UKC

Morning FitClubbers! I hope you have all had a fantastic week and got up to all sorts of exciting stuff, but obviously the biggest news this week is that I’ve lost the 82 off my username! I thought it might improve my power to weight ratio but no significant gains as yet...

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fitclub 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.

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

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...

Last week’s thread can be found here: https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fitclub_week_604-69427...

You can look back at your previous posts here (to some extent… it’s still a work in progress, this now goes back to FC500): http://ukc-fitclub-user-posts.s3-website.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/users.html

Posters:

Tom Green - Ordering new winter gear must be an expensive exercise but you don’t seem too put out, is losing most of your kit to be expected?!

The sheep - Glad to hear things are going in the right direction, fingers crossed for you.

Powderpuff - Thats the great thing about climbing, you can take any aspect of it and make it your own, you don’t need to be making bold first ascents to be considered a climber. Climb once a week at your local indoor wall? You’re a climber. Just take the bits that work for you and that you enjoy!

AJM - Even you are getting in on the parkour nonsense?! To be fair the Project’s summer comp series really made me put effort into comp style problems and I definitely improved on them, did you try many of those?

AlanLittle - Hope the work wrap up wasn’t too stressful, are you in Kaly now? I hear the weather is still holding up out there.

Tyler - What school did you go to in Southampton? I’m from around those parts… 666 goal added!

Guy127917 - A simple plan is still a plan, plus it’s easy to follow! Did you get out this weekend? It’s been glorious on Portland.

Ardo - Thanks for the google safety warning! Do you have any goals for El Chorro?

Biscuit - “do the basics well ... 7+ hours sleep each night” How 90% of climbers could improve their grades…

Planetmarshall - Weighted cardio just sounds horrendous, are those climbs as bad as I think they would be? I go pale at the thought of walking up to the Grande Grotta!

Ally Smith - You are doing a lot of fingerboarding with a self confessed ruined pinkie, knowing you i’m sure it’s all well controlled but do go careful!

Mattrm - It could be worse, I’ve eaten bigger dinners! Hopefully life doesn’t get in the way and you can get some activity in soon.

Bones - Well done on having a good session just days after the flight, it takes me a week or more to get back on form after a holiday. Also, totally go to Margalef!

Alexm198 - Nice to have the equipment nearby to work to get that done at lunch, very jealous (plus I only get 30 minutes)

Somerset swede basher - The fall from tumbleweed sounds pretty horrific, any lasting damage?

Pineappledog - For antagonists, twice a week would be better but once is a lot better than never.

Liamhutch89 - Welcome! Really interested to watch your finger strength progress.

Hms - 5.11b, that’s err, 8a+...? Hope you are having a good time!

Dandan - Knuckle watch stepped down to DEFCON 4

Rebecca Ting - Package arrived - AMAZING!!!

 

Fit Club 666 goals:

AJM - Mark of the Beast (or Blue Planet/Privateer); E5 (or equivalent); sport onsight/“quick tick” & some from Colors/Tennessee/Paradise Lost/Bird of Paradise/Return of the Gunfighter

Ally Smith - Devils Gorge newbies; Rock Atrocity; press a sport climber; 8c+

Tom Green - Satanic Verses

Dandan82 - Horny Lil' Devil/Mark of the Beast/Camino a la Perdicion; +66kg weighted pullup - +60kg; 666 one-arm pullups - 2/666; 666 ‘good’ handstands 9/666 ; 66 routes at 7a and above including 6 routes at 7c+ and above - 0/66 0/6.

alexm198 - Versant Sataniques, 1938 route

Tom Green - 666m of arete on lancashire grit

Tyler - 66 yoga sessions; 66 routes at 7a and above, 6 routes at 7c and above

Bones - A front lever

Rebecca Ting - Fiesta de los Biceps (7a)

In reply to Dandan:

I went to school in Wales but one of our number escaped to Southampton so we went to visit him. It proved beyond doubt that people don't really change as everyone behaved exactly as they/we did over 30 (shudder) years ago. If laughter is the best medicine I should be cured of all ills as I've not laughed so hard for years. Unfortunately it's the complete opposite, I feel awful and I've not trained all weekend.

