[Paul B]

As in meals with no calories or skipping them altogether ?

No, its a meal (or sometimes a day even) where you purposefully allow yourself to stray from your diet in order to preserve will power. Obviously if you eat a black chocolate gateaux at each cheat you might as well not bother but allowing yourself something you can crave can help a bit.

I'm sure google might throw up some more eloquent articles on the subject.

[comPiler]

Periodisation
15 December 2010, 2:11 pm

“So how’s the periodised plan going?” is something I get asked. It’s not something I can really answer till after May 2011 but I have faith that its going well.

Personally I only know a few climbers who follow a periodised training plan – in fact precisely three – Stu, Jules and Tommy. Why is it so unpopular in climbing compared to other sports?

I can think of a few reasons but the literature on climbing training hasn't helped. Much as I love the ground-breaking "Performance Climbing" I think the byzantine complexity of its section on periodisation put climbers off the scent for a generation - well it put me off anyway. Since then "Self-Coached Climber" has again put people off by advocating a progressive approach and Dave Mac doesn’t mention it at all in "9 out of 10"(I think). David Macia who trains Patxi Usobiaga has written a book covering it but it is in Spanish and out of print. Whilst there is a mass of literature in other sports from where it is derived (along with a lexicon of jargon to swallow) the demands of other sports have different demands on physical variables such as oxygen consumption which have no bearing on climbing capability. To complicate matters further there are now multiple variations of periodisation with their own advocates from diffrent sports.

The net result is we have an approach to training that is hard to understand, harder to apply to climbing and from a behavioural point of view hard to follow. All a bit difficult and off-putting - yes?

Cry me a river, Where's my tiny violin etc etc. Delayed gratification and hard graft is a mark of an adult and a good athlete. Most importantly, applied correctly the SCIENCE says it works. To ignore it I felt, was making a choice to jeopardise my sport climbing aspirations. Bewildered by the info on the web I took the easy route and shelled out for a coaching session and training programme from Tommy.

I'm  now 5 weeks into the programme but it was only on Monday that I felt like I put in my first decent training session. By decent I mean I got the levels of intensity right – concentrating on training rather than performing.

The session involved putting two blocks/units of training back-to-back and entailed 3 sets of 4 reps of an AnCap 15 move problem on the 40 degree board then a half hour rest then sweating my way through an Aerobic Capacity unit of 5 sets of 10 easy boulder problems. I was zonked out at the end.

Between rests  I watched my mates having much more fun getting stuck in to some good looking problems on the steep section of the Wave. More fool me? or them?.

Source: The Shark

[comPiler]

Benchmarking
20 January 2011, 1:22 pm

After over a fortnight of flu I'm at last feeling well - its like being re-born.

Being ill scuppered following the training programme. Doing stuff like Power Endurance is a bad idea if you are ill as it stresses the whole body. Lower impact stuff like aerobic capacity training or localised strength training like deadhanging should be OK though. In fact I found I was getting a bit addicted to deadhanging with some noticeable gains with one handed hangs from a first joint edge and the belief that a one-armer on a first joint edge might be possible. Best not get to get sidetracked training for these party tricks.

In order to take stock and get back on track I had a session with Coach Randall on Monday evening. He took me through a similar set of exercises to my first assessment in August - a time when I was climbing well. I wasn't hopeful but it turned out that I had moved up a level in all the kety areas. The exercises included 4 repeats on a long V5 boulder problem, 4 repeats of a steep 6c+ route as well as 10 mins Continuous climbing on a bouldering circuit. Also some of the upper back stiffness that had prevented me doing cross-thrus had improved - although still some way to go here. Similarly I could hang an edge with my left that I couldn't touch last time.

When your nose is up against it week in week out with the training its hard to notice improvements especially when your memory is as fucked as mine. Having a session of benchmarking has given me a bit of renewed vigour. Mind you if it had turned out that I had gone backwards I would be slitting my wrists now.

Source: The Shark

[comPiler]

Hour of Power
27 January 2011, 8:32 pm

I found myself on the receiving end of a bargain job lot of holds, boards and mats about 18 months ago. The thing is I then had to construct a shed at significantly greater expense to accommodate them. I'm  useless at DIY. It went up wonky but watertight at least after a builder was drafted in to finish the roof and doors. I like being in there - its a den to escape to. A man and his shed - it's a primal thing.

