[battery]

25,26,27,28 - battling illness (again!) and an incredibly busy and stressful week at work made it tough but I did manage to get at least 30 minutes walk in each day.

29 - rare child free climbing opportunity so took advantage and walked up to Back Tor - bloody freezing but did some good climbing, definitely one to go back to.

[Duma]

31 - 2 x 2 min plank. Aerocap on circuit board at UCR, 10 min on, 10 min off x 4.

70.8
Aaaand I'm done.



Sharkathon review:

Bad -
2 complete failures, but they were the two worst days of Covid.
2 semi failures, one when I was still confined to the bedroom and just did some press ups, sit ups and yoga, and one day after my first night shift back from Covid - having climbed the previous day I was pretty wiped out, but managed a few pull ups, a bunch of press ups, and a load of squats at work after sleeping the whole day.

Good -
Chuffed to not count any walking or stretching (not trying to cast aspersions on others, I think anything that feels like exercise to you should count).
Happy I managed to keep doing something through isolation, fingerboarding is dull as fuck but gave me something to do, and felt like it fitted well with not wanting to stress respiratory system.
Smashed plankathon, even making up for the day I missed with covid. Going to try and get to 365 min of planking in 2022.
Weighed in under 71 today (and average of last week).

See you all next year!

[Fiend]

There are scratchings on the cell wall, tortured spidery words crudely written in dried blood:

Day 31....incarcerated in this diabolical pit of despair, enduring the torment  that is the Sharkathon. I've heard rumours, whispers from other lost souls, that there may be reprieve, that escape is an imminent possibility. But I must not allow myself to hope. Hope is the mind-killer. Hope is crushed into the fine dust of misery by the tyranny of the Sharkathon. So with a sigh of forlorn resignation, I continue onwards...

45 mins / 1.6 miles kneehab walk. 1 hour gym doing all the usual bollox including 3 x 5 x 100kg deadlift as a warm-up. 20 mins stretching. 2 x 2.01 mins meditating and pondering on the meaning of planks


(Knee still feeling worked so did a bit less kneehab at the gym. Elbow should have been feeling a bit better after two decent, non-aggravational days and then a full rest day, so naturally felt worse than before on slow heavy pulls. As did the on/off tennis elbow niggles. What-fucking-ever. On the plus side the gym was less freezing than usual so fitted in some decent stretching)

[webbo]

31st. 30 mins stretching. I was feeling a bit battered from yesterdays ride so in two minds about doing else. In the end vacuumed and mopped the floors and went for a walk 1hr 45 mins about 5 or 6 miles.

[AJM]

Sharkathon Goals:
- Exercise every day, obviously
- Stretching every non climbing day
- Lots of push exercises to work on my lack of pushing ability.

21/12 - circa 3 mile walk, carrying child for half the time
22/12 - Fairlop boulders with Duncan
23/12 - about 55 pushups and 25 pull-ups on the edges on my portable fingerboard
24/12 - circa 1.5 mile walk carrying child, plus another 50 pushups or so
25/12 - short stretching session and hangs on the portable fingerboard
26/12 - more stretching, about 70 pushups
27/12 - about 20 dips in sets of 4 (I am weak at pushing!), plus good stretching session
28/12 - climbing at The Dug Out with Ally and Ross. A day of learning and being reminded of weaknesses!
29/12 - 30-40min walk carrying child
30/12 - stretching
31/12 - 10km walk pushing pram. Set a pocket circuit on the home board.

