[shark]

11.13

M. Few hangs at home. Tor with Ben S. Still. Felt warmer than the temp reading in the car. Lots of wet patches. Push Up start soaking. Wet streak coming out of Zprow hole. Frigged to AM headwall. Thought it would be greasy but conditions actually ok. Felt good on the moves. Linked from undercut and rail (move 4) to snatching for but not holding gaston (move 10). Second tie in on lead linked from Prow hole to not quite holding sidepull pinch (move 9). Clipping the bolt felt fine. No PB links but feeling slicker, stronger and more comfortable on the moves. Onto Bens just trying from crux. With long rests did the crux move and held the crimp 5x in succession. On the second and third attempts got through to falling off getting my right foot on the pinch. Decent day. 

T.

W.

T. Was looking forward to going on Bens but forecast looked humid and rainy. Mina keen for afternoon when it look up ed fresher. PM Headed out. Not raining but conditions felt awful. Started dogging up Push Up and sun came out so stripped it. Decided not to climb. Third time this has happened. Good job I have the flexibility to do this

F. PM Home warm up. Tor. Fresher and breezy but still warm - 19degrees - but decent enough connies. High hopes of linking the middle crux section. THFML and a couple of attempts at cross thru. Tried to hold the stretched position where I get my foot on the pinch. Couldn’t do it and something felt weird in my upper back that seemed to be weakening front lever type strength. Tried from crux half a dozen times but only got through to successfully  doing the stab once. Hoped to at least get through to attempting the cross thru. Gutted. Straight on the wine when I got home. Happiness restored.

S.  Ergo Edge BW 3x4 pull-ups FC, HC and Drag deadhang 10, 10 and 10 secs +12.5kg FC HC snd Drag 10, 10 and 10sec  3x3 pull-ups (pos missed out the hangs?) FC, HC and Drag +17.5kg 10, 9 and 9secs +25kg FC, FC 6, 7 and 5 secs HC 6 and 5 secs Drag 7 and 3 secs Deadlift 100kg x 5. 115kg x 5. 125kg x 2.  Decent

S. Vegetation hacking

Continuing crappy weatheer has been frustrating. Great session on Monday but disappointing performance on Thursday . Should take consolation that I’ve achieved my medium term goal on Bens of being solid on the crux move having done it 10 or more times this week holding the crimp (though sometimes not optimally) without failing on it once. Next step is to get solid on the 4 move crux section. Currently getting shut down after doing first 3 moves of it. Got shown some alternative clampy foot beta for cross thru which I should try. About time I started shifting excess weight. Dry August for me.

[Duma]

M - eve, TCA, 90min. Not quite as bad as recent sessions but still not particularly psyched. Managed a black I'd tried a bit before.
T - eve, Uphill. No partner so put a rope down The Jimi Hendrix Experience {E6 but 7b+ really) bit faffy as only had grigri in the car. Took a few goes to work out crux moves past third bolt, then lowered to the ledge and did it clean to the top. Excellent, keen to come back and lead this, and try the other stuff here
W - eve, TCA, 60 min just pootling round the new yellow set. Elbow def a bit unhappy at full lock.
T - run, calibrating new watch. Irritating. 7k flat pavement , 40 ish min
F - eve drive to Dorset
S - Hedbury Quarry, done most things here but spent a fun day attempting Mouth Breather 7c. Basically 4 moves of brutal and bunched undercutting in the middle of a 6b+. No cigar but worked myself trying. Ollie made an amazing skin of the teeth ascent of the other 7c which was great to watch too. Eve drive home.
S - aft TCA. Hot and humid, not psyched but set myself the goal to repeat all the whites and pleased to manage it easily enough. 30 problems 6B - 7A, 40 attempts.

71kg

Elbow seems to be a bit better this weekend which is a relief as was a bit worried on Wednesday.

