[Sasquatch]

ltg - Unknown now.  doesn't look like any trips to smith will be scheduled for now, so To bolt is out for this year. 

No! Bad news.

Simple but effective training week.  Good thing as work drama has been driving me nuts.

Connected to the above?

A bit.  I'm in the situation of being in a very comfortable and easy job position with good retention, decent pay and good benefits, but that is bogged down by politics, red tape and bureaucracy, work with generally crap people, and both myself and my work and is unappreciated (I wrote an evaluation and it gets ignored, we hire a contractor to write an evaluation-i write it for them because they don't know what they're doing-and it gets followed).  I'm in the process of starting/developing my own business, but that holds great uncertainty so it's a huge shift for me in both my lifestyle and thinking.  At this stage if I'm going to make a real go of it, then #2, 3 and 4 priorities are the new job. (#1 is my family). 

What's really hard for me is that I've never in my life actually prioritized my job above my personal life.  It just feels wrong.

On a positive note, To Bolt may be on if things go well with the business as we're bidding on a project in Bend Oregon right now which would involve significant travel to Bend (monthly for 6-8 months). 

[Sasquatch]

Su: Decided to try climbing outdoors... went to Hobby Moor - cold, many streaks, but still things do-able. Did about 10 mins worth then my back/hip felt decidedly dodgy/tweaky so beat a retreat home. Despondent beastmaker flagellation.

I need to ease my back into climbing within the warmer, more controlled environment of a wall... Had it been good spring conditions it might be a good option outside, but I need to get used to the movement a bit more first...

YOU GOT OUTSIDE!! 

And very good self awareness. good luck breaking back into climbing

[Sasquatch]

Goals
January: Max effort strength/power with free weights. Power/Olympic Lifting.
February-March: Building base fitness long distance running. Slow long distance running & Tempo Runs. Heal my shoulder injury.
April-September: Street Run 11K Kortrijk. Climbing/bouldering/training for God Shave the queen. Antwerp marathon.
October-November: Project "God Shave the Queen" (8a)

Have you identified for yourself which goals are your priorities?
and how much run training have you done?  are you looking for any advice?  combining running and climbing training is quite hard to do effectively as you really have to make sacrifices in one or the other.

[Sasquatch]

STG - Stay uninjured, get strong ready for the weather to change...

T - Dodgy knee and sciatica, skipped my indoor session and did 45 mins BM (3 sets)
Fr - Indoor
Su - Knee O.K indoors,
Not sure wether to cut down to 2 indoor session and 2 BM per week instead of 3 indoor/ 1 BM.

Looks like 2 and 1 this week. 

I would think it depends on goals.  routes/boulders?  If your goal is to stay strong, I'd look at 1 BM, 1 campus, 1 hard boulder, and 1 easy/fun ARC session.  It won't get you very much stronger as quickly as a good planned cycle, but it should keep ou ready

[Sasquatch]

January Goals
V8 Indoors or 1-4-7 on the Campus Board - not done.
3 days out 2/3 - not done
Lose 2kg - done. Lost 3kgs.

Wed
Fingerboard
6x6 second hangs. New PB. 1 handed on Beastmaker 1 pad edge. -3.75kg.
Some bouldering to warm up + down. Tried to limit it to not get more ill.

Ok week - in raw strength i've gone from needing 7.5kg assistance to hang the 1 pad edge for 6 seconds, to half that. So that at least feels like progress over the last 6 months. Didn't boulder enough to hit my main goal of V8. But will try again in Feb.

February Goals
V8 Indoors or 1-4-7 on the Campus Board
Go to Spain uninjured + stronger than i've been before

Not sure if you caught the comments re: JackAus last week on power club, but I'd think similar may apply.  As a reference point, I can't one arm hang the beastmaker 1 pad edge. The FB, and v8 and 1-4-7 goals tells me more you likely have more finger/pull strength than should be needed, and there's a weakness somewhere else.  Core/technique/legs/explosive str/etc.  I don't know, but I'd look hard to see where you may have a weakness to address. 

[Sasquatch]

Awful week. Felt a bit broken at work for a few days. Stressed and anxious. Didn't do anything other than climbing on Saturday.

