UKC

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fit club is a rich community with posters sharing their goals, noting successes and failures and offering support to those struggling to maintain motivation. Anyone interested in starting is very welcome to join, but to get the most of UKC fit club you should aim to post each week, every week, however little or much you have done. By making such a regular public record of your activities and by restating your goals every week this new habit will hopefully improve your training habits and drive you towards achieving your goals whatever the level of your chosen activity.

The following training article by Alex Barrows gives an excellent breakdown on training the four main "energy systems" specific to climbing:- http://alexbarrowsclimbing.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/training-for-sport-climbi...     also this - https://www.instagram.com/p/CEGfCg7DbkK/?igshid=4a1o55jwpus2

For those wanting to find out more about training for climbing a number of physical training articles are linked here:- http://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/t.php?t=274502

And for those looking for more theoretical background, there's a useful subject index of published research studies on the Beta Angel project. Not sure how actively maintained if is though. https://beta-angel.com/research/research-inventory/

This week's psyche vid: I didn't watch much of the world championships except Kokoro Fuji's cruise to glory in the bouldering final, but I did find local(ish) boy Sebastian Halenke's no-hands rest in the lead final cool: youtube.com/watch?v=EauI682ebv0&t=1960

Last weeks post - https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_cub_week_757-73931...

AJM - green & orange circuits - is there going to be a red? Maybe paint some epoxy on the splintering footholds?

Ally Smith - any climbing on the Cornwall trip, or is it strictly a bucket & spade holiday?

biscuit - congrats on the new job; hope the holiday isn't being too weather affected

Liam P - good news about the could-have-been-much-worse fracture & air boot.

mattrm - is your mate's return from holiday likely to get you back to the wall any time soon?

planetmarshall - trad season continuing I hope?

Ross Barker - excellent first acquaintance with the Pass. Hope the new job started ok.

Si dH - still keeping up a basic level of maintenance/ticking over. Good.

Somerset swede basher - sounds like the autumn project training is working. Any further progress this week?

Steve Claw - hope the Lundy trip continues to go well. Maybe the style difference between lime and granite is affecting your perceived lack of staying power? I know I always get my ass kicked on my occasional visits to Zillertal.

the sheep - best wishes for your and your daughter's recovery

Tom Green - so, moved in now?

Tyler - taking a bit of recovery time instead of immediately heading back to the wall after the Dorset trip does indeed sound like a good call.

AlanLittle - possible return of the in-family climbing partner is promising

Great job on your continued stats run Alan. This week I put all my eggs in one basket and ignored the good weather at the start of the week in order to do some hopefully more useful training...then got hit by poor weather on the Saturday morning ropes slot.

Mon. Aerocap auto belay session. 4x 10mins on 10mins off. 

Tues. Shoulder shrugs, press ups, rings tension and compression.

Wed. Repeaters and pull ups. Hilly 9km run. 

Thurs and Fri rest. 

Sat. Headed down to the cornice to find the whole thing condensed. Used the clip stick to get up to try and dry it but I couldn't even dry it out enough for some top roping. Headed down the dale and everything was similar until we got to the embankment which was, well, less wet. Got a top rope up in a 7c I've not done and managed to put a sequence together that avoided the wetest footholds but no successful lead attempts. Disappointed not to get it in a session but not being too hard on myself given the conditions. I think itl go quickly next time I'm down there. 

Sun. 1.2km swim. Ironically, much better climbing conditions today as it was nice and sunny but the kids enjoyed being in the water so it was worth it. Even with wetsuits on they only manage about 40mins outside but lots of fun was had and they were happy to sit and eat a picnic while I swam after theyd got out. 

Thanks Alan. There’s certainly another circuit in mind - I’m not sure there’s really room for three up at once whilst also having “up” problems for miniAJM, but I bought half a dozen pockets a little while back, and would like to buy or make some more, so that I have the holds for a crimp circuit, a pocket circuit or a jug circuit. 

