[csl]

Goals for Feb.
Purple 7b on 45º
Density Bouldering http://climbstrong.wordpress.com/2010/06/09/density-training/ twice a week
Strength sessions twice a week
Get outside twice 1/2

Mon- Went over to Big Rock in milton keynes, bit of a drive but worth the journey. Started off bouldering, did lots of onsighting up to V5. Then some routes, onsighting on the steepest walls up to 6c and a 7b+ in two halves with a rest to work out a move. About 10 routes in total. Then more bouldering, lots more onsighting and some harder problems, got a couple of V6's second go.
Tue- KK - Strength. Climbed a V7 i had tried before 2nd go. Then onsighted a V6. Nearly did the purple on the 45º.
Wed- 6km run.
Thur- KK - Strength. Quite a few goes on Purple on 45º, comes down to one move. split two tips so left it. Did manage another V5 afterwards tho.
Fri- KK - Density. Set one. Purple V5, Red V5, Pink V4, Yellow V3. Managed to get 15 tops, but used a cheat hold to get past the crux on Red on 3 of the goes. Set two. Pink V4, Pink V2, Purple V3, Yellow V3. Managed 22 tops, sort of just becomes like 20 minutes of on the minute bouldering.
Sat- Nothing.
Sun- 8km run.

[Falling Down]

Goals: Climb

Been in Siurana all week having a holiday and climbing.  Feels great to be back on the end of a rope.  We've climbed at Valley Crags, Siurana, Montsant, Mussara, El Falco over the week with one rest day.  Done loads of mileage and got my leading head back to some extent.  Highlights - Onsighting a 38m 6c at El Falco; going from shaking up a 5+ at the wall two weeks ago to doing 35 plus routes this week; being on holiday with old friends and meeting new ones from Japan and France.

[nai]

M - 6km run
T - TGUs (18kg x3 max,  396kg total) & deadlifts - maxed bar out at 88kg, not quite 1.5xBW, felt hard.
w - 30 minutes core (planks, sideplanks, dishes, pressups)
T - walked into Birchen lightweight hoping for a low-mid circuit but  it was soaked. Found a few dry holds on Three Ships so managed two problems
F - after much too & fro ended up at Burbage West trying Western Eyes. Fortunately loads of folk turned up so could give it a good go.  Did well enough to consider giving it some more attention. 20 minutes core Eve.
S - quick morning hit to try new Western Eyes beta, not so friendly without six pads and two spotters, couldn't commit to putting Left heel on and was wearing a hole in my right palm so sacked it.  Deadlifts (4x88kg), cleans (3x36kg) and Renegade Rows (3x20x16kg) back home.
s- rest and psyche for tomorrow.

[rich d]

Mon to sat nothing
Sun am secret garden tried beachball this has moved to a long term goal as I was no where close. Ran away to Burbage south - did normal low grade stuff got fed up of being covered in mud - went to depot notts on way home. Started comp problems. Now knackered wine and parecetomol to follow shortly

[Muenchener]

STG: Get back into something resembling regular training.
MTG (2013): Frankenjura VII onsight; Alpine multipitch VI; Welsh trad E2
LTG (<= 5 years): Big alpine rock routes: Totenkirchl west face (Dülfer), Marmolada south face (Vinatzer-Messner)

At last! A week of having time to train and not coughing.

M: Wall, Thalkirchen. Bouldering. In which I boulder with some folks with whom I normally do routes, and discover that I'm bouldering at about the same level as some people who climb two grades harder.
NNFN: something must be drastically wrong with my endurance / head / route tactics
YYFY: I am relatively strong for the grade I climb at, so that's one less thing to worry about in terms of training priorities.

T: Wall, Gilching. Mainly to get acquainted with some potential new climbing partners. Half an hour bouldering to warm up, then routes 6a+, 6a, 6a+, 6a, 6b.

W: Wall, Thalkirchen. Routes. Third day on and felt wasted on the second warm-up, but thereafter oddly ok. 5b, 5c, 6a+, 6a+.
Then decided I'm definitely not going to get up harder routes if I never try any, so got on a 7a. Managed the first ten metres; molto rests from 5 metres onwards but did all the moves & they were ok. yyfy.
Rounded the evening off with half a dozen practice falls, including two over the lip of a roof which is a major Low Mental Comfort scenario for me. But got told off for hard catches on my partner's falls: seems I have not yet sufficiently purged my old-skool trad belaying habits.
All in all a session that turned out a lot better than it felt like it would at the beginning.