[Wellsy]

Monday - Crossfit. Push Press 7 Rep Max(???) up to 50kgs. Then a wod of power snatches and toes to bar.

Tuesday - Good indoor climbing session, plenty of moderate volume.

Wednesday - Fingerboarded up to 30kgs for 10 seconds on the 20mm. Upset that I'm 18kgs below my once max for that edge size and time. Finger seems much better though so hopefully can push strength again. Squatted up to 90kgs for 5, 3 sets. Benched up to 70 for 5, 3 sets. Push press up to 55 for 7. 3 x 8 wide grip pullups

Thurs - rested

Friday - rested

Saturday - good board session, repeated 6B, 6B+ and 6C+. Good progress on individual moves on 7A+/7B type thing. Did around 20 problems on circuits too, felt relatively strong. Fingerboarded up to 25kgs for 10 seconds for multiple sets. Again, upset at relative weakness.

Sunday - Squats up to 95kgs for 5, 3 sets. A PB. Bench up to 70kgs for 5, 3 sets. Felt strong. Probs could do 75. Climbed for about an hour.

Need to figure out where to add two weighted pullup sessions a week. Also need to fingerboard probably 3 times a week to get them back to what they were. Frustrated. Annoyed. But hopefully positive things to come.

[Will Hunt]

Couldn't get a partner for sport on Tuesday so ended up at Hawkcliffe again. Brushed and did a new 6B which was ok.

Su - Kilnsey. Clips were in Dark Stranger so went up that. Managed to onsight past the hard moves at the 4th bolt and fell off fairly soon after. Dogged to the final bolt.
Second go couldn't even link the bit at the 4th bolt. Lowered down.
Third go clipsticked up and did all the moves again, though not terribly well. None of this feels that desperate but I expect I'll have to get this refined some more before redpointing.

[Duma]

T - eve, Uphill. No partner so put a rope down...

Couldn't get a partner for sport on Tuesday so ended up...

Shame we're at different ends of the country!

[Duma]

Elbow seems to be a bit better this weekend which is a relief as was a bit worried on Wednesday.

Hmmm may have spoken to soon, seems tender in full extension now

[Wellsy]

I also felt like I was being lazy and just did 3x3 weighted pullups with 30kgs and my left bicep aches lol

[duncan]

Duma, in the unlikely event you've not done Jimi by the time I'm next down in Weston I'll give you a shout.

M - Westway TRing. 6 easy routes, elbow sore after.
T - Swim in the murk. 7km walk.
W - Fingerboard pick-ups, L hand only, 18mm edge. Shoulders and elbows conditioning. Handel’s Semele at Glyndebourne, all good fun. Shoulders are now too big for my old dinner jacket  (relevant to power club!) but the Gloucester Rd. Oxfam came up trumps and I should be good for another 25 years.
T - Shoulders and elbows conditioning. Proms for Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, great orchestra and choir, strange interpretation. Decided to miss the second half, the old Nazi’s Old Spice music (or X-Factor, according to age) and put the world to rights over a bottle.
F - Swim. 7km walk. Fingerboard pick-ups, left hand, 18mm edge.
S - Hips/knees conditioning. Shoulders and elbows conditioning.
S - 30 minutes swim. Rebuilt the portable fingerboard adding 10mm and 14mm edges. Now feels a bit more like the holds I need to be able to pull on. 31kg with the 14mm edge, 23kg with the 10mm edge, front three crimp, left hand.

Right elbow is slow to settle but the weather doesn't make me feel I’m missing much. Plenty to do in London and it's the school holidays and the lad needs entertaining. I can still fingerboard with my good hand. The cruxes of Muerte del Sponsor and Road Rage involve crimping on small edges with the left hand so it's all money in the bank. 

[Dingdong]

‘Twas a good week of training and climbing!

M - board sesh with John and Jules finishing off some easier projects - particularly a 6C that’s been giving me trouble as it had a really wide throw between two pinches. Was psyched to do that one. Jules also dropped off one of his awesome new Smash It Holds which I’ll be adding once I extend the top board!

