[galpinos]

Going to join PC over winter in an effort get better…….

M – AeroCap @ -42.7kg, Max Hangs @ +13kg
T – Bouldering at Depot, fingery problems on the 30 plus easy yellow facing comp wall (flash) and easy yellow facing café (failed on match on second to last hold)
W – Rest
T – Bouldering at Depot, fingery problems on the 30 plus easy yellow arete problem (ticked)
F – Rest (Should have been Aero Cap and Max Hangs but life etc….)
S - AeroCap @ -40.7kg, Max Hangs @ +15kg (2kg lighter so changed resistance to maintain effort/load)
S – Stanton with Sam. Brad’s Arete ticked after needing different beta to Sam and struggling a high step. Brutal Arete/Spare Rib looked awesome but was green/smeggy and the right-hand crimp felt very greasy. Good day out.

[tommytwotone]

Sounds like you're making excellent progress Cheque, glad it's going well on the physical and psychological side.

Goal: what goal? 

Not a great deal this week after my first 3-climbing-sessions-in-a-week week for probably about 5+ years.

M: felt really crappy after celebrating my goal completion / 7a tickage with 3 x small cans of craft beer Sunday night - first booze for 2 months. Quite a bit of shoulder pain.
T: nowt
W: nowt
T: Depot after work (think I saw Gollum leaving as I arrived... ). OK session trying the new comp set, put in a good showing but man it was busy and warm. Finally introduced myself properly to Andy_E as well. Left earlier than I'd usually do as I started feeling a bit queasy and light-headed.
F: nowt. Shoulder pain again.
S: nowt
S: taking daughter to her cousin's birthday party at...The Climbing Lab. Finally, a kid's birthday party I actually want to go to!

Actually ended up driving my nieces over - youngest went to the party and climbed with the others but eldest (12) stuck around with me and we had a good session, pottering / mileage for me and she climbed well given she's done nothing for about 3 years!

Assuming it's increased volume or intensity but my dodgy shoulder has flared up again. Annoying as it doesn't effect my climbing while I'm doing it, but is pretty painful the morning / day after. Really don't want to have another layoff / rehab period so need to assess my options.

[shark]

My theory is that being a more natural feeling grip I can try harder on heavy weighted deadhangs. It trains the pinky in a novel way and using the thumb on the side gives that a workout too. The gains I’ve got have transferred well when I’ve done benchmark weighted hangs on a regular edge / campus rung. If you fancy pop over and give it a try.

[Will Hunt]

That reminds me. I did go to the Lab on Saturday as well. The plan had been to go to Harewood House and see the penguins but the nipper saw a video of someone climbing on Instagram in the morning and declared that she'd rather go climbing. This time I remembered to take Cat who was rescued a number of times from dizzying heights in the kids' bit.

At lunchtime we sat on one of the benches facing the main wall and she tucked into her sandwich while I mooched on some problems - did or tried about 10 problems. When I fell off she shouted "BAM!" at me. A natural heckler. Very proud.

[andy_e]

Finally introduced myself properly to Andy_E as well. Left earlier than I'd usually do as I started feeling a bit queasy and light-headed.

Yeah, that usually happens to people I meet.

[cheque]

Sounds like you're making excellent progress Cheque, glad it's going well on the physical and psychological side.

Cheers Tommy. To be honest sometimes I think "I'm climbing bloody VS and not even finding it easy" but most of the time I just enjoy myself and keep at it. Progress feels fun no matter what the context and I do believe that I can get back to where I was (with the caveat that I can't justify risky climbing any more  ) and actually progress from there- there are areas of trad climbing that I feel I'm better at than ever now.

What gives me the most satisfaction I think is that I now seem to be able to apply the kind of effective organisation, goal setting, planning etc. that I've always been good at in work, filmmaking and general life to climbing and training as well- areas which were previously kind of an unfocused clusterfuck in that sense!

