UKC

Lots of big goals for the year being unveiled so we all have a lot of work to do – No slacking this week please!

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.

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

Last week’s thread can be found here:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fitclub_week_616-69845...

Posters:

Powderpuff – Not sure what grade you climb but I’m pretty impressed with 20 pull ups on a flat hold.

alexm198 (and guy127917) – As both of you posted last week's updates before I asked my question I'll repeat it this week (as I am genuinely interested and not just a Z1 denier!):

 Is a few hours a week really enough for fat adaptation to take place? I see lots of people running at something that must approximate to Z1, will they all be fat adapted? Secondly if that’s all it takes why does it take such an all or nothing approach for a similar adaptation to occur through diet? Keto diets seem incredibly prescriptive and if you fall off the wagon slightly it apparently ruins the whole thing so why does anyone bother when all they have to do is go for a few hours of not too vigorous exercise (which they’ll probably be doing anyway)? Thirdly, does the exercise need to be running, presumably anything that gets the HR in the correct area would work?

Cyan (and guy127917) – Did you crush in the Hackney Wick comp?

Bones – Welcome back, looks like you are being pretty consistent so that’s good. Re. Weight loss I don’t think making drastic changes in January work (its too miserable) better to make minor adjustments that dovetail with the last of the Christmas treats being consumed.

AJM – Fallow week from you but that is uncharacteristic so you get a pass. Hopefully your son is better and you’ve had a more orderly week.

Alan Little – given where you climb I expect gradual improvements in finger strength will serve you best, at this stage, for your 8a goal anyway. So improvements in FB PBs is very welcome.

Ardo – You’ve already done more trad routes in 2019 than I’ve managed in the last 3 years – good effort getting out there.

Somerset Swede Basher – This week’s gold star winner, great start to the year.

Ianstevens – Good park run performance, did Beltane go down this week or has it been too wet to even get on it?

Tom Green – That lurgy is hanging around, hope you bit the bullet this week and got back on it.

Ally Smith – Is the prospect of having to top out the rest of Downhill Racer what caused you to fail?

The sheep – A model of consistency, we could all learn from you

Biscuit – “local sport climbing (Chapel Head etc) and mountain trad. “ I’m pretty sure every climber I know has this on their annual targets every year, let’s see if you are any different to the rest of us and actually get some done!

SFrancis – Some big aims there and a pretty solid plan, I’ll be interested to see this progress.

Rebecca Ting – You’re always on the go, ever thought about just chilling for a week and eating cake in front of the telly?

Danadan – It’s good that Freaky Ralph suited you as I imagine choices of routes at that grade down there are pretty limited. Unfortunate that everyone else is finding the same. Psyched for Mrs DD, England’s Dreaming has been on my list forever.

Climbthatpitch – Are you another TFTNAer? If so to what end, do you have an alps trip planned?

Mattrm – I’ve started the year ‘gradually’ as well, best not think about what you must do but just do a few lunges or press ups when you find yourself wasting time on social media. I’m trying that myself and hoping it’ll soon be habit forming.

Cheers Ash. I do intend firming the goals up a bit. There's a couple of climbing trips away in the pipeline for later in the year. At the moment I have no idea what shape i'll be in come July when I graduate and i'm not prepared to put specific goals to do with performance down until then. Just too many variables. Focus is still to boulder predominantly but not forgetting aero totally (which I have been doing).

This week went well:

Climbing - moon board session. Overcooked it despite not climbing anything over 6b+. Love that thing. It's so hard and what i'm bad at but it motivates me so more of this.

Depot - WBL - flashed the 1st 19 problems. It looks like an easy set from what I coud gather but I didn't try any further due to still feeling the moonboard from two days later. 

Skiing - another trip to Chill Factore. Still improving - which is not tricky from such a low baseline!

Bike - 2 commutes (45miles) one proper bike ride (40 miles). Felt great to be back out but fitness loss has been large. No surprise really.

Diet - new high score and every day over 20 with most near 25.

Sleep - one bad night for no good reason but other than that 7.5 hrs done each night. Still feel tired though.  Think it might be adapting to the biking.

Physio - good progress with shoulder, legs going OK too. Learnt some new stuff about shoulders which has helped. 

This week:

2 possible sessions. Neither on the WBL's I need to get on but i'll use them for str training and then some aero as well. 

