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;

UKC Forums - UKC Fit Club Week 838 (ukclimbing.com)

Brief mention of the Fit Club meet, though more detail in people’s weekly submission no doubt.  Many thanks to Tyler for prompting the event and for providing a base and taxi service on the weekend itself.  Lots of enthusiasm witnessed and really good to meet people in person.  Pretty decent weather on the Saturday, but deteriorated after I headed home in the evening I think.  A pretty clunky first day of the year on trad for me!

Stats:

Randy:  A very positive take on your Frankenjura week – ‘very good training’ – it does make me reflect that one of the advantages of a project approach is that almost any learning is progress towards a very worthwhile goal.

Good to see your return to the gym and some of what used to be your routine exercises.  Handstands making an appearance after quite a long while without any!  Some good bouldering sessions at the wall that included progress across the week is impressive and clearly developing some positive movement skill.  Good work on the weighted pull ups considering ‘still not recovered’!  While I have got over 20kg now with 2RM, I am a way off doing 8 at that kind of weight, but improving all the while now I include it regularly.

Some great advice later in last week’s thread from you in terms of providing an analysis of Alan’s Kalymnos trip and next training goals.  Useful to have an external perspective on these things.  Good to see that you hope to get back for the send soon.

Inglesp:  That stamina training at the wall is going well with the ‘nearly 4x4s’.  I think you are being hard on yourself!  Just keeping that intensity up for that long is really good and certainly a really solid platform for stamina.  I can imagine you hanging in there for ages.

The running looks to be building up well.  Now you’ve revealed the target, it clearly needs to progress as 10km at 4.30 pace sounds pretty quick to me – mind you, it is ‘elite’ pace at my age, and the tables make it much more significantly age-related than I imagined it would be.  Quite a surprising discovery to see how pace slows with age according to the running level calculators that are about.  On one level this is reassuring, but on another it is a bit depressing to see the tail off in performance.  Anyway, three decent and different runs across the week, with descriptions like ‘easy’, ‘tempo’ and ‘progression’ makes it seem quite serious in approach.

Good to see that you managed a session at Wintours Leap.  I don’t know the whole crag as only done around fifteen routes, but quite a daunting place for a newcomer in places, though I know there is a good spread of easier stuff along on the left=-hand side. 

SSB:  Looks like a decent Lakeland trip and the kids did really well on that Langdale Pikes walk.  It is spectacular and there is plenty of messing about on rocks and in streams to be had, so a good one for sustaining interest.  Going from the Lakes to London, with almost no stopover is also impressive and I imagine they would have been fairly goosed by the end of the sightseeing walking tour!

Despite the family holiday vibe you have managed to get some great bouldering in at Brant Fell and Trowbarrow, which has become a bit of a bouldering destination since I used to frequent the place.  Great to see that you used the break between trips to hammer the campussing and aerocap work again – you must be feeling the progress by now?

Eating and drinking are probably London’s main attractions…

Steve Claw:  Good to hear that you got away on your trip, despite not being through your injury challenges completely.  I imagine the font slopers would be very intense on the elbows.  I agree with the points about grading – at times it feels completely arbitrary though I think a lot of it is being presented with problems of a style that we rarely encounter over here.  My kids used to love the place when they were younger and it is largely safe enough to let them loose on circuits.

Pleased to see you didn’t waste the week with packing and the like and still managed to fit in your quota of route preparation and outdoor stuff.  Not a bad Tuesday by my reckoning!   Hope you get the weather over the rest of the trip and we can look forward to another report in filled with goodies.

You might know that there has been a bit of chat about a meet down south later in the year to accommodate the SW contingent.

Ross Barker:  The work on ‘School’s Out’ is progressing well and good to see that you backed off from pushing too much to get it done, which is probably sensible given your finger rehab.  Great to see you are working something new as well with your visit to Bryn Castell – you certainly get about in the hills and must have encyclopaedic knowledge of everything by now. 

Never heard of half the places you frequent (GOP Cave?) though when I check them out they do look like they have quite a lot to work on.  Then I read more closely and find out that there are about four variants to every problem!  It looks seriously steep though and I imagine gives the core a good thrashing!

I see the goals list is extending!  Nice to see a new project on there and hopefully you can tick the A2 injury soon.

Tyler:  Arriving an hour after me (Orme) was fine and exactly what we had arranged.  I just chose to travel early because I didn’t fancy the A55 madness later on.  The collapsing footledge was actually my left-hand hold breaking, which then hit my foot on the way past.  Anyway, although I didn’t do that much with my early departure, I really enjoyed the tour and am excited to get back.

The diet outcome is a bit of a disappointment.  If it helps (probably won’t), I would also say I had a sweet tooth – enjoy desserts for example, but found the any hankering for sugary stuff stopped quickly.  I’ve reintroduced sweet things now, including cakes, but make them with substitute sweeteners like erythritol – tastes like sugar, but your body can’t absorb it at all, so zero calories.

As ever, entertained by your bouldering adventures.  I keep being tempted by returning to bouldering with the aim of trying a bit harder rather than just climbing about a lot, but your managing to do just enough to put me off!  Not sure I can cope with what is likely to be even more frustrating outcomes!  That said, I also need more mileage as I feel really off the pace at the moment.

Ian Parnell:  Crikey Ian!  A bit of a notorious choice for a warm-up!  You’ve still got time to build up to your goals over April and May, and the last thing you need is an accident.

If you need encouraged, Biscuit has dropped weight and looks like a ripped weasel after very little time.  Only a couple more weeks to reach racing snake level. 

Nice bouldering in the sunshine on Tuesday.  I’ve never looked at The P and it is now a bit of a way for me.  I’ve also never tried Shining Cliff.  Your finger lifts look like they are building up steadily and are now carrying some decent weight. 

Gogarth delivers it’s usual excitement though I think with Stimulator the clue is in the name.  Anyway, a bad one, but put it behind you and maybe pick some warm ups that have gear, at least when the ground is there to break your fall…  Anyway, looking at the trip as an outsider, you came away with a decent haul. 

