UKC

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

Link to last week’s thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/fit_club_week_800-749798

Fit Club Week 801.  Some great work from people attacking their targets for our celebrations.  Of course, plenty of you make hitting your targets a weekly occurrence, but I (for one) found the boost helpful!

On statting, there have been some volunteers to take over in September so thanks – it will just be impossible for me when I am on the road most of the week.  I am happy to come back to it for the next block (January-March) or the one after that if no-one else wants to pick it up then.

AJMs suggestion of Week 900 and Week 100 goals is a great idea and I can see people have already been speculating on suitable challenges.  I need a bit of time on this to pull together something stretching, but with realism in mind!  

AJM:  Not surprised that you were so eager – a great performance at Cave Hole to deliver your long-standing link up.  It looks like a lot of climbing.  Looking at the logs for Bare Reputation, it is something of a go-to party piece for you by now!  Anyway, some really good DWS over the weekend – I didn’t realise that Portland was a camping trip for you.  I thought you lived on the doorstep with all your Lulworth Cove sessions as well?

Impressed that you managed some training as well as temperatures were pretty high in the South.  Thanks also for offering a stint on stats at some point if needed, though I think it may be down to us newcomers to carry the baton for a while. 

SteveJC94:  Useful advice on cycling that I will bear in mind if I can’t get back to running at some point!  I think a state of ‘rhythm’ would be some way off though.  Also, I had a look at Hodge Close in the guides as I don’t think I have been there since when it was under the initial phase of development, though I have a vague recollection of an afternoon in the lesser quarry on bolts next to it sometime in the early 1990s.  Yes – you probably need to be injury free if you are going to be diving into deep water!

Once again, some decent sessions on the board.  It is obvious that people with good access to a board use it as their main training focus (not at all surprising), so they clearly deliver interest, challenge and fun in various combinations.  I’m motivated to work at getting down to Stockport wall this winter, with the aim of using the bouldering facilities, Moonboard and campus ladders as it will give me differing training stimulus than what I have available at home.

SSB: Great to see that you got back to the Cornice to complete Blurred Lines.  Interesting also that it took three tie ins when you were actually very close on the evening that I was there with you.  I do remember that the footholds on the lip were giving you some challenges, so presumably that is where you had to sort out a different sequence?  Well done anyway and very impressive to get some work done on the 8b – I think you said your partner was working 42?

There is obviously more to Peak bouldering than the stuff I have heard about!  I suppose my main bouldering days were in the late 1990s up until around 2002, when I moved further east from Chesterfield (made nipping out a bit harder).  Things have obviously seen twenty more years of development and bouldering has become even more of an independent discipline, so not surprisingly people have searched for interesting rocks!

Good to see that climbing has maintained your winter strength.  I haven’t measured, but typically my max hangs will have fallen off somewhat by now.

Steve Claw:  Very impressive putting in the effort in less than ideal conditions.  I can’t help feeling that Avon would suffer more from poor conditions than many crags!  Glad to see that the FC 800 target provided some extra motivation!  My fingers were shredded just reading the description…  Good levels of dedication getting to Avon for 8.30 and home by 10 am with an E7 in the bag!  It reminded me of a summertime session on Stanage where we started at 5 am (anticipating a very hot day) and left the crag before anyone else had arrived.  Very odd doing things that normally gather a bit of an audience with nobody else around.

Noted also that you are still finding lines to bolt – almost a throwaway line in your weekly report.  Hope you manage to get it done soon.

Liam P:   Pounding out the antagonist stuff there Liam!  You have gone straight in with some big numbers on the push ups.  I think these a re a good basic exercise to maintain as they have an obvious role in balancing all the pull up activity, but also work on core to some extent. 

Your weighted pull ups are creeping up and again are in impressive territory.  I haven’t done a lot of weighted pull ups, but I think I would struggle to do 8 at 8kg, despite having a pretty good grounding in pull ups at bodyweight.  Just need the perfect project to apply all this pull strength on!  Anyway, it looks like a good training week with a good mix of exercises – I know it is a poor substitute for actually doing some climbing, but keeping motivation to train when so many things are in the way of getting out is a good sign.  It does mean that there will be some good solid potential there when you finally get the space.

Tyler:  We have probably all had spells of getting on the easy classics by ourselves as a way of maintaining some interest and doing it in amongst some lovely Welsh landscapes has got to be pretty special.  Beware of the odd effect that it teaches you to climb smoothly and in control, which doesn’t necessarily work when you tie in for something a fair bit harder!  Anyway, you are mixing it up perfectly, as your efforts on Harry the Clamp demonstrated!  As I have mentioned to Ger the Gog, I know nothing about Welsh bouldering, but it does look like there ought to be loads to go at in the Pass alone.  The Welsh bouldering guide looks like a thick book, so presumably there is something between the covers!

Good work maintaining the yoga.  A twenty minute session three times a week has got to be productive.

Ross BarkerI guess with bouldering you have a good sense of what ‘bulletproof’ needs to feel like for the things you are working at doing.  I suppose I wonder whether you might establish some markers (max hangs weighted for example) that you can’t do at present?  You could then work towards these over a six-month period (for example).  That said, I know you don’t have loads of training space and are doing no hangs at plus 30 kg anyway.

Plenty of encouragement from FC to accept the inevitable and just go sport climbing!  You’d probably have some fun and find that your bouldering strength translates quite well, though obviously there would be some adjustments getting used to longer routes!  We will all be watching this space!

Alan:  Great to hear that you have managed to throw off the mystery bug by the expedient method of actually giving yourself a chance to recover!