1 bike commute

DQS 25 points per day

Sleep - 8 hrs per night

Skiing - hopefully this weekend in Scotland if anything looks on.

If not i'll probably bike and try the Kendal WBL. 

Physio every day.

666 targets:

3 x 6 x V6 at BUK. 6 slab, 6 vert, 6 steep - 3 steep and 2 vert done. I will taking out the steeps at BUK and replacing them with Moonboard 7A. But there's a chance I may never reach that level....

Thanks!

Yes, thankfully he's over it all now. Sunday night he was pretty bad, didn't sleep much, but otherwise he was fine during the day and antihistamines at night seemed to do the trick the other nights.

Got 2 good weekend sessions in. Didn't fit anything in during the week - Monday I was shattered after Sunday night, Tues/Wed we had visitors (and having dragged the grandparents several hours down here to look after him is is h felt bad about then abandoning him) and Thurs/Fri I was just wiped out from a busy week.

Saturday - fingerboard+TRX. Good, managed to push on to 86kg on back-3 on the AA slot. Did some hangs on the front3-AA front2-rail combo again too but not the core focus. Also did some attempts at front lever progressions, and some quite good flies, feeling pretty decent on these. 

Sunday - wall. Definitely felt better on some things I'd struggled with than the last time I went, so feeling pretty positive about that. Again, a good mix of steep stuff with also some slabs and grooves and volume smearing sort of things. Finished off with a few dips and knee to bar and windscreen wiper reps. Might try to do a little more over the afternoon too, if time allows.

Not much weight movement this week. But I'm hoping I might be able to focus on things a little more this coming week - work will be busy but I'm hoping the child will be more settled and things - so am hoping to get to the wall and do at least one other decent training session too, then fit something in somehow around a weekend away in Oxford. Be nice to get outside again some time soon - hopefully the weekend after.

STG: ?
MTG (2019): Double digit 7's including Frankenjura 7b+ project 
LTG (2021): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60 

M: 
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Routes. Couple of decent burns on a 7a, but what I *should* be doing at the moment is mental-weakness-addressing aerobic mileage on nasty overhanging jug hauls, not nice vertical crimping.
W: 
T: Max hangs. Some way off last week's performance but that's ok: can't expect to hit pb's in every session.
F: Wall, Boulderwelt. Circuits. Weak.
S: 
S: Wall, Thalkirchen. Physically an utterly, shockingly feeble performance. Salvaged some mental gains from the wreckage though: ticked a roof project that had previously seen me off more through intimidation than actual difficulty. And took some practice falls - I sometimes to this to try to get my head straight when I realise a session isn't going well; should do far more of it.

Well, the advent of proper winter - half a metre of snow even in the middle of the city at the moment - seems to have finally killed off my multi-month permavirus. So that's something. But apart from, that my performance at the moment is so dreadful that I struggle to imagine being fit again in time for Kalymnos Round Three in May. Never mind, keep on plugging on.

Thank you, a good start to the year so far getting the volume of training in. Now need to up my game and start working on pace, especially in my running. I can feel intervals will be a useful tool for this. Had a good week gone by.

Monday, 2km lunchtime swim

Tuesday, 5k run and 1km swim at lunchtime 

Wednesday, back on the bike after what feels like a very long time. 22km ride home from work

Thursday, 2km lunchtime swim and stretch class

Friday, 2km lunchtime swim and 22km ride home

Saturday, 8km trail run. Lots of mud but very good fun

Sunday, 15km social run with some of my wife’s run club 

Hi All. Thanks for the stats, Tyler.

Lurgy seems to have gone, so hopefully that's my token bit of ill-health for 2019!

Warming back in to the habit of training, although didn't quite manage to hit all of last weeks goals...

Week 2: 

M: Rest

T: Trail run. 40 min Z1. 6km at 6:40/km avg. 230m vert gain.

W: Bouldering at Grinshill. Vertical fingery problems. Short session as R elbow still a bit tweaky. Up to English 5c. Shoulder prehab.

T: Core session. BW exercises only as working away from home/weights.

F: Long day at work. No training.

S: Rest.

S: Core session. General strength session. Felt hard after time away from weights.

Week 3 plan:

130 min Z1.

2 Core and 2 General Strength sessions.

1 Bouldering session.

1 Dry tooling session.

STG/Q1:

Scottish tech 7.

3+ Chamonix classic mixed routes.

1+ SkiMo summit.

Average 300m vertical on weekly runs.

