[GCW]

Short term goals
Do my local cross country (5.8km) in under 30 minutes (big ask I think)
Sort out the bad knee.

Medium Term goals
Climb font 7c in 2010 (a bit ambitious maybe).
Lose (almost) a stone initially (aim for 83kg)- also a bit ambitious!
Do my Winter Hill run in under 43:12 (average 10kmh).
Finish off my remaining esoteric Lancs Quarry projects.

Another busy week family wise.  Tpp much food and alcohol too.

M-  Work, wine.
T-  West View session, managed a V6.  Not helped by the fact this set seems to need drop knees/ heel hooks that I can't do with the bad knee.
W-  Work, wine.
T- Went to the Kebs, conditions not brilliant so didn't get much done.  Need to go back to finish stuff off.
F-  Work, wine, pumpkin carving.
S-  Stayed over at a friends.  Lots of food and beer.
S-  Family friends round, so another foody day.

Monday weigh in of 85.0kg.  Off to CenterParcs this week, so may take my running shoes and test the knee to try to offset any further eating/ drinking.

Clocks changed now, so need to get going indoors a bit more.  Too many aims that aren't being acheived.  Knee's still f***ed  too.

[i_a_coops]

STG: Secret Cabaret (or any 7c+ that's dry), 7C
MTG: Threadbare as soon as it stops seeping next year, 8a, 7C+ on sandstone this winter.

M - routes, one P.E. circuit
T - P.E. circuits. one armed the 2nd biggest 2 finger pocket on the beastmaker 
W - ill
T - still ill
F - Torbryan. Threadbare was seeping a wee bit... 1st RP, fell off crux. 2nd RP, cocked up sequence near the top. 3rd RP: cruised the crux, felt good, then got thoroughly rained on. Slipped off last hard move. ARSE. Sacked it off and went to Chudleigh, where I ripped a large amount of skin off my finger. No ticks.

Nearly got stranded in Bristol overnight cuz of train delays, failed miserably to get to the Peak.


S - feeling sorry for myself. Core pyramid session, pressups.
S - P.E. circuits (best yet - V7-V0-V4-V0-V3-V0-V1), tried to do some routes but was so wasted I fell off the 6a warmup!

Washout-ometer rating: 9/10

I think I may now be the second most strong-but-shit climber in the world, I've ticked my list of stupid party tricks for the year (147, 2 finger one armer, front lever for about 4 seconds) and I'm still useless at climbing. I'm quite miffed about Threadbare. I'm fairly sure Cabaret will be seeping next weekend but if not it is going DOWN! Hopefully....
 
Maybe I should give up climbing and just try and work up to a one arm one finger front lever pullup....

[Falling Down]

STG: OS 2 E3's and Boulder Fb 7a+ by end Oct (Fail) + Gym Jones Foundation seminar (Done)
New STG: Boulder 3 7a+'s by end Nov
MTG’s (End 2010) – Boulder Font 7b.
VLTG’s – Redpoint 8b, Boulder 8a, Onsight E6 drop weight to 11.5 st.

M - Gym Jones Day4: PE workout. (Beer)
T - Sports massage in the evening
W - Awesome Wall with Erm Sam. Bouldering on steep board to 6b, foot-on campus.
T - Squats, KB swings, 5k row for time (22:00).
F - 10 min row warmup. Beastmaker: 100 foot on movements. 3 x 10 pullups. Max Hangs working smaller holds and slopers. Hung the 45's for the first time 
S - Long walk in Peak + DIY. (Beer & Wine)
S - Walk then bouldering down Tideswell dale to Freda's buttress & worked Cripples Crab in two sections but ran out of time before the link. (Wine)

Dropped 2lbs this week.

[Barratt]

A good week all round:

M: Can't remember... rest probably
T: Works, easy session.
W: Quick session on All Quiet Direct. Close but no cigar - confident it will go next time.
T: Works, purple circuit
F: Can't remember... rest probably
S: Walk round dam flask with Mrs Barrat in the AM. Afternoon climb at Baslow, tick Little Richard but fail on Walnut Whip, a project for sure.
S: Walk up to Wharncliffe with Mrs Barratt to check out access and various areas. Park at Station Road and get fed up of walking trying to find dragons den after about an hour... home and then to pub for lots to eat!

Appointment with 'Shoulder Doc' was this week. MRI Scan booked for two weeks time, Cortisone injection suggested. Positive thing is that he didn't say it was totally mullered. Mega keen this week following the couple of sessions outside, dam these dark nights!

