UKBouldering.com

Aims for 2023 (Read 22551 times)

Wil

Offline
  • ***
  • obsessive maniac
  • Posts: 338
  • Karma: +39/-0
    • Wil Treasure
#150 Re: Aims for 2023
December 31, 2023, 11:10:50 am
Sort out the garden: Dog-proof it with new fences, dig up the drive and replace with lawn, plant a couple of trees, cut the hedge back to manageable proportions.
Sorted a lot of the garden, but things had to be pushed back for various reasons (needing planning permission for the fence due to the layout of our house for one). Final part of dog-proof fence is on its way in the New Year, but we've got a temporary one round the back for the time being.

Get a dog.
Jen has wanted a dog for years and when it came to it she decided she was too excited to have good judgment and I would have to find one for her. We wanted something that was a mix of working breeds. I grew up with (working) Collies and Huntaways and her with (pet) GSD crosses. We've ended up with Hamish, a Lab, Collie, GSD and Komondor cross, who is a ball of bitey energy at 3 months, and a little confused about whether he's herding, guarding or retrieving.

Actually use my fingerboard.
I was pretty good for the first 4 months of the year.

Sport climbing: Silk Purse at Dunkeld is my obvious target. I'd also like to do one of the 7cs at Tunnel Walls and have a play on Axiom.
Made good progress on Silk Purse, but was too busy for proper training over the winter and had nowhere sear the endurance for it. Shoulder injury meant I didn't go back.

Trad: Get a couple of weekends doing big, hardish mountain routes in the E2-5 range. Have a bash at Lady Charlotte and Rat Race at Dunkeld. A trip elsewhere would be good too.
Did hardly any climbing all year and never got my head together for harder trad before taking a rest with injury.

Winter: Bag 3 classic winter routes this season, ideally at new-to-me venues, but I'm not fussy.
Too busy with a course from January to April, and didn't get out at all!

Other: I've been working on plans for a link-up project that I'd like to film if possible. The idea would be to cycle from home (Bridge of Allan) and have a big day in the mountains, inspired by Colin Kirkus's exploits. From here that would mean either cycling to Glen Coe, or more likely doing a link-up of winter routes near Tyndrum, with the whole thing taking probably 3 days. Even better if I can repeat with a summer rock version.
I've made progress on planning a few adventures like this, and had a great day cycling, running and soloing at Beinn a Bhuird in May.

Hopefully, attain fulfilling employment. My bar for this is pretty low after a series of really shitty employers! Simply feeling valued and having prospects for future progress both professionally and in terms of skills would be good. Course to hopefully accelerate this starts in January.
A job was not forthcoming after the course, I managed to get 2 interviews and got good feedback, but one job then didn't actually exist. Feedback from applications has been good, but I'm in the Catch-22 of needing experience to get a job, and only being able to get a job with experience... In the meantime I'm tutoring maths online, mostly A-level, but I'm also doing undergrad maths for scientists and engineers, which is interesting. Low stress and I'm enjoying teaching again. Completed some more work for the SMC integrating their guides with the RF App.

reeve

Offline
  • ***
  • obsessive maniac
  • Posts: 435
  • Karma: +81/-1
#151 Re: Aims for 2023
December 31, 2023, 12:46:19 pm
Quote
Ah the annual internal fight between my wildest dreams and the crushing reality... let's see if I can get the balance a bit better in my goals this year
- I'll let you be the judge, given the amount of amber and red and the scarcity of green!

Bouldering: Do some cool boulder problems which - despite my proclivity to only do things within my comfort zone - actually take me more than 10 minutes of effort. For example: Darkthrone, Stottie, Blackfoot, The Horn etc.. Did a couple of these, but hardly overcame my tendency to only try things I'll probably do in a session so amber seems fair. To be fair, I was well up for getting stuck into a proj for Winter but I've only been bouldering once so far this season! Stupid weather.

Trad: Fair-style my way up some harder routes. Try hard enough to fall off some / give any onlookers a spectacle. Get committed on some big cliffs. Let’s say half a dozen E6’s / sandbagged E5’s Probably about three, at least one entertaining spectacle and one big committing cliff. Feels like some wins on a technicality but really not enough of the kind of experiences I was really looking for so again I'll have to be happy with an amber
Do some more dirty cracks, culminating in success on the mightily butch (and big spanking from ’22) Circular Saw (E2!) Another session down and still haven't done the bugger!

