UKC

UKC FitClub Week 789

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_788-74674...

Afternoon FitClubbers,

Finally back off holiday and on my laptop after two weeks of fat-thumb bashing. Journey home was an absolute epic of delayed flights, rapid pram-shunts through airports to make connections, and lost luggage. Just about over the jetlag so apologies if this week’s stats are a little brief. Anyway, hopefully everyone is making the most of the Bank Holiday and rain isn’t scuppering any plans!

Stats:

Alan: Good week Alan. Big walk, 2x Bikes and 2x Bouldering Sessions. The new wall around the corner sounds very handy. I have one across the road but it’s an old-school Bendcrete wall in a Youth Centre that I’ve yet to try.

Randy: Ah bugger. Get well soon.

Steve Claw: Hope you had a good week with the family!

SSB: Another great effort getting out with the Lurg, and the sideways shenanigans sound like great fun. Well done on Dangerous Action Man Wrestling!

AJM: Solid week and good effort on Mr Choo Choo. I’ve got eyes on it as a first 7a but it’s finding the time to get out at the minute. RDLs are great for hamstrings as you get the eccentric stretch on the lower and lots of glute/core activation on the raise. Hard to give movement tips in text but I use ‘straight back, soft knees, ass back!’

SteveJC94: Moving into Sport Climbing season I’m going to steal your 4x 4 Endurance Session, but it does sound disgusting! Solid week and some great ticks at Stanage. Hope it wasn’t too damp at Pembroke.

Tyler: I loved Direct Route but that polish on the first pitch is incredible – on a wet day you could probably see your face. Have a good holiday in Tenerife!

Ross Barker: Happy Birthday! And…GET IN! How many sessions did it take? Vaguely remember it being a bit of a siege. Must have been buzzing with it.

Sheep: Sounds like you had a great week with the kids. Looking forward to reading about your endurance training as you always seem to get a lot done as it is!

Ally: Glad you’re feeling better. A Board 7C sounds like it hasn’t done too much damage!

Derek: Do you feel like you’ve lost much strength with your rapid weight loss? I always struggle to keep lean and strong and often bounce wildly between the two. Looking forward to hear what you got done at Gogarth.

Biscuit: I used something similar back when I was a reasonable weight and felt the high-protein really helped training/recovery. Think I’ll try something similar now I’m post holidays. Glad the festival went well.

Tom Green: Well when you put it that way…! It will still be mega-impressive to say you’ve solod Windgather in a day. 2x runs and 2x climbing sessions is a solid week, and the sideways shenanigans sound hilarious faffy!

Planet Marshall: Good effort on the ticklist and all digits crossed for Pembroke-Dryness!

Have a good week!

Well it’s been a very disappointing week. After the renewed enthusiasm for new challenges I had a good 2k swim on Monday 

Sadly that was as good as it got as Tuesday morning my back went. All I did was bend over slightly to say something to the wife who was sat in a chair and instant pain. Nothing for the rest of the week although there is a gradual improvement but would imagine at least another week off going from previous experience ☹️

Nothing positive to report as i am still down with Covid (tested positive 9 days ago). The strange thing is that is that it never completely knocked me out, so that i was always able to do my work from home. But i also don't have the feeling that it is getting any better. It is rather a rollercoast ride where one day is a little bit better only for the next day to be worse again. At least according to the statistics there is a good chance that i feel better after the end of next week and can hopefully begin my journey in the recovery club.

Afternoon all! My, what rubbish weather it is today. Was bound to happen given how good it's been as of late. You just be happy to be at a tactile keyboard again, Liam?

Now that the weather has resumed normal British behaviour, I'll be at the gym a lot more often, so it's time to get those fingers bulletproofed.

Good week from me. Returned to Kitty's and got a surprising consolation tick, then had a big day out in Wales!

Last Week:

M - Rest. Tired, stiff and achey, poor sleep.

T - Rest.