T - rest day

W - yoga to wake up the body and then went squirrel - went to try finish a few things but it all still felt a tad damp and there wasn’t much wind passing through. Decided to add a new one a bit further left called Red Squirrels up a red barrel, really lovely pinches into a horrendous mono crimp stack. Nice day out anyways!

T - conditioning day! One arm isometrics, 2 arm 15 second max hangs 25kg, incline bench press pushed it this week and managed 80kg - psyched! Shoulder press dumbells 20kg, deltoid flys 10kg, lockoff density hangs 30 second pronated and supinated, Turkish getups 12kg, shoulder rotations 8kg and extensor curls - felt wrecked afterwards, tried to eat loads of carbs and protein to recover

F - rest day, very much needed!

S - woke up feeling what I thought was ill but turned out I just had a slight hangover. Felt better after some food. Went to lees bottom and finished off chiggers and started working the moves on greenwood tree.

S - today I split into 3 sessions. Had friends visiting so wanted to climb with them but also had conditioning so did the following:

Morning: hamstrung curls, Copenhagen planks, one arm lifts with 5kg, trx iyt, 7 second 20mm lifts 55kg

Afternoon: raven tor, did bashers left finally after sacking it off forever, started working converter and managed to get established into the pinch and pocket, very psyched and painful.

Evening: gym, max pull-ups with 40kg 3 reps, rack pulls 140kg and then some extensor curls at 8kg

Time for some more rest

[slab_happy]

T - conditioning day! One arm isometrics, 2 arm 15 second max hangs 25kg, incline bench press pushed it this week and managed 80kg - psyched! Shoulder press dumbells 20kg, deltoid flys 10kg, lockoff density hangs 30 second pronated and supinated, Turkish getups 12kg, shoulder rotations 8kg and extensor curls - felt wrecked afterwards, tried to eat loads of carbs and protein to recover

OH HEY DID SOMEONE SAY TURKISH GETUPS

They are the best.

Random tip: to increase the stabilization and wrist strength demands (though at a lower overall load), or just for variety when you're bored, grab a lighter kettlebell and try a bottoms-up TGU.

Oh, bottoms-up kettlebell shoulder presses are also brutal as a way to expose and fix any weaknesses in shoulder stabilization. Speaking as someone who needs to be doing way more of them to try to fix my misbehaving shoulder..

[Wellsy]

The best thing about Turkish Get-Ups is how comically hard they are compared to how they look, its great

[Dingdong]

They are so underrated and so so so much harder than they look, especially by set 4, struggling to control the lowering portion of it haha. Proper rate them though. Great core and all body stabilisation.

Also realised I was on 16kg for them this week at the gym, usually do them with 12kg as it’s the only kettlebell at home

[Fiend]

Last week's STG: Shoulder rehab x 3 - yes, stretching x 2 (actually do it this time) - yes, rest day x 1 - yes, falling practise if I do routes indoors or out - only a little, reintroduce finger edge pull-ups (unless I'm trying anything hard the next day) - a bit, maybe a board session if I feel okay - yes, maybe some outdoor sport to see if I can start transferring the indoor mileage to that - no, at least a session doing some Lancs stuff - sort of.
MTG - keep incrementally regaining capability, do regular increasingly large falling practise, try to stretch bi-weekly, keep rehabbing (and moderating training of needed) to avoid injury, try to rally support and inclusion amongst climbing partners.
LTG - regain physical capability for F7a o/s, F7b+-ish r/p, to be able to take into trad, try to regain some confidence in going further afield.

M - Rest. Shoulder rehab.

T - Active rest. Evening at Cheesden Lumb Mill, easy soloing at Font 4/5 level, some shoulder stretching. Downgraded the whole crag, had good kestrel views, geese flyby, etc. Stomach felt weird and bloaty. Had one can of beer for dinner and felt much better.

