[shark]

11.1-11.3 Average 156.1lb up 0.2lb

M.Morning. Tor. Tried Bens from start but felt weak on pinch and couldn’t get through to kneebar rest. Depressing.

T.

W. Morning. Tor. Bens. 2 goes from start touching but not connecting with niche with left toe. 3rd go failed on set up for kick. Had a go from knee bar and fell off going for high edge on THFML. Much better.

T.

F. PM. Thought it would be cloudy all day so left it late. Sunny when I arrived at lunchtime. Busy but everybody was sensibly about to leave. Warmed up then Go1 felt strong went from start and got to kneebar without cutting loose did the kick move and got as far as touching high edge on THFML. Boom! Nick C rocked up for a chat having ticked Boobs and took a vid of my second go where this time I got the high edge but swung off! After that a go on start but no go and then a go from kneebar rest but wilted at start of THFML

S

S

Had decided with Nick the previous week that we needed to knuckle down to closing out projects hence focusing on Bens. I had fallen off at that point last year but getting up there twice in a row marked an improved PB especially given it was warm.

Other highlight of the week was having a standard old man health check. The nurse asked me to stop holding my stomach in when she was taking my waist measurement. I wasn’t 

[yetix]

M: rest
T: rest
W: recruitment hangs in the morning upto 3x+24kg. Pretty close to numbers pre finger injury, finger still not great at pulling down hard though. Woodwell in the afternoon, managed to tick the low starts to Crushinator and Angel Delight both at 7B. Tried Virtuvian Man and managed to do the first 2 of the 3 main moves on the problem, psyched!
T: gym bench press 5x5, front flies on rings 3x8, dips 3x8, shoulder press 3x8, and some antagonist work on the forearms.
F: recruitment hangs upto +24.5kg again
S: quick trip over to the Lily Savage boulders, repeated the stand to PoG a handful of times and managed to drop the very end of the sit a handful of times. Should go next time so hopefully will go back on Wednesday!
S: session at the depot doing some circuits. May go the gym later to do some more bench/chest flies work this evening.

[tomtom]

Shark,,, so near - so near... You deserve a persistence wad point for that.
Yetix - cool in Vit Man - I can't do the first moves (not tried for a year or so)....

Right - WTF is going on with the thread title this week - because my arse is definately not heavy.
Scales said 11 stone 1 three times this week.... getting close to my post 21 low...

Anyway - here is my skinny ass lifting scores for the week...

M: Work day trip to Londinium. Got back home 11:30...

Tu: Went to Anston on the way over to work in Hull. Well... this must be my 4 or 5th session on Nazgul LH and each time I feel I'm getting closer then the fucking thing spits me off. I had about 40 min trying my closest method (b) (Pinch RH thrown to roof slot) then split the joint below the index pad. Superglue and tape - but I needed the skin really to make that move work. Back to method (a) (lower good crimp with right - throw to roof slot - easier than (b) but then leaves hard move for top. Came close a couple of times. Then found method (c) which was like (a) except when I had the roof slot I would toe hook and then could bring my RH up to the pinch - better for the final move etc. BUT the toe hook worked so well (I was nearly 2 hours into the session at this point) I set up the camera etc.. got to the move and it just wouldnt work.. time after time after time (despite it working from half way up)> I suspect core failure etc..  Despite no success - it felt like a really good session - over 2 hours trying hard and working different ways... Excellent. 

We: Work - driving

Thu, Fri, Sat. Just me and the boy as MrsTT was away. Which can throw up challenges, but is normally good fun. Unfortunately, I hadnt had a good nights sleep since monday - and subsequently felt like I had a medium to bad hangover all three of these days... the lad had a bit of a temp a couple of nights, so I had on average 5 hours of bad disrupted sleep each night. Felt fucked - and angry. Anyway, MrsTT arrived back late Sat so I got some sleep then...

Sun: Had a reward pass (yay!) Forecast looked hmm - maybe humid on the lime - so went back up high to Blackstone. Very good session - got closer on Naomi's Wall SS, but best of all made some decent progress on Fridge Hugger.... managed to top out from starting with LF pasted (near my ear) on the low left of the lip and levitate using some grit shennanigans... The crux for me now is getting that LF pasted near my left ear from hanging... came close (5cm from the lip) a few times then core powered out. Then up to Niks Groove - encoraged by some beta from Dom finally went...

Now - this video may re-inforce some preconceptions about Lancs Bouldering lowball arse drags - but this really does climb well and Nik at Work from this parish should be proud of this problem its great.



