[cheque]

When you mentioned "last day bouldering" in the annual round up thread it really hit quite hard. Have the docs told you that you mustn't be taking falls onto pads with your injuries? Is this a permanent instruction or one that could be relaxed in time?

Basically I've used up decades worth of my body's shock-absorbing ability in one go  . Falling off without pads or falling off highballs is not something I can expect to do again without bad results and while my physio says that after the first eighteen months the chances of re-injury would be very low for reasonable falls (or ideally controlled jumps) onto pads, it would hurt a lot the next day and this would only get worse with time rather than better. He said "if you said that bouldering was the only thing for you I wouldn't say that you couldn't do it but you need to be careful".   

I just decided to sack off bouldering altogether- it's always been my least favourite of the three disciplines and I don't think it's worth trying to do if I've got to be worrying constantly about how I'm going to fall/ whether I can downclimb/ how well I'm being spotted etc. and always knowing that I'm eating into a precious allowance of shock absorbency. I'd never be able to go "all guns blazing" again and I think that's really what bouldering's about.

There's no limit on me taking falls on a rope and my strength and flexibility are coming back by the day (still got my flawless technique too obviously  ) so I'm pretty psyched to just focus on sport and safe trad routes. I've already led trad routes that were far from easy for me without any head problems so the signs are good. 

[highrepute]

S PM FB warmup then warm up on the 2 Oak problems. 4 sets looking at reducing times towards progressing to doing them back to back. Best set completing both with just 25 secs rest which I was pretty pleased with. Fingerboard. Second Anderson hangs session. Botched most of the sets but have better targets for next time.

This sounds good. I did this when I was trying Zeke, never did the route though! Sounds like you should create a harder version too, for building strength on?

Apart from back which probably won’t last, that’s a pretty decent start to the year. Was well pleased with sidetrack strict as the last time I got it I was a stone lighter. And crash n gurn is a fantastic problem - seems unlikely until suddenly you’re swinging off a hold you never thought you could reach.   

Great start to the year. Never done Sidetrack, don't think I've tried it for a decade or so. what's next? I did crash n gurn recently, fun knacky move.

Remergence... Warmed up near the bridge - failing on some 6's and enjoying the great friction. Headed to remergence and found Toby had just arrived and got his mats out. Aims were to try and do the final move(s) from slots on Blind Date and link start through to slots. So - managed from standing (holding sloper with LH) to the top and did final moves. Managed to link start through to two slots - just ran out of gas on the RP. So - its on. Very much so. Giving myself a week (ish) off from the problem to let my skin get back to form.

I had a sneak peek of a video of you on it. Looked very solid I thought you were going to do it!

Gollum - wow again! so much training.

UGE - you just follow the track and get there - it's just further than you think. But be careful - I'm sure that block rocked slightly once when we tried it 

[gollum]

@ gollum - what's your exercise / sport background and why don't you need to take rest days??

I don’t know really. I have always trained like that.

I bouldered for 20 odd years and pretty much trained every day and then 12 years ago I stopped but have done other things in the meantime including running, powerlifting and just other stuff.

Rest days may be good for me but I do tend to stop while I still feel strong, eat well and sleep well. The biggest thing, I think, that I find is that doing something every day helps me battle mental health stuff and takes away some of my anxieties.

Maybe I would be better if I did less but it does kinda work for me, not sure I would advocate it for anyone else though.

Hope that makes sense.

[csl]

Finally finding the time to get some sort of climbing routine going again, so will rejoin the fray.

Long Term - end of year
7C or 8a or E5

Mid  - end of March
Weigh 73kg
Put 3 sessions into a 7C
Climb something with a rope on

Short Term  - end of Jan
Weigh 75kg
Climb Board Project 1 + Board Project 3 with any feet
Do all moves on Project 3 with screw-ons only
Complete full BM 6C workout

Weight: 79.6kg -> 77.8kg

Mon

Swam in the sea on Portobello beach, must have burnt a few calories

Wed

Arch - bouldering + core

Struggled a failed on a few V4-6's, did one V5-7.
Core workout

Fri

Arch - fingerboard, board + core

Fingerboard - Beastmaker 6C workout, only 5 reps and 1 set. Still had to cheat a bit on the final hang.
Board - Project 1 with any feet, fell off last move. Project 2, nearly did all the moves.

Sun

Vauxwall East - pottering

First time here, enjoyed it. Did most of the V4-6 circuit and a few other things.

Next Week

1 x fingerboard
1 x board
1 x climbing outside
lose more weight

[spidermonkey09]

Complete full BM 6C workout

Absolutely desperate that is. Must be about route 8a in itself.