[cheque]

STGs: Get a lot better at steep climbing
           A steep grit E1 by the end of winter
MTG: E1s on big crags next summer           

M: Swiss ball core
T: Local wall. First good session since it's reopened: good atmosphere and climbing well, ticking a couple of steep problems I couldn't do last time.
W: Swiss ball core
T: Yoga
F: rest
S: Curbar. Great conditions. Failed to onsight anything, but actually pleased with my climbing as everything I picked was steep and strenuous and I didn't get too spanked.
S: Local wall. Feel nailed from Curbar but still climb OKish on steep problems. Not burnt off by strong kids too badly.

Changed my short-term goals a bit to reflect the current focus of my climbing. I could be doing harder grades by sticking to slabs and routes with good rests on them, but I want to become more of an all-rounder before I start focussing on grades again.

[petejh]

Goal - do my first VIII, 8a, 8A, E8, in 2010.
At - IX, 8a, 7C, E5.
Goal for November: headpoint My Piano, work High Life.

m. nowt.
t. Bailed from Pen Trwyn in rain. Fun bouldering sesh at indi instead.
w. Nesscliffe. Worked My Piano on grigri. Got crux moves dialled as well as the rest of the route, can link the bottom half and all of the top, with one rest at the halfway break. Yay.
t. nowt
f. Drytooling at White Goods. Good first session back, sent an M5, 2 M6+'s, an M7+ and an M8+. Feel fitter than last year. Indi in the evening, went on campuss board and noticed my left middle finger middle joint hurts. Sore collateral ligaments.
s. nowt.
s. Tried a beastmaker session at indi just using the slopers, but had to bail after 2 sets, finger painful.

Good week, finally got on M.P. and it's ready to lead once I've linked it in a one'er, which should be the next time I go. Drytooling felt great fun and I've carried over good fitness from sport climbing. Unfortunately twatted my middle finger collateral ligaments crimping hard on the left arete crux moves of M.P. Boo.

[chris_j_s]

Goals (2011): o/s 7a (in the UK!), rp 7b+, boulder 7A+  (currently o/s 7a, rp 7b. boulder 7A)

Plan for the remainder of 2010 and up to spring 2011 is to do plenty of hard bouldering for strength and keep up the PE to hopefully hit the ground running when the routes season comes round again. Not sure whether its effective to try and work on both of these things in tandem or whether a couple of months specifically dedicated to each would be better...

M: Rest
T: Bouldering at Ingleton. New bouldering cave and 45 deg woodie are now open. Knackering session working on a mixture of problems and PE circuits.
W: Rest
T: Bouldering at Kendal. New 'green room' is now open, contains some good angles and the problems seem well set. Did all bar one of the yellow circuit (V2 - V5) and half the black circuit (V3 - V6?). Enjoyed the session but the place could do with some ventilation as it gets pretty hot and greasy in there.
F: Rest
S: Back to Kendal. Finsished off the yellow circuit, did a couple more on the black circuit and completed all of the purple circuit (V4 - V6). Tried some stuff on the wasp (V5 - V7) and spots (V6 - V9) circuits but towards the end of the session and feeling a bit tired so no success.
S: Ingleton. 45 mins on the 45 deg woodie. First time I've used one of these and wow is it tough! Hopefully some big gains to be had through persisting with this. Remaining hour and a half spent working some hard problems and completing 5 or so PE circuits.

Absolutely knackered after all four sessions this week but defeinitely felt stronger on stuff at the weekend than I had during the week.

[shark]

Cheers again GCW

M. Rained a lot 
T. Massone 7b (RP)
W.Massone 7a (os) 7a+ (RP)
T. Venice-first time 
F. Massone long 7c (dogged) 7a+(RP)
S. Bassilonia 7a+(os) 7c (dogged) 7a+(os) 7b (dogged) 
S. Rained. Bouldered in campsite bouldering room with Fiend and Duncan Disorderly.

Not a good trip performance-wise and some of the routes I wanted to get on were seeping. Otherwise a good holiday with mainly good weather, good company, good wine and food.

My 6 month periodised training programme starts today with....two weeks rest  . Will be doing some light exercise and trying to lose a few of the pounds I've gained.   

[nai]

stg - WSS
winter goals - E4, 7C

m - penance for having stayed home alone while mrs took kids away for the weekend. F'in shopping centre at half term 
t
W - it was too warm, too humid and my skin was bad but somehow I ended up at WSS, inevitably greased off a sidepull and opened my tip up again - fool
T - was allowed out so went to try the Press as it's a left handed move.  Had little enthusiasm and soon got tired, best thing about the day was the lovely autumnal tree colours reflecting on the water
f
s - 9 mile bike ride around Ladybower with the kiddy trailer.  Hard going at times but again a lovely day to be out as autumn really asserts itself.
s

Poor climbing week but a good week for appreciating Autumn.

