[Duma]

M - elbow clicky. Mobility stuff. 8 hr shift. Rehab stuff incl 5 x circuits 6b, 6b, 7a, 7b, 6b.
T - mobility stuff. 8 hr shift. Routes and fall practice at UCR. 6 routes, mostly mid 6s but flashed a 7a (didn't check the grade before setting off)
W - mobility stuff. Psyched elbow survived the last couple of days.
T - mobility stuff. Rehab stuff incl 6 x circuits: board didn't have grades but approx 6c+, 7a+, 6c+, 7a+, 6c+, 6c+. Rest time = climbing time. Hardest session since injury in mid September.
F - elbow clicky. Mobility stuff. Run, 5k, flat, pavement, went fairly hard, 22:37. Happy with that
S - elbow bit less clicky. Mobility stuff. Rehab stuff, incl 4 x 6b circuit. Boredom got the better of me and did 4 vertish blacks (6C-7A) too. Elbow seemed to survive.
S - mobility stuff. Cheddar, Sunnyside Terrace and Freaky Wall, Opt Out 6b (OS), Sunnyside Up 7a (mostly OS, missed a hold at the second bolt, lowered off and did it from the ground next go), Speedfreak 7a+ (OS, excellent, up there with Shock of the New as one of the best on this wall), Big Mac Regurgitator 7b (RP, had tried before in September the day I injured my elbow, dogged up today to make sure I wasn't pushing it too far, then ok next go). Great day, amazing weather and light, ace to be out and pushing a little more. 2 min plank with variations.

71 kg
2022 plank total 306 min

[teestub]

Big Mac Regurgitator 7b

A route for Dave Mac in a few days 😂

[Coops_13]

M: Core. Hike around Rifleman Phillips area with dog, exploring some boulders I havern't seen before

T: Overlook Boulder & Fitness, Atlanta. No pulley set up so did 3FD as close to 85% as possible. Tried loading OH all fingers and was sore until I'd warmed up then managed three hangs BW 20mm no pain. One arm hangs on L arm with stretching band for assistance. Some boulders including 3 V2-4 and 3 V4-6.

S: Satellites boulder, Flatirons. Hiked in and warmed up v slowly. X tape + pulley ring on R pinky. Managed some easy warm ups up to V3 then tried Zero G. Sandbag slopey V5 boulder. After figuring it out, it went with no pain! Went to try Grundel City Boy V9/10 with a mate as it had slopey holds. If I climbed OH and statically on RH then there was no pain. I was able to do moves 2 - 5 which I was psyched on. With a bit more confidence in a few weeks, I might be able to put more effort into it


S: 3.3 mile hike in Eldo

[James Malloch]

M. L’Aparador. Got Petitona 7b second go. What an awesome route! Power screamed up a 6c called Tres de Deu onsight and then tried the 7c+ which shares the same chains on top rope.

First time trying a route of that grade. Felt very hard but I was already pretty spent. Not my style though so not the one for me!

Really nice crag scene and dinner/beers after too.

T. Meant to be a rest day but I wanted to give a different 7c+ a go. Los Borrachos de Cordu, also at L’Apadore.

Managed most of the moves apart from the end of the last crux (sharp holds going through skin). Just had the one go.

W. Rest day. C25k run 10 (3km of running)

T. El Pati - Viagraman 7a onsight. Siesta in the van. Then dogged up the 7c+ again to put the draws in.

Gave it a top rope go. Got through first crux easily. Think my foot slipped after getting the good crack before the next crux.

Managed to cling this crux to the top so very close to doing it in 2 halves. Would l love to see someone on it as I find this section really hard. Keen to give it a proper redpoint.

We were both pretty tired so left Siurana before the climbing festival.

F. Pottered around a nice town and then stayed on a Cava Vineyard. Lots of tasty drinks.

S. Went to another town (purely as it had a fancy coffee shop). Swam in 20 degree sea. Dropped an old friend a message who I met in Chorro 10 years ago. Turns out he lived 20 mins away and was having a birthday BBQ. Lovely evening catching up.

S. He convinced us to climb despite the hangover. Went to a local crag and dogged up an awful 6c. Tried a 7a and then got it on top rope. Knackered.


We intended to have 4/5 days of climbing but will head back to Siurana soon. Keen to get back on my route there and have a last few days climbing before going to Chulilia.

Only have 5 weeks left now. Time for some projects finally! It want until this week that I realised how much I’ve been cruising. Feel absolutely battered after trying some hard things for a few days!

[Will Hunt]

Tu - Chevin Board. The session began with picking up weights using a 20mm edge. I managed 55kg on the RH and 50 on the LH I think. I was 66kg at the weigh in. Make of that what you will. Then board problems. Didn't manage anything.

I don't think my fingers like pick ups.