W - Kitty's Crag. Tried the crux semi-campus on City Life (f7C) but it felt really off balance and didn't fancy it, so did Campusology Low (V8). Really cool moves spanning out from the back, looked harder than it actually was.

T - Rest.

F - Rest.

S - Big Welsh day out. Went to try Hollti a Naddu (f7A+) but was put off by the landing. It's not awful but didn't feel too up to it on my own. Next up was Craig Peniel, did Dabrat (f7B) having done the stand a couple weeks back, fun little problem! A few more pads turned up and I tried Spigoglys (f7B+) a few times. Got to the easy upper section but was put off by snappy looking holds, though I think I've now got a sequence on solid holds to try next session. Visited Craig y Llyn lastly, did Voie Normale ss (V6), great board-style climbing with poor feet.

S - Rest.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Finger bulletproofing followed by Moonboard? Been a little while!

W - Rest.

T - Finger bulletproofing.

F - Rest.

S, S - Hoping for good weather!

Goals:

Bulletproof fingers.

You were bouldering pretty strong in January, so I’m sure it will be a formality when you get to it!

I’ll give that a go on the RDL. I couldn’t quite get the cues for the shoulders in particular, stuff seemed to say keep the shoulder blades together but I couldn’t quite get the right instructions to the right places to keep it engaged at the same time as lowering down.

A couple of decent wall sessions this week. I wouldn’t mind getting in a better place with supplementary training this week, since it’s either been climbing or nothing, pretty much. I wanted to keep doing the push and pull training and the RDLs and stretching (should you stretch a muscle tweak?), so probably need to think about a structure that creates space for that.

Monday - last day of my pass so I went to the wall. Not much up as they were mid reset but I had fun, did some nice problems, identified a few projects. Seems like a nice set this time (“more climbing”, as one of the setters said, less jumpy trick problems).

Tuesday - nothing

Wednesday - wall with miniAJM. Good session, ticked a bunch of the new stuff, a few ideas for things to work on

Thursday/Friday - nothing

Saturday - boulderfield with the family. Had planned to move around a bit more (I’ve got an idea for a sort of circuit/density/V points in a day challenge that I thought I would recce half of) but basically just ended up at the Tank. MrsAJM did some climbing, I repeated a few of the good problems there, and did a 6A and 6C that I hadn’t previously done. The 6A was good fun, the 6C felt hard and sharp, I was surprised to see it being voted easy in the logbooks. Perhaps I had a whack sequence, I don’t know. A good day out.

Sunday - took the kids out for much of the day to give MrsAJM some peace and quiet. Not much exercise…

Bendcrete'll get your fingers strong.

STG: 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:    
T:    Beastmaking: working (carefully!) on developing my full crimp as recommended by Ned
W:    Bike: 2½ hours mtb in the woods. Had intended to go to the bouldering wall, but when evening came around getting outside in the sun seemed like a more enticing prospect.
T:    Bike one hour in town; light crimp-learning beastmaker session
F:  Spent some time in the evening poring over maps & websites planning a mountain bike outing for tomorrow; only remembered afterwards to check the weather forecast. Oh.
S:    So Boulderwelt then.
S:     I don't mind getting me wet & muddy, but getting the bike filthy is a real pain. Plus downhill trails on wet limestone - no thanks. But the urge to get some outside movement in is still there, so hillwalking in the rain, Wank (this is the actual name of an actual mountain). 590 vertical metres per hour this week - much better, albeit this time in running shoes with no sandbag in the rucksack.

A total of 12½ hours on the bike this week and last, including mtb rides in the woods and general pootling about town. And, as always when the bike first emerges from the cellar in the spring, I'm not just sore in the obvious place. Plenty of other otherwise unused postural muscles aching too.

Whoops, forgot to respond to this...

Cheers, very buzzing indeed! Five sessions in total I think. One last spring before I noticed that Reckless wasn't considered 7C anymore, one in the summer after I did Reckless, and three this spring in reasonably quick succession! Next logical step at Kitty's is City Life which might be a bit too hard at the moment. Not against trying it later this year though!