Sport: Based on previous years’ abject failures, let’s set the bar a bit lower and aim to do a decent pyramid of sport routes back to 8a. Then let’s take it from there, ideally doing more than one and/or reaching a bit higher than that Infuriating! Did 5 7c's, all in a session, then spent sometime trying an 8a+ at the Cornice that then got wet, then had four sessions (spread over August, September, and the middle of October!) on Aberration on which I managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! See biggest spankings in the other thread...

Miscellaneous: Go abroad but continue our personal moratorium on flying Font and Annot!; do a route at Malham (last time was 2013! [roll over goal from last year]); bivvy / wildcamp somewhere cool (roll over goal from last year); climb some choss; climb on slate; do some DWS; visit a Scottish island. - probably the best thing I did this year.

Training: Maintain strength over summer (FB or board, at least weekly); stretch - get better at middle splits Nothing spectacular but pleasing for me.

Non-climbing: soundproof entire house (or at least the bedroom, so our sleep isn’t interrupted by the neighbour having a shouting match with their teenage sons every morning [roll over goal from last year]); depending on money, sort the kitchen; have more friends round for dinner / barbecues in the back garden; continue learning French; read more (I can only think of one book I’ve read since finishing my PhD in 2019!).

Pretty mixed bag overall. I've found a lot of 2023 frustrating in terms of not quite getting things done. Hard to pinpoint exactly why things haven't happened. Perhaps I've been a bit passive in terms of setting up partners and hustling to get on what I really want to do - something to work on in '24

Liamhutch89

Offline
  • *****
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 1262
  • Karma: +87/-1
#152 Re: Aims for 2023
December 31, 2023, 12:48:21 pm
Kenzoku. A hard problem that challenges and inspires me, simple as that.
First session of the year I think.

Climb a moderately hard 3 star problem in Wales or The Lakes (cosmic wheels, starshot sit, ???).
Barely climbed outside Yorkshire this year, but I've sought out and climbed a lot of good lines that in my opinion are even better than cosmic wheels or starshot (e.g. Red Alfa, The Waiting Line)

At least 10 sessions on rock with other people. My good mates from Leeds have all emigrated to Australia or the USA over the last few years. Since I work at home and usually climb alone, I rarely interact with other humans outside of my household. Hopefully, achieving this goal will help keep me sane.
Easily.

Something on a rope that takes a few sessions. I have no intention to train endurance, so it will need to be fairly bouldery. Agent Provocateur at WCJ looks good.
Kind of. I've practiced several things on a rope that I've gone on to highball/solo.

5% increase on my max hangs PB.
No idea, I don't do them anymore but my fingers are stronger, so i'm ticking this. It's probably worth saving for another thread but max hang / grade correlations from Lattice and others have negatively affected my training for around 5 years. I now believe it's pretty useless information for an individual climber.

I already have a couple of family holidays booked but I'd like to aim for one trip with mates, whether that's for climbing, surfing or bikes, it doesn't matter.
No climbing, surfing or biking trips.

Get CEng
All done at my end, just waiting on them!
[/quote]
« Last Edit: December 31, 2023, 12:57:13 pm by Liamhutch89 »

yetix

Offline
  • ****
  • forum abuser
  • Posts: 610
  • Karma: +33/-0
#153 Re: Aims for 2023
December 31, 2023, 10:32:59 pm
Can't find any goals from me so will add what I was working towards anyway:

3 8As or above
- done 1, have done 1 in very overlapping halves with 10s rest between falling off and pulling on again, but I feel the summer temps might have ended trying that one. Have another that if I can build a bit more fitness on it might go.

30 7Cs or above
- currently at 15



Should be off to Font Sept to early Dec, which may make my first goal tough to achieve as I don't want to spend that time projecting, just more enjoying quality session grade boulders. Would be nice to get one more done before I leave and potentially return to the one that's close in December.

Ended up doing 30 odd 7C and 2 8As, didn't get chance to go back to a few things but also probably overstretched myself having 4 8s that I ended up having in very overlapping halves each to go back to next year and a bunch more I did all the moves on.

