[iain]

General goals:  stay injury free, maintain finger/general prehab routines

Weight: 69.7 average

STG: Get ropes in where I can but in general it's bouldering season for me now. Pick up some bouldering projects.

MTG: Be ready to clear unfinished sport projects including Unleashing and Why Me in the spring. And trad, especially mountain and sea cliff trad

M: Shoulder/thoracic/hip flexibility and strengthening. Fingers prehab

T: Late afternoon session at Burbage. Had some fun warming up, jamming practice and getting scared on lowalls .
Decided to try Blind Date but quickly became clear that I wasn't warmed up enough and things felt tweaky so stopped.
I did figure out that the normal method probably won't work for me, anyone got clever beta for the shorter among us?

W: Felt off and tweaky, nothing.

T: Suse found out that a close colleague had died suddenly overnight. Only 57 and no underlying health conditions, sobering.

F: Long walk with Suse

S: Robin Hood's Stride. Had fun warming up and wobbling around while failing to no hands anything before headed to The Kid. Could not make the knee scum/bar work for the long move despite excellent beta (thanks Ian), the rest felt ok.
Best guess is that I was doing my usual engaging all the muscles instead of only the ones needed to move.

At least we were in a little pocket of dryness, when we moved on it was straight back to the car in the rain.

S: Long walk with Suse
Late visit to the Depot and again short of time and wasn't feeling like volume. Limit bouldering trying yellows and despite never having done one there before managed 3 including a flash and others feeling in reach with a bit of work.
Even with the usual setting variation caveats it was a nice ego boost, certainly some of the hardest things I've done there.


Wasn't able to get out and make the best of the weather last week and and while out today this week is looking like an indoor one.
Do have a Swanage/Portland visit planned for 2 weekends time weather permitting, looking forward to that.

[Duncan Disorderly]

Sounds like you're calling me horribly unfit DD...

:-D

I don't know about that - I'd take horribly unfit yet casually onsights F7b over not getting pumped on F6b any day of the week 

[abarro81]

Might be just the difference between "absolute max" and "regular indoor max", e.g. there's 3-4 grades difference there for me. 4 grades off my all-time outdoor PB onsight would be way too hard for aerocap, 4 grades off my regular indoor max onsight would be about right...

[Stu Littlefair]

People get quite hung up on the intensity of aero cap. A good way of judging this is "how close am I to failure?". Aerocap should never get close to failure. IMO, each rep should finish at around the "I'd really like to stop now" point.

So you could do ten minutes of continuous climbing at an intensity that gets you to "I'd like to stop now" after 10 minutes. Or do it at a lower intensity for 20 minutes, but still reaching the "I'd like to stop now" point by the end.

Or, you could do 1min on, 1 min off at a much higher intensity, that also gets you to the "I'd like to stop now" point after 10 reps or so.

There's a huge range of possible intensities and durations, and I'm not sure we have a good idea which of them work best. It's not like cycling where there is good evidence that the lighter intensity/longer duration exercises are more productive. It's something I'd like to see someone study at some point...

I've found that sticking with any one workout will give good results, but it probably makes sense to cover your bets and do a range of intensities.  But always tweak things so a single rep stays well away from "I need to stop" and always ends at "I'd like to stop".

BTW, if you are exercising in the "I can do this all day" regime, that's ARC, not aero cap. I'm not sure how useful ARC is; I've not seen any good studies and my personal experience is not positive.

[Duncan Disorderly]

Might be just the difference between "absolute max" and "regular indoor max", e.g. there's 3-4 grades difference there for me. 4 grades off my all-time outdoor PB onsight would be way too hard for aerocap, 4 grades off my regular indoor max onsight would be about right...

That sounds about right... I'll generally onsight most F6c+/F7a's I get on at the wall... Conversely, that's also been my max outside recently tho (apart from a lucky F7a+/b flash on TR in Kaly recently which really doesn't count - and previous OS's up to F7b that are just too long in the past to count)... I guess the difference is that max onsight can take into account many factors other than just your route fitness (i.e. reading moves right, getting lucky with a blind throw, top conditions etc.)... So maybe 4 grades under your regular top-end onsight grade would be more accurate??

[Duncan Disorderly]

People get quite hung up on the intensity of aero cap. A good way of judging this is "how close am I to failure?". Aerocap should never get close to failure. IMO, each rep should finish at around the "I'd really like to stop now" point.

BTW, if you are exercising in the "I can do this all day" regime, that's ARC, not aero cap. I'm not sure how useful ARC is; I've not seen any good studies and my personal experience is not positive.

Interesting... I do recall when Simon and I were doing a lot of 4x4's back in the day there was a distinct "I want this to be over now!!!" element to the sessions so maybe what Duma is referring to is actually ARC and if I want to be doing AeroCap I should probably keep up the intensity if I'm feeling fatigued at the end of a set rather than dropping it to stay off the pump...

Knew some folk who know their onions would be able clear this up 

[Bradders]

Late entry...