Saturday: Phoenix Wall (my style, so not really the point); Pinky Traverse (easy finish); Rachel's Box. Shredded a tip badly on the last problem so that's the wall out of the question until at least the end of the week.

Not a great result.

Tape up and train anyway?

Back on the horse 

[Sasquatch]

STG: (March) indoor 7a ROUTE
   A step forward for me today: Thalkirchen has a lead wall sector that goes up 17 metres and overhangs about 15. In the four years I've been going there I - shamefully, being easily intimidated by teh steep - never had the bottle to set foot on it. Today I did, and fell turning the lip of the final roof. Falling at the lip of a roof is a situation I find mentally difficult anyway, even when it isn't twenty metres up. yyfy.

Boarding in fresh snow is a fantastic feeling, and I have been contemplating getting a splitboard for a while now, but I heard on the radio on the way home that ten people died in avalanches in Switzerland this weekend. Five of them on an avalanche safety training course. Maybe I should stick to sport climbing.

Yes it is.  I've tried the new dps skiis and they still don't compare witha  board on powder.  It's so a perfect feeling carving hard on a board in Powder
FWIW-I have a prior split board and I like it, i've had a play on a jones split board with new step in bindings, and it was FANtastic:)

The pain in the ass with a split board is changing them out, and terrain limitations. let me know if you have more questions.  I'm sure there are a few here with good info. 

I'd heard about the deaths in Swizz, and we've had a few in the northwest US as well.  bad year for Avi conditions.  well, bad snow year in general for us. 

[Sasquatch]

Also bought and cut the ply for the campus board so nothing left but to screw it on and add the rungs 

I'm excited to see what comes of this
I'm going to start building mine next week.

[Sasquatch]

Firm believer that the bouldering is by far the most important part of the plan and should be the last thing to be dropped. All the FB/core/aerocap stuff comes second and should never substitute an hour on the board.

The two good sessions I had bouldering were as strong as i have have been this year so i guess the rest was good.

That's awesome to see the progress
The moonboard is pretty nails, and is definitely sandbagged pretty hard at the lower grades.  It feels like the 7B-7C stuff is generally much closer to grade, but still stiff. Which setup do they have on it? Hold set and pattern?

[fried]

STG - Stay uninjured, get strong ready for the weather to change...

T - Dodgy knee and sciatica, skipped my indoor session and did 45 mins BM (3 sets)
Fr - Indoor
Su - Knee O.K indoors,
Not sure wether to cut down to 2 indoor session and 2 BM per week instead of 3 indoor/ 1 BM.

Looks like 2 and 1 this week. 

I would think it depends on goals.  routes/boulders?  If your goal is to stay strong, I'd look at 1 BM, 1 campus, 1 hard boulder, and 1 easy/fun ARC session.  It won't get you very much stronger as quickly as a good planned cycle, but it should keep ou ready

I'm a 43 year old punter who started climbing far too late, susceptible to shoulder problems, currently at 6A outside/ 6B indoors max. I'd love to hit 7A by 50. I'm lookin to progress slowly without getting injured and have fun in the forest.

I'm currently doing 3 sessions per week, but this is usually 3 indoor sessions where I aimlessly wander about trying stuff I like the look of. I think I could mange 2bM (45mins max) + 1 hard boulder, 1 easy boulder per week. 3 bouldering sessions + 1 BM might be tough on the old body. When the weather is O.K. I'm doing 1 session outside.

Only interesting in boulders.

Thanks foe replying.

[Schnell]

LTG- 9b+

Shocking lack of ambition here. Last week's goal of Dawn Wall OS was a proper LTG.

Feels terrible to have tweaked my finger again- obviously I climbed hard when I was cold but my fingers were also feeling a bit stiffer over the preceding week, which I can only put down to doing more volume of training and not doing the bit of my rehab that's meant to sort my posture out. I need to get one of these back-roller thingies I think.

More seriously I'm interested in what the posture sorting exercises you're doing are? I've had a similar diagnosis and am doing various shoulder stability exercises such as shrugs and some light weight work.

[Sasquatch]

STG - Stay uninjured, get strong ready for the weather to change...

