[Duma]

M - Fingerboard (I'm avoiding the wall now until I see my folks at Christmas) aero pow on lattice edge, 7:3 x 12, 6 sets at ~50% (should be 50kg, but couldn't find enough weights, so was 52kg) form went to shit on last couple of hangs of last 2 sets, but completed.
T - Ashton court MTB trail with daughter, pretty gentle. 2 x 1 min plank, I'm really shit at these.
W - Fingerboard, ancap on lattice edge, 7:3 x 6, 6 sets at 70% (BW for me). Every set felt nails, but completed and form only failed on last hang of last couple of sets, 2 x 1 min plank. booster, work nights, 12 hrs.
T - work nights, 12 hrs.
F - few hours sleep, then drive to Cornwall
S - eat, drink, brief dip in sea
S - eat, drink, walk with family

72kg (av until Fri, but guess it's gone up over the weekend...)

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - board climbing. Not sparky.
Tue - 20' minutes session.
Wed - board climbing.
Thu - farmer's, loaded carries.
Fri - 30' of light hill sprints.
Sat - boxing bag.
Sun - weights. Tired.

[Bradders]

M - Ilkley, session on the Calf. Quite tired as third day on after a couple of heavy training days. Tried both Bernie the Bolt and Three More Reps again and did both of the moves that had stopped me before, only to then be stumped by another higher move on both! Also frustratingly my ladder turned out to be a bit short for the job. Have since got good beta for both of them, and a video of Three More Reps; must go when fresh next time!! Finished repeating Classic Calf easily, plus messed around on some eliminates.

Tu / W - rest

Th - AM fingerboard session. 3x 10s 26mm edge half crimp, +45kg 2 min rests. Plenty in reserve. Then 20mm edge pick ups, 6x 10s middle 2 and 6x 10s front 2. Upped weight on both, to 28kg and 27kg respectively.

F / Sa - rest, planned long Christmas Day walk stopped by a very poorly dog.

Su - 9km walk, plus a session at Pudsey Depot. First time at an indoor wall since October 2020. Did a handful of purples then onto the 50 board. Good session, muscle memory clearly still there despite so long away. Managed all my usual warm ups then surprised myself doing Austrian Mock in a couple of goes, which was always a decent PE benchmark for me. Did another from my old "medium/hardish" circuit, and made good links on a third. Psyched! Good reminder of why this board was always so useful for me in that it's generally more full body on bigger / more positive holds than my own.

[shark]

Thanks Duma

11.8-10 average 163.6 up 0.7lbs

M. AM Home FB warm up. PM Tor with goat. Just us. Dank, cold. Some wet holds on Bens. Cross thru in isolation at 3rd attempt. THFML trying goat’s intermediate. Five attempts at throw mainly getting the crimp but with just three fingers. 6th attempt got it and climbed through to falling on cross thru. Next go two attempts to get crimp and climbed to set up for cross thru. Dog walk then bang got the crimp first go perfectly (great feeling) and climbed to failing on cross through.
Eve. Some max hangs on ergo edge. Best hangs HC  +20kg x 10 secs and +25kg x 6 secs. Good progress on last week but some way off PB territory

T.

W. AM Home FB warm up Tor with goat. Just us. Cloudy, still. 1 degree. 3 goes on crossover. Got it second go but had to adjust fingers on pinch before pulling across to rib. Third go got pinch in wrong place so couldn’t adjust. Jack Pal showed up. Did throw first go and climbed thru to tickling pinch on cross through. Then two goes to do throw and only got it with front three but still got through to failing on kick. Next go throw first go then through to holding the pinch but with front two at base so unable to pull though. Three attempts to do throw and got to setting up for cross thru and foot slipped. Two attempts to do throw and got to touch pinch on cross thru. Last go getting dark and struggling to see holds and missed crimp three times before calling it a day. Good session.

T.

F.

S.