Quite jealous that you managed to see the Cure at Glastonbury.  They were really good when they headlined again fairly recently, whereas lots of the older acts have gone off somewhat.  Robert Smith seemed completely unchanged despite it being more than thirty years on!  In the late 1980s, I had a fairly regular long drive to do and I used to put Disintegration on as the default CD.  For our younger members, these were a form of recorded music that didn’t involve streaming…

Hope that easing back in goes well and looking forward to seeing you getting some exercise back into your weekly schedule.

Sheep:  Excellent!  That looks more like your usual insane swimming distances!  I like the way you have one warm-up or ease back session and then start pounding out the longer distances.  Good to see both running and stretching included in the weekly report as well, so plenty going on there despite the holiday preparations.

If you have been camping in the Peak then you’ll have endured some really warm weather – sleeping in a tent when the night temperatures were that high must have been pretty challenging!  Hope you all managed to enjoy everything that the Peak has to offer though – a decent walk before the heat really kicked in anyway.

JayK :  Another excellent week of training!  There are a few of you on here who are putting in training week’s that look more like my midwinter sessions, which is impressive to be doing in the midst of the season!  Anyway, a great mix of stretching, board work, shoulder exercises, running and a good success on the one-arm max hangs test at the end of the week.

Thanks for response on shoulder exercises.

T20 finals day looked like a blast (sorry).  Some good games in there with Lancashire chasing down a decent Yorkshire total and then the final being decided by one run!  Impressive Hampshire doing three in a row in this format as well. 

Not such a good week to pick for climbing though as the weather has been off at times.  Hope that you have managed something.

part 2

Ally:  I think it was Tom who advised me on the Moonboard app a couple of weeks aga remarking that it was important to ignore the comments as everything is ‘soft’.  Then along comes Ally with a report littered with ‘everything felt soft’!  Spooky.  I think it does clearly demonstrate the very focused training gains that a home board provides…  I do have a fairly large garage, though not that high, but it is full of DIY projects of one sort or another.  Perhaps I need to clear some of them!

Good to keep finding new things at the gorge though surprised to hear that things are dirty there.  Is it one of those places that gets a lot of winter seepage (like the Cornice) which means things get out of condition every year?

In amongst the softies that you completed, I did notice that there was some seriously hard effort at the back end of the week finishing with 20x6C+.  Very inspiring.

Tom Green:  I agree Tom, it is striking how plans can get overturned all too easily.

As with comments for Tyler, completing some of these Welsh classic easy routes has to be enjoyable.  I see the Welsh Classic Rock round was done this week and reported on UKC, though the running alone looked seriously hard.

Having just got back in from a wedding (I think we were on the dance floor for at least 50% of the time between 7 pm and 1 am) I can confirm that it does count as training.  My legs are actually tired today!

I see the alpine work starts are entering the schedule as predicted.  It is difficult to feel like anything at the end of a long day, but I have tried this week to just do something (stretching, push ups or a few pull ups) however exhausted I feel.  I’ve ended up with DOMS, so it must be delivering something and I certainly feel happier than if I have just collapsed on the sofa.  Twenty or thirty minutes of exercise is a bit of a pick me up really.

Randy:  Brilliant discipline keeping the exercise levels so high while away working.  Once again, you have returned some impressive figures across your range, though surprised to see that handstands without a wall start remain a bit elusive – this seems a bit like the challenge of removing stabilisers from a child’s bike!  I used to be able to do these, but forty years has passed, so I have absolutely no tips to pass on!  Probably quite good for shoulder stability generally though?

Good effort getting out the day after you landed and really sorry that it seems you were already suffering.  Very honest assessment of your weekly targets, but a bit harsh given the backdrop.  Hope you can get through it quickly so that you can give the targets a serious go this season.

Biscuit:  Amazing how your careful and expert preparation for ‘performance’ didn’t deliver as you had hoped.  Not sure I can remember where the 7b is though I do know the 7a and most of the other routes there.  It is a funny place though – I have had days where it all felt easy there, followed by days where it all felt impossible so perhaps it is a conditions thing?  You are probably on the money when you note that your recent focus has not been on sport anyway – hard to keep different disciplines moving along without everything being sub-optimal I suppose.

Nice to get a lovely walk in anyway – some of those Welsh ridges are brilliant.

Gouther is a lovely spot and I remember those routes being good fun, though OSB was fairly pokey I think. 

Ger_the_Gog:  Great to see more miles on the schedule and some with company as well!  Also brilliant to see that the weights are making a regular appearance with two sessions pumping iron (or sand).

The heart zone thing is difficult isn’t it?  It is very easy to go over the optimum zones for endurance – indeed it can feel more natural to go that little bit faster than you should.  It is necessary to ‘force’ yourself to go slow enough – certainly for a few weeks anyway.  The idea is that your endurance and heart efficiency will rise, so that in the end you will be going faster while remaining in zone 2.  I’ve certainly seen this with my limited running experience.  I actually run with a younger woman friend as her pace is perfect for me.

I did walk up to the Cromlech without breaking sweat or breathing hard at all and I was pleased with my discipline for doing that.  Normally I get the crag all sweaty and have to change my t-shirt!

A poor week for me with no actual rocks involved - too much work.

However, I have grabbed a couple of short 'get back into it' sessions, one being on Wednesday after a long day on the road.  I didn't do much, but I am pleased to do something.