Liam P:  Having reminded you of OAPU, I’ve now missed out for a couple of weeks, which is silly because it is actually really quick to do a few, partly because there is a limit reached fairly soon!  Anyway, good to see you back on it – it looks like Randy has made really good progress on these.  Looks like your small edge work is also becoming productive.  Good to see you continue to include the hamstring stuff – I keep trying, but find it a bit frustrating as progress is slow, possibly because of an old football injury as my right leg is definitely more tight.

Unfortunately, beer is a bit of a sucker punch for a keto diet as it has a lot of carbs and one tends to drink a reasonable volume once started! 

Nice results with the bouldering – all that work in the gym seems to have delivered as a 7A outside is great.

Tom Green:  That’s another good week Tom with plenty of actual climbing and variety within it.  I’m impressed with heading off to the Lakes and just going for a big walk with a few climbs along the way.  I’ve put this kind of thing onto my target list for the year, so just need weather and work to fall into place and I will try something similar.  Not sure I will include a heavy, bulky bag, but perhaps you were aiming at Alpine training?

Eagle is quite remote really and I’ve only been once.  I notice that it has had a few more routes added, so possibly worth the walk in again at some point.  Quite a nice aspect though IIRC.  I remember doing the E2 – Early Birds – which was really serious and a bit off-putting as a result.  At least now, the guidebook makes it clear!

Biscuit:  Probably already discussed this, but your Trollers Gill trip was really good.  Both those routes have a bit of a reputation and you look like you dispatched them really efficiently.  In stark contrast, your assessment of the likely conditions at Wilton was way off – I think it takes quite a bit to get much other than the Prow dry.  Btw, the couple we chased up Phantom Rib were Wilton regulars.  Also a place that I really like, though it has got very dirty away from the hotspots of Chimney Buttress and The Prow in recent years.  Still got some targets there, though need to being going well  to get on them.

Fall practice has excited some interest with Inglesp.  It sounds mad to me, but hey ho.

part two

SteveJC94:  Yes, it sounds like Pabbay is a little different from your average Peak route and definitely more trainable in a short time than the typical power that you might need on Ravenstor.

Great to see that you are back outside cycling.  It must be quite a relief after a fair while recuperating after the ski trip.  Take it carefully with the wrist rehab as it definitely won’t help to trigger a relapse.  I hope you get back to some light rock work soon!  It seems a long while since you pasted anything climbing related, so I hope you are holding up despite the injury. 

Quite impressive cycling times in the weekly report, so good to see that you have gone for it now that you have the all clear!

Mattrm:  Holiday is the perfect excuse of course.  I think you are down in Pembroke so hope you have had reasonable weather.  Good to see a longer run on the schedule - all of sudden you have upped the distance considerably, which has messed up my plan big time.  Still some way to go with the running plan though for you.  Hope you manage to fit a few more in over the next few weeks so that you can complete your preparation.

Alan:  Lots of discussion generated by your trip report.  I’d say I had similar reflections to Randy – I was a bit surprised that you didn’t go back to things as I thought that was the plan.  That said, it isn’t like I ever do, so I’m not in a place to cast any stones here!  I’d reflect that you seemed pretty close to onsights a few times, so going back might have delivered a quick result?  As Randy has noted, difficult to diagnose any particular training shortfalls when you were that close.  Main thing is, it sounds like loads of fun and your son got he tick that he wanted.

Early season yes and good results really when seen in that context.  As you note, you flet well-prepared physically, but it is a world away from the demands of real rock in my mind!  Wall climbing just doesn’t seem to deliver movement on rock for me, though it does help stamina and help with general movement skill.  Plenty of others see it differently though!

Ally:  Excess work a bit of a theme recently Ally, so hope things are under control.  I’m the same though, I always have some mindless gardening or wood chopping as a way of taking my mind of things for half-an hour!  On a bad day, I get sucked into doing a lot more gardening than I intended!

A decent return at the Dug Out with a repeat of a recent addition.  Not bad considering you were reporting a virus a couple of days earlier.  Definitely a light week for you – no weights whatsoever and it looks like not that much on the board, though ‘working hard moves’ might have been hours and hours.

It was nice that the weather put on a show at Easter, before turning truly awful again.  However, reasonably well-behaved for your trip to Buxton.

AJM:  Excellent to see your report with all the videos included.  Makes me feel a bit inadequate with the occasional photo!  The trip looks great and it sounds as if you’ve fallen for the place if it is preferred to Font.  Got to be a better bet with the weather at this time of year anyway.  The report makes it seem like a productive trip for all the family, so a decent break all round.  I had assumed most of the week would be filled with roped climbing, so interesting to see the focus on bouldering – probably a lot easier to fit in alongside looking out for the kids.  Overall, the trip looks very productive in terms of exploring a new area and enjoying what is on offer, even If you don’t have ‘ a huge haul of trophies’.

Also entertaining to see your comments on the WhatsApp thread around the Fit Club meet.  Entertaining to think that comments and tips were coming in from overseas!  I see that you are back now, so welcome home.

Small Step:  You continue to build on recent successes at the wall, with some good results at 6c and 6c+.  There is many a time where a more measured approach would probably have worked better, but the same could be said for the opposite I suppose!

Good to see the variety of other work across the week.  It is easy to get drawn into one particular form of training (like myself) and ignore the skills on offer by undertaking others.  Great to see you stretching, using Hooper’s and even recruitment pulls, though these are usually done before an exercise that requires recruitment to be optimal (though I know Hooper’s includes them as a stand-alone anyway).

Springtime is slow coming here, though we had t-shirts in the Pass on Saturday with snow on the tops.  Hope you get out to put all this into effect soon though.

The Sheep:  Great to see that you have joined the patio laying club.  I am nearly done now, but feel like I have been on it for a while.  To be fair, it has been held up by weather and should at least be finished in time for the warmth to arrive in earnest.