T - Dodgy knee and sciatica, skipped my indoor session and did 45 mins BM (3 sets)
Fr - Indoor
Su - Knee O.K indoors,
Not sure wether to cut down to 2 indoor session and 2 BM per week instead of 3 indoor/ 1 BM.

Looks like 2 and 1 this week. 

I would think it depends on goals.  routes/boulders?  If your goal is to stay strong, I'd look at 1 BM, 1 campus, 1 hard boulder, and 1 easy/fun ARC session.  It won't get you very much stronger as quickly as a good planned cycle, but it should keep ou ready

I'm a 43 year old punter who started climbing far too late, susceptible to shoulder problems, currently at 6A outside/ 6B indoors max. I'd love to hit 7A by 50. I'm lookin to progress slowly without getting injured and have fun in the forest.

I'm currently doing 3 sessions per week, but this is usually 3 indoor sessions where I aimlessly wander about trying stuff I like the look of. I think I could mange 2bM (45mins max) + 1 hard boulder, 1 easy boulder per week. 3 bouldering sessions + 1 BM might be tough on the old body. When the weather is O.K. I'm doing 1 session outside.

Only interesting in boulders.

Thanks foe replying.

No problem.  Given that, I'd maybe think about alternating weeks.  week 1 - 2BM, 1 hard, 1 easy. week 2 - 1 Bm, 2 hard boulder.  Or just alternating workouts, BM, Hard Boulder, Easy Boulder, BM, Hard, Easy, etc. as you go. 

Fun in the forest makes me jealous. 

[fried]

No problem.  Given that, I'd maybe think about alternating weeks.  week 1 - 2BM, 1 hard, 1 easy. week 2 - 1 Bm, 2 hard boulder.  Or just alternating workouts, BM, Hard Boulder, Easy Boulder, BM, Hard, Easy, etc. as you go. 

Fun in the forest makes me jealous. 

Cheers, sounds like a good plan. I'll start tomorrow.

[gme]

That's awesome to see the progress
The moonboard is pretty nails, and is definitely sandbagged pretty hard at the lower grades.  It feels like the 7B-7C stuff is generally much closer to grade, but still stiff. Which setup do they have on it? Hold set and pattern?
[/quote]

Original set up 8, Set A set up 4 and set B set up 4.

This was the set up at the schoolroom so i changed my local board (Alnwick) to match that. i am in Sheffield all week but Northumberland fri-mon so its nice to have the same board to train on.  Ben has just changed the school board but i still have stuff to do on this set up so going to leave it.
The grades are in line with the other school boards I guess, i.e. nails. But your right about them levelling out in the high sevens and 8s. Hopefully i will be there in a few months.

[Sasquatch]

My friend and I have boards at our houses, and have hold set A setup 2 and hold set B setup 2, which is the same pattern as Hold Set A&B setup 1. 

[tomtom]

A blast back to last weeks power club - and Sasq's warning to me about over-doing the half crimps on the BM...

I've found these a bit too hard to be comfortable the last couple of sessions - so have been splitting holds - IE left hand on slot, RH on crimp and swap etc... Obviously I will load the bigger hold more - but this seems to be a 'safer' way to get more used/accustomed to the half crimp...

[nai]

STG - Peak 8a's in Spring
MTG - Raindogs in Autumn
LTG - The Hourglass left-hand

First planned week of strength phase:

M- totally trashed from week boarding, had felt my back twinge several times last few days of holiday and carrying bags on the journey home.

T - forced myself into action, attempted Repeaters but didn't have the umph, nearly sacked it off but turned it into a (sub) max hangs session which went ok.

W - Repeaters (4 reps, 7s hang, 3s rest x 7 grips)

T - Snow so kids off school - sledging, snowman construction, car and drive clearance, etc.

F - Woke up with a headache 4th day on the trot but now accompanied by cold symptoms too, Aerocap at Mini-Works (bastards have reset the blue so my sideways circuits are fucked  ), 3x20mins, felt totally nails, kept meh-ing off. Spent afternoon dozing.

S - Repeaters (as per Wed)

S- Meh

Feels like a poor week with fatigue and illness taking it's toll and back problems still hanging around, not been able to train at 100% and its felt like something of a compromise. 