A faffy week with Covid scares, but I’ve eased back into some semblance of training after a while where I’ve mostly been just trying to climb as much as possible. Weather looks mostly mixed this week although if I can make things align Wednesday afternoon is looking pretty appealing...

Monday/Tuesday - nothing

Wednesday - miniAJM sent home from school with a hacking cough so PCR test time. Did some stuff on the board in the pm, a few laps on the orange and a few goes trying green->shakeout->orange on good feet, where my best effort left me about 8 moves from the end. More splintering feet and I bit the bullet and ordered some proper footholds that might have a bit more longevity...

Thurs - everybody at home, not much done, awaiting test results. Twin pronged plan for Friday morning developed - walking with microAJM if miniAJM couldn’t go to school, or dws if he could. Car on the red light so filled up in the evening - quite glad I did given the queues outside every garage that I saw on Friday...

Friday - negative test result so miniAJM could return to school and I could catch the high tide! 2 new solos today, including one at a new venue - Desperado and Belly Button Traverse. Otherwise, some repeats and falls on both the project and on Underbare. 

- Underbare still frustrates me because I never seem to be able to climb it well, my climbing on it is wildly inconsistent and I never see (and don’t know how to see) anything resembling steady progress that makes me think it might go.

- the project, I’m concluding, is sucking up an awful lot of the restricted tide windows I have available. There’s a good rest after the pumpy intro that I can basically sit down on, which means each attempt takes a while, and the crux is basically the last hard move before easy ground and is techy and hard to figure out. At the moment - if I do manage to get out in a fortnights time for the next spring high - I’m feeling like getting some new solos in might be the way to go instead - I’d like to try more of the stuff round Belly Button Traverse, or some of the things near Aquamarina, or Octopus weed.

Saturday - poole seafood festival. Achey! A reasonable amount of walking, a lot of food, and I popped into the shop to stock up on chalk too. In the evening I finished updating my ukc logbook for what I can find of my old route spreadsheet, so I’m now more or less complete to spring 08, then a gap where only notable things are logged until maybe 2011/2-ish (hard to tell, since I need to be looking for gaps where I remember a route that isn’t logged from 10 years ago) where i moved to using ukc as my main source and it becomes complete again. There are a few trips where I’ve diarised in a paper logbook that I’ll probably try to do - there looks like a reasonable amount in here from 2008-2011 - but after that I may be left with a bit of a gap.

Sunday - bit achey still, and tired, so decided I wasn’t feeling the drive to Portland to boulder. Definitely getting a bit of changing of the season vibes - psyched for dws still, but not quite ready to move into winter mode and start bouldering again yet when it’s not an option. Besides, if I use the petrol now then who knows when I might be able to find any more in the current mad-max meltdown that passes for the U.K. at the minute!  Anyway, miniAJM and I went to the wall. New set for me, good session, did a bunch of stuff and have at least one thing to come back to...

Were you out there solo 

No, I met a friend there. I don't tend to dws on my own very much, and if I do it's generally either pretty lowball, something I'm not going to fall off, or more commonly both. Basically, I'll get warmed up on my own if I'm there before other people, but I don't tend to do much more without company, especially if non-climbing company is sparse (not Lulworth, basically!)

I’m pleased to hear!

Thanks Alan. 

M: rest

T: good evening fingerboard session. 3*30 second density hangs, then 5* 3/6/9 protocol with bodyweight +20kg on a 27mm edge, first with half crimp and then again with front 3 drag. Then did 3*4 power pull-ups. Felt like I had lots of energy.

W: rest

T: evening fingerboard session. 3*30 second density hangs, then 5* 3/6/9 protocol with bodyweight +20kg on a 27mm edge with half crimp. Didn't do the front 3 drag hangs as it was getting late and I was tired from low sleep.

F: Spent most of the day in hospital....

S: ...son No.2 born in the early hours! Most of the day in hospital again.

