[fried]

Monday - indoor. Second new wall visit http://www.arkose.com/ . The place is fairly small and some sections are not more than 4m high, but being a first visit I did lots of stuff. Grading was nails, deliberate policy to slowly make the grades easier through the year so folks think they're improving? No weight room. Certainly wouln't go here at the weekend it must be jammed.

Tuesday - Normally I'd say nothing but as I had to do my 30min exercise I went out at lunch time and walked for 1h.
Wednesday - Indoor 3h inc. Lots of back stuff and weights.
Thursday - Power walk home from centre of Paris 35mins for 4.2km according to Mapmywalks app.
Friday - 45mins - Push ups, planks and BM.
Saturday - 1h 30 walking, at speed.
Sunday - Indoor as Wednesday. Planned to go outside but too much rain on Saturday night.

Sharkathon week 2 done.

Weight down to 75.5kg from 76.8kg with help from Myfitnesspal app.

[kelvin]

Cheers fried - nice looking venue tho.

Nowt

Manflu turned into real flu. Utterly battered by it and still not anything like right now. 

[Fultonius]

Not a very successful return to power club for me. I tweaked my left hand ring finger muscle/tendon joint, so just taking it easy.

Went for an easy route session at the local wall yesterday with the lass and managed routes up to 6c with only minor discomfort, and no pain today so should be able to get back bouldering soon.

[tomtom]

2014 totals:
Outside 1
Indoor 4
Training 2

First an apology... last week I forgot that I had my inaugural session on Andy Popps woody...
Second - unlucky Fultonius

M: Travel back from Lakes and rest
T: Andys board - a bit of a half hearted session... but worked out the arms a bit..
W: Logport wall at lunchtime... a fairly good 'power hour'...
T: rest
F: Out to Burbage North to meet up with Lagers and Shark. NO TRAVERSES WERE CLIMBED good fun around the remergence area and the slab to the RH side.. Came close to a 7A variant on some thing on the left - and made some good progress on Blind Date - thanks to Shark for some really useful micro-beta on how to hold the RH low crimp (which made it move from impossible to viable)
S: Off to Hull to watch Chelsea beat us....
Su: Walk with friends and their young kids - pub lunch (that I think probably had my full days calorie total!). Just finished a session on the Beastmaker.. working by back two/three (its three at the moment as my back two are so rubbish I can't hang them). Also (rather embarrasingly) I've had to re-jig my assisted one armer set up... I did have a rope going over a hook to the weights - but it seems there was quite alot of friction there. Once I replaced this with a pulley my 'assist' weight for one armers has gone from 10kg to (ahem) 20... well, for a week I felt I was strong :D

(oh, managed to lose 2-3 pounds since xmas.. normal food and routine helps..)

[Muenchener]

STG (January): obtain or build doorway mounting rig for beastmaker.
            ARC on overhanging wall 15 minutes. Currently: 11:30
            Turkish Get-Up w/20kg kettlebell.
MTG (Spring 2014) 7a redpoint. Two hundred practice falls by Easter - currently: 15
LTG (<= 5 years): Big alpine rock routes: Totenkirchl west face (Dülfer), Marmolada south face (Vinatzer-Messner)

M:   Kettlebell 20kg 4 x 20 swings, tgu training 3 x shoulder press & hold top position. Mobility & knee physio exercises as warm-up.
T: Wall, Thalkirchen. ARC/aerocap 16, 20, 16 minutes on predominantly overhanging walls, with some rests/shakeouts on vertical sections (strictly no bridging). Forgot to set the timer for the middle set, oops.
W: Wall, Thalkirchen. Competition night: an hour's social bouldering then 2 x 20 mins ARC.
   Bike to & from wall 18km; Mr Physio says cycling in moderate doses is good for my knee.
T: Wall, Boulderwelt. This was supposed to be more social bouldering, catching up with climbing partners again after the Christmas break. Sadly I turned up late from work, the place was packed and I didn't find them so I had to try to boulder properly instead. Five days on out of the last seven: tired.
F:
S: Wall, Thalkirchen. ARC/aerocap 2 x 20 minutes. Blinding tedium, blistered fingers - this better be working, because it certainly isn't fun.
S: Wall, Thalkirchen. Belay bunny for M jnr. Knee physio exercises @ home afterwards.

Knee still giving trouble. Not yet sufficiently back on the physio exercises bandwagon: vicious circle of "go to wall in evening - get home late - go to bed late & tired - fail to get up early enough to do knee exercises before work". I could "do knee exercises between ARC sets @ wall" instead I suppose, had I more discipline, but as it is I tend to prefer "have a nice lie down listening to music" between ARC sets @ wall.

[andy popp]

M - gentle shoulder exercise with warm-up band, crunches, push-ups. Need to slowly rebuild shoulders, chest etc.
T- terrible, terrible board session trying to do circuits. Feel like a leaden bag of potatos, a finger hurts. End dispirited
W - shoulder/crunch/press-up routine
T - ditto followed by evening board session. Was going to circuit but get sucked into bouldering and end up working great new problem. Feel lighter and more energy. Finger doesn't hurt. End encouraged!
F - long work day to Brum
S - shoulder/crunch/press-ups
S - nip to Pex and Andy F turns up just as I'm warming up. Its raw and cold but manage to warm-up quickly. Happy to be able to knock out a few old favourites in the V2 - V5/6ish range. I just wanted to get out and get some movement going. Mission accomplished. Nice to chew the fat with Andy too.

[tomtom]

Might be up for some Tuesday eve boardage if the weather means I can't get out on Tues Andy?

[nik at work]

Once I replaced this with a pulley my 'assist' weight for one armers has gone from 10kg to (ahem) 20...

This doesn't make any sense, a pulley would reduce friction so more of your assisting load will be assisting rather than overcoming the friction of your rusty hook arrangement (aren't you a scientist??). You should need less assisting weight, it would seem you have had a massive power leakage!

STG - one armer on first joint biodoit on bottom row of BM
MTG - one armer on mono on bottom row of BM
LTG - something hardish in a short bouldery sport stylee if I ever get back to Spain...
M - reasonable BM sesh
T - reasonable BM sesh
W - reasonable BM sesh
T - swimming and reasonable BM sesh
F - not much
S - outside AM project cleaning with a bit of climbing. PM reasonable BM sesh
S - friends round for tea, couple of showboating hangs on mono's 

Pretty good week, no real progress on goals but maintaining performance and feeling 'lighter' as I do it. Think STG might be ticked by mid Feb. MTG early summer???

[duncan]

STG - Don’t get injured; 2 sessions a week with a rope on, emphasis on endurance.
MTG - 7b RP this spring; E5 OS this summer; LH&F BHAGs in Yosemite June 2014.
LTG - LH&F BHAGