UKC

UKC FitClub Week 785

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

Link to last week’s thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fitclub_week_784-74574...

Morning FitClubbers,

Seems like work has done the uncivil thing of getting in the way of people’s climbing this week. Still lots of good stuff, progress on projects, and trip reports to keep us all going. Winter's dying breath this week so hopefully the grit monkeys got out.

Stats:

Ross Barker: Great news with the fingers. Any more progress on the Ramp Up?

AJM: Jealous of bookending work meetings with climbing and beach ice cream. Now you’re back on the ropes, have you got any projects in mind for the spring/summer?

Randy: Another consistent week despite work commitments. Any plans for training/climbing in India or are you going full Cobra & Curry deload?

Alan: Clock-punching is still ingraining the habit and building consistency. Now you’re a fully-fledged Ski-Tourer, any plans for some big tours? Haute Route etc.

Tyler: I don’t know. 6 weeks should be enough time to trim that 40mins off? Would give you something to aim for and reason to shun the biscuits and cake.

Steve Claw: Think I’ve only done Demo Route and a couple others at Sennen but it’s an amazing crag. What set-up are you using to work routes?

SidH: Weather looks glorious today so hopefully you get out. 7 more sleeps! Are you allowed to share the wishlist or is it under wraps? Hopefully you’ve booked the train and can avoid the ferry chaos. I have tentative plans to take the non-climbing Mrs and Nipper (around June) so will be tapping you up for the Bouldering/Pram-Shunting/Wrangling Beta!

SSB: Suns Out Guns Out & two good sessions on top of work commitments. Conditions looked good for grit slopers this week. Did you manage to ‘Get Jiggy With it’ and stick some Will Smith Big Slaps?

Ally: Impressed with the x12 Straight Leg Wipers. Are you hanging straight-armed? I could do a few but only with bent arms for some reason – will probably have to regress to the bent knee version. Effort on Cityless!

SteveJC94: Another good week. S&C, Endurance, 2x big rides. Any goal routes for the grit?

JCK: Mega weekend of ridge scrambling! Take it the snow is long gone on Costa del Torridon.

The Sheep: Hopefully the knee’s ok. Doesn’t sound like it caused you too many issues. As ever, another impressively consistent week.

Tom Green: Better to make the most of the conditions instead of training for training’s sake in my opinion, and it sounds like you’re back flying after the Lurg. I’m not going to lie; the Dirty Dozen looks like the filthiest type of debauchery. Scottish Winter may make one last appearance yet, dare to make any plans?

Derek Furze: Good news with the Bursitis and a sensible approach to a long season.

Planet Marhall: Solid week. 2x Bouldering Sessions, Trad Session, and S&C. Did you get back on Greener Traverse?

Ger_the_gog: A 10day -ve seems to be the norm with this variant so I’ve got another couple of days yet. Bet you’re looking forward to getting back out!

Biscuit: Nightmare. It sounds like you made the most of it though, and you must be coming back happy with a confidence boost like that so early in the season. All eyes on Reiff. Any details on a training programme?

Have a good week!

Good stuff again Liam.

A pretty cold week, but managed two days clipping stuff at Giggleswick, so a decent return.  Tuesday all felt a bit clunky getting used to limestone again and trying to be careful with my elbow, but Friday seemed to click and saw a good return.  I had originally targeted 6c onsight in March, but actually did it on April 1st.  Also did 3 6b+ and a total of ten routes, so a decent workout altogether.  No impact on elbow and the swelling - at one point like a golf ball - has almost completely gone.

aiming to stick mainly to sport through April to bring back stamina and to get on to 7a, then probably focus back on trad.  