S: again mostly in hospital, but did some climbing on my home board in the late afternoon, after the usual 3*30 second density hangs. 

My son was put in NICU with breathing difficulties after 10-12 hours. They think he has an infection of some kind; his breathing has settled now and he has moved to the low dependency ward today, but I think he and my wife will need to stay there while he has at least 5 days of antibiotics. The good news is all her late-pregnancy health problems have disappeared now and she is feeling well. If things go as we hope, they'll be able to come home by the end of this coming week. In the meantime I think I'll have some free time between hospital visits and school runs, so should be able to get some training done. Might try for a couple of wall visits.

As long as HR final approval comes through I have a couple of months shared parental leave planned after my paternity leave ends, so once things settle down I'm hoping to be able to work out a way of getting lots of training done and a few week-day trips out with the latest addition in tow.

Finger still seems to be holding up well, I think that's 3-4 weeks that I've felt like I can use it properly for now. It's not full strength yet, but I'm confident I can get it there now if I'm careful and keep doing the exercises. Big thanks to Biscuit for his physio-ing!

Si

Congratulations, and wishing everyone a speedy recovery. 

Congratulations, hope all goes well.  Mine are not that old and I can remember what a worrying time it can be.

Congratulations! Hopefully they’re both home soon.

Thank you Alan.

I think your right, however being as I grew up on Granite sea cliffs, it hurts me to admit it.  Probably my ability to finger jam has not improved since I was younger, where as my ability to crimp on limestone has quite a bit.  Definitely returning to Lundy again as soon as I get the opportunity, so plenty of time to improve things.

M - Lundy - Went to Devils slide area and did Redspeed (E2 5c) with an adventurous long 100m abseil in off the top, then Shark (E1 5a) to get back to the top. Shark is not hard, but super exposed with sketchy XS type rock, so really felt "out there". Then to continue with the adventure theme I decided Satan's Slip (E1 5a) was a more appropriate way to climb the slide.  Very secure route, as your feet are so well gripped, but the gear that would hold is super spaced out.

T - Had to get the boat, so not much time. Dropped into deep zawn and did Quatermass (E2 5c). Excellent route, but with interesting route finding as no topo in the guide.  As with lots of the Lundy routes, I think we climbed them too early in the day, and dryer conditions later in the afternoon would have improved the experience no end.

W - Work

T - Indoor bouldering - Autobelay warm up, Max hangs 10s*6 +15kg with planks in rests. Then boulders to V7, (1 x V6 flash)

F - Nothing

S - Quick TRS session in Avon. Them (E3 6a) to warm up, followed by Tour de France (E6 6b), which I found really limit moves. Either I'm weak/missing beta or its about as hard as Was It You? (7c+) (which is soft 7c if your tall)

S - Took eldest to Redpoint and played about with him on the Autos and boulders.

Cheers Alan. Much more of the same this week. Fingers slowly getting stronger and the Frenchies have got disgustingly difficult. I’ve started using a Metronome App, which is great for lock-off discipline but not so much for the ego.

Recovery Club Goals

• 3x3 5sFrenchies, 7a BM, +12kg 20s 20mm
• PPPU with feet off floor
• Full 20x Core Circuit (tick)
• Front Lever

Mon:

• BM Max Hangs: 3 sets of 5x 10s on 20mm (Full Crimp, Half Crimp, Open 4)
• 2&1/3, 2, 2 5sFrenchies - felt really hard
• 3x 12 Knee Raises

Tue:

• 3x 22 Dips
• 1:30 Plank
• 3x 1 PPPU (45” foot-hand)
• 5x 12s Tuck Front Lever

Wed:

• BM Max Hangs: 3 sets of 3x 10s of 3 finger drag (20mm, 30mm, 45mm)
• 3x 14 Knee Raises
• 2&1/3, 2, 2 5sFrenchies

Thu:

• 3x 24 Dips
• 1:35 Plank
• 3x 1 PPPU (43” foot-hand)
• 5x 5s Advanced Tuck Front Lever

Sun:

• BM Max Hangs:!1 set of 5x 20s on 20mm Full Crimp. 1 set of 5x 15s on 20mm Half Crimp

Weight: 172lb

Got family visiting this week so may have a few lax days! Have a good week.