[tommytwotone]

Goal: 3 new 7a problems outdoors in 2019.


S 30/12 - 5 mile walk with family, with 2 year old on my back - quite a decent bit of extra weight to cart around now, followed by home session in the evening: stretch and kettlebell warm up then 5 sets of 5 reps of 5 secs on, 5 secs off, different fingerboard grip types. Hard.


M 31/12 - eldest (nearly 5) suddenly keen to try out climbing with ropes after a few trips to Big Depot with me so took her along. After much admin, then me realizing I've lost my belay device got her started, and he really didn't like it. Gave up after about 5 minutes, trying not to be too cross / harsh for fear of putting her off long term. Tried to boulder a bit but was weirdly out of oomph.


January 2019 - now: absolutely naff all. Spent most of the time with family.


Back at work today which kind of marks the new start for me.

[gme]

Going to join in with this again for the 1st time since 2015. Goals are pretty much a copy and paste job, the only thing changing is my weight going up to 84kg. Loads of motivation around at the minute with a lot of my old group all being mad keen, training really hard and in one or two cases climbing better in there 50s as in there 30s.

I was 50 a few months ago so this may all be a bit of a mid life crisis but worth a try. Trips booked to spain in march and Flatanger in May.
 
STG- (3-6months) 7c outside and 7B at school
MTG- (6-12 months) 8a and 7C outside and school. 1-4-7 on 20mm rungs. unassisted 1 arm hang on BM2k slot.
LTG- (pre 60) 8A and 8b again

Weight 84kg ( target 75kg)

Mon - nothing as travelling to scotland. Needed a rest after two heavy training days
Tues - long walk and chilling
Wed - Max hangs 6 x 10secs. 2 x TRX sessions from crimpd app.
Thurs - rest
Fri - Max hangs 6 x 10 secs +22kg on BM1k lower slots. Campus session 1-4-6 done on medium rungs. Rings. Hard.
Sat- totally f**ked. Overdone the core bit on TRX and rings
Sun- slightly less f**ked but still sore.

Third good week of training in a row and starting to see good gains. Feeling it though but probably down to over doing the ancillary stuff. Need to get more climbing in this week. Back to work now which actually gives me more time to go to the wall.

[Murph]

Welcome back Gavin. Strong aims.

James - thanks - I remember you saying recently you had re-done it. Puts a big smile on your face. And I noticed your Vimeo of it is one of the most watched bouldering clips.

Not sure what’s next. At curbar I want to get the other nearby 7As ticked and added to a regular circuit. At burbage I think I should put some time into the terrace (you done?) and join in all the remergence fun.

Good luck getting up voyager and good work showing Orrin the way!

[AMorris]

I love a goal, in fact I seem to love setting them more than completing them.

STG - 100 outdoor 7's, 25 7B's, flick of the wrist (possibly a MTG)
MTG - 10 7C's, get back to previous strength of hanging the outside smalls on the 2000, 7B slab
LTG - Avoid further injury, 8A, Diesel Power, the Joker

Anyway, to my week

S - Traveling from my parents to the hut in North Wales
M - Some slate, where my held the ropes for my friend to bag his long term proj in the form of beltane. Up to the pass for some action in wavelength, repeating some stuff on the groove bolder while others tried Boysons and DTD. Decided to stop in on Pie Shop (7C) on the way back down and managed to make short work of it after confidently stating "don't worry, I wont be able to pull on and then we can go back to the hut". Started an 8 man trip up a wet Lockwoods chimney at 9.
T - Started the year slithering up the eponymous pitch on Lockwoods chimney, singing Auld Lang Syne with 7 friends. What a start to the year! Home by 3 am. Up and out before realising everything was wet and convening in petes for food and then back to Aber.
W - Training, managed two old projects very quickly which was exciting.
T - The weather was glorious so headed up to Tan y Grisiau with a friend who was keen on trying Tempest (7A). Managed to get up Big Red Button (7A) and did another lap of Tempest, continuing my streak of never having fallen off it. Went off to try flick of the wrist (7C+) which felt very doable for the first time ever, got close but gassed out pretty quickly.
F - Another glorious day, so we headed up to Nant u Fedw, which might now be one of my favorite venues in wales. It was a little seepy, but the lines which were dry were excellent. Managed the amusingly named Corbyn Youth Surge, and JC4PM (7A's) before getting up Ultrasuck (7B). Got to the top out on one of the other 7B's but didn't know what to do and got spooked. Almost did the direct to CYS (7B+) but again, no cigar. Went off and found the absolutely superb hidden highball slab of Spiderpig (7A) and somehow tip toed my way to the top, my heart in my mouth. Hidden classic that one, good effort finding it Pete.
S - Rest. Managing epicondylitis that is plaguing me.
S - Training, did my hardest features problems first try back to back some how, including the one that took 2 1/2 years. Could this plateau finally be behind me? Dare I say that?