S. 2lb heavier than previous morning. Surprisingly not too hungover. Some assisted and unassisted one arm bar work holding lock positions as training for Bens. Lengthy Half Crimp fingerboard session on ergo edge. The rest had done me good. 5kg+ improvement on the last session about matching previous all time PB factoring in bodyweight. Best hangs +27.5kg x 10 secs and +30kg x 8 secs which ~matches previous all time PB 😀

Been brooding this week on my lack of success in ticking any of my projects for a second year in a row.
Lessons are not to soldier on with limit projects in crap conditions and also to get away from home more often for a refresh. Ive had some process successes, good times at the crag and a few highlights.
Been going through my power club entries for the year to remind myself it’s not all been a waste of effort and the below are I think my best bits.

568

First go enough power for throw but off target. Second go briefly held it. Third go got and climbed to falling getting foot on the pinch (first vid below). Progress. Ambitiously tried from the very start and held the crimp briefly (second vid) . More progress. Another go from the start and had the power and reach for the throw but off target. Fucked after that - couldn’t pull a single hard move. Seminal sess (I hope) Buzzing

570

1st go with top on and missed crimp. Tops off from now on. 2nd attempt did the throw and held the crimp but with back3 - couldn’t adjust tried moving foot and fell off of course. 3rd was a big imprecise which took the edge off when doing the throw 4th go got the lip of the crimp as a drag but couldnt adjust again. 5th go (was  pretty fed up at this point) gave myself a light face slapping before setting off and got crimp properly this time and climbed through to setting up for the kick move before coming off.
🦄🌈New link 🌈🦄

579

Lunch FB set of recruitment and speed pulls. Mid afternoon Tor. Lovely day - sunny but 9 degrees and fresh.Had crag virtually to myself for most of session. Bliss. Good natter with Pat at end. Felt surprisingly fresh. 3  decent links of the hardest section - throw to almost doing cross through tickling pinch each time. 4th go got to kick and connected with niche before coming off. Decided to have a look at Crag X and reacquaint with Jericho Road. Darren and Chesterfield Kev there. Had a few goes on JR and felt strong getting higher each time. Buster and Andy Burgess turned up and Buster muffed JR which gave me an absurd competitive spurt and I rinsed  it. 

 Never felt so strong on it! Buzzing. Couple of goes on Moff and felt good on it but felt I was fading so headed home. Sublime sunset. More days like this please.

580

Dogged up Mescalito feeling pretty rubbish. First go bit of redpoint nerves but climbed really well through bottom section and so able to rest and recover better by 4th bolt. Next section went well to New Dawn ledge and didn’t bother to clip extended draw. Got as much back as I could at the shake for 5/10 mins but not fully recovered for last bit. Did well on first few moves but quickly started to run out of steam clipping last bolt and only just did rock up above to catch edge. Managed to get into the awkward position to clip the belay and pulled up the rope but lost tension as about to clip and couldn’t reach the draw! went half the length of the crag ending up below the New Dawn bulge.

585

Thoroughly enjoy staying away. This time was first time sleeping in my van. Privilege to wake up with the sun rising over the sea. Great to meet some new people and catch up with old ones. Feels like a minor miracle every time the van starts. Need more of this in my life.

588

Early AM at Tor. Met Mark20. Lower temp but muggy. Two tie ins on AM but still tired from weds so it didn’t go well. Mark’s shoulder also playing up. Decamped to Two Tier. Finished equipping Ghee Force and we both redpointed it. 7a+ and worth two stars so should be popular.

589

Midday LPT. Fingers a lot better after a 3 day break - where swollen and cranky. Met Matthew B and Fiend there. Blue skies, no humidity bit of a breeze - boncon. No warm up. Four tie ins on Statement. First go up Statement linked from below 5th bolt to top with one rest. Climbed fluidly apart from one bit of hesitancy. Route felt half a grade easier than before. Second go tried from below 5th to top but annoyingly muffed snatching for lower sidepull on redpoint crux when I wasn’t even that tired. Third tie in got the whole link comfortably (at last) despite going off the wrong undercut on the redpoint crux. Had a go on the move up at end of first traverse on the way down. Last tie in tried the moves on the first traverse and the move up at the end again but was too tired to make much progress on it but then still linked from below 5th to the top with just one fall on the middle of the top traverse.