STG: Actually climb something: fail. Again.
MTG: Autumn 2021 sport trip. Ditch the lockdown weightbelt (3 to 5 kgs) beforehand and get fit 
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M: Bike half an hour. First resumption of some level of cardio training since the cold I had a couple of weeks ago
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Routes.
W: Half an hour shoulders & stretching
T: Wall, Boulderwelt. Another session working on my 45° circuit project. Progress: consistently getting some good linkls but still nowhere near the redpoint. 
F: 
S: Frankenjura. Return to the Hetzedorfer Wand, where I had high hopes of X Wing Fighter going down easily after a promising performance two weeks ago. Nope. There's a huge reach after the third bolt that I'm not getting consistently - even though it's moving off a good jug, I still can't try it more than once when I've already used power getting up to that point. On the one hand, I'm glad to be trying and gaining confidence on something anti-style, and actually felt I was climbing well despite the lack of success. On the other hand, all this not actually getting up anything is gettting seriously f*cking demoralising.
S: 
 

Congratulations! Sorry to hear about the complications, but best wishes that they continue to improve.

Morning Alan, new job is going well, mentally taxing as there is much learning, but I'm sure given a bit of time I'll get used to it. A big YYFY for me, somehow managed my first 7B+ on Saturday (yet still barely able to leave the ground on the 7B a few meters to the right - isn't bouldering a peculiar sport!).

Last Week:

M - Rigpa (V9). Reacquainted with the moves, odds were against me given the heavy dinner, new job and sweaty conditions, but had a good time and was able to touch the crux hold (not quite latching!). I think if I can have a session semi-regularly I will be in a good position and can play some good tactics when crisp conditions roll around.

T - Vaccine number 2.

W - Rest.

T - Intended on a local crag bash but was shattered.

F - Rest.

S - Toured a bunch of little wet crags before resorting to the quick-drying Gallt yr Ogof Boulder. Retroflashed Diamond eyes RH (V6) without cutting loose, then put my new kneepad to good use with a surprise ascent of Wherever I Lay My Hat (f7B+), acquainting me with muscles that I didn't know existed. First of the grade, and appears to be rather established at that! Finished off flailing around on some stuff at Milestone Buttress Boulders.

S - Rest.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Gym, specifically the Moonboard.

W - Rest.

T - Gym, but without the Moonboard

F - Rest.

S, S - Forecast looks abysmal. Most likely a gym or Dugout session.

Goals:

Rehabilitate finger (going rather well).

Rigpa.

Congratulations to all the family! 
 

Glad the finger is going well too, but it’s you that’s done the work. 

Fab news, hope they are all home soon!

Hi folks. Thanks for the continued starting Alan. You counting down to handing stats over to the next mug yet?!

Sadly, we aren’t moved in yet, only moved out. We basically have twice the pain of moving due to a gap between old house and new house! So we’ve had the fun of moving everything into storage. Then this weekend will be the fun of moving it out of storage to the new place (extra fun -see Saturday’s log). 

Week 38:

M: Nowt. 

T: Nowt.

W: Trail run. 10.8km, 373m vert, 6:36/km.

T: Nowt. 

F: Climbing. Fun sport sesh at Dinbren. Worked Traction Trauma (6c+) which felt hard, but doable.

S: Put back out lifting up my laptop. Given how many tonnes of lifting I did two weeks ago, this seems an outrageous incident.

S: Properly crocked. Hope it sorts itself out before next weekends move part deux.

Week 39:

Recover from bad back. 
Sort out autumn goals. 

