[Duma]

M -
T - eve, TCA, 90 min, mostly blues. Progress on the hard one on the 45, and managed the marginal arete, and unexpectedly repeated it immediately after. Also tidied up my ascent of the last white by doing it without the bolthole.
W - eve, run, 5k, flat, pavement, 25 min.
T - eve, TCA, 60 min. Tired and grumpy. Circuits, flashed all 3 on the 10° board (approx 5, 6c, 7a), then a few attempts on the crux section of the hard one on the 30° (~7c/+), confirmed I felt terrible, then 5 laps on the 30° ~7a with 5 min rest between reps.
F - canned lunchtime session after yesterday's rubbish showing.
S - another rest day as feeling a bit burnt out, was parenting anyway so would have been a squeeze.
S - eve, run, 5k, flat, pavement, 26 min. Couldn't summon the mental energy for the wall, but glad I managed to do something.

71 kg.

Nice session Tuesday but bit of a mental slump since then.

[duncan]

Thanks Duma

M - Sirunella est to belay Maxine on her project, the excellent-looking Puceta de llençol. Siurana Grau dels Masets in the afternoon to find La Muerte with someone on it and four others waiting. It's a good onsight target, with rests and semi-rests all over, easy to spend a long time on it. Didn’t bother waiting what could have been all afternoon, led a couple of easy routes further right to call it an active rest day.

T - Siurana Grau dels Masets with Maxine. Worked the top section of La Muerte del Sponsor. Did the move up into the top groove three times on the trot. This had defeated me last November: working on hip flexibility works! Struggled with the final move which I've previously managed fairly easily. There have been many failures at this point and I can see why. Felt beaten by the route and decided to bag it for this trip.

W - Sirunella est to belay Maxine on her project. Repeated the excellent La marca del sorru 6b+ as active rest.

T  -  El Pati. Warmed up on El Cargolet 6a+. Got on ¡Ay mamita! 7a. This is like four 6b+s with good rests in between (Darth Grader checks out). Learned my lesson from Viagraman and took my time. Nearly blew it on the top slab, wishing I wasn’t wearing comfy shoes, but held it together. Very satisfying, I love an onsight battle!

Refugio invaded by ultrarunners who came and went noisily all night. Slept badly.

F - Rest day, went for a walk up onto Montsant. Rained a bit. More noisy ultrarunners until 5am.

S - Rained all day. Shoulder conditioning, hip flexibility. Forecast for more ultrarunners overnight so bailed from the Refugio to a friend's floor. Mediocre sleep.

S - Sirunella est. Warmed-up on La discòrdia, a long 6b with spaced bolts, another here that feels like a Pembroke E2/3. Over to El Pati. I was interested to try a more sustained and hopefully less bouldery 7b+ so had a play on El Prado del Rey. Way too hard!


Very happy with ¡Ay mamita!, a great route and 7a onsights are a rare event these days. It definitely counted as trying hard.

Had been struggling on La Muerte. It’s four extended boulder problems with good rests or shakes in between. Each one feels close to my limit and I have never managed more than two in one session even when I was top-rope soloing and could rest as long as I liked between goes. I've spent 10 days on it on two trips and I don’t think another 4 days will change things a great deal. Six months of bouldering might help. I’ve neglected this in recent years due to hips and ankles not not loving landing from any height. I had already resolved to do something about this in 2024 and this is a further incentive. El Prado del Rei would also benefit from more bouldering power.

I was also finding projecting all a bit too anxiety-provoking and not enjoying it very much. If I'm to try this again I might be better suited to choosing something local to my Mum in the Bristol area. This might come with less implicit pressure to achieve as I’m going to be visiting fairly regularly irrespective of projects.

Three more days. Find a new, easier project? Try another 7a/+ onsight??

[Aussiegav]

More than rehab club.

Great trip there Duncan.
Enjoy the rest of the trip. Clip some bolts for me.

Monday -
Elbow rehab 3 sessions per day
Introduced inclines push ups 2 sets of 5. Hard work on the elbow.

Tuesday
Elbow rehab 3 sessions per day
Finger edge pick ups. Right forearm /elbow experiencing some discomfort. Can only lift 10kg half crimp and full crimp. Taking very easy.
30min peloton ride. Elbow managing 30mins with mild discomfort.



Wednesday
Elbow rehab 3 sessions per day

Thursday
Elbow rehab 3 sessions per day
Went to Virgin Gym. Pistol squats. Bench press 4x5 (22kg). Right elbow trembles near the end of each set. Taking easy on these, concentrating on holding bar on chest to stretch the flexion of the elbow under load.


Friday
Elbow rehab 3 sessions per day.
Inclined push ups 2 sets of 5. Hard work on the elbow.
30min peloton ride. Elbow had mild ache by the end of the ride.

Saturday
Elbow rehab sessions.

Finger edge pick ups. Right forearm /elbow experiencing some discomfort. Can only lift 10kg half crimp and full crimp. Taking very easy.


Sunday

Elbow rehab session in the morning. Then Virgin Gym. Strength training.
Bench press. Preacher curls individual arms. Dumbbell shoulder press. Inclined push ups.
Squats. Pistol squats.

Evening 40min peloton ride then elbow rehab and stretching.

[Duma]

I'll belay on Jimi Hendrix Duncan, was cursing your absence last weekend when I needed a catch at uphill! Shame it hasn't worked out on La muerte this trip, but glad the hip work has paid off, and nicely done on ¡Ay Makita!.
el Prado... def has a bit of a boulder problem doesn't it?

[Duma]

Hah! Quality autocorrect there....
Elbow seems to be going well Gav!

Duncan, Cruela de vil? Can't remember how hip dependent the crux was, sorry.