[nai]

Having checked through my training diaries I have discovered I was at my strongest during a fingerboard phase when doing max hangs on day 1 followed by repeaters the next days and came up with a plan that goes:

M - max hangs (15-20 hangs)
T - repeaters (6 grips x 2 sets each)
W - Aero
Th - rest (possibly something CV)
F - max hangs
S - repeaters
S - rest

Anyone (Sas?) care to critique this?
Maybe it was just coincidence I was so strong last time?
I've been fingerboarding periodically for about five years now so should be fairly adapted to it but is it too much hangtime? 
Consecutive days too much?
The plan is just to perform it for 4 weeks then move onto power.
Think I've used up my quota of question marks now.
Thanks all

[cheque]

LTG- 9b+

Shocking lack of ambition here. Last week's goal of Dawn Wall OS was a proper LTG.

 

More seriously I'm interested in what the posture sorting exercises you're doing are? I've had a similar diagnosis and am doing various shoulder stability exercises such as shrugs and some light weight work.

I'll PM you.

[webbo]

Mon. Turbo 1 hour.
Tue. Nothing.
Wed. Board did a couple of things that I worked out last week. Couldn't do the hard one, can't do the move yet.
Thu. Turbo 1 hour.
Fri. Nothing.
Sat. Board did project plus a few other things.
Sun. Board easy mirror session 41 problems.

[Sasquatch]

Having checked through my training diaries I have discovered I was at my strongest during a fingerboard phase when doing max hangs on day 1 followed by repeaters the next days and came up with a plan that goes:

M - max hangs (15-20 hangs)
T - repeaters (6 grips x 2 sets each)
W - Aero
Th - rest (possibly something CV)
F - max hangs
S - repeaters
S - rest

Anyone (Sas?) care to critique this?
Maybe it was just coincidence I was so strong last time?
I've been fingerboarding periodically for about five years now so should be fairly adapted to it but is it too much hangtime? 
Consecutive days too much?
The plan is just to perform it for 4 weeks then move onto power.
Think I've used up my quota of question marks now.
Thanks all

Happy to comment, alhtough I'm not a a pro coach either.
A few years ago I found a similar thing although not looking at repeater/max hangs.  I found that I would do a FB max hang workout, then go boulder the next day and felt great/crushed it.  I think it's due to the recruitment carryover, and I'm not convinced it's a good thing to be aware of for training, although it is good to be aware of it for performance.  I've seen it in other sports where it is common the day before an event to do a short workout with really high intensity. 
 

I've been fingerboarding periodically for about five years now so should be fairly adapted to it but is it too much hangtime?

Speaking as an old dad susceptible to injury, yes, I would be wary of hangboarding on successive days. But i don't see any harm mixing up max hangs and repeaters/ encores in the same session ... in fact personally I am very keen to see progress in both.

The main thing I have taken away from the "Rock Climbers Training Manual" book - which I realise may already be very obvious to many people - is the importance of intensity when you do train. I have definitely been guilty of "tick the box" training in the past. Now I do try to give 100% to sessions and so definitely wouldn't be able to train hangboard two days successively. Or if I did, the second day would be sub-par.

I fully agree that intensity is the key to seeing returns, and volume will likely be the limiter for doing 2 days in a row.  I can't imagine doing a second FB workout the day after a hard repeater workout, but the day after max hangs I can definitely still pull really hard.  That said, I think that may be a good workout structure overall, but pay really close attention to your gains.  The two day easy/rest days in between should help you maintain recovery, but i'd worry a bit about the one day rest.  Perhaps on the F, S combo reduce the volume of repeaters, or combine them into a single workout as Habrich mentioned. 

I did Max hangs and repeaters this fall in a combo workout I really liked this fall.  It was:

Warm-up
Progressive max hangs:
10 second 1/2 crimp at 75% total goal weight (body weight plus added weight), 3min rest
10 second 1/2 crimp at 85% total goal weight (body weight plus added weight), 3min rest
10 second 1/2 crimp at 95% total goal weight (body weight plus added weight), 3min rest
Max Hangs:
3-5 x 10 second 1/2 crimp at 100% total goal weight (body weight plus added weight), 3min rest
Rest 5 min
Repeaters
6 grips, 3 min rest in between
rest 7 min
6 grips, 3 min rest in between

This has fewer max hangs than what you're doing, but personally I found I couldn't maintain the intensity on Max hangs beyond 8-9 hangs across any number of grips. 

