[mindfull]

STG:
- First Weekend Sept: Trip to Font (Highball Circuits)
- Some Buildering projects + Documenting/Filming
MTG:
- Recovery from surgery

Didn't succeed to fit in some gym sessions, only did some weight/bodyweight training, stretching, and Tai Chi. Also did some easy Parkour.Did do some prospecting of buildering projects and planned the trip to Font.

MO:
- Stretching
- Bodyweight & Weight (added in some maximum intensity squats)
- Tai Chi

TU:
Same as Monday

WED:
Rest
- Did some prospecting of buildering projects.
- Did some easy going but fun parkour.

TH:
Same as Monday.

FR:
Same as Monday.

SA:
Rest

SU:
Rest.
- Planned the trip to Font. Searched Topos. Added POI to GPS. Enjoyed the nice pics.

[kelvin]

Decided to head to Wales to meet up with a guy from the club who's kid was being coached by Caff all week. Hadn't climbed with Khalid before but we're roughly the same level, him a bit stronger and braver. We had no choice in the crags as we had to go where Caff took the kids, otherwise we'd have been in the slate quarries all week!.

Mon - Drive to North Wales. Flippin' wet at the club cottage in Capel Curig.
Tue - The Great Orme for the first time. Warm up on a twin roofed 6a near Parisella's Cave. Total flash pump in the left arm yet again. Normally I'd bail but I had to retrieve the draws... kept going when I shouldn't have. Pumped mad on a 5+ next. Spent rest of the day working a 6b - totally boxed.
Wed - Wake up to bruising on the palm from the flash pump. I've had it before but it's an indicator of how pumped I get. Anyway - went to Tremadog. Did Scratch (VS), lovely climb. Then onto Barbarian. I went up and made a belay lower than usual as the others were on Fingerlickin' and Khalid led the hard pitch. Bloody hell - it was a strong pitch. Really not the stuff I usually do and I struggled with the top roof. Eventually pulled off when shouting "slack". Wouldn't have managed it clean anyway.
Thu - Llandulas Cave. Got on a 6a to warm-up but it was obvious the left arm was stuffed. The bruising from the flash pump had calmed down but there's a definite tear in the upper arm/shoulder that i think must have happened on Barbarian, dunno. Rest day then. Khalid onsighted 6c outside for the first time. It was great watching the kids with Caff, good beta resulting in some decent climbing.
Fri - Holyhead Mountain. Desperately windy, Khalid led some HVS next to Brothers, watched the kids on King Bee and then bailed to the Indy climbing wall. Flashed some 5c problems that seemed soft for the grade after being in Font but the arm was still not in any shape to climb. Cameron almost flashed an 8a route, falling at the last hold due to leaving his feet behind.
Sat - Climbing Station, Loughborough. Arm tight and sore still. Flashed the VB-0 circuit and the V0-1 circuit. Did some blues and reds and oranges (up to V3 max), plus had a go at some tough slab things (V5/7). Stopped when I felt the arm complaining.
Sun - Popped into Pinnacle for a bit and did V0 about thirty times and some V1 and 2 problems. Arm got sore trying a V3, so I bailed. Better than nowt.

Not a bad week considering the injury. Need to make this sort of effort most weeks and not cry off when it hurts. Spain is thirteen months away and I need to be lighter, stronger and trusting my feet by then.

On Wednesday evening went to the Hall of the Mountain Kings and watched Caff working some 8B problem - came away feeling psyched to get back on steeper stuff again. If I wanna get stronger then I'm gonna have to but yeah, it was pretty cool in there. The crux holds felt nails when you looked at what you had for your feet. Full respect to them that can do this sort of stuff.

[Doylo]

I must have seen you at Llanddulas on Thursday.

[Muenchener]

STG (Summer): Any halfway decent alpine route
STG (Autumn): 7a redpoint: Edelbitter at Konstein.
LTG (<= 5 years): Big alpine rock routes: Totenkirchl West Face (Dülfer), Marmolada south face (Vinatzer-Messner)

Abandoned hope of getting anything decent done in the Alps this "summer"; better luck next year. Started the autumn 7a redpoint campaign.

M:
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Half an hour moderate bouldering to warm up, then 12 sets Beastmaker.
W:
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. Half an hour moderate bouldering to warm up, then 12 sets Beastmaker.
F: Bike to & from work 25km
S: Sport climbing. Started my autumn 7a campaign on Edelbitter at Konstein. Lovely route. Big moves on good pockets up a steep wall, until the jugs end two moves before the overhangingness does: crux. Did all the moves, got to the jug before the crux in one on my best burn; sketched my way through the crux with rests twice, but I don't have a consistent/repeatable sequence for it yet. Game On.
S: Rest Day. Knee physio exercises, yoga, core.

