[shark]

11.8-9

M. Eveg. Ben was keen for Foundry    so gave deadhanging a miss. Nice and quiet (apart from Seb and Barrows). Felt OK on Wave.
T.
W.M Tor with Adam H. Only 3 others there. 3 goes on AM this time. Adam did Rev first go.  Some slight progress on AM.
T. Weighted deadhangs
F.
S. Tor with Duncan. Disappointing session on AM. Feel like I'm going backwards. Wiped out when I got home. Went to bed.
S. Bit sniffly

With hindsight should have taken last week off so will take this week off especially if I'm coming down with a cold. Climbing psyche a bit low. Also been disappointed by lack of progress on this cycle of weighted deadhangs compared to the first one. Quite a few sessions I have trained or climbed the day before so I think this has had an impact on the effectiveness this time round. Moving house in 10 days. 

[tomtom]

M: Helsby. Good work out.. bottled it on scrittly final moves on highball V3 several times..
T:
W: Almscliff... first time back to the old lady for a while... motivation strangely lacking.. did some of the usual repeats, but ran out of enthusiasm.. managed to divery my homeward path by working the extension of Underhand.. (project..)
Th:
Fr: Logport Wall. Fairly good lunchtime hour and a half.. I spent the morning glued to the forecast, but decided to head to the wall and have an easy session to leave something for Saturday.
Sa: Didnt feel like climbing, despite the weather.. Went for a walk with MrsTT to Frodsham.. had a good scope of the crags Looking forward to heading back there with the new Cheshire guide..
Su: Went to bed early on Sat eve, intending to get up early and head to BBG West. New students in house at end of the road woke me up at 3am coming back from somewhere, and I didnt get back to sleep until 5-6.. felt drained and didnt want to shclep over to the peak. Headed over to Helsby again lacking in enthusiasm.. but had a really nice session. Worked a couple of really nice eliminates that I'd not done before (suspect they've been done before) and managed to scrape back some psyche.

All in all, an OK ish week. Managed to get out 4 times, which is good. Trying to keep the climbing (in or out) every other day going and see how I progress... I can't help but feel that I've hit a plateau..

[Dr T]

Week Starting    17/9/12
MTG      look at a grit or lime 7c at half term…
LTG      A prehension

Monday   Rest

Tuesday   pm power yoga 2 cycles and some balance board
                evening 1 ¼ hour in shed – started very slowly falling on warm ups (foot work) but then strong repeating lots of
                problems that had felt v hard before – the volume was pleasing (Vol 8 Int 8 )

Wednesday   pm general climb around, even warm up and hangboard (Vol 5 int 9)

Thursday           pm short general conditioning and hangboard (Vol 6 int 9)

Friday      Short fun session at school wall

Saturday           even’   hour setting/tweeking followed by hour lifting weights

Sunday      Rest

[csl]

Mon - Almscliff, bit of soloing and seconded Western Front - managed to do the hard move quite easily with a layback instead of a jam.
Tue - The Roost - E5 warm ups arent a good idea right now! Tried to Flash one over eight E5 6b on my mates gear, but got a bit sketched out when i fell and the gear ripped. Tried again on toprope a little later, super pumpy!
Wed - Stanage - Went for a birthday tick of Tippler Direct - Gutted to get hit by a savage rain shower mid route, no way i was getting through the tippler crux in that!
Thur - nothing
Fri - nothing
Sat - nothing
Sun - signed up for a half marathon in 3 weeks

Goals - Climb regularly indoors or out
1.40 half marathon

[abarro81]

Also been disappointed by lack of progress on this cycle of weighted deadhangs compared to the first one. Quite a few sessions I have trained or climbed the day before so I think this has had an impact on the effectiveness this time round.

On the basis of her paper it seemed that the gains on the 8 week program were neuromuscular. Presumably there's a limit to gains of that sort - maybe it's just that you've reached that limit and thus it's now back to getting stronger in the boring, slow manner of building muscles and strengthening connective tissue?

[Nibile]

MON - gym. Snatch, overhead press, biceps, triceps. Fantastic.
TUE - nothing, back to working all day.
WED - board. 1 new problem set, hard. Short links. Tired, ate badly, too much work. Vol 3. Int 7.
THU - beast. Max one arm deadhangs. Front lever pulls. Nice.
FRI - board. Not bad at all (fingers recuitment from previous day?). Short links and some system pulls. Vol 4/5. Int 7.
SAT - board. Short links, zero skin. One mega flapper. Vol 2. Int 5.
SUN - beast. Max one arm deadhangs. Felt quite good.