MTG/Q2:

Lancs Aretes (666 goal)

6C in Font 

Average 300m vert running per week

Bowland run/climbathon

Welsh 3000s

LTG/Q3:

Cuillin ridge traverse

Lancs aretes (666 goal)

Average 300m vert running per week

Some of: Salbit Westgrat, Piz Badile Cassin, Grand Montets ridge, Innominata, Cordier Pillar, etc...

Evening Tyler, thanks for doing the stats. 

Actually I saw your question last week but it had me a bit stumped. I've been thinking about it all week! Here are my thoughts.

To clarify, does this mean that you see lots of beginner runners running at a slow pace, or lots of strong runners running at a slow pace? I suppose it's hard to tell, but if it's the former it's very unlikely they're in Z1, as their aerobic threshold (AET)--and correspondingly, their Z1--will be much lower than a fitter runner. When I first started following TFTNA I couldn't really run at all without exceeding Z1. If it's the latter then fair enough, but then again if Scott Johnston of TFTNA is to be believed, most elite endurance athletes will spend 80-90% of their training volume at or below AET (Z1-Z2). So if my understanding is correct, it is eminently possible that these stronger runners will be fat adapted to some extent, yes. 

This was a really interesting question and I don't know enough about sport science or nutrition to give a satisfactory answer. But having mulled it over, my guess would be something like this: ketosis is basically a state in which the body fulfils its basic metabolic needs through fat catabolism (often because it's starved of a 'higher-octane' fuel source). By contrast, fat adaptation is the body fulfilling non-metabolic needs (i.e. fuelling exercise) through fat catabolism because it has been trained to make this pathway more efficient. So I guess one of the reasons it's so easy to drop out of ketosis is that the body isn't trained to burn fat, it just thinks "well I haven't got any carbs, so fat will have to do!" Fat adaptation means that within certain parameters (exertion at or below AET) the body will prioritise fat catabolism even when carbohydrate is available. 

As for "why does anyone both with keto when you could just do some Z1 running", I think that's a good point. But most FitClub members are considerably less exercise-phobic as the average person. At a guess, most people who want to lose body fat would prefer to do so via the 'easy' seeming method of adjusting their diet instead of putting in several hours of (admittedly quite gentle) exercise every week. Maybe I'm wrong, but there's a reason fad diets are so much more popular than consistent exercise programmes. 

I think it can be anything that gets and keeps your HR in the right zone. Doesn't have to be running, for sure. Specificity is important, however, and running is better preparation for slogging up moraine and frontpointing up icefields than cycling or rowing is. I do a fair amount of my Z1 on the stairs for this reason. 

Last Week (Base Week 12/30):

M: 90min Z1 run 

T: AM 45min Z1 stairmaster, PM abbreviated ice/mixed max strength maintenance session. 

W: AM 45min Z1 stairmaster, PM 30min Z3 stairmaster (w/18kg pack) hard work!

T: Ice/mixed muscular endurance session. Made the mistake of warming up using the assault bike, which I'd never used before. Got a bit carried away, to the extent that what I did wasn't really a warmup... Felt super flat for the first part of the main workout so as per Steve House's advice on a post I'd made on the Uphill Athlete forums, I DNFd and resolved to try again in a few days.

F: 60min Z1 stairmaster

S: Morning session at the wall. Warmed up (pull ups, offset lock offs on axes, sit-ups, and dips). Did the 50/50 mixed intensity laps from Crimpd. Feeling way stronger on these, which is great. Forearms are way better at recovering on the circuit board. Worked some of the new problems in the cave area (up to V4 but made good progress on a V6). 

S: Take two on Thursday's muscular endurance workout. Warmed up nice and gently and felt much stronger in the main workout. Stronger than last week, too. Will do these every 10 days from now on, as advised on Uphill Athlete.

Last week's goals:

[x] 240min Z1

[x] 30min Z3 hill climb

[x] 1 ice/mixed ME workout

[x] 1 abbreviated ice/mixed max strength workout

[x] 1 day climbing-specific training

Goals:

This week

• 270min Z1
• 30min Z3 hill climb
• 1 abbreviated ice/mixed max strength workout
• 1 day climbing-specific training
• Foam roll every evening

STG (March 2019)

• [3/20] 20x Scottish winter routes (inc. 2 VIIs)
• 3x WI6 O/S in Ecrins
• 3x Alpine routes

MTG (July 2019)

• 3x alpine rock lines >700m >6b in preparation for Bugaboos 
• Push rock climbing grade, aim for 7a O/S

LTG (End 2019)

• All Along the Watchtower, North Howser Tower
• 5x5000m peaks on the Bezengi wall, Caucasus. 