W. 3 sets of pull ups (5s); push ups (10s) and stretching - felt strangely delighted.

F.  8 sets of pulls ups; push ups and stretching.  Felt sore!

Friday night dancing.  Saturday night dancing.  Upper body DOMS not too much of a hindrance.

Portland is about an hour from home, so it is very day trippable. There's 2 main reasons to camp:

- tide logistics. Spring tides give the longest tide window, and tend to be early or late in the day. Much of it faces east and anyway evenings tend to clash with bedtime, so the morning high tide is key. Being closer just makes organising that easier - take Saturday as the example - the tide window opened about 8-830 - that's a lot easier to do with a child in tow if it's a 20 min stroll from the campsite than it is with an hour drive and then a 20 min walk from the car park. If it was just me I would day trip it.

- the kids really like camping, so it turns out into a mini adventure for the whole weekend. Bringing the whole family makes it more finely balanced in terms of fun:faff ratio for just 2 days (the bigger tent has to come out, and anything that involves the 2.5 year old is inevitably higher faff!) but certainly with just miniAJM it's quite a fun outing for a night or weekend.

Thanks Derek, first tie in was just to put the clips in and warm up, the second one I managed to fall off the 7b bit at the start over the first roof, oops!

Mon. 5km hilly run (really sweaty)

Tues. Aero session in the attic 3x 10mins on 8 mins off (really really sweaty)

Wed. 6km run (less sweaty)

Thurs. Rest (not sweaty!)

Fri. Indoor boulder at the works, did just over half of the 6b-7a circuit.

Sat. Travel day, Sheffield to Jersey.

Sun. 6km run, short kayak, short swim and an emergency sprint swim when mini swede forgot which end was the deep end!

Schools out for the summer  

Thanks for putting so much effort into these write ups, Derek. Mikes a huge difference.

Cricket was so good. I’ve been a lot this year, but this was definitely one of the best days. Unbelievable that Hampshire managed to win, Vince was outstanding. Looking forward to going to Lord’s in August!

M - am stretch / pm stretch

T - am attempted 5:30 am board session. Spent an hour on it, but it was so warm! Did 2 sets of shoulder exercises. Pm stretch (very sweaty!)

W - pm BBC ran round the yellow circuit and then spent some time on the board. 

T - Rest day (last day of current job so treated myself to a proper beer - DIPA)

F - AM max hangs. -5kg. Felt miles harder than 7.5kg. Managed 4/6 on both arms. Left felt stronger than right. Think would have been 11/12 had I have warmed up better. (5th attempt on right was never going to make it). Did another set on -7.5kg and managed 12/12 no problem. PM 13km run.

S - initially Thor’s Cave. But bailed quickly after it became a school playground. Put the draws in the 7b+ at the back of the cave and then took them back out again. Knee pad would be useful on this. Headed to the old reliable LPQ. Joined the ever increasing club of those blowing the flash of big spider on the last hold. It went next go. Had a quick wander up the Squealer (one of the last true lines left for me at LPQ) but thought I’d save it for a cooler day. Garden centre on the way home.

S - AM 15km run PM short board session. Arms a little bit achy, so called it early. Press-ups x 100. Shoulder exercises x 2. 30min stretch. 

Been lax with stretching this week and as a result my dodgy back has returned. Minimum target for the week is stretch at least once per day. 

So, next week we’re flying out to Colorado on Saturday (land at 11pm). Baptism of fire - heading to chaos on Sunday. So next to no sleep, 4am start and highly likely to be suffering with altitude sickness. Wish me luck! 

Thank you again Derek.

Less done this week due to the weather, but still managed to get bit done.

M - Too hot

T - Still hot, but managed a quick session indoors (they have fans).  Bouldered V5, V6, V6 in slab style. Then wanted to check my fingers against when I was training back in the spring.  6*10s Hangs with varying weights.  +15kg all ok, +17.5kg ok, +20kg max effort, +25kg to 7s.  This is about 2.5kg better than I was when training, however I am also about 2.5kg lighter, so works out the same in the end.

W - Nothing

T - Nothing

F - Trad day, climbing some routes I cleaned in the heat on Monday.  E2, E2, E2, E2, E3.  Only 18m each, but the pumpy nature meant that by last one I was spent.

Thanks Derek. You’re setting a high bar for whoever follows you.

M - Stretching and rehab of shoulder and knees. Both feeling much improved.

T - Walk and a swim in a lake - scorchio!

W - Nothing

T - Nothing

F - Weather marginal. Bailed from trad plans at Gouther. Good shout as it rained.

Went indoors for a boulder. Too hot to try hard. Also too hot to do fitness. Gave up after 1.5 hrs. Nice to be moving though. Shoulder was irritated by a dynamic move to a Gaston. Annoying, but if anything is going to upset it that would be it.

S - 30 min easy jog

S - Chapel head scar. Bit of a chance as the forecast was again marginal. Turned out to be a really good day until 3pm when it threw it down. I got on More Games (7b). I was contemplating Wargames, but I just don’t feel like I’ve got the oomph for the +. It turned out I didn’t have the oomph for this either. No chalk at all on the bottom and it’s going to take some figuring out. I could hardly hold positions never mind make upward progress.

The upper head wall is magnificent though. Hard, tech and vert. Probs 6c+. That went really well. I felt I could climb that all day. Hard moves, poor rests, recover quick, go again. 

What I think this has taught me is that I have quite specific skills atm. Vert and just off vert I can climb all day long. Steep burly stuff I just don’t have the beans. As noted by Derek this has been by design as I am focussed on trad. But I’m annoyed I’ve let my strength and power dip so much.