I've taken a portable hangboard with me, but the main is goal is too deload. Probably will do nothing during the first week and some easy maintenance work on the fingerboard in the 2nd week. So the plan is basically to rest and don't get sick

Mon: Rest

Tues: Managed to get in a one short session on Slimline (8a+), which was pretty crazy considering that i worked more than 10h and live 2,5h away from the project. That basically broke down to, start working at 4:45, get in the car at 2pm, continue to work in the car while my mate drove and hit the crag at 4:30 pm for 3h. Nevertheless, managed to get a decent session in and it was the last chance for the next 4 weeks to get back on it. Conditions were not that great, and i did not manage any new link-ups. But i found a small beta improvement on the 2nd crux, so i still made progress and you got to appreciate the little improvements when you are projecting above your limit.

Wed: Rest

Thur: Rest

Fri: Fingerboard max hangs 4x 10s with 3-4 min rest:

• 20mm egde:  69,7 % of BW average with right hand, 69,4% of BW with left hand
• Pinch Block with 17kg for the right hand, 16kg for the left
• Assisted one-arm-lockoff, 92%-98% of BW, 4 sets of 10-15s at different angles (170° -45°)

Did not expect much from this session, but surprised myself with a good session. Was too tired with my right hand, as the 2 crux moves that i tried on tuesday are very demanding on the right hand. But left hand felt better and i finally broke trough a month long plateau.

Sat: Rest (Start of travel to India)

Sun: Arrived in the morning in India. Did a short city tour with my colleague, which was enough exercise after 3h of bad airline sleep and a 35° temperature

Really good effort travelling to the crag after work - impressive dedication!  

When you say 'projecting above your limit' I'm interested to know how far above your usual onsight grade is this?  I've never tried projecting, so I'm interested to see what can be achieved.

My onsight pr is ridiculously bad, i have once flashed 6c+ and have onsighted 6c twice in my life, that is it. When it comes to redpointing, i have send 7b+ in a day and my pr is 7c. So quite a huge split, which is do to fact that i onsight seldom, and frankenjura is notoriously hard to onsight. But generally, you can expect to redpoint two letter grades above your onsight level if you are willing to put in a few session and know how to onsight. 

Thanks for the stats. It's taken a while to work up to the straight leg windscreen wipers - a good litle core exercise for those of us that like it steep

Unfortunately the COVID monster has struck in Cheshire and all 3 of us are resting up.  Not much on the agenda for this week.

Week 13

M – Brief play with new axle barbell. Worked my way up to bar+100kg (126kg?) deadlift, which felt pretty close to 1RM. 1.75x bodyweight is an obvious quick objective (~135kg) with 2x bodyweight (>150kg) an aspiration/end goal?

T – Woke with a sore throat and got progressively more lurgied as the day went on, ending with 3 hours of shivering in bed with a fever of >38C. LFT +ve  

W – Rough

T – Similar

F – Less rough

S – 15min garden pootle

S – 20min garden pootle

Thanks for response Randy - very helpful.  I'm hoping to get back to onsighting 7a perhaps 50% of the time, which is as high as I ever have done, partly because I never really bothered much with sport climbing.  Two letter grades is very encouraging, though I'd have to learn a new skill and set about applying it!  I'd actually be glad to get up some 7bs even if they took a bit of working out.

Should also have said that I have a week with little work travel and plan (starting later today) to get back to max hangs, push ups and pull ups now that my elbow is more or less normal.  I will take it easy to start as I definitely don't want to trigger anything else!

I don't think I'm anywhere near that sort of thing in terms of either fitness or skiing ability. Unexpected late snowfall prolonged the ski season this week though, which obviously helps with both of those things.

STG: One more skiing weekend, going high up on a glacier at Easter. Then need to start thinking about climbing plans/targets.

MTG: 1H 2022: onsight 6c+
MTG: Winter 22/23 - do an actual off piste ski tour
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 658

M:    rest
T:    Max hangs
W:    Wall, Weyarn. Autobelay endurance mileage: time to start shifting the endurance focus from thighs to forearms.
T:    An hour step-ups & jogging
F:  Had planned to go to a bouldering wall but was feeling a bit under the (suddenly cold & wet again) weather, so didn't.