W - Indoor bouldering at Blochaus. Several laps on F6b-c cave roof (dull) 7 Red problems (4 flash, 3 2nd go - fun and did better than before). Stretching in between routes on cave roof. Shoulder rehab I think?? Bad mood - had tried to promote BMC North West Area Meet in the morning, had phrased things badly (my mistake) as I'm fed up with it falling on deaf ears, got kicked out of one local Whatsapp climbing group and had a previous friend in another group be rude enough to effectively ostracise me - had to change evening plans to avoid the latter.

T - Depot 30' Board. Did several warm-up problems 5+ - 6B. Attempted several mid-warm-up problems 6B - 6C-ish. Couldn't complete any of them, partly strength but also inhibited by running out of pulp on some and shoulder mobility on others. Very weak but a little bit less very weak than last time. Estimating that I was climbing at 80-90% capacity in March 2022 between injuries, 100% in March 2023 for one session, 30% in May, and maybe 40-50% now. Finger edge pullup: 2 x 5 @25mm, 2 x 5 @20mm, 1 x 4, 1 x 3 @15mm. Okay. Pulp a bit sore. Low mood - had tried to get anyone to do indoor routes with me and got no response.

F - Cross-fitness. Lancs quarry cleaning for 3 hours. Shoulders very stiff to start. A bit of stretching in Tool Station whilst buying new cleaning tools. Frustrated mood - route turned out to be too damp to be fully finished and ready to climb, and got fed up with knowing the efforts wouldn't be reciprocated. Also fucked up by not focusing on weekend plans instead of cleaning.

S - Active rest. 15 min run (i.e. max level), 40 mins stretching, 20 finger edge pull-ups - 10 singles with 30s rest, 5 doubles with 1 min rest. Very low mood - Sat plans fell through, Sun plans were uncertain, any attempt to get someone to climb with through multiple channels failed, struggled a lot with that.

S - Indoor routes at Boardroom. 6 routes F6b-6c+, 3 attempts ~F7a, some short practise falls. Bouldery / PE / sandbaggy routes but did okay. Minimal shoulder rehab. Very low mood to start - struggling a lot, but a Chester friend was keen to do something and managed to salvage something out of the day.


A bad week. Despite actually succeeding on most STGs, the psychological damage caused by increasing social / emotional problems throughout the week has set my confidence back far more than any physical progression has improved it. I'm finding it hard to see how to regain ability and confidence when I'm often struggling with friends, local partners, and my own background psychology and emotional response to that.


Next week's STG: Touch base with several friends to try to maintain contact and be more involved with positive experiences together. Re-introduce myself positively to some local climbing online groups to try to have more options to be involved with local climbers. Weather looks pretty mixed, so assuming I'm going to do more indoor training, try to increase the intensity a little bit as body feels okay. Do more basic shoulder stretching. The usual: Shoulder rehab x 3, stretching x 2, rest day x 1, falling practise if I do routes indoors or out, finger edge pull-ups (unless I'm trying anything hard the next day)

[Duncan Disorderly]

Avoiding the Deluge... Club:

M: Avoided the deluge pt 1 - walked round the Burbage valley... Started chucking it down when back in the van. Result!
T: Avoided the deluge pt 2 - short evening session @ Hidden Quarry. Not been here before, great little venue... Warmed up on a F6b then did a good F6c+, had wanted to get on the F7a+ on the LHS but it was busy. Must go back.
W: No avoiding the deluge today - AW with GF, good long session up to F6c+, fell off a F7a+...
T: Rest
F: Rest
S: Avoided the deluge pt 3 - Went to Intake Quarry with the GF (which I subsequently found out to be banned - doh!). Warmed up on a nice F5 then did a fantastic 30m F6a and F6b - 2 of the best easy routes I've done on peak lime for sure! (slim pickings I know but they were actually good and felt pretty out there at the top).
S: No avoiding the deluge today, got rained on in the van (stayed out near Matlock) so bailed and went to AW - MB session  (25 degrees 2019 set). Good session, felt snappy... Worked my way through some repeats up to 6B then found a nice looking 7A (non benchmark)... Worked it, then only bloody did it!! Ace! Not 7A tho - closer to 6B+/6C but good for the ego (said nobody ever on the Moonboard!)... Had a pint!

