[tomtom]

I shaved my wrists today. One of the more unusual things I have done in the name of climbing...

I did continue it down to the hands - otherwise it would look like I had a non hairy watch strap on

Its been quite a week of non-climbing, working, eating and drinking. I've been running  a residential training course Monday to Thurs which is enjoyable and set in plush environs.. therefore three square three course meals have been consumed every day, along with the odd beer in the evening. A day on the road on Thursday saw my weekly junk food quota (non)healthily exceeded. To cap it all off Friday was our works Xmas lunch/dinner - which say us leave work at 11:45 AM and I rolled back home about 12 hours later as my last rambling suggests..

In the meantime, I did manage to do a little training - two 20 min sessions of deadhangs from door frames and a series of push ups.. both of which seemed to tire me out, so better than nothing.

Still, power club is a rendition of climbing training rather than non climbing non training activities, so with no further delay Sunday. Picked up Grubes in Huddersfax and trundled through a sunny/misty Bradford over to the Cliff. It was wet. Gulp. The Cliff never looks wet - even when its just finished raining.. but it was. Well, at 10:30 about 50% of it was gopping and top outs were interesting. If you find slime padding interesting that is.. Still, there was a gentle breeze, the sun was burning things off and the Keel was dry ~ so whatever...

TommyZtone was there already, Nigel P turned up with Family and I warmed up and set up encampment under the Keel.. Moose wandered by on his way up to the Underhand shelf (rather similar to a couple of weeks ago!) and I tried all of the moves in isolation, then linked. Big rest. Power through - feeling good, twist, pop, fingers scrape the edge of the pocket... Next go the same - and to cut a long and now rather boring story short so were the next ten with increasing degrees of sag! All the parts are there, all can be done, just need a little more stamina (or efficiency in the first part) and it will go. From the beginning I felt tired, and heavy after a week of food and drink... and psyche was not really there. Tuesday or Wednesday are pencilled in for a big try...

Met AndyD and a few of us set off to try Pistol Whip (as there were a good number of pads). Nice problem, but I was buggered. Everything hurt when I tried on it... Keeled out!

Oh, wrists? I've now scabs and callouses on the inside of my wrists from the Keel (they catch on the lip) and I taped them up (after the scabs opened!) as Stubbs had suggested. Removing the tape feels like I'm being waxed ~ so they are now hairless!

[nai]

increasing degrees of sag!
 a little more stamina (or efficiency

Core Core Core, work your core.

you may be doing but never mention it, I don't any more because it's become a regular thing, 3-5 times per week, maybe just five, maybe 20, maybe 30 minutes.  It's quite easy to fit in when You get in the habit, maybe while cooking, while the tv is on, while the kids are in the bath, between BM reps, a set of situps, leg raises, planks, levers, whatever.  It'll make a difference, trust me*

*don't

[shark]

Thanks tomtom

11.7-10

Mon.   
Tues.
Weds.Eve. Wave with Ben. Fun sess on the new problems
Thurs. Eve. Wave. Opened an account with pink black spots 7A. Scarcely move on it. Originally graded 6C 
Fri.
Sat. Day. Fruitless trek searching for dry rock in the Peak  Eve. Wave with boys. Progress on pink black spots
Sun.

Busy week again work-wise spending Mon and Tues in Swansea so light week climbing-wise. Weight tipped in at 11.10 on monday so starting to rein in the guzzling despite all the social do's. More psyched for the Wave than campusing even though shoulder is better.

   

 

[fried]

Monday - Tuesday - Nothing
Wednesday - indoor; another large section of my wall's been repainted, so do loads of new stuff. Do some stretching but leave the rest of my usual core stuff as I'm knackered after the climbing. Do a couple of sets of repeaters on steeper holds just to see.
Thursday - Friday - Nothing

Saturday - Indoor, Do the last new 'blue' problem, underclinging a rounded volume followed by some bridging, my shoulders hurt after this so I do a lot of easy volume. Usual stretching, repeaters 2x (4x6)., feeling easy I'll up it when I'm back to my normal routine.

Eat homemade biryani, get hammered on plum alcohol.

Sunday - Not much.

Most important is not getting injured or being off form for next Sunday's annual Christmas session at Big Rock where I have to burn off my Bro-in-law.

[tommytwotone]

STG / LTG: Font 7b

M - nowt
T - went to Depot, climbed well
W - nowt
T - went to Depot, climbed not so well
F - nowt
S - fruitless search for dry rock at Hunter's Stones. On the plus side I got well lost to got a good cardio workout walking around in circles!
S - Cliff with most of Yorkshire, no dice on Virgin 7bs as pinged out of break with heel / toe in again, now terrified of it. Attempted Pistol Whip as per T2's post above, got nowhere.

[rich d]

1 word summary nothing
Mon to Thursday shittest week ever at work, several 18 hour days, several stores closed, several poor bastards made redundant.
Friday depot Xmas party missed due to child no.1 being I'll.
Saturday shit family shit and shit supermarkets got pissed
Sunday went to peak am, dank wet etc so had a pint of coffee in heathersage

Weight too much...etc etc

[Muenchener]

STG : none just now; ticking over
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)

A couple of desultory bouldering sessions. Would probably be better off taking a complete rest for a couple of weeks.

