[Aussiegav]

Hope everyone is well, recovering, healing, sending. Take your pick.

Monday -
Rest day had appointment with the knee surgeon. He said the ACL and MCL appear to be intact. However was concerned that I have got a displaced lateral meniscal tear which is blocking the knee. He, therefore, arranged an urgent MRI scan. Hope to get that in the coming week.

Tuesday
Went to Awesome Walls after work. Did endurance session. Back to back routes, keeping difficulty low to accommodate knee and avoiding really steep terrain as it hurts the back of my knee when I toe down and pull into the wall.
Warmed up on a 4+ then a 5.
Back to backs on
5c+, 5c, 5b+, 6a, 5b+.

Wednesday - Rest day


Thursday -
Evening fingerboard session at home.
Crimp Curls with 12.7kg
20s hang with 20kg assistance
30s hang with 20kg assistance
1x 10s hang BW plus 7.5kg

3 x 10s hangs BW plus 10kg
Felt good on these, last one was hard but managed.

Friday
Evening at the School. Tried doing a variation of the 4×4 boulder session that I saw Buster had posted.
As I can’t climb high and don’t want to risk dropping at height, I do 3 move problems that finish half way up the 25* board.
Do standard 4x4s but repeat them twice. It was tiring. I didn’t have the best problems that factored my knee. But still it was a good session. Knee feels a bit tender after it though.

Saturday - rest day


Sunday -
Mid morning session at the School
Week 5 of 8 week programme
10s hangs BW plus 4kg
10s hang BW plus 8kg
3x10s hangs BW plus 10kg. Last one was at limit. Started to open slightly.

Did 15min block of limit moves on the 25degree Moonboard. A 3 move crimpy crux section of a benchmark. Got a small split on my pinky in the joint so stopped there and moved onto conditioning.

Conditioning
2min rests between reps
Seated overhead press
1sets of 10 20kg
3 sets of 8 30kg.
Pull ups
2sets of 4 BW
4sets of 4 BW plus 10kg
Bench Press
1set of 8 (50kg)
4 sets of 4 (70kg)

Another good week in spite of my knee. Mentally it’s not getting to me. Still finding joy in my training, but I really look forward to getting it fixed and back to full intensity and climbing unrestricted.

[Duma]

Well done working round the knee Gav.

M - 12 hr shift.
T - Cheddar, Remnant. First time outside since Spain, and after two weeks of wall to wall sunshine it's 10° and cloudy with occasional drizzle. FML. Actually was really good conditions, though chilly between goes. Got back on Empire Strikes Back, this does the first 4 bolts of Death Star before bailing right into Everyday Lives Of Ordinary People at the mini tufa. It's not as eliminate as Death Star, but still needs blinkers as you could step right into ELOOP at pretty much any point after the second bolt. Still it's a good unrelenting crimpy sequence from the ground to the tufa, and something else to do here. I tried it a year or two ago and made pretty much no headway, think I only did 3 moves! Had a vid of someone on Death Star this time, which transformed my chances. Did all the moves, and linked from the ground to the 3rd bolt (though not clipping it) and from after clipping the 3rd to the top. Psyched to have a project that feels doable. Cas smashed out Wrist Business in a session too, so a good day all round.
W - Plan was Avon Gorge evening session on Academic Direct. I got there just before 5 and got the draws and rope up via some faffy shunting. As soon as I was down the rain started, and by the time Ant arrived it was fairly clear the only sensible option was to strip it. Bailed to TCA, circuits. Did the yellow I struggled with last week ok and started working the black, managed in three overlapping sections, felt like salvaged a decent workout from the rain..
T - Run, flat, pavement, 6k, 29:30. Not sure but might be first run since I had covid in late January. First in a while anyway. Thought chest was a bit tight initially, but fine after a couple of k so think was just the cold air.
F -  Rest, calves tight from yesterday.
S - Navigation Quarry, new crag for me, typically dodgy rock as always on S Wales sandstone, but lovely spot and I do like a slab. 5c, 6b, then the main event here, Western Front Direct (7a). Pleased to OS this, decent little fight. Really excellent route, probably the best I've done in the Welsh quarries. 6b+ after lunch, then managed to scrape up Man or Mouse (7b) on the OS. Two really thin moves on the initial slab were good fun, and lovely rocking between crimps on the middle slab too. Finished on a nice, though interestingly bolted, 6c.
S - Brean, mainly here for a mates project, think I've written off Milky Bar Kid until I'm significantly fitter, and with a sunny forecast the crimps on Brean Topping did not appeal. Pearl Harbour, as always, to warm up, then contented myself doing a couple of the new lines of bolts that have appeared in the last month. About 7a+ and 6c. Dropped the 7a+ at the start, and then again near the top, but fine second go. Finished with Riptide (7a+), Pearl Harbour into Tide Rising avoiding the cruxes of both. Dropped it first go on the finish of Tide Rising, annoyed as have done TR twice. Again went ok second go. Bit of a meh day, with the usual crowds of Londoners, but mate did his project, so mission accomplished.