595

Trowbarrow to chauffeur, pad carry and spot Goat. What a nice place! Ben made a beeline for the Vitruvian Man boulder but I was more curious about the quarry. Had just enough signal to check out the UKC logbook. There were off-putting comments about loose rock at the top of Jean Jeanie VS - the only route I’d heard of - but saw that there was a three star VDiff so went back to the car and got my shoes. Did that (Jomo) which was good and surprisingly unpolished with the reward of a good view at the top. Came down and noticed the attractive fluted finishes at the top of Assagai Wall and sussed out that the HVS of the same name finished up the right hand one. Picked my way carefully up the route ensuring I sussed the most stable and reversible method of doing the moves. All went well despite a family turning up at the bottom breaking my concentration and the laces of one of my shoes coming undone. The fluted finish was as good as it looked from the floor. Still really fancied one of the routes on the Jean Jeannie Wall but was suspicious of the rock quality. Thought I’d investigate Hollow Earth HVS which takes an intimidating line up an easyish corner but breaking out left onto the main wall at a stepped roof then following a continuous diagonal crack till it joined and finished up an offwidth. It was a challenging solo as I careful to ensure I was on the most solid footholds (one of the UKC comments mentioned someone had taken flight due to foothold coming off) and because the crack was polished and greasy and didn’t take many jams so had to lay off it quite a lot. Whilst ready to reverse at any point and finding it exciting I felt comfortable enough to do it all ok. Back on the floor I was by this time quite into it and idly contemplated Cracked Actor which looked amazing. Perhaps fortunately our allotted time was running out so packed up and joined the rest of the gang at Cartmell for an excellent pub lunch. Long entry even if physically it only qualifies as active rest but an unusual day for me. Decided a long time ago to limit my soloing to a very occasional treat.

601

Early AM home warm up. Stunning weather driving out. 6.5 degrees at tor and  fresh. If there had been an on crag wind it would have been velcro. Dogged up to AM headwall and did the top half of the crux section straight off. Went from Prow hole and felt good but fingers got tangled in rope by the bolt and got tired sorting it out. 15 mins rest then got link of the hole to the break where it joins Crucifixion. Finally!

609

Got motivated for climbing chatting shit in the bar previous night. Raining! Got soaked on walk in. No one else at the crag!. Rock dry. Led Cantina Marina 6c+ which I may have done before 🤷‍♂️ and is tough for the grade.  Then went to have a go at the highly rated Le Paz del Borrega 7b but misread the guide and went on Pim Pam Pons 7a+ by mistake and was shut down on its reachy crux. Dogged past and stripped it. Went on Borrega which turned out to be the highlight of the trip. 40m on great features with the hardest climbing in the top half so mentally taxing. Significantly harder than the other 7b’s I’d done. Kept my shit together, read it pretty well and onsighted it. 😀

[Fiend]

PM Tor with goat. Just us. Dank, cold. Some wet holds on Bens.

Been brooding this week on my lack of success in ticking any of my projects for a second year in a row.
Lessons are not to soldier on with limit projects in crap conditions

[shark]

Fair point. I was thinking more of the humid conditions in the summer. Give me dank and cold any day.

[Fiend]

TBH I was suspicious of the whole "don't soldier on with limit projects in poor conditions" epiphany even without the week's context  I'm quite disappointed you weren't down there on Xmas day though....

[Will Hunt]

I have absolutely no recollection of whether I did any climbing related activity. I don't think so.
I did, however, finish proof-reading of the limestone section of Northern Rock which has been an intense affair. Every line scrutinised, every roundel, every map, every page reference, every word. Onwards!

[dunnyg]

May Hyrule be the Elysium you desereve

[Aussiegav]

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you all have had a wonderful time.

Monday
rest

Tuesday
After work session at the School
Splat Board traverses
Feet on Campusing 2-5 match 8 reps. Alternating L & R
Feet on Campusing 2-4-6 match 4 reps. Alternating L & R.

