[Duma]

M -
T -
W - eve, TCA, 90 min, blacks. Tried 4, did 2, progress on 1.
T - am, run, 6k, flat, pavement, 30 min.
F - climbing plans fucked by yet more shit weather. Cycled around Bristol between showers including checking out some very new sport lines in Avon gorge. Then TCA, 90 min, blacks. Mostly just trying one, got it done by skin of my teeth on last go of session. 6 left from this set now.
S - finally not fucking raining. Drove through Cheddar but lots of seepage. Remnant and Heartleaf Bluff looked climbable but the team weren't keen so carried on to back up option at Uphill. Warmed up "flashing" Line Dancer 7a, just a rh finish to Proper Job really, but nice enough. Looked at the extension (Tiers of a Clown) but didn't have enough draws. Then Inhuman 7b+, first go but have done the first half a few times on other routes. Flashed the meat of it though. Scraped up Tiers of a Clown 7b to finish, 7a+ in the new guide which is probably fair. Top day.
S - Avon, Sea Walls. one of the recent additions, No King Love Here 6a+, to warm up, pretty forgettable. Attempted OS of Just Searing Away 7b+, but was soon asking for beta, and soon after sat on the rope. Second go was still hard, poor feet meant I really had to bone the little crimps. Maybe still tired from yesterday.

72 kg.

[duncan]

Thanks Duma, have noted your adventures at Uphill and identified possible long-term projects that you flashed! Was down your way briefly this week but had a partner lined up on Tuesday who preferred Brean and the rest of the time the weather has been uncooperative.

M - Down to Weston. Rain. 8km walk along the beach.

T - Brean with Adam. Shorts weather for the younger climbers. Warmed up on Don’t Harsh My Mellow, a new-ish hybrid with at least two moves unfamiliar to me. Then tried Space Oddity, another worthwhile new one just to the right of Clashing Socks, 7a in the guidebook topo and 6c+ in the text (sack the proofreader!). It still has some hollow rock but there are plenty of holds so the grade shouldn't change much as it consolidates. Typical Brean, 8-10 punchy moves til it gets easier. I got through the hardest section on sight but lost momentum putting in the penultimate clip. As usual it would have been better to make one more move to the (hidden) jug. Tried it again but my elbow was now quite sore and my pull seemed to have evaporated. Space Oddity finishes at the top break, those wishing the summit experience can continue via Clashing Socks the easy way giving Odd Socks, a good line with consistent climbing.

Adam tickled the finishing jug of Black Snake Moan on the flash and it went smoothly next go despite being damp in places. Reportedly a very soft 7c+ if you’re a boulderer with a bit of reach (“7c in The Peak”). Calling it 8a will sell the RockFax app. I guess!

W - More rain. Walked to a damp Uphill Quarry and back. Back to London.

T - Fingerboard pick-ups. light weights, for elbow rehab.

F - Hip flexibility: pancake stretches, frog stretches, sumo squats. Shoulder conditioning: handstands, side planks, (IsYs)Ts, ‘face-pulls’. Tiger parenting in Woolwich, lots of walking.

S - Fingerboard pick-ups. Hip flexibility. Woolwich, walking along the Thames for ages. Typically, the weather was lovely.

S - Shoulders conditioning. More Tiger parenting, more walking.

Good to climb a bit in between the rain. Elbow is taking its time to recover which is frustrating as I was going reasonably well by the end of the Siurana trip. May have overcooked things a bit on Tuesday but had to grab the opportunity as I won’t have many in April.

Single parenting for the next few weeks so opportunities to climb outside will be limited. The usual story with the elbow - be patient, do the exercises, keep climbing at an appropriate level - and it will settle. Hopefully I can start bouldering fairly soon and won't lose too much. 

[Fiend]

Next week STG: MORE STRETCHING - YES. And rehab if needed - yes but needed more than expected. Test session indoor bouldering / on board to worry about weakness - no.
The usual STG: Stay focused and don't make silly mistakes - no. Do something challenging and inspiring on a rope, or above a pad - no. Keep in regular contact with suitable friends and partners - kinda, I think this scrapes in despite being a moany cunt. Falling practise if I do routes indoors or out - no. Look after injuries - got a new one but with no obvious cause, gym x 1 - no, elbow rehab x 1 - x 2, shoulder rehab x 2 - no, stretching x 3 - x 4.

M - Rest. Elbow rehab. Should have done stretching, didn't.

T -  Active rest. Skin exfoliation. Should have done stretching, actually did.

W - Rest. 20 mins walk. Stretching session.

