[Duma]

M - lunch, TCA, 120 min, blues (7A to 8A). Tried 8, did 3, incl one flash, all the moves on 2 others. Tried hard, skin and body knackered after.
T - aft/eve, Cheddar, lion rock. Mainly belaying but got up Cheddar Death Knell (7b+) in a couple of goes, though I'd been on it once before a couple of years ago. Felt tough, but I may just have been still feeling the effects of yesterday's session.
W -
T - eve, TCA, 120 min, first session now they've changed to stupid (imo) by panel setting rather than by circuit. Finished the 2 blues from Monday, then onto the new stuff. Blues, whites and blacks, 6B to 7Aish. Tried 11, did 10, 6 flashes, 1 second go that I should have flashed, 1 took a bunch of goes but fine when eventually worked out beta, 2 others took a few tries.
F - skin and elbow sore so canned climbing. 12 hr night shift.
S - aft/eve, TCA, 90 min. Mainly trying 2 on the front, blue and black. No ticks but decent progress. 12 hr night shift.
S - 12 hr night shift.

71.5 kg.

[alba]

Hi, hope it's cool to join in with this.

M
T - evening indoor bouldering session, climbing v3  to v5. Doubt these are in reality those grades but they work relative to each other. Tried the moonboard's easiest problem but it's pointless at this stage ha. It's brutal until I lose some more weight and even then it's such powerful climbing.
W -
T - swam about half a mile
F -  bouldered a bit, making progress on a V3, then sport climbed. Nearly got to the top of a 6a and then got 2/3 of the way up a 6a+ onsight. Think I should be able to climb both in the next week or two.The sport climbs are graded pretty accurately I think

I don't own a car, cycling mileage is usually about 50-100 miles a week. Been back climbing about 2 months after a 10/15 year break.

68kg but only 5ft 3

[Duma]

Hi, hope it's cool to join in with this.

Hey alba, all welcome, more the merrier!

[Aussiegav]

Thanks Duma.
Welcome Alba. I had a similar length break from climbing. 

This week,
Monday -

Finger board on 18mm edges
6x 10s hangs.  Total weight 76kg.
Still battling chest infection
Effort level 7/10

Tuesday
Elbow strength training

Wednesday
Rest

Thursday
Fingerboard on 18mm edge. Half crimp
Six 10sec hangs. Total weight 77.6kg. Felt good. 6/10 effort level
40min peloton Tabata ride



Friday
Rest day.  Elbow rehab

Saturday
Virgin Gym auto belays
2x6a
2x6b
6b+. Had 2 rests to work out moves. Rested 8min. Did next go
Tried another 6b+. Felt more complicated had about 3 rests to work out moves. Did next go.
6b+
6b,
6b

Good session with a bit of volume, elbow went well & felt fine after.


Sunday
Strength training at Virgin Gym

Managing 4x4 pistol squats with 4kg kettle bell. Legs & glutes very tight & sore afterwards. 

Managed 5 sets of 3 pull ups. Elbow getting stronger. Still needs a lot of strength at top of flexion point.

May get back to moderate bouldering in a few weeks from now

[ali k]

now they've changed to stupid (imo) by panel setting rather than by circuit.

They do this at one of the walls I go to, but the place is massive so it probably makes sense. (It’s by elevation rather than by panel). They could never set the whole circuit in a day and would involve moving barriers etc around too much even if they could. I quite like it cos every time I go there’s new problems to try. Their other smaller venue they still do by circuit though, which again makes sense.

Dunno if it’s just TCA being lazy/cost cutting though?

[Fiend]

Hmmmm I was on the verge of agreeing with Dumalik given that most indoor boulderers like focusing on a circuit range or two (myself included), but then I realised that Blochaus and RockOver (the latter being my current favourite indoor wall) do reset "area by area"  and I'm okay with that. Then again I don't visit as regularly as Duma at TCA, and the areas usually include 6 or so of any given circuit (so 18 or so suitable level new problems for me, including warm-ups and seiges). Hmmm 

[duncan]

Hi alba, I had a ~10 year break, resuming in my mid 30s. At that age the movement and strength for single moves came back fairly quickly, confidence had declined naturally and healthily from the madness of my early 20s, but the 'short endurance' for sport routes took me quite a while to regain.  Also found I needed two months rather than two weeks to recover from a similar tweak (and it gets worse), so good luck, have fun, and take it steadily! 

M -

T - Fingerboard pickups, 36kg, left only. Hip flexibility: prone frog stretch, standing pancake stretch, sumo squats.

W - Westway, leading routes to 6a and some falls practice. Shoulder/elbow conditioning: reverse curls, handstands, side planks.

T - Hip flexibility.

F - Fingerboard pick-up as above, stopped early as feeling tweaky. Walked 10km.

S - Shoulder/elbow conditioning. Hip flexibility. Fingerboard pick-up as above.

S - 8-9km brisk walk today, and most days this week.

A bunch of test results came back, nothing meriting heroic broadly positive, somewhat raised LDL so GP wants to put me on statins as they do, not sure what I think about this. A brief search on dietary advice reveals the usual complete mess of conflicting information apparently riddled with biases and agendas. Any suggestions on where to start, I'm more than happy to read original papers. Trying to organise a follow-up with the medical team.

Not much climbing this week. After about 75 practice falls this month short ones now feel casual again. I've noticed it makes a positive difference if I focus on the landing zone rather than the bolt when I drop off. As it's often when I’m eyeballing the bolt that I'm most gripped on lead this is something to practise when I've got another couple of hundred in the bank. 