Even before the weekend things had been derailed by work and DIY club (I'm expert on LVF if anyone's interested). Couple of short BUK sessions, managed all the moves on the black 7b+ circuit which is actually pretty good for me

In reply to Dandan:

Cheers Dan, been a busy week as it’s half term round here so been off with the kids and very busy at work when I was in so little to report exercise wise. Had a couple of swims and a 5k run.

However as I missed out on running the half marathon and the wife’s training not going to plan due to illness we have decided to re think our goals as we were going to race together and wanted a sub  2 hour race.

So the first goal is to do the distance in sub 2 before the year end. Moving on to 2019 my main goal is to do some more triathlons after really enjoying my first couple this year.  Goals are to also do an open water inland tri and then an open water coastal on. I will also target the events I did last year with the aim of finishing in the top 10 over all and top 3 in my age group.

This will require hitting some new targets for the constituent events, firstly I want to get the 400m swim time below 6 minutes which is probably the most achievable goal. Secondly I want to average over 30kmh/hr on my 20k training ride which should be doable with some good winter training.

Finaly the big hair arsed goal and the one that will really make the difference in where I finish will be the 5k run. My current pb is a smidge below 25 minutes, however the aim is to go sub 20. That’s going to be hard work as I’m definitely not your typical runners build

In reply to Dandan:

Yes I got out for a good old dogfest this weekend, glorious weather.

Monday: Run, fingerboard session

Tuesday: Lead session, surprisingly I managed to onsight a 7a+, sent another 6c+ 7a and 7b. It was in the woefully overgraded wells area of the Castle. 

Wednesday: Run, bouldering session, time on the wave, always heinous.

Thursday: Rest I think, can't remember doing any training. 

Friday: Rest 

Saturday: Blacknor, 6 routes... all dogged. Tried to repeat Sacred Angel... couldn't do the crux moves, sad times. Good motivator!

Sunday: The Cuttings, RP'd 3 routes at 6b+, all very entertaining. 

My goal for next week is to run at least 4 times, and as I said last week, fingerboard or climb every day except Monday (my tips need some recovery time). 

 

In reply to Dandan:

STG - 14st

MTG - Goblin Girl (6b) 6c at Navigation, then WFD

LTG - Definitely bouldering, bearing in mind Trad will be hard for the next few years...

Weight - 14st 5lbs (1 lbs gain)

M - S

S - Porthclais trad

Had a nice rather unplanned day out with Joe at Porthclais.  Didn't do much as we arrived late and then the clag set in at 1400ish.  It was a bit depressing, although not surprising that I was exhausted after doing a couple of short slabby routes.  However it was great to be out on a nice day in October with a mate.  So I can't complain.  Still very tired this week, but hopefully I'll be a bit more on it next week.  The main takeaway was that I really need to focus on bouldering again, as I can actually do things there in short periods of time.  Anything else probably isn't worth it.  Also I plan to try and get a TRX and fingerboard setup in the new house.  Should make home exercise easier.

 

In reply to Dandan:

Cheers Dan. Glad to hear the knuckle is improving. 

Whilst i’m busy I’m trying to get the basics right. Hopefully then when I’m back at it next year they’ll be habits I don’t have to think about.

I got all my goals for DQS (bit lax at the weekend but happy enough)  sleep, Physio etc done. Did some core - which is definitely the one I drop at any opportunity. 

I commuted on the bike twice and survived. I’m not going fast still but it’s getting better.

Climbing wise it’s been a good week.  BUK got me some more V5’s, a couple of V6’s and some stuff that feels like it’ll go next time. I had structure (good warm up and then worked 3 problems) and stopped before I was trashed. 

I managed 8 mins on, 2 off, 8 on on autobelays after coaching.

Had a Boulder session on a winter league comp. I felt good and strong. 25 problems to go at. I think I’ve done 20 or 21 of them today and a couple look like they’ll go. Tried to stop before getting too tired to do routes, but after a brew and a butty I managed 3 x 6a+’s and that was it. Tired and a niggly shoulder. 