71.5 kg. Over 72 this morning though, so need to start paying attention again.

Good week getting out lots, and much more enthusiastic than the last couple. Excited to get back on Empire ASAP.

[duncan]

Good luck with the knee Gav. An intact ACL has to be good news.

...doing a couple of the new lines of bolts that have appeared in the last month. About 7a+ and 6c. Dropped the 7a+ at the start, and then again near the top, but fine second go. F

Where were these? I tried one just to the left of Kamikaze a few weeks ago. Was told it was 6c, that seemed a bit harsh but perhaps I was not climbing well.

Missed last week.

M - Walked 12km. Neck and shoulder sore.
T - Walked 12km. Neck sore.
W - Walked 13km. Few 3s hangs, 40mm then 30mm edge. Neck not worse for this.
T - Walked 5km. Took down the gas boiler and hot tank. Battered after this.
F - Walked 8km. 3s hangs, down to 20mm edge. More house renovation.
S - 5s hangs on 20mm then 15mm edge. More house renovation.
S - Shoulder conditioning: side planks, handstands, press-ups.

M - Winspit with Simon and offspring. Warmed up on a couple of familiar routes. Elder offspring managed an onsight TR of the burly Unseen Ripples showing admirable tenacity. Tried Exuberance. Couldn’t work out the short crimpy crux first go and tried a trad. climbers sequence involving about 6’ of traversing. Obviously wrong. Second go, having acclimatised to the size of the holds, worked out a good sequence but was too tired to do the whole thing.
T - Tired. Fitting new ceiling lighting to Mum’s house, hard work on the shoulders. 7km walk.
W - Westway bouldering (long problems up and down, to ~V2) followed by routes (~6b). Woefully weak but a decent session.
T - Westway ‘aerocap’: 4 x 10 mins of 5c-6a.
F - Shoulder conditioning. House renovation. 10km walk.
S - Westway brief session of long boulders (to ~V2) and routes (~6b+). House renovation including shifting a 50kg slab of MDF down two flights of stairs. 11km walk.
S - Battered. Shoulder conditioning. 7km walk.

Good to get out on the last day of the Summer-in-March fortnight. Elbow and shoulder/neck problems both much better. A lot of house renovation, I’m counting this as shoulder conditioning and there is now more room in the loft. With a bit more work there might be enough space for a small board.

Plan: don’t get injured, focus on 60-120s duration short routes/long boulders. Try-hard bouldering (or red-pointing) and longer endurance (or onsighting) once a week to keep these topped-up.

Booked the Easter Pembroke trip with Hugo. Putting together the Ceuse trip for two weeks in early June. We’ve had a drop-out and two who might be there for a single week. Might have space for one or two, get in touch if you’re interested.

[shark]

Thanks Gav

11.6-8 average 162.1 down 0.4lbs

M. AM short home warm up Drove to Llandudno to meet Paul PM LPT Still, hazy, rock a tad greasy. Three tie ins. First go putting clips in and playing on moves and felt rubbish. Second go ground to getting to end of traverse but didn’t get left hand in jug so came off. Third go got jug and got part way through the tooth move. Also worked the move reaching into the gaston at the top of the groove that Paul is struggling with and have three alternatives now. Decent links. Decided to leave it at that so fresher for weds.

T.

W. AM Dose of clag and rain came in. Paul not willing to sit it out on the off chance it would dry up enough in the afternoon so that was that.

T. Snow! AM Home warm up. PM Tor. Alternated between snow and sunshine. Bens mainly working to regain lost ground on the cross through and finish which was reasonably successful. Neil F swung by and also Simon D and Adam Hod showed up early evening both of whom I’d not seen for ages. Some cool cloudscapes on the way home.

F.

S. Mobility.

S. Home FB Tor Oak Bens working on mid section. Cross thru took time to warm into and kept getting pinch wrong but finally did it twice in a row climbing on into start of THFML. Then tried from throw. First successful go at the throw failed to do toe hook, next got to stab for niche but then foot slipped off. Third got crimp with three fingers and successfully adjusted but fell off setting up for kick. One go from start but fell off on foot cross through. Stopped off at Rubicon and did the easy traverse twice for a mild pump.