T - Active rest. 30 mins walk, 1 x 6C. 3 top-rope routes @ Awesome Walls. New right arm GE sore and worrying. Bad mood. Elbow rehab.

F - Indoor elbow rehab mileage @ Rock Over Shartson. 8 x V0½ - V2½, 12 x V1½ - V3½, 10 x V2½ - V4½ (9 flash, 1 x 2nd go), 6 x V3½ - V5½ (4 flash, 2 x 3rd go, attempted 2 more - one of which was a pure Font """6C""" vert wall on 6mm grattons). Grades now too soft in line with new RO policy. Elbow slightly tender on warm-ups but fine once warmed up - kept well aware of it. OTOH body was feeling quite weird in the day - achey all over including stomach ache and nerve pains down left arm, plus physical anxiety, then skin was feeling sore at the wall despite being objectively good. Felt kinda viral?? Didn't inhibit movement at the wall at all. Stretching session. Many rump scratches with LingLing, also cuddles with Bean the chihuahua x jack russell.

S - Active rest / time-wasting. 20 mins walk. Failed to flash two morpho 6B/Cs masquerading as low extreme trad routes. Fuck off.

S - Active rest in some mediocre quarry. F6a, F6a+, F6b, F6b+. Full stretching session.


"Deload week" aka pretty bland apart from a fun lightweight session at ROS despite their new softer grading (still at least it isn't as bad as the Boardroom's random root vegetable non-grading non-system) and finally doing more stretching again. Weekend was beyond mediocre and a new and exciting golfer's elbow flare-up is entirely unwelcome.


Next week STG: Get back on track with training and rehab, and keep going with stretching. Take extra care with new and exciting GE flare-up.
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 2, shoulder rehab x 2, stretching x 3.

[Fultonius]

Slacking again from me. Good to see folks getting out on the rock.

Week one was decent enough, getting out a few times and working up through the savage Slov grades.

Just checked my trianing log on my phone, and I've recorded nothing at all! Woops....

From 8a.log (what people seem to use in Slovenia) :

21 March: Dolge Nijve upper crag, first time there. Longer routes that other crags in the area, but still mostly cruxy. Did a 6b that was ok for the grade for taller people, then a 6a, then flash go on a 6c+ which I got clean. I need to get on some benchmark routes back home to see where I'm at, as this felt like 7a+ but I'm just not sure. Sadly pulling hard on one of the cruxes might have slightly aggravated by A2 issue.  Then tried to onsight the crag testpiece "7a". Took me 5 or 6 goes, and a strained wrist to get through the lower crux.

It's always hard to asses "boulder" grades on a rope, but given the number of goes and how hard it felt I would break it down as:  F6c into good rest, then 6B into a 6A+ with no/poor rest, then good rest into 6b+ finish. Darth Grade: soft 7b+.....

23rd: Senica crag (our second closest crag, and one of my favourites). Warm up on a tricky 6a+, then jumped on a 7a I hadn't tried before:  Polhek Miloš. Again, sandbagged to fuck but very good!  Hard, thin vertical smeary start into a good rest, then a butch bouldering section into a steep rest, then some more steep burl / rockover and fun moves to finish. My onsight go burned out at the second crux but even dogging the rest of the route took effort and some figuring out of moves.

2nd go felt like a different route! All guns firing and half decent endurance meant I didn't have too much of an issue on the redpoint but the cruxes were still tough!  Me and darth grader both reckon solid 7b.

Then, as the clips were in, had a flash go a new addition to the crag, a very short, very steep (35 degrees) "7a+" . Flash went ok, but powered out at the 3rd crux (long twisting stretch / drop knee to a slopey crimp rail (sadly right hand...). Next go got through this, but slapped the wrong bit of the sloper and got stuck hard in one of those positions where you can't go up, can't move anything, but have plenty of time to hang there contemplate your lack of ability to make any more upwards action!

Third go I felt my A2 a bit crimping the bejeesus out that small edge and grovelled my way to the top. Bittersweet as I could sense I'd probably set back my A2 recovery, DG: 7b+.
 
26th: Pri Ciginju. Wanted a longer day at Osp, but life's other demands meant a shorter day suited better so this time we went to the real local's only crag...  Short, steep and savage. Some nice lower grades 6s etc. Snadbagsof the day were:

6a (6b), 6a+ (hahahah) this one took around 10 attempts to stick the first half of the crux. I reckoned from there I could have burled out a sequence at around 6B-6C. Top 4/5ths of the route were nice 6a wall climbing. (so, cruxy 7a/7a+).