T:
F:
S: Wall, Thalkirchen. Routes. Cumulatively tired form the earlier part of the week, and climbing with a random internet stranger - regular partners having gone ski touring - so a fairly unambitious onsight mileage session.
5c 5c 6a+ 6a 6a 6a+ 6a+ 6a+ 6b.

S: Kettlebell introductory course: Turkish Get Ups and Swings

[shark]

Thanks csl

11.8-10 (11.7-10 last week)

Mon. 
Tues. Lunch. Fingery endurance session on systems board. 2 good sets. 115 moves after warm up.
Weds. PM Physio. Shoulder worse than I thought. Recommended by John Ostro to ease off for two weeks.
Thurs. Eve. Foundry Furnace easyish routesi   
Fri. Eve. Foundry Furnace easyish routes.   
Sat. Nottingham Climbing Centre. Youth Climbing Series with Tom and Poppy. Tommy cocked up on a route he was easily capable of and came 5th. Poppy placed 2nd.
Sun. PM With Mark Richardson to Stanage Popular and soloed a dozen routes. Ace weather

Cancelled Chorro trip due to losing passport  May have been a blessing as I could have ended up with a SLAP tear. Taking it easy this week as well to allow shoulder to recover. Great to get out soloing on the grit with blue skies.

[Dolly]

Mon to sat nothing
Sun am secret garden tried beachball this has moved to a long term goal as I was no where close. Ran away to Burbage south - did normal low grade stuff got fed up of being covered in mud - went to depot notts on way home. Started comp problems. Now knackered wine and parecetomol to follow shortly

Have you tried sticking your knee on ?

[Dolly]

[size=78%]Cancelled Chorro trip due to losing passport [/size] [size=78%] May have been a blessing as I could have ended up with a SLAP tear. Taking it easy this week as well to allow shoulder to recover. Great to get out soloing on the grit with blue skies.[/size]

Are you doing any specific shoulder exercises ?
Sure its a tear ? there are a lot of other things it might be ?

[Dolly]

I declare today that life is simply taking and not giving
England is mine and it owes me a living etc etc


For those of you who don't do the Smiths I'm Still Ill


M nothing
T work a bit
W work but fell asleep on sofa at work
T nothing but ran into Sainsbury's from the car park - does that count ?
F worked all day and late into evening. Knackered and then lots of wine
S tired but managed 25mins in the shed. Seriously properly weak as a kitten and took it out of me
S Watched son's team lose 7 0 to Staveley Miner's Welfare. Needed a nap afterwards. 30 mins in shed, felt a bit better than yesterday

Still recovering really. Shoulder not very good and think I'll need to get a steroid injection
Gutted to miss 2 beautiful days out but  just not well enough

 

[webbo]

Mon. Rockcity.Reasonable session repeated a 7a and 6c, finger felt ok.
Tue. Turbo 5 mins on 1 min off x5
Wed. Rockcity managed most of flo yellow circuit, finger a bit sore afterwards.
Thu. Rest day first in 14 days.
Fri. Day off work. Bike 80.3 miles 4hrs 43 mins. Stuffed.
Sat. Leeds wall on way to visit my mum. 31 problems up to v4.
Sun. Dumbell workout, then out with missus drove to the coast to look at some mist.
Too much eating and drinking. Finger improving but still icing and massaging it. Cycling going ok first time I've ridden 80 miles in winter for about 10 years. However the event I was planning to do is full ( coast to coast in a day) Need a new goal.


 

[Duma]

STG - Wrist rehab stuff, run regularly, get in shape for MTG
MTG - Peak + font before spring, if I do any hard stuff that'll be nice too.
LTG - 8A, 68kg

M - TCA eve, worked a sequence and did moves white #10 - great moves, shame one of the holds is so horrific, hard to justify the risk to skin for a plastic tick. Got up white #6, really pleased with this, felt hard, and not my style (compression).
T - dentist - root canal and crown booked for next week.
W - TCA aft, mostly on woody, managed prob I set two weeks ago, pleased. Struggling on bigger more open moves set by others though - good for me to try hard on this sort of stuff.
T - Run, 4.5 miles, 38 min. shorter than regular circuit as picked up daughter from preschool at end - feel I should get extra credit as she demanded to ride on my shoulders pretty much the whole way home - another 1.5 miles.
F - TCA eve, turned into unintended stamina session, made good progress on Green "7c+", best go dropped finishing jug 
S -
S - Blocfest, really pleased with today, flashed 23 of 25, 1 second go, 1 third go. Made finals in 4th (of 5). no tops and only one bonus in the finals, but should have done one of the probs first go really, slapped finishing pocket but had missed a foothold. Couldn't get up to that position again. Finished 3rd, can't complain if you're beaten by two of the GB squad really.