Hard week a bit, a bit hot again and very very humid.
I'm for sure a bit tired and board sessions are to be kept short. Hard to get high intensity with very poor skin.
Sticking at it.
The one arm dead hangs feel good, glad to reduce the number of holds in favour of max intensity. I found I made some progresses just from board climbing, left arm very improved.
The snatch and press session on Monday was truly fantastic.

[shark]

Also been disappointed by lack of progress on this cycle of weighted deadhangs compared to the first one. Quite a few sessions I have trained or climbed the day before so I think this has had an impact on the effectiveness this time round.

On the basis of her paper it seemed that the gains on the 8 week program were neuromuscular. Presumably there's a limit to gains of that sort - maybe it's just that you've reached that limit and thus it's now back to getting stronger in the boring, slow manner of building muscles and strengthening connective tissue?

The thought had crossed my mind though I doubt its as straightforward as that. I still think that in terms of max finger strength (which I perceive as a major personal weakness) its a good, focused structure to follow. I might combine with finger rolls for hypertrophy even though its not an isometric exercise. Anyway I'm taken a week off  before 4 weeks on the smaller edge. You can write me a winter programme to start after that   

[duncan]

STG: get on an E3 next time I'm at a crag.  TICK!  More E3/4s.
MTG: 7b, E5
LTG: various ambitious LH&F

M - The Arch (Aerobic Capacity: 4 x 5 mins).
T - Calf stuff - stretches, heel raises, jogging on spot.
W - The Arch (Aerobic Capacity: 5 x 5 mins).
T - The Arch (Aerobic Capacity: 20 mins continuous).
F - Jogged 200m.
S - Boulder Ruckle with Purple Sue: glorious weather again, did three HVS and Soul Sacrifice.
S - Calf stuff.

Good training week for arms and leg. Really pleased to get up Soul Sacrifice, a great and not soft E3.  It  goes against my strengths and was a good reminder I'm going to have to get a lot fitter do anything much harder down here (memories of getting pumped stupid on Mother Africa when I was much younger and better).   
 

A musical interlude (warning: contains percussion solo)

[abarro81]

I still think that in terms of max finger strength (which I perceive as a major personal weakness) its a good, focused structure to follow.

Maybe I didn't express myself well - I wasn't meaning back to not doing that structure, just that it's maybe not surprising that the gains have slowed, and now progress (with that structure or another one) might be back to more 'normal' rates. I really want to experiment with it but hanging aggravates my elbow a bit at the moment so I'm going to avoid all foot-off work for a few weeks at least.

[andy popp]

Mon - work
Tues - work
Wed - problems on board, stop slowly working way back thro' old warm-ups and try some 'hard' problems. Shockingly rubbish but feels a bit more like training ...
Thurs - good circuits session on board
Fri - swimming
Sat - meet TV director ahead of filming BBC2 doc on Mon (get me!)
Sun - Tate L'pool with daughter. Brilliant!

[Muenchener]

STG (this year): Steep pumpy 6b onsight, 7a redpoint.
Build alpine experience on routes that are [shorter / easier / harder but bolted] than LTG routes by ticking several classics in the V/V+ range in the Dolomites.
MTG (2013):Continue to build alpine rock experience by ticking one or more long (> 20 pitches) routes and one or more big classic VI's.
   (2013):Nostalgic trip back home - Welsh trad E2
   (????): Place in top half of the field in a local boulder comp.
LTG (<= 5 years): Big alpine rock routes: Totenkirchl west face (Dülfer), Marmolada south face (Vinatzer-Messner)
   
M. Beastmaker
T. Alpine approach / snowboard touring season training: 40 minutes step-ups w/heavy rucksack
W. Wall, Thalkirchen, routes. 5b 6b 5b 6b+ 6b+ 6a 6b
T.
F.
S. Swimming, yoga.
S. Wall, Boulderwelt. Bouldering.

[cheque]

STG- 5.12a in Red Red River Gorge in October- now less than a fortnight away!

M- Rest. Wrist showing telltale signs of having been tweaked.
T- Driving to Sheffield for Edge session a guy drives into the back of the chequemobile. minor damage but insurance company tell me to drive home immediately. Meet them half way and go to Notts wall first. Get really psyched for steep problems and have a really good session working hard on them.
W- Rest. Sore.
T- Edge. Feeling mega strong- both of last weeks projects go down easily first go. Get on a new one which nearly gets done too. A bit of bouldering after.
F- Rest. Wrist not so good.
S- Higgar Tor. Hot and a little midgy but apparently better than other local options so rammed. Wanted to do Surform to get a taste of the Rasp but the latter is permanently occupied. Cruise the File which is a brilliant feeling having been spanked by it on my previous two visits years ago and do various HVSs.
S- Wrist really quite bad. Help friends move house which I'm counting as training as it involves moving a giant industrial knitting machine, each section of which is ludicrously heavy. 