M.
T. Sixth session of 100 pressups project afer rather too long a delay, oops.
W. 
T. Wall, Thalkirchen. Was supposed to be a team-building / glühwein drinking session with colleagues, cancelled due to lack of interest in the non-glühwein-drinking aspect. Bouldered instead.
F. Planned to do weights in office gym; was instead called home from work by my son's school. Strained ligements in foot in gym class. It's not a proper childhood if you don't spend part of it in plaster.
S. Seventh session of 100 pressups project
S. Wall, boulderwelt. Flash pump, bad skin ...

[Duma]

STG - don't get slack with wrist stuff, sort shoulder tweak, get in proper shape for MTG
MTG - multiple 7C's this winter, 7C+
LTG - 8A, 68kg

M - few hrs sleep after nights, then stressed christmas sorting
T - slightly less stressed christmas sorting, then TCA for eve - good scene with a few folk down, managed hardest of the oranges from the forces comp before it got taken down the next evening, some fun eliminates, then a bit of working the wood circuit - feels nails.
W - nothing, late for work due to fucked sleep patterns from nights, daughter in eve.
T - nothing, work then sisters birthday, good curry though.
F - nothing, morning shift then daughter ill.
S - nothing, 12hr days followed by epic christmas card writing scene.
S - nothing, 12hr days.

Blipped up to 70kg, but 69kg again this morning - pleased.

Very little done this week - christmas and family stuff had to take precedence. Happy with a weekend at work that didn't involve massively overeating. Shoulder is felling a bit worse if anything though, need to get the theraband out again. But most importantly need to get enough fucking sleep.

[Oldmanmatt]

Just started back into training...

After six months of idleness.

Moved to Torquay, a short walk from Ansty's.

And acquired two extra children, a dog and a new climbing partner😘😘.


Also...


It turns out, two four year olds are great aids to training...😜


Untitled (2012-12-16 12:44:12) by oldmanmatt, on Flickr

[Duma]

good to have you back OMM

[tomtom]

good to have you back OMM

+1

[iain]

+2 

If you're over portland/swanage way I'm always up for belayer/child herding duties

[Nibile]

+3!!!

[andy_e]

[iain]

STG: Volume until new year.
MTG: 3 7c+/8a between Jan-March
LTG: Infinite Gravity next Sept

M: FB session, 2 handed max hangs and ancap. Finished with press-up sets
T: Small local wall (it was a squash court) which is usually a bit rubbish but they've finally got their act together with route setting. Boulders to 7A and routes to 7b, stuffed.
W: Rest
T: Routes at Calshot. Good session and volume although maybe overdone.
F: Rest
S: Brief max hangs session. Wanted to get out despite the rubbish forecast so arrange to go ..
S: Back to the cutting for Under Duress. It's been 6 months since my working session on this (not counting one short, abysmal, aborted effort in between). First go was poor and I couldn't do several of the moves. Second go was much better, I was warmed up properly, and helped by some improved beta from my partner. Managed steady overlapping links, 6a/b climbing with a 10 move crux in the middle but "shouldn't" fall off from move 7. First redpoint I grunted my way to move 6, got all limbs where they were supposed to be and just needed to move my hanging arse a few inches so it was over a foot. The grunting became a growl (apparently) and then I wilted. A second redpoint didn't go anywhere.

A good week. Nearly got a tick yesterday but given that I haven't pulled that hard outdoors for ages it was good to get so close.

[tomtom]

Unlucky darts thesiger... though as Nai is always telling me..

CORE! CORE CORE!
Abs of steel in 6 weeks...

Flexibility/stretching too?

[cheque]

Ouch. Get well soon Thesiger.

STG- 7A and E2 on grit this season (ideally 7A in 2012), maintain/ improve sport fitness over winter.
MTG- crimpy hard (for me) redpoints on Pennine lime AKA get some crimp strength.

M- Rest. Lower back pain.
T- Notts Depot. Did my remaining four problems from the red (V3-V5) circuit. Pleased to tick the whole 30 in slightly over a week. Lower back pain throughout session (and in the day too) almost magically relieved by stomach stretching on return home.
W- Rest
T- Notts Depot. Circuit board session- turns out my session goals were too high as I’ve lost endurance in the two (maybe three) weeks since I did a proper stamina sesh. Oh well, got pumped anyway, which is the point. Tried some problems from the yellow circuit (V5-V6 I think)- most feature crimps that aggravate my finger sadly. Back pain returning at end of session.
F- Notts Depot Christmas comp. Hadn’t planned to go but sodden Peak forecast and psyched mates led to attendance. First time I’d done a comp for years and first time I've actually enjoyed one- my climbing is less ego-driven now I suppose. Flashed nine problems and, in common with every other comp I’ve ever done, didn’t do much more than that. The hard problems I sent were, predictably, either power-endurance or with cruxes on slopers- every crimpy one spanked me and my finger swelled up as bad as it’s ever been.    Doing my now-usual warm-down of climbing all 30 easy circuit problems, dropping off the last holds after each I realised that this is the source of my back pain… 
S- Rest. Christmas shopping. Shocking skin after fine-grained-volume slapping previous day.
S-  Beastmaker pull-up pyramid. Managed a pull-up on the 20 degree slopers for the first time and hung the 35 degree slopers for the first time too.  Did some typewriter-style pushups as well.

