[cheque]

Happy Christmas everyone!

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

M-Rest.

Tu- Notts Depot. "Limit bouldering" working yellows, whites and comp problems I hadn't done. Did three new yellows, no cigar on anything else. Quite pleased with how easily I could repeat reds and yellows I'd had to work at a few weeks ago.

W- Rest.

Th- Nothing.

F- Planned to go out walking with some soloing thrown in. Pissed it down all day so instead went for a scenic drive round the entire Peak. Fun but lower back feeling a little sore towards end.

Sa- Family Christmas stuff. In the evening bent down to sort through CDs on the floor while sat in computer chair and strained something in lower back. Pain and few positions I can sit in comfortably.

Su- Wake up with back feeling much better but not on 6.5 hour drive down to Devon. Feels better in evening though.

Bit freaked out about this lower back tweak despite it getting much better over the course of the 24 hours since I did it. Planned to climb while I'm down here but we'll have to see.

[Muenchener]

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

M: bike to work
T: bike to work
W:   Wall, Thalkirchen. 9 routes up to 6b+ attempts, with very little success on anything. The moves are easy but my endurance is pitiful. Sign of a successfully completed strength phase (I hope)
T:
F: Xmas dinner pre-cooking warm up: mobility, kettlebell TGUs & swings, a few sets of Beastmaker max hangs

S: Usually on Boxing Day I go snowboarding/skiing with family & friends at a place called Brauneck. Today I went to Brauneck ... and climbed in a teeshirt in blazing sunshine with scarcely a snowflake to be seen. Was pretty hungover having found a spectacular deal on some excellent riesling whilst last minute shopping on Christmas Eve yyfy, so didn't get on anything ambitious, but half a dozen routes up to 6b+ made for a pleasant day out. The last one was a properly old skool 35 metre hand crack that cleared the hangover quite nicely.

S: Kochel: 6C trav project. Day Four and still no tick; this is an epic siege by my standards. Can do the crux in isolation when I'm fresh relatively consistently, but not when I've done the ten moves to get to it. Presumably I should start doing gradually longer links into it?

[shark]

Thanks Cheque - Happy Christmas

11.4++

M. Eve Systems board AnCap = 214 moves (good improvement on previous session)
T.
W. Eve Systems board AnCap = 212 moves (not quite fully recovered from Monday
T.  Drive to Devon
F.
S.
S.  Drive back from Devon (just arrived home)

Dreading tomorrow's weigh in. Will try and get out bouldering on the grit with the boys next couple of days then have a date with Dave Thomas on my fingerboard on weds then up to Cumbria with Sister-in-Law for New Year.

One week to go before Chulilla. Could do with some classy but amenable 7b+/7c recommendations.

Persistent sore ness in right bicep for 10 days now. Think I did it on an overly aggressive undercut move during a warm up on the systems board

[moose]

Have you got the Steve Crowe "bootleg" guide to Chulilla? Generous star ratings but if you follow them you won't get on a bad climb. I wouldn't worry about performance - definitely  a "holiday grade" venue. When I went, I was over-the-hill after a hard season but on sighted a few 7c+s and a fair number or 7cs (and you know what a punter i am!). For comparison, I reckon I was climbing as well in St Leger this year and my best onsight was 7b+ (though I did os every 7b I got on, and got a few 7cs 2nd go sinvboiling sunlight so might feasibly have been a tiny bit unlucky).

[the_dom]

Not a great week post-Switzerland, but probably more active than I had planned (given that I'd planned on spending the week doing nothing but on a carbapocalypse - i.e. drinking beer and eating carb-based European comfort foods).

Mon: 10ish km run in chilly Verona, followed by 4 sets of of my hotel room workout (10 pressups and body weight squats on the minute for 4 mins, followed by 90 second plank). Quite hard work, but probably because I'm feeling quite out of shape.
Tues: Wandering the Bolzano Christmas market and drinking enough gluhwein to stun a horse.
Wed: Hotel room workout x 4 sets, 2 hours of bouldering at the rather fun Salewa Cube wall in Bolzano.
Thurs: Hotel room workout x 5 sets. Hard work.
Fri: Deadhangs on hotel doorframe
Sat: 45 min run around Salzburg
Sun: 2+ hours of bouldering at the Kletterhalle Salzburg. Not the greatest wall, but a really good vibe.