[nai]

M nowt

T set off on a quest to find something harder than 7B that I might be able to do.  Plan was to have 30 minutes each on Neil's Wall and Paint It Black to see what was involved. Warmed up thoroughly at home and headed to Beginners first, wanted to be strict and not trash myself so set a stopwatch to 30 minutes. Unfortunately it only took 6 1/2 minutes to realise that both Neil's Wall and Advanced Training were non starters, couldn't even pull on to Neil's let alone make the first move. Headed to Sean's where it took slightly longer to not do the first move on PiB, I could at least pull on and wave a hand in the direction of the next hold but was struggling to get anything out of the heel.  Crossed over to Roadside and started working Top Shop again, sorted the Red or Dead finish and thought I was ready to start trying it in full then found there was a move on the traverse section I couldn't do, sure I'd managed it last week but spent pretty much the rest of the session on it and only did it once and in a method so strenuous that there's no way I'd manage another move subsequently.
Core

W - nowt

Th - Plans unravelled as morning tasks dragged on and the window started to get a bit tight, set off for the lime and ended up at Burbage Bridge, thought I was warm but couldn't even pull on Mermaid and was struggling on the arete. Took about 20 minutes to get that then back to Mermaid. Could now do the start but having latched the sloper wasn't able to engage the shoulder and pull on it. Headed down to outside to buy some Rhino skin, was seduced by the darkside and bought antihydral as well.
Core and some scap pullups

F - Hatched a plan with tt to go look at Black and Deckout buttress on the strength of the number of *** bangers promised by ukc. Went to Sean's to warm up on the stuff just left of PiB, hadn't really looked at these problems before and while not classics some of them are at least not total shit.  Anyway, did the 6B+, couldn't do the 6C, got close to the 7A then went to meet Tom. We stared at B&D for a while before deciding we didn't fancy it that much and returned to Griffs where I flailed in an uninspired kind of way. Opted to return to Sean's, worked out better beta for the 7A then spent a while not doing it.
Core and one arm assisted Scap Pullups

S AnCap before a family do and too much to eat and drink.

S nowt, tricky choice between a cold turkey and a hairy dog....

[tommytwotone]

Finally introduced myself properly to Andy_E as well. Left earlier than I'd usually do as I started feeling a bit queasy and light-headed.

Yeah, that usually happens to people I meet.

Ha ha - correlation / causality Andy!

[Coops_13]

M: Volleyball with colleagues. Good fun but hurt wrist diving for the ball...

T: Wrist was bad so went for x-ray, prognosis is tendonitis. Went up Mt Evans in evening for acclimatisation, did 2 miles of walking

S: Grays and Torreys Peak, two new 14ers. 9 miles and c.3500ft of ascent, good day out

Wrist still bad / feeling a bit worse. Hopefully will sort itself out over the next two weeks as I'm in Philly then off on holiday...

[petejh]

Is this stuff you’ve done? Gym rope is impractical. I can use the campus board and Moonboard at the Foundry.

I've done the slow weighted / fast bodyweight pullups. I haven't done the rope climbing. But I sent you that workout because I thought you might be averse to moonboards, or simply prefer training at home.

I think the moonboard or a.n.other steep board is better. Perhaps a mix of one steep board sesh and one sesh of the above workout per week to reduce likelihood of injury from giving it 100% on steep boards.

Relatively speaking (obvsnotawad),apart from good looks and fantastic cunning power is my best asset  and I specifically had to bump up my power and short PE a bit for the Oak. I'd expect to have to train hard on my biggest weakness to get over the line on a route at personal max limit. Oak's a power route. You're not a naturally powerful climber.

[tomtom]

Good power club this week.

Good post cheque - and good to see you Galpinos (matching 2nd to last hold on that yellow is haard..)

[36chambers]

Felt good in top rest and implemented new sequence on crux section. Absolutely pissed the move and set up for the big throw. Laid one on, hit the hold, held it for half a second before coming off. Gutted as if I hold it I think I go to the top.