Hopes I'd get one more chance to close this off today but the weather didn't allow for it.

cheque

Offline
  • *****
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 3389
  • Karma: +522/-2
    • Cheque Pictures
#154 Re: Aims for 2023
January 01, 2024, 12:31:06 am
Nice work everybody with green on here.  :thumbsup:

Up until the middle of the year I was on track and pretty confident of ticking almost all of these but getting really sick for a few weeks in the summer (didn’t have long Covid or anything but it took a while to get back in the saddle climbing-wise, mentally more than physically) and the unexpected resolution in late November of a “conveyancing issue” that had been rumbling on all year meant that it all went out of the window while we bought a house and moved our stuff into it. That’s not the sort of goal I write about on here but it’s bigger than all these in a way so I’m not disappointed at all  ;D

climb my remaining 11 (for want of a better term) bogey routes

To recap, my definition of a “bogey route” was a trad climb I’d failed to lead clean on more than one occasion. I’ve actually ended 2023 with only 1 less than I started it with  :lol: I did tick off 5 of the original list though (and it felt great each time I did), I just added 4 more… I didn’t take into account that I have lots of routes that I’ve tried and failed on once and giving some of those another shot increased the list. If I’d have been really focused on this goal I could have not tried any of those routes and been more proactive in getting partners to belay me on the ones on the list that I didn’t try but while last winter I thought it would be really useful for my climbing to tick this aim it didn’t feel that important once I actually got out climbing again in the spring.

Best trad year ever. (27+ HVSs, 7+ E1s & 2+ E2s)

Ticked the HVSs easily (well into the thirties by the end) and the E1s without too much bother (I managed 8, they were feeling pretty routine by the end of the season and I did a few tough ones) but while I did attempt some E2s on the sharp end, I wasn’t successful.

This means that I equalled 2012 (when I set those totals of the first two grades but had yet to lead E2) but not 2014 or 2017 (when I did nothing like that trad volume but got up two E2s) so it’s an orange one overall. The full tick remains for 2024!

300+ days leg stretches.

Boom, did this. 301 days. Regard me  ;) Did 328 days of upper body stretching and stretched my back on 209 days too. Made loads of progress in my range of movement, back to what feels like pre-accident levels now, and I think the fact that I completely cleared up last winter’s shoulder and elbow gripes and didn’t get any more injuries is partly down to this too. Moving house has meant that I’ve barely stretched for a month though so need to get back on it.

39+ days with a fingerboard session

29 in total. Did 19 sessions between January and April with 20 saved for September- December so I was on track. However moving meant that fingerboarding fell by the wayside… and now it’s not even on a wall. :spank:

Repeat my strength PBs

This is a list of 39 PBs that I dredged from my training diaries back when I couldn’t walk. Every year I try and repeat them all. In 2023 I got to within 5 and ticked a few that I hadn’t done since my accident (only 2 remain in this category) so while this is another that suffered from lack of attention at the end of the year, it’s doable in 2024.

10+ days on high moors or mountain crags

11 in total. Mostly moorland grit but some mountain days in there too and I haven’t counted days hiking or scrambling, only ones with roped climbing involved. Best ever year for this  :2thumbsup:

Take more photos than just action & landscape

Yeah, just about. Didn’t get great results but did make some effort and it’s a nebulous aim so I’m ticking it.

Perfect Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now on the bass

There’s always one you don’t even remember isn’t there?! I can definitely play it but I wouldn’t say I’ve perfected it, certainly not enough to do a video as proof which I think was my intention. Towards the end of the year I got more into playing the keyboard and now all my music gear has been packed away for a month!

Aussiegav

Offline
  • ****
  • forum abuser
  • Posts: 677
  • Karma: +29/-10
    • Climberbiker.
#155 Re: Aims for 2023
January 01, 2024, 01:34:45 pm
Final results
Outside Climbing

20+ days outside climbing
Have great family trip to El Chorro

Onsight 6c
Managed to flash 2. No Onsight.

Onsight 6b+ x3
Achieved

Redpoint 7a in a day
No. Took 3 sessions/ 8 tie ins.

Depot Goals

Complete 80% of a purple circui
Achieved

Complete 2  of a yellow circuit - NO
Climb 5 yellows- NO
Flash 10 purples - Yes

Coops_13

Offline
  • *****
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 1206
  • Karma: +75/-0
    • YouTube
#156 Re: Aims for 2023
January 01, 2024, 03:30:32 pm
Best year yet credited to the board and staying uninjured!

