[tomtom]

"I'm going to stop that with my head" I thought to myself, as Lagers bouldering mat came flying perfectly horizontally towards me.

Friday was the only decent looking day weather wise, of a largely disappointing week. I had been stuck in Windsor from Monday to Thursday helping run a workshop for new PhD students - which is not really a hardship as its great working with clever, enthusiastic young people and the food is excellent. In fact, it often feels like some sort of Christmas warm up event for food and alcohol consumption. Anyway, Friday morning had been a largely frustrating affair as I had been accompanying MrsTT to a couple of medical appointments  - which were supposed to take 30 min, but ended up being closer to two hours. All is well by the way - apart from my frayed nerves as I watched the precious daylight gradually tick away from a sweaty plastic NHS chair. Thursday evening had seen plans made, with Shark wanting to head to Plantation to get back on Brad Pit, and Lagers also had the day off, so Friday had all the makings of a good session out.

I eventually made it to Plantation for about 1:30 (the others got there about 11:30....) and as I puffed up the stone track I saw Lagers emerging from behind the Grand Hotel area with all his gear. We caught up about 1/2 way between the Pebble and GH - and as Lagers wasn't feeling the Brad Pit love that day we sauntered back over towards the Business bolder etc.. Area. Really good friction - sunny - but windy - and it felt like all the tiny crystals had sharpened them selves up especially to provide not quite, but near velcro conditions. Pottered up a few slab problems on the Crozzle block, and were re-locating to the slopey traverse at the back of it, when I turned around and watched Lagers POD mat levitate with the wind - rise to approximately 1.75m above the ground and magic carpet like come sailing towards me. Having my hands full of rucksack/boots etc.. I figured I'd just gently nudge the mat down to the ground with my head. Instead the thin edge went flying into my face largely around the left eye.. A bit of bruising and I could feel the cheek swelling up on the cheekbone - its been a while since I last had a shiner - but remember the symptoms.

Lagers looked genuinely concerned - for about a second We moved on to Bullworker which I swiftly failed to dispatch ~ and wondering what to do next Lagers chirped up "have you ever done Born Slappy?" Having done glass hour/hour glass I thought he meant the horrible arete thing just to the left. No, he meant the horrible sloping edge even further to the left. Anyway - there wasn't anything else in the low 7's I've not done there - and the conditions were good for sloper slapping so we set to it. I'm not sure of 'the way' of doing the problem - as when I got home I saw a video of someone doing it with an outrageously high heel. I thought these things were considered heathen at Plantation. Heels bad. Heels above head - Donald Trump. So - we worked a way of hanging the two slopers, foot out right on the lower shelf. RH up to intermediate - then pad feet to two dimples on the wall below and go again with the right for the top. Took a bit of work - and I fluffed the top out having done all of (I thought) the hard part. Went and cleaned the top - and sighted out a few nicer looking slopey ripples. Decent rest - a few crap goes - nearly went home - then had one more pull and got up. Topping out involved much huffing and puffing - it got easier once my hips were over the lip - but then I went back down about 10 cm before somehow palming down and getting a flailing right foot to catch the edge. Excellent. A good struggle. Sadly (as per the NNFN thread) a huge deep flapper in the right middle finger means no more climbing for probably 5 days to a week.

M>Th some core shizzle in the morning
Fr: Above
Sa, Su, rest and treating wounds...

[36chambers]

Good work on born slappy tomtom, if it's the problem I think it is I remember having a successful day ticking low 7's until I tried that one and was completely shutdown.

M: Lamp session at the cliff. Second session on Dialectics 8A. Somehow forgot to fall off and found myself tickling the break at the end of all the hard climbing. Upon realising what I was close to achieving I promptly psyched myself off. Rain stopped further play.
T: lunch circuits
W:
T:
F: Rained off the cliff before I put my shoes on. Fingerboard session (5 on, 5 off) x 6 for 5 sets.
S: Excellent Christmas dinner at Mr Hunt's house.
S: Almscliff. Good scene today. Dialectics round 3. Worse session yet, but at least I have new beta for the finish which should help the next time I get there. Might have to leave it till after Christmas though.   