Me and my climbing buddy both consider this to be our most successful weeks climbing, though we like to set the bar nice and low!

[Fiend]

Cheers for the reply gollum. Good on you handling that load.

[shark]

S PM FB warmup then warm up on the 2 Oak problems. 4 sets looking at reducing times towards progressing to doing them back to back. Best set completing both with just 25 secs rest which I was pretty pleased with.

This sounds good. I did this when I was trying Zeke, never did the route though! Sounds like you should create a harder version too, for building strength on?

You been spying on me? I just set a harder version of one of them this afternoon

[lagerstarfish]

toe joints have been really painful, so not done much - may have to postpone onsight attempt onThe Oak by a few days

M - surprised to find that toes weren't too bad - attributed this to careful exercise the day before (kettlebell lunges on heels) and static bike with instep on the pedals. Had a short, easy session at Burb N with Plattsy

T - new years day walk over Stanage with the family - saw plenty of people I knew - looking forward to getting out on grit

W - toes and feet start hurting again, knackard ankle woke me in the night

Th - big toe on R foot swollen and ball of foot hurting a lot - moderate gym stuff that didn't involve weight on feet - static bike hurt too much to do much

F, Sa, Su - R foot bad bad bad,  ankle bad, not able to walk without eating a lot of pain killers - took lad to the park and tried to pretend I was OK. Fingers also hurting (woke me in the night). I would have had time to climb and weather was OK

managed not to cry about missed climbing

pain subsiding now

[Dolly]

Can't remember the last time I posted on here. Shark said he wanted to know what I got up to anyway so...
Didn't really climb last year until mid September because of a frozen shoulder therefore consider myself still on the way back.


M Hour of power in my shed, then started to strip it for a reset
T No training but finished stripping all the holds off my board
W Woke up with horrible sinusitis, went out to see Shark et al at Curbar not really expecting to climb, just to get some fresh air and be sociable. They had pretty much finished when I arrived so went to Gardoms to have first look at Kidneystone. Eventually managed to a) work out and b) do first moves up to the good hold. Quite pleased with that considering how rough I felt in the morning.
T
F Session on the Kidneystone again. After getting good Shark beta for the last bit tried to link it but it felt impossible.
S Started to come down with something, no real exercise.
S More cold symptoms but did manage to start to put some holds on my board with an aim of getting as many wooden holds as possible. Just a few quick pulls

[jamesturnbull97]

Again not much to report this week.
Fingerboard max hangs on Tuesday and Thursday, if I'm honest just got a bit bored of them so might have to change it up a bit. Ankle is still improving which is good, managing to walk around with only a slight limp and without pain now finally. Was great to go out to the crag this weekend just to hang with people but walking around on uneven ground is more challenging as it is still a bit painful if I load it at an angle or it gets tweaked sideways at all.
Being able to start getting on with rehabing it this weekend, so lots of wobbling around on one leg. Finally feeling like I'm on the right side of recovery now. Hoping that by the end of the week I might be able to climb on my board again taking it easy on the ankle, really noticed how weak it is standing on my toes when walking up on steeper ground so can see that being the biggest issue trying to climb on it but we shall see...

[jamesturnbull97]

Had just a little time left so went to the other end of the crag to do the attractive Straight 25. Yikes, it's a bit high for someone on their own with 2 pads... Fucks sake, still a 4c slab move to go. Top out with relief. Fucking great
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsTG4xHhmy-/

Glad you enjoyed it! I remember having to get Dave to run round and brush the damp green top while is was stood on that shoulder.
Did you try the other side? Straight 50?

[duncan]

Did some wrist curls too- 8kg doing them with my palms up seems fine but 4kg with them down is about the same difficulty- is this normal?

Unless I've misunderstood, isn't this wrist flexors (palms up) versus wrist extensors (plams down). People who believe in muscle imbalances would say over-strong flexors are a problem, without quantifying what over-strong is, hence devices like power fingers that are supposed to address this by strengthening finger extensors. Danny Brown reports pain-free climbers typically have flexors x3 stronger than extensors here. No idea how this study was done, does he post here?

I like the title: I will climb E5 this year!

