Been away for a while.
Week 125 Mon 2nd - Sun 8th JulyM – S. Away with family. No climbing.
Week 126 Mon 9th - Sun 15th JulyM.
T. Travel to Ceuse
W. Travel to Ceuse
T. Medecine Douce 6c+ OS. OS attempt on Correspondance 7c+, fell about half way, dogged up. Had a second go, fell at same place. Tried Carte Blanche 8a but too tired to get very far. Saint George Picos 7a OS. Shit route. Jaime Lolo 7a OS attempt but fell. Shitter route.
F. Did Corespondance second go of the day. Tried Colonettes 8a but couldnt do the start, dogged to the top. Dogged up L’ami de Tout le Monde 8b, didn’t do all the moves but psyched to come back to it later on in the trip. OS attempt at Bibendum 7b+, good fight but fell over the roof, shouldn’t have tried it when so tired.
S. Petite Illusion 7a+ OS. Cent Patates 7b+ OS, my hardest OS yet. Blocage 7b+ OS attempt, fell half way, dogged to top.
S.
Not the best start to the trip but plenty of time left. Surprised by how much fitness ive lost from a week and a half off. Session fitness is shit, forearms knackered after 2 routes.
Week 127 Mon 16th - Sun 22nd JulyM. Ananda 7a OS. Corps Entrager 7b+ flash but have done the start from correspondance before. OS attempt on Mirage 7c+, fell off the last hard move, stupid twat! Tried Blocage again but fell lower than my OS. Did Bibendum. 2nd attempt on Mirage, fell lower than OS, too tired.
T. 6b OS. 3rd go on Mirage, fell lower than OS again! Worked out some better beta. Dog up Radote joli 8b, did most of moves but top boulder felt desperate. Another go on Carte Blanche, bit better but stuck at the crux. Lapinerie 7b flash attempt, caught wrong part of finish jug and fell. 2nd go fell off the starting slab. Did it 3rd go.
W.
T. Med Douce repeat. Did Mirage. Dog up Bourinator 8a. Did it 4th go. My first 8 in a day. Starting to climb better
F. Dog up Radote joli again. Did first boulder and linked from after it to second boulder and did a few moves of that but 2 moves left that I couldn’t do. Dog up Carte Blanche again, realise Busters beta is shit and found much easier way. Did it next go.
S. Zagreb 6c OS. Did Galaxy 7b+ second go. Felt more like 7c. Tried La chose 7c, got to 3rd clip and left ring finger started hurting. Came down, hopefully just a tweak that will go but slightly worried.
S. 6b repeat, finger seems fine. Tenere 7c+ OS attempt. Fell at mantel below the chains, stupid twat again! Did it 2nd go.
Climbing better this week, fitness coming back.
Week 128 Mon 23th - Sun 29th JulyM. 6c at Thorgal OS attempt, fell off. Blanche Fesses 7c OS although took a while to get my feet off the floor. First 7c OS. Super Mickey 7b OS. Dogged up Face de Rat 8a+. Had a redpoint and fell at top crux.
T.
W.
T. Petit Montre 6a OS. Couilles de loup 6a+ OS. Au Sud de Nulle Part 7b OS. Carte Noir 6a OS. Dogged up Unique Monde.com 7c. No chalk so didnt really know where to go and it felt hard. Got to last bolt and could see chains over bulge and couldn’t work out how to climb over the bulge so sacked it off!
F. A Patrick 6a OS. Dogged up Sans peur et sanglier 7c+. Did it 3rd go. Did Jaime Lolo 7a.
S. La Femme Piege 6b Flash. Priveledge du Serpent 7c+ OS. Finally didn’t fall off the last move of 7c+ OS, first goal of the trip ticked off. Keket Blues 7b flash but have done the start before on Super Mickey. Magicien de Riga 7c+ flash. Pleased with this as it was such a fight. Dogged up Teuchipa 7c. Did it 2nd go. Maybe my best day ever?
S.
Feeling good now. Left elbow started getting bad again so started doing pronators which normally sort it out.
Week 129 Mon 30th July - Sun 5th AugustM. Dogged up Face de Rat 8a+ again. Did it next go. Dogged up Encore 8a+. Had a redpoint but fell quite low.
T. Med Douce 6c+ repeat. Association 7c+ flash but done the start on Corps before.
W. Les sales 6c flash. Vagabond 7c OS. Glad to get this out the way as really wanted to os it and had saved it for a while so felt quite pressured. Tried Rosanna 8a briefly, fell at the first clip twice and landed in the thorn bush twice. Fuck that. Petit Monstre 6a repeat. Retour en Afrique 7a OS. Dogged up L’ami 8b again. Much better, did all but one move this time. Psyched now.
T.
F. Tete d’Ampoule 6b OS. Dogged up L’ami. Found better beta and did all moves. 3 redpoints, fell at same low move on all of them.
S. Coup de Blues 6a+ OS. 4 redpoints on L’ami, got slightly higher on 4th one and tweaked some beta.
S.
Week 130 Mon 6th - Sun 12th AugustM. Went to Cascade to belay but started raining and wasn’t sure if L’ami would be dry so decided to climb. Fell off Ananda. Tried Hyper Mickey 7c, dogged to top. 2nd go pinged off low crimp. Did it 3rd go. Pleased as its my anti style. L’ami was dry. 3 redpoints. Good progress on first 2. Fell lower on 3rd and had a bit of a shit dog part way up. Feel way more positive about it after the progress today though.
T. Le coquelicot 6c OS. Did L’ami first go of the day. So happy!
My first of the grade and my goal for the year done. Dogged up Retour en Afrique to put clips in for Alice.
W.
T. Super Mario 6b+ OS. OS Attempt on Makach Walou 7c+, fell off last hard move. Stupid twat again! Did it 2nd go. Did Blocage 7b+. Queue de Rat 7b+ OS. Great fight with a head torch on this.
F. Comme des Phoques 6b OS. Dog up Petit Tom 8a. Did it 3rd go. L’errance d’une Passion 7c OS.
S. Dog up Encore 8a+ again. Did it next go quite unexpectedly. Les Maitres du Monde 6c multipitch. Stupidly set off at half 8 and had to do pitch 3 and 4 in the dark, fun though.
S.
Really good week. Fingers feel stronger despite having done no power stuff for the last 5 weeks, possibly lost weight.
Week 131 Mon 13th - Sun 19th August M. La Galere 7a OS. All 3 routes I wanted to try had a queue so went to try the start of Collonettes again. Still couldn’t do the move at the start. Queues still there. Reine des Pommes 7a OS. Dietic line 7b OS.
T. Nitassian 7a OS. Dogged up Femme Noir 7c/+. Did it second go.
W. Travel Home.
T.
F. Planned to have a week off but risked it and went bouldering at Warwick. Elbow was feeling it so stopped after 30mins. Need more rest.
S.
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Elbow seems worse now im home but its not too bad yet. Will keep resting and doing rehab stuff till wed/thur. Very happy with the trip, got my 2 goals done. Think the plan worked pretty well as felt in good shape once I was past the dip at the start. By the periodisation theory I should now go through a trough in performance.