Parkrun is an interesting development for you and a bit of an added diversion.  I have half-an-eye on doing some myself this year, but have yet to persuade any of my running companions to go along with it.  There is a lot to be said for joining in with others as your recent report showed.

Regardless, a fair bit of 5km running going on and a swim in the week as well.  Not bad as you build towards the next event.

Thank you Derek for your efforts with the stats. I’ve got to say being part of the Whats App for the fit club weekend was like a form of virtual torture. At one point my phone was pinging almost every minute as one team shot up high E grades on the Cromlech, another tore down test pieces on the boulders, and further fit clubbers hovered up classic rock ticks! Well done everyone, really hope I can join the next one.  

STG - E4 end of April (0/1). 20 6th grade boulder problems (14/20). Loose 2kgs by end April (currently 85kg).

MTG - 50 sport routes by end of May (11/50). 30 trad routes by end of May (9/30)

LTG: Pabbay Trip – onsight E5

Mon – Rest – DOMS again, it's notable that rather than just arms, they’re also significantly in glutes and adductors?

Tues – Am: run 3.5 miles easy pace. Pm: Finger block 20mm lifts 10 secs Full Crimp (2.5kg, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 27.5, 30kg), Half crimp (2.5, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 27.5, 30, 32.5kg, (failed on 2nd rep of 32.5Kg - 5secs right, 3 secs left).

Wed – Run 3.5 miles easy pace

Thurs – Awesome Walls – quick 70mins routes 5, 6b, 6b+, 6c+, 6c falls on last two routes. Core: 3x 36 (twisting crunches, alternating single leg bridges, alternating 2 point box

Fri – 4 mile run in woods, felt tired

Sat – The Climbing Works. Warm Up 25 probs up to irn bru. 6 x 6b+ on circuit board 3 mins rest. Falling off on last 2.

Sun – Planned to have a long run and a climb but cumulative tiredness from 12hours total driving this weekend took its toll. Core: 3x 38 (twisting crunches, alternating single leg bridges, alternating 2 point box

Reflection. A decent training week for me. Pleased to be finally getting back running again. Pleased also that despite the previous weekend’s exertions my DOMS lasted for a much shorter time than a week before. I’ve also had two weeks of shoulder rehab guided by Biscuit and that’s definitely making good progress. In fact niggles all round are gradually calming down which feels like a significant win. Hoping for another solid training week coming up.

Thanks Derek. No chance here of getting out & applying post-trip fitness & momentum to local projects, dismal weather since Easter. So a rather low key and fairly light post-trip week.

STG: depends on local weather & conditions
MTG: tick any of my local long term projects and/or a new-to-me 7a 
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 823
LTG: Winter 24 or 25 - do an actual off piste ski tour.

M: Easter Monday. 3½ hours MTB in the woods. Was looking forward to getting back out on the bike after the holiday, and today was forceast to be the only decent weather day of the week, but I overdid the enthusiasm/mileage a bit for a post-travel "rest" day

T: rest

W: Taking on board Randy's suggestion about some basic strength benchmarks, I checked my weighted pullup 2rm and came up with 117%. Decidedly unspectacular but also unsurprising - I've steered clear of any weighted pulling for a few years because of shoulder age and fragility, but clearly now it might be something worth working on - carefully!

T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Normal bouldering to warm up then kilterboard, working a few problems at gradually steepening angles. It's surprising how much harder just five degrees can make something, perhaps I should try a more frog-boiling approach with 1° increments
    Deadlifts 3x3x80, face pulls, skin the cats

F: rest
S: rest
S: Rainy Sunday morning at the wall, Freimann. Good session, the push to get myself out of my 6b onsight comfort zone continues. Flashed a "6c+" - soft 6c at most! - onsighted a couple of 6b+'s and fell off a couple more.

I am now the ukc crag moderator for Konstein, a local area where I have a couple of old projects I want to have another look at this spring - if I can find partners willing to accompany me to unfashionable out of the way sectors.

Thanks Derek, reflecting on the aerocap stuff after this weekend and I think you can get sport fit down the wall but you need to go trad climbing to get trad fit unless you've got a boredom threshold that far surpasses mine!

Mon and tues. Still in London, lots of walking (about 25km over the two days).

Wed. Roche abbey session. Managed to tick off Jazz (f7B) and worked out all the moves on Perverse Bad Habits. It's not refined yet but it's getting there.

Thurs. 10km run with plenty of silliness thrown in including a crawl through the tunnel that pops out on windy ledge at stoney and a good soaking on the way up The Ravine (Grade-2).

Fri. Rest 

Sat. Fit club meet up day 1. Alpine start from Sheffield to be gearing up at the base of Dinas mot before 9am. Tom and I did The Cracks (HS 4c) featuring a strong lead from Tom on the wet slime pitch (which spat off the team after us). Headed over to the Cromlech where I took a lob off the top of Resurrection (E4 6a) after misreading where to stop at the last rest and trying to take a line between the two normal finishes (oops). Got it 2nd go ground up. The top felt much easier once I'd worked out where to go but I guess that's onsighting for you. On reflection I'm happy to have tried hard and not got too scared.

Sun. Ross and I spent two hours trying a 7A+ problem in the Cave (I can't remember what it was called) that we never worked out the beta for. Maybe we just needed to pull harder?

Exciting!

Had a great time in Font, despite not being at all boulder fit.  The children found lots to do, on the boulders and just playing in the woods.  I managed 2 x 7A's so happy with that.

M -  L'Elephant Lovely place for the family, awesome looking boulders, some quite high.  Bouldered in the mid 6's

T -  Bois Ronds  A bit of a damp start to the day and feeling the DOMs in the arms by now. Tried to get Jo Dalton (f7A+) and was within an inch of getting it, just couldn't get the movement right.