[Sasquatch]

The plan is just to perform it for 4 weeks then move onto power.

So this is an interesting thing to me.  I'm not to be convinces that repeaters are a "strength exercise", but then I'm also yet to be convinced a 4 wk Str followed by a 4 wk power is the right way to go. 

I feel like repeaters are more of a strength endurance and/or work capacity type exercise.  As such they are quite good at building up your body's capacity to perform work, and at recovering from it.  There may be cross over strength gains, but I suspect you're not increasing your raw strength as much as your ability to perform more work.  This isn't to knock repeaters, it's to understand the reason for doing them and how to follow them from a training perspective.   If you follow a repeater cycle with a campusing power cycle, you are move from a workload of 504 seconds (7sec x 6reps x 6grips x 2sets = 504seconds) to a workload timewise of 60-200 seconds for a HARD campus workout (figure a campus attempt takes 4-8 seconds, and you'll do between 15-25 attempts in a session).  For me, this clearly shows the relative strength impact. 

If you look at the "Rock Climbers Training Manual" book and the structure of their "power" cycle you'll see it alternates between a Campus Workout and a Max Boulder workout, and their max boulder workout is intended to be focused on moves at your absolute limit, and only in the 1-5 move range for the problems and lots of rest in between efforts, but every effort should be 100%.  This keeps you well down in total volume as compared to the work performed during the repeater sets. 

So to me what they're advocating is a work capacity period followed by a strength period followed by a str endurance period.

[Sasquatch]

What's really hard for me is that I've never in my life actually prioritized my job above my personal life.  It just feels wrong.

I was going to say that I am the same but on reflection it is not true. I have submitted to working for a long period in cities far-from-climbing. However, I have never committed properly to jobs; always been somewhat subversive and a PITA to my employers whilst maxing out my holiday allowances. So possibly making the worst of both worlds.

It really scares me, but i'm hopeful of ending in a better place than I am now with better long term prospects

I have a Prior board (the local brand here) with the Spark Magneto bindings. They swap pretty fast. I find the slowest parts of a transition to ski's is putting on the skins, which is of course common with skiers, and - going the other way - re-assembly of the board, which often seems to require some tedious de-icing along the "split" edges. 

Same board as me   With regards to the terrain, I mean that if you have a small hill to try and get over, a skier and pole/herringbone for 20-50 feet, but on a board in powder, you're relegated to taking the board off, breaking it down into skis, and putting your skins on just to move 50ft.  It really sucks....  and the deeped the powder the worse it is.  Plus skiers don't think about it so partners can be a PITA.  Anyway totally off topic

[nai]

Thanks for the replies guys, some good advice and ideas.  Agree the one rest day is too little, it'd also mean fingerboarding 4 days out of five which sounds daft now I think about it.  Think I'm getting a bit frustrated with my back limiting other stuff I can do - no steep boards, limited to the weights I can lift, the core work I can do and no running, so I'm trying to fill my time in other ways and yes, putting in tick-the-box training days.

Combining max hangs and repeaters in a session seems a good idea, could maybe use that session just for weaker grips or maybe max hangs on some grips and repeaters on others?  Or just stick to the RCTM structure which I could kind of fit my weeks into with the odd rule bend here and there.  Guess we're all just experimenting with this stuff anyway so I should stop over thinking and just start trying hard.

[nai]

The plan is just to perform it for 4 weeks then move onto power.

So this is an interesting thing to me.  I'm not to be convinces that repeaters are a "strength exercise", but then I'm also yet to be convinced a 4 wk Str followed by a 4 wk power is the right way to go. 

Could have sworn you'd said before that you alternated between fingerboard and bouldering and made gains over the years.

I do 3&4 rep repeaters which seems to be more strength orientated than 6-7 which I find too long.  We'll see on the power phase, total pants at campussing so could be tricky.