I'm looking forward to buying you a fancy beer when you do it. No pressure

[Yossarian]

M - Wall. Bit of progress on board problems, though a variety of minor finger tweaks / pain. Didn’t feel up for any campusing, so tried some of the new comp wall problems. Got sucked into a steep volume 7C which I could partially lank. Might be a good project as it should be up for a while.
T - Harrisons. Warmed up on a horrendous green slippery nightmare. Had a few goes on Lager Shandy (6b / 7a+) which felt quite hard, though was quite wiped out from previous day. Also a pain to shunt as overhanging and slightly wandering. Did nearby 6as a few times. Fingers not feeling great.
W - Shoulder rehab and iced fingers
T - Wall. Sluggish and generally performing badly. Went home and decided to resurrect day with some deadhanging. Not done any since end of July. Warmed up, skipped slopers and got on with some max hangs. Left hand was feeling tweaky so cut that short and pressed on with RH. Got to -14kg for 3sec and then did 5x 10sec at -16. Previous best was about 2 sec at -18kg. Usually it takes me a couple of sessions to get back to -20kg, so pretty pleased with this, especially as I’m currently 89kg. Getting down to 80kg is looking more and more like a good idea...
F - Yoga / stretching / shoulder exercises / iced fingers
S - Wall. Great board session. Ok campus session but didn’t feel super powerful. Fingers a bit uncomfortable so stuck to comp style o problems on big holds after that, on which I did better than expected. Tried some foot-on campus but skin was v sore by that point.
S - High intensity gardening and yoga

Great week. Shoulder pain has been much reduced since seeing physio / doing rehab exercises, though quite a lot of painless-but-weird clunking / grinding which I need to get sorted. Improvements in finger strength suggest that i should be doing more outside bouldering and with fewer excuses. Hopefully left hand tweaks will recover with slightly less volume this week. Seem to have a bit of synovitis in both hands, which the icing seemed to partially remedy. Keen to press on with route plans for the next month or two, and also fit in some Churnet bouldering with daughter who loudly announced to her squad that she doesn’t like comps and would rather climb outside.

[shark]

Cheers Pete. I don’t disagree with any of that.

You inspired me to do a power session today on my systems board based around your links starting with some big dynamic moves then the below routine four times (which I hope you approve of) finishing with some fast pull-ups.

[Rob F]

Decent that!

Shark's on his A game

Get your car filled up with petrol tomorrow in prep for an early start Wed...

[Will Hunt]

I don't really know about training, but that's not a power link is it? You've done loads of moves and they don't look individually hard for you?

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - fingers, pockets. Strong. Rings L-sits in between sets. Tiring. Weights and pull ups.
Tue - rest.
Wed - fingers, system. 23 max hangs on pinches and edges. Rings L and I in betwwen. Weights.
Thu - bar work, weights.
Fri - rings, weights.
Sat - loaded carries 20'.
Sun - rest.

[monkoffunk]

Spidermonkey, sounds incredibly close! Try not to put too much pressure on each redpoint now, it’s just a matter of time before one pays off.


STG - Start ticking off boulder projects. (One down!)
Lose weight back 74kg.
MTG - Structured training.
LTG - 7C

M - Pre nights. The last two of this batch! Napped on off through the day. Aimed to do something, but felt pretty out of it when I woke at around 1715 and didn’t quite manage to get out of bed before 1800. Still managed to do a few hanging tucks, leg raises and some brief front lever progression. Few sets of pull ups to near failure. All off flat jug. Reasonable recruitment hopefully.

T - Rest.

W - Post nights. Quite busy shift to start with. Got about three hours down time from 0430. Was in two minds about heading to Portland, but wasn’t sure when I’d get out again so decided to go for it. Warmed up on the 6A-6B problems on the Staunch, Bru boulder. Did the 6B mantle that had flummoxed me before. Thought might be a good sign, but then couldn’t pull on Ladies Night again! Eventually rediscovered the knack and could it consistently but the third hand move that I had never done still seemed a million miles away. Played around with some beta variations I’d previously discounted but all seemed even worse. After about 3 hours my right arm was beginning to fatigue and not quite recover between goes.  I was just about to call it a day when suddenly the third move just went. Frustratingly the fourth move, that feels easy when fresh, spat me off as I couldn’t shift my body weight over the heel. Realising I could now do every move though gave me a bit of a boost in motivation and I decided to persevere a bit longer. Little bit of extra belief and suddenly the third move went again. This time I somehow managed to grunt and slap my way through the top sequence. I think this could be the finest margin between success and failure that actually worked out for me on a boulder. Pretty happy, I think it’s the hardest bloc style boulder I’ve done and in a slightly subpar state physically and mentally. Main difference has just been the effort I think.