[duncan]

Duncan, Cruela de vil? Can't remember how hip dependent the crux was, sorry.

Thanks! Team is getting close on her project at Siuranella est, so not-steep 7a+/b suggestions in Primavera, El Cargol, and El Pati especially welcome. You're right about El Prado, not the best choice but it was dry and free...

I'll try to give advanced warning when I'm next in Uphill.

[ajh]

not-steep 7a+/b suggestions in Primavera, El Cargol, and El Pati especially welcome.

It has been a while since I was in Siurana but I remember Bindelef being brilliant and definitely ticks the 'not steep' box. It's on the shady side of the road by the El Pati parking so not quite the crags you were after but could easily be combined with them and has the benefit of being a good bit quieter than the El Pati routes.

[monkoffunk]

M - Gym am. Still feeling the effects of the relatively modest excesses of the weekend. Avoided deadlifts, few weighted pull ups below max, dips, hanging core, dumbbell bench and some hammers. Shortish session. Yoga.
T - Yoga.
W - Gym. Deadlifts. Weighted pull ups up to 4x20kg. Etc.
T - Yoga
F - Full rest. Quite busy at work. Glass of red, with a top up, in evening. Not exactly on plan but not entirely impulsive either.
S - Fingers. Playing with set up with mega bar. Good test of half, full and three finger drag. So much to gain. Half crimp repeaters. Will get back to some form of max hangs soon.
S - Yoga

[Fiend]

Next week STG: Same as before - no: Focus on physical self-care including stretching - no. Maybe increase things a LITTLE bit if body feels okay - no. Prepare for regaining some routes and away-venue bouldering focus for spring - errr, talked a bit about it?.
The usual STG: Stay focused and don't make silly mistakes - kinda. Do something challenging and inspiring on a rope, or above a pad - kinda. Keep in regular contact with suitable friends and partners - probably enough overall. Falling practise if I do routes indoors or out - n/a. Look after injuries - only by virtue of them feeling okay without me looking after them, gym x 1 - no, elbow rehab x 1 - no, shoulder rehab x 2 - no, stretching x 3 - no.


M -  Indoor bouldering @ Blochaus 8 x V2-4, 8 x V3-5 (flash), 4 x V4-6 (2 flash, 2 x 2nd go, attempted 2 more that weren't right for my morphology). Preceded by 2 mins cold water therapy / torture. Survived but surely leeches / electric shock treatment / lobotomy would be easier.

T -  Active rest. 1 hour scrubbing and fern removal.

W - 2 x 6B+, 2 x 6C

T - Active rest. 1.5 hours plant trimming and patioing. TE slightly tender from the trimming but eased off.

F - Some easy moves and got very cold.

S - Repeated 6B+, 6C, failed to repeat a 6C I'd previous flashed.

S - Indoor bouldering @ Boardroom. 6 x "C", 8 x "D", 9 x "E" (flash, also attempted 1 sandbag), 5 x "F" (1 flash, 4 x 2nd go, also attempted another 6, 2 doable but tired by then, 4 sandbaggy/gimmicky). As well as the usual grading nonsense, the "E"'s upstairs were softer than usual and the "F"s a lot harder so there was no overlap at all, which was an annoying blip. Downstairs was much better with some good proper cranky "F"s, and thus felt like a decent session in the end. Oh and there was the same short grubby shabby chode who looks like a missing extra from Bottom and loiters around anyone who is working hard at a problem and then shabbily waltzes up it - at least this time in baggy rock shoes, compared to approach shoes last time - pretending that 1. He's casually warming up and 2. He's not done it a dozen times before and 3. It's a valid use of his time instead of pissing off and stopping underperforming for the crowd, hell I could hang out Rock Over and lap V1-3s in my skater shoes if I was desperate. 15 min short stretching system which felt nice so why did I do fuck all this week??


WTF. Kept broadly active and did a bit of decent climbing / indoor cranking, but totally off the wagon with general physical self-care / maintenance. Need to get back on that as the old corpulent carcass won't hold up with cranking alone.


Next week STG: Back on self-care at least with the stretching. 1 board session, 1 routes session with trying hard. See what else happens. Maybe a bit more cleaning.
The usual STG: Stay focused and don't make silly mistakes. Do something challenging and inspiring on a rope, or above a pad. Keep in regular contact with suitable friends and partners. Falling practise if I do routes indoors or out. Look after injuries, gym x 1, elbow rehab x 1, shoulder rehab x 2, stretching x 3.

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - very short on time. BM pockets, strong. PE low, short. 2x AM session.
Tue - bar work, farmer's. Made new footholds for PE.
Wed - PE low 30/30. Abysmally poor, and knees don't like it. Back work, 2x AM session.
Thu - GM 117 kg 5x5, plus one DL set. Bentover rows 62 kg 5x5.
Fri - shoulder static holds, farmer's. Heavy.
Sat - tired. Weights.
Sun - boxing bag, sparky.

[shark]

M Drove back from Devon

T On Bens doing badly . Maybe foot on campusing after

W Lovely day. Stanage. Soloed 10 routes - mainly HVS’s

T Tor on Tin Of with Edward. Holds damp. Hard work. 3 tie ins. Best go second tie did it with two falls. Felt wiped after.

F Still wiped

S

S Strength training. Weighted deadhanging up to +15kg Leg presses One arm foot on undercut locks and pulls on an edge. One arm locks on a bar. Foot on campusing

Feeling meh. Not fat as such but attempts to get down to pre 2023 weight range failed. No breakthrough on Bens. Have been able to go on the Oak this time of year in the past. No fucking chance this year. Even Tin Of is soggy. Wish I’d hopped on Steve’s Siurana trip.