Pleased with how things are progressing. Leg is less painful, back is less painful/more mobile and my shoulder feels mostly OK. So I need to keep doing what I’m doing atm for a while longer. 

With that in mind:

Leg Physio: every day

Sleep: 8 hrs a night 

DQS: above 20 every day 

shoulder physio: every day (simplified this to make sure it gets done) 

core: 3x 

climb: 2ce maybe 3 if lucky.

V6 and maybe 7 (it’s very soft) at BUK. 

3 hard boulders at Depot - yellows. One vert, one slab, one steep. 

Aero at the end of each session. 

bike: commute 2ce

In reply to Dandan:

Thanks Dan, everything except my shoulder fully recovered now, I landed with my right elbow tucked behind me and the shoulder is still grumbling but I think it will be ok. I've still managed to do stuff as long as I'm careful.

Mon + Tues: work enforced rest days though may not be a bad thing.

Wed: foundry session, did all the autobelay routes including in the furnace, shoulder felt mostly ok so did most the yellow and pink boulder problems, still felt ok so shuffled round the lattice board a few times.

Thurs: 5km hilly trail run up cave Dale followed by another 5km flat pram run as the boy needed taking out to the park.

Fri: more work, been a busy week.

Sat: went to yarncliffe, some easy soloing and easy bouldering then managed to toprope creme de la creme (not the easier top bit which was wet) it was all a bit damp though so didn't fancy the ditching the toprope today.

Sun: 1km swim and a fingerboard session. Made my routine harder and remembered I'm awful of middle 2 which I need to address.

In reply to Dandan:

A somewhat more lowly grade than that, but the grades here are tough as nails. Not going to give a blow by blow account of each day so far, just the highlights:

• put most of the moves together on a 12a but it would need more work on the crux sequence to finish it off
• climbed the monkey's face with AJM - 4 pitches to the very top of the monkey's head then a 140' free hanging abseil off again - a brilliant adventure day out
• did some successful trad leading to ~E2 on amazing bassalt cracks - and failed dismally in screaming agony on the route that needed mandatory hand jamming

basic thing is that I decided in the first few days that I could either beat myself up and get miserable by not climbing the sort of grades I'd ignorantly expected, or just darn well get on stuff at a lower grade and try things, climbing in an amazing location

In reply to Dandan:

Cheers Dan. I only really tried the one, still think expanding my repertoire to include the slabs/grooves/mantels is where the real bang per buck lies but I’ll keep trying some of them...

Past the midway point of our Smith trip already, flying by.

Saturday - slow start. Crag very busy. A few nominally easy routes in full sun which was a wake up call both in terms of tactics and the grading/style - hard and with some small holds arriving pretty swiftly!

Sunday - also very busy. Quite a productive day though - onsighted, albeit with some effort, a few classics including 2 11a routes (6c ish, which maybe understates the effort required - think old school, tricky feet, hard to read, all that).

Monday/Tuesday - rest days, first one because the little man wasn’t feeling well and the second because everyone else was resting.

Wednesday - down to the lower Gorge to climb on the basalt. This was really good. I did a super classic 12a (7a+) called White Trash second go which had really nice movement on it, a really interesting rock type. Then accepted the team challenge of trying Pure Palm, which is a holdless palming and bridging corner. Nominally 11a but I’ve no idea how you can actually grade something like this. Anyway, I had a decent go but fell off twice. 

Thursday - bit of a faff day, I got sandbagged once and self-sandbagged once on two 11as, and then managed to have a bolt to bolt of the classic 12c (7b+?) of Chain Reaction, which I guess is one of the iconic lines at Smith. Worked it all out bar one move which was a bit of a puzzler, a throw left from a position hanging off the front of the Arete with nothing from which to generate leftwards momentum. Cool route though.