[nai]

goals - Ring Of Fire, Why Me?

M - foot on campussing - 4x4 60s on, 20s off, 4 mins rest, failed -18s final set
t
w
T - mate cried off routes so bouldering at the Tor, did Little Extra & Wild In Me, failed on Rattle & Hump
F - let down again! foot on campussing - 5x4 62s on, 18s off, 4 mins rest, failed -22s final set.
S - warm up, reaches, lockoffs, 6x4 rep repeaters, not a great success
s

Disappointing week, thought I had a good chance of getting both routes done but didn't even get on either.

[Three Nine]

You can write me a winter programme to start after that 

Here is my programme for you which i'm pretty certain would get you up the Oak:

Don't go near a rope until April.

[TobyD]

Sun - Tate L'pool with daughter. Brilliant!

Isn't it just. A great gallery.

[shark]

You can write me a winter programme to start after that 

Here is my programme for you which i'm pretty certain would get you up the Oak:

Don't go near a rope until April.

Not even to lynch you?

[TobyD]

You can write me a winter programme to start after that 

Here is my programme for you which i'm pretty certain would get you up the Oak:
Don't go near a rope until April.

...and relocate the crag to spain; otherwise at this rate it'll still be wet in April.

[shark]

Really pleased to get up Soul Sacrifice, a great and not soft E3.  It  goes against my strengths and was a good reminder I'm going to have to get a lot fitter do anything much harder down here (memories of getting pumped stupid on Mother Africa when I was much younger and better).   
 

Well done on Soul Sacrifice, though I don't know the route. Is it as sustained as the routes on the Ocean Boulevard Wall? - if so very well done - you need to be fit for them. Mother Africa is one of the pumpiest trad routes of its grade I've done. Wall of the Worlds to to the right is no pumpier (possibly less) but obviously has harder moves.

[Three Nine]

You can write me a winter programme to start after that 

Here is my programme for you which i'm pretty certain would get you up the Oak:

Don't go near a rope until April.

Ok sorry, its ok for hangings and S&M, just not for routes.

[richdraws]

STG 7a,7a+,7b, 7b+
MTG (Jan/Feb2013) - Boulder 7c
LTG lets see how we go

High volume week

Mon - lunchtime jog - rest
Tue - lunchtime jog - works evening, dabbled with the motherboard
wed - lunchtime jog - fingerboard repeaters, general bouldering followed by 4x4
thu  - lunchtime jog -rest
fri    - lunchtime jog - fingerboard repeaters, light bouldering followed by 4x4.
sat - Sat in a booth all day at a comic convention signing things and drawing for people. Exhausting.
sun - A potter at Ilkley.

A good weeks training, not much weekend fun climbing wise.

[John Gillott]

Shark - perhaps in tune with what Three Nine is saying, what not try something radically different? You do seem to be going backwards a bit at the moment and getting stale.

As I see it you want to climb The Oak. That's the main thing. You've got yourself into a position where you can cope with a high(ish) volume of training. But if I've got it right you also believe that basic finger strength is letting you down.

Why not cut down the number of days you train to just three or four during the winter? Spend most or all of the time doing hard bouldering in a style as close as possible to The Oak (with maybe one day ARCing in the mix). Then five weeks or so before you want to start trying The Oak again do Power Endurance work.

It's a simple, basic, programme. You don't need much else for The Oak do you? You're not training for a 40m Spanish endurance route. You'll feel fresh each time you train. If there are strength gains to be made at your age, will this will maximise the chance of it happening?

[Duncan Disorderly]

Goals: Get back on the horse after psyche dropped to an all time low in this dismal summer of shite! F7c+, F8a..

M: Chill.
T: Works sesssion - Decided to start slow and just repeated yellows and did the odd white. Tried brown F7c without much hope of getting anywhere (after only climbing once a week for the past 6 weeks) and reached my highpoint again only to be thwarted by a slipping foot on the final footswap - shocking
W: Ache.
T: Bouldering on't Grit! - Started at Burbage West, conditions felt favourable for a session on WSS but was uncerimoniously chased off the crag by midges before even pulling me boots on - Bastards! Went to aparent north and did some easy solos and some problems up to 6C - Ace! Got cold so went for a 4 or 5 mile run along the edge with the dog.
F: Nowt.
S: Tor with Simon - First session on Body Machine for a year or so, surprised myself by doing all the moves with relative ease and even making a few links that I don't remember having done before! Really noticed the lack of AeroCap and PE work as I tired and powered out really fast. Great session tho!
S: Worked on van all day - Wired in relay & DAB aeriel, carpeted panels and fitted floor before the deluge started - YYFY!!