Good week - got out on rock, did routes on plastic and had a board session - elbows still sore but no worse. Was surprised that Intake was on the banned list, wouldn't have gone if I'd known - and judging by the amount of folk there you'de never have thought it...

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - AM as usual; PM bar work, goblet squat and press.
Tue - board climbing, static and crux links on current project.
Wed - clean, singles up to 95%. 5x5 at 90%. Good mornings with pause 5x5 100 kg. Beautiful.
Thu - loaded carries, high pulls.
Fri - 2x AM session; high pulls, back work, thruster.
Sat - boxing bag.
Sun - various weights, loaded carries, theraband. Low intensity but felt it.

[Coops_13]

M: Bench press, Bulgarian split squats, Incline chest press, Shoulder press, bicep curl. 30 mins peloton

T: Lincoln Lake. First session on King Critter V10. Started not feeling close to any of the moves but ended the session having done each of the moves and linked 2 and 3, psyched with the progress!

W: Bench press, Bulgarian split squats, Incline chest press, Overhead press. 35 mins peloton

T: Warm-up down to -25lb OA HC. Board session.

S: Lincoln Lake. Down to Rebellion V9 for the annual attempt. Basically did first move but was ruining skin and finger started feeling sore. Went to look at Big Bhang Theory V9 but not as good as I thought it would be. Went exploring but hot sun diminished psyche so called it

S: Bench press 195lb X3 *3 (PR), 230lb X1 (1RM PR), Bulgarian split squats, Incline chest press, Shoulder press. 15 mins peloton. Also did 1.5 mile dog walk and mowed both front and back lawns (in 33deg heat)..

[Will Hunt]

T - eve, Uphill. No partner so put a rope down...

Couldn't get a partner for sport on Tuesday so ended up...

Shame we're at different ends of the country!

Sadly the after-work sport scene seems to be on its knees post-Covid.

[Wellsy]

Power Club

Mon - AM as usual; PM bar work, goblet squat and press.
Tue - board climbing, static and crux links on current project.
Wed - clean, singles up to 95%. 5x5 at 90%. Good mornings with pause 5x5 100 kg. Beautiful.
Thu - loaded carries, high pulls.
Fri - 2x AM session; high pulls, back work, thruster.
Sat - boxing bag.
Sun - various weights, loaded carries, theraband. Low intensity but felt it.

If you can clean 90% of your 1 RM 5x5, it ain't your real 1 RM time for a PB?

[slab_happy]

The best thing about Turkish Get-Ups is how comically hard they are compared to how they look, its great

Maximum suffering-to-weight ratio!

I believe one of Dan John's standards is a TGU with a half-full plastic cup of water balanced on your fist.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - AM as usual; PM bar work, goblet squat and press.
Tue - board climbing, static and crux links on current project.
Wed - clean, singles up to 95%. 5x5 at 90%. Good mornings with pause 5x5 100 kg. Beautiful.
Thu - loaded carries, high pulls.
Fri - 2x AM session; high pulls, back work, thruster.
Sat - boxing bag.
Sun - various weights, loaded carries, theraband. Low intensity but felt it.

If you can clean 90% of your 1 RM 5x5, it ain't your real 1 RM time for a PB?

Ciao Wellsy, I'm afraid you are right.
I've been thinking about giving it a go for a while now, maybe it's time.
I should get back into it a bit more though, because as of late I haven’t done much power clean and that session was not sparky: surely with these temps heavy singles are better than heavy 5x5...
Cheers.