Friday - summited the Monkey. 2 pitch trad 5.8 (~VS) to the notch then a 2 pitch 11b to the top on bolts. Unfortunately full sunshine and shoes/rucksack/rack made the sport route rather too strenuous, but it was a cracking day out with a great summit tick.

saturday - rest

Sunday - back down to the lower gorge. Led some trad (it’s columnar basalt, so lots of crack/groove lines), a 10a (E1?) and a 10b (E2 I guess although that feels like it understates the effort involved, sustained cracks aren’t really my usual style), the latter of which was especially good.

Enjoying myself a lot so far. The crag is great, and whilst the grades are no giveaway I feel like I’m learning a lot (the basalt is so different it’s hard not to, but it’s also all mileage of thin vert wall climbing, which can only be good for me) and the good routes are really good. And Bend is a lovely place to spend time and there’s a lot of good beer to drink (more than a dozen breweries in town?) and all that. So having a good holiday too. Currently splitting a lot of days half and half with MrsAJM hence why some days are fairly low mileage.

I was looking back and I threw some vague ambitions out there earlier in the summer when I intended to train really hard and all that. I wanted to do some of:

tick

churning is in full sun most of the day so not an option even if I was in shape. Hoping to get some classic tuff 5.12 ticks in next week although I suspect the lower end of 5.12 rather than maybe what I had in mind when writing this (which is fine, the grades are hard, there are classics to do regardless, and I didn’t really train)

tick, although I think unless I devoted the rest of the trip to learning the style better the 11a might be a joke

ho ho ho. Even if I had trained really hard I don’t think I could onsight 5.12 here.

tick

In reply to Dandan:

I've also added Riding to Babylon (7a+) and the Stanage VS challenge to my 666 list. More list creation happening this week than climbing...

In reply to Dandan:

Perversely I'm actually quite enjoying it - maybe because it's much more specific than any of the other training I've been doing.

Last week's goals - 

* Continue Max Strength for upper body - Yes
* 1 weekday muscular endurance workout (tyre dragging?) - Yes
* Hill climb - 750-800m with 11kg - Not quite

 

Wed - Max Strength. Staggered weighted ice axe pullups, Weighted ring dips, weighted ice axe hangs, DB bench press.

Thu - Uphill tyre dragging, 8 reps every 2 minutes. Tyres weigh about 20kg. A bit of a novelty, think I'll stick to the weekend hill climbs.

Fri - Max strength. Weighted ice axe pullups. Weighted ring dips. Weighted ice axe hangs. DB Shoulder press.

Sat - Hill climb. Great Gable via Gable Neese to just below the crags. Absolutely minging weather and zero visibility, so cut it a bit short. 500m ascent, 10kg. https://www.strava.com/activities/1917199422

Sun  - Cragging at  Froggatt Edge. Mostly stuff I'd done before but also Chequers Buttress (HVS 5a), which was fantastic (and what a position!)

STG

* 6.5 hours Z1
* 2 Max Strength sessions (Upper Body), 1 lower body
* Hill climb. At least 700m

MTG

* Ama Dablam Nov 2018
* Manage a single arm axe hang on the left arm (difficult due to shoulder imbalance)
* Scottish Winter 17/18
  * Fallout Corner (Winter) (VI 7)
  * Gargoyle Wall (VI 6)
  * Kami-kaze (Winter) (VI 7)
  * Gully of the Gods (VI 6)

LTG

Islands trip in Summer 19

- The Rasp (E2 5b)
- Regent Street (E2 5c)
 

BHAG

London Wall (E5 6a)
The 1938 Route (ED2)
American Direct (ED1 6c+)

 

After a successful week of adding at least 1-2kg to my max deadhangs every day last week I went to the new big depot (old leeds wall) at the end of the week, did a few easy autobelay warm ups, cruised up a 7a+, just managed a 7b, then got on another 7b and hit a wall. I think overtraining has set in!

I was only able to link a few moves at a time before before total power out. The same happened half an hour later on what should have been an easy 7a.

Of course lots of food water and sleep would soon have seen to this, but instead I decided to visit manchester warehouse project over the weekend, no sleep was had and I still can't eat! I think this week will mostly be a write off for decent training.