Off work Thursday onwards. Hopefully the weather will allow me to do some rock climbing. 

[Sasquatch]

I'll give the story an attempt....

Week stated on on Monday(go figure) with a pre-work wtd hang session on the BM.  At lunch headed to the gym to do some volunteer setting.  The local setters have asked me to try to set some projects for them(us) to work, in return i get to climb free...  Seems like a good deal   I set a new project on the 45 degree wall whcih everyone is pretty psyched on, 4 nails hard moves with a crux foot cut swing.....  Did some Yoga in the evening to loosen up the body and spent a fair bit of time drawing topos for a guidebook.  Tuesday was spent drawing more pictures of boulders and talking to folks about advertising in the guidebook. 

Wednesday did another wtd hang session on the BM and added about 5 lbs, which felt pretty good as I'd been stuck at the same place for a while. 

Thursday I managed to get a short run in before the 1st x-mas party of the week (which as this is a climbing forum, won't go int full details), resulting in less than optimal sleep(3hrs)/recovery/nutrition(loads of alcohol-open bar  ).

Friday was x-mas party #2, resulting as above......but thankfully no open bar, so slightly less alcohol.

Saturday was started off with a swedish pancakes feast by a friends parents, folowed by a short nap.  Then managed to get to the wall for a solid bouldering session.  Made good progress on the project set earlier in the week.  The day ended with a small friends get together which was eerily similar in results to the 2 x-mas parties....

Sunday slept in for a full nights sleep finally, then off to a soccer game where someone mistook my ankle for the ball.  End result being a bit of a knackered ankle with light weightbearing only for a bit.   

Looking forward to 2 more weeks of a similar amount of parties.....  If I live thriough it, there will be many wonderful memories

Goals for the next two weeks:
Live through it
Maintain steady weight somehow
Don't get injured

[nai]

unlucky, thesiger, hope it's not the drinking arm.


I really enjoyed my climbing last week, despite not getting up anything I made progress on two problems that have confounded me on more than one occasion.  Monday was a frustrating day, normally free it was my youngest's nursery Christmas performance, a 45 minute spectacular for which it is deemed necessary to close the nursery for the entire day.  The sun shone and temperatures hovered around freezing, naturally.  Tuesday is normally a childcare day but with a lengthening chores list and the weather still good my nipper found herself in nursery and after knocking off a few chores I was consulting my "quick-hit" list and on my way to Gardoms North. The objective of the day was to see if Kidneystone had become possible since I last tried it a couple of years ago. Unfortunately I haven't grown any so the reach was still huge but a bit of messing with the heel-toe meant I could get on post move and climb out of it. Just the big move to do, I can reach but it's a stretch with a lunge needed to catch it.  Improved core strength will certainly help for this, a reminder that I've been slacking off a bit lately so time to get stuck back into a daily regime (which I have done, only missed Sunday).

Thursday the plan was to head to Rowtor but as I dropped down Froggatt hill, perfect blue skies and -3 were replaced with freezing fog with the temperature dropping to -7.  By Hassop I'd decided to turn around and head back into the blue.  Secret Garden was the eventual choice and working out Left-Hand Man the plan. For an hour it frustrated me again which ended with a mini tantrum, some shouting, swearing and stomping off out back to the Hare's Ear, sorry if you were the guy on Dick Williams.  I returned for another go but still got nowhere so I poured a drink and sat down to ponder what might be wrong.  It was obviously all about the feet so I thought about how had I used them on Dick Williams and the answer came quite easily - by not forcing them deep into the break to start.  Instead, use a heel on a nubbin on the sloping shelf thus making the problem less steep.  A suitable nubbin was located and Bingo, with my heel on I can still cam my toes in the break and thirty minutes later I've done the first five moves without moving that foot and just flagging, smearing, dabbing with the left.  So just the sixth move - LH to the funny dishy, sidepull (the one you make the move for the pocket off) - to go, which it will.  Pretty confident about this one now, could feasibly go next session while Kidneystone, while I'm sure will go, I'm less sure about it going quickly. 

Anyway, the psyche is well and truly back, on Friday I worked out a seven rep repeater workout to emulate the holds on LHM & have been doing core work everyday.  Weather and time make it unlikely I'll be back on it this year but I'll be looking out for the first cold, dry spell of the New Year and heading straight back.

[leeroy]

So just the sixth move - LH to the funny dishy, sidepull (the one you make the move for the pocket off) - to go, which it will.

Good work. I spent about an hour falling of that move and then found a left heel toe that meant i could chalk up on it. Brilliant problem, so many tricks/methods.