Feels like it’s been a long week. Not sure why. Shame not to get a second session in on Statement as I was in a good chance of getting through to the 6th clip which would have meant I’d done it in two halves. Even that wouldn’t mean I’m close as the climbing is unrelenting for 30 moves leading to a heartbreaker finish and the shakes are all poor.

[Duma]

...doing a couple of the new lines of bolts that have appeared in the last month. About 7a+ and 6c. Dropped the 7a+ at the start, and then again near the top, but fine second go. F

Where were these? I tried one just to the left of Kamikaze a few weeks ago. Was told it was 6c, that seemed a bit harsh but perhaps I was not climbing well.

Hi Duncan, yeah the one I guessed at 6c is between Clashing Socks and Kamikaze, thought it was ok, I was onsighting but it was well chalked. The other one was squeezed in between Casino Royale and Yer Yella!

[Duncan campbell]

Has there been a major glitch in the matrix!?

The oak is at the Tor now!?

[shark]

Has there been a major glitch in the matrix!?

The oak is at the Tor now!?

 

[Wellsy]

Couple of good heavy bench sessions this week (usually 5 sets of 5, going up to 70kgs each time. Did do a set at 75kgs though which is a PB, happy with that)

Couple of heavy pulling sessions with 3 x 5 with 20kgs added, 4 x 6 V pullups which I actually think are great, some assisted lockoffs and so on.

Had a campus session largely for the fun of it as wanted something dynamic. Did 1-4-6 for the first time which was nice!

I also climbed for the first time since I got injured this week. I did about 15 blues and 5 pinkles at the works on Monday, and about 15 blues on Wednesday. Very limited falling distance of about a meter, and my knee felt tight in places, plus it was a bit nerve wracking, but was largely fine and actually seemed to help.

Saturday went out to try green room slap 7A+ as 1) low, single move, 2) nice landing, 3) sandbagged to fuck so no ego in the sense of not doing it. At first I really struggled to put effort in but by the end I tried pretty hard and got a good few inches closer than the last time I tried it. Also reminded myself of the mantle at the bottom of the cairn as I'm pretty bloody proud of that, it looks awful! Walk in and out felt fine.

Today I felt pretty salty as my knee was somewhat annoyed, so didn't climb at all, just trained. But it wasn't any worse and recovery seems on the right track four weeks later. Overall positive, feels for the first time like getting back in business is realistically coming.

@aussiegav glad your ACL is okay and you're getting on alright, hope the knee recovers alright!

[tommytwotone]

Knee Club update!

No real change / progress for me, still hobbling about. I can walk with "4/10" pain / discomfort, manage my day-to-day life but stairs and getting dressed etc can be painful.

Was hoping if I gave it a week it might calm down but it hasn't really. Booked a physio consultation thing via my work's healthcare provider which is today lunchtime so hopefully know more about next steps then.

Fortunately LSD has a kick-ass gym as well at the wall, so even if I can't climb I think I'll still go. At least I can rehab / do some upper body weights / deadhang for a bit.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - board climbing, nearly did a project. Fell very high three times.
Tue - garage session 3.
Wed - loaded carries 16', light boxing bag.
Thu - board climbing, did a project. Yay. I'm the best, etc.
Fri - boxing bag.
Sat - board climbing.
Sun - weights, 20' of hell.

[duncan]

...doing a couple of the new lines of bolts that have appeared in the last month. About 7a+ and 6c. Dropped the 7a+ at the start, and then again near the top, but fine second go. F

Where were these? I tried one just to the left of Kamikaze a few weeks ago. Was told it was 6c, that seemed a bit harsh but perhaps I was not climbing well.

Hi Duncan, yeah the one I guessed at 6c is between Clashing Socks and Kamikaze, thought it was ok, I was onsighting but it was well chalked. The other one was squeezed in between Casino Royale and Yer Yella!

Thanks! It was probably just me struggling on anything beyond vertical. It was still in the process of cleaning-up and stabilising which may not have helped. We had just warmed up on Coral Sea which felt a lot easier, though this is ultra soft for 6c. 

The other one sounds a squeeze. I do hope the bolts are not clippable from Yer Yella, it would be a shame to de facto loose this as a trad. route.

[mr chaz]

Power Club:

M.
T.
W. Evening board session - bloody baltic in the shed, poor friction/skin and all holds felt pretty slick.
T.
F.
S. Evening board session - temps a bit more palatable, managed a new problem based around a bad slopey pinch for the RH. Started working on a lower start, hopefully do it within a few more sessions.
S.