Climbing
- 5 V9s
Topped my fifth V9 of the year on the last day of the year - just managed to sneak this in :D

- V10
YYFY - managed to do three in four, three and two sessions respectively

- Go on at least three trips
Moe's, the South, Roy, Squamish, Joe's. A good year for trips

Training
- Get down to 10% BW assistance hangs on one-arm BM2k slot
Hit 10% on LH, close on RH. Fingers have been tweaky throughout the year but glad to be consistently in the -20 to -25lb range

- Get weight down to 80kg
I did for the summer then bounced back up. On my way down again for a trip to the South at the end of Jan

SA Chris

Offline
  • *****
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 29221
  • Karma: +630/-11
    • http://groups.msn.com/ChrisClix
#157 Re: Aims for 2023
January 04, 2024, 10:32:00 am
EOY Review

Climbing

Get over finger injury.

Yep, feeling as good as ever (touch wood)

Get a couple of local bouldering projects done.

Can't remember what these referred to, but found and did a few cool new probs

Tick a couple of good established problems repeated (best option being Rankin's new ones at Johnsheugh).

Nope - had one session trying some of the JH ones, but no go,

Get a mountain route or two done.

Nope - trad rack gathering dust

Get some DWS done, some of the longer Murrayheugh routes.

Did some, couple of great days, but didn't do any of the longer routes

Get Kyle leading.

Yep, leading well indoors, getting low 6 leads done consistently. Need to get outdoors now...

Get to some other Scottish bouldering, Strathnairn, Torridon and Dromore

Nope, not climbed outside the shire

Running

PB a road HM (1:38:00 or better). - nope - one HM and blew out

1000 km for the year, (1200 as a stretch goal). Yep, hit 1000 on last day of the year

Not sure what else, maybe a marathon or a trail ultra. nothing

General

Do a CPR / Defib refresher  refreshed scout leader 1st aid training, which included defib

Get a couple of local ski tours done no scottish skiing again

Surf more more than last year, but still not loads. Had some great days

Get work needed on house done yes, driveway redone, was the big one!

Get to 50 mark on family Munros (currently 23). Getting trickier as we get the nearby ones ticked off.
LOL, massive fail, did 1. Tricky with daughter now diving on saturdays and swimming on sunday.

Not a bad year, given the person stuff that's gone down I can't complain about what I've managed

Yossarian

Offline
  • *****
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 2354
  • Karma: +351/-5
#158 Re: Aims for 2023
January 04, 2024, 05:25:42 pm
I’ve not had a decent season since the end of 2019 / covid, so need to be organised to try to make this a good one.

Climbing

Climb outside more regularly. In 2018-19 I embraced the SE sandstone (mainly shunting routes with a bit of bouldering) and had my best season in years, so going to try to get back to doing this.

Focus on south coast sport for the first part of the year, maybe with a few bouldering days thrown in. Make in a session and flashing the dominant themes, entirely in the interests of getting as much stuff done as possible.

If my standard goes up sufficiently, start travelling a bit further.

Climb with more people off here, get better at networking re other climbing parents with kids similar ages to mine - 11 and 8 - and generally try to have more options for stuff near and far.


Figure out some good trips for the kids. More routes (and get daughter leading regularly and up into the 7s (which she’s more than capable of). An Easter or summer bouldering trip somewhere fun.

Went to Font twice, plus Switzerland. Didn't achieve a vast amount, but kids and I had fun.

Get on some trad too, but try to keep it productive and fun vs getting freaked out at Swanage and then locking my gear in a cupboard.

Training

Lose loads of weight. It’s by far the most significant thing holding me back, and I have a good track record of getting thinner, so just need to get on with it. I think I could probably eventually get into the 70s, but 80-85kg would be a good start.

Yo-yoed back and forth. Eventually gave up worrying about doing this on my own and booked a nutritionist, starting imminently.

Reorganise what I’m doing so part of the week I’m focusing on route-specific stuff, rather than having it in the back of my mind - i.e. train like a route climber who wants to push his bouldering, vs someone who thinks he’s a boulderer who occasionally gets distracted by other things.

Get better at using the 40deg board for route specific stuff, inc 4x4s and 20kg move type things.

Board syke was one of the main highlights of the year. Had vastly more fun / made more progress doing that than everything else.