S:    Spitzingsee. Nearly did a proper ski tour today: still sticking to pistes, but this time on already closed pistes. Actually overtook another group on the way up, on my third day ever going uphill on skis - lockdown box step-ups for the win. Dense cloud & zero visibility at the top made my first ever couple of hundred metres of going downhill on unpisted snow rather stressful, but once I could see I was fine.

S:     Had planned to go piste skiing with my son but he was feeling unwell, so back to Spitzingsee for another touring lap up the other side of the mountain. Skinned up most of the way on paths through the woods instead of on the piste, which was scenic. Passed by some tempting-looking powder glades, but decided I don't know the area well enough to know how to link them or how steep they might get, so stuck to the piste on the way down.

If you can onsight 7a 50% of the time, you should easily be redpointing 7c with the right strategy and mindset imo. Feel free to reach out to me, if you want to have some specific advice on redpointing strategy.

Monday - wall. Session trying projects. Some hard moves done or attempted, no ticks though. Good session.

Tuesday - pushups 3x15; chin-ups 3x10

Wednesday - wall with miniAJM. I had a bit of a frustrating start - not climbing terribly well, found a few problems hard (the downside of not grading problems or even colour banding them terribly well, hitting a run of things that are far harder than they appear), a little bit deflated. Went and played on the campus board for a bit and had a half decent session - on the big sloper rungs I did 1-3-5 three times each side and then on the big rungs I did 1-2-5, 1-3-5 and attempted 1-4-6 once each per side. I thought the small rungs might be a bit much for my finger but the bigger and slopey rungs did the job quite nicely. Considering I haven’t used the campus board in a while and that it was third day on it felt like quite a decent result really.

Thursday - nothing. Feeling wiped out by the evening, really tired

Friday - much faff, had planned to go out in the morning but too tired again. Then busy all afternoon and evening. MrsAJM not feeling well too.

Saturday - took the children out for a walk and to lunch - about 9km of walking all told, very pleasant.

Sunday - Dancing Ledge. A few warmups, then onsighted Slopin' and Hopin' (6b+), tried Sugar Ray (7a+) twice (never found a sequence for the top that felt that nice), and finished off Daylight Robbery (6c) which I had fallen off end of the session last week.

Thanks Liam,

Sennen is amazing, lots to do there at all grades once you get stuck in.  I was working the route Top Rope Solo (TRS) with a Taz Lov3 backed up with a Micro Traxion on a static line.  Its by far the best method I have come across.

This week, I've actually been out quite a bit, but training is taking a hit now that the weather is improving. Feel I need to get my head into hard things as overwise the fitness will reduce, and I'm already +2kg in bodyweight

M - Outdoor easy sport, all in mid 6's

T - Indoor Training - 6*10s hangs +17.5kg felt hard (prob as I'm heavier)  Left hand is still hurting a little.  Then 1hr on the Woody repeating easy problems to work Power Endurance.

W - Outdoor Sport, mid 6's

T- Nothing

F - Outdoor trad, woohoo! Cleaned up and busted my way up Kingdom's Throne (E3 6a) So cold that the fingers go numb, then really painful as you get the feeling back.

S- Nothing

S - Was supposed to train, but couldn't get the times to work, so took the 2 younger children for a sunny play in Avon. Just an easy top rope on the first pitch of Gronk.

Thanks.  I will let you know if I manage to crack the first hurdle!

The ticklist is long!

Around home, there’s a whole bunch. At the most ambitious/unrealistic end, there’s probably 3:

1. Tennessee (7c) (sea level, fiddly conditions, tidal)
2. Return of the Gunfighter (7c) (2hrs from home)
3. Just Revenge (7c+) (or similar - 2.5 hours from home)

Theres then a whole host of other things, but basically concentrated around the west coast sea level sectors, so routes like/around Shining Heart (7c), Reverence (7a+), Ariane V (7b) and so on, plus the battleship back things like Zinc Oxide Mountain (7b+).