1/1 - promised afternoon sunshine never arrived, so it was low cloud, damp wind and high humidity at the New Cuttings. Spent some time working the project nevertheless, think I worked out some helpful microbeta.
2/1 - 30 mins park walk/jog with children; 25 dips in sets of 6-7; stretching
3/1 - family wall trip. Moderate amount of stuff done, bit of time on a fun project, one to come back to. Then later on some stretching and pushups.
4/1 - bit achey, back to work, quieter day: stretching and compression
5/1 - wall session. Ticked pocketed project from the 3rd. Finger a bit grumbly when crimping.
6/1 - 30 min walk and 20 dips around school drop off. In the evening, a short session of stretching and a few sets of pushups.
7/1 - attempts at shoulder shrugs in various permutations, then aerocap on the board.
8/1 - light wall session, focused on some different angles etc, nothing too hard
9/1 - outdoor bouldering, Portland
10/1 - stretching
11/1 - unstructured stretching plus 3 sets each of shoulder press and squat with 26kg
12/1 - indoor wall
13/1 - decent session of pushing and stretching in the evening
14/1 - some squats, some side raises, some stretching
15/1 - board aerocap, then 11km pram pushing.
16/1 - stretching/compression
17/1 - pushups, pseudo planche leans, assisted shoulder shrugs, a few tuck front lever holds
18/1 - mono pickups
19/1 - feeling grotty. Gentle stretching and more mono pickups, gentler session though
20/1 - more grot. More gentle stretching
21/1 - worse grot. I need a bye for this one.
22/1 - slightly less grot. A short walk
23/1 - maybe an hour-ish of pram pushing.
24/1 - board aerocap
25/1 - assisted shoulder engages, tuck planche attempts, weighted pull-ups and chin ups, and so on

26/1 - board aerocap
27/1 - more shoulder engages, tuck planche attempts, and some tuck front lever holds and pushups
28/1 - summer holiday plotting and walking to and fro school with miniAJM
29/1 - Portland, a few easy routes and a few decent goes on boulder project
30/1 - finger hurting. Stretching and planche leans
31/1 - random errand walking and lap of the park. 2 sets of dips on the bars in the park on the way.

Well, 2 days of grot and one day of very light duties (28/1) and we got there. Did a decent amount of pushing and of stretching too.

[shark]

Congratulations Sharkathletes - today you are released from bondage. Mojitos all round.

 

[SA Chris]

day 31 - more kettlebell exercises using home made crimp and pinch block. Some theraband exercises on hip, first board session in about 4 months on, which I sucked on, unsurprisingly.

All done.

I admit I struck out on I think 1 day, but that was due to packing for ski trip. Didn't run as much as I would have liked , still going carefully on hip. Weight nowhere near where I would have liked, will hopefully be picking up mileage soon and that will improve.

[lagerstarfish]

Day 31

60 mins cycling

Walk 10km

Feeling the effects of the previous day's bouldering and surfskate

[Nutty]

31- More stretching, bodyweight and kettlebell exercises including achilles and shoulder exercises.

All done. Managed to do something every day even if it was only 30mins stretching on occasion. Did lots of rehab for my achilles which seems to be on the mend. Ran 52km over January which although isn't that much is the most I've run in a month since injuring my achilles, and that was without running in the last week due to sore throat. No idea about weight - batteries have died in the scales. Good to be getting back on the board as well.

[Wellsy]

Did some circuits yesterday. Felt okay but glad to be having a full proper rest today!

[lagerstarfish]

The scales this morning said that I weigh exactly 15 stone (95.2kg). Lets see how much of that can be shifted by doing Sharkathon.

now weighing 93.4 kg

so 1.8kg lighter

alcohol three times and another three days where my appetite for food was out of control - not bad overall

[Fiend]

Post-match analysis:

Best bit of the sharkathon:
Winning the plankathon with a 4:30 min naked plank.

Worse bit of the sharkathon:
Getting my 4:30 naked winning plank ignored by the the rest of the crew.

Hardest bit of the sharkathon:
Thinking up a variety of increasingly ridiculous speculative plank ideas to claim on non-planking days.


In all seriousness, it was a shit month of shit exercise due to injury, but the sharkathon did nothing to exacerbate nor worsen that so fair play. The planks raised a very minor hummock of occasional interest, but embarrassingly enough the much-derided and barely-legitimate "walking" was actually as good a rehab exercise as any. Well done all participants especially those who struggled for whatever varying reasons.