W - Rainy day and needed a rest, so we all went to Paris and up the Eiffel Tower like proper tourists.  Felt surreal walking past queues of people in designer clothes outside Louis Vuitton, whilst in my chalky Rab jacket.

T -  La Roche aux Sabots Everything felt hard here. All the holds are super worn, making it really hard to get any friction.  Managed Legalize This (f7A) fairly easily, but it clearly favours the tall.

F -  L'Elephant again as when I left on Monday I saw a problem with a heart shaped rock in the middle and had been thinking about it all week.  Sent Le Coeur (f7A) without too much on an issue to get myself a proper 7A before the end of the holiday, and the rain came in the afternoon

S - Drive Home

S - Rest

A naff week really due to a combination of work, childcare, family events and such like.  Not much done and what I did felt hard!

Sun - weighted pulls up 3x5 at 13.6kg, then 2RMs at 20.5 and 21.6kg, both PBs so not bad. 4x15 push ups. Four sets of stretching, Hooper's and  weighted RDLs.

Mon - max hangs at 17, 19.3, 21.5 and 23.7kg.  failed at 8 seconds on last set, which was below usual finishing weighted.  Weighed in heavy though this week!  6,7,8,9 pull ups.  4x10 push ups.  2.72 km run.

Tues - Fri nothing.

Sat - drove to Llanrwst and met up at Tyler's place.  Off to the Grochan for first trad of the year on a pretty wet crag.  Blue skies, snow on tops and Biscuit in control.  Some long pitches and waiting as we were behind a team on Phantom Rib. Then tied our ropes around Tyler's while crossing his route as we did Kaiserbirge Wall, followed by a trip up most of Spectre before running out of gas on the wide crack.  Not going at all smoothly, but joyful nonetheless.  I left and made it back for an evening out.  Great to meet people from here and another annual target picked up (climb again with Biscuit).  

Ah, I was feeling a bit disorganised not having any footage or photos of my own

I am very keen to go back, 100%

At same time for me Font feels a surprisingly high risk choice for a climbing trip. I've had one trip there that I basically gave up on climbing a few days in because I just wasn't having fun. It's obviously still a very pleasant place to spend time, but if I'm not climbing I have a lot of other non-climbing trips I would want to do that this would be in competition with!

It's complicated and I don't really understand why it doesn't click with me, but that's part of the problem in that I don't know what the magic sauce is that makes a good font trip (I have had one, so its definitely there somewhere).

Easier to fit in, particularly with younger children (one of the families has a child still in what I tend to describe as the "mobile but stupid" toddler phase) and non climbing other halves.

We did some more roped climbing this week.

Thanks! Actual report for the week incoming later on.

...should also remark that patio work moved on between rain hammering down.  Nearly there and should finish this week.  Plan to climb Tuesday and Friday after early meeting and to train a bit more on non-climbing days.

Cheers Derek. Looked like everyone had a good time on the meet. I enjoyed it vicariously through the Whatsapp Chat! Great week for me. Back in Black with the weightloss (82.8kg so -1.1kg this week) and finally climbed Mr Choo!

Tue

Sport

• Very soggy Dancing Ledge. Put a top rope up Mr Choo to remember the beta but was too wet for a RP. Felt really strong. All the holds felt bigger and the third clip I was struggling with felt easy off a right hand lock off. One Arm Hangs must be working!

Wed

One Arms and Fingers

•  OA Hangs 6x 10s 40mm 91%BW
• 3x 1 OAPU 50mm w/ 5s Lockoffs at Top/90/120 84%BW
• 5x 5 Pull-ups 12mm BW. Ordered some Lattice Micro Crimps so will progress to Pull-ups on 10mm
• Good Mornings 6x 10

Thu

Antags & Core

• 5x 5s Planche Leans 42”
• 5x 5 Tuck Dragonflags

Sat

• Dry forecast so went back for Mr. Choo Choo (7a). Really smeggy for the first couple of hours but went quickly once the sun had been on it. Really satisfying as training has obviously been of benefit. The bouldery start has gone from being a throw, to a static reach from a lock off, and the crux crimp ladder felt easy.
• Started working Seven Year's Solitary (7a+) which starts with a knee bar to gain a fridge-hug on the bulge. Upper headwall went easy but need to start training compression to get the start.

Few more days leave left so planning on another day of Portland boulders before it’s back indoors for a while. Been a good leave period though. First f7A and F7a

Good morning everyone, nice to meet you on Saturday and, as usual, great work on the stats.

Thanks! Yeah, stepping back is definitely the right decision, but it's not an easy one when something feels like it's only a go or two away!

Yeah, I'm quite excited by this project, it's got some good moves. My knowledge of the bouldering in the hills is generally pretty good but there's loads of places I haven't been to, particularly in the western extremities as I'm visiting from the opposite side.

A pretty decent week from me, a slight episode of thinking I'd rebuggered the A2 but it quickly calmed down. Was great to see a load of you, can't wait for the next one!

I'm going to try and be a bit more proactive on the antagonists this week, because I feel like I've not really been doing them much, and it'd be a good habit to get into.

Last Week:

M - Density no-hangs, 3x30s, 24kg. Felt quite easy, which I'm happy with. Considering bumping weight up but unsure about raising intensity considering I'm doing intense bouldering frequently. A few sets of slow press-ups to follow, then ice baths before bed.

T - Weigh-in at 77.7kg. Evening sesh on a mate's board. Didn't even try anything particularly fingery on the left hand but the A2 did start to feel a bit sore. Possibly subpar warmup? Ice baths before bed.

W - Rest. A2 doesn't feel too bad. Ice baths before bed.

T - Some static edge pulling. No specific protocol as it was during a busy evening, but some 4-5 sets of 10-15 seconds of reasonably high intensity. A2 felt really good though!

F - Rest.

S - Fit Club Meet in the pass. Good couple of problems done but nothing super desperate. Highlights were Jerry's Wall (V6) (sitter is nails to me!) Nicorette (f6C+). Lazed in the sun for the rest of the afternoon, watching Tom and SSB meandering up the Cromlech!