I’ll take any trad that’s going to be honest, if it’s a decent route then I’m pretty keen.

In the frankenjura I have unfinished business with Entsafter (7a+) and Hitchhike the Plane (7c+), and basically would like to try to do a bunch of classics in the “up to 7b+” sort of range. Jumanji (7b+) and Treibjagd (Kurt Stör Gedenkweg) (7b+) have caught my eye, but there’s so many possibilities…

Also on my to-do list, let me know if you want to do it together?

Ok, will do! Off on school holidays soon but I'll see what I can do once I get back...

Thanks Liam. There’s nothing you can do so it just gets chalked off to experience and you move on. As you say though there’s always a positive to take out of these things.

This week was getting back into the swing of things and trying out new workouts. Full speed ahead next week.

The basic plan is to reduce climbing during the week to specific energy system sessions, little and often, regular stretching and get two decent gym sessions a week in on the weights. Then climb Sunday and Monday.

M - Had a 30 min run and a stretch in the morning to shrug off travelling. 

Did some forearm weights I’m starting 

T - Ran again - I’m quite enjoying it. I used to run a lot and I always remember how much I miss it when i start back

Did 20 V4’s in 20 mins at Boulder UK.

That’s a great workout if you’re looking to get powered out. 10 problems in I was thinking it was easy. I just finished it by changing the order of the 10 problems i was using to finish on the easier ones.

W - Super busy day at work. Nothing done.

T - Gym - box squats. Just 3 x 10 with 60 kegs to test out the knee. It hurt to start but shut up whinging when it realised I was going to carry on anyway. I overcooked it on the bench pressing and bicep/tricep work. I was enjoying it and got carried away.

F - DOMS already in chest and arms.

Kendal wall boulder league final. A really good night. Great vibe, great problems and free pizza. There was one novelty problem where you had to run, jump up two volumes and grab the start holds. I literally spent half an hour on it. Probably 30+ goes. They even extended the time by a couple of minutes as i was finally getting close to it. I did get it in the end.

A 3 hour session of trying hard but felt like i could still carry on climbing. Again a good sign of fitness I think.

Knee tweaked a bit.

S - Rest other than a 30 min jog and worse DOMS than yesterday. It was supposed to be some stretching and 15 mins continuous climbing on the board but i was knackered after the previous night.

S - First trad day of the season. Went to  Armathwaite. The plan was Langdale, but got sidelined by some guidebook stuff. Conditions weren’t great.

Seconded Flasherman Direct (HVS 5a), which was lovely. 

Tried Codpiece Left Hand (E1 5b) which was a bloody death trap. I was again impressed at my ability to downclimb hard moves. Top roped it. No way could i lead that. I was blowing out of my arse.

Did some top roping on the slab which was quite good fun and very hard.

Tried Erection (E1 5a) I was not at all sure about the start. I ended up about 4 m off the deck with the wrong hand jammed in a crack and no gear in. Again i amazed myself at my ability to down climb sketchy moves!

Went home. It was cold and scrittly and I’m not rushing back anytime soon. It was only after I looked at the UKC comments. 

Again in the spirit of taking positives out of things my judgement when things are a bit wonky and i shouldn't press on is working!

Derek I may be going to Gigg on this Friday if you’re about? Happy to make a 3 for sport.

I am about, but I think on grandparent duties on Friday.  If it changes then I may well pop up for a mess about.  Thanks anyway.  

Your training plan continues to impress.  I like the twenty V4 idea.  Been to Armathwaite a couple of times and my logbook says I've done both Codpiece LH and Erection. though this is way back.   Funny crag though all in all.

Thanks Liam. Unfortunately today's climbing plans were cancelled by someone getting covid which meant I was looking after the kids. Most of my wife's family seems to have had it for the first time in the last fortnight.

Other than a bit of shoulder rehab this evening I have done nothing this week - just a complete rest. I feel very low on energy and am hoping a holiday will give me a boost!