One of my regular sessions in the shed as part of the programme is doing a session of ten reps of six single hard moves. It's a session I really enjoy. Four of the moves  replicate moves on Austrian Oak - my long term project at Malham. I usually struggle on all of the moves - but not tonight. They were piss - at least a grade easier then ever before. I don't know what has made the difference but, for now, I'm ecstatic.

Source: The Shark

[comPiler]

You're not trying hard enough
9 February 2011, 12:22 pm

When I got into climbing in the early 80's at university I used to fall off - a lot - to the extent that I was awarded 'Lob of the Year' by the University Mountaineering Club. My motto was that "if you aren't falling then you aren't trying hard enough".

Clearly falling and decking out or hurting yourself is trying too hard, but the point is that if you are falling on a regular basis it is a sign that you are pushing and extending yourself at the crag. Of course these days you can push yourself physically a lot more safely with the development of bouldering and sport climbing, but even on trad there are a lot of safe test pieces.

Despite some pretty hairy falls in the past I have never had a big problem with falling per se and so find it intensely frustrating belaying when partners won't move above good gear despite being in a safe fallout zone. My eldest son Ben just can't do it. I now try to incorporate some falling or at least sagging on the rope each time we have a roped session. Furthermore its quite obvious that higher Ben gets, the worse the fear becomes, as his climbing movement becomes increasingly slow and clunky. It's going to be long haul before the fear of falling stops inhibiting his climbing performance.

Taking the "you're not trying hard enough" theme a bit further perhaps you can apply it to other apects of your life. You're not trying hard enough (to be the climber you could be) if you aren't falling out with your wife (over the time you spend climbing) but trying too hard if you end up banished to live in a shed on an allotment (like one notable climber recently). Conversely are you trying too hard with your career, DIY or other (self-imposed) commitment ?

Training or dieting (guilty) are others obvious areas where trying hard but not too hard are key. In a related way so is injury. If you aren't getting niggles then you probably aren't training or climbing hard enough, but you are trying too hard if you totally ignore them to extent they exacerbate to become debilitating injuries. Too hard or too stupid.

Source: The Shark

[cheque]

  Good post. I've only really appreciated the importance of falling off in the last coupla months and it was a proper revalation.

The shed story cracked me up! Anyone on here? 

[iain]

  too. A timely reminder to try harder.

[slackline]

You're not trying hard enough (to be the climber you could be) if you aren't falling out with your wife (over the time you spend climbing)

Oddly I am much much better at that than falling off routes 

 

[Muenchener]

You're not trying hard enough (to be the climber you could be) if you aren't falling out with your wife (over the time you spend climbing)

Frau M dragged me to the wall last Saturday when I was trying to recuperate from a bouldering session. I managed to avoid falling out with her over it, although I did skive off my practice falls for the session.

Persuading her to go outside where it's cold and the holds are the same colour as the rest of the rock is however a constant struggle.

[SA Chris]

My eldest son Ben just can't do it. I now try to incorporate some falling or at least sagging on the rope each time we have a roped session. Furthermore its quite obvious that higher Ben gets, the worse the fear becomes, as his climbing movement becomes increasingly slow and clunky. It's going to be long haul before the fear of falling stops inhibiting his climbing performance.

"Come on Toby, you're just not trying!"

[Falling Down]

 

[comPiler]

Trip report Day 1 of 4 (Tarn)
15 February 2011, 1:56 pm

A long weekend away has worked well on a couple of trips now as it fits around my work and family. With such a miserable winter I was desperate for real rock and also my 8aSpew borecard needed fluffing up with 7b and 7b+ onsights. Karl Smith proprietor of the Shropshire Bouldering Centre aka Newport Rock was up for it too. Cantobre caught my eye. The training was going well and flights to Rodez were cheap. The plan was formed. I pinned a tail on it and called it a fox.

I set off from Sheffield at 6am on Friday and met Karl at Stansted at 10am over a 'Farm Breakfast special'. We landed at Rodez airport early afternoon. Not much more than a bus stop it was a model of efficiency. We were processed and despatched to our underpowered Seat hire car in 7 minutes and 45 seconds, approximately. 