If anyone wants to know, the carbapocalypse is going well - knodel und sachertorte are taking it to the next level.

[duncan]

STG: rehab. finger
MTG: tbc according to finger recovery
LTG: the usual

M-S - Nothing directly climbing-related. Lots of ice, compression, elevation and gentle finger wiggling and stretching. Shoulder and hip routine most days. Hearty country walks seem to have neutralised the worst of the gluttony.

Depressing finger injury, 10 days before planning to go to Spain. Seems like the proximal interphalangeal joint, middle finger, which I tweaked a couple of months ago. A sprain of some sort I think, possibly medial collateral ligament, definitely not a pulley. Weird that it's so swollen though, almost like it was infected. All too painful and puffy at the moment to be very sure. No idea how long these kind of things take to recover, never had a significant finger injury like this before. Struggling to stay positive, in general I seem to get better faster from acute injuries like this than from non-specific tweaks. Any thoughts on the recovery timescale?

Update on this. I'm almost certain this is a collateral ligament (index finger side) of the middle finger proximal interphalangeal joint. As you might expect from over-zealous thumbs-down finger jamming. Swelling and pain are still present but slowly improving.

Flying on the 1st and I'm some way off climbing. Something easy might be on in a week or two. Any views on tactics to reduce the stress on the collateral ligament? Avoiding finger-jams, awkward pockets, and a much more considered style of climbing are a given. Strapping or splinting the joint? Buddy taping to the index finger? The latter seems most likely to be helpful.

[Muenchener]

Tues: Wandering the Bolzano Christmas market and drinking enough gluhwein to stun a horse.

I think I may have had one this year. Drinking glühwein in blazing sunshine in a teeshirt just feels wrong.

[fried]

Cheers Cheque

M-W - Family still in Paris. Get conned into taking the niece clothes shopping.
Th - Indoors, worked some slabs. Nice to be out of the house...And not in a clothes shop.
Fr -
Sa -
Su - Gorgeous spring weather at Gorge aux chats, mostly working my two projects. Gigi http://bleau.info/chats/9029.html which I can only get a few tries at before it does my wrist in. Got a good sequence from a Belgian who rated it the best 6B in the forest.

And Travaux forcés http://bleau.info/chats/1546.html where I had a much longer session. I was pleased to get a good reliable sequence to the side pull on the arete on Travaux forces, but need to be stronger to finish it off. I'll be back soon. What a fantastic problem on a beautiful day.

Hope next year turns out as well.

[the_dom]

Tues: Wandering the Bolzano Christmas market and drinking enough gluhwein to stun a horse.

I think I may have had one this year. Drinking glühwein in blazing sunshine in a teeshirt just feels wrong.

We waited until dark

By the way, any bouldering gym recommendations for Munich? I'll be there from tomorrow until the 2nd or 3rd and would be keen to sneak in at least one session before I leave.

[Muenchener]

You have mail

[tomtom]

I've completely forgotten what I did last week....

I think I went out bouldering with Lagers one day - but it may have been some sort of strange dream I had one night. Ah, yes the mists are clearing... Tuesday - or Wednesday maybe - up to BurbageWesticles... spent about an hour trying to do the nose in some sort of vaguely enjoyable strict eliminate style. Then went and failed on west side story again. Back over the valley to Sector Bloco Wobblo where we did an eliminate 7A low start SEALS (Short Easy Arete Low Start).

Erm Christmas. Yes - that happened.

Sun: Parents and sister went in the morning - I snuck out in the afternoon for a few min at Helsby that turned into a decent couple of hours climbing on the dry rock between streaks.

[Nibile]

STG - board projects.

Mon - rest.
Tue - BM max. Little volume. Incut rung back3; incut rung half crimp + 16/20 kg. Snatch pulls. Barbell carries.
Wed - snatch pulls, power cleans, power press. Deadlift. Snatch pulls, power cleans, power press. Some board climbing.
Thu - rock climbing. 100% humidity. Good fun, a bit tired.
Fri - snatch pulls, power cleans. Hill sprints.
Sat - rest. Drove to Chreschtianov. Some place in Swiss.
Sun - got my ass kicked.