[webbo]

Mon.rockcity new problems did about 25 up to v7.even had set one as it only went 2/3s of the way up the wall.
Tue.leeds wall.still resetting did about 20 problems including a yellow first i've done for a while there.
Wed.drive daughter to manchester airport.drink brandy.
Thu.rockcity repeat everything from monday plus a couple of other things that were set for giants.drink wine.
FRi.feel shit starting with cold.meal at friends wine and beer.
Sat. mope about feeling sorry for myself. drink wine.
Sun.still feel shit drag myself to rockcity to see if it makes me feel better.it doesn't but i climb ok.manage another v7 and work a v6 that was set for micheal jordan.pick daughter up from manchester airport.
feel i'm drinking too much but having seen GCW efforts i'm a bit of a lightweight.

[Nibile]

very poor week.
mon - rest.
tue - wall. mega 4 hours long session. knackered.
wed - rest. painful back.
thu - rest. painful back.
fri - rest. painful back.
sat - bouldering. very poor. injured my right ankle again.
sun - rest. painful back, painful ankle, painful ego.

comments.
hmm... considering I had to be in Ticino in the weekend (and today) I wonder whether my periodization was good, given how weakly and poorly I climbed on saturday. I really enjoyed my mega session on plastic though: I started a bit diesel, but then kept going and going. I still think I am weak as piss.
need to up the ante.
the lack of a board that's worth that name is painful now. I need to sort things out for the winter: I have gained alot in the last years, and NO FUCKING ONE IS GOING TO STEAL IT FROM ME. MOTHAFUCKAS.

[aly]

crap week really.

Finger still bust, MTG - go climbing again.

Mon - walk up in the Cairngorms, gorgeous day with plenty of calories burned.  Fingerboard.
Tues - quick fingerboard session
Weds - quick fingerboard session, still can't use ring finger but can hang the monos fine still
Thurs - nothing
Fri - nothing but revise for exam(s)
Sat - revise, pull ups
Sun - revise.

Need to find some easy trad or something. 

[205Chris]

Font report: Ticked L'Aerodynamite. YYFY! First 7b+ in the forest and a Real Thing tick as well.

Awesome week, did a few other bits and pieces but mainly over the moon to get my STG in the bag.

Time to go highballing........

[chillax]

STG: Onsight E3, boulder 7a+, be able to do one armers again, learn to aid climb properly
MTG: E4, Go to Yosemite and don't completely punt it up
LTG: E7, 8a

Mon: Fail
Tues: Fail
Wed: Pullups and pushups. Close to a one armer again, should soon be able to perform this largely pointless feat of strength to my hearts content 
Thurs: Fingerboard
Fri: Fail
Sat: Attempt to go climbing, but get thwarted by unreliable Dublin city public transport.
Sun: Lazy day. Not unlike rest of the week really.

Been a weak week climbingwise (see what I did there), but not a complete failure in every respect. Weather was shit anyway, so I have an excuse. Have revised bouldering STG downwards as I'm not feeling my usual enthusiasm for pebble wrestling at the moment. Weather looks a bit grim for next week too, so plan on doing some exploring in Wicklow. Looks like I'll be climbing in Morocco for christmas and new years. Should be fun.

[iain]

Very poor week. 7 days of working plus evenings of diy.

Did manage to get to the wall one day, set some problems but did no real training

Got an total beasting on Sunday helping out with bashing in some new stakes down at Swanage. Absolutely brutal.
Was good to help with the upkeep and meet new people. Wasn't so good smacking my finger with sledge hammer    Can move it ok but still too hard to tell if there's anything more than bad bruising. Fingers (gently) crossed

[tomtom]

Nothing. Cold all week  too much work.

Got out to Wimberry on Saturday - felt really tottery. Scrabbled up a 6b+ failed on a few things went home dejected. A week before I'd felt like I was gliding across the grit at the cliff (before it started raining!)

Not looking good on the space to go climbing front this week either... grr...