In reply to Dandan:

Hi Dan - thanks for stepping in and doing the stats.

Thanks for the concern, but as you rightly assume my fingerboarding has been very controlled - mostly front3, and if the pinkie has been involved, then it's been in a drag position which doesn't seem to aggravate whatever i've done to it.

Week 41

M – AWS. Unstructured routes session. OS up to 7b. Dogged a couple of 7c’s. Pinkie grumpy on some crimps but not others.

T – Conditioning: It took just 6 laps of a barbell complex to reduce me hyperventilating/180bpm mess (10 barbell curl, 12x OHP, 10x squat @25kg, 10x DL @55kg). Then side plank intervals and 3x100 crunchies. The squats resulted in almost instant quad (DO)MS and major wobbles walking down the stairs.

W – Returned to an old FB an-cap exercise. 10/3/max/x3 @60%; 175s max and tidy decay curve. Followed up with FoC aero-cap. 1on/1off x15 with alternating planks/15x OHP in rest period.

T – Rest. 

F – Rest. 

S – Tor – Warmed up, then had a comedy go on Cave Pervert (f8A) where I fell off matching the final jug! Thankfully 40min later I was able to complete it without too much hassle. Need to do some different moves now! Stopped off at Blackwell dale on way home and did the slightly highball A Lack of Colour (f7B) in a few goes. 

S – Adam agreed to come out to Devil’s Gorge so cashed in on the opportunity and got back on the headwall project. Tie in #1; Dogged. #2 RP effort up to sideways move. #3 Slightly more pumped, but less tired than previous go; caught the crimp right, foot stayed on for sideways move and smashed on to the chains. El Regalo del Diablo (8b) might be a bit of a gift for 8b, but it’s taken me far too many goes to be happy calling it 8a+. 3x laps of Broccoli and Ice-Cream (7b) for training pump/warm-down.

Slept badly for each of thursday-sunday night due to booze/on-call/early airport run. Enforced rest week coming up. Then time to get strong enough for 8c+...

 

In reply to Ally Smith:

Excellent job on the Devil's Gorge project, surprised you've only gone for one star, looks excellent bit of rock

In reply to Tyler:

Cheers Ash - the sequence is a little bit eliminate and draws you into the Canyonlands extension earlier than i'd like, hence the lower star rating. However, the moves themselves are boss, maybe it 2* after all?

In reply to Ally Smith:

Well done. I'd call that a productive week! 

In reply to Ally Smith:

That's a shame as IIRC there's enough room on that bit of wall for two totally independent lines.

In reply to Tyler:

There's room for 2 totally blinkers eliminates:

1. The originally worked sequence on Canyonlands that takes you in to the groove and avoids the blindingly obvious finishing rightwards rockover

2. A super hard and crimpy version of El Regalo del Diablo straight into the rockover.

I'll try and get a video on Face-Insta-pest later if my phone lets me edit the footage.

In reply to Dandan:

Thanks me, I did a full week of training and the knuckle has survived but I wouldn't say it's completely unscathed, the swelling has returned slightly so I'm going to ease off again a little to give it a fighting chance.

I was reminded of a good piece of advice this week, consistency is key. Better to follow a bad training plan consistently than a good plan irregularly, and I found some proof of it this week. After discussing finger strength gains with new FC arrival Liam, I decided to look back at my training plans and see if I could find some numbers to spot any gains, here's what I found:
2rm pull up on 18mm edge: Sept '16 +38kg - Dec '16 +45kg May '17 +48kg
Max pull up on bar Sep '16 +45kg - May '17 +54kg - Aug '18 +60kg
7/3 hangs on 18mm edge Sept '16 +9kg - Jan '17 +15kg Aug '18 +18kg
10 sec hang on 10mm edge Aug '17 +20kg - Sep '18 +27.5kg

These are numerically measurable gains, but there's more, in April '17 I did 2 weeks in Margalef yet only ticked 8 routes at 7a or above (to be fair 2 of them were 8a but most were 7a or 7a+).
In September '18 i did 2 weeks in Kaly and ticked 23 routes at 7a or above! That's a huge consistency improvement.