I then tried a 7a+ "recommended" by my new climbing buddy Matija (I will be taking his recommendations with a pinch of salt - and maybe heed the faded "crap" written in red paint at the bottom).Onsighted the first crux, felt about 6B, let's say 6A. Then it hits a rankly savage and sharp crimp, that was risking a deep flapper on each pull. Tried many methods (including the "recommended" method) and couldn't get close. Not a good idea trying to judge the grades of things you can't do, but let's just call it 6B+. Then there was some tricky f6b before a rest and 6a to the top. DG: f7b+, or 7c if you give the crux 6C.

Then it was snowboarding in Engelberg with 20cm of fresh (mainly in the clag, but got a few laps in the clear at the end of the day which was awesome), a drop off at a boulder wall in Germany to break of the drive and now back in damp Glasgow with a tender A2....

Notes: need to work on wrist strength, especially in crimpy undercuts.

I could, of course, be totally out of touch with vert limestone crux boulder grades...  I'll need to get back on some dumby benchmarks after more A2 rehab!

Great trip nonetheless and definitely "working my weaknesses".

Oh, and also got in another 3 big mountainbike rides of 600m ascent/descent (x2), one of 1000m and a quick lunchtime loop of 280m ascent / 2.5km singletrack descent.

Feeling fit (on the bike), relatively strong, but creaky A2, and steadily increasing bodyweight need attention (82kg).

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - DL singles, beautiful. GM with pause.
Tue - shoulder static holds, back work.
Wed - Lattice edge campusing, pull ups.
Thu - farmer's.
Fri - 2x AM session, BM campusing.
Sat - stairs, jog, uphill sprints, weights. Don't know how I managed it.
Sun - back work, push ups.
Overeating, overdrinking.

[monkoffunk]

M - Light shoulder stuff at home. Grip reverse dumbbell curls. Two sets of repeaters. Alternating between half and full crimp each hang. Hammer curls to finish. Yoga.
T - Yoga.
W - Project 45 degree. Did a 6C, but also failed a 6A+ so who knows. Felt good! Possibly starting to sick though in evening... Yoga.
T - Chills and shakes. Couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. Yoga later.
F - Still sick but maybe improving. Yoga.
S - Much worse in the morning, proper fevers. Spoke to colleague turns out had same thing. Yoga in evening.
S - Yoga. Food and wine. Probably shouldn’t have had the wine as still not recovered. Planning dry April though so maybe it was worth it!

Not much of a week training wise, just need to get well and back to it! Standard blip.

[mr chaz]

Power Club:

M.
T. In Stoke for work, so took my lunch early and hit up Awesome Walls. Haven't been to this wall in >10 years but was really impressed with the problem setting and great training facilities. Nice mix of holds and angles and distinct lack of "PARKOUR!".
W.
T.
F - M. Wholesome family fun at massively over priced incredibly tame woodland adventure park Center Parcs

[shark]

M

T. Tor with Ioan. Discovered a useful heel hook on the Tin Of crux but failed to get through it from the ground. Again. Still feeling run down and unmotivated. Should have taken last week off.

W.

T.

F.

S. Walk around Malham and Gordale

S. Walk at Stanage. Victorious in Easter egg hunt

Karl T got in touch and we are off to Kalymnos on 22nd April then when back will be going up to Scotland for 3 weeks. Focus on getting fitter for those and get some trad days. Started cutting back on booze

[Aussiegav]

5weeks post surgery update.

Monday -

rehabbing throughout the day.
Managing to hang 45s continuously from the top of the lattice rung. 3 sets.
Managed two 7sec hangs from
18mm edge.  Some progress!

Elbow mobility is still good. I have gained and managed to keep an extra 20degrees flexion and 20 degrees extension. Been a really successful operation and rehab so far.

Got to keep on the rehab and build strength in these new ranges of movement. I have NO STRENGTH in these positions

Tuesday
 rehab during the day.
Virgin gym in the evening plus 3 sets of 5mins climbing with 3min rest. Very easy. Elbow went well.


Wednesday
Elbow rehab throughout the day.
3x45 hangs from jugs


Thursday
Rehab throughout the day.3 hangs

Friday
Virgin in the evening. Strength training body and elbow
Morning 40min peloton ride

Saturday
Rehabbing

Sunday
Climbed at Awesome Walls.
Did 7 routes. Went well. Knackered afterwards.
4 grade 5s and 3 6as. Mainly vertical climbing. Did a few routes slightly steep angle.
Could have done harder routes. but played it safe.
Went for a walk afterwards.

[Fiend]

Well done on the rehab and recovery so far gav.