I am starting a new training block tomorrow with short, regular, hits on the different energy systems and some pulling work. 

Thanks Derek. I rather blew the "easing" today, let's see how I am tomorrow.

STG: Get my shoulders working again
MTG: Autumn Kalymnos trip with my son, shoulders permitting
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:    Bike one hour. Temperature quite ok in the shade in the woods. New STG: ride my #1 stretch of singletrack without putting a foot down, hitting a tree or losing a(nother) pump
T:    No-hangs. Easing back in: unsurprisingly a few kikos down from what I was doing pre-illness
W:    Bike 1½ hours. I have a nice little lunchtime/evening circuit worked out now that is 60% cycle paths & forestry roads, 30% singletrack woodland paths and under 10% actual roads. Perfect.
T:    Finally gave up and fled to the air conditioned office. About 1½ hours total on the bike there & back. If I keep up this much cycling I'm going to have to buy some proper cham cream - improvising with Climb On just ain't cutting it in the heat & humidity.
F:    
S:
S: Hillwalking, Alpspitze. This is 1900 metres from valley to summit, with the top 500 an easy & popular via ferrata, and I've thought for a while that four hours would be a decent hill fitness benchmark. My previous attempts were too early or late in the season and thwarted by snow; this time snow seemed like absolutely the least of my worries, so I loaded my rucksack up with drink bottles and got an early start. Managed 4:25, and found the last hour or so very hard. Had a bit of delay from traffic on the VF, but nowhere near 25  minutes worth and frankly I was thankful for the enforced rests. Still, all in all a pleasant & worthwhile day out, and now I know where my fitness stands post-illness.

An effect of the weather that I could have anticipated but didn't: the rice in my rice bucket is getting damp. Not sure what to do about this, replacing it seems wasteful

A reflection in case it helps...

A). That skill set (vert and off vert at 6c+) ' all day long' probably translates quite well to E4.  Unless you intend to target everything above the cave at Raven, Thirlmere you really already have exactly what you need.

B). Your last post said you weren't that bothered about hard sport at the moment.  Messing about on the off 7a or b won't hurt though.

C). Might not be much point training deficiencies that you might not use at the moment.

🙂

I think i just need to work more on getting into the handstand position without a wall, because getting into the position and staying in the position are two slightly different skill sets. And so far i've only worked on the latter, so it is not surprising that it felt hard. 

It is definately a good exercise for the shoulder but also for the core and it teaches me also how to really focus on the movement. All in all, i can recommend it for everyone, it is definately more fun and motivating than doing pushups for antagonist trainining

Recap last week:

Mon: Still sick, was at least able to eat a little bit

Tues: Feeling better but still far from 100%. Went on a short walk in the morning and felt afterwards like i have been hiking in the mountains for an hour.

Wed: Finally feeling good again. Would have probably done a light session, if there was a company party in the evening.

Thurs: Slept around 4 hours last night, but nevertheless managed to go bouldering in the gym. Just kept the volume high doing a bunch of 6a-6b and two 6c. Finished the session with one arm lockoffs at various angles and 3x12 normal pullups. All in all not too bad considering the circumstances

Fri: Rest, another company party and the next is already planed for the next week. Looks my company tries to make up for everything that we needed to cancel in the last 2 years.

Sat:  L-Sit 2x20s; handstand against the wall, 2x10 pike pushups,15 lunges, 30 pushups and 45s V-Sit Up; felt a little bit tired after yesterday's evening but it was still a decent session

Sun: Climbing Frankenjura,  Illafels. Perfect summer crag in a steep cave with short boulder routes. DidWarmduscher (VIII) (7a) in the second go. Could have got in the first go, if i did not went to a wrong hold in the crux. I've already tried the route 5 years ago, so at least it would not have been an onsight anyway. Afterwards tried Lutscher (IX-) (7b+). Very bouldery route consisting basically of a 3 moves boulder and 2 moves boulder, separeted by a bad rest. Was close on both boulders in isolation, but could not do them. On the last boulder in hindsight my beta was probably not optimal.

Review last weeks goals: Take it easy and get healthy - Check; i did give my body enough time and did rush it too hard, though a little bit more sleep in the second half of the week would have been nice

Goal for next week:

• Get at least 7 hours sleep on average per night
• Do at least two focused bouldering sessions in the gym
• Get back at doing weighted pullups

Decent week considering the sub-optimal circumstances. I hope that i finally can stay healthy for the next weeks, so that i can get in top shape for the autumn season in Frankenjura.

Heat at the start of the week and illness at the end caused some issues this week. We’ve also had to cancel a few days of school holiday cover from my in-laws this coming week which also scuppers a hoped for evening out up north doing some sort of climbing with Ally. These things happen. Looking for the silver lining, I’ve got better training facilities here and the frankenjura isn’t too far away now, so the incentive is there to knuckle down and get some pump on.

Musing to my own thoughts on FC900 in the first instance - it will be the start of June 24, won’t it, which is also a few months after I turn 40. There is a double driver for setting goals! Another 2 years older and I hope that my childrens growing independence will mean a bit more flexibility to widen my horizons again.

- I think I would like to climb 8a again.

- Being able to do semi regular trad again, ideally holding down a baseline in the low-mid E grades with the occasional foray back to E4? Obviously E5 is the magic grade, but that might be a fc1000 goal!

- Hopefully the idea of doing weekends or short trips away, to get onto bigger and more exciting things, might also be an option by then.

Monday - skin was trashed, and then there was the heat (ok, fine, we didn’t get it too bad here during the daytime, but I still didn’t really feel like I could do exercise).