No particular Font ticklist as it's a family trip and I'll go with the flow so I'm not sure which crags I'll end up climbing at. Ideally I'd like to get a couple of 7A/+s done but I'm probably in my worst shape for a decade, so we'll see!

Re taking babies and toddlers to Font, I would get a baby carrying rucksack that you can carry them around in and ideally which they can nap in at the crag. Some crags would be accessible with a buggy if you have a special off road one, buy not otherwise, it's often very sandy (and many parts of crags not at all.) Other than that, it's just down to having stuff with you to look after and amuse them like anything else. Once they can toddle around much on their own it's difficult without 2 adults and crag choice becomes more important, but there are lots of safe options.  Having lots of pads is useful as you need something for them to sit/lie on while you are bouldering. Some sort of picnic blanket works as an as alternative.

Respect for that!

It was not a good condition day and at that crag I think that’s more important than most. 

Even so i don’t think I’d have managed codpiece.

By the time i got to Erection i had run out of psyche tbh and it was cold. I think I did the start wrong and then couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm for another go.

And let me know about Friday. 

My climbing days tend to be Friday and Sunday atm.

Thanks for the stats Liam. Yep, been getting my Will Smith on this week.

Mon. Rest

Tues. Back to Burbage West for the sit on famous grouse which I got! Famous Grouse Sit-start (f7C). Had a play on some other stuff after but didn't get far.

Wed. Nominally 25km on the rollers on the bike.

Thurs. Aerocap attic session 3x10 mins on 10mins off.

Fri. Rest

Sat. Out to Anston to try Dangerous Action Man Wrestling. Good first session. Only one move not done but got some other beta to try. Cool problem. 6km run with the kids on bikes at chatsworth after.

Sun. Reconisence mission to mossatrocity to make sure I can find it in the dark in future. Tried the stand start but keep dropping the last move with tired arms. One to go back to. I'm not sure I'll get on well with all that wide arm stuff at the start but I'd like to at least do the stand start.

Forecast doesn't look great for the week but maybe get back out to anston after a rest day or two.

Thanks Liam, having done a couple of runs this week knocking 40 mins off was too low a bar so I think I might enter this after all: https://www.runwales.com/events/snowdonia-half-marathon/. Its a shame to pay £33 to run on a course which is a lot less pleasant than my training runs in the same area but no one will give me a medal for that!

M: Run, 10.12km, 378m ascent, 1:09

T: Nothing

W: Nothing but chainsawing

T: PyB - not good session cut it early.

F: Run, 8.46km, 390m ascent, 1:03

S: Was meant to be bouldering in the Pass but it was chucking it down so decamped to the Beacon, good session on the ropes then briefly investigated the Kilterboard. Driving back the weather had cleared up so thought I'd have look at the walk up Elidir Fawr in case I ever do the 3000's. It was worth it to learn I need to find an alternative to the path on the map which just seemed interminable bog which lead to me turning back after an hour. From a training PoV the epitome of wasted miles. Had a quick look at Utopia boulder, another waste of time as I was too chicken to commit to The Groove so as I'd dragged my mat up there I wasted my remaining skin on the crux of Utopia Traverse without success.

S: Felt a bit deflated my inability to boulder on my own (until I find some decent lowballs to work on) and too tired to go into the hills. I eventually decided to go for a short recovery run, ended up doing 16.2km, 667m ascent in 2:03. As this is the same ascent as the Snowdonia Half its tempting to set a goal of 2:30 for the full 13.1 miles but I was dead on my feet by the end and my second half was slower than my first despite containing most of the downhill. If I lost a stone it might be possible but nothing seems to be happening on that front!

Gotta love that chainsawing - chopping up wood is addictive somehow

Thanks for the stats Liam. The main grit goals in the near future are Pool Wall (E5 6b), Smear Test (E3 6a) and Time for Tea (E3 5c), though I'm keeping my fingers crossed that's it'll soon be warm enough for multi-pitch mountain trad instead! 