68-69kg - Happy with weight now, just need to steady state.

[shark]

[size=78%]Cancelled Chorro trip due to losing passport [/size] [size=78%] May have been a blessing as I could have ended up with a SLAP tear. Taking it easy this week as well to allow shoulder to recover. Great to get out soloing on the grit with blue skies.[/size]

Are you doing any specific shoulder exercises ?
Sure its a tear ? there are a lot of other things it might be ?

No - not doing any specific exercises and also its not a tear. But my susapinastis (sp?) at the back is constantly sore and the shoulder at the front is also sore which may be a sign of bicep tendonitis (tedonosis?) up where it inserts at the shoulder and John thought I was at risk of doing further damage such as a SLAP tear unless I dropped the intensity which recently has included sessions combining assisted 1 armers on an edge and weighted deadhangs. John reckons a couple of weeks of easier climbing should sort it. I'm also icing.

[rich d]

Mon to sat nothing
Sun am secret garden tried beachball this has moved to a long term goal as I was no where close. Ran away to Burbage south - did normal low grade stuff got fed up of being covered in mud - went to depot notts on way home. Started comp problems. Now knackered wine and parecetomol to follow shortly

Have you tried sticking your knee on ?

Not yet, next time....

[shark]

Mon to sat nothing
Sun am secret garden tried beachball this has moved to a long term goal as I was no where close. Ran away to Burbage south - did normal low grade stuff got fed up of being covered in mud - went to depot notts on way home. Started comp problems. Now knackered wine and parecetomol to follow shortly

Have you tried sticking your knee on ?

Not yet, next time....

Baltic conditions make a huge difference

[cheque]

I'm quite keen to get back on Beach Ball Rich- get in touch if you wanna lift share from Notts some time.

STG- 7A & E2 on grit this season, maintain sport fitness over winter.
MTG- 7b, 7B and E3 in 2013, get enough finger strength to facilitate the first two.

M- Rest.
T- Max hangs. Still making progress. A whole 3 seconds double-handed from the 8mm edges. 
W- Rest.
T- Notts depot. Endurance burn on circuit board went well but not enough to keep me off the new yellows (Not sure what grade they're meant to be- V5-V7 I think). Did 8, flashing four of them. Better than I managed in 7 weeks on the last lot.
F- Rest.
S- Rest.
S- Curbar. Did Gorilla Warfare. YYFY.  Walk round Burbage valley after, culminating in leading girlfriend through bog in the dark. 

Great week.
 

[rich d]

I'm quite keen to get back on Beach Ball Rich- get in touch if you wanna lift share from Notts some time.

Sounds like a plan. Be a few weeks now though.

[iain]

STG: Rehab finger

Went indoors and outdoors once each this week for fun.

The finger isn't right, still can't crimp or pinch so I must've somehow done damage again. Rehab and gentle climbing for the moment.


Sounds like you're having a great trip FD

S- Curbar. Did Gorilla Warfare. YYFY.  Walk round Burbage valley after, culminating in leading girlfriend through bog in the dark. 

Nice one, was that a 2013 goal? Not the bog part obviously ...

Edit: and Duma, 

[fried]

I wrote something much longer but then the site went down and now I have no more time. Here's a summary

Monday - Wednesday - packing
Thursday -indoors
Friday - Saturday - packing
Sunday - rocher canon -fantatic

[tomtom]

Hello, sounds like a bit of a ho-hum week :/ apart from FD who's got his climbing mojo back with a top trip abroad - which is excellent to hear. RichD, have a look at GCW's 'method' for Beachball using both knees.. as fully endorsed by Plattsy

2013 totals:
Outdoor: 15   
Indoor:2 
Training 4 (includes a set of TGU's I did sunday Pm after posting last week)

After all of last weeks exertions, I promptly developed a low level grumbling kind of cold - that left me missing at least two climbing opportunities. You know, that kind of bah, slightly achy but perfectly able to function at work, yet not really that motivated to do anything physical kind of cold... so I put off one trip on tuesday to make myself feel better for thursday, then felt crap on thursday etc..