Then went and played on the sit to Mikes Arete near the trig point (hard 7B) and kind of pulled on OK, but close to 3 hours in my skin was trashed and I didnt want to hole them for later on in the week.

[nai]

M Had to resist temptation, rest.

T Tor. Quite relieved to find streaks on Anger Management and the bottom soaked. The Flushings proved a much more amenable first time on the pointy end of a rope in 7 months. Decent redpoint attempt ended trying to rockup into the sun and coming up short.   To top from that point so done in halves, won't be rushing back as a priority though.

W 3x5min LI Aero, 10x1min LI Core
Randomly decided to go for a bike ride around Eccy Woods in the PM. Good fun.

Th rest

F Third session on Tequilla, got on lead and really ironed out all the little intricacies mistakes. Had a decent final attempt to the RP crux which I was happy with as would have liked another 10-15 minutes rest beforehand and my left knee wasn't very helpful in any of the rests.  Just two more moves to a quick shake and while there's still some sketchy climbing above that it's an encouraging session that's convinced me it's possible
HI Core.

S Eccy woods mtb again with wife and nipper.

S Torn between resting ahead of Tequila (hopefully) tomorrow and the fact that recently I seem to climb better second day on so decided on a short simple session:

Route season finger strength maintenance hangs.  Seem to have lost 11kg (or 18%) worth of finger strength somewhere in the last month.
token gesture of shoulder stuff
10x1min sets of LI volume core

Dunno what to make of the drop off in finger strength score.  Maybe just a bad skin/slick wood day? Or maybe accumulated fatigue from a period of endurance training/climbing?
Anyone had a similar experience?

[spidermonkey09]

Looking very close there Shark, how many moves to go, or was that the finishing edge?

Tequila looks amazing. How much is dry down that way now? Is the Cornice coming along?

M - max hangs. Slight improvement on last week. Have had to replace the lattice edge with a campus rung as I'm moving house and the lattice rung doesn't belong to me; suspect this should make next week more successful as its incut. May need to add weight as a result.

T - good day at work; promotion and associated pay rise. Rewarded myself with a quick hit at Malham in the evening. Beautiful evening after hot day but rock surprisingly ok in the shade. Blasted through previous high point on the boulder with new improved beta and got matched into the final undercuts before the throw to the tooth. Didn't try this as was fucked and was conscious that I wasn't wearing knee pad so wouldn't have been able to recover even if I did make it through; lesson learned, its going on every time now. Pulled back on and easily did to kneebars. Basically repeated the trick second go half an hour later; felt like a breakthrough session and a timely confidence boost that I can get through it.

W - rest.

T - Malham after work. Good conditions to start with but fumbled second undercut and fell off going to third. Twice did it in isolation to the kneebars though which bodes well. Bad conditions on the headwall and struggled with section to bird hole after feeling I had it fairly sorted previously.

F - rest, few pints.

S - Malham. No gamechanging links but still progress. Three goes up. No new high point on boulder due to a foot slip and managing to get little finger stuck under fourth finger in third undercut which meant I couldn't move. Got some new beta to try from James Ibbotson on bird hole section which I'm optimistic about; felt hard again doing it my way. Tried to link from bird hole to top; no success but much closer and feeling slick on it now. This section is apparently about 8a. First session where I didn't fall off last hard cross through move even when very tired; good progress. Left t shirt in Aardvark undercut to dissuade housemartins from nesting there.

S -  rest.

Back to training this week instead of additional rock day. Two boxes need ticking; making sequence to bird hole more consistent and doing the link from bird hole to the top. Hopeful of getting through boulder from deck soon and want to be able to make a dent in the headwall/ be in with a chance of going to the top when I do. Still psyched!

[Murph]

Hey Nai. I’ve certainly had my fair share of inexplicable high gravity days in the office but something you wrote on the last PC caught my attention and I wondered whether it would come back to haunt you:

...a more skilled rock climber too, so have all but given up fingerboarding

I guess everything has an opportunity cost.

Shark - heartbreaker! So close. Good work at the health assessment.