[kelvin]

I must have seen you at Llanddulas on Thursday.

Yeah, it was me that's scared stiff of pigeons. Birds in fact. Hideous things. So pleased I was belaying and not climbing into them! That thing you were on looked a bit tough. Strong effort.

[Doylo]

Aye it's a shame how they've taken residence there.

[csl]

August Goals

Stick to training plan - easy rest week this week.
Outside x4 3/4
Onsight more E5 - not been trad climbing
Sport - RP something reasonably hard - Tennessee still evades me.

Mon - Rest
Tue - Rest
Wed - Rest
Thu - Portland - 6a+ and 7a to warm up. Then 1 b2b on Tennessee. Next go wanted to link the hard climbing to the rockover, didn't quite manage it. Did link some stuff i hadn't managed last time. Going to need to get a bit stronger as moves are too close to my limit.
Fri - Rest
Sat - Rest
Sun - Bouldering - tried some hard problems on the comp wall + some antagonist stuff, core and pullups

This week - Aeropow, Ancap, Campus and fingerboarding to fit in.

[the_dom]

Not a good week, revived slightly by the weekend.

Mon - Wed: Sinus infection / man flu - no training at all

Thurs and Fri: feeling better but not well enough to train so force myself to rest

Sat: Early surf in decent waves, followed by a new kettlebell workout that leaves me absolutely broken within about 15 minutes. Good stuff.

Sun: Morning 9km run around the neighbourhood followed by a surf in really small, inconsistent waves. Better than not surfing, but just barely.

Still not climbing - have taken almost 2 weeks off since last testing my finger. Might be worth testing out the finger again this week.

[fried]

Crap week

Mon- 4th session in 6 days, tired, can barely be bothered to get off the mat. Fingers are sore.

So I took the rest of the week off.

Sat - Took the missus and one of her friends out for a walk around Cuvier, Rempart etc, the idea for for me to have a sneaky peek around Monts et Merveille and Reconnaissance, but the girls were in walking mode, so I quickly gave up the idea.
Sun - Some light cleaning.

Not working today..Back to Cuvier to see if I can actually climb anything there. Probably not as usual!

[cheque]

Wake up to bruising on the palm from the flash pump. I've had it before but it's an indicator of how pumped I get.

Interesting post Kelvin. Never heard of visible after-effects of a getting pumped before!

STG- Normal middle fingers. Still feeling good.
2014 goals- 2014 E-points, back to 7th grade in sport and bouldering.
LTG- 8a sport.

M-S: In Seville. Lots of walking around in the incredible heat and a morning riding one of these badboys round a big park. Had a full on siesta every day and ate loads of ice lollys and other food. 

S- Black Rocks. Filmed three routes. Attempted to solo Curtain Call (unprotected soft but dangerous E2)- felt great until the last move when I got my mate to lower me a rope. Did it easily on toprope twice straight after, even though I screwed up the sequence on the second go- should have just gone for it.  With hindsight, getting on it after virtually no climbing in the preceding fortnight and with no warm-up was the mistake. Ah well. Split/ lifted a fingernail in a freak car-boot opening incident when I got home.

My mate has pulled out of a planned trip in September so I now have no future climbing plans whatsoever. 

[tomtom]

Crap week for me too...

M:

T:

W: Got back from 3 day meeting in NL late tuesday night... went to the Tor. Was shit. Couldnt do anything I could do before.. but bizarrely managed the first move on Saline Drip SS - once. It felt easy - then I couldnt do it again... went home

T:

F: Tor. Met up with Shark & met Dave Thomas for first time (hello). Fairly fruitless escapades on Bens.. moves I could just do a couple of weeks before were miles away... Shark returned my hoody (that had made its way into his sons cupboard..) and that was about it. Went out and have 3.5 beers in the evening

S: Hungover (its not fair!) and had beginnings of head cold

Su: Head cold grew - spent most of the day sat on the sofa being teased by the cat...

[Muenchener]

F: Went out and have 3.5 beers in the evening

S: Hungover (its not fair!)