 I've been following a Lattice plan for 90 of the last 100 weeks or so, so that definitely ticks the 'consistent' box, and the proof that it can work is right there in the numbers. I think you lose track of progress when measured in years, it's hard to keep all those deadhang PB's in your head, so when your headline grade doesn't go up you can feel like you are stagnating, but a closer look at other stats might change your mind, it's certainly given me a nice little boost of confidence in myself.

M: Core
Fingerboard pockets; 7 second hangs on front 2 and middle 2 in various pockets

T: Gym; 4x4x65kg bench, 4x4x45kg shoulder press, 4x4x80kg squat, 4x80/100/120kg deadlift
Indoor Boulder; 20 mid grade problems in 25 minutes, finished with seconds to spare! 1 hour boulder play

W: Rest

T: Indoor Boulder; 3 hard-ish problems, repeat each with 1 min between, 5 sets with 5 min between sets. 

F: Portland; It seemed like we had the whole west coast to ourselves which was pretty awesome. Great conditions down on Wallsend, I bolt to bolted up The Mask (7b) for Mrs Dandan to try which felt a lot harder than when I flashed it! Shows what good beta can do for you I guess. Then I got an onsight of Ariane V (7b) which was fantastic. It's also gone onto Mrs Dandan's project list.

S: Rest

S: Indoor Routes; 14 move problem 5 reps with 2.5 min rest. 4min on 4 min off at around 6c

STG (Next week)
Keep training at a level to allow knuckle to improve - 
4 hamstring stretch sessions - 
A couple of 1 arm pull up attempts - 

MTG: (up to Margalef in December)
* Onsight 7c in Margalef
* 8a in a day in Margalef
* 7c in a day on Portland
* Squat 100kg and Deadlift 130kg - Sq-80kg DL-120kg

LTG: (This Year)
* 150 ticks in logbook - 162/150
* tick 3 x 8a - 0/3 * tick 10 x 7c/7c+ - 6/10
* Squat and deadlift 2x bodyweight
* Go to Kilnsey - Missed the boat
* Get to December without any new injuries - meh
* reasonably static muscle up
* Enter BLCC and don't come dead last - skipped due to it being in Scotland

BHAG:
* Onsight 8a+/Redpoint 8b+ in a day by March 2022 (40th Birthday)

666 Goals:
Horny Lil' Devil/Mark of the Beast/Camino a la Perdicion
+66kg weighted pullup - +60kg
666 one-arm pullups 2/666
666 'good' handstands; 16/666
66 routes at 7a and above including 6 routes at 7c+ and above. 1/66 0/6

In reply to Dandan:

Going to jump back on here for a few weeks.

I have a goal date of 7th December and then will probably stop again. Goal is to reach 20 miles running a week and keeping up at least 70 miles of biking up regardless of the weather. 

Monday: tired after a Sunday run so drove to work. Great start!

Tuesday: 26 mile bikecommute to work.

Wednesday: nowt. But my eating was good.

Thursday and Friday: 26 miles each day for

commuting.

Saturday: Olympic standard housework and DIY.

Sunday: 10 mile run. It was humid and I felt the first half was hard cause of the hills and rough ground, but my partner thought it was all good. Sunday runs seem to have become a thing, which is good because my partner isn’t flaky, happy to up the miles and easy going. Made friends with a free wandering pig/hog/boar thing that my dog was very curious by. He caught his first squiggle (a life long ambition) last week but I think this was an ambitious step up for him. Felt battered after the run, but fine today. 

This week, going to do three ride commutes, a run tomorrow (no work) and a run Sunday. Need to at least do some stretching, as I seem to have fallen off the gymnastics wagon. 

I've hardly drunk alcohol now for a good few months. Just the very occasional blow out. I don’t miss it at all. I look and feel a damn sight healthier. I’m not teetotal, just seem to have become ambivalent towards it. No bad thing. 