[the_dom]

Sat - rest. Drove to Chreschtianov. Some place in Swiss.
Sun - got my ass kicked.

Dammit, had I known you would be around..

[T_B]

84.8Kg

M - F/board. 2 x 3 finger drag with 30Kg, 2 x half crimp with 25Kg added, 1 x 30Kg added. 2 x middle 2 with 7Kg added. First f/board sess attempting Maisch protocol in 7 wks. Not bad.
T - School pm. Warmed up refining pink circuit, then 30 and 50 degree. Did crux of Reich.
W - Foundry lunch. HI AeroCap.
T -
F - pm Rings session. Offset pull ups, leg raises, windscreen wipers, push ups, planks etc, Basically the missus showed me a load of exercises some of which felt desperate.
S - 20 mins f/board aero using a chair.
S - Highball comp. 25 problems, 3 hours, 185 points. Hard set - came third. Fluffed a couple of things, not v good on techy stuff. Mrs T_B won the women's.

Got through Xmas relatively unscathed. Might get out on the rock this wk!

[gme]

Did you really have a rings session with Mrs TB on Christmas Day????

[T_B]

Children don't get to open pressies til mummy and daddy have done their rings session

[filz]

M - rest
T - power endurance at the board with a couple of friends
W - rest
T - Bouldering with friends. Bad conditions, lot of humidity. Definitely not a good session.
F - nothing
S - nothing
S - Bouldering in Cresciano. I tried problems up to 7a+. I didn't send much, but had a lot of fun.

[tomtom]

Children don't get to open pressies til mummy and daddy have done their rings session

:D

[kelvin]

Happy Christmas or Bon Nadal as they say in these parts - surprisingly un-festive in Catalunya but there's meant to be some big party in a couple of days...

[Nibile]

Sat - rest. Drove to Chreschtianov. Some place in Swiss.
Sun - got my ass kicked.

Dammit, had I known you would be around..

You would have kicked my ass as well? No, thanks!
 
I had the UKB hoodie, I think I was quite easy to recognize...
Where were you staying?
Would have been nice to meet!

[Nibile]

Thu - rock climbing. 100% humidity. Good fun, a bit tired.

T - Bouldering with friends. Bad conditions, lot of humidity. Definitely not a good session.

[the_dom]

Sat - rest. Drove to Chreschtianov. Some place in Swiss.
Sun - got my ass kicked.

Dammit, had I known you would be around..

You would have kicked my ass as well? No, thanks!
 
I had the UKB hoodie, I think I was quite easy to recognize...
Where were you staying?
Would have been nice to meet!

Haha, I was kicking no-one's ass - I think I left the week before. Make no mistake, I would have recognised Italy's most famous export since pizza and Amarone had I seen you.. I was staying far from everyone near Brione.

One day, I'll meet the famous Nibs. One day..

[Nibile]

 

[Hugh]

STG: 7B. More grit sessions.
MTG: Don't get broken.

Mon: Nowt, recovering from Sun.
Tue: Max hangs, followed by session pootling round TCA.
Wed: Nothing, travelled to London
Thu: Nothing
Fri: Nothing
Sat: Run, 5km
Sun: Nothing

Haven't yet dared to get on the scales. Suffice to say it won't be pretty.

[SA Chris]

STG - not get too fat over Xmas

M -  Wall session, felt OK, lacked motivation to do much. Shoulder actually felt a bit better
T - Nothing
W - Bit of Core
T - Nothing
F -Stornaways finest white pudding, black pudding and fried egg sandwich for breakfast. Annual Xmas day walk down to beach, missed a pod of about 20 dolphins by about 5 mins. Turkey dinner at inlaws, ate too much, drank too much.
S - minging day, didn't get dressed, spent day slobbing and building Lego
S - dry sunny morning, no wind, but wild sea. Figured May Craig might be half dry, got there and top third was damp as was top, but front OK. Did the traverse a few times, and then did eliminates on the lower section. Good to get out, might be first time on rock since early November.

Weighed in at 13st 9 this morning, only a 5lb ish gain, but expect there's a lag.