S - Warmup on Tyler's board (very jealous!) before heading to the Orme with SSB in search of dry rock. Most was seeping, but found decent bits and tried some hard and perplexing moves.

Next Week:

M - Antagonists.

T - Bouldering.

W - Antagonists.

T - Bouldering or hangboard.

F - Rest.

S, S - Bouldering.

Goals:

Sort out the A2 injury.

Rigpa.

Oberth Effect Proj.

Well done Liam! Might be around Saturday if you're looking to get out.

Hi team. Thanks for statting, Derek. Good to meet you, albeit breifly, this weekend. Hopefully catch up properly at some point.

Week 15:

A week that featured a lot of fun, but was poor for training. Need a bigger week this week.

M: Rest. Canned the fingerboard and strength sesh as I was worried I'd be too tired for Tuesday.

T: Sport at Malham. Fun session but a bit gutted to drop Consenting on the last move (literally the last, reaching up with my left for the undercut you clip the chains from). Mildly irritated this is going to drag in to a third sesh.

W: Nowt. Work ate the time I'd allocated for a run.

T: Nowt. Family commitments.

F: Hill run. 10.9km, 413m vert, 7:25/km. Felt awful, partly due to freezing, torrential rain. First time in a while that I've cut a run short due to lack of motivation. Poor form. 

S: Trad in the pass. Fun excursion up the Cracks, then a fun belay of SSB on Resurrection! Gutted for him to drop it so high -it was really excellent commitment. A really strong performance getting it ground up. Enjoyed seconding it, despite needing to sit on the rope a few times. Normally, I find seconding annoying, especially if I have to rest or dog, but it was pretty cool just being on a route like Resurrection and I was actually quite chuffed to find I could do all the moves.

S: Bouldering at Split Infinity Cave -what a shit hole (and people give Lancs Quarries a hard time!?!). Despite the awful 'ambience', poor conditions and general lack of psyche, Tyler and I eventually mustered just enough motivation to put our shoes on. I think we even managed to get some tiny amount of enjoyment from doing Split Traverse (V3) and Pillar Finish (V4) despite them being: a) the crag warm-ups! and b) objectively shite! 

Week 16:

Need a better week!

M: Run.

T: Fingerboard and Strength.

W: Run and Climb.

T: Rest.

F: Hill day. 

S: Hill day.

S: Climbing.

STG (end Apr):

The Jim Grin and/or Consenting Adults

4 of my big UK mountain day list (1/4)

Average 37.5km running per week. (Currently 36.1)

Average 2 board circuit sessions per week. (Nope -need to prioritise this).

Max hangs 93kg

Pull-ups: 97kg

MTG (End July):

Sula (E2 5b)

Classic Envers rock route.

One of my Grande Course wish list.

Thanks for the stats Derek. Not much to report this week, as this weather was terrible and i used this opportunity for a proper deload week:

Mon: 2x20s L-Sit, Handstands, 2x10 Pike-Pushups, 2x10 Fingertip pushups, 45s V-Situp, 30 Pushups, slowly getting back into shape with these exercises and my handstand is getting more and more stable and still some way to go to get to consistent 10s holds

Tues-Fri: Rest

Sat: Indoor Bouldering, Elements wall, a couple of flashes on problems in the 6b to 6b+ range, 6c 3rd try, should have flashed it but adopted a suboptimal beta on a friend of mine who is way stronger than me ; did a technical 6c/6c+ after about 10-15 tries; volume session on the kilterboard afterwards at 45°, did 20 boulders in the 6a-6a+ range in a little bit over an hour, half of them flash, tried most of them back to back and kept the rest generally very short; 15 min rest, weighted Pullups + 24Kg with 4 min rest: 8,6,5; one-arm-lockoff: 2x15s at 170°; very hard session and was completely destroyed after the kilterboard session, but kept the intensity relatively high till the end of session. The grades also felt a little bit over the place, so i would not be too suprised if a couple of the problems that i did were significantly harder than 6a+. 

Sun: 2x20s L-Sit, Handstands, 2x10 Pike-Pushups, 2x10 Fingertip pushups, 45s V-Situp, 30 Pushups

All-in all a decent week. I think it was a good idea to have a couple of days completely off from any trainings. Felt a little bit rusty on saturday, but well recovered to push really hard. Hopefully these sessions lead to a decent improvement in power endurance, which i think is still a weakness. 

Not much on the pullups, maybe i should put them at the beginning of the session if i am going that hard. Also experienced with lockoffs at a wide angle. Hopefully these will help with the first part of the one arm pullup. For a friend of mine this was a key part in unlocking a clean one armer, though he was already able to do two in a row if he started at around 150°.

Plan for this week is keep the intensity and volume high. Unfortunately, i probably won't be able to try Chasin' the Trane (Helmut Albrecht Gedenkweg) (7c) this weekend, as it is likely to still be wet and i am lacking motivated partners for  Krottenseer Turm this weekend. Hence, goal is to train hard to get and increase my fitness. Then taper next week and hopefully finally get some decent conditions (i've stopped wishing for good conditions, i would be more than satisfied if there no holds which are dripping wet ).

Nice work on Le Coeur. I’ve wanted to do that ever since I saw a pic of it in On The Edge! Such a pretty bit of rock. 

A long while ago (1974) one of the mags - probably Mountain or Rockport carried an ad which had a great picture of Eye of Faith at Gsrdom's.  I moved to the Peak in 2983 and did it soon after.  A nice enough route, but something of an anti-climax really!

Nice work at the catwalk btw

It’s always funny when you get on something g that’s held a bit of a place in your head for a while… sometimes it measures up and feels as amazing as you imagined, but sometimes it’s a bit of a let down! I reckon le coeur will be the former though!

