[Duma]

M -
T - 8 hr shift. Eve TCA, 90 min, circuits, too hot to use slopers or small holds. Did a White and a Black while warming up though. Back on the hardest 30° circuit that I dropped the last move of last week. Worked new sequence for the finish, linked from halfway, then dropped finishing move from the start. Did it next go. Thought 7c last week, maybe worth 7c+, but it's pretty continuous and that doesn't suit me. 2 min plank with variations and press ups.
W - 12 hr shift.
T - 12 hr shift.
F - 2 min plank with variations and press ups. TCA eve, 2 hrs, big session with lots of mates there. Finished off a few whites, blacks, and even one blue. One and a half laps of the middle circuit to finish.
S - 12 hr shift.
S - 12 hr shift.

71 kg
2022 plank total 199 min

[James Malloch]

M. Swim in Grasmere and then back to Skipton.

T. Lazy day and evening swim.

W. Walk around Pateley Bridge

T. Goredale (first time there). Warmed up and then flashed Red Wine and Promises (7a) and also Last Dog (7b). Tried Cave Route LH (7c+) but found the crux really hard. Not my style at all so didn’t bother continuing to the top.

F. Walk around Burnsall/Bolton Abbey.

S. Kilnsey Bouldering. Warmed up on board at home. Came close to getting Launch Control first pull on of the day - good to know how I’m feeling compared to last Autumn. Feeling stronger despite all the sport climbing.
Worked the Mandala Traverse a bit, did the traverse into Problem A (7a - but surely way easier?). Got to high point on Metal Prow on first go but then headed home.

S. BBQ at a friends.

[spidermonkey09]

Cave Right is a much nicer introduction to Gordale than LH.

[shark]

Thanks Duma

M. AM Home warm up. At Tor for 8.15. Already 21 degrees. Wisely took fan. Stupidly forgot battery.  Did THFML then cross thru in isolation at first attempt. Then had several unsuccessful goes at doing throw and cross thru back to back then a couple of failed goes on the start and THFML before giving up at midday by which time it was 29 degrees
PM Supplemental lock off exercises on a bar

T. Eve / W. AM Travel to Athens.

W. PM Sightseeing. Lyceum. Presidential Mansion guard change. Panathenaic Stadium

T. AM/PM Temple of Zeus / Hadrian’s Gate Acropolis. 
Eve Gym Supinated and pronated one arm locks. Stretching, mobility and core exercises. Benaki Museum.

F. Acropolis museum.  Lunch at Museum restaurant. Excavation Roman bath excavation. National Garden

S. AM Ancient Greece Agora  (Forum).

S. AM Hadrian’s Library. Roman Agora. Areopagus Hill
Eve Gym Supinated and pronated one arm locks. French pull ups Stretching, mobility and core exercises. Recruitment pulls on Wedge.

Blown away by the Acropolis and the Acropolis Museum. Lots of walking in the heat. Starting to loosely plan the upcoming 11 weeks in prep for RRG.

[User deactivated.]

Deload week (~50% usual volume)

M - 30 min board session going through the warm ups then a few hard problems. 30 min mobility work

T - 2 sets of 2 wide pullups + 52.5kg, 3 sets of 3 power pullups at bodyweight, 20 minute core endurance circuit

W - 1 hour mobility work, pulled hip adductor slightly

T - half of a (sub)max hangs session after only doing density hangs for the last couple of months. 4 hangs with 3 seconds in reserve +22.5kg. Hoping to quickly ramp these up over the next few weeks if the density hangs worked. 45 min mobility.

F - 1 hour board session. 30 mins focusing on dynamic moves between good holds then 30 mins focusing on hard problems. Ticked 2 longstanding board projects! Feeling fresh after a relative reduction in volume this week.

S - 30 min mobility in the morning, 45 min in the evening. Hip adductor feeling a bit better.

S - Giggleswick north with Bradders. Terrible conditions but managed to pull Kleptomania out of the bag on a last go best go attempt (3rd session). A few minor beta tweaks helped. Was very psyched with this as it's my first sport climb in years and a jump of 4 grades! Boulder grade from the knee bar felt hard 7B, but it's a bit anti-style as far as boulders go for me.

[Aussiegav]

Thanks Duma.

Rehab Club (just, week almost feels like normal now. Or has it become normalised?)