But, thanks to some 'some fresh air might do you some good' cajoling from Nai I popped out on Friday daytime to Burbage West, with the intention on not necessarily re-opening my account on West Side Story, but having a tickle and seeing how it felt. Nai and a couple of other gents were there already, getting stuck into Western Eyes - and I pottered around the corner to find a mini lake under WSS... with a bit of dam building and channel cutting I managed to divert a stream heading into the quagmire and drain it. The warm up face between Western Eyes and WSS had two massive wet streaks running down it, and the arete/area near the Nose was also gopping. So warming up involved deadhanging the nose to the right of Ron Size Fawcet (I think..) and various stretches... To cut a long story short - lots of attempts - mainly very good to my surprise.. got to my previous high point fairly quickly (established on the face on the second highest sidepull thinking about a lunge for the third allegedly better one). Felt strong, and while conditions were a little warm it all felt tight - good body tension and position close to the rock. Started working the throw to the third side pull - or to be more accurate working out body position to make it work without too much of a throw.. Probably cast for the hold about 3 or 4 times then ran out of beans.. Went and looked at some heelhook shennanigans going on on Western Eyes and wandered off back. Hello to the other folks there (names forgotten - soz) good to meet you.. Pretty good all in all. I was expecting to be rubbish after a week of no climbing and mild illness - but WSS feels like its well within range now. Final section needs working and with good conditions it feels like it should go... (famous last words!)

Saturday was a long day - met my wheelchair bound brother in law (Charlton fan) in Hull to go to the Hull vs Charlton game, and ended up giving him a lift to Doncaster at 6:30 as taxis didn't show and the train was cancelled... he has the patience of a saint... anyway...

Sunday. A great day was forecast - and Andy Popp had suggested earlier in the week getting out. Suspecting the Peak would be brimming we headed out to Thorn. What a great place that is, the rock is so good and with some beautiful naturally weathered shapes. We started off in sector 3 in the guide (name?) where I'd been before and Andy worked his way through the moves on 'for my next trick'. This took a while - and quite a bit of his skin, but he snatched a send when we were in 'just one more go' territory In the meantime I was trying the moves on 'fix my sink' - which had felt impossible a couple of weeks before. Trying some different foot placements I got to slapping, getting but not holding the slopey arete (the crux I suspect) but concious of how much skin it was using I didnt really give it a full try - another I think may go soon. The SS section felt desperate though - working both hands over to the small crimps felt tough, possibly my foot beta is all wrong there...

After Andys success we moved up to another area (forgotten the name) where I wanted to try Mothership Reconnection... Its a fantastic group of boulders - some wonderful shapes and would be a great place to bring kids or people new to climbing to potter around.. Anyway, Mothership proved to be quite a grit tussle! Lunges, slaps, scrabbly heels - superb! I got close towards the end, dropping it when my RH squirmed off the average flatty just before the top - but was probably more tired than I realised from efforts on the previous blocs. A beta Q though, the low shallow pocket for the RF was really tricky for me to use - I had to get point my toe into it sideways to avoid putting my heel down on the block behind - which would feel very much like cheating. I've subsequently seen a vid where it wasnt used at all, but it felt useful (when my foot stayed in it) for the pull up to the LH hold (with the left heel in around the corner..)> I wondered if there was some canny way of getting the foot in there without 'fouling' that I was missing.. ho hum.. Anyway - a great day out and I was a bit annoyed with myself for not getting Mothership - but again I think it should go fairly quickly if I am fresh...  More projects thats what its all about!

A shock from the scales this week too.. 11stn 4lbs was seen twice... lowest in at least 15 years...

[andy_e]

I can't quite picture what move you're on about TomTom but I remember something along the lines of pull on, slap up right, slap again (maybe), right foot on the ramp, knee-scum type thing to get right hand to top of good holds on the arete, left leg around on something maybe? Then slap up to the flatty and struggle to top out from being a bit tired by that point... That's a completely useless description, sorry!

STG: Under Rumsfeld, Bush Bully, Ian's Traverse, session at Guisecliff once it's dry (Trust, A Little Sparkle, BC).
MTG: Hunter's Roof, 1-4-7
LTG: 7C+, Heaven In Your Hands or To Me To You probably.

M: Wall session on the new problems. A hard set this time around. Only 11/25 flashes and 3 none-flashes. 151. Need to put some work in this week to reach the 200 mark!
T: Pancakes in vast quantities
W: Work do. Good food.
T: Valentine's day feeding.
F: Cooked some nice food again.