Its a great little problem, the hold is a perfect heart shape and looks good. However, it has tiny crimp edges, which luckily for me I can deal with. 

Excellent stats as always - sorry to miss out on the meet-up, but I had a super relaxing weekend with my wife in the Buxton Crescent Hotel and Spa.  I've squeezed in a few short, intense sessions this week, but struggled with a painful left oblique at the point it attaches to 11th rib.  At least the wrist has been less grumbly this week!

Week 15

M – FiL rowing machine. 2km; 7min 29s. 5km 18min 39s. 2x 100 crunchies.

T – 5x5 BW+7kg pull-ups on-the-minute. Warm-up, 2-arm 10s hangs; 2x20, 2x25, 2x30kg. 1-arm hangs; 2x BW-10kg then 6x BW-5kg.  Handsome shoulder burn from stabilising rotation.

W – Oddly painful obliques overnight.  Light gripper aero-cap.

T – Yves style 20mm edge lifts in half-crimp. Progressive warm-up, then 4x working sets of 4x reps @61kg.  Did 3x new 7A/+ benchmarks, then attempted 1on/1off aero-cap on the board, but even the wooden jugs were too intense, and it quickly deteriorated into a Muerte aero-power.

F – Drive to Buxton.  Lovely evening meal.  Left oblique grumbly.

S – Spa gym. 5x5 pull-ups then Yves style 20mm edge lifts in half-crimp. Progressive warm-up, then 5x working sets of 4x reps @62kg.  Massage, sauna, and general spa loafing.  Left oblique even more grumbly after swimming.

S – Morning swim and sauna, then gluttonous breakfast and 5mile walk around Rowtor and Stanton Moor.  Oblique still grumbling.  2x 100 crunchies.

This looks a little bit on the low side in comparison to your grade level, and could explain why you struggle on certain moves. My suggestion would be to start including normal pullups into your training programm, e.g. 2-4 sets at the end of a climbing session, and built a decent base just doing that. Once you can do a lot of normal pullups (multiple sets of 10 reps or more in a session), you can slowly start with weighted pullups.

I'd support Randy's comments and worth noting that (despite a reasonable pull up base) I found weighted hard to start off - like hard to even pull one!  I'm building up okay now and starting to enjoy them.  I mix sets of five at a lower weight then pull some 2RMs to finish.  These felt like they might trouble elbows originally, but past that feeling now.

Yeah, that's the direction I'm thinking in. A few years back I was at more like 130%, but since then I've avoided any systematic pulling training because of shoulder issues. And on at least one of the harder things I tried on Kaly it was a long pull from a bomber jug to (what looked like) another bomber jug that stopped me.

Thanks Derek!  I'm loving the massively detailed stats that you do.  It's amazing.

STG - stick to training plan

MTG - Ultra in June

M  - S - Rest

S - 2m run

So, the 6 mile run last week was an 'ultra pace' run.  So you can safely ignore it from your Which bearing in mind, it was 3 mph, was probably a bit slower than it ought to have been.  Obviously I was happy with that pace bearing in mind it's the longest and steepest thing I've done recently.  However, the sobering part is that I've got to do 11 miles in the same pace to just hit the first cut off before I even worry about the rest of the race.  How much I'll actually improve by, I've really no idea.  It's really not long till June.  I guess the main thing to do is to treat it like a nice run in the mountains.  As long as I can get to the mid point ok, then even if I've been timed out by that point I can just get a pick up to get home.

Obviously the weather wasn't great this week.  That combined with some poor sleep meant that I couldn't get out and run while on holiday.  This week will be the start of the recce.  I'm planning on doing a 12 miler at a minimum.  See if I can bring that in under 4 hours...

Thanks as every for the encouragement.

I'm beginning to see diminishing returns here, so it's probably time to switch to something else!

It hadn't occurred to me to look at a pace chart -- given my lack of experience, and rapid onset of my late thirties, maybe 45 minutes is a bit ambitious, but it's something to aim for.  The course (around Oxford city centre) is at least nice and flat!

I'd be very keen for this -- although I'm among the weaker of my indoor climbing circle, they're mostly not trad climbers, so would appreciate any opportunity to second some harder trad.

This week:

Mon - More "nearly 4x4s" at 6b, dropping the top move of the last rep of the last two sets.

Tue - Week 4 easy run: 6km at 6:30m/km.  In the evening I went bouldering for a change of scene.  Returned to Boulders in Cheltenham, where I climbed a couple of years ago.  Ticked ~15 routes at V3, mostly flashed.

Wed - Social climbing, routes up to 6c.

Thu - Week 4 fartleks: 5 x (3m at 4:30m/km, 1m recovery).  Then to Wintour's Leap in the afternoon for to solo easy routes, but unforecast hail put paid to those plans.

Fri - More bouldering.  Another ~15 V3s.  Only one V3 that I couldn't get after a couple of goes, but should be doable fresh.  If I manage it, that'd be a significant improvement over last time I was bouldering there regularly when there were always several V3s that I couldn't do.  (Or maybe the grading's got softer?  Doesn't really matter!)

Sat - Much eating and drinking with old friends.

Sun - Week 4 long run: 14km at 5:45m/km.

Monday - a quieter day on a small sector near the car park. Did a few problems up to 6A+. One of the three families in our group left today and one of the people remaining twonked both ankles pretty badly coming off the top of a boulder.

Tuesday - rest. We had thought about going to Madrid but Paddy’s immobility and our tiredness led us to stick closer to home; not a bad idea in the end given it was very hot. Ankles thankfully confirmed by the hospital as twonked but not actually broken.

Wednesday - roped climbing! Went to an easy sector, very low angled holdless friction (I’ve not managed to successfully climb at Etive, but I imagine akin to that or potentially a slightly shallower devils slide). Easy route grades but a bit disconcerting on lead at first given the complete lack of handholds. Once you got used to it you could more or less run up it though! The kids had a great time on it.