Monday -

Low Pain repeaters Stage 1
• Open Hand: 2x per week, 1 set of 4 reps, 7 seconds on, 3 seconds off, 3-minute rest between sets
• Half Crimp: 2x per week, 1 set of 4 reps, 7 seconds on, 3 seconds off, 3-minute rest between sets
• 3 Finger Pocket: 2x per week, 1 set of 4 reps, 7 seconds on, 3 seconds off, 3-minute rest between sets
Did these using the lattice edge in farmer lifts. I’ve not tried a proper hanger from a board yet.
Did a extended warm up. Squeeze ball, 3x 10 forearm extension & flexion curls with 7.5kg
No pain repeaters. 3×7 open hand. 3×7 half crimp.
Then did   No pain repeaters with 10kg. Then low pain hang repeated it with 15kg. Mild pain in half crimp & 3finger grip.
For the right hand- good hand. I repeated the above but started at 15kg, 20 kg and then 27.5kg.

No pain after the session.

Tuesday
4x4 routes at Awesome Walls.
Was going to go outside. But M1 was closed, it was 40+degrees in the car as i sat in traffic for 30mins with 1 window stuck shut. 

Got to Awesome Walls & did 4×4 on a 5a+ on the speed wall. Very hot & taxing. Must do more of this though, great workout for overall fitness.
Could do a variations as well.
- 5×3. Two back to backs at 6a then a 5for the 3rd route.
- 5x2 back to back laps on 6a+\6b.


Wednesday -
Rest day
Discharged from the knee surgeon. Crack on with range of movement exercises and build quads.

Thursday -
Finger rehab- Low Pain Repeaters. Same as Monday.

Friday - 45 min Peloton ride

Saturday -
Went to Awesome Walls on a solo session.
The main set of the session was 5sets of back to back laps. Used a short 4m rope to replicate leading while on an auto belay.
Picked a 6a+ on the speed wall. By the 4 set my skin was getting tender & I was starting to tire.
I didn’t manage the 2nd lap on the 4th set. I had double espresso and also took a 1 min rest between climbs on the 5th set. Looking at the plan it says to take 1 min rest between laps, I was taking around 20s-30s.
Good session, enjoyed this one & the 4x4s.

Did 45min peloton ride in the evening.


Sunday.
Went to the Works with my youngest. Keen to see how he would go on the comp climbs again without the worry ‘running out of time’. Plus I wanted to climb with him. It was a really great session. I managed to do around 15 problems and flashed a few 6a+s. All felt good with the finger & knee

[James Malloch]

Cave Right is a much nicer introduction to Gordale than LH.

Yeah I’d have preferred that one, but it was such a busy day. Probably 20 odd people climbing, mainly trying things which start up 3/4 routes.

It was more a case of jumping on whatever was free unfortunately. Good to know for next time though, thanks.

[spidermonkey09]

Bad luck for it to be that busy on a weekday, but I guess it has been warm. It tends to only be busy about 3 weeks a year! That said it does at least mean everything gets cleaned and chalked!

[remus]

S - Giggleswick north with Bradders. Terrible conditions but managed to pull Kleptomania out of the bag on a last go best go attempt (3rd session). A few minor beta tweaks helped. Was very psyched with this as it's my first sport climb in years and a jump of 4 grades! Boulder grade from the knee bar felt hard 7B, but it's a bit anti-style as far as boulders go for me.

Nice work, that's a solid grade jump. Out of interest what was your beta for the boulder problem?

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - back training.
Tue - garage session 3. Clean 2 singles at 78 kg. One armers.
Wed - rest (track riding).
Thu - board climbing, 32°. Started trying the project with 2 kg weightbelt. Felt very good. Removed weightbelt. Did it. Mental. The mind boggles. It makes no sense at all. Time machine. Dusty Springfield soundtrack.
Fri - weights, loaded carries.
Sat - EMOM boxing bag. 30' jog.
Sun - boxing bag.

[duncan]

Thanks Duma.

Well done Liam. So a few years of consistent bouldering is good for your sport climbing. Who knew?!

