[ashtond6]

goals - don't get injured & keep improving

Spent this week in Joshua Tree & travelling home

M - soloed some 5.8s then did a great techy 5.11b
T - Chilled day, did some fun 10a's at Indian Cove 
W - Posh pool chilling!
T - Had a good day at split rocks, did the classics, Bird of Fire 10a/E1 & Rubicon 10d/E3(?). Although I fell on a bad placement which unfortunately destroyed my cam!?!?
F - more pool time!
S - Flight back
S - Arrived home

a positive note, this was a two week trip with my non climbing girlfriend, I unexpectedly got to do some real classics & when I got home, felt stronger on some problems I previously couldn't do 

Weight still 86kg

[petejh]

STG: Re-hab bicep tendon. Increase difficulty of drytooling training. Build chain resilience.
MTG: Onsight attempts on The Hurting, Cathedral, Banana Wall, Anubis (this winter), 8b+ (by next summer)
LTG: 8c (within 2 years)

A good thing about drytooling is the pissing rain doesn't matter when climbing manky rock in shit-hole overhanging quarries.

M. 60 press-ups and 2x40 reps neck strenghtening.
T.
W. Core & mobility workout. Curls 3 x 15 (8kg). 40 reps neck strengthening.
T. Manod drytool crag. M5, M9, M8+, M9. First half-decent session.
F.
S.
S. Manod drytool crag in apocalyptic rain. M9, M9, M8+, M9. Another good sesh. Getting some fitness back and bicep slowly improving, still wouldn't want to try a very burly steinpull move off it just yet.


I'm running out of excuses not to commit. About the only one left is I'm 6 weeks behind my winter plan and I want to start training for rock at the start of February. 'sake.

[T_B]

Not being funny Pete but aren't those winter objectives going to require the equivalent of F8a on-sighting fitness? Even if you're a dead good winter climber, I can't imagine you can trad-shuffle your way up steep XI?! Still, could be a long winter I suppose...

[SA Chris]

Extreme chipping?!

Prybar get's used in SA too. As does gwalla.

[petejh]

Not being funny Pete but aren't those winter objectives going to require the equivalent of F8a on-sighting fitness? Even if you're a dead good winter climber, I can't imagine you can trad-shuffle your way up steep XI?! Still, could be a long winter I suppose...

Ha! You're seriosuly overestimating how physically hard grade XI really is if you think it translates to french 8a onsighting fitness. Of course, it doesn't translate very well, but you're overestimating by at least 3 french grades.

I have a couple of punter peers who climb grade IX yet have never onsighted harder than french 7a nor trad climbed E5. Seriously - rock grade means next to nothing in winter. Yes the steep stuff requires fitness and power but not that much. I honestly believe the image portrayed in media/by some characters seriously skews people's grasp of what's 'hard'. Or rather - the difference between good messy adventure and actual pure physical difficulty is much conflated.

(edit, again): M-grades are a more useful benchmark than rock-climbing grades, but it still depends on the style of M-route. Horizontal roofs on jugs don't translate in the slightest. Slightly overhanging pumpy and tenuous does.
Most Scottish mixed up to grade IX isn't harder than M7+ tops. The same issue as with trad-to-sport grade exists in trad mixed-to-M grade, i.e. initial over-exaggeration of physical difficulty followed by revision downwards. For e.g. the hard XS vid proclaiming Pick 'n Mix to be M9.. We repeated it and it would be no more than M6+ fully bolted. That's 5 grades, a bit like saying a trad route is french 8a when it's 7a+.

To bring that back to sport onsighting - to onsight M9, well you don't need 8a onsight fitness because I was doing M9 onsight/flash years ago, still am. My hardest sport onsight is a pathetic 7b+ although I've literally never bothered to try anything harder (sport = redders/trad=onsight to me)

[rodma]

Tues: campussed at home

That is all, had round 2 of child-borne nonspecific lurgy so not much sleep and a wee virus to contend with.

Hopefully do some training this week at some point

[T_B]

Not being funny Pete but aren't those winter objectives going to require the equivalent of F8a on-sighting fitness? Even if you're a dead good winter climber, I can't imagine you can trad-shuffle your way up steep XI?! Still, could be a long winter I suppose...

Ha! You're seriosuly overestimating how physically hard grade XI really is if you think it translates to french 8a onsighting fitness. Of course, it doesn't translate very well, but you're overestimating by at least 3 french grades.

Interesting. Weird that even with folk like Macleod operating at such a high level on rock, the physical difficulty of winter routes is still relatively low.

[Johnny Brown]

I don't think you can say that. It's just a different set of skills, the most pumped Caff ever got was seconding Bullock on Cracking up (iirc).

[petejh]

Cracking Up - which has been led by, among others, two climbers whose hardest grade on rock at the time was a very occasional e5 - Rob G and Andy T.

Like JB says, it's a completely different skill set.

[LiamB]

STG: Continue rehab on knee. 7A (end of the year)
MTG: 7B (April). 8a (end of next summer).
LTG: 8c

M: Bouldering (Rubicon), CB (offset pulls), ACap (4 x 4'[2']), OA Press (4 x 18kg)
T: Bouldering (Burbage), ARC,
W: Bouldering (Burbage), CB, AnCap, Split Squat (7 x 18kg)
T: Bouldering (OOT), ACap, OLDL (8 x 31.5kg), OA Row (4 x 36kg)
F: FB, ACap
S:
S: FB, CB (touches), ACap (5 x 4'[2']), Pull (3 x 24kg)

Massive improvement in leg this week. Far greater mobility and strength and a lot more confidence. Still stick like and wobbly though. Several (very) short sessions outside, but v happy to have these. Still got a bit frustrated with not committing to things. 

Did a lot this week. Core feeling better too - I like the weights for this. I didn't put the energy systems stuff in the previous weeks, working up to something worthwhile with these.

[Three Nine]

crikey i would love ur work capacity!

[LiamB]

The outside bouldering is very short sessions. Grit is the hardest on my leg. Tiny footholds.

I'm preparing a post of pitiful whimpers, regret and self loathing for next week.

[rginns]

STG: any indoor V7, if I can get outside: 7B
MTG: indoor V8, outdoor 7B+
LTG: outdoor 7C

Mixed wk this week...

M - Drinking whisky in Scotland
T - Drinking whisky in Scotland
W - 1hr on the board
T - 1hr on the board
F - 1hr on the board finished off with hard weights session
S -Felt like absolute shit, really thought I had flu. Went to the aquarium with the kids, but straight to bed when I got back. Slept 13 hours solid.
S -Felt slightly better, but a bit gutted that I missed out on a lot of training this wk.