Thanks for the stat-ting Tyler. It's always easier to clock up the routes when life and the weather play ball. Not set any hard 2019 targets yet, though aiming for at least 104 trad routes and stretch target of 52 E points, so off to a good start.

Mo:    General walking, 6.4 miles. Return to work day. Sad face.

Tu:       General walking, 8.6 miles.

We:    General walking, 7.8 miles. 12 probs; MH, (4*12/180); IDH, (4*4*10:10/60).

Th:    General walking, 7.7 miles.

Fr:    General walking, 8.4 miles.

Sa:    General walking, 8.7 miles. 5 trad routes.

Su:    Urban walking, 7.4 miles.

Back to work week. Took a lot of energy to get through the working day, so no training till Wednesday, which was a decent session. Physio on Friday and his feeling is my spine needs aligning as a first step, but no real concerns about MRI comments. Focus on two alignment stretches/exercises and review at appointment next week. Felt beaten up on Friday night, but much better on Saturday morning, though the day's climbing and cold seem to have knocked progress back a bit. Onward and upward.

Thanks. A systematic take down of a problem is always satisfying. Lots of training this week but no trips to the crag unfortunately.

Mon. 18km on the road bike in the morning Core in the eve. 1min on 1min off for 40mins, various holds and movements. Totally destroyed afterwards. 

Tues. Core hurts. Went campusing. Tried a few new things. I want to be able to 1 4 7 and I'm a long way off! Good session though. 

Wed. Core feels like it might recover one day. Endurance session on the circuit board. Usual 6c to 7c set.

Thurs. Rest

Fri. Short comp wall session at the works. I always find it really hard on there and this was no exception. Did all the easy stuff but nothing hard.

Sat. Fingerboard session. Fingers a bit tired after warming up so swapped the first set of small edges for jugs and the 2 finger hangs for the big flatty. Possibly being a sissy but no finger injury so I guess its a win longer term.

Sun. Wet and windy 56km on the roadbike with cycling friends. Just about managed not to get dropped off the back of the group! 

Thanks Ash. Alex has answered your Z1 ponderances pretty well, I dont have much to add. The thing I try and remember is that the whole thing is not an excuse to go easy in training- it's only worth slowing down if you are going to do (a lot) more volume. A one hour z1 in a week really achieves very little on it's own.

Comp on thursday went fairly well- enjoyed it a lot. I scored 188/275, 3 points less than the previous month. I think I dropped around 10 points from not being 100% focused and/or being a bit nervous (ie thinking 'MUST FLASH') so I could have potentially scored higher. Blocfest is this saturday so another chance to improve in that realm coming up. Annoyingly one of the problems involved a palm on a very spiky hold which has damaged a nerve in my hand- my thumb is still numb!

Monday: Morning calisthenics, 10km run

Tuesday: Morning calisthenics

Wednesday: Morning Pullups, 4x8mins on 8 off aerocap session

Thursday: Comp at Hackney Wick

Friday-Sunday: Walking around Paris- tiring but not really training.

This week I aim to get back to 3 runs, 3 boulder sessions. One session will be Blockfest, and one run will be long. Thats all for now.

Thanks Tyler, Mrs Dandan was very excited to get a mention in Fitclub! Yes Freaky Ralph is the only 8a+ on Portland and one of only a handful in Dorset but the rest are in Swanage and much more tricky to access/get good conditions.

Another decent week, I packed it in at the start of the week in anticipation of getting outside at the weekend but that never panned out so the weekend was quite chilled out physically.

M: Fingerboard pockets; front 2 is currently stronger than middle 2 due to the slight tweak I managed at the end of my last trip. I think it's all fine and I can judge how hard to push it based on the burning sensation in the tendons (not as bad as it sounds, honest!)

T: Gym; Bench, squat, shoulder press, pull ups.
Indoor Boulder; boulder triples - climb 3 different problems consecutively with 1 minute between each. 5 sets with 5 minutes rest. Did this on the woody, feels good to get back on it in anger.

W: Fingerboard; 10 second hangs AA slot at 90% max (99kg) 1 min rest, 8 reps.

