarding, or may not!

STG (end Dec):

Maintain finger strength -average 2 sessions/week (FAIL -1.25/week)

Increase core focus -average 2 sessions/week (Abject FAIL -core is always the first session to get dropped).

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

Yates' Layaway (FAIL-postponed until better cons next year).

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

100m D6/7 in a session (FAIL - 60m only)

Year Goals:

110 days climbing for the year (TICK! 110 exactly).

1000 km running (TICK! Totalled 1198km) with 40km vertical (TICK 40km and 37m!) 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 mattrm: hi Matt I highly recommend finger training using pick ups. You’re not specifically using a pinch block although the one I use made by Lattice is a pinch block but also has several edges including a 20mm one (the magic single pad size). There are lots of other brands or you could just make your own very easily and cheaply. Key thing is to have a nice comfy rounded edge and a bunch of free weights to dangle on the end. You can just loop a sling through these or stack them on a loading pin. To train there are 2 main ways. One is to lift the weight up and hold for a set time - say 10secs. The second is to do multiple lifts each lasting a second or so I.e lifting the weight 5 times in a row. Key thing is to lift with your legs not your arm as you’re looking to isolate the fingers not fail due to arm lifting strength. I find it very rewarding as someone who struggles with body weight hangs on a finger board whereas with these pick ups progression seems nice and quick. 

Hope that makes sense 

In reply to mattrm:

Or a finger block.  I got one from metis-climbing on eBay with four edges at 25, 20, 16 and 12mm.  It is very controllable.  They do a micro edges one as well that goes down to 8mm.  Yes, if you are heavier than normal, fingerboarding might be injury prone and / or demoralising, whereas building up floor lifts might be better.  The downside is less peripheral training effect on shoulders and pull up strength.

In reply to Ian Parnell:

Thanks Ian and Derek.  I've just been watching an Eric Horst vid about it and looking at the Lattice block (I'll support tompr where possible).  It sounds from what you've said like it'll be perfect for me.  I'd have to construct some complex pulley system to get enough weight off to fingerboard.  So pick ups sound absolutely perfect.  Also less holes to drill in walls.

I see what you mean about the downsides wrt pull up strength, but for now, I think a pinch/finger block will be perfect. 

In reply to Ross Barker:

Thank you Ross,

Nil return from me as predicted.

Had a good few days of rest, so itching to get going again, but the weather forecast looks pretty awful.

Christmas feeding has added 1.5kg so far, but its only been a week, and there is lots more in the house to consume.

In reply to Ross Barker:

Happy New Year to all!

Nothing too interesting to report from my side. Still battleing the knee injury. It is feeling a little bit better but i assume that will need to take at least January off from climbing to really heal it.

Recap last week:

Mon: 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 15,5kg, 8x12,7,3 with 2 min rest

Tues: Rest

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

Thur: L-Sit 2x20s, 2x10 Pike Pushups, 40 Pushups, 45s V-Situps, 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 15,5kg, 10x12,7,3 with 2 min rest

Fri: Rest

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

Sun: 20mm Block Lift Repeaters, 15,5kg, 10x12,7,3 with 2 min rest

In reply to Ross Barker:

HNY all, and thanks Ross.

M - Some fat guy in a red suit brought unexpected deliveries to out house. Some were climbing and training related so I'm guessing he is a climber or something. Very bizarre.

T - Work. Treadmill 5km effort 17.36 . Hip flexor stretching.

W - Dugout.  Good chunk of volume. Didn't feel like doing anything when we arrived but got warmed up and checked logbooks for some things I hadn't done and also did some repeats and reps. 2 7A, 2 7A+, 7B, 7B+ and 7C. Best of bunch was Ally's 7C Doug's Finest. Felt like at least Fr8a. The end section felt a pumpy addition on this link.

T - Nothing

F - Nothing

S - Boardroom with a few other families. First time getting both kids climbing and also Wife. I went with no expectations of climbing, but had some little dabbles and managed to snatch a few more of the remaining trickier ones from latest round of winter Rockwork Orange League.

S - Nothing. Wrote a load of goals down which will post in other thread.

Psyched for 2024

In reply to Ed Booth: blooming hell Ed was that a full 5k in 17 and a half minutes? If so chapeau especially post Christmas pud

In reply to Ian Parnell:

Did it in the morning to make sure I hadn't eaten. The treadmill is probably a bit out. Last winter on the same treadmill I did 16.58 around the same time as doing PB 17.40 on the road at Shrewsbury Parkrun which is has 2 hills in. So, perhaps on flat roads then could have done sub 17.30. Going to try SY parkrun again soon and see how it compares again.

In reply to Ed Booth: phew! Chariots of fire territory.

In reply to Ian Parnell:

I was hoping it was a typo - 27.5 would have given me something to aim at over the year! 

In reply to Ross Barker:

Evening all, very much feeling better these days, still a slightly limited appetite and a smidge short on energy, but I seem to be pulling alright. Losing a couple kilos might have helped, but I definitely need to eat better for recovery before I return to proper training. Might just have to force it a little.

Last Week:

Avg weight 74.1kg (yeah, I'm surprised too!)

M - Festivities, mild lurgy and limited appetite.

T - More of the same, but slightly less lurgy.