 
   

[webbo]

Mon. Nothing.
Tue. Board repeated most of my recent problems.
Wed. Nothing.
Thu. Turbo 1 hour.
Fri. Board trying recent problems with screw on footholds not a bad session. Weights mainly dumbbell apart from benching.
Sat. North Yorks Railway Santa special with grandson several 400 metre carrys ( he weighs about 35 lbs ) pumped. Afternoon board just lapping stuff quiet tired.
Sun. Weights same session as Friday. Bike 2 hrs 50 mins 48 miles stuffed.
I seen to have either low level doms all the time or chronic arthritis.

[shark]

Thanks tomtom

11.1-11.3+

M. Eve Systems board. Just on big holds 20'10's x 3 sets Did first two sets with just 5 mins rest and third set after 10mins but faded on 100th move so 340 moves in total
T.
W. AM. Stanage - warmed up on fingerboard and got to BP about 11.30 - Toby D turned up 10 mins later and Lagers 30mins. Blowy quite cold but not as grippy as previous friday. Struggled to get heel up to begin with till realised that I had been overthinking it and needed to straight arm the rail. Reverted to Whites in end. Got windy and cold. Toby couldnt hack it. Me and Rob persisted until I went thru a tip
T.
F. AM. FB warmup. Stanage again. Swaggered up in new approach shoes attracting envious glances. Windy and cold again. Taped and superglued tip. Tried Brad Pit again with Rob and Nick C. No progress.
S. Bit hungover
S. Grim weather and a bit hungover again. Fingerboard - below par scores

Going to sack Brad Pit off. Not making any progress though it does double up as a deadhang routine. Weather looks grim this week though may quest out to try Tierdrop on Friday. Weight creeping up which isnt surprising given the amount of alcohol Im guzzling. Going to do two aerocap sessions and one ancap session this week. Only three weeks to Chulilla 

[Muenchener]

STG (2015): onsight 6b+ on plastic
MTG (2016): Redpoint 7b
LTG (<= 5 years): Redpoint 8a before I hit 60.

M: Wall, Boulderwelt. Only a light session, having bouldered hard yesterday. Best link yet on the roof project though. Mainly wanted to check out their new "fitness room", in the hope that it might save me a gym membership if I want to do a winter weights campaign. Disappointing. Lots of hipster millennial daycare toys but only about 100kg of free weights, so no use for deadlifting. (I suppose festooning the bar with kettlebells to make up the extra would be frowned upon)
T: Office Xmas party
W:   Plan was to do routes at the wall. Instead drove to Austria to rescue M jnr who had broken both wrists on a school snowboarding trip. NNFN. Two at the same time is clearly going to be a major hassle; otoh a childhood without the odd broken bone would be a pretty sorry affair. Listened to Steve Bechtel & Justen Sjong on betatraining on the way down. (Mr Bechtel says this counts as training)

T: Wall, Boulderwelt. Spectacularly weak attempt at a bouldering session. Fair enough, it's not like I've had a relaxing couple of days.
F:
S:
S: Bouldering, Kochel. Inspired by unseasonal glorious sunshine and ten degrees in München, decided to head out for a quick go on my 6C traverse project. Which turned out to be in the shade with the crux hold - a horrible slopy pinch that looks much better than it is - damp. Nevertheless had a fun session with some decent progress. I now have a consistent and repeatable sequence for the crux instead of frantic scrabbling, and got the whole thing in two overlapping links. It's a matter of time and connies now.

[TobyD]

Toby couldnt hack it. Me and Rob persisted until I went thru a tip

So are you going to change that to 'Toby beat intelligent tactical retreat before deterioration of skin and performance to have a productive wave session', then? 

[LiamB]

STG: 7A by new year. Get Job. 2017 7A + 1 7B on grit.  by April.
MTG: 8a next summer. Alpine Rock somewhere.
LTG 8c

Missed this for a while. Getting into it I guess.

M: Stanage Far Right. 7A. Mantel through Case of Mistaken Identity (COMI). Very soft I thought so not that pleased. Limping after warming up on Cornflake and twisting my knee a little
T: 
W: Met a mate who wanted to try West Side Story. Couldn't get third sidepull, but still quite please with this.
T:
F: Stanage/Burbage. I wanted to try COMI, but v windy. Popped round the corner out the wind and short 7A traverse. Then did Banana Reverse 7A. I may
S:
S: Slept badly. Did not wake up early enough to get out.