Feel like I've recovered a little bit of power, but still a huge gap from where I was pre injury. Fingers are strong and firing well but I'd struggle to do any kind of campus move at the moment.

Some benchmarks noted here for future reference:
Pullups - about 5 in a row
One arm lock off on jug/bar - 3-4s on right arm, failure on left arm

[James Malloch]

M. Last day of work! Acro yoga.

T. Board session and max hangs (using +27kg for all and feeling strong)

W. Drinks with an old colleague. 2 beers turned into 8. Midnight raid on Tesco for mini eggs and sausage rolls.

T. Friends birthday drinks. Zora finished work.

F. Chilled one

S. House tidy and leaving party.

S. Went to cheer on a friend doing the Silva Northern Traverse. She was going strong 170km in. All set to smash the womens record by the look of it this morning! Last bit of partners fieldwork on the way home.

Been doing lots of van jobs in between too. Lots left to sort before Friday!

[dunnyg]

Canal boat Matt mentioned you were off soon. We will be in font week after Easter if you are stopping there for a bit and fancy some pastries or bouldering or whatever

[Will Hunt]

Tu - A potter at Caley. Repeated New Jerusalem which is a mess, then went and did the climbs on the Thin Slab block which I've somehow never done before. Some lovely thin, high slabs and a brilliant wall climb on spaced crimps. All up to 6B+.

Su - Malham. Not my best day on the crag but it was a bit too cold really. Dogged up Wasted Youth and later went to redpoint it. Completely numb through the crux and was a bit tired at the top where I completely forgot about the big fat flatty to the right of me which would have allowed me to get my feet sorted for the clip. Grabbed the belay. Stripped it to do another day. Gorgon Directish was dry and had had traffic so went up that. Lovely moves on glorious tufa pockets and not that dirty after it had been cleaned the day before. Did a big rockover direct at the crux and ended up in a dead end so had to jump off and try again. Wobbled up the top on trembling flakes. A shame I read the crux wrong as would have onsighted otherwise. Went downstairs but too cold to get on anything as a warm down.

[James Malloch]

Canal boat Matt mentioned you were off soon. We will be in font week after Easter if you are stopping there for a bit and fancy some pastries or bouldering or whatever

I think we will stop for a day or two, but probably on Easter weekend itself (thinking about that now it could be a bad idea…). Leaving Brussels (visiting family) on 15th I think and then going to head to Margalef with a few 1/2 day stops on the way. When do you arrive?

[dunnyg]

Arrive Friday, so will be out sat sun weather permitting

[Rocksteady]

GOALS: 7a onsight routes. V7 boulder.

First week back at work after 2 months of shared parental leave. Was actually better than I feared but didn't get much time to train. Only downside was my son decided to sleep even worse than usual. So I was fairly zombified much of the week.

Thu: Did evening Capacity Power aka Double Dips at Westway. 2 laps of 5 routes. Got up to crimpy 6c+ flash on a fairly steep line which I was quite pleased with, would not have managed this in the past. 7a project line needed 2 rests on which means it is too high intensity for this session.

Sun: Did an ancap bouldering session at the Arch Acton. Managed a red spot climb on the comp wall as part of my 'warm up' which I was pleased with - suspect soft touch for a man of my height but it was a bit necky at the top and I bottled it before. Then did 3x boulder repeaters x 6. Found a better intensity this time and powered out on a number of reps towards the end. Did one of the sets as 45 secs of campus laddering on double reaches on small rungs which worked well. Did 3 sets of pull ups on the minute at the end, faded badly on the last one so did 8,8,6. Intend to keep this in regularly until I can do 3 sets of 10.

Am in a bit of a quandry re: training, my plan was to train aerobic power through April to get a bit of a route climbing peak for May which I have usually found a good time of year. But it looks like I might get a Swiss bouldering trip in May...so need to train for that instead. Probably for long term progression I should train strength, ancap and aerocap up until the summer, then switch to power endurance to peak for routes in autumn.   

[Duncan Disorderly]

Eeeek! Missed a week... Club

M: Recovering from Covid
T: Recovering from Covid - Wall up to F6b, tired!
W: Recovering from Covid
T: Recovering from Covid - Wall up to F6b, tired!
F: Recovering from Covid
S: Fly to Spain!
S: Sella - Routes up to F6b - Still not right but nice to clip bolts in the sun. Cold tho!

Still wiped from the Rona... On the mend tho...