Thursday - tired. More roped climbing! This time a slightly steeper sector, vert-ish with a rounded break structure, certainly not stereotypical Pedriza slabs. For much of the day I acted like a prize Toprope Installation Technician on easier ground, but I got a little bit of own climbing time at the end of the day and snuck in a quick 6b+ and 6c onsight, short bouldery numbers.

Friday - check out and travel to Bilbao. A few km of walking round town.

Saturday - a few kilometres of walking round town, then on the ferry

Sunday - ferry

A good exploratory trip to some new areas. Pedriza is definitely somewhere to which I will return. We didn’t make it to Madrid, so that is still on the list. And in terms of the range of opportunity in the area, there’s granite bouldering at Pedriza and at Zarzalejo, granite sport and trad at Pedriza, multi pitch sport, trad and quasi trad at Pedriza and La Cabrera, and limestone sport at Patones, plus hillwalking and so on - we barely scratched the surface of half of the things on the menu! 
 

I need to do a bit of planning and organising this week in terms of training/rehab priorities and climbing plans for the next few weeks, through to the half term which is my next chunk of time away.

Crikey!  Hope I am around in 2983!  1983 obvs

I recall Satan's Slip being more tiptoeing on tiny edges than smearing. It was some time in the 90s though so I may be misremembering.

What I definitely do remember is thinking I going to have to bail left into the VS because my feet were so pumped, until I reached a thank-god ledge I could stand on with my heels and shake my toes out!

Cheers! I’m gonna break cover midweek and ask her for a Day Pass. Will text you.

Thanks Derek. It certainly has been a while since I mentioned anything climbing related but thankfully that's changed this week as I'm cleared to start introducing easy climbing again - at last! 

M - Lactate threshold session on Zwift

T - Rest

W - Hangboard repeaters. 20mm edge / 30% of max / 7s on, 3s off, 1 minute rest between sets / 6 reps / 15 sets

T - Zwift 1hr of Zone 2 intervals

F - Hangboard repeaters. 20mm edge / 40% of max / 7s on, 3s off, 1 minute rest between sets / 6 reps / 10 sets. 1 minute on 2 minutes off on the 6c circuit board / 5 sets

S - Rest

S - Hangboard repeaters. 20mm edge / 30% of max / 7s on, 3s off, 1 minute rest between sets / 6 reps / 15 sets. 10 minutes of easy aerocap climbing on the spray wall

Feels great to finally be engaging my climbing muscles again but unsurprisingly my left arm is getting pumped very quickly! 

Great to see you back to it Steve!  

Thanks! It's been a long time coming! 

Hi Derek, thanks for your encouraging remarks. It really was a pretty big week across the Fitness Club. Well done to all…particularly the meet up – it even got me wondering if broadening the live network could be possible and if Alan and Randy would be interested to see if at some time in the future we could get a Bavaria / Munich ‘simul’ meet up and running…a parallel branch meeting as it were?
Thanks for your note on recruitments – I’d only seen them on Hooper’s. And good to hear that the patio is about done.
A bit of a different week for me, bouldering as hard as I can over a number of sessions (still one to go), something I haven’t done for about 4 years. I’d forgotten how wrecked you can get when bouldering at your limit, not to forget the constant impact contact with the mat…try, and try again..
Mon: boulder session, Thalkirchen: good round of easier stuff before I started in earnest with the ‘5er project’, 5 boulders graded right at or above my limit: went quite well, got 2 done relatively quickly; one other might go; the remaining two…the puzzles remain…
Tue: absolutely knackered after yesterday. So all good. Managed some stretching.
Wed: still felt worn out; lunchtime stretching, after work forced myself to get on the hang board; once into it had a good session
Thu: still worn out a bit – might also have something to do with the weather: cold, rainy, windy…stretching and foam roller
Fri: boulder session, Thalkirchen: ‘5er’ project round two; repeated the ticks, but nothing changed on the two puzzles; the ‘might-go’ is closer – just one move and I can touch the target hold no matter if I go with the left or the right hand; just can’t stick it…observation: I’m straining so much before this move I have little or no sense for the subtleties of position perhaps needed.
Got to enjoy the social side of bouldering; it was packed, a rainy school holiday afternoon…struck up conversation with Valentina, age 7… finished on the 15° spray wall – managed 3 x 4 repeats on self-defined sequences. A pleasing end.
Sat: long stretching & light upper body exercises…knackered.
Sun: unscheduled wall session, Bad Aibling; 9 routes, 3 warm ups, 2 x 6a+, 3 x 6b+, 1 x 6c+ (top rope, small wall, 9.5m, but first go). Let the projects be: felt really solid, as if the bouldering had ‘toughened’ me up a bit, but also lacking a little zip…

News on the outdoor front. Three dates, total of 8 days, organised for later in the year (July, Sept, Oct) with someone I’ve known for years. We’ve climbed a couple of times at the wall together and always wanted to venture outdoors. Joining the Fit Club was a small step for me, it seems as if the next small step has followed…😊

Good week to all.

As someone who routinely ignores advice about not going to gung-ho when returning from injury even I winced at 3 finger board sessions in 5 days! There are people better able to advise but my recent experience of doing something similar has back fired quite badly. 

Yes, I thought that, but then Steve has started with repeaters at 30/40% of max, so a fairly gentle way back in compared to his usual loads.  You're right though - very easy to overdo things (as you know)!

The thought had crossed my mind too

After she flashed your project?

15 sets too, blimey!  I normally do 6 sets (although at 70% rather than 40%).

Totally agree that following injuries fingerboarding often isn't a good shout but I've had good success rehabbing pulley injuries and wrist strains with this approach. They key as Derek has said is keeping the loads vey light. 

The main sessions I've been doing are primarily used to target regeneration, where intensities are so low that you should never get pumped. I've used this approach in the past as on a circuit board, which are often slightly overhung, it's really hard to get the intensity low enough. They also work really well for rehab.