Tuesday - really struggled with Monday night. Didn’t get to sleep until gone 2am and my daughter was up at 6am. Soldiered on through the day then crashed pretty early.

Wednesday - a better nights sleep but a bit headachey and not feeling tip top.

Thursday - wall with miniAJM. Decent enough session trying things from the new set

Friday - rest with thoughts of doing something ill defined Saturday

Saturday - turned out the ill defined thing I was going to end up doing was looking after the children whilst my wife spent the day in bed with a fever. Lots of traipsing round, I tried to do some foot on campus whilst they were playing but firstly it doesn’t really work that well on the board - the flat angle doesn’t give me as much space before I get pushed outwards on the drop downs - and secondly as soon as I started doing something all they wanted was to get involved and disrupt everything! In the evening I tried to do some pickups but my hand was feeling tweaky so I sacked it. Sometimes you’ve got to accept it’s just not your day!

Sunday - MrsAJM feeling much better. Spent a chunk of the middle of the day playing taxi for miniAJM and doing a shop, but I did then manage to squeeze in a bit of a power endurance session afterwards. I warmed up and, with some clips in the board and a short loop of rope to boost specificity, got stuck in. I’ve got a 10 move circuit on 2-finger pockets, a mix of less incut pad-and-a-half and more positive first-joint size. I did double loops of this and then onto my 14 move circuit on big flatties with occasional jug, so 35 moves all told. I did a few of these, then mixed in a go using the crimp circuit (19 moves) as the intro. This feels like it does something, I definitely get a good pump on, the clips feel suitably realistic as hard clips, but I think probably the fan and a morning session would allow me to get the most out of it as I got awfully sweaty. Some strategic taping might be good too as the larger holds do create some wear along the side of the fingers between the knuckles and since the holds are pretty samey that’s got bad wear potential.

Good evening all! Glad it's cooled down a bit, phew...

By markers do you mean some sort of concrete goal, like being able to hang/lift X kgs? Probably a good idea, but I always find it hard to set numerical goals!

I know, I'm sure I will. Not going to force it, though. Should probably acquire and learn how to use a GriGri as some sportsters are very anti-ATC!

A decent weak from me despite the horrendous heatwave early on:

Last Week:

M - Rest.

T - Weigh in at 77.8kg. AM No hangs, 32kg, 6x10s per side, 4 min rest, pinky crimped. 2kg increase from previous weeks, feels steady.

W - Rest.

T - Sweaty MB. Pulled hard on projects, created a fab new problem but it has a nails crux crossover (maybe 7A just in isolation?) followed by a wicked clock sequence. Looking forward for another session on it.

F - Slight DOMs in left forearm.

S - Rest.

S - Sea View Walls. Cracking little crag on the Orme, sheltered from the sun, saw a few seals. Managed nothing too hard but was a good explore. Some big lines!

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Max no-hangs.

W - Rest.

T - Moonboard.

F - Rest.

S - Bouldering if the weather allows.

S - Rest.

Goals:

Bulletproof fingers.

Don't worry, my ability to sketch between holds in an uncontrolled manner has never been affected by anything I'm afraid.

Yes, there is plenty of real quality, so much so that I invested in a new mat this week (yet to arrive so not sure if it will go in the car) although at 9.5kg I'll be sticking to roadside venues.

M: Swimming in the river  after work followed by 20 mins yoga, like some sort of pound shop Instagram influencer 

T: Same as Monday

W: Wednesday night club at Pen Trwyn. Got on the Bloods-Axel Attack link, managed it in two halves, good route as unlike most other Upper PT routes this is quite continuous rather than bouldery so I got a proper pump on.

T: Went for a look around  Pont Gethin, really interesting rock but I couldn't get my matt and bag through the last 30 meters of dense vegetation! Pulled on one 6c near the path but fingers a bit tired so never really warmed into to it before deciding to sack it off.

F: Nowt

S: Another attempt at alpine training with Tom ends in mediocre sport climbing, this time due to rain throughout Eryri. Day saved by Pearl from the Shell (6c+) which is genuinely brilliant, unfortunately I dropped the last move on my onsight go

S: 45 meters of moderate climbing at Rhoscolyn does not really count as alpine training but the continuous 30 mph winds blowing on to the crag kept things adventurous feeling.

I'm sure I won't be the only one who's been dropped with an ATC belay!?

Sounds ace.  Hopefully no cheeky way to lank past it...?

Ping me some more details? Quite interested in a look down there. 

Hi all. Thanks for the write up Derek -good insights as always.

Poor training week, and no spectacular goal ticking, but a reasonable week for just getting out and doing stuff

Week 29:

M: Shoulder and elbow prehab.

T: Soloing at Porth y Ffynnon. Very chilled evening pootling up and down V Diff slabs.

W: Triathlon (my own take on one!) - Soloed Stennis Chimney (S) then ran to Barafundel, then swam the length of the beach, then ran back to St Govans. Total run: 13km, 297m vert, 5:46/km. Ticked off another goal venue, again in a fairly low key way!

A few take homes... 1: I mustn't take my soloing head for granted -I was pretty intimidated on SC and had to have a bit of a word with myself. 2: Swimming is exhausting. 3: I need tips off a male triathlete on how to run in wet shorts without sandpapering my bits. 

T: Shoulder and elbow prehab.

F: Nowt.

S: Sport at Llandulas. Pleased to get Field of Dreams (6b+) quite efficiently (B-B, TR, then got it on first RP) -I feel like I'm finally getting my head around sport tactics! 