S: After wandering around a mostly damp Guisecliff to scope out and clean some future climbs (all of which were wet, which made for some successful brushing! BC, Trust, Grow Up, A Little Sparkle now clean), we wandered over to Whitehouses (via the butcher in Pateley Bridge, best pork pies in Yorkshire!) where I over-excitedly rushed around, getting on problems too hard before I was warm enough. This meant I was tired by the time I was warm and could only have a few goes on Under Rumsfeld before starting to go backwards. Still, I made it to the Rageh Omaar redpoint slap move four times but didn't stick it due to being out of juice by then and also by missing the hold numerous times. This should be remedied by doing Rageh Omaar five or six times during the warm-up so I can get warmed up properly and also to get my mind familiar with the move so I recognise it when I get to it. After a brief pull on Cone Head Bobstar (ouch), I filmed Tom and Dave walking up Whitefinger Low and then got on Bush Bully for the token few goes. Now the first hold is slightly more comfortable it makes it more pleasant to have a few more goes on it and I was able to unlock the key beta, namely pull on that crimp really hard, fully crimp it out (as opposed to half-crimping from when I first catch the hold, change it to a full crimp once my right foot is out and then lock in the Egyptian. I should have done it on one go when I decided to cut loose on the lip hold after having matched the lip (right hand on the lip crimp still, but left hand out left on the good edge below the hole) and then couldn't decide which hand to campus with which was retarded as it really doesn't matter which hand to go with as the jug is gigantic. I didn't get back to that position again but it's on. 7B seems highly unlikely (the Crome admitted he'd been on some harsh crack when he gave it 7A+) and so 7B+ seems to be the consensus. After that we were all boxed so we went to the pub.

S: "Where are you going?" "Caley!" "What about you lot?" "Yeah, Caley!" Everyone was going to Caley. I was psyched to get on to Secret Seventh after having worked out a sequence last year. Unfortunately three things would prevent any good attempts. Firstly, I was under some serious DOMS from swinging about at Whitehouses the day before. Secondly, it was damp damp damp. Thirdly, everyone in Yorkshire also wanted to get on Secret Seventh. Oh well. After deciding nothing was going to happen, we sacked it to the cliff (via petrol-station-financial-difficulty shenanigans) for an easy circuit. It was a great day to be at the cliff evidently as 4,000 other people were there. We swung around on the Egg boulder and Demon Wall Roof doing all the classics (and some of the non-classics) before a quick go on Si's and Syrett's Roof (great climb, I should do it more often) and then sacking it to the Hunter's for a well earned pint. We even sat outside enjoying the sunset for ten minutes before we went back inside as it got too cold.

Lessons learned: Take your time warming up! Get familiar with the end moves of a pumpy burlfest a few times before you try and climb it. Crimp crimps properly and don't fanny around when throwing for a massive jug. Don't go to Caley when reports form the previous day said dampness and it was misty on the actual day... Apart from that, a good rest week followed by some Nidderdale Fun and some classic Yorkshire climbing.

[Dolly]

TT have you tried WSS by what is allegedly the "lank" method. Even though its not.
RH first sidepull, r toe way out right,
LH up to second sidepull
pull no throw required to get RH up to third sidepull ?

[tomtom]

TT have you tried WSS by what is allegedly the "lank" method. Even though its not.
RH first sidepull, r toe way out right,
LH up to second sidepull
pull no throw required to get RH up to third sidepull ?

Thanks Dolly - yes, I tried that a while back, I couldn't get my feet right at the start to get that RF up comfortably.. I've seen a couple of clips of this way (Dave has one and another from the Dobbinator) but it did not really fell right... (I couldnt do it in other words!)

Despite earlier frustrations I'm quite enjoying it the normal way.. lots of balance and body position moves on small holds - and I seem to be making progress. Doubtless I'll be back asking for more on the lank method if I dont make any progress

Andy, RE: Mothership.. All that sounds familiar - but there is a low shallow toe pocket for the RF from which I get a push up to get the higher LH hold (with a left heel near the starting LH hold to keep my body in). Its an odd hold as theres a block about 15-20 cm in front of it meaning you can get your foot into the pocket sideways, but that means its hard to use. Not impossible, but I wondered if there was a canny rf in the pocket method.. Nice problem though - a bit of heel and toe shennanigans makes it a bit less thrutch and campus for me..

[moose]

I've never been to Thorn - and just realized it's only around 1 1/4 hrs away.  How quick to dry is it? Is it only worth going on guaranteed nice days or is it worth speculative trips after recent poor weather?

[andy popp]

Well, I've only been twice and both on nice days - but I should imagine it dries very quickly. The rock is largely extremely clean and much of the bouldering is effectively on freestanding blocks. Can't see drainage being a problem on vast majority. South facing too.

[andy_e]

Go moose, you'll love it. Stunning venue and as Andy says, quick drying. All you need is a whacking rag to remove loose grains and you're good to go.