2017 Moonboard
Svartpump 6a
147 all out 6a+. Limit problem last session, did it first go.
Winter 21. 6b. Worked and sent

After this I tried some projects on the 50 degree board. But I feel quite stagnant and bored of failure on it. Also noted my finger strength was down from where it once was.

Wednesday:
45min Peloton ride

Thursday.

Reassessed half crimp strength. Haven’t done finger boarding since July.
Have dropped quite a bit of finger strength since then. I thought high intensity board sessions would do the same to improve finger strength.

My max strength is body weight (86kg)  plus 18.5kg. In July in managed body weight plus 25kg.
Certainly explains why I’ve struggled at the school for a while.

Friday:
60min pelotonride . Christmas Eve

Saturday:
Christmas Day

Sunday
General boulder at the school.

[JohnM]

Missed a week:

13 - 19 Dec

M - Free gym pass. Warm-up on treadmill, leg exercises, bench press and peck deck.

T - Trail run 10km, 365m.

W - Indoor routes and bouldering. Close on an 8a and then a lot of failure.

T - Hamstring exercises, stretching and finger boarding at home.

F - Trail running 17.58km 591m

S - Travel to UK

S - Hungover

20 - 26 Dec

M - Road run 10km

T - BoulderUK - struggled. Felt humid in there, sore skin and bad elbow.

W - Road run 10km

T - Fishing on Windermere

F - Road run 10km

S - Road run 10km

S - Road run 26.51km

Struggling a bit with various tendonitis at the moment. I have tendonitis in my left ankle, in my right knee and worst of all in my right elbow which seems to be a double whammy of golfers and tennis elbow (or possibly annular ligament damage). Very frustrating.

[Duncan Disorderly]

Mice Pie Club

Nowt but a bit of shoulder conditioning and the odd dog walk...

Hope y'all had a good one!

[Fiend]

Mice Pie Club

Finally you've lapsed out of your herbivorousness. About bloody time!

[Fultonius]

Tuesday:  Pressups 15  (strict / chest to floor) x3 (much harder than my poor half reps I used to do)
Pullups: about 15 or so just trying different techniques, then 4 reps, with scap/lat engagement at bottom and 2 second hold at top. Then 3 reps (very hard) paused at 90 on way down, then 5 reps (no 90 pause). Always aiming for maximum lat engagement.
Beastmaker. Warm up and then front 2 half crimp pickups  (pulling down hard)
Core - hollow body x 1
1arm hang BM2k middle bottom slot with -15kg x 2 (felt harder than lattice edge)
Ran out of time....


Thursday: Limit Boulder Session. Followed warm up routine prescribed by Lattice Coach (i'm not being coached, just a general comment as part of the assessment) - some gentle traversing, recruitment pulls, some explosive pulls, power snatches.  Then did 2 or 3 progressively harder problems, followed by trying some problems that shut my down last time. Felt like I had a lot more steel in the fingers and upper body power.

Managed a few moves on some blacks I'd been really struggling with, finished a few problems I'd been working on (felt pretty cruisy) and dropped a white on the flash on the last move.

***I KNEW long warm ups with too many problems was counterproductive, I just didn't realise *I* was doing that!!   So that's been an instant success!***

Finished with core work in gym, including very strict ring push outs on knees (my pelvis/lower back has a tendency to roll meaning my abs do less of the work and lower back takes over, so trying hard to keep the lower abs engaged.

Some lat engagement stuff.

Fri: wow - abb doms!
Sat:  nowt, just a short walk
Sun: 45 min hard core yoga session. DOMS next day...

79kg so might need to start paying a little bit of attention in case the weight just keeps on creeping up, definitely getting stronger though!

[mr chaz]

Power club:

Nowt.

[James Malloch]

Not posted for a month, and done very little during that time other than some physio for my knee (and a few 1-1 sessions with a running coach to try and correct my awful running style).

Been absolutely exhausted recently but hopefully things will get better when I’m back into a routine in the new year.

Good news is that we’ve bought a van and are ready to fuck off for 9 months in April. So psyched for a real long spell of no work and time to relax. Hopefully Covid doesn’t get in the way!