Cheers Liam. Statting on the BH weekend is much appreciated.

M - Tired from the festival but managed a boulder session at Lancaster Wall. Not too bad. Nothing extra done though. I was supposed to do a fair bit of S&C work.

T - Boulder session at BUK. Tired and no enthusiasm for S&C work or anything else. I really struggled but had it confirmed later it was a pretty hard set.

W - With hindsight it was quite likely I was going to get ill. So i did. Lots of testing but just a cold.

T - Rest

F - Arrived at the crag to find my mum had been taken in to hospital. Stressful rest day (but all is looking OK).

S - Rest

S -  Dib Scar Did Stinging Cracks (6a) and Mental Bloc (6c) and Cauliflower (7a) which is one of the best 7a’s I’ve done in a long while. Very intimidating. I tried another 7a on the other side but it was wet (conditions were not optimal today) so downclimbed for another day. Had a quick top rope on The Fish and the Scales (7b+). Moves were OK, but putting them together would be hard.

Pleased with today as I felt fit, strong (enough for the grades I want on trad) and like I was making good, positive, climbing decisions.

More sport tomorrow, but i really want to get out on trad ASAP.

Thanks Liam, and a great job again with the stats.

Mon. Rest.

Tues. Met a friend out a burbage South and managed to do Electrical Storm (f7B) which I was chuffed with. I spend a lot of time in the burbage valley but I'd not been to burbage South for ages. The combination of a different parking spot, walk in and aspect made it feel like somewhere completely different!

Wed. 8km run

Thurs. Rest. Trip to outside to empty my and Tom's wallets on big cams...

Fri. Met Tom for an after work session at Curbar where we went Wide! I followed Tom up Keeper's Crack (VS 4b) and was pleased to see both the 5 and 6 camalots get placed. I've backed off this route soloing last year so was nice to come back to it. Next up was Elder Crack (E2 5b) which felt reasonably OK. I made some rookie errors like place the size 4 at the start where a sling could have gone, placing the 5 directly above the 6 just below the crux then had to run it out to nearly the top. Thankfully the top bit was quite cruisey. Abbed for gear so Tom could have a go. Next up was Right Eliminate (E3 5c). How is this only one grade harder than elder crack!? After a quick chat on wide crack technique I hand to fist stacked my way up the first bit then chicken winged the wider bit. Funny how yesterday's very expensive purchases suddenly seemed amazing value and I wished I'd bought two! Emerged on top bruised and broken but triamphant. Finished by following the brilliant Bel Ami (VS 4b) which I've done before and is always a pleasure. Nice to stil be at the crag at 9pm.

Sat. Rest. Ran round the junior orienteering course with the kids. 

Sun. Started working a problem at a new ish venue with uncertain access so I won't go into detail. I did all the moves but linking it all might take several sessions. 

Thank you once again Liam.

M: Went for a run down the coast (Tenerife), 6km on on pavement 5km on volcanic path. Started off feeling fine but after about 7km I was walking and couldn't really get running again, disappointed how badly it went. Ended up taking 1:32 for a little over 11km. Hoping my (short but fast) effort on the treadmill yesterday was the cause.

T: Rest

W: Altitude training! Took a bus and cable car to ~3,500m. Much more impressive terrain and vistas than I was expecting - brilliant.

T: Thought I'd do some sort of bench marking n the gym as there was no one around. 4 sets of 5/6 pull ups, 4 x 5 benchpress at 40kg, 4 x 5 dumbbell curls at 12.5 or 15 kg.

F: Same as yesterday but substituted 70kg dead lift for bench press. The exercises felt ok, the running still feels hard.

S: Late flight meant we got home at 5 am Sunday after spending nearly an hour looking for my car!