T-S. In Moldova for a wedding. No training. Very good weekend though, next week I am really looking forward to getting back to working hard again.

Not a training week at all, and I’m still feeling pretty out of shape really, but somehow still managed to pull something out of the bag. I guess sometimes you just get a bit lucky!

[shark]

I don't really know about training, but that's not a power link is it? You've done loads of moves and they don't look individually hard for you?

It’s a series of strength moves into a power (throw) move which I repeat 5 times. This replicates the demands on the bottom section of the Oak leading to executing a power move when tired.

The moves to the throw feel medium hard for me - no doubt piss for a Moonboard devotee. The hand holds are good but the screw on footholds are crap.

The variation of the throw move Im doing is hard (for me) but isn’t quite as hard as on the Oak but if it was then I would be able to do it 5x slightly tired and over 4 sets.

It’s a bit of a last minute long shot but as Barrows said not got much to lose at this point (except maybe another kg  )

Assuming it doesn’t go down then I can take a more comprehensive approach to power training this winter

[andy_e]

Assuming it doesn’t go down

Why?

[galpinos]

Shark, I'm not training expert, feel free to ignore, apologies for the pile on etc, but what Will says

I don't really know about training, but that's not a power link is it? You've done loads of moves and they don't look individually hard for you?

is right IMHO. Power training, in my simpleton eyes, looks like campusing (in it's simplest form). Traversing 9 moves in to a campus board then doing 1-4 5 times on your right arm would not look like a power session to me, and that is basically what you are doing.

Maybe you are just super smooth but at no point did you seem to be trying that hard, the "throws" all look easy?

[shark]

Assuming it doesn’t go down

Why?

Because I'm not close enough.

Benchmarking myself against when I did best in late Summer and Autumn 2015 from the 5th session onwards I got to the point of consistently getting through the throw move twice in a session from the ground. This time round I've had 7 sessions since mid august and not got through it once.

Plan B now is to do back off and do some specific training, do other climbing, drop a couple more lbs then resume redpointing when temps drop in October. I'm then away in November.   

[T_B]

Pile ons!

If you want to recruit the fast twitch muscle fibres that Pete was alluding to your lack of (?), you need to do the equivalent of campus type one or two move problems.

For that move to the horn, it would be at most a move into matching on an undercut/s, then an appropriate big, powerful move off it. Repeated, but with a long (3 minute) rests in-between.

Take a look at hold #31 on the Furnace board and see what you can do with that, with your feet on features. Having watched the videos of the move, I think you have a near perfect set up on that board for working that weakness.

Then start adding moves in once you've moved up a level in basic explosive power.

[shark]

Shark, I'm not training expert, feel free to ignore, apologies for the pile on etc, but what Will says

I don't really know about training, but that's not a power link is it? You've done loads of moves and they don't look individually hard for you?

is right IMHO. Power training, in my simpleton eyes, looks like campusing (in it's simplest form). Traversing 9 moves in to a campus board then doing 1-4 5 times on your right arm would not look like a power session to me, and that is basically what you are doing.

Maybe you are just super smooth but at no point did you seem to be trying that hard, the "throws" all look easy?

Isnt that the thing with power moves - they look and feel easy when you do them - I can assure you that I did 5 repeats because a 6th wasnt on the cards.

It may not be pure single move power training but it is analogous to one of the power training exercises that Pete pointed me at:

Here you will couple weighted pull-ups with unweighted “power pull-ups”. First, you will do a 3 to 5 repetition set of weighted pull-ups, using a near maximum amount of weight added to your body (weight vest, or hanging free weights from a dips belt or harness). Upon completely this strength set you will remove the weights and do 5 to 8 bodyweight pull-ups as fast as possible–this is your speed exercise. Execute these two exercises back-to-back with no rest in between. Take a 5 minute rest before doing another coupled set.

[shark]

Take a look at hold #31 on the Furnace board and see what you can do with that, with your feet on features. Having watched the videos of the move, I think you have a near perfect set up on that board for working that weakness.

Then start adding moves in once you've moved up a level in basic explosive power.