Prior to the injury my max on a 20mm edge was BW + 32kg, giving a total load of 96kg, or 150% of bodyweight. I've not wanted to test my max while I'm still in the rehab period as I think that would end in tears! To ensure I'm not overdoing it, I've assumed that my max has dropped by 16kg, giving a total load of 80kg (BW + 16kg). That means the total load for the 30% repeaters is only 24kg, which means I have a pulley system set up to take off 40kg of weight. 

The other thinking behind the madness is that static hangs are very controllable so when done right, the risk of injury is very low. 

The big downside is that it's the most boring session known to man! 

Cheers Derek, not sure how the week has managed to fly by so quickly already!

Had the week off work last week so not the usual volume of swimming as i normally go during lunchtime. Still got some good runs in which are defiantly better now we have lighter evenings and i can hit the trails.

Monday 12.5 k trail run in the evening whilst the kids swim train.

Thursday, 8.5 k run out on the trails

Sunday, 17k trail run with a big hill at the end (big for Leicestershire that is!)

Sounds like a good idea. I would be free this weekend if we want to do something spontaneously. Both Gym session or outdoor climbing would be fine for me.

I'd be up for something at the weekend, but I'm not sure if I'll be free on Saturday, and the forecast for Sunday is suddenly looking dismal. I usually go to Freimann on wet Sundays, or I'd be up for checking out Bad Aibling.

Or we could wait for a better weather forecast and go out somewhere for a day

Ha! Not quite, but it won't take her long.
She was really engaging, possibly not yet in that self-conscious mode like her elder sister, 9 - she just chatted away about climbing stuff: how good she'd become at downclimbing because she was scared of letting go on the auto belay, how she liked bouldering better, how sore skin meant the end of the climbing day, and what are the best snacks when climbing, as she picked out the chocolate splitters from my own special mix...
The whole falling-often process on this problem has generated a number of interactions - others obviously curious as to why this old guy just keeps crashing onto the mat, muttering and staring up at the wall...they saunter over, look at the problem, look at me, try it, and tick it...from climbers even older than me, who were obviously once very good, through to gawky, uncoordinated teenagers, all limbs, flailing successfully...
Maybe that's a new option: want to enjoy the social side of bouldering, then fall and fail, often...

I'm also unsure about Saturday at the moment - supposed to be climbing on Friday but the strike means I probably can't get into Munich. Waiting to hear if my partner can do Saturday instead...if she can't, I'd be available about mid afternoon.
Sunday I could - as Alan says, forecast has turned really gloomy again. Not sure about rock...
I don't have a driver's licence so have to use public transport - which rules out, weirdly, Bad Aibling (wife - my chauffeur - is away)...I can get to Freimann or Thalkirchen as per usual; for Bad Aibling I'd need a pickup from somewhere...and then there's Elements, now that I'm a creaky old boulder fiend.

And waiting for better weather and rock? As a suggestion - don't want to be too bold, but: Alan, if you can't find any takers for Konstein from your usual partners, then maybe that would work. Randy, any stuff there for you? I'd potter around, soak up the atmosphere, serve tea and sandwiches / coffee and cake...
Strange - or is nothing strange anymore with what the internet throws up at us? You Tube offered me this video this morning, fresh off the press:
youtube.com/watch?v=aTOtdBVtZMo&

Paul

Couple of long weekends coming up when I'll - hopefully, weather permitting - be further afield than Konstein. But in principle I'd definitely be up for that at some point and can offer a lift. And/or Freimann this Sunday.

Coincidence! As part of my new Konstein crag moderator responsibilities I was having a snuffle through Martin Feistl's 8a.nu logbook, I didn't know he was also on youtube. There seems to be quite a lot of (new?) harder stuff that isn't in the 2017 guidebook. Supposed to be a new edition due out this year.

Thanks for the continued interest in my whinging!

Tue: Beacon, in two minds about going as elbow was in a bit of a state on Monday but elbow was relatively fine during and after and I climbed ok.

Sat: UKCFCMU! Not sure this was the best advert for Fit Club with a max grade of HVS and Fb6c despite SSB’s very valiant effort to push the average grade up! It was great to meet up and the weather played ball. Some extreme dieting was nearly enforced on some of us at PyB but I maintain it’s a good place to go for dinner if you’re in the area. 
Sun: The weather didn’t play ball and if I’d have known we’d end up in a polished cave up to our knees in goat poo I’d have supported Tom’s suggestion to go to Mannod! This was especially the case when Tom burned me off on the two problems we managed. 

I don’t think I’ve written any goals down this year so am going to start tracking some. They are volume based rather than performance because of injuries which I am beginning to think will never heal (despite treating them intensively with wishful thinking and more of the same!):

Unfinished business on NWL: 1/18 (I’ve added three to this list already this year so not going well!)

10 classic North Wales boulder problems >= 6B 0/10

200 new ticks in my logbook 26/200

Tick 40% of NWR graded list (https://www.ukclimbing.com/logbook/set.php?id=165): Currently 32.8%

Stand in 40 summits (repeats allowed): 2/40

15 scrambles: 0/15

Something of the Parois du Legend or Plasir ilk if I can find a partner ( Aiguille Dibona in Aug/Sept anyone?)

Excellent!  Very keen to support these targets as they overlap considerably with my own.  I have immediately subscribed to the NWR ticklist, which looks much worse than it really is as I didn't log stuff on UKC until relatively recently.

It's been on my wishlist since i first visited the Ecrins a decade ago - but we've never even met let alone climbed together

At least now a few people have met me so you can run background checks to find out if a couple of days in my company is tolerable!

Alan - it's fine.  I'm keen on the Dibona myself, but go for it!  Tyler's bark is worse than his bite

I was thinking more in terms of the risk you might perceive of my bumbling causing us to get caught in a thunderstorm. I was in fact anyway planning to get some granite practice in on one of the upcoming long weekends

But anyway, if you're interested let's take this to mail and avoid clogging up the thread