Happy obviously and still feel I have a way to go. I had a nice session on T Crack last weekend as well. I can't heel hook yet. I got a job in a school in north Sheffield so I imagine I will be spending some evenings at wharncliffe soon.

[Nibile]

STG - board projects.

Mon - dumbbell complex and various barbell carries.
Tue - rest.
Wed - board climbing. Managed another project, very strong. Pre climbing recruitment with RDL, cleans and snatch pulls focused on speed, and jumps. Easy finisher after climbing. Very happy about the project. Mega.
Thu - board climbing at a friend's. I needed a change, day after day at my board is mentally taxing, especially now that I just work one problem at the time. Focused on flashing or doing things quickly. Brilliant session.
Fri - dumbbell complex, snatches, hill sprints.
Sat - rest. Lots of food at a friend's house for a brunch.
Sun - one foot bouldering +8 kg. Just half session, very tired. Dumbbell complex, overhead carry, shoulder carry. Weak. Tried to climb despite some very bad news that I got in the afternoon, but I should have not. Body and mind do not work separatedly.

[JackAus]

STG: More V8s. Consistent sub 75kg.
MTG: V9.
LTG: V11. Fear Factory List. 7/10 done.

4 sessions on rock, 0 indoors but nothing noteworthy done.

M: Rest.
T: Sissy. Rain stopped planned night session at Frontline, Sissy instead. Usual warm ups, did a 2 move V7 that I hadn't done before. Shouldery. Jumped back on Penis Cling (first V9 in Aus) 2 mover...Finally stuck the 2nd move, dyno off very slippery holds. Footholds for start were wet so unfortunately couldn't try that. Definitely one for winter, so slopey and polished.
W: Rest.
T: Frontline. My stupidity knows no bounds. Far faaaar too hot to do Rocket Man but that didn't stop me trying. Lost alot of skin, got angry, got shut down. 2 low percentage committing moves and its over. Got annoyed so stopped trying Rocket Man and did some repeats. Got back on 2 V6s I did 2 years ago, one a burly roof to a interesting top (Little Jon Jon) and the 2nd a dyno (A2 Is Not A Tank). Did the dyno each hand and then both. Fun little variations to an already fun jump.
F: Rest.
S: Queens Park. Quick lap on The Piesker/Child Overhang V4 to warm up then straight back on to Paul's Roof V9. Finally got back to my 1st session, 3rd attempt high point... Only taken 2 sessions.... Working out all the micro-subtleties to the burliness of it. Total fluke first session, feels so much harder now.
St Peter's after to spectate/heckle boulder comp. Long day ending in delicious pizza.
S: Frontline. Late arvo/night session. Usual warm up (V1, V1, V5, V7, V1, V3, V3) then onto Rocket Man. Still too hot but did start trying it about 90min before sun was due to set. A lot of attempts losing so much skin on left hand. First move is maybe 1/20 for me (should be better)... and then the next move is maybe 1/20 again........... Went well into dark but skin was gone by that point so called it a night. Annoying because I know that I can do it but, I'll wait for skin and head back for a proper night session and get it.

A2 Is Not a Tank. Do need to measure some of the jumps here.....
Grade is 2/3 times the number of inches under 6'7" you are. Not even joking, that's what it says in the guide.




High point.





1 more week and the DWS project starts again................ 

[T_B]

85.7Kg 

M - Foundry comp with Mrs T_B. 211 points, came 5th. She came 4th woman. One major cock up and a few shoulda-coulda-woudas.
T - School p.m. mainly trying pink circuit. No progress as such but some good beta.
W - Foundry lunch. 30+ autobelay routes.
T -
F - Foundry lunch. AeroCap mainly on Bleustone. School p.m. mainly 50 degree. mileage inc repeating Pegos, Pure Wood. Tried the drop knee method on Reich.
S -
S - Home fingerboard. Repeaters. Inc 2 x 6 x 7 back 3 and half-crimped on small edge. Some assisted middle two hangs.

Unhealthy weekend, but 6 sessions this wk, and didn't break. Interesting to do first home fingerboard repeaters session in ages and comfortably repeat my best efforts, felt especially strong on back 3.