So not exactly an exciting week. It’s about keeping things on an even keel and keeping my eyes on the scales.

Have an enjoyable week. 

JD

 

 

In reply to Dandan:

I nearly forgot the most awesome part of my week, Rebecca from this parish took pity on my fanboy witterings about Shauna a few weeks ago and she pulled some strings to get me a signed poster!

I've rarely been so motivated by something so simple, it reads:

Dan,
I hear you are not trying hard enough,
TRY HARDER!
Shauna

That's going straight on the wall!!

In reply to Dandan:

Hey Dan, no targets or plans, apart from enjoy climbing with the sun on my back. Will see how the sciatica goes over the next couple of weeks and take it from there.

•Mo: 7.9m General walking.

•Tu: 7.5m General walking.13 problems, h/board, (4*4*10:10/1m 30s).•

We: 8.0m General walking.

•Th: 7.0m General walking. Working late, boo.

•Fr: 8.2m General walking. 4 trad routes at Burbage South.

•Sa: 7.0m General walking. 3 trad routes at Staden.

•Su: 7.5m General walking.

Work put kibosh on second training night, but got out on rock, which is probably more important at the moment. The trad left me with the feeling I need to get some endurance training in, so ARC and 4x4s this week, (maybe :-/ ).

In reply to Dandan:

Thanks for doing the stats, Dan. Yeah having the opportunity to train during lunch has made a big difference to my (training) psyche!

Had a bit of the lurgy last week so took it easy and managed to shake it in a couple of days. Wrote the week off as a fun/rest week and just did whatever easy training I felt like doing. Repeated the Alpine Combine with good progress so that's encouraging.

Managed to get out climbing a bit this weekend (first time rock climbing since May?!) which was fun though my shoes and harness are stuck in Geneva at the moment so I bimbled up some routes in some borrowed gear. I won't be hitting my 3xE2 O/S target, which is disappointing, but oh well. Think I'll be drawing a line under rock climbing for 2018 -- it has not been a good year for me! -- and start getting psyched for winter.

Last Week (write-off week due to illness):

M: Rest 

T: Rest

W: 30min Z2 stairmaster.

T: General strength w/core routine warmup (lower weights)

F: Alpine Combine. Some reasonable progress. 

• 2400-step ascent w/16.25kg, 25:10 (vs. 29:22 previously);
• Pull-ups in 60s: 15 (vs. 12 previously -- interestingly I felt OK strength-wise at the end of this but just fatigued, perhaps due to insufficient rest after the ascent component);
• Sit-ups in 60s: 43 (vs. 37 previously);
• Push-ups in 60s: 38 (vs. 33 previously);
• Dips in 60s: 31 (vs. 25 previously);

S: Severely hungover. Soloed a severe at Curbar and seconded Regent Street at Millstone. Z1 run from the car park at Curbar to Millstone (~8km, 160m ascent, 51min)

S: Late start, climbed Hargreaves Original and April Crack and then it started pissing it down. Pub.

This Week:

2 max strength sessions w/core routine warmup

140min Z1

15min steep Z2

1 day climbing-specific training (if I get my gear back!)

Goals: (will add more/refine as they become clearer)

New STG (end 2019)

• 10x Scottish winter routes
• 1RM pull-up w/30kg...? 

MTG (~end of Winter, maybe a little later)

• 2x Scottish VII O/S
• 3x WI6 O/S
• 1x M8 O/S

LTG (~end of 2019)

• New route in the Cordillera Blanca
• Bugaboos trip
• Caucasus trip

666

• 1938 Route
• Versant Satanique

In reply to Dandan:

Hi Dandan,

Im definitely taking the bits that work for me, that work around my life and work.

Tuesday: climbed 10 problems at the wall up to v5 , shoulder exercises also.

Friday:climbed 12 problems up to v5 and tried the tricky v6 again. Shoulder exercises.

In reply to Dandan:

Indeed I am, hence the late reply. Kalyspera!

STG (October): Kalymnos: redpoint 7b, onsight 7a
MTG (spring 2019): Frankenjura 7b+ project
LTG (2021): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60 Kalyspera!