STG: strength work (bouldering / fingerboard) 2 times a week. Manage aches and pains. Aerocap. MTG: a proper 7b+ this winter, Colorado bucket list routes in May, a classic E5 this summer.
LTG: 5.13 at 60; a LH&F BHAG.

Elbow (right) and shoulder (left) tweaks, numerous social obligations, and mediocre weather meant the most climbing-related thing I did over the winter break was watch The Sound of Music (looks like there are some great crags just outside Salzburg).

M-F no climbing. I am totally crushing Sharkathon: 355 days exercising in 2018, just one day off since the end of August, and in the last two weeks I’ve done shoulder strength/stability on 13 days, hip-knee strength/stability on 6 days, and 30 mins of jog-brisk walk on 9 days. BUT weight is 76kg, close to the heaviest of my life. Not outrunning the fork...

Plan: rehab. climbing (aerocap) then ease back into fingerboarding as shoulder/elbow permits. Need to think more about how to train for medium term aims (trad.) whilst still making progress towards long-term aims (7c+).

[Will Hunt]

Had just a little time left so went to the other end of the crag to do the attractive Straight 25. Yikes, it's a bit high for someone on their own with 2 pads... Fucks sake, still a 4c slab move to go. Top out with relief. Fucking great
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsTG4xHhmy-/

Glad you enjoyed it! I remember having to get Dave to run round and brush the damp green top while is was stood on that shoulder.
Did you try the other side? Straight 50?

I didn't look at it to be honest as I didn't have time. It was getting dark and I'd promised to be home for bathtime!
I take it that Crack Addict uses the blocks/plinth at the back but Straight 50 doesn't?

[jamesturnbull97]

Had just a little time left so went to the other end of the crag to do the attractive Straight 25. Yikes, it's a bit high for someone on their own with 2 pads... Fucks sake, still a 4c slab move to go. Top out with relief. Fucking great
https://www.instagram.com/p/BsTG4xHhmy-/

Glad you enjoyed it! I remember having to get Dave to run round and brush the damp green top while is was stood on that shoulder.
Did you try the other side? Straight 50?

I didn't look at it to be honest as I didn't have time. It was getting dark and I'd promised to be home for bathtime!
I take it that Crack Addict uses the blocks/plinth at the back but Straight 50 doesn't?

Not sure. That one isn't mine. I just did both aretes without any of the blocks.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - clean and press 26 kg 10x10. Hill walking +10 kg weightvest x10. Brilliant last session of the year.
Tue - farmer's walk 70 kg 1/1 x10; overhead barbell walk 26 kg 1/1 x5; shoulder barbell walk 1/1 x5; EMOM pull ups x5 x6. Very nice.
Wed - ab wheel x10, static/dynamic pull ups x3 (5" pause at 90 degrees) x10. Overheas barbell walk 2".
Thu - lateral raises x5, bicep curls x10, tricep planks x5, all x5. Barbell side bends 15x2 x side. 10 minutes of loaded carries.
Fri - gentle hill sprints x10. In sub zero temps, so cool! (You see what I did here?)
Sat - 75% session. Power clean (60 kg) x5, trap bar deadlift (100 kg) x5, back to back x5. Brilliant. Very hard.
Sun - 12 quick hill walks with 10 kg weightvest.

[Yossarian]

Sun - 12 quick hill walks with 10 kg weightvest.

That’s more than I did last year. Though my weight vest weighs nearer 20kg and is excellent at spotting helicopters...

[Nibile]

 
I'm not sure I get what you mean Yos, sorry.
Something to do with your job, I presume.

[Yossarian]

A 3-year-old in a backpack. I think I’ll get my coat...

[tomtom]

In a similar vein I’ve done a load of 18kg farmers carry. Often for a km or more.

[shark]

Did some wrist curls too- 8kg doing them with my palms up seems fine but 4kg with them down is about the same difficulty- is this normal?

Yes it’s normal ie my experience and I’m normal.

Unless I've misunderstood, isn't this wrist flexors (palms up) versus wrist extensors (plams down). Danny Brown reports pain-free climbers typically have flexors x3 stronger than extensors here

Interesting - and the ratio was the same for non-climbers.

I like the title: I will climb E5 this year!

I’ll keep the title the same. The pressure to come up with a new title each week is keeping me awake

E5 pact? 

[tomtom]

I thought the article on wrist strength (it’s a page and half of notes not an article to be fair) didn’t really conclude much. Mean ratio of climbers was 3.18 and of non 3.08 (from memory) given the low sample size I would be extremely surprised if these were sig different.

But interesting observations in the non result - 4 of the strongest 10 were non climbers etc....