W - Went to the climbing centre. Not feeling particularly energetic but scraped my way up a couple of MB benchmark 7As so clearly not doing too badly. The finger feels pretty good though I wasn't pushing it too hard.

T - Rest.

F - Cratcliffe Tor. A mate has begun his war on T Crack (f7B) so I repeated it for moral support. Practiced my sloper suction skills on Ova Arm (f7C) but was promptly rained off.

S - Rest.

S - Rest.

M - Louisville Lip (V10). Having done the finish last year I figured this is worth trying. Eventually sussed every move but it'd be a very hard link. I think I had it done in 4 parts, minus a tenuous but doable foot move? Very intensive on RH tips. Probably worth getting a bit stronger on big open hands and heels rather than just sieging it, but it's logistically straightforward as far as padding and conditions are concerned.

Next Week:

T - Rest.

W - Rest.

T - Climbing.

F - Rest.

S, S - More climbing!

Goals:

Rehab left middle finger.

Manage session load and build better habits.

Improve ability on tiny edges.

Louisville Lip?

In reply to Ross Barker: I’d be keen for a sesh on Louisville lip Ross

In reply to Ed Booth:

And there I was thinking that I'd have time to train before my next visit! Sounds good though, I'll let you know when I'm next planning on it.

In reply to Ross Barker:

Cheers Ross - we missed you at the Xmas eve Dugout meet up; no luck with Sub moron on my return visit, but managed an insignificant new SS to Shovel (f6B). 

Week 51

M – Chesty cough overnight, thankfully eased by turkey & champagne consumption.

T – Less chesty; muddy 5km walk.

W – Working.

T – Saving leave - so working again.

F – After work Dugout lantern session. Cold and damp, so got warm by doing some digging/landscaping. This allowed access to a new lower start to “Shovel”. It’s only 2 extra moves, but made for a fun couple of link-up FAs (SS-Shovel-In His Head, 7B & SS-Shovel-A Spade-Spade Face, 7A+). This needs a name to match up with the other themed names hereabouts, maybe “Coal” or "Muddy"? Which would make it “Coal Shovel In His Head” / "Muddy Shovel In His Head"?  thoughts, suggestions? Sufficiently warmed up, I went to work on Sub Moron and spent 90min repeatedly falling off the slap to the break. Bloody frustrating problem.

S – Nothing.

S – 5x3 weighted pull-ups (BW+22kg). 3x30s rough edge hangs. 3x30s f3 drag hangs. 2x10 30kg deep-squats and 2x10 30kg deficit DL, i.e. mobility exercises, which have given me frightful 2day hamstring DOMS!

BHM - 9km walk around Cannock Chase with Mk2 in the rucksack carrier (and a snoozing Mk1 in the pushchair).

In reply to Ross Barker:

thanks Ross. Yes, a good week, some level of exercise every day from Boxing Day onwards as the start to Sharkathon (exercise every day) in January.

Monday - rest

Tuesday - 4km walk with in-laws and children, plus a rehab session

Wednesday - 30mins of stretching and a few sets of pushups. I am not flexible.

Thursday - drove from my in-laws to my parents; portable fingerboard, giving the fingers a bit of exercise

Friday - 1.5km potter with parents and children, plus rehab

Saturday - another fingerboard session. Wasn’t as good as Thursday but still tried hard.

Sunday - drive home; light stretching

In reply to Ross Barker:

2024 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 FA’s

4)   Routes/circuits:

• 3x 7b+ or harder
• 1x 8a or harder

5)   Bouldering:

• 3x 7C or harder
• 1x 8A+ or harder

6) Moonboard:

• >26 sessions
• >10 BMs
• 8A BM

7)  Go to 3x "new to me" venues in UK

In reply to Ross Barker:

Happy New Year everyone! 

Cheers Ross. I’m glad to read you’re on the mend. It sounds like a rough do.

Leonidio was last month. This month it’s Costa Blanca. I appreciate it’s hard to keep track 😂 

We arrived late on Wednesday and spent Thursday morning shopping etc. nipped to Alcalali for some warm, easy, clipping to shrug off the travelling.

I was feeling quite good and inspired by the hanging prow of Stolen Fruit (7a). The climbing was good but it was run out, had 3 spinning hangers and very rusty bolt at the crux. Weirdly the new bolts that sorted the run out and one to replace the rusty crux one had been chopped? Quite pleased to have committed to it and onsighted it. If I’d read the write up before giving it a go I probably wouldn’t have got on it. 

Essentially since then I have massively underperformed. I felt unwilling to try hard for a couple of days. Just no psyche. I tried to force it but scared myself when I was getting really pumped in places where I expected to feel in control.

Started to feel a bit worse and really tired and ended up spending about 16 hours in bed yesterday with a really bad headache. I never get headaches. 

Feeling a lot better today and hoping to get back to it tomorrow. Not sure what it was but fingers crossed it’s on its way out. 
 

In reply to Ross Barker:

Cheers Ross. Yep with a ski trip coming up in the next fortnight I'm firmly focused on cardio/S&C work at the moment with a view to kickstarting climbing training at the end of the month.

M - Rest

T - Chilled family Zone 2 ride. 34km / 388m ascent

W/T/F - Rest

S - Zone 2 base ride. 25km / 231m ascent / 165w average

S - Rest

In reply to SteveJC94:

Hope the ski trip goes better than the last one!  Full body helmet recommended 😉