[IS2]

STG Font last week of October: Feel steady on highball 6's perhaps settle score on one or two outstanding 7a projects. ( Might be change of venue given strikes in France ... Sad .... junior will not get his Christmas presents delivered to his residence in Trois Pignons car parK !!! )
All done !!! even junior got his pressies despite being disparaging about my poor technique...
New STG Establish weekly routine on the board !! Become strong again.... technique only depends on how good the holds feel !!
MTG 1. Enjoy the grit through to March / April keen to go get back to Widdop and other esoteric places in the deep south.
MTG 2. Retire, get strong and really fit and do good stuff across the globe. Font trip moved this up the time schedule... might not survive passion for high ball blocs while weak and work looks bleak as Govt squeezes funding!!

Did 8 days in Font.... 7 climbing and 1 resting.  Avoided busy places but achieved goals of enjoying highball blocs, discovered new 7's projects and did some of the outstanding old projects.
Ate out 8 nights without drinking too much!!!

[Andy F]

Mon - nowt.
Tues - Malham. warmed up as usual, clips in Overnite, first RP fingers froze out. Second RP no such problems and fought to the belay (thanks JohnM for the encouragement), despite being rather boxed. Result , then 
Wed - nowt
Thurs - pottered at Awesome
Fri/Sat - nowt
Sun - Volume at Prisonbloc.

New goals - summat in the cave, got to be at least 7B+. Grade chasin is were it's at.

[nik at work]

This will be a bit more than a week as I'll just do the whole Font trip here.

8B, 8b+

STG: 8 in Font this (i.e. last) week, hmmm....

S - Up at 3:30am to drive to Font, get there at 4:00pm head straight to Rocher Guichot and flash a wet Guichot Business. Feel like shit.
S - Wake up feeling even worse, head to a damp Longs Vaux and beast myself on the obvious in poor conditions, then went to a couple of other places where I climbed with the missus, then back to Long Vaux in the evening (still damp) to complete the wrecking of my body. Good tactics, I think not.
M - Wake up still feeling like shit and now very sore. Sabot first thing, I do nothing. Then Bouligny where I compound my physical destruction with a shut-down or two on Beaux Quartiers. Slight redemption with a flash of Presse Puree. Then on to Rempart for the hottest part of the day where I struggled with Noir Desir doing far worse than last time I tried it.
T - Went to various places but did no climbing (apart from a flash of the right hand low start to Surplomb de la Coquille at Haute Plaine, a brilliant problem) in an attempt to rest and recover, then bugger it all up by trying the dyno's at Franchard Sablons. Sylphide and Mortel Transfert go down in a handful of attempts, I then proceed to drop the catch of Voltex approximately eighty-four trillion times killing my legs and back and putting a hole in my fingers in the process, now that's what I call a rest day!
W - Cul de Chien, still feeling rubbish and very sore, dropped last move of Arabesque a couple of times before giving up.
T - Still feel like shit, go to Rocher Fin and do Memoire d'Autre Tombe and Chevalier Errant in a couple of attempts then head to Potala for the softest tick in the 7+8's guide. Printemps d'Automne in case you're ever desperate for a book tick.
F - Still feeling rough, getting bored now, and sore. Do El Poussif first attempt having spent previous years flailing on it endlessly, which was nice. Dropped Kangaru City with my hand over the top, doh, did the blue circuit at Franchard Sablons (fun) then had a few very poor attempts at Vin Rouge in the dark.
S - Drive home
S - Arrive home at 1am, sleep then head off to Isle of Man to pick up number one son, very knackered.

Sorry it's such a long post. Anyway several observations:
1) I really felt the lack of snappy dirty power having spent the summer on sport routes.
2) I really felt very ill in Font and when I got home weighed myself to discover I'd lost over half a stone whilst in Font, given my pastry love this is a pretty clear indication that all was not well chez Nik.
3) I played the "dog with six dicks" card and went hell for leather day one in less than sparkling conditions. My tactical sense was some way off this trip.
4) I was without child this trip and assumed that this would mean more flexibility to try things I want to try, not so. Whilst we could go to some new longer walk-in venues which would be less appealing with kids we were still a group of 4 people in one car and essentially we all wanted to try different things. I was keen for a hard siege but that would have been grossly unfair on the other party members so compromise needs to be made.
5) I'm a bit gutted as conditions were pretty mint, but I still had a great time. Font is ace.

[chris05]

Got back from 2 weeks surfing in indo on thursday night so most days followed a similar pattern of early surf, breakfast, lay around in the shade, lunch, lay around in the shade, surf, snooze and then nasi goreng and bintangs (sometimes with a 3rd surf thrown in). It was great to get back to indo after 5 years and actually have more than a couple of days surfing in a row again, made some good progress, surfed some spots I hadn't been good enough for previously and surfing in board shorts is always amazing. Bit dissapointed to be back  , roll on morocco in the new year 

Intended to get straight back bouldering/training but a combination of a bug and jet lag put payed to anything energetic at the weekend. Looking forward to getting back to training.