[Sasquatch]

STG-Train and eat healthy - Set stage for MTG and LTG's
MTG - 1-The "two-logs" project(8A+ish? boulder), 2-The "Polka-Dot Cock" project(8a+ish? route)
LTG - 1-The "Spotted Dick" Project(8cish? route), To Bolt or Not To Be

Week 1 of 5/3/1
M-Crazy busy with work/family/life
T-Lift - double day for 5/3/1 - Bench, Deadlift, MED, and Wtd Pullups
W-Crazy busy with work/family/life
T-Crazy busy with work/family/life
F-Lift - double day for 5/3/1 - Squats, MAW, and OH Press, Christmas party - LATE night - ended up bartending as my wife was the organizer.   
S-Rest/Recover  , Shoulder Rehab
S-Indoor Soccer game, fun game.  8-2 final score, 4 assists and 1 goal today , Shoulder Rehab

[Sasquatch]

Oh yeah - and as it's full on winter here in AK now:

JACKAUS - I HATE YOU!!!!!!   
 QUIT POSTING PICTURES OF AMAZING LOOKING PROBLEMS IN THIS THREAD WHEN I CAN'T GET OUTSIDE, AND WON'T BE ABLE TO FOR MONTHS!!!!

 

[cheque]

drove to Austria to rescue M jnr who had broken both wrists on a school snowboarding trip. NNFN. Two at the same time is clearly going to be a major hassle;

Bad times. I broke one wrist when I was 12- worst pain I've ever experienced. 

Reminded me of this, from one of the first UKB threads I ever read:

the nurses at a/e were very sympathetic at first,this poor lad with two broken wrists.that was till they found out how he'd done it.

he had to pay another mate blond nik a fiver to wipe his arse.

[Wood FT]

STG (1-2 months): 7B (Suavito?)
MTG (4-6 months): Raindogs
LTG (8-12months): Pierrepoint/Supercool

Mon -
Tues - Wave, climbed a few of the new problems but faded fast. 20 mins on wall/campus board at the end.
Wednesday - Awesome walls, (12 routes 6b - 6b+), scared for some reason so took a few large falls at the end to wake myself up. Completely happy with girlfriend belaying so not sure what was up, lacking in mental fortitude it seems.
Thursday - Looked at booking Siurana at easter after seeing £50 flights. Psyched.
Friday -
Sat - Works, long session on black circuit
Sun - Pilgrimage to Armscliff in search of dry rock, sort of found some. Met Will and others (36 chambers?). Nearly didn't do Dolphin Belly Slap, couldn't commit to the top of Barley Mow and finally realised my inflexibility needs addressing on Opus. Rained off to Hunters Inn to find it served Absolution, weekend saved.

It was never going to be a great week, need to stretch need to stretch.

[andy_e]

I presume you were one of the ones hanging around with Nige in the Skoda Estate Drivers' Annual Bouldering Bash?

[Wood FT]

Aye, he can't move for hangers on that Nige

[rodma]

M:easy campus at home, open and half crimp
T:nowt
W:nowt
T:wall session with campus. Definitely getting worse, feel the return of the lurgy
F:have a lovely fever
S:ditto
S:slightly less feverish, leave the house for more than five minutes

Another week of the same. Wee man teething and snuffly so not sleeping through still.

[fried]

4 sessions in a week of deteriorating quality.

M- Indoors La Defense, Working through the last of the blues, some reds 6A/6B. Long session.
T- Rest
W- Indoors La Defense, cont from Monday. Tick off 6x6B in one week. Very soft grading at my new centre.
Th- Rest
Fr - Indoors Becon - Back to old centre, everything is much harder despite being the same setters, the holds are a lot older and more polished. And I'm tired. Very short session.
Sa- Rest
Su- Outdoors. Weather looked O.Kish, but it got damper and damper the closer I got to the forest. Took the safe option and parked at Sabots. Sabots is mostly soggy, so I continued to 91.1 which was also soggy. Went to Cul de chien and did a couple of blue problems. A Few things were dry, but the top outs were looking dodgy. Had a few goes on Coup de Sang, but the top was wet. Moved onto a Presse Citron http://bleau.info/cul/5890.html, spend ages on it getting nowhere, after checking it out on bleau.info I seem to have been starting with the wrong foot.

Moved back to Sabots to continue my siege of Les Joyeuses de Noel http://bleau.info/sabots/5747.html. Found a new hold on it. Stll not sure if my sequence is correct or even doable for me.