Th - MoonBoard. Early Spring Spiral (7A+ soft) and Outside with Luisa (7A+ going on 6C+). Then trying other stuff. Felt close on Lichtblick and did all the moves on Hultqvist's No 12 at the end. Yellow Ladder all fine except the last move which feels very hard.

Su - Trowbarrow. Raging sunshine. Two laps of Shallow Grave to show the youth 'ow it's done. Then onto Vitruvian Man. T-shirts off! Can consistently do all of this except holding the swing at the top. Had several hundred goes and lots of torn skin on the final hold. I wonder if there is a trick to this? At the end (when it was too late) someone suggested that you could turn the right-hand jug to a partial undercut/sidepull before chucking for the top which may help to kill the swing.
Moved onto Texas Hold 'Em. Was probably a bit worn out to try this properly. Starting is OK, the top is droppable but OK, not sure how to do the middle bit.

[Duma]

At the end (when it was too late) someone suggested...

Classic tactic for sandbagging your mate without appearing to

[yetix]

M: weighted hangs upto 6x6s @+30kgs on lattice edge. 6x6s mono pickups on bad middle finger
T: moonboard 7 benchmarks upto 7A+, tried 1 other 7A+ managed all the moves. Also briefly tried 2 other 7As once each falling off the last move on each
W: rest
T: moonboard 5 benchmarks upto 7A+, also fell off the end of another 7A+ x5 (could pull on and do the end immidiately after each time)
F: rest
S: rest
S: Mallory boulder. Went to Poison Ivy 7A+ first, did it second try. Did all the moves on Cosmic Wheels 7C in a few goes, had a big rest and could just not turn it back on, felt slidey and like all strength/power had disappeared. Assuming all the training combined with the first proper walk in (and what an epic of a walk in that) in 4 weeks probably killed me

Then onto Vitruvian Man. T-shirts off! Can consistently do all of this except holding the swing at the top. Had several hundred goes and lots of torn skin on the final hold. I wonder if there is a trick to this? At the end (when it was too late) someone suggested that you could turn the right-hand jug to a partial undercut/sidepull before chucking for the top which may help to kill the swing.

I match the horn your left hand is on off a left heel and a right toe pressing these days (think there's a vid of Ben Freeman doing it thag way somewhere) then a slap to the top but without cutting. There's also apparently beta for the end involving a high left toe hook in the groove, but I'm not sure how that works. I used to just power to the middle of the top hold, there's one part which is marginally better

[duncan]

M - Westway volume/aerocap. Legs conditioning: Split squats, frog squats, single leg squats, heel drops and raises.
T - 11km walk
W - Westway volume/aerocap
T - Legs, as above. 10km walk.
F - Westway routes to 6b.
S - 10km walk.
S - Wynd Cliff with the Trad Dad. Glorious colours and ambience. Totally unseasonable temperatures: T-shirts at the base of the crag. Warmed up on the classic Questor and Cadillac. Well-trodden Wye VSs are not easy. Liked the look of Elan, you can see all the climbing from the base, bailing onto the HVS next door would be trivial if it was a bit much, and the description has the magic words “low in the grade”. It went quickly and fairly smoothly with a couple of sharp pulls and some jamming. Good fun, unpolished, but probably not E3 (I have done 20 E2s this year and about half of them felt harder). Finished with Cardiac, also classic and not easy at VS.

First proper day climbing for 2.5 months (other than one genteel VS on a social day out at Wintour’s). Great to be outside, on rock, with good company. Feeling it a bit today and will probably have a quiet week.

[Duma]

S - Wynd Cliff with the Trad Dad. Glorious colours and ambience.

Light was fantastic yesterday wasn't it?

[Aussiegav]

Power Club

Monday -

4 Quad block lifts. half crimp 15kg
4 Quad block lifts. Open, half crimp & 3 20kg. Shallow pinch at 15kg.
5×5 Shoulder Shrugs
2 hangs off edge open. 2 hangs off edge half crimp 
85% hangs. BW plus 5kg half crimp 5 hangs
90% max hangs
4x BW + 10kg Half crimp
4 x BW + 20 kg. Open hand

Tuesday
Campus & circuit board at the Depot
3 blues, 3 blacks, 2 reds
4 feet on Campus Pulls 2-5match
22mm. LRLR
22mm 2-4-6.5 feet on LRLR

Campus
1-3-5. LRLR
1-4-5. LRLR
1-3-5.5 Hitting the rung. LR

4on 4off circuit board. 6b+ circuits
✅2mins ✅

Did a purple at the end of the session.