[rginns]

STG:get into a proper training regime / structure
MTG: Broughton 6a+, West View V6, Lancashire quarry font 7a
LTG: become a beast / 7b... and erm, all the above if I don't do 'em in the medium term...

M: Nothing
T: Westview, flashed most of the V4s, did a V4/5, almost did the white V5, one for next time
W: nothing
T: travelling to Scotland and back, hoped to get out, but epic fail
F:Wedding
S:21st Birthday party
S:rest

Another poor week of not doing much. 1 session a week is keeping me ticking over at the moment, although now the house is starting to get sorted, hoping to get some fingerboard stuff done soooooon.

[andybfreeman]

STG - don't put too much weight on in next 2 weeks. Train hard then crush Onde du Choc in December
MTG - stay fit over winter with at least 1 session of routes per week so that if the weather plays ball i can get back on cider soak
LTG - more hard sport. Boulder 7C then onwards and upwards

M - mixed session at TCA. felt pretty strong on problems but got spanked on circuits. 3 weeks with no more than 12 moves climbed in sequence has destroyed my fitness
T - circuits session but got bored with getting spanked so got distracted by problems too easily
W - problems session. good progress on some hard reds but nothing new climbed
Th - drinks do after work. left pub at 12.30 after 3 bottles of decent red on expenses
F - ok at work but felt rougher as the day went on = rest
Sa - laser eye surgery. a good thing in the long or even medium term but means 2 weeks off 
Su - audio books in the dark

[andy popp]

Mon: nothing
Tues: nothing
Wed: bouldering on board, absolute rubbish for no apparent reason (rested ect.) no strength. V. disappointing after progress last week.
Thurs: fleeting visit to damp Helsby for v rare chance to meet up with old friend. Do Grooved Slab four times. Not training.
Fri: Cheshire obscurity on drive south. Don't do much (its damp) but sort out potential new project, Which was nice.
Sat: Drive back north
Sun: Halloween sleepover prep.

A v. poor week all in all. Must try harder etc. etc.

[Muenchener]

STG: 6a+ os. 6b rp. Mittlere Weisse Wand, Konstein.
MTG: 6b os
LTG: 7a rp; classic big Vs / VIs at local crags (Kaisergebirge, Wetterstein etc.) e.g. West Face Totenkirchl

M: yoga
T:
W: Wall, Thalkirchen. A good evening. Onsighted a "proper" (> 10 metres, not slabby) 6a+. STG reached, yyfy. Onsighted an allegedly 6c slab, but it wasn't.
Bike 33 km. Not at all motivated for bike riding just now, but need to maintain basic level of aerobic activity & avoid autumn hibernation.
T:
F: Bodyweight exercises - front lever attempts(*), pressups, handstands, weighted pullups. Snowboard season is coming, so also a few sets of squats & lunges. Plan today was to boulder in the gym at work, but I had a big document to edit so stayed at home. Felt good to do something for general strength &  fitness instead of always just climbing.
S: (Slightly) active rest: swimming pool with kids
S: Half term. Going to the mountains for a few days with my son for walking, male bonding, active rest-style activities.

if you can't do a lever with your leg bent,you need to be  on ukc not here.

(*) ... phew. So I can stay for now.

[joeisidle]

STG- Do a 7a on grit or somewhere that isn't Parisella's
MTG - Boulder 7b by the end of 2011

Monday- Session at the wall. Still felt a bit knackered having been to the cave the day before so I played about on the moon wall for 30 minutes and spent the rest of the time doing circuits and a few pullups on fingerboard slopers
Tuesday-  Rested, did a few pushups
Wednesday- Went to the wall, repeated a 6c I'd done previously and did a few new 6bs. Did some more pushups.
Thursday- Fingerboarding, pushups and stretching
Friday- Rest
Saturday- Went to the Churnet with a couple of mates. Did Alternative Three (6b) and the sitter (6c) before spending the rest of the day playing on the two 7as to the right and High Speed Imp Act (which I managed to finally lap to the double pockets before the first big move). Also managed to repeatedly drop the last move of the Nose and fly down the bank a few times. Great fun.
Sunday- Fingerboarding and a probably ill-advised dabble on the moonwall

[Luthor]

Couple of days in hospital with tonsillitis = no climbing