We headed straight to the Tarn Gorge - approaching it from the top. A splendid sight. Perhaps 2,000 feet deep with crag after crag lining it high on the opposite side - all unclimbed. I'd not been before but Karl had. We parked up at the bottom. No one else there. Perfect temperature. We did a couple of 6's to warm up and then Karl pointed me at a fine looking 7a up a wall with a 7b+ extension up a headwall. I was determined not to overcook it by going on the extension. But you know how it is. The extension didnt look to bad when I got there. So what the hell. I went for it getting a flash pump moving left from the second bolt. I lunged left as my right hand uncurled in a finger jug and was off. Drat.  Karl did the route and stripped the gear.

The light was starting to fade. Just time for one more. I picked a 40 meter 7a+ corner line that arched left at the top. It turned out to be muddy and damp to start with and some of the bolts were awkwardly placed. Higher up it got good where it arched left. It was exciting burling up on undercuts with smears for feet as it was getting dark. Suddenly the belay was there. Great. What a start to the trip. We hadn't expected to have time to climb the first day but got 4 routes in.

Our accommodation was a characterless hotel in the commercial district of Millau near a retail park with a Geant supermarket. Karl was excited to live out his Alan Partridge fantasy. The room was cramped. I thought the allocation of pillows and towels was miserly. Fortunately the laundry room was next door and unlocked so I exercised my consumer rights to correct the discrepancy.

We weren't hungry so went to bed early.

Source: The Shark

[comPiler]

Trip report Day 2 of 4 (Boffi)
16 February 2011, 2:23 pm

It was foggy and cold outside the hotel. Bit of a downer after the good conditions yesterday. Over Petit Dejeuner an old French geezer predicted snow. We hung around for a bit then headed out into the gloom.

The Boffi crags are situated high on one side of the Dourbie Valley and are accessed from the top. All these deep cut valleys are seperated by higher stretches of ground called Causses.  Millau was located low down where the Tarn and Dourbie rivers meet so to access Boffi we needed to drive up to the top of a Causse. Droving up the hairpins the mist thinned then cleared entirely revealing blue skies and sun. We cheerfully looked down on a cloud inversion that enveloped Millau.

The parking is in a forest and is about 30 minutes walk from the cliffs edge. When we got there we were treated to the spectacle of eight pterodacytls circling at the cliffs edge. These mighty bird-things are named after a brand of ice-axe and had enormous wingspans and had been extinct since the end of the Cretinaceous period. Karl claimed they were griffin vultures. I had my doubts.

We scrambled down to Secteur WarmUp which Karl declared was magnificent. Again I had my doubts as it looked a bit slabby. Karl identified a 6b and 6c to start with. I led up the 6b which had a hard first section and easy middle bit. At the last bolt it blanked out. I contemplated a retreat but ego took over and using a terrible edge and blind foot swap reached the belay. Karl went up and pronounced the move impossible.

Surely the 6c couldnt be harder than this ? Karl looked across whilst lowering and said it looked alright. Needless to say it was the living end and I couldnt even dog the last moves. Karl fared just as badly on top rope.I checked the guide. The first route was 6c and the second 7a+. Karl seemed relieved. I was appalled at his lack of remorse and told him. He was unmoved. I called him a cunt and we moved on..to the next buttress. Sector Damned.

There was French team there with a DFBWGC called Cindy I think. They had ropes and draws on a couple of the routes. Triple checking the guide we chose a 7a+ that was free. There was a tricky section which I faffed around on before commiting to a sequence. The rest was easy but good climbing. Success.

Karl's turn. The DFBWGC started up the 7b+ to the right of him. I was in a quandry. Would watching her derriere on the critical moves disqualify the onsight? What would Jens do ? I lowered my gaze.

Karl flashed the 7a+ and Cindy flashed the 7b+. Karl swung across and put some draws on the vacated 7b+. My go. I went for it but was spat off a hard move at 25 feet. Oh dear. It wasn't looking good for the borecard. I decided to have a go at 'Damned'. This was a 6c with a 7b extension in the middle of the secteur to a lower off at 42meters. It turned out to be straightforward runout steep wall climbing on superb rock - the sort of thing I love. No contest.