Congrats Si. Hope everything goes well and they’re home soon. 

Quartermass looks cool.

What do you do for logistics for a quick two-dayer? Just camp overnight? I’ve never really thought of Lundy for a shorter trip, and the idea appeals to me!

Congratulations and glad everyone is getting better, must have been stressful for a while!

As it was I could/should have rested even longer than I did

M: After 2 days rest decided to return to the walk so I could squeeze in another session before Saturday. Felt very clunky, elbow definitely got worse on holiday, took it pretty easy as still felt very clunky. 
T-F: Work a bit mad and ankle injury returned with a vengeance on Tuesday. 
S: Strapped ankle and went on treadmill, first time for a month, and felt pretty good for 3kms (10.6km/h @2% incline) but faded quickly. Went for sports massage but unfortunately it wasn’t very good. 
S: Got a team together to go to Chapel Head, great day at almost deserted crag. Got on a route I tried in 2015, I remember it being hard then so unlikely I would get up it today. I was right, blind optimism was no match for reason and an extra 5kg body weight especially after absolutely wasting myself on Moonchild (Sport) (6c+). I jumped on this after belaying Jenny’s casual ascent , chatting the whole way up. Turns out this is very Pinot, this has been on my list since well before it was bolted and now glad I never got on it as a read route, would have been pretty sketchy.

Injury register:

Toes - the same

Ankle - worse but was ok on treadmill

Calf - worse but ok on treadmill

Elbow - much worse

Weight - got heavier after holiday but now down to 11’1/2”. Still can’t get below 11 stone 

Yes, though have let the training slide a bit. Feeling motivated to get back on the wagon this week with a few rainy days forecast.

Tuesday

A bit of faffery at  Castle Naze. Had an attempt at Pod Crack (E1 6a) (was well aware of its reputation as a sandbag). Insanely hard, though felt I could have made a better attempt if I didn't find the crux a little close to the ground to commit. Now I've blown the onsight, I might head back up and have a go on top rope.

Saturday

Gogarth meet with the club. Managed to persuade someone to second me on Red Wall (E2 5b). Really pleased with this, absorbing climbing and crazy rock (and iffy protection). Couldn't make sense of either the Rockfax and GroundUp route descriptions which both mention some sort of traverse left - I didn't bother and it seemed logical to just keep going straight up the fault line. It never "looks impossible" as the GroundUp guide describes, and you come out at the dodgy peg belay.

Linked the second and third pitches so as not to require the Belay of Sand. Didn't find the route finding difficult at all. Maybe if I do it again I'll try and find this mysterious traverse line and compare.

Next Week

Get back to training - at least two sessions at the bouldering wall and some conditioning.

Thanks Alan, as you can imagine with Covid and isolation nothing got done.  However daughters and myself are recovering well with nothing more than bad cold type symptoms. Very glad to be double jabbed.

Moonchild at E3 6a would have been terrifying. It makes me shiver every time I go up it. 

We’ve been at chapel head quite a bit lately and hope to get a trip or two in when we get back if the weather hasn’t messed it up. I’ll let you know when we’re going if you’re interested.

I need to get Super DuPont ticked as it escaped me before we went away and Rachel is on Electric Warrior. 

Quartermaster was great, but best done late in the day. It was damp when we went up, which was OK, but I can see what a great time you'd have if it was all dry.

We were there for 4 days (see last week for the other 2 days) but once you take out the boat days then its only 2 full days and 2 halves.

I think the boat only goes on certain days (twice a week?). There is camping there, but you need to book. I was lucky as I went with the local Mountaineering club, so they repeat book the old lighthouse to stay in each year.

Ah! I’d forgotten about your post last week… that makes more sense!

Good beta about not getting on the routes too early. Better cons AND a lie in!

Thanks for statting Alan. Having an in family belayer is great. Do you think the interest will last? Neither of my kids showed an interest beyond the odd fun session outdoors or at the wall.