S: Given Monday's debacle I decided to try the full Snowdonia half marathon course to see if I could manage the whole distance at any pace (I've never knowingly run more than 17km). Conditions were perfect but didn't feel great setting off, as it was I seemed to get stronger and did the whole thing in 2:19. I was staggered and really pleased because although there have been many years I'm sure I could've gone much further and faster straight off the couch I never actually have. Also, just over a year ago I couldn't manage half that distance or elevation (OS app says 950 meters but I think that's over by some margin) without my untreated hip bringing me to a total halt. Almost wish I hadn't actually entered the race now as I've gone well beyond my goal and there are other runs I'd rather do than repeat this one. I guess I just need to think of the T-shirt! Also little toes are in a bit of a state so not sure how well they'll heal.

Less good news on the weight front, I paid lip service to Derek's advice but really all I did was replace chips with blocks of cheese and ate twice as much as normal. I had the wrong attitude all week, referring to every meal as the all you can eat buffet rather than breakfast or dinner!

Great work on the half route, well done.

Good stuff with the race practice.  Must have been a pleasant surprise after the challenges earlier in the week.

Thanks Liam,

Another week with lots of work and little time to train, so am going to put "training" on hold for while and use the time I do get to try hard on a few routes.  I feel my fitness is down a bit, but just going to run with life and enjoy things for the next few weeks.

Wed - TRS on Edgemaster (E6 6b) which is very bouldery on slopey edges, and not my style, however I managed to pull through the crux on the 2nd go.  Being tall helps to get onto the crux, but then makes moving off harder due to the feet positions.  Will return another day to get this one climbed (TR) in full, although its one of those ones that I won't be excited to lead anytime soon as the mono bolt is on the crux, but then full run out above to the top on what is still hard ground.

Fri - Some easy sport in the 6's and then another quick session on my 7c project that I have not been on for a while.  Close to getting it on a top rope, but the endurance required is huge (for me), its 18 moves on an overhanging headwall, although none are probably harder than 7b, there are no rests. The crux is at move 8 but the holds further up get smaller and in the last section are tiny and off balance, so you can't guppy the holds if your boxed.

Managed one training session within a week of motorways, work and not enough sleep.

Training session was ok, with push ups, pull ups and max hangs in the mix.  Didn't push too much as I knew the week would be busy.

Monday was work followed by a drive to Holyhead.  Managed to grab Pel before sunset.  Returned Tuesday and did Posieden, Blanco and A State of Saturation.  Considered going down again for NW Passage, but had a long stint ahead, so hit the road.  Home, the Coventry and Northampton on Wednesday, Birmingham on Thursday, back home then out to watch football.  

Early start Friday so back at Holyhead by nine.  Another easy day really as it was quite cold, before driving back for the first of three nights of partying locally and in Mansfield.  In amongst this have progressed my camper conversion, which has been waiting for space in my diary.

Yo. Thanks as usual for the stats, Liam.

Great week for climbing, awful week for training. Sorry, not sorry!

Week 17:

M: Rest.

T: Trad at Almscliff. A good mileage day, with some unusual grades: VS 5b; HVS 6a!

W: Can't remember! 

T: Fingerboarding. 

F: Trail run: 5.5km, 155m vert, 5:55/km.

    Trad at Curbar with SSB. Good wide crack sesh -placed the No. 6 Camelaot of everyone of four routes! Highlight was leading Elder Crack (E2 5b) -not quite as smoothly as SSB's lead, but flipping delighted with it. (Was promptly cut down to size by Right Eliminate... although backing off early meant I avoided the full beasting that SSB suffered through -"I think I'm going to throw up!")

S: Leg rehab. 

S: Sport at Knipe Scar. Great sesh on Arc en Ciel -managed to get the tricky sequence through the first two clips sorted... just need to sort the last tricky section up in to the undercut out now. Hopeful it might not be too protracted a project!

Week 18:

M: Run, leg rehab and prehab.

T: FB, strength, core, prehab.

W: Climbing.

T: Climbing.

F: Prehab.