S: Trad at Rhoscolyn. Epically windy -to the point where I was genuinely worried about getting blown off the routes! Fortunately the holds on Fan Fare (HVS 4c) were so massive that I didn't get airborn! Another goal venue tick.

Week 30:

Prehab every day -no excuse not to fit this in.

Two runs.

Two fingerboard sessions -need to get back on this.

STG -end Sept:

Climb at four of my 'climb here more' crags (3/4).

Climb six of my local to-do list.

Allakazam.

Ultra distance run. 

Three of my big mountain day list.

Keep injury free (elbows, hips and knees). 

(Have pushed my alps trip back, so this remains an MTG.)

MTG -end Dec:

Two big alpine routes.

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) -TICK!

ALL of my local must-do list: 4/15

Visit at least five of my 'why haven't I climbed here' list: 3/5

Get at least one session at each of my 'I should climb more at this crag' list: 3/8

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

(For lists see FitClub 772)

At least two big, classic alpine goals.

Thanks Derek. Yes it is very much the ego that has taken a hit and I need to realise what I was aiming to get out of this year - comfy at E3 was my ambition.

Scafell this weekend. Staying at the hut for a couple of days so fingers crossed for good weather.

"SOFT!" - The siren-cry of the Moonboarder

Week 29

M – Sweating cobs, Day #1. Some external rotator conditioning. 5x5 hard symmetrical band lift thingies. 3x10 face-pulls with same band.

T – Sweating cobs, Day #2. 31km bike ride. Home by 0930 but still lost 2kg in water!

W – Sweating cobs, Day #3 (the house and garage wall retained more heat than desired).

1-arm deadhang session. Crimpd timings; warmed up then -15, -10, and -5kg x6 hangs on BM2K central slot. Felt far easier than last week.

2-arm hangs:

Mono 10s; -5kg x3 (felt hard)

F2 10s; +10, +18, +23kg (probably could have done more?)

M2 10s; +18, +25, +25kg (might have managed more?)

Sloper 10s +10, +10, +12kg (felt slippery!)

T – 4x4 aero-power. Benchmark 7A+, 7A+, 7A, 7A.

Set #1: Booshed the lot.

Set #2: Dropped 3 & 4.

Set #3: Swapped 3 & 4 for 6C+’s but still dropped them.

Set #4: Swapped 3 & 4 for 6C+’s but still dropped them.

External rotator conditioning. 5x5 hard symmetrical band lift thingies. 3x10 face-pulls with same band.

F – 5x5 110kg axle DL and 5x5 55kg bench-press. Bench felt easy and DL felt hard.

S – Felt tired and lethargic all day. Feared I’d caught my wife’s lurgy…

S – …but bounced back and got in an afternoon at the gorge. Conditions were poor to terrible, but managed to climb La Porte de l'Enfer (7b+) 2nd go and Cave Wall (E4 6a). The last one particularly spicy with numerous wet holds (tea towel down my t-shirt was used frequently!) and some lengthy run-outs.

Scafell!  I've endless ambitions up there, but never seem to visit... I hope it goes well

I'm sure it's possible to avoid the clock sequence with tactical lanking and filthy matching, but that's probably a little harder and significantly less fun than the intended way!

Just actually LOL'd at this. #livingyourbestlife ;-p

It's funny how the magic grade varies from climber to climber...

I always think of E4 as the magic grade! That would get me up so many desert island routes.

But then I'd be looking wistfully at Darkinbad etc thinking 'if only I could climb E5!'

Good day on Friday -double figure E-points! Nice!

I guess every "next grade" has a certain magic about it, up to a point. Perhaps it's that I still cling to the hope that the right E5 onsight might be doable, whereas I'm not sure I could say the same about E6.

But then there's a lot of E5s from the golden age of seacliff exploration in particular - in the south west, at Gogarth and so on - that have a certain something going for them that their comparable E4s maybe don't, for me at least.

What are your desert island E4s?

Interesting.  Surely it's a perspective thing?  Busy with work, but Il Duce, Pagan, Fallen Angel, Top Gear, Gates of Delerium, The Skull, Great Wall...the list is (of course), endless 🙂

Follow @Tylerrichestorags, currently heading a campaign on behalf of post-apocalyptic superstore Home Bargains... Manifesting the future 🙂

Il Duce (E5 6a) the classic E5?

Told you I was busy.  In any case, my real expertise is training advice... cue lines from any American movie about the army (and you, soldier, need to get down and give me ten...)

Went to do Il Duce once. In view of the current grade, thank God it rained!

Haha, that's a good question now I'm considering it...

A lot of the routes that immediately jump to mind are ones from obsessing over guidebooks when I first started climbing, so they are fairly parochial: either Lancs Quarries, Peak grit, or cover photos from On The Edge! That was pretty much my sphere of climbing! So...

Monty’s Axe (E4 6a) -this is still the top of my list, out of all E4s in the country!

Isle of White (E4 6a)

Iron Orchid (E4 6b)

Ice Cool Acid Test (E4 6a)

Downhill Racer (E4 6a)

Tea for Two (E4 6a)

Profit of Doom (E4 6b)

The Mau Mau (E4 6a)

Resurrection (E4 6a)

Bloody Sunday (E4 6a)

...a bit of an eclectic mix! And probably not much overlap with most people's desert island E4s! To be honest, probably only Monty's Axe, Iron Orchid, Downhill Racer and Bloody Sunday would stay on the list if I was to put some thought in to it these days. There would probably be a lot more sea cliff and mountain crag routes. But the Lancs quarried routes would still have pride of place on my island!