M - Too hot. Shoulder conditioning (IsTsYs, handstands, side planks, press-ups). Otello at the air-conditioned Royal Opera House.
T - Insanely hot. Fingerboard max. hangs with a variety of hold types in the very early morning. Dido and Aeneas late evening in the air conditioned Albert Hall.
W - Still hot. Shoulder conditioning as above. Cavalleria Rusticana and Pagliacci at the Royal Opera.
T - Westway: Brief fingerboard warm-up then a few max. hangs. ‘Short endurance’: Three routes trying to climb at a realistic speed (~2 mins on) each followed by 3 mins rest x3 sets separated by 9 minutes rest.
F - Battered. Walked 7km.
S - Shoulders conditioning. Walked 7km.
S - Westway: Fingerboard warm-up then max. hangs with various grips.  ‘Short endurance’: x3 routes x4 sets.

Didn’t manage to get to rock this week but did listen to some great music and survived the heat. Was all set for the Cornice on Sunday but the forecast deteriorated over Saturday afternoon from 30% chance of light rain (worth a punt) to 80% chance of heavy rain (nay chance) by which time it was too late to make alternative arrangements. You're all going to tell me it would have been fine... Should make up for lost time next week and the rest of August.


I’ve been working on power endurance (‘short endurance’, ‘aerobic power’) aiming to improve it for sport (12-15m continuous eg Empire of the Sun, Road Rage) and trad. (5-10m between rests but climbing more slowly eg Supersonic). I tend to run out of gas after 90 seconds and I’m trying to improve on this.

For a typical session see Thursday this week. I’ve been doing routes about a grade under my onsight level, 12 routes in total. This feels hard: I get well pumped by the end of the session, sometimes failing on the last route(s), feel generally tired after, and need a couple of days to recover. However, I’ve had no major tweaks, batteredness the day after is improving slowly, and I’ve been able to increase the volume a little.

Any thoughts on how to progress? Continue increasing volume? Reduce rest times? Does it really matter?

[User deactivated.]

S - Giggleswick north with Bradders. Terrible conditions but managed to pull Kleptomania out of the bag on a last go best go attempt (3rd session). A few minor beta tweaks helped. Was very psyched with this as it's my first sport climb in years and a jump of 4 grades! Boulder grade from the knee bar felt hard 7B, but it's a bit anti-style as far as boulders go for me.

Nice work, that's a solid grade jump. Out of interest what was your beta for the boulder problem?

Thanks! Right hand juggy flake, left hand crimpy undercut, right heel on and go right hand up to the tufa, step up with left foot and knee bar, clip bolt and shuffle hands up the tufa to get the right hand on a good bit, left hand to small 3 finger side pull, sort feet for an Egyptian to go left hand to left tufa, right heel on the tufa and throw to the final edge then double heels to clip the bolt. I wasn't getting the right hand pinch in the correct place for the Egyptian move and as soon as I adjusted that it felt much better.

Any suggestions for short routes with shouldery moves locking off on crimps? That's my preferred style and it would be fun to see if I could climb harder! I'll get to longer endurance routes eventually, but I'd like to try and achieve my bouldering goals before diversifying too much! 

[spidermonkey09]

Where are you getting to on Road Rage Duncan? I did it last week and thought it was pretty full on.

[Fiend]

Nice work, that's a solid grade jump. Out of interest what was your beta for the boulder problem?

8A boulderer in suddenly jumping up from F7b sport shocker   

I.e. nice one Liam good effort well done.

[cheque]

Nice one Liam.

[duncan]

Where are you getting to on Road Rage Duncan? I did it last week and thought it was pretty full on.

I'm glad you think so! It is steeper and more continuous than my usual fare. If I get up it I will have definitely improved and I'd rather this than siege a soft, vertical 7b+ (I may change my mind about this).

I have managed to get to the side-pull in one go (Fr7a?) and just about from the side-pull to the top (6B?) on separate occasions. Linking the two seems inconceivable. I've not tried it recently but hoping to put some time this autumn.

[spidermonkey09]

Harder than 7a to the decent sidepull I think. Maybe even 7b to there?! The top boulder is tricky isn't it, took me a fair while to work out after I fell off just after the sidepull very pumped on the onsight. I found getting the obvious thin sidepull as a RH gaston worked for me. I found it a lot harder than Zinc Oxide Mountain, its a lot crimpier and more sustained than I was expecting, plus I struggle on the flowstone!

[Coops_13]

M: Gym with Wife. Legs. Sumo deadlifts for first time up to 300lb - PR! 290 and 300 felt easier than 255 and 270, was getting into it. Squats 175lb X5 *3sets. Hip thrusts maybe 250lb ish. 10 mins stairmaster (5mins 9, 4 mins 10, 1 min 11 - easier than the one at my climbing gym)

T: Lincoln Lake. Steep side. Straight onto Kryptonite V8. Worked the moves to warm up. Sent second go from bottom with a very slight bum dab. Re-did it clean but more sloppy. Psyched!