Back feels good, shoulders feel good, wrists feel good, knees feel good, hips are not too bad considering, (left) ankle is creaky, (right) elbow is sore which is tiresome. Stretching a bit more consistently, not a habit yet.

I should probably give my fingers a short break and wonder if a complete week of rest from any kind of arm exercise might be in order for my elbow which, after six weeks of mild-moderate activity, is frustratingly unchanged.

[SA Chris]

A surprisingly productive week for once.

M - Lunch - stamina on board, 1 min on 1 min off. Surprisingly tiring. 11k hill run in evening forcing myself to slow pace, after doing 21 km the day before.
T - 4 k leg stretch in evening.
W - 5 k walk home from garage. Did some lifts in the evening
T - easy pace 6 km run with a mate. Bouldered on board in evening.
F - nowt
S - did a couple of routes at Yellow Crag. 5+ and 6a+ first tome on a rope on rock this year. All felt a bit hard but felt good. Bouldered a bit after.
S - Balmoral 15 mile race for my 55th. Weather mostly OK, nice and cool. Felt good for most of the race, thought I might be on for 2 hours, but headwind got stronger and stronger as I was going up the bastard long hill was joined by rain in the face as I started the descent, and knew I had nothing left. 2:03:10, still a pb from when I last did it in 2018.   
 

[Fultonius]

Another hiatus for me. Been patchy recently with A2 management and life stuff getting in the way.

But...

Trip report!

Friday 19th:  Tentative session at Brin, partner wanted to try "It's high End 8!" - (7b+) so just had a few Tr laps on that, making sure not to tweak a finger on the wee crimps. 3rd lap linked it clean but held off leading as I wanted to make sure I got to Pabbay with no sore fingers!
Sat 20th: couple of E1s at Glen Nevis, drove to Skye.
Sunday 21st: Boat to Pabbay from Skye (4 hrs), managed an E1 and a TR of an E4/5 as mate's had a rope on it.
Monday 22nd: Easing in with a trip to Allanish walls, led Fracture Clinic and As Sound as a Mr Ja, both E2, both great fun.
Tuesday 23rd: Prophecy of Drowning - so....So good. One of the best E2s in the country.
Wednesday 24th: Spit in Paradise. Mental. Just bikers how much this things overhangs. E4, but all pitches no harder than E3. So much fun, and my fitness is clearly good as I only had a sniff of pump on the first pitch crux, then nothing the rest of the way,
Thursday: Poop deck - Who killed JR was delightful at E2 and I laughed my whole way up it as the holds were just so pleasingly good! Seconded a few things (climbing as 3) and then strapped on for the big one - Thursday's Setting Sunrise. Very steep E5 crack, probably 20/25 degrees overhanging! Pumpy and technical jamming, roofs, good gear. Got it clean but had to fight - those jamming muscles less fit than the crimping ones!
Friday: Felt quite fatigued by this point, but wanted to get another classic done. Sugar Cane Country was just phenomenal!  What a ride. I was a bit more tentative than on previous days, just through slight lack of head rest (maybe not best sleep) but felt smooth on it, kept the pump pretty manageable and read all the moves. Good times!

Sat/Sun - lazing / packing / boat / travel.

83.5kg....heaviest ever, but managing steep and pumpy E4s with almost no pump. E5 less so but good. Plenty power, fingers strong. Odd.


Last year I went out to Pabbay too, probably similar sport fitness and trad warm up, but with no 3 week trip to slovenia getting tuned into rock first. I had high expectations last year, thinking of going for my first E6 onsight and then had a poor trip, falling off E3s, E4s and barely getting anything clean on lead. This year we did have better conditions, but I also eased in, low expectations and just got the flow on. This seems to be key for me. (and less whisky - last year was my 40th and some celebrations got out of hand...)

[monkoffunk]

M - Gym. Weighted pull ups, etc.  Yoga.
T - Rest. Yoga.
W - Morning - physio exercises. Sub max hangs +10kg. One arm locks, quarter and half, heavy assistance. Afternoon, Repeaters BW.
T - Yoga.
F - Gym. Light deadlifts thinking about form. No pull ups, rest similar to Monday.
S - Very brief stretches
S - Yoga. Sub max hangs +10kg. Repeaters BW.

Another week of mostly gym stuff and fingers coming up. Aiming to up the one arm locks a bit.

Main positive is progress on house move, so one step closer to home board and something resembling regular climbing!

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - bar work, shoulder static holds. It's hard.
Tue - DL 531 week 2. High pulls. Lattice edge mixed grips.
Wed - 6x thruster, BM campusing and pockets, rings.
Thu - jog and stairs.
Fri - boxing bag.
Sat - weights.
Sun - loaded carries outside.

[mr chaz]

Power Club:

M.
T. Evening session in the shed. Mixing up the routine somewhat, did a full max hangs session using the old CWP method, i.e. 3 x hangs on each arm straight, then bent to 120 degrees, then to 90 degrees - using the lattice rung and a pulley. I've understandably lost a lot of lock off strength over the past couple of years with injures etc, and its time to build some back up. Did about 30 mins on the board afterwards but was climbing badly.
W.
T. Normal board session in the evening - close to a hard project, decent session.
F.
S.
S.

Lakes next weekend for a stag, hoping to fit some climbing in too.