Not a bad week all things considered:

M - Rest day

T - An evening cragging at Castle Naze, Icebreaker (E2 5b) being the highlight

W - Routes endurance session (4 x 4s)

T - Strength & conditioning (Press ups 10 x 4 sets, pull ups 10 x 4 sets, russian twists 20 x 4 sets, plank 4 x 30s, bench press 5 x 4 sets) 

F - Rest day

S - Bit windy for an outdoor ride so settled for some Zwift intervals

S - A day out a Gardom's Edge. A bit cold for anything too hard but managed to tick off Master of Thought (E2 5c). Highlight of the day was getting hot aches on the first route of the day - I though summer was supposed to be on the way! 

Feel pretty wiped out this evening so an easier week is on the cards:
 

M - Rest day

T - Endurance session (Hangboard Repeaters and easy ARCing)

W - Back to see the Physio for an update on the Pulley recovery

T - Boulder Pyramid 

F - Rest Day

S/S - Hoping that it'll be warm enough for a weekend at Tremadog (watch it rain all weekend now that I've said that...) 

I haven't even got to the chopping part yet, saving that for a treat. To be honest I'm not sure my chainsaw will cut anything big enough to need splitting but I'm enjoying being a Cosplay lumberjack with my checked shirt and chainsaw trousers!

I went to Armthwaite for the Dave Jones picture book tick but totally failed to make an impression, struck me as somewhere that takes some getting used to. 

Yes. As a location for the first day of trad for 2022 it didn’t deliver relaxing, easy to protect, routes in the sun……

Good morning guys, nice one on the stats, Liam!

A good week from me, climbing-wise. No training, I missed out on the Thursday training session as there was a lot of Covid going around our circles and I was convinced we'd had it, but luckily that's not the case. I'm also very undisciplined!

After the session on The Ramp Up I have decided I need to train a bit of AnCap (if any of you training experts think this judgement is incorrect please let me know!) because I'm just powering out a bit on the burly 6C-ish top sequence. It's some 15 or so moves in total.

Last Week:

M - Rest.

T - The Ramp Up (f7B+). Lucked out with the weather, the patchy rain left a gap over the crag! Had 8 or so good goes, one or two of which were quite close indeed - in the end I'm just a bit too powered out. I've learned some helpful little tricks at least: Slap a bit of chalk on my left thigh for the rollover to the dish, and use a small right foot in the roof for the left foot move to the smear. Won't be in condition until the next dry spell, now.

W - Rest.

T - Rest.

F - Rest.

S - Rest.

S -  Craig Nant y Fedw. Strong day out! No grief from the finger, even on some small-ish holds. Still not pushing it to the limit yet though. Got James Dyson Unplugged (f7B) after cycling through loads of different beta, found a weird press into a high foot makes it pretty steady! Then used the last of my skin on Hoover Dam (f7A+), just scraped my way up it as I was running out of steam. Tried Spiderpig (f7A) but the skin was hurting and the crux was bunchy, so gave up after not too many goes.

Next Week:

M - Rest

T - Some sort of AnCap training.

W - Rest.

T - Low volume hangboarding.

F - Rest.

S, S - Looks cold but dryish. Maybe Piss (f7B)? 

Goals:

Rehab finger.

The Ramp Up.

I remember it being steep.  I always avoid steep trad early in the year until I am moving smoothly and placing gear efficiently.  I need some mileage before I can handle the urgency with any conviction.

Cheers Si. Found a few of your old comments on other posts so will start doing some research and planning!

Cheers Liam, the knee is improving. Not feeling up to intervals yet but low intensity stuff is fine. Driving seems to be the most aggravating factor as its my left leg. Anyway a low impact week gone by;

Monday, 1km lunchtime swim and 8km trail run in the evening whilst the youngest was at swim training. Lighter nights making a big difference 

Tuesday, 1km swim

Wednesday, 17km cycle

Thursday, 1km swim

Friday, 11km trail run

Saturday, 8km trail run

Sunday, "rest" day, reality was being a taxi service for the kids pretty much all day.