S: FB, strength, core, prehab.

S: Run, leg rehab.

STG -end June:

Arc en ciel.

Ultra distance hill run. 

Eight of my big mountain day list (at least two on consecutive days). (1/8)

Keep injury free (elbows, hips and knees).

MTG -end Sept:

Two big alpine routes.

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 2/3, Caley 0/3, Slipstones 2/3.

(For lists see FitClub 772)

Late summer/autumn alpine trip

Thanks again for stats Liam :-D

Week 17

M – Warm-up lifts, then 5x5 axle sumo-DL @80% ~100kg. Starting to feel a bit easier.

T – Nothing but some gentle stretching and warming wheat bag on tight traps.

W – Also nothing.

T – Outdoor routes with hms (previously of this parish). Cold to begin with. Dogged a 7a to begin with and numbed out. Dogged a newbie. RP’d Sinful Life (7b+) (bit of a cop out, need to descale the direct finish). Dogged another newbie. RP’d Fancy Pants (7c) Low in the grade, but I already knew the 7A start well from previous sessions, and there’s a couple more moves after the finishing hold of that before you’re in balance.

F – Another day of routing with hms. This time in the sun at Dinbren. Very rusty at placing gear, so the warm-up E1 (Alison (E1 5b)) was a bit pumpy on the calves!  3x tie-ins on Blinking Lights (7c) 7c/+ with last one being a successful RP. I was initially trying something too direct/eliminate that was way harder than 7c! 6b warm-down and home for beer.

S – Mostly child wrangling with a flat 23km/50min ride while Squiggle snoozed.

S – More wrangling with 5x5 axle sumo-DL @105kg and gardening while she snoozed. Annoyingly bruised my fore finger somehow and it's gone all Frankenstein's monster on me.

By all means Liam, steal with pride! Pembroke was a bit hit and miss - a great first day at  Mother Carey's Kitchen, followed by a solid day of rain. Fortunately we had such a good first day, that made up for the weather! 

Monday

Easy hangboarding – 3 finger drag 20mm edge – 6x10s @ +16kg then half crimp 15mm edge – 6x10s @ bodyweight

1 on 1 off: 7a+, 7a+, 7a, 7a, 6c, 6c, 7a, 6c, 7a+, 7a

S&C: Toe touch crunch (10x3), Tricep dips +8kg (5x5), Russian twist (30x3), Lat pulldown (7x3), Hanging leg raise (10x3), Seated row (7x3)

Tuesday - Rest day

Wednesday

Half Crimp 15mm edge 6x10s (BW, +4kg, +8kg, +12kg, +12kg, +12kg)

Aero 4s (4 continuous laps of each circuit board route): 6b+, 6b, 6b+, 6b

Thursday - Rest day

Friday - Rest day

Saturday

A fantastic day out, ticking off Rock Idol (E1 5a), Mother Carey's Eliminate (E2 5b), Sea Groove (VS 4b) and Riders on the Storm (HVS 5a)

Sunday

Wet and wild for most of the day so pottered about in Tenby for a few hours, but managed to get two routes in at  Saddle Head in the evening - Dapple Grapple (VS 5a) and On the Cusp (HVS 5a)

Monday

Headed to  The Castle with views of ticking the 3 star E1s. Abbed in and had to dodge the waves getting to the belay ledges, only to find the routes were all sopping wet. Scrambled out up the Severe and wandered over to  Stennis Head. Will took a whipper off World War III Blues (HVS 5b), after which we decided to finish on Two Men and a Scrote (HVS 5a). Halfway down the abseil, realised we'd left the ropes at the top so had to prussik back up to retrieve them. Clearly we'd left our brains at the campsite and decided to call it a day after that

Plan for next week:

T – Rest day

W – Routes ARC session

T – Starting the strength phase of my plan so onto some more hangboarding, bouldering and S&C work

F – Rest day

S – Hoping to get outdoors, possibly on some Peak Limestone 

S – Rest day