T: Indoor boulder; 8 on 5 off.
Project session - good goes at 3 project routes with good rests between goes.

F: DIY Club - Someone (Mattrm i think) found me on a woodworking forum showing off the results of my DIY club labours! (im really very proud of my gates!)

S: More DIY club

S: Indoor routes; 4on 4off at 6c+

I'm still pondering goals, I'm sure i'll have something soon, February at the latest. I should probably get some holidays booked, that always helps encourage some wildly optimistic targets...

Might as well go big.... Just need to maintain the motivation.

Decent week for me but a bit less structured than I would have liked, due to various other commitments.

Mo: 3 x 8min ARC, ~25min gentle jog

Tu: Good strength session. Max hangs bw+26kg 1/2 crimp 4 x 10s, A couple of hard ~v5-6 boulders I struggled on before Christmas.

We: Felt pretty wiped out. GF wanted to go climbing, a few new routes 6a+ - 6c.

Th: Lunchtime gym session, first since before xmas, Bench 1 x 5 reps 60kg, 3 x 5reps 55kg, Barbell overhead press 3 x 5reps 40kg, Deadlift 3 x 5 reps 100kg. P.M ~30min run, surprised myself by feeling great.

Fr: Day off for paragliding, feeling my core from day before. Late finish and Friends from the lakes arrived in the evening, too many beers.

Sa: Hungover/  Rest, and ~30min walk. 

Su: Persuaded by a keen friend to head to Tintern Quarry for a bit of sport climbing, decent day in the end, but late start and drizzle ended it early. Climbed on the upper red wall not been there before. Did two warm ups, Dust devil, eye catching line but filthy and slimey good none the less, and then Saurapods a bolted finger crack. Cracked on with the dead vai, pretty tough for 7a+ i thought, took a lil time to work out crux, needed a rest before going for the RP, and no time, so another one to come back for. 

Morning Ash - thanks for the stats. I was never going to continue up Downhill Racer as we were trying the direct start by lantern! Yesterday an extra foothold I had missed was pointed out to me, so maybe i'll try again... 

Week 2

M – Substation. An-cap triples on the 45. Started on a 7A, but couldn’t sustain it, so dropped down to a 6C for the last two sets and still struggled. Obviously, some big room for improvement here! Finished with 15x 1on/1off aero-cap on the circuit board. The oranges were a little too hard and the blacks way too easy. Again – much room for progress. Dips and legs raises to finish. Toothless demoed how weak my triceps are…

T – Quick bash on bike. 23km. 50min.

W – Explorative max hangs session. Pinky flexor still grumbling, so no all-out 4-finger efforts.

Grip                 Old PB Session#2        Session #3       Goal

BM2K-AA          55kg     67kg                 20kg(ache)    +BW

Front-3              20kg     33kg                 36kg              +45kg

Middle-2           16.5kg  36.25kg            42.5kg            +50kg

Crimp               23kg     33kg                 20kg(ache)      +40kg

Front-2              26.5kg  36.25kg            40kg               +50kg

Followed by a rings session.

T – Pec DOMS. Lunchtime aero-cap. FoC with 5kg vest 1on/2off x10.

F – Rest. Stretching only.

S – DIY club, then brief jolly to Tom’s Roof to try Jerryatricks (f7C+). Felt fairly ropey warming up, but eventually ticked overlapping sections of Jerryatricks (Womb/Swing thing; Tom’s Reverse/Power Allowance) but failed on the last few moves trying the big link. Then did Rack and Ruin (f7C) with proper beta; much easier (7B+?) than my hideous eliminate version, so did the sit start too (Wack and Ruin (f7C) - just about 7C?) Good short session – home before my wife finished her on-call.

S – More DIY club, then dodging showers at Froggatt. Did Jetpack and Jetpack LH after warming up at Todys garden, then set to work on My Orange. Ab’d in and inspected top moves. It dried out just as it got dark and got a highpoint 4 moves from the top. Gareth got 2 moves further. Need to do this and many other 7C+/8A to catch up with him in the next couple of months…

I'm only now seeing these in context as I have been doing some pocket hangs recently, what pocket are you using for this because those numbers are huge! i'm using the shallow pocket on the lower rail of BM2K (not the impossible slopey ones) but only going up to +5kg for a 7 second hold!

Punter pull-up question...