Time was getting on and sector Damned was now in the shade. We headed back to another secteur in what was left of the sun. A 7a left leaning groove looked appealing. I led to the 4th bolt which had a mailon on it. I declared that this was a bad sign. Karl said it was there to help strip the route. I had my doubts. The move was desperate and my feet slipped off the smears. Karl got to the same point and lowered off the mailon.

A tremendous day. I reappraised Karl's sagacity whilst we walked out in the dark.

Source: The Shark

[Fiend]

LOL. Good stuff. I approve of correcting the bedding distribution.

[comPiler]

Trip report Day 3 of 4 (Cantobre)
17 February 2011, 5:10 pm

It was foggy outside the hotel again but we now knew this didnt necessarily mean it would be foggy at the crags. Today was Cantobre day. This was the crag that had attracted me to the area in the first place. Like Boffi it was in the Dourbie gorge but accessed from the bottom rather than the top. We drove up the valley and were surprised how far it was. The guide didn't help. Like a lot of french guides it was a triumph of style (fluff) over substance. I wasn't surprised when the map in it led us astray.

Cantobre is a village which is precariously balanced on undercut limestone knoll on a hill. The crag lies opposite. The temperature was 2degrees and there was a biting wind. As we walked up to the crag and I got a better view of it my spirits sank. The limestone was perfect but the routes all had powerful undercut starts on pockets. Noooo...I was going to get spanked, no doubt about it. We scuttled round the corner to Secteur Warm up and did a couple of nice 6's. I tried a 7a as well which had a gnarly crux on small shallow pockets over a bulge. It was too cold and too hard for me. After frigging that we couldn't put it off any longer and headed back to the main crag.

The right side wasn't so undercut and had a nice 7a+. We both did it. I then went on the crag classic Turbulence(7b+). From the ground it was obvious that there was a dyno at the third bolt. I wound myself up and putting everything into it climbed quickly to the dyno which I fell off. Never mind. The route may not have suited me but it was soooo good. Although I had no intention of trying to redpoint it I dogged my way to the top yarding on pockets and revelling in the moves and rock quality. Best route I've ever failed on - probably - (except the Nose maybe).

We then both failed on the start of a 7b. No spew points today. Back to Millau for a couple of consolation Hoegardens for Karl and Leffes for me.

Source: The Shark

[comPiler]

Trip report Day 4 of 4 (Tarn again)
17 February 2011, 5:38 pm

Yet again it was foggy outside the hotel again but for variety this time it was raining too. We packed up and headed back to Tarn which being roadside suited our travel plans. Karl was going to drop me off before 1pm at Rodez to catch a flight back whilst he drove on to St Leger to join Twid Turner and family.

It was claggy and miserable driving up the Tarn Gorge though Karl seemed to think it was atmospheric. He was certain the crag namely Le Grand Toit (Twat)would be dry. He had a 7b+ in mind for me. The crag was dry as he predicted protected overhead by the huge roof (Toit). A couple of the warmups on the left had been de-bolted (some mysterious bad bolts issue) but a 6c+ was still kitted. Karl was just belaying to give himself a rest day.

After doing the warm-up I fancied a go at the 7b to the right. Karl had done it before and said it was onsightable. I gave it a blast getting to a shallow porthole which I desperately undercutted. My arms were too tired and the holds too far away. I slumped onto the bolt. Karl said that was the same point he got to and in fact everyone else he had seen try it fell at the same point. I pointed out that this didn't exactly tie up with his declaration that it was  onsightable. I had a couple of goes dogging the move then threaded the bolt and stripped it. I decided that it was futile to attempt a 7b+ and instead did an immense 7a trad stylee corner to finish. We packed up with time to spare and headed to the airport.

That was end of the trip for me. In terms of performance not as successful as I'd hoped for but I'd had an ace time and it hadn't cost much time or money.

Source: The Shark

[Paul B]

I think I know this route... the options are undercutting for grim death or sacrificing a tendon in a horrible mono (which the Mrs. comfortably stacked a few fingers in).