M-Robin Hoods with the 3 year old. Just pottering but tried a few things I normally avoid and got nowhere. 6A+ pink slab right no arete and no chips. Someone there showed me how. Several times. No dice. And spine slab 7A. It felt more likely than the 6A tbh. Still, I don’t go there to tick anything. It’s just a lovely place to exist in for a few hours.
Evening - fingerboard. Best session yet since I’ve been working my weakness and using the half crimp properly. Maxed out at +28kg for 10s on BM smalls. Ace!
T-
W-
T-laughable evening session at Burbage. Neither of us had brought any chalk and I am a very chalk dependent climber (guess Caff would call that cheating if dans interview with him was real) so in the heat I couldn’t climb anything. Hanging rib and all quiet were just two things I didn’t climb. But I had a look at back street and am pretty inspired to go back with a full bucket.
F- went to the sheffield depot. Brilliant. Lots of space, decent looking cake options. If only it wasn’t in such an inconvenient location.
S- morning Bad Lip session as my mate wanted to climb Late Junction. Repeated that without too much fuss then for want of something to do pulled onto huffys. I copied a video of Nathan Phillips in choosing how to start but later saw that he got flamed for not doing it right and there’s all sorts of rules about how many pads you are allowed and which holds. So i appreciate I committed an error in starting with a foot on the floor. Video linked. Appreciate if someone could point to the definitive way it’s supposed to be started hands wise. And is it ok to start with the other foot and aim for a right toe hook as I’ve seen in some detox vids.

Awesome walls for the kids was awesome. The 5 year old is really coming on.
Evening fingerboard session include 3 10s sets at +40kg on medium BM strict half crimp. That feels ok now.
S- kids climbing at windgather. Just easy stuff for the 5 year old but did lead Portfolio HVS 5b. Nice to sort of have the confidence for it. Soft though obvs  V0- above bomber gear.

[jwi]

Very stressful week with 30h or teaching and visit from my parents and J's father and his new wife.

MTG. Get into some form of shape on crimps for the July trip to SA.

Tue May 14
Bouldering gym
Fairly catastrophic session after seven and a half hours of teaching. The plan was max boulders. I couldn’t do a single move on anything.
Fri May 17
Bouldering gym
45 degree board.
SE circuit of about 70s climbing
1x4x70s: r=3min.
Campus board (fairly juggy rungs) laddering 1x3x60s, r=3min.
Sun May 19
Climbing outdoors, La Croix
Still felt very low. Had forgotten my harness, so borrowed J's harness, she belayed me with hms directly into a bolt.
7c, 40m bolt to bolt
Rest 2h while J. topropring
7c rp
Rest 5 min
7c toprope
Rest 1h while J. redpoint
7c rp.
Was planning to climb it a few more times, but couldn’t work up the energy.

[shark]

Looking very close there Shark, how many moves to go, or was that the finishing edge?

Not quite. High right foot then chunky edge for right hand, left foot out then finishing jugs

[Fiend]

The nurse asked me to stop holding my stomach in when she was taking my waist measurement. I wasn’t 

Interesting to read that, and the big cheery grin smiley, in the context of your self-quoted mockery of Offwidth for his weight / appearance. Perhaps you could transform some of that satisfaction at the results of your diet / weight obsession into respect and support of other people who don't have the same results.

(  I know, but it's bugging me since I saw that bit of the discussion)


On the subject of more rewarding weights, I can still just about do 160kg DL off the couch. And did a F6c+ at Moat today which was nice.

[shark]

I apologised when Offwidth said he had contributory medical issues. Not a lot of sympathy for the overweight otherwise. It doesn’t come easy for me either to keep my weight down. In fact it’s a battle. I’m happy for, and have celebrated anyone losing weight that needs to.

[gollum]

Still in La Palma after big run. Great place.

M - 5k run along the promenade. Up a big hill, down a big hill, a bit of flat, up the down hill, down the top hill.

T - Longer recovery run same as yesterday with a lot more flat. Fantastic location.

W - Same long run as yesterday.

T - Short one again and then travelling home.

F - Run around Scammonden and then run home. Good fun, working on improving speed on the downhills.

S - Back to the weights. Bench press for triples up to 90k, declines and inclines followed by a bit of shoulder pressing. Finished session with TRX work for core and chest.
Trip to the Depot. Edge pulls on 14mm edge with 22.5k added, which was pretty solid and a great start to the warm up. Then onto some solid campusing including on the small edges to improve contact strength. Then do a solid board session with some good and some not so good efforts. Good to be pulling on holds again.
Steady 5k run with Mrs B, always great to be running together.

S - Pull day in the gym. Deadlifts to 140 to warm up followed by lots of different back exercises.
Depot session. Start with max hangs on BM centre hold at around 100% for each set. Definitely slowly improving at this. Then do a project session getting the moves on first project, not making a great deal of progress on second and close but no cigar on the third.