The first full week of the trip has been brill, great company, great crags, great routes but the weather has been very humid (thunderstorms) and with no wind. Tufas are greasy, slopers are unholdable and my moist skin is rolling off crimpers. I'm losing about a kilo in sweat with each climb. 

M – Cloudy forecast so we took a chance on Las Cerezas (Garx). Bad choice. While it was cloudy it was OK but as soon as the sun peeped out it was an oven. Did a long 6a+ to ‘warm up’.Tercero National / Salvador Pons (6c) onsight in the full sun was an interesting experience. It was cloudy until the second bolt. We lounged around at the bottom for a couple of hours and then I had a bash at Tetrix (7a+).

Onsight finished at the 3rd clip. Bolt to bolted the rest. Very hard first few bolts. Gave it 3 RP goes but scared myself to death falling off with an armful of slack out trying to clip the 4th bolt. Very nearly landed on the ledge, excellent belaying from Rachel. That was it for me.

T – Rest day. Hot.

W – Still hot. The search for a cool crag too us to Forada. Hard to stand up at some points due to the wind. But it wasn’t too hot at least! We had all our layers on and one pair gave up and went home.  Difficult to clip as the draws were blowing away from you. But got Muscleman (7b) 2nd go which was very pleasing.

T –   Castellet de Calpagain with a nice breeze. Had an onsighting day FHM (7a), Ant Invasion (7a) (quick redpoint), Quicksilver (7a), Sleepyhead (7a) (7a not 7b) and an attempt on Suero (7b) all done.

F – Rest day

S – Rincon Bello – great looking crag. Though again no breeze and even though it’s north facing it was very humid. La Subina (6a+) and Madriles go home (6c) done and then we went home as it was too hot. Amazing crag we all want to go back to. 40m routes with rounded edge holds, not great in the humidity but will be brilliant in cooler temps.

S – Castellet de Calpagain to try and salvage something from the heat. No wind at all here either today.  32 degrees and humid. Vamos a la Playa (7b) was tried but it wasn’t good connies at all. Had 3 proper goes and got further through the very sustained crux each time but it was never going to happen in this heat. No good for tufa’s and no good for crimps. I enjoyed trying hard though.

So it's been a good week and when the conditions have been OK i have felt strong and fit (for me). 

It looks as though the weather is cooling off this week. Had a decent, but hot, day yesterday at another new crag  Tierra de nadie. Rest day today and then back there on wednesday and Rincon Bello on Friday with a possible quick hit on Thursday somewhere fitted in around COVID tests.

Thanks again for the stats Alan

No climbing in Cornwall - it was just a family holiday before my wife returns to work and I take over looking after our squiggle until 1st November.

I managed to do a couple of physio sessions while on holiday and can feel some progress, but still not fixed yet (and didn't expect it to be solved yet either).

Yeah, I don't in all seriousness expect to get a regular rope gun out of these sessions. We bouldered together for a few years, mostly indoors but also one Font expedition, but then he discovered weights & girls. (And has since moved on from weights to a road bike).

He says he wants to dabble with climbing again a bit but it won't be a priority for him, which is fine. He should find his own way; I'm just glad to have been able to provide him with far more athletic possibilities & opportunities than I ever had in my childhood & adolescence.

Cheers Andy, I was planning to go this Saturday but will probably bail as I expect it to be seeping by then. 

Does that mean you did EW? It's what I need to do if I go back

S/M/LTG - TBC, probably diet related

M - Rest
T - Wall session
W - 3m walk
T - Rest
F - Rest
S - Rest
S - Gardening

Thanks for all the welcome folks.  It's nice to be back.
This was going to be a bit longer, but the internets ate my post!  My friend is now back from holiday, so I was able to get down the wall.  It was nice, but rather hard going as you might expect.  Looking towards making some simple diet fixes over the next few weeks.  Hope to keep on getting down the wall and out for the odd run and walk.