Yeah, three is about where I start to feel it the next day too. Getting old is dreadful

[webbo]

Mon. Board 30 problems including a couple that took a session or two when I first did them. Foot felt ok.
Tue. Bike 72.53 miles 4 hrs 17 mins 16.92 mph.
Wed. Bike 71.06 miles 3 hrs 56 mins 18 mph.
Thu. Foot feeling ok but after going for a walk became really painful, which seems to have led to my Achilles on other leg swelling up. Then my back went in to spasm. Great!!!
Fri. Nothing. Foot and back improved as day went on.
Sat. Board similar session to Monday but with a couple of stiffer problems at the end. Bike 1 hr intervals.
Sun. Bike 93.69miles 5hrs 14 mins 17.89 mph well stuffed at the end back and foot abit sore.

Saw Consultant today mon. Scan shows inflammation but he can't see why, needs to check it out with colleagues and the Radiologist.

[shark]

11.5-8

M.
T. Eve. Tor with Tom. Keith Clarke, Dave Thomas and Seb Crump showed up. Worked all sections of Bens and getting close to doing it in 3 sections. Then dogged up Tin Of an top rope with rests
W.
T.
F.AM Out with Dave Thomas met tomtom there. Cool conds. Worked all sections of Bens. Reverted to low toe hook for move to pocket and close to linking to kneebar twice which is kind of progress. Then failed to get thru crux on Sardine on top rope.  Then had nightmare drive to Cannock for a client meeting and arrived an hour late 
S.AM Disappointing deadhang session. Did a bit of core work to help with moves on Bens. PM Laser Quest in Derby. Eve Guzzling
S.Drove back from Derby. Went to office and worked. Eve. Ordered an extra kneepad from the Depot.

Student house now finished but extension still has a few weeks to go before we get to inhabit it and the kitchen. Another intersting property has come up for sale. Have lots of work on and may not have time to go to the Tor this week    sorry tomtom

Think I am going to leave off from trying the Oak till next year. Although stronger I'm not training nearly hard enough  or psyched enough for the drive and dieting. In the meantime I'll carry on attempting to cheat my way across Bens Roof until I have some kind of epiphany.

Sorry for low morale post

[kelvin]

[Three Nine]

As one depressed and unpsyched man(/shrew) to another, I am sure that the reason your more sensible Oak-training plans have failed (ie. the ones focused on hard bouldering) have failed to get you up the Oak, is because you love to seige stuff (weedkiller/eatswood/WSS etc. etc.).

Trying Ben's is primarily good training for trying Ben's, with some limited crossover. For general strength gains that will cross over to the Oak you need to be trying other stuff too. I'm not saying stop trying, but mix it up. Before you get the rage and rush to defend the current strategy- make sure you know what the goal is. The Oak, or Ben's, and keep the goal the goal.

[Three Nine]

To clarify - climbing in roofs is my favourite sort of climbing, but you rarely have to pull very hard in a way which is relevant to when you have to pull on a steep wall. You're mostly always hanging and pendulum-ing (and also often lots of scope for endless faggottry which is why I like it). I have learnt to my cost before now the importance of the specificity of angle etc.

A bit of undercut-crimp-jug, rattle and hump, kudos wall, cragx etc. in the mix is vital if you ask me (i know you've tried these previously, just you seemed to be getting sucked into full on proj mode)

[shark]

As one depressed and unpsyched man(/shrew) to another, I am sure that the reason your more sensible Oak-training plans have failed (ie. the ones focused on hard bouldering) have failed to get you up the Oak, is because you love to seige stuff (weedkiller/eatswood/WSS etc. etc.).

Trying Ben's is primarily good training for trying Ben's, with some limited crossover. For general strength gains that will cross over to the Oak you need to be trying other stuff too. I'm not saying stop trying, but mix it up. Before you get the rage and rush to defend the current strategy- make sure you know what the goal is. The Oak, or Ben's, and keep the goal the goal.

Its not a strategy. Going on Bens is an enjoyable and convenient routine till I get out of this low patch and will help get me stronger. I am reasonably psyched for Ben's. Maybe going to a load of log venues to fail on 3rd rate 7A's will be more efficient and effective but is going to destroy what motivation I have currently.

[Three Nine]

Righto, if Ben's is the goal then try Ben's lot!

[Three Nine]

And while i'm pontificating. I reckon not spending the autumn at Malham and being into bouldering in the way you seem to be at the moment, is probably the best thing you could possibly do to ensure eventual success on the oak!

[duncan]

STG: Rest week, then resume the fingerboarding and bouldering for strength. Lose 2kg.
MTG: 7b RP this winter. E5 OS, something vertical, classic and not dangerous, next April.
LTG: Long hard (for me) rock routes in the Alps, Dolomites, Picos and Scotland.