A very different week and a nice break with lots of food and beer to boot. Life is bloody great.

[nai]

Hey Nai. I’ve certainly had my fair share of inexplicable high gravity days in the office but something you wrote on the last PC caught my attention and I wondered whether it would come back to haunt you:

...a more skilled rock climber too, so have all but given up fingerboarding

I guess everything has an opportunity cost.

Yes I did think about editing that post afterwards. I made gains bouldering over winter and improved FS scores at every monthly benchmark test, so didn't feel the need to perform it as a regular workout. Best way of benchmarking though.

If you get involved in routes and hardly do any bouldering, which I have done recently, then it makes sense to do sub maximal hangs to maintain strength while hopefully leaving you fresh enough on your redpoint days. Which I hope to be tomorrow.
Interestingly (or not) all my PBs this winter have come the day after a decent bouldering session.
I just hope it's a blip and I rebound otherwise I'm even sub off-the-couch scores.

[moose]

Other highlight of the week was having a standard old man health check. The nurse asked me to stop holding my stomach in when she was taking my waist measurement. I wasn’t 

A bit of a contrast to two of my reasonably recent medical visits: Otley hospital a few years ago for an X-ray after a bouldering fall, and physio last week for a wrist problem.  On both occasions my immediate problem was swiftly dismissed as trivial and I was instead lectured at length on how feeble I look and told to get an immediate check-up and ask for blood tests! On the former ocassion, the nurse was so concerned she arranged the appointment without asking - almost pushed me out of A&E to drive immediately to the GP's surgery!

TomTom, how do your Nazgul LH methods compare with that in the video? I was trying it this way and it seems a goer - kept hitting the finishing pocket but either couldn't latch it / failed to hold the swing.

<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/50684539" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[shark]

Guess they were only trying to do the right thing. It was a another personal highlight a couple of years ago when you said I looked thin. My nickname in the UNi Climbing Club was 'Walrus' for a time.

[tomtom]

Moose: not their way. That’s a long deadpoint/dyno. Keeping their RH at its highest - up again with left to a slot in roof - then bring both feet up high and the hole can be reached without flying off.

[Oldmanmatt]

I am incredibly disappointed by the lack of large Equus africanus asinus, being hoisted in this thread.
1/10 would not recommend.

[moose]

Moose: not their way. That’s a long deadpoint/dyno. Keeping their RH at its highest - up again with left to a slot in roof - then bring both feet up high and the hole can be reached without flying off.

My attempts the way in the video resulted in a few comical /  scary tumbles downhill!  So, is your chosen method to follow their way to the RH pinch - i.e. from the start, LH spike, RH to good hold, cross LH through to slot crimp, and then RH to high pinch?  But then, rather than dynoing straight to the finishing pocket, you're using a LH slot in the roof? (I recall that there's a pinch up there).

[Duma]

Goals: Uninjured, 70kg, 8A in UK, Rocklands in June.

M - 30PU, 20VSit, 10SU, 15PINCU. TCA eve, back on the yellows. Really good session, managed to finish the three I hadn't done, 2 of which were a good fight. Definitely too soft for the hard set overall, but quality wise one of the best we've had in ages.

T - 30PU, 20VSit, 10SU, 15PINCU. TCA eve, feeling pretty good considering poor sleep after first night shift. Decided to try and repeat as many yellows as possible, bit shocked to manage all but one. That's 21 problems 6C to 7B. Decent couple of goes on the last one too but ran out of time.

W - 30PU, 20VSit, 10SU, 15PINCU.

T - 

F - 30PU, 20VSit, 10SU, 15PINCU

S - 30PU, 20VSit, 10SU, 15PINCU

S - Hartland. Completely shut down on Supercede which was a bit of a downer. It is basically everything I'm bad at, but still, I did significantly better last time I tried it a few years ago. Oh well. Then round the point to Rhino boulder, had looked at this but not pulled on previously. Had a great time, did the stuff in the guide/UKC, and then a couple of links and a one move straight up that aren't recorded but extended the interest. Then ice cream and cider in the sun. Excellent day despite the schooling on Carnage wall.

Av 70 kg.

Good week, weight back where should be, felt good at the wall Mon/Tues, and fun day by the sea today.

[Will Hunt]

Just when I thought my climbing couldn't take a more relaxed pace, it was Rocky Valley on Tuesday. 2 x VS and a HS.