I do all of my pull-ups (and pull-up variations) on a wooden beam in the house, rather than a pull-up bar. The beam cross section is approx. 6" meaning that it can only be used as a flat top grip, with no 'wrapping around' of the fingers.

I'm assuming this is an advantage in some ways (finger strength, forearm work out, etc) but it occurred to me in other ways I may be short changing myself as the work is  limited by the grip strength, rather than the larger muscle groups. I can do more pull-ups on a bar than I can using this beam, so maybe that shows a risk of detraining the bigger pull-up muscles if I only use the flat top grip?

Should I:

a) Fit a pull up bar and use this instead?

b) Fit a pull up bar and use this as well as the flat top hold?

c) Carry on as normal just using the flat top hold?

The other pull-up type work I do uses ice-tools over the same beam, so maybe these give a good alternative to the pull-up bar?

BM2K middle row pockets; i'm probably at a similar level to you on the lower row pockets, but i think the exact depth of those pockets varies with age of your Beastmaker. Mine is a very early model (2009/10?) and i've noticed that the hold depths are different to the boards at local walls. e.g. the lower crimps on my board is a good couple of mm shallower than the newer version.

I was amazed how much i'd improved on those hangs after properly rehabing my (previously) dodgy left ring-finger. Keen to keep pushing these and finally go back to Montsant and crush Hidrofóbia L1 (8a)...

My BM 1k is about 7 years old, and I can hang about half as much additional weight on the same hold on it as on public ones at walls. But I've always assumed that's a question of wear & stickiness, not actual hold size.

Ditto that was my assumption, but it's now making me wonder given my ongoing puzzlement about the AA hold and it's miserableness...

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 - Dunno

M - 4 mile walk to work and back

T - F - Rest

S - crappy HiiT

S - crappy HiiT

Tyler - that's great advice.  Thanks.  I found that the cHiiT stuff worked pretty well for slowly increasing my fitness.  So I'm back to that, but I do find it very hard to motivate my self to do squats/lunges/situps around the house.  It's super dull.  However the new house is really big, so it makes life a lot easier.  Hopefully I'll get a lattice rung and a TRX point setup soon.  Also cHiiT doesn't really seem to improve my CV fitness which definitely affected me when I last tried to do some climbing.  I actually need to get out and run.  While I can walk a lot, just walking on the flat doesn't help with that much.  Unless I start walking a lot faster and I'm not a slouch as it is.  I'm definitely going to count the 4 miles to work when I do them.  

Still kinda mourning the loss of the Rec wall.  It's just too far to go on a weekly basis now but it suited me so well.  The nearest wall is a mainly bouldering wall.  Which isn't bad, but I've never got on well with falling on to mats lots.  I'll have to try and go soon, but again, it'll be dull and motivation is low.

Damnit.

"walk to and from work" would sound so much better as "1hr Z1" - if only I could kid myself it had any relevance for my goals!

Hey Ash, thanks for the motivation! I think I overdramatised the weight loss. The overall aim is to lose around 5 kg (66-61kg) but at the moment just looking to lose a couple kilos by not eating ALL the food.

I have been mainly working on consistency rather than volume and think it has been paying off. Adding a little more to the pot this week.

Just did my first pull-up improvement session (41.5 pull-ups total) but more on that in next weeks post.

Mon: Very hilly run in Bath - 7.23km, 7:06min/km

Tues: bouldering - middle finger of my right hand starting to be a bit of a problem and the start of what seems like a similar issue in the middle finger of my left hand. Still did an awesome slopey, overhung V4 and a very crimpy, thin, slabby V5.

Weds: rest

Thurs: Finger injury which has been brewing didn't feel great and I get a little over competitive so I decided against the Hackney Wick comp to prevent injury.

Fri-Sun: Walking around Paris having a wonderful time and looking at lots of art!

This week's goals are 4 runs, 3 pull-up sessions, 3 climbing sessions, including the Yonder Blokfest comp on Saturday.

Yup, that was me.  I've been on there for quite a long time, just not so much recently.  I did see you a while back and I thought it was you, but you changed your profile photo so I knew for sure.  They're lovely gates I have to say.  Excellent job.

Hi Tyler, Thanks for the ego boost! 

M: ran to the wall and climbed 3x v4 and the first indoor v5 of 2019! 3 sets of 20 leg raises , press ups, eccentric wrist curls , sit ups. Ran back home.