Wednesday
Peloton & stretching

Thursday
Rest day

Friday

Went to Deep Rake Quarry with Phil. The aim was to do a 7a in day. One of my goals for the year.
I wanted to do Rake’s Progress. Hard start to easier climbing to the top. the conditions weren’t the best. A slight dampness on the rock in places.
I did 6a & 6b+ as a warm up. Phil Redpointed the 6b+. His hardest to date. I put the draws in and he worked it then rested while I put the draws in the 7a.
I did all the moves except the start from the 3rd & 4th move. The holds were damp and under the surface they would get damp as I pulled on them.
I came down and Phil RP’ed the 6b+. Then I went back up the 7a to worked the section to the 4th bolt. Did all the moves on link except the 3rd & 4th again. Conditions weren’t playing their part. There is a gaston after the 3rd bolt that was wet as well.
I got tired and came down for a rest. Phil then Onsighted a 6b (graded 6b+)
I went up Rakes Progress one more time. Tried a Redpoint attempt, why not. If I stuck the moves, there’s a good chance I could do it to the top.
I tried a new heel hook sequence but it didn’t work. So I by passed the move I couldn’t do and then linked it to the top, with a slip out of the gaston. I then dried and managed the move Pleased with that. Enjoyed the sequence as well. Reading afterwards on UKC that a foot block at the start has gone. Making the start harder, which made sense. I thought the crux is probably a V6 sequence to the 3rd bolt. Suggesting it could be 7a+???  Hard to be sure with poor conditions.


Saturday
Projecting the purple circuit at the Depot.
A good session. Did the first purple second try. Worked 5 others.


Sunday
Conditioning at the depot.
Super sets on squats and bench press 3x8.
Super Sets on Military Press and Dips 4x5
Core circuit

[shark]

11.5-7 average 160.5lbs

M. Heavy rain but there was a forecast dry spell mid afternoon so popped out to the Tor and had a play on Ben’s to get a feel where I was at. Felt stronger than I expected.

T.

W.

T. PM Assessment with Steve Mac. Really disappointed with my level. Strength and strength endurance main things to work on.

F.

S. PM COVID booster

S. Felt a bit ill. Did lots of leaf shovelling

Got Red River Gorge Blues. Weather shit, strength poor and feel ill after jab. Meh. Steve got me excited about a spare place on trip to Turkey. Summoned up courage to ask Sonia. She didn’t slap me. And she didn’t say no. Or yes. But did point out a flaw in the plan (whilst fist pumping). In an uncharacteristic efficiency I’d sent my passport back at the start of the week for renewal 🤦‍♂️

[Wellsy]

New training plan

Monday - Upper body strength day. (5 weighted pullups with 23kgs added weight, 3 mins rest, 3x campus boulder problems, 3 mins rest between and after) x 5 supersets. Battered me.

Tuesday - Bench press up to 5x5 at 75kgs, Strict Press 40kgs 5 reps for 3 sets. Core training on bar. Also did some one armed pick-ups for the first time as other guys were doing at the wall. Got up to 65kgs on the right hand, 60kgs on the left. Reckon if I was fresh, rested, warmed up properly I might be able to do 70kgs right 65kgs left. Hmmm. Might need to buy one.

Wednesday - Indoor movement, very light

Thursday - Anston. Got on one of the 7A+s at Dukes Wall, The Tufa. No vids no beta and 3 UKC ascents? Felt absolutely nails, harder than any other 7A+ I've done, but I got the moves down. Good training. Dumbell shoulder rotations. Went home and got on my mate's board, 7A done, another 7A+ pieced together.

Friday - rested

Saturday - steep board. Just getting used to the feeling of being on it at this stage.

Sunday - Big long walk for about 7 miles. Otherwise just rested.

Feeling pretty jacked although not that light. Definitely enjoying training though.

[Will Hunt]

Nice one, Nick. I like the idea of squeezing with the legs. I had a go where I put a toe on somewhere left and down from the heel and if you get over that there's a knee scum (even with a knee pad this still slipped out though) that comes into play while you squeeze with the right foot - I don't think I ever tried the right leg squeeze while using the heel though. Doing two moves with the left hand sounds promising too.

[Duncan Disorderly]

Power or Strength or Aero Endurance Club 

M: Routes @ AW - Up to F6b+ then lobbed off a F6c+ (messed a sequence) and tried a nails F7a+ that I couldn't even do! Arse!
T: Strength/PE testing session - 7/3 repeaters til failure @ 60% BW... Messed up the formula and ended up taking off 10 Kg more than I should have! Worked out about 50% BW rather than the prescribed 60% so I guess drifted into Aerobic rather than Anerobic territory - Realised I'd probably made a mistake at around 15 minutes but kept on going (s'all training right??), failed at around 16:30 and was probably more down to boredom than fatigue (well I was pretty pumped but probably could have gone on)... Did a few auto belays up to F6b+ to finish... Back round again!
W: Nowt
T: Help kids mum move - lumping boxes and shit!
F: Nowt
S: AW with daughter - She climbed, I did another strength/PE testing session, this time with correct weight - 2 sets over the day while she rested... Set one = 6 mins, Set two = 6 mins 39 seconds. Far more realistic and got the proper burn than only comes from forearms full of lactate!
Final Lettuce scores are:
Max finger strength = 86 kg (113% body mass)
Power endurance = 399 sec (@ 51.5 kg)
2 rep max pull-up = 91 kg (120% body mass)
Not sure how that stacks up but with my limited knowledge of these things it does look like my PE scores are far better than both my finger and pull strength so I guess that's gonna be a focus - perhaps??? Might explain a few things.
S: AW - Preempted my focus for the next 3 month and got on the Moonboard (25)... All 5+ benchmarks and a couple of 6A+'s... Routes up to F6b+ (focussing on steeper tha usual!)..