Hopefully not the last outdoor session of the year.

[SA Chris]

M- bit of core
T- late wall session, actually felt OK on a couple of problems
W - nothing, short walk
T - half hour walk from garage to work and back
F - nothing, sustained drinking from about 1 to 10:30. Beer to start, gin later. Never meant to be out that late, but I think my watch jumped 3 hours from when I looked at it at6, then again at 10:30.
S - up too early due to throbbing head, felt like crap. Went for a walk with kids to try and clear head before Round 2 of local bouldering comp series. Given state of mind and body I actually performed OK, just got on a couple of harder problems too early before properly warmed up, and felt like I slid off them due to gin seeping out of skin. Managed to flash a couple of harder ones later on. I hopefully finished top 5 though. Great comp, some excellent setting. Beers and curry afterwards
S - no hangover, but still bad night sleep. Put winter wheels on car (a workout in itself!) and wnet for a walk on beach in stonehaven with kids. Baltic cold, sand was frozen in places. 

[cheque]

STG- 7s/ Extremes on grit this season. Wall of Horrors before it's too hot again.
MTG- 7b/+ in 2016
LTG- 8a

M- Climbing Works, home of the filthy hold. Trying wasps. Did 5 of them. Hard!

T- Rest.

W- Notts Depot. Grumpy all session- too much indoor climbing recently. Warmed up on easiest circuit board circuit- flash pump! Felt weak and tired on boulder problems (should have gone home but wanted to get my £7 worth) so got back on circuit board- did 6c second go after impromptu micro-nap on mats (woke up to punters muttering about me  ) then had a few goes on 7a. Two overlapping sections. Then did some more bouldering, easier circuits and pullups, including my first fingerboarding for more than a year- sets of 1 on the Beastmaker 100 slopers, sets of five on the bar.

Th- Rest. Played Stonnis to the people I work with (none of whom climb, most of whom didn't really even know what rock climbing was beforehand) at the Christmas do. 

F- Busy, exhausting day at work. Pulled muscle in throat singing Jodeci in the car. Bit of a cough.

Sa- Rest. Shit weather. Knackered.

Su- Planned to wake up and go on a dry rock hunt- woke up at 11:30(!) with drizzle. Rest.

Weird week. Failed to hit my "climb three times" target- should have done Tuesday- Friday on plastic instead of the psyche-sucking Monday- Wednesday to avoid getting physically and metally burnt out.

If there isn't a good vibe and climbers I know at the wall I'm so prone to feeling like a fish out of water rather than productively enjoying training. I sometimes feel like I'm in a Chris Morris programme- guys in socks and massive Solutions splitting their sessions 50:50 between the rings and V3 problems while discussing power endurance, chalk being applied to everything and increasingly ludicrous tat on sale- the Depot now sells oversized brushes, like a Jeff Koons version of a Lapis brush, that have a small screw-off compartment in the handle that you can store stuff in. 

On Thursday I was too tired but somehow ended up doing the highest-volume indoor session I've done for ages and took ages to recover. In the end I didn't mind wasting the weekend climbing-wise and hopefully I'll get benefit from it. Lets hope it doesn't rain all weekend.

[tomtom]

M:easy campus at home, open and half crimp
T:nowt
W:nowt
T:wall session with campus. Definitely getting worse, feel the return of the lurgy
F:have a lovely fever
S:ditto
S:slightly less feverish, leave the house for more than five minutes

Another week of the same. Wee man teething and snuffly so not sleeping through still.

Bloody hell Rodma - by my reconing that's close to a month out with various colds/ailments

[rodma]

It's unfortunately slightly longer than that. I know it'll all pass soon enough though. Sleep and general wellbeing will become the norm

[nai]

Toby couldnt hack it. Me and Rob persisted until I went thru a tip

So are you going to change that to 'Toby beat intelligent tactical retreat before deterioration of skin and performance to have a productive wave session', then? 

Looking strong on Thursday, Toby.  Mint tictacs

[Luke Owens]

Surprised to be able to still climb well even with lots of core training this week, even with DOMS. I felt like my core was strong and "switched on". Steep board training is paying off and feeling stronger every session. Finding it a lot easier to keep tension, happy days!