M - Shoulder stability stuff
T - Westway routes. Aerobic capacity: 10 x 3 routes back-to-back. F6a-6b, constant mild pump.
W -
T - Portland with Conor. Flashed Superfly Guy after watching Conor on it. Attempted 1789, got a bit freaked out by loose rock on the first section and didn’t really recover my composure after this. Several good falls. Tried the start of Tennesseeeeeee, too hard for me.
F -
S - Anstey’s with Jon. Good scene (hello Ross, Laurence and Patrick). Flashed Might and Main as a warm-up. Opened my account with Empire of the Sun. Got to the move to the pocket first go, then had three goes working it. The moves are OK but putting it all together is something else. Chips and beer by the seaside (the difficulty I had carrying both should have been a warning for how I felt the following day).
S - Barely able to hold anything. Attempted Cocytus as warm-up and failed comprehensively. Belayed Jon on Cider Soak. Only just managed the first four moves on Empire and gave up. Epic drive home.

Pretty happy with this week. Worked a couple of routes, learning a lot about the process, which is pretty new to me. Also got an unexpected 7a flash of a power-endurance route when I’ve not been training for it at all. It was interesting to compare efforts on Superfly and 1789. The latter has no positive footholds on the crux and, though not as steep, the moves felt a lot harder. Finger strength was the clear limitation. Didn’t get very inspired by 1789 and need to find something better (and a bit harder) in the same area I think.

Enjoyed opening my account on Empire. I was amazed at how tired I got, counts as a good training day if nothing else. It’s not an ideal project since it is just too far for a day trip (six and a bit hours to drive home...). On the other hand it’s an inspiring route with great moves and might go fairly quickly with a little more practice, a lot more PE work, and it's easy to train for as it's just like the back wall at the Westway. Worth changing focus and hoping for a chance to get on it again in October? Shouldn't get diverted from finger strength but it's tempting...

Still feeling pretty battered, mostly in a good way, but have collected a few minor finger tweaks. Will have a relatively restful week then get at it again for four more weeks through to October when I should have some free weekends again.

[JackAus]

Pretty shit week. Work and rain pissing every day... Managed to get over to Canberra on the weekend (2 hour ride in rain including 1km through mud...) for a mates birthday. Had a solid session on his moon board. Set a bunch of new problems on it. Only managed a couple up to about V5 that no one else could do. Then Sunday just abit of easy buildering and slacklining in the city, then rode home in glorious sunshine...

[T_B]

84.3Kg

M -
T - Works P.M. Trying some comp wall problems, then circuits. Totally cr*p on the comp wall. Managed the Green '8b' on the circuit board.
W -
T -
F - Anstey's Cove en famille + Dave and family. 2hrs 45mins to do Cider Soak! Warmed up with flash of Empire, then set to work. CS was wet so we took up a 5-yr olds shorts and some nappies to dry the pocket and top. Dave did some drying and then I had a flash burn. Got to the jugs by 4th bolt but was feeling pumped, reached up to right hand crimp and rocked into next hold but it was soaked. Dave had a go, did some more nappy work, then I had a RP, stupidly falling off the last hard move missing the jug. More sacrificial lamb action from Dave to give me one last attempt before time was called and this time swopped feet before going for the jug. Time for beach action and ice cream 
S - DWS comp qualifiers. First one was about 6b, next one 7a, then 3rd one got to the lip and move to obvious grim-match-brain hold, managed to get another move left but couldn't get centre of balance right and fell off. Qualified 3rd overall. A well organised comp but the crucial element of fear intrinsic in DWS was missing as the wall was so short. More like Deep Water Bouldering. Still, props to the organisers who clearly put a hell of a lot of effort into it. Just need to dredge the canal for next year and build a higher wall!
S - Weymouth beach

[shark]

Sounds like the best family weekend ever

[lagerstarfish]

As one depressed and unpsyched man(/shrew) to another, I am sure that the reason your more sensible Oak-training plans have failed (ie. the ones focused on hard bouldering) have failed to get you up the Oak, is because you love to seige stuff (weedkiller/eatswood/WSS etc. etc.).

Trying Ben's is primarily good training for trying Ben's, with some limited crossover. For general strength gains that will cross over to the Oak you need to be trying other stuff too. I'm not saying stop trying, but mix it up. Before you get the rage and rush to defend the current strategy- make sure you know what the goal is. The Oak, or Ben's, and keep the goal the goal.

Its not a strategy. Going on Bens is an enjoyable and convenient routine till I get out of this low patch and will help get me stronger. I am reasonably psyched for Ben's. Maybe going to a load of log venues to fail on 3rd rate 7A's will be more efficient and effective but is going to destroy what motivation I have currently.

all that gushing positivity on the August Lardathon thread must be helping your motivation as well