Cheers Liam. Yes I'm very happy to be the other side of it. I think I had a heavy initial infectious dose, being constantly around someone for days before they went on to test positive. She too tested negative yesterday (her day 14) which is a huge relief. She's 81 with a number of other conditions including COPD and heart failure so it was touch-and-go for a while. She is still quite unwell but at least she's managed to kick the virus and we can move on to the recovery phase. 

No real training to report over the past week. Just 4.5km walking around the garden to complete my Garmin March walking challenge while still isolating and a few easy dumbbell sessions to see how I felt. I should have more to post next week.

Thanks all.

Hi All. Thanks for the top statting, Liam.

Yep, the Dirty Dozen is a bit on the type II fun end of the spectrum. Would recommend to a friend, but would recommend even more enthusiastically to an enemy!

Week 13:

M: Rest. Mostly bleeding following on from Sunday's offwidthing.

T: More rest, more bleeding.

W: Strength sesh. Hit two STGs: 90.4kg max hangs; 95.3kg pull-ups. (BW +25% and +32% respectively).

T: Nowt. Life got in the way.

F: Elbow and Shoulder Prehab.

S: Drove up to Glen Nevis and tested the leg (and post-lurgy lungs) on the Ring of Steall. Felt fine, although the final 1030m descent was painful -all those little niggles that you only feel when you aren't hill fit.

S: Quick morning solo hit on the Ben before the weather crapped out at midday. Kind of ticked an STG in that I whizzed up No. 4 Gully, although it's probably pushing the definition of winter climb a bit! I was supposed to be staying up there to climb Mon-Weds, but the weather has crapped out so bailed back south -may get up for one last try at winter climbing next weekend?

Week 14:

One run.

Fingerboard x2

Strength sesh x2

Maybe hit Scotland if winter returns?

Renew STGs...

STG -end March:

Run my usual running loop -NO, but only because plague stopped play -happy that leg and fitness are adequate for this now.

Max Hangs: 90kg total. YES

Pull-ups: 95kg total. YES

Some Scottish winter routes. YES (I don't care that it was a route that I've previously walked down! I'm counting it!)

MTG -end June:

Start endurance phase for arms.

Arc en ciel.

One of my big mountain day list.

2022 Arbitrary training goals:

Roll over of last year's running targets: 35km vert and 1000km.

Weighted Pull-up: 100kg.

Max Hangs: 95kg.

Weighted hill climb: 2 laps of RT in 30 mins with 15kg.

2022 Climbing goals:

7a (Possibly one of: Arc en Ciel, The Jim Grin, Rock & Roll, Clink)

ALL of my local must-do list: 0/15

Visit at least five of my 'why haven't I climbed here' list: 0/5

Get at least one session at each of my 'I should climb more at this crag' list: 0/8

Start properly getting to know: Brimham 2/3, Almscliff 0/3, Caley 0/3, Slipstones 2/3.

At least two days from big mountain list: 0/2.

(For lists see FitClub 772)

Late summer/autumn alpine trip.

Whats on this list?

It's a bit of a mixture of big (for me!) climbing, running and walking days -or combinations of climbing/walking etc. 

The aim is to create days that will be good training for big alpine objectives later this summer, but still interesting in their own right. So lots of plodding up hill with a big bag, lots of mileage on easyish rock, some big days consecutively... that kind of thing.