M: Lunch - 50 Crunches
30 Side Crunches (15 each side)
-
5 x 5sec L-Hangs
3 x 10 knee tucks
-
5 x 10sec Spiderman
-
5 x 5sec L-Hangs
3 x 10 knee tucks
-
50 Crunches

T: Lunch - 10 Pull-ups
10 Press-ups
Deadlifts - 3 x 10reps (44kg)
3 x 30sec Dish-hold
3 x 10 Knee tucks
3 x 10 Shoulder Raises (5kg each hand)
25 Crunches

Eve - Local wall
10min traversing and 5 easy problems to warm up

Set and worked some new problems:
2 x 7A's and 7A+

Managed one of the 7A's and fell off the last move on the other slopey anti-style one. Couldn't do one of the moves on the 7A+.

Repeated my blue project on the woody first go today and finished off campusing on jugs on the board.

W: Lunch -  10 Pull-ups
5 x 6sec (To failure) L-Hangs
5 x 10 Press ups
6 x 5 Off-set pull ups (Alternate arms)
1min of Superman holds (Alternating arms/legs)

T: Lunch - 50 Crunches
30 Side Crunches (15 each side)
-
5 x 5sec L-Hangs
3 x 10 knee tucks
-
5 x 10sec Spiderman
-
5 x 5sec L-Hangs
3 x 10 knee tucks
-
50 Crunches

Eve - Local wall

10mins traversing and 5 easy problems to warm-up

20' Board - Repeated 7A I set the other day, strong mate couldn't do it which confirms the grade must be about right. Tried the moves on 7A+ and cracked the move I couldn't do on Tuesday, strong mate did it and then I did it straight after. Felt nails and probably the hardest thing I've done indoors.

Made a dodgy (obviously easier) replica of "The Ace" for a laugh and worked "The Joker" version of it, almost stuck the dyno.

45' Board - Realised the wall has a full set of the "Original School Room" set of holds (psyched!) so I stuck a load of them on the board, did a cool problem using them which took a fair few goes and worked some other problems.

Really satisfying finally being able to use small hand holds on the board and driving weight through my feet and holding tension well.

Going to use some of the hold set ups off the Moon site and try some of the problems on there next week.

F: Rest

S: Rest

S: Parisella's - Warmed up doing the end of Left Wall a few times. Not much dry in the cave apart from Left Wall, the stuff at the back and RA.

Did "Dust Kick" (7A), should of done it about 3rd go but fell off the end of Left Wall AFTER going around the corner... Then fell off the side pull jug before the ledge about 5 times before I finally did it after a massive rest...! My Power Endurance is woeful, feeling stronger on moves lately but linking anything feels like hard work. Think these long-ish boulders should hopefully sort that out?

Worked the moves on the 7A horizontal shot-hole start to Left Wall. Never really tried it properly before as I used to have quick random goes on it now and again and found it nails. Today I did all the moves pretty easily. Had no arms left for a link after getting completely powered out on the the previous problem though.

[duncan]

If there isn't a good vibe and climbers I know at the wall I'm so prone to feeling like a fish out of water rather than productively enjoying training. I sometimes feel like I'm in a Chris Morris programme- guys in socks and massive Solutions splitting their sessions 50:50 between the rings and V3 problems while discussing power endurance, chalk being applied to everything and increasingly ludicrous tat on sale- the Depot now sells oversized brushes, like a Jeff Koons version of a Lapis brush, that have a small screw-off compartment in the handle that you can store stuff in. 

 

Weight:

NSFW  :

74kg

STG: Avoid tweaks. Three sessions a week of pulling inc. at least one of strength work. Loose 1.5kg by 1st January.
MTG: 7a+ OS and 7b RP in Chulilla in the new year.
LTG: Long hard (for me) rock routes in the Alps, Dolomites, Picos and Scotland. 7b+ RP.


M - Hip and posterior chain exercises.
T - Hip and posterior chain. Shoulder full routine.
W - Westway: 10 routes in sets of 2 or 3 (easy aerocap.).
T - Man’flu
F - Shoulders. Still ill.
S - Shoulders inc. inclined pull-ups. Still ill.
S - Fingerboarding warm-up, Shoulders and hips. Still ill.


Tweaks all good. It’s December, therefore I will have a cold. I can manage short sessions of strength work if the cold is, in the standard recommendation, ‘above the chest’. More of these.