Moved onto Red Herring V6 (hard.) climbs a lot worse than it looks and gave me a split but psyched to get it done - glad I don't have to try it again haha


W: Core.

T: G1. Hangs: 20mm HC & OH 7s up to 70lb. Campus 1-3-5, 1-4-6, 1-4-6.5. Kilterboard 45deg 1V4, 2V5. Tried boulders up to V8ish

S: Hike to Lake Haiyaha. 4 miles, 800ft ascent

[andy popp]

Two weeks: Mon-Sun and then Tues-Fri + Sun - 11km cycle and 20 minute swim each day. Got myself an old clunker bike and found a suburban beach and swimming jetty on the north edge of the city. I'm a very early riser so I've been there around 6am almost every morning, taking my morning constitutional with the other old folks. Typically back home before 7. The swimming is glorious.

Don't worry, I won't post about this again, but it does feel good to have some real exercise to record. And I feel good for the actual exercise.

[Fiend]

I would expect a day-by-report each week! It doesn't have to be gollum levels of detail. Incidental wildlife reports would be good tho.

[andy popp]

Incidental wildlife reports would be good tho.

Lots of swifts. And a mink.

[csl]

For a typical session see Thursday this week. I’ve been doing routes about a grade under my onsight level, 12 routes in total. This feels hard: I get well pumped by the end of the session, sometimes failing on the last route(s), feel generally tired after, and need a couple of days to recover. However, I’ve had no major tweaks, batteredness the day after is improving slowly, and I’ve been able to increase the volume a little.

Any thoughts on how to progress? Continue increasing volume? Reduce rest times? Does it really matter?

You could bump the difficulty up a notch and drop a set, then work up to doing the same volume on a harder route.

[shark]

For a typical session see Thursday this week. I’ve been doing routes about a grade under my onsight level, 12 routes in total. This feels hard: I get well pumped by the end of the session, sometimes failing on the last route(s), feel generally tired after, and need a couple of days to recover. However, I’ve had no major tweaks, batteredness the day after is improving slowly, and I’ve been able to increase the volume a little.

Any thoughts on how to progress? Continue increasing volume? Reduce rest times? Does it really matter?

Managing 12 routes in a session one grade below your onsight grade is pretty impressive. I don’t think at any point in my climbing career I could do this.  Suggests to me that whatever this is training isn’t a weakness!?

[Duma]

Agree with shark. Sounds like onsighting is a weakness! Are you training on routes you know very well?

[duncan]

Thanks to everyone who took the time to respond here or privately. It's made me think about what exactly I’m doing. A relevant factor I failed to mention is the timing of my two sets of goals: I'm focusing more on trad. for the next six weeks then more on sport in the autumn.

Managing 12 routes in a session one grade below your onsight grade is pretty impressive. I don’t think at any point in my climbing career I could do this.  Suggests to me that whatever this is training isn’t a weakness!?

Agree with shark. Sounds like onsighting is a weakness! Are you training on routes you know very well?

To clarify one grade below onsight, my max. grade is sensitive to angle but I’ve taken my current onsight grade at the 5-20 degree angle I’m training on. I can onsight harder on vertical walls. My training routes and circuits are very wired. I’m trying to keep my pace down to resemble a lead outside but, altogether, I’m putting in less effort per route or circuit than the one grade difference suggests.

As I’m focusing on trad. at the moment I was trying to replicate trad. routes I aspire to which often have a sprint -rest -sprint - rest pattern. An example would be Supersonic which is very roughly a 6c to a hands-off then a somewhat gripping 6b+ to a rest into a gripping 6b.

You could bump the difficulty up a notch and drop a set, then work up to doing the same volume on a harder route.

Others have suggested similar and it could work well for the sports projects. I’m still doing a little fingerboarding to stop my fingers turning to putty over the summer but come autumn I’ll try to nudge up the intensity and drop the volume. Should restart bouldering too but will probably have to look to other walls for this.

[Wellsy]

Not trained as much as I should have of late. Don't feel very strong or skilled, feel like I've gone backwards or at least stalled, but chipping away best I can in the meantime. Will try to get back to training harder and hopefully pushing my standards soon