If it helps, my best sports period was 2005 when I was 48.  I had returned to climbing a bit more frequently that year and did a lot of onsighting at 6c and 6c+.  I dabbled through the 1990s generally as work took me overseas and the kids were young.

I'm getting back to it again having hardly climbed from 2005 to 2015 - mostly just odd days soloing.  I am still grades below where I was, but it feels like I will get there again.  Hang in there - these week 900 and 1000 targets are a real incentive!

Thanks again, Derek. Yes, keeping a lid on effort is proving to be much harder than I thought but I finally got somewhere with it (at long last!). I like your t-shirt litmus test - I'm usually drenched after an outing but it has eased slightly since not going all-out all the time.

I had a pretty good week. Only 2 outings but 22.5 miles covered. I blew the HR discipline again on my mid-week hilly 10 miler but had a degree of success on yesterday's (flat) 12.5 miler. I've also started looking at my food/macros intake too - something I've been neglecting - and supplimenting extra protein to help with leg recovery.

Mon: nowt

Tues: nowt

Weds: 3 hour non-stop endurance walk with 15lb pack around my local, hilly circuit. Same as last week. Just over 10 miles, 550m ascent (100m down on last week's for some reason). HR discipline went to pot again but hey-ho. 

Thurs: 13kg dumb bells: 3x10 shoulder press. 3x10 arm curls. 21kg dumb bells: 3x10 bent over rows.

Fri: rest

Sat: 13kg dumb bells: 3x10 shoulder press. 3x10 arm curls. 21kg dumb bells: 3x10 bent over rows.

Sun: changed my game to try and achieve a zone 2 walk. Chose a nice flat/gradual sloping route: the Lôn Las Ogwen path/cycle path from Port Penrhyn to Bethesda and back (I set off & returned to the Bangor pier area so a little further). It's tarmac all the way (boo!) but passes through some lovely countryside and I enjoyed it a lot. Kept a steady/easy pace most of the time (I forgot once or twice) and voila! 77% Zone 2. 

15lb pack, 12.6 miles, 3.5 hours. I plan on doing this once a week.

Summary data:
https://i.postimg.cc/bNC1jRCw/Screenshot-20220724-191419.png

HR Zone data:
https://i.postimg.cc/R0r6Mpc4/Screenshot-20220724-191430.png

Half way smug selfie:
https://i.postimg.cc/YqbzC79k/IMG-20220724-154802821-2.jpg

Cheers!

Cheers Derek. Yeah I've really grown to enjoy board sessions and have seen some great power gains as a result. Living in South Manchester, I'm lucky enough to have Depot (3 digital wooden boards) and Awesome Walls (Moonboard) both within 15 minutes so plenty of variety to keep things interesting. I'm still very envious of those that have something available at home though!

Quite a light week last week:

M/T/W - Rest

W - 5 limit problems on the 50 degree board - 7A; 7A; 7A+; 7A+; 7B (can't get past the 4th move so one to project)

F - Rest

S - The same 5 limit problems as Wednesday. Managed to get one move higher on the 7B

S - Rest

Planning a light week before flying out to Aus and hoping to slot in a finger strength testing session to see how I compare to when I come back from 3 weeks off. Here's hoping I don't lose all my strength! 

As someone who has just moved from the NW of England to Wales you’ll get no sympathy from me regarding training facilities! I’ve got somewhere to build my own board but I’d give my right leg to have something like the Depot near by, not to mention Awesome Walls, Blockhaus, Rockover, MCC……!

Cheers Derek, honestly to me some of the grades you lot push out on here look insane. When it comes to swimming im just a punter in a pool or lake 

Anyway, had a lovely chilled (perhaps the wrong word given the weather!) week in the peak district.

Monday we had a nice long walk up through Cave Dale and down past Peverell Castle

Tuesday, went for a trip down Treak cave and then a walk over Mam Tor, down to Hollins Cross and Castleton

Wednesday we went over to Chatsworth and had a lovely wander through the grounds looking at all the outdoor sculptures.

Thursday, chilled out day, took the awning down etc.

Friday, drive home and sort out all the caravan kit

Saturday, rest day and catch up on home stuff

Sunday, nice 6.5km trail run in the morning 

Thanks Ash, definitely not polished!

(p.s. it's probably E5 6b, even with the new bolt on Thumbsucker being clippable post crux) 

My currrent "shoulder broken, let's go hillwalking" training programme has led me to do some thinking about a FitClub 900/1000 goal that I've decided I won't be attempting.

The "Zugspitze Horseshoe" aka complete Wettersteingrat is about 35kms summit-to-summit, with about 7,000 metres of vertical, nowhere below 2,000 metres and passing over about two dozen named summits. The challenge isn't really the length or the tecnical difficulty - short sections up to UIAA IV - but more the mental focus required from the fact that much of it is you-fall-you-die terrain, much of it is choss, and quite a bit of it is both.

Parts are commonly done as single day outings of which I've done three:

* Jubiläumsgrat (AD) betwwen Zugpsitze & Alpspitze. Regarded as a local classic but massively overrated imo. Long stretches of VF, short stretches of easy climbing on ok rock, long stretches of scrambling on choss.

* Blassengrat (AD+). This IS a classic. Shorter than the Jubi but more sustained & much better rock quality.