[user deactivated]

Power Club

Goals

Short term. Back to 65kg. Get finger strength benchmark up to v5 level
Medium: 7C on the lime, back to doing powerband
Long term: 8b and 8a

Mon- nowt
Tuesday- cleaned soot monkey at WiltOn, got involved in online scandal
Wed - nowt
Thurs- 20 mins Limit boulders on board
Fri - nowt
Sat - Sodom and Gomorrah, Calamity Crack fall.
Sun - nowt

Really psyched to get cranking down the dales after my moat experience. Need to work my aero pow badly but scared it may catabolise my fast twitch fibres. Does anyone else have that effect

[user deactivated]

Hey Duma, is there a vid of a PINCU about? Keen to give those bad boys a go. No ideas what it is but sounds like some hardcore lEttuCe shit

[tomtom]

Moose: not their way. That’s a long deadpoint/dyno. Keeping their RH at its highest - up again with left to a slot in roof - then bring both feet up high and the hole can be reached without flying off.

My attempts the way in the video resulted in a few comical /  scary tumbles downhill!  So, is your chosen method to follow their way to the RH pinch - i.e. from the start, LH spike, RH to good hold, cross LH through to slot crimp, and then RH to high pinch?  But then, rather than dynoing straight to the finishing pocket, you're using a LH slot in the roof? (I recall that there's a pinch up there).

Hopefully I’ll have a video of it later this week

But - ignore all the cross through shit in their film and yes with RH on high pinch go up and left for a slot in the roof (it might look like a pinch but it’s a slot/edge). Then lf on the spike, rf on a decent edge just about the mini cave/overhang and you can pull up and almost get your chin on the jug...

[moose]

Cheers - but how are you gaining the high RH pinch if you aren't doing the cross-through?

[tomtom]

Cheers - but how are you gaining the high RH pinch if you aren't doing the cross-through?

Share or a little cross through (theirs is really elaborate!)
On Carls video they do it going straight from the pinch (hard IMHO)

https://youtu.be/j3jjcPNxw5k?t=105

Different way here - closer to one of my 'methods' (which havnt worked yet!!)

https://youtu.be/2TDRSbMjNK8?t=2192

[cheque]

Yes Shark, hopefully you won’t be trying to reach that high point again for the next three years. 

Murph- I realise I was hanging around in Outside at the same time as you and your family yesterday. 

Rehab Diaries Week Thirty-nine

STG- Sub-HVS *** Peak Grit Trad list (14/20 18/26 remain), onsighting HVS/ low 6s by end of September.

M- Standard Monday rest.

T- Filming. Took the smaller tripod- with this the gear I carry for this film feels very light now. 

W- Hike up Kinder via Fair Brook after work. Second time up on Kinder in four days. Much nicer than an hour at the gym and I got to check a crag out & take some photos. Took 2:47 door to door (including 25 minutes drive to the Snake Pass Inn each way)- we think of the crags up there like they’re on the moon and require weeks of planning and days of perfect weather to consider climbing on but this year is teaching me that this is not the case at all.

T- Rest.

S- Awesome Walls autobelays with the TRS5K. They’d all been reset but instead of giving grades they’d just left a sheet for climbers to add their own opinions which was already a clusterfuck of various grades. I’ve been in this game too long to trust the grading of the sort of punters who climb on the AW autobelays (I’m including myself in that) so decided to make it a “bouldering on a rope” session rather than the structured mileage I’ve done previously with the weight belt. I don’t think I got to the top of anything harder than 6a+ (see previous statement) but I tried every route on the autos with varying degrees of success, up to probably 7b (again, see previous statement) and didn’t tweak anything so I’m considering this a good session.

[S-] Race support for girlfriend’s 10 mile race around upper Derwent reservoirs- a nice place to be stuck for 90 minutes although the early start was not ideal after the previous day’s exertions- weight belt training is some of the most tiring I’ve ever done. Fell asleep almost straight after the FA Cup final!

S- Burbage w/ girlfriend, 
led Obscenity and Byne’s Crack; both off my list, both brilliant and the first two VSs I’ve onsighted since my accident. Cool hike round the valley involved with lovely company I always enjoy multi-crag linkups.

Cool week, loads of exercise. Suffered with dental pain all week which should be sorted on Wednesday. I feel like I’ve gone up another notch in terms of leg-strength in the past couple of weeks but still a way to go.

Knocked another two routes off the list this week but also investigated how many lime routes meet the criteria (trad, in the Peak, below HVS & three stars in the current definitive guides, not led by me before) and added six to it...