M - rest

Tu - Cliff. Third session on Keelhaul; tried it about a year ago and didn't manage one of the moves. Frustratingly still no dice. Everyone else seems to keep their heel/toe cam in for the move, but it just slides out every time for me. Linked into it from the start at least, and nearly linked to the top from after it. Also tried to repeat The Keel and again couldn't quite put it together. Finished off with a quick circuit of the low 7s up around Demon Wall. Picked up a bit of a tweaky knuckle at some point on right middle finger.

W - rest

Th - Caley for Ben's Groove Sit session #17 this year, #26 overall. Bit of a disappointment really, last session a couple of weeks ago was incredibly promising, but despite what looked on paper to be great conditions it just wasn't; sliding all over the place on holds. However, it was still productive as I came up with new beta for the crux section, which works incredibly well. Climbed this consistently. On my best go from the start I got to the double right hand slap but hadn't placed my heel hook correctly and it spat me off.

F - rest

Sa - short session, fingerboard first; 3x 10s half crimp 26mm edge +40kg, 2.5min rests. Then tried 3 projects on the board; had my best ever go on one of them and did okay on the others.

Su - Caley. Ben's. Given training the day before I set myself the goal of just getting it consistent from 3 hand moves in. Definitely mission accomplished. Linked to the top twice in a row, plus to the lip (i.e. with 2 tricky moves left to do) another 5/6 times before just dropping. I actually didn't feel too tired so did have a couple of goes from the start which didn't really come to anything. Conditions were easily best at the end of the day when I was already tired and skin was thin! Really pleased with this session though, just very consistent on that link and feel like I just need to execute the first 3 moves well and I'll have a great chance.

[Coops_13]

Late entry...

M - rest

Tu - Cliff. Third session on Keelhaul; tried it about a year ago and didn't manage one of the moves. Frustratingly still no dice. Everyone else seems to keep their heel/toe cam in for the move, but it just slides out every time for me. Linked into it from the start at least, and nearly linked to the top from after it. Also tried to repeat The Keel and again couldn't quite put it together. Finished off with a quick circuit of the low 7s up around Demon Wall. Picked up a bit of a tweaky knuckle at some point on right middle finger.

W - rest

Th - Caley for Ben's Groove Sit session #17 this year, #26 overall. Bit of a disappointment really, last session a couple of weeks ago was incredibly promising, but despite what looked on paper to be great conditions it just wasn't; sliding all over the place on holds. However, it was still productive as I came up with new beta for the crux section, which works incredibly well. Climbed this consistently. On my best go from the start I got to the double right hand slap but hadn't placed my heel hook correctly and it spat me off.

F - rest

Sa - short session, fingerboard first; 3x 10s half crimp 26mm edge +40kg, 2.5min rests. Then tried 3 projects on the board; had my best ever go on one of them and did okay on the others.

Su - Caley. Ben's. Given training the day before I set myself the goal of just getting it consistent from 3 hand moves in. Definitely mission accomplished. Linked to the top twice in a row, plus to the lip (i.e. with 2 tricky moves left to do) another 5/6 times before just dropping. I actually didn't feel too tired so did have a couple of goes from the start which didn't really come to anything. Conditions were easily best at the end of the day when I was already tired and skin was thin! Really pleased with this session though, just very consistent on that link and feel like I just need to execute the first 3 moves well and I'll have a great chance.

Sounds like you're pretty close mate, keep at it - psyched to see the progress! 

[Duma]

Bit late this week.

M - work, 12 hrs
T - tired from all the long shifts, couldn't face the wall.
W - TCA, can't really remember, think I started by attempting a bit of moonboard, but sacked it off and mostly did whites (high 6's)
T - UCR, circuits 6a+, 3 x 10 mins on/off on, thought I was doing aero cap, but apparently it's ARC (and probably pointless). Also did a lap of the 7b
F - TCA,  pretty much no memory of what I did. Maybe tried some blues? Then work nights, 12 hrs
S - work nights, 12 hrs
S - work nights, 12 hrs

71.5kg

[ali k]

M - work, 12 hrs
T - tired from all the long shifts, couldn't face the wall.
W - TCA, can't really remember, think I started by attempting a bit of moonboard, but sacked it off and mostly did whites
T - UCR, circuits 6a+, 3 x 10 mins on/off on, thought I was doing aero cap, but apparently it's ARC (and probably pointless).
F - TCA,  pretty much no memory of what I did. Maybe tried some blues? Then work nights, 12 hrs
S - work nights, 12 hrs
S - work nights, 12 hrs

This entry made me laugh for some reason Sounds like you should've just slept Wed-Fri!

[Duma]

it does feel like that in shift sometimes!

[Bradders]

Said it before Duma but the best thing you could do for your climbing (and life?) would be to get a different job!!! Easier said than done of course.

Sounds like you're pretty close mate, keep at it - psyched to see the progress! 

Fingers crossed for some good conditions!

[Duma]

I only work three days this week, and two next week though...

the shit bits of the rota are rubbish, and 12 hrs mean I rarely do anything else on the days I work, but also means I pretty much do 3 shifts a week.