Th: ran to the wall and had an easy session of bouldering up to v3 and also put the harness on for the first time in ages and went up the auto belay . 2 sets of same exercises from Monday. Shoulder exercises.

F: 6 max hangs on finger board at home.

Weight 11.9

Where in the finger Jen?

Hey Rebecca, well, it is just at the base of the middle phalanx (had to look that up but think that is accurate), just in the soft tissue above the knuckle. It feels ok most of the time but sometimes hurts when pulling just with that finger or if I push on the sore area and is aggravated by climbing. I have had a look in 'make or break' and it's unclear what is wrong but Guy suggested A2 pulley.

Cheers for the stats as as alaways.

 > Ianstevens – Good park run performance, did Beltane go down this week or has it been too wet to even get on it?

Thanks re: parkrun, felt quite positive about it. PB for 5k is 18:32 and nice to be getting back towards that end without doing loads of running. Re: Beltane I did it on NYE, obviously got lost in posting(s). Feels odd to not have a specific route project for the first time in ages!

Goals

 STGs: 1) Max Hangs on the AA slot to 90kg (currently 85.9kg) by 3/2. 2) Get up any 7A boulder - been struggling with these across the board of late; 3) Complete all planned sessions for weeks up to the start of March (3 climb, 2 hangboard, 2 strength, 2 runs) 4) Triple figures of points in the CWIF (in the 70s last year IIRC).

MTG (April 2019): 1) Climb >10 7s (sport) by the end of April. 

LTG (end of summer 2019): Depends on winter progress - either a 7c or an 8a. 7.5 hours for the Snowdon Skyline race (Sept 2019).

Last week

Mon: 1) Indoors: Powerful boulders <7A

Tues: 1) Yoga; 2)Run: 10x400 m reps (average 77secs), 13km/92m total

Wednesday: 1) Yoga; 2) Outdoor boulders, tried Bulling 747 (V6)The Minimum (V7)Jerry's Wall (V6) and did none of them, but got close to them all. Bit disappointed.

Thursday; 1) Yoga; 2) Core;Jacknifes, L sit to plank, Weighted sit up (<27.5kg), Windscreen wipers (+2kg), V-ups; 3) Run; hill reps for 25 mins, 14.3km/244m total.

Friday: 1) Yoga, 2) AA Max hangs (up +0.5kg)

Saturday: 1) Yoga 2) Wall: skin a bit crap so basically warmed up and bailed.

Sunday: 1) Yoga; 2) AA Max hangs (up another 0.5kg); 3) Strength: shoulder shrugs pyramid (<20kg), pull up pyramid (12.5kg), TRX Single arm rows, shoulder press (<14kg), bicep curls (<20kg), wrist extensors (10kg) and wrist flexors (6.5kg)

All planned sessions done, aside from the indoor climbing session on Saturday (I’ll count that as half a session). Starting another strength and power block next week for 6 weeks, so a shift towards fingerboarding - 4 sessions of this and only one of climbing for the next 3 weeks. 

Is there a bump?

Thanks for the stats again! Need to turn ‘on the go’ to ‘climbing on the go’... 

Terrible climbing week but lots of work, competed on house and did some DIY. Pilates session on Tuesday and traversed the new local boulder (Castle Rock) on Sunday. There are apparently some E3s and an E4/5 on it so I guess will have a go at soloing those eventually. Onwards...

Thanks for doing the stats Tyler

Yeah i've definatly drunk the TFTNA cool aid. Untill the begining of last week I did not have any trips planed but Ive agreed to go to scotland for  long weekend in Febuary and hoping to go to the alps but currently trying to get the same time off work as my climbing partner is looking quite hard. 

Most of my plans this year were for running but because of scotland I've now dropped most of the running to go climbing 3 times a week again to try and get some endurance back in the arms.

M - Rest

T - Rest

W - Night time run in the brecon beacons. 16.7km, 740m accent, 10:36 min per km. It turned into more of a walk as I forgot to change my headtourch batteries and had lots of fun trying to navigate featurless terain

T - Indoor Bouldering maximum ammount of problems (I should start counting)

F - Indoor Bouldering. More just for fun. Routes up to 6b

S - Run 16.6km, 436m accent, 06:07 min per km

S - AM - Indoor bouldering maximum ammount of problems

     PM - Run 13km, 314m accent, 06:18 min per km

Lee

I don't think so, much better when I tape it and I don't recall any particular moment when I hurt it. There was no pain or a pop or anything.