Didn't you nip around to L'oasif? There's some more Brit friendly onsightable stuff there.

I still think 27crags blogs are frustrating; out of all the blogs I read, YOURS is the only one which demands click-throughs and therefore won't work well on Smartphones/Feedly.

[shark]

I think I know this route... the options are undercutting for grim death or sacrificing a tendon in a horrible mono (which the Mrs. comfortably stacked a few fingers in).

Didn't you nip around to L'oasif? There's some more Brit friendly onsightable stuff there.

I still think 27crags blogs are frustrating; out of all the blogs I read, YOURS is the only one which demands click-throughs and therefore won't work well on Smartphones/Feedly.

Thanks for subscribing - I'll take up the click through issue with 27crags. They are quite receptive to changing stuff.

[27crags.com]

I still think 27crags blogs are frustrating; out of all the blogs I read, YOURS is the only one which demands click-throughs and therefore won't work well on Smartphones/Feedly.

We already have full content feeds. You can access them with urls like this:
http://27crags.com/climbers/shark/blog/content.atom

I guess I should make the full content feed the default and advertise both feed versions on the web page. The advantage of snippets is that they are faster to download so you can have a history of 100 links in your feed reader instead of 10 posts with full content.

[Paul B]

my life is more complete.

[Norton Sharley]

Good work Monsieur Le Shark

[comPiler]

You skinny fucker
24 February 2011, 10:15 pm

Follower of my blog (hi Paul!) may recall my commitment to gradual weight loss to achieve 10% body fat. The weight target was based on a thorough body composition test I had a year ago. Since the blog 3 months ago I have singularly failed to lose any weight to speak of.

This morning I headed back to the uni lab for a re-check. I went in weighing pretty much the same as last year i.e. just over 73kg. The lab now has a fancy new £7K impedance machine and Rob did the caliper measurements as well.

You could have knocked me down with a feather - not cos I was light obviously - but because the machine gave my body fat reading as 8.7% fat. YYFY ! but wait a sec...NNFN !

I had turned the equivalent mass of lard into prime British beef. Thus I had hit my body fat target without realising it. But I had also scored an own goal as my potential to reduce weight through fat reduction was severely diminished by nearly half a bloody stone.

Although I won't get the full results till next week it appears that most of the muscle has been in my abdomenal area. Whilst this hasnt given me a six pack it does explain a few things such as how I sudddenly found I could do a front lever for the first time in my life. In addition the weights and squats work have recently had a noticeable effect on my climbing. I now find it much easier to keep my feet on the 40 degree board at the Foundry when tired and bear down on them too.

Walking back from the lab other things began to click in my mind. When I had my assessment with Coach Randall 6 months ago one of the observations he made about my technique was that I had a tendency to climb with feet unnecessarily high doing moves bunched up. I have to admit I was a bit dismissive about this describing it as 'a signature move'. On Tuesday at the Edge I had watched as Randall did laps of a 7a with his feet a lot lower than the way I did the moves i.e. by climbing "tall". It now occured to me that my aversion to climbing tall stemmed from a weaknesses in(or ingrained lack of confidence from former weakness) in transmitting power and tension through my core and legs that meant my feet have a tendency to pop off. Consequently by having feet high I took the strain in my upper body which is better developed making the move less efficient but lower % in terms of failure due to feet popping.

My key aim in developing better lower body strength was to prevent the regular lower back injuries I incurred when overdoing the climbing or training - and there is no doubt that it has helped enormously. The challenge for me I now realise is to find ways to deploy this new strength by changing my climbing.

Overall the positive aspects of this lean mass gain have the potential to far outweigh the negatives. And no one can call me fat bastard anymore. SCIENCE says I'm a skinny fucker now.

Source: The Shark

[Dolly]

I do like your blog mate.
There's some great stuff in there like "signature move" and "prime British beef"

[csurfleet]

by having feet high I took the strain in my upper body which is better developed making the move less efficient but lower % in terms of failure due to feet popping.

Bloody ek, I do this all the time. One to work on then!

*wanders off muttering about coaching*

[chris j]

Liking the blog Simon! Hopefully suffering the same with my weight stubbornly refusing to drop even a pound despite all the exercise...