* Partenkirchener Dreitorspitze. Long drag up to the hut, but then the actual ridge section is a short pleasant solo on good rock

The regularly climbed parts I haven't done:

* Wettersteingrat - the eastern section from the Meilerhütte to Mittenwald. This is ok by reputation, but serious because it's long & remote, so I wouldn't want to solo it. I haven't yet had a moment where my fitness and a suitably motivated partner have coincided.

* Teufelsgrat. By reputation a continuously exposed chossfest at UIAA III/IV - hard to recruit partners for!

And that's just the sections that do get done regularly, making up a bit over half the total length. Given the reputation of the Teufelsgrat, one has to wonder what the remaining parts that almost never get done are like.

The whole thing was done a couple of years back by Michi Wohlleben as a (supported) single push in summer, and I think I recall reading about people doing it in winter when the choss might at least be somewhat frozen together. My plan would have been to do it in summer over about five days, descending to huts overnight to sleep and refuel. 

But then I saw the film of Michi Wohlleben's round (on Vimeo but only as a paid download, and in German without subtitles) that confirmed my worst suspicions about the rock quality on the Teafelsgrat being scary, and the almost-never-climbed sections even worse. So I think I'll be sticking to my original idea involving nice solid Norwegian and /or Swiss granite.

Whew, just back from a hilly 10 mile walk with a pack with the HR limiter firmly "off" (Sundays are now my "zone 2" 12.5 mile training days). 2 hours 39, my best yet and my hips & knees don't want to kill me, which is nice. 

Got to put in an interim report simply because I reached 63.5 kg today!  Ten stone!  The daft thing is, I'm not really trying snymore.  I'll have to work at putting weight back on at this rate!

Congratulations, Derek. Ten stone... crikey, I'm chuffed to have got down to 15 stone 4! I hope you've got some heavy boots for when the wind picks up.

Cheers Derek. Another quiet week but actually managed a climbing trip. Think I’ve settled on a drumbeat of a biweekly trip which allows me to juggle job/wrangling. Not a lot but better than nothing!

Tue

Stamina

• Hangboard Moving Hangs 3x 6mins

Pull Strength

• Weighted Pull-ups 5/6/8 @ 30.5kg/20kg/10kg

Sat

Red hot day so went to Dancing Ledge with the plan for Climb/Swim. The swimming area was chocker with Coasteerers so stayed on the crag.

Redpointed Mr Choo Choo which would be my first 7a route. As expected, the first steep section went easily but pumped out at the mid-height crux. Worked the rest of the route on top rope and am confident it could go soon.

Still find it weird coming away from a trip without actually climbing anything but suppose I need to change my mindset for redpointing. Got loads of beta and dialled most of the sequences. Bit more stamina training and should be good.

Just fantastic!  Considering how little actual climbing you've done recently that is a really good effort!  Glad that you have got some sort of pattern established.

My poor hiking rucksack suffers a bit when carrying any more than 25-30lb so I've got myself a heavy duty military surplus 'sack. Now I should be able to pack all my pork pies and stock up on beer in Bethesda Londis for the return leg.

I've arrived at a similar realisation. I've mentioned a couple of times that I've found the last hour or two of my recent Zugspitze and Alpspitze outings very hard. This is probably largely because I do most of my uphill mileage on smaller hills where I'm only going uphill for a couple of hours, and thus unused to doing more than that.

But also pacing. Perhaps because I'm used to doing shorter outings, but also because I have an ego attachment to my vertical metres per hour rate, I tend to go flat out for the first hour - so top of Zone 3 probably. Then I fight to just about maintain that for the second hour, then I blow up and struggle the rest of the way. Need to practice going slower from the off, starting tomorrow - either Alpspitze or Zugspitze again, but different routes this time.

Plus fuelling - I bought a big box of gels yesterday. 

My plan, Alan, is to try and fool my body by doing my zone 2 stuff on the level, where I can still go at a reasonable pace and remain in zone 2 (I simply don't have the discipline to keep at a slow enough pace to remain in zone 2 when going up any reasonable gradient).

Hopefully, after a while, I'll still get the benefits which will also apply when doing hills. Time will tell.

Your outings sound more demanding than mine but I haven't needed to refuel at all while out - just a few sips of water ever km. I do eat a large spinach pasta meal the night before any walk of 8 miles or over though (and sometimes "just because" but I'm working on that!).

Not sure if I do either but I'm going to try it and find out

One thing I've picked up recently from listening to the Real Science of Sport podcast(*) is that Eliud Kipchoge does at least 90% of his training mileage at about 8 minute mile pace, which for him is barely jogging.

(*) while doing my zone 3 junk miles

That's interesting. I've heard it said many times that most sessions should be easy sessions. Does he mention his HR? (I'm guessing that's around his zone 2 pace).

If you manage to maintain zone 2 you willvfind fueling isn't important as you should be fat burning.  Lean athletes have 30000 calories available in stored fat, so should get you up most hills.  Once in zone 3, your fuel is muscle glycogen and immediately available carbs, which is why the wall arrives!

This was all new to me until you mentioned it to me recently, so thanks for that. I've another "zone 2" 12.5 miler planner for Sunday, hopefully with a friend. He initially asked if I'd like to join him "up the mountains" but that would scupper my low HR plans so I think I've managed to persuade him to join me instead. "We'll be able to catch up on more conversation friendly terrain..." (He's recently back from a mountaineering trip to Switzerland).

Meanwhile, here's my HR zone data from Wednesday's 2:39 10 miler, 15lb pack, 650m ascent (rolling). It wasn't "best effort" but bar a couple of km, I was pushing quite hard (for me).

https://i.postimg.cc/rFC7vkxB/Screenshot-20220729-212318.png