Set and work towards various strength-related goals (147, 1 arm pull up, BM slot hang, etc) because they’re simple targets that would be nice to tick off.

Was doing pretty well with a Gus-style fridge ticklist of this stuff, until my attention got diverted in the autumn.

Work consistently on flexibility, which is currently in a fairly shit state of affairs.

Orange, but right at the very far end nearest red.

Finger strength is not a weakness, but I do still want to get back to consistent fingerboarding as it’s nice seeing numbers progressing vs the lucky dip of achieving it via board climbing. Also I think I need to do more drag training.

Hardly did any.

Life

Finish work-in-progress books, script, and generally work hard to hopefully avoid having to return to conventional employment.

Finished a TV script which has taken 18 months, though most of it came together over November and December, during which time I completely forgot about climbing, sometimes forgot I had children, worked through quite a few nights (twice in a row on one occasion, because I was having so much fun), and finally sent it off shortly before arriving in Ticino, where I arrived almost perfectly de-trained. Fingers crossed.

Also avoided any conventional employment, deleted my LinkedIn, and have a couple of backup projects underway to hopefully keep things ticking over...

SA Chris

Offline
  • *****
  • forum hero
  • Posts: 29221
  • Karma: +630/-11
    • http://groups.msn.com/ChrisClix
#159 Re: Aims for 2023
January 05, 2024, 09:13:19 am
I find your life path both enviable and terrifying at the same time. Kudos to you.

Goat

Offline
  • *
  • newbie
  • Posts: 22
  • Karma: +9/-0
#160 Re: Aims for 2023
January 06, 2024, 12:19:17 pm
A ranking (.) of importance has been added to each goal
Correlative goal:(-) A goal that is correlated to the amount of work you put in to the goal.
Causative goal: (--) A goal that is directly caused by the amount of work you put into that goal.
Correlative goals are not necessarily reflective of input, so for each correlative goal I have a causative goal to assist it.
 
Improve finger strength in acute positions
-Front-3 half crimp (or more acute) 8-2 repeaters comfortably at BW on the Beastmaker2000 outer edges. Yes
--Do at least 1 repeater session every week.* (4) Green?
I exploited the constraints on my training (1) and overtrained repeaters. I probably completed 50 sessions by the end of the first 6 months. For a fleeting moment, I was probably the strongest I have ever been. I then got injured likely due to over-training repeaters.

Improve flexibility
-Hamstrings- Get both of my heels to the top of the fridge with no assistance other than balance stabilization. Yes
-Hips-Side splits progress to both heels outside of the 6 tile range in the kitchen. No. Still 6 inches off, but I chose to deprioritized this stretch 
--Continue to stretch before dinner on standard rest days, targeting these areas as well as general mobility and rehab work. (3) Yes, I have stuck to this well. I have made good gains with bunched hip flexibility
 
Minimise injuries and injury risk (goals are gonna get more complex for this)
-No major injuries (defN: 3-months or more of impaired climbing or worse such as serious impairment)
-Only up to one new medium injury (defN: (1-3)-months of impaired climbing)
Ok on the whole. Six months of not being able to train crimp or crimp aggressively, but the impairment to my climbing wasn’t too bad. Now fully recovered.
--At least 1 lower intensity volume/technique session per week. (1) (e.g repeaters followed by trying problems up to 3 times before moving on.) Yes, I have stuck to this well but dropped the repeaters after 6 months (see above)
-Come up with creative ways to enjoy lower intensity sessions. Yes, I am enjoying my low intensity sessions on account of this
 
The following is one goal (2)
--Before each school session honestly assign it to a category and try to keep sessions in their box.
   power (high intensity)
   finger strength (high intensity)
   power and finger strength (high intensity)
   volume (lower intensity)
   technique (lower intensity)
   other (lower intensity)
--No more than 2 sessions a week with high intensity power. Such sessions must have at least 2 days in between them.
--No more than 2 sessions a week with high intensity finger strength. Such sessions must have at least 2 days in between them.
Yes, I honestly assign all of my sessions in a week to a category now.
 
*This will usually be 4 sets of hangs for a warmup. Deviations from this are allowed for a holiday. This has intentionally been set as a very simple goal to allow for deviations in acute finger training while still being able to keep up with this underlying goal all year round.

 

SimplePortal 2.3.7 © 2008-2024, SimplePortal