M: Rest
T: Rest. 40 minutes mobility, foam rolling, shoulders.
W: Bike one hour.
T: Bike one hour. Pack. *Lots* of quickdraws, a few teeshirts.
F: Kalymnos. Heinous 3am alpine start for 6am flight. Which - by a matter of seconds - still wasn't early enough to make the ten o'clock ferry. Still managed a few quick acclimatisation routes at Trois Ilots - just up the hill behind our apartment - in the evening
S: Telendos: Lambda. Excellent spot to get some mileage in on longer pitches, although conditions were very humid - too humid for me on the big pockets on El Alamein (6c). The 6c to the left that mate mate tried looked better anyway.
S: Kalymnos: Prophitis Andreas. Complete connies screwup today. We thought a high up crag would be good on a windy, sunny day, overlooking that fact that a west facing crag is completely sheltered from a northeasterly wind. Did a few warm up routes, hung the draws on Rien dans la Tête (7a), discovered as soon as the sun came onto it that holding the spiky slopers on the crux was completely out of the question. Retired to Arginonta Valley to lick our wounds on a few evening routes in the shade.

In reply to Dandan:

Hi Dandan, good riddance 82! 

Perhaps see you and Mrs D in Margalef if I can get some time away in December. The work project I am working on is due to finish at the beginning of December so fingers crossed. 

I couldn't wait to get back climbing after coming back to the UK. I have got a membership back on the go so no excuses apart from a heavy work schedule.

Another short week with 2/4 runs, 1/4 climbing sessions. The current week is a full week so no reason not to get all STGs in.

STG
- to run 4 times a week
- have a minimum of 4 climbing sessions per week
- stretching my back and shoulders
- daily work on front lever programme

Mon:  short run

Tues: rest and work

Weds: short run and boulder session on the wave, feel like I am making progress albeit slowly

Thurs: rest

Fri: travel and work day

Sat: leisurely walk up Pen y Fan in the Brecons

Sun: another leisurely walk up Hay Bluff in the Brecons - great to get out in the wind and sunshine

In reply to Tyler:

Late response to last weeks Margalef chat but it sounds ideal. Love a bouldery route!! With recent work levels I might only manage a long weekend this side of Christmas but I'd love to scope it out. I've got the dates that you and Dan are there will be in touch if I book something. Otherwise, early 2019 if it is warm enough. Have you got any routes in mind for your trips?

In reply to Dandan:

Pretty sad about the kit, but trying to be philosophical. It would appear that neither the airline or the travel insurance are likely to pay more than a couple of hundred quid (keep every receipt for ten years, people) so I'm £3k out of pocket. Just going to replace the essentials for this winter and then replace the rest bit by bit. The worst thing was it was lost on the way TO kyrg, so the only stuff I had of my own was boots and waterproofs. Climbing on borrowed (different make) axes was a bit annoying at first, but a good test of adaptability!

Anyway...

Awful week last week. Went on one good trail run (75m Z1, 12.9km, 320m vert). Then work, followed by excessive drinking, followed by excessive hangover, followed by lurgy -which looks like ruining this week too.

Relearned lessons about alcohol, otherwise a write off week.

In reply to Dandan:

Anyone got any advice on routines for the first time campus board user? I am good for general advice like grip type, warming up, being fresh, engaging shoulders etc. It's how many rests, reps etc I'm after. 

I had my first campus session the other day. I started with laddering all the way to the top (rung 9) and back down again with 2.5min rest between sets and did 8 sets before I thought my form was starting to go (starting to swing, losing accuracy, cloned hand on way up) so I stopped. Then I did some bounces starting matched on 1, bouncing one up to 2 then 3 then 4 then back down before swapping hands and repeating. I managed 6 sets before losing form. Warmed down, end of session.

I didn't want to do the one where you start match, pull and touch as high as you can then catch where you started as it looked like a really quick way to wreck your elbows!

Too much? Too little? Lack of variety? 

Open to criticism and advice