The list ranges from classic mountain days (Cuillin Ridge, Glen Coe Skyline, etc) to fairly silly, arbitrary 'challenges' (Ticking Windgather in a day, doing all of the Alphabet routes on Gimmer in a day, etc). Full list is:

Grey Crag Enchainment 

Lord of the Rings

Alphabet Day

Cuillen Ridge Traverse

Welsh 3000's

El Cap Nose Day

Dirty Dozen

Cleveland Enchainment

Ben Nevis Ridges

Cairngorm Classic Rock

Sypeland Wild Grey Circuit

Windgather in a Day

All JW Puttrell in a Weekend

Lower Huller Stones Circuit

Ring of Steall

Glen Coe Skyline

Pikes Crag Napes Ridge Solo

Corris Round

The Tea Round

The Espresso Round

Colonsay McPhies

It keeps evolving, so feel free to suggest more climbing/walking/running sufferfests! Especially if you've some in North Wales that you're keen to join for.

Friday is out for me as grandparent duties have come up.  Sorry as it would have been good to meet up.

my car has been hit and run, so that is for repair as well and don’t know yet when the courtesy car will arrive.  However, don’t normally climb at weekends, but may try for Sunday

Well I’ll hopefully get for enough to pace you on one of the sections of Welsh 3000 and can certainly give logistical support for the day. I did consider whether it’d be possible to do a guide book rock climbing on each of them but the three moth northerly ones are a bit smooth!

Other than that I’d like to have a look at Lliwedd and East Face of Tryfan but can’t think of any specific challenge (maybe all the ones in NW Rock on each in a day?)

I once did one of the Tryfan routes, then Bristly Ridge - drop straight down to Pen y Pass - Avalanche/Red Wall on Lliwedd as a solo day. (Bottled the 5a-ish bit on Longland's though, finished up something easier instead)

Some friends of mine did something similar but starting on Amphitheatre Buttress as a longer (but not solo) day

I blanched when I read that - iirc there are some pretty scary Menlove Edwards horrors on Lliwedd. But luckily for you they don't appear to be in NW Rock

Haha, that reminds me of a plan Alex (intermittent Fit Clubber) and I had to run the 3000s over a weekend, stopping to climb one route on every crag that we passed on the way... it was a great plan, other than it coincided with Storm Brenda, or one of those storms when naming was still new and trendy! Twenty minutes in we were hit by a pretty heavy blizzard, at which point ideas of climbing were forgotten about. We essentially did an extreme version of taking the rack for a walk... great times. Keen to go back and do it fast and light (well, light at least)!

Would be psyched to try and get through all of the starred routes on heather terrace in a day. Sounds like it could be a pretty idyllic mission for a sunny midweek day.

I must admit my first reaction to doing the same for Lliwedd was the same as Alan's! I've always managed to put off climbing there, but could probably be talked in to it!

I’m probably not going to try too hard to talk anyone in to it but it’s a glaring omission from my CV along with the entirety of the Llyn, how bad can it be?

I remember you and Alex doing that (overnight in the Ogwen toilets?), I didn’t realise you were climbing as well

That was the original idea... the climbing soon got abandoned in favour of simply surviving! The toilet bivi was good training for Midi lift station toilet bivis. Although the motion-activated lights weren't great for sleep quality!

This bad!

The block hit the ledge a few metres from my mate. He hadn’t long been back from a work trip to Nad-e Ali and said he’d heard quieter IEDs. Nobody died and it only took 5m off the rope so wasn’t too bad. Definitely wouldn’t solo it though.

Wow, I just thought it was big and rambly but not fundamentally looser than other big cliffs. Maybe time to re-evaluate.  

To be honest the lines were relatively clean, although I remember lots of holds seemed to be stuck on with mud and anything off route was heinously loose.

A team cut in front of us and pulled the block off so on a quiet day (which I imagine it usually is) you should be fine.

Thanks Liam, late reply as I dropped my phone last week and and took a while to get a new one.

Yes, most of the snow was gone, 17 degrees during the day!

My plan of fitting a weeks worth of training into 3 days didn’t work out though. Had a decent session at TCA on Monday, but had to rest on Tuesday and Wednesday to recover from the weekend.

Nothing during the rest of the week, except for a short core, lower back and shoulder session on Sunday.

Hope you’re having a good week!