Interesting week (weak  ), got the green light for Leonidio in Feb/March so just gonna get me head down and train now - fingers crossed I don't overdo it and get injured!

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - AM goblet squat, ab wheel. PM Lattice edge, snatch.
Tue - AM goblet squat, ab wheel. PM garage.
Wed - AM goblet squat, ab wheel. PM boxing bag.
Thu - AM goblet squat, ab wheel. PM power snatch, good mornings, bentover rows, high pulls.
Fri - AM goblet squat, ab wheel. PM bar work, thruster, high pulls, lower back. Tired.
Sat - AM goblet squat, ab wheel. PM TBDL from blocks 3x12 heavy. Farmer's static holds.
Sun - PM some BM tests, then board climbing finally after six weeks. Not too bad, skin lasted 10 minutes. Weights.

[Duma]

Sun - PM some BM tests, then board climbing finally after six weeks.

You been injured Nibs?

[User deactivated.]

M - 6x3 board repeats, core session
T - 1 hour mobility
W - Deadlift heavy singles maxing out at 215kg, 7:3 fingerboard repeaters, 5x5 deadlifts for volume, 4x5 standing military press, weighted side plank, Copenhagen planks
T - Worst DOMs I've ever experienced, absolutely crippled and running a 39°C temperature. Probably got a bit of flu. Did some mobility work for half an hour.
F - Still feeling bad. 6x15s hangs, unstructured board session, 6x10s board compression holds, ring muscleup transitions, core session.
S - 1 hour mobility
S - Kilter board ancap session, 4x5 wide pullups, 4x6 face pulls, 4x10s wrist wrench lifts.

[Nibile]

Sun - PM some BM tests, then board climbing finally after six weeks.

You been injured Nibs?

Hey Duma, thanks for asking!

Luckily I haven't been injured, the story is a bit strange to be honest...
As you probably don't know, my board resides inside my house, not in a garage or cellar, so to keep it fresh I left the window (which sits behind the board and is accessible by crawling under a small gap between the ground and the bottom of the board) open. I also put a metal net to avoid pigeons getting inside.
Things went fine for a few years, then finally I decided to close the window and install a small extractor.
Therefore, clad in a CSI-like suit, with double gloves and mask, I crawled under the board, accessed the window and started cleaning the dust and some pigeon s**t that inevitably was on the external sill.
In doing so, I evidently breathed lots of dust, and the surgical mask wasn't enough to protect me. I was too casual, I should have worn an FFP2 mask.
I am not sure if the dust was also infected by the pigeons' stuff, in any case after a few days I got a throat infection. At first I thought about a simple sore throat, but then it got serious: I could not eat, or drink, or even just swallow my saliva.
After one sleepless night I went to see a specialist and he gave me cortisone and antibiotics injections.
After another sleepless night I started feeling better, and I was able to swallow without pain and eat some ice cream and yogurt.
After another 24 hours the worst was behind and I could eat soft foods.
I lost 3 kilos...
Anyway, now there was the problem of cleaning the room...
And this took me some time, because at first I didn't know what to do, and how to do it, then finally I ordered some FFP3 masks, and at regular intervals started spraying alcohol and bleach on all surfaces: the back of the board, the window, the sill, the ground, the mats, everywhere. Then I pulled out all the stuff that was there (bags, shoes, etc. etc.) and washed everything with alcohol and bleach, throwing away the oldest and most useless stuff (15 years old shoes, etc.). Then I removed all the mats, brought them down in the garden and again sprayed everything.
Then I vacuumed them and vacuumed the room.
Some more alcohol and bleach later, I put everything back in and I finally tried my luck and had a session.
Hopefully everything will be fine...
That room has never been so tidy in 15 years and I really want to keep it so.
Now I only have to grow some skin back and resume normal service!

[SA Chris]

Shit, sounds grim. Must have been really bad if you were too ill to NNFN.

[Nibile]

Shit, sounds grim. Must have been really bad if you were too ill to NNFN.

Yeah six weeks without the board were grim indeed!
 
Jokes aside it was.horrible. Luckily the only symptom was the throat, nothing else.