Good week - nice to be back  ... Surprisingly climbed pretty well considering that I've really just surfed and worked on my van for the past 6+ weeks. Not sure that there's gonna be time to tick BM but really psyched and pleased that it all feels much more doable than the last time I was on it!

:D

[Duncan Disorderly]

S. Tor with Duncan. Disappointing..................

You alluding to my current performance and training volume? 

Might have to chance my name to this tho as it's proably pretty accurate

[shark]

Shark - perhaps in tune with what Three Nine is saying, what not try something radically different? You do seem to be going backwards a bit at the moment and getting stale.

As I see it you want to climb The Oak. That's the main thing. You've got yourself into a position where you can cope with a high(ish) volume of training. But if I've got it right you also believe that basic finger strength is letting you down.

Why not cut down the number of days you train to just three or four during the winter? Spend most or all of the time doing hard bouldering in a style as close as possible to The Oak (with maybe one day ARCing in the mix). Then five weeks or so before you want to start trying The Oak again do Power Endurance work.

It's a simple, basic, programme. You don't need much else for The Oak do you? You're not training for a 40m Spanish endurance route. You'll feel fresh each time you train. If there are strength gains to be made at your age, will this will maximise the chance of it happening?

Hi John.

Thanks for the interest and thoughts.

Whilst I have gone off the boil last week I'm actually pleased with my overall progress this year and feel stronger than ever. I also don't feel like I failed on the Oak this year - it was never in condition long enough for me to have a decent run at it.

Going back on the long routes on the left of the tor shows that I can get stamina/recovery ability back fairly quickly.

I am likely to follow something along the lines of what you are suggesting with a focus on strength gains that will probably include doing weights in a less haphazard fashion too. 

[shark]

S. Tor with Duncan. Disappointing..................

You alluding to my current performance and training volume? 

You were magnificent. I wasn't. Stop rubbing it in

[andy_e]

STG: Not be the designated driver on a Hunters Inn trip
MTG: Solve all the world's issues
LTG: Fly

M: Norfolk trip. Plenty of beer, food and marsh walking.
T: Norfolk still.
W: Nothing.
T: Weather prevents project attempts. Sack it to the Depot. Had a semi-decent session, remembered why I don't like the Depot.
F: Weather prevents psyche from building enough to make it further than the pub.
S: Norwich. Cold grit day and everybody seemed like they had a good day. I also had a good day, but not due to climbing. Worried about bowling causing injuries. None sustained.
S: Recovering from Norwich. Rained all day anyway.

Not much climbing done last week then! Stupid rain. Aims for this week: buy annual wall pass, use it every day. Maybe attempt an evening lamping session if weather improves.

[Three Nine]

 

[fried]

STG - Go outside, keep getting trapped by other peoples plans.

Monday - Another new wall opens in Paris, so loads of new stuff to try, run around like a kid in a sweet shop doing all the easy stuff.
Tuesday - Friday - Too much work.
Saturday - Back to new centre (I have to decide in January where to renew my contract). Hadn't realised before how rough new hold are. Tear a  hole in my hand the size of a penny piece and after 2 hours I just can't climb 'cos my fingers sting too much, shame because I was having a good session.
Sunday - Wander round a car boot sale for a couple of hours.

Tried to do some back exercises most days, but living in a flat the size of a postage stamp is not very inspiring.

[Sasquatch]

Seasons out for me, so I'll be taking a break from Powerclub for a couple weeks. 
Done almost all of my goals, but didn't get in the routes. Hard time getting partners....

[duncan]

Well done on Soul Sacrifice, though I don't know the route. Is it as sustained as the routes on the Ocean Boulevard Wall? - if so very well done - you need to be fit for them. Mother Africa is one of the pumpiest trad routes of its grade I've done. Wall of the Worlds to to the right is no pumpier (possibly less) but obviously has harder moves.

Soul Sacrifice is harder overall*, harder to read and feels more committing, but is not quite as basically pumpy as OB: it has a proper rest in the short chimney and a cheeky knee scum which helped me to compose myself a little before the crux.  It's nothing like as hard as Mother Africa.  Next up Barracuda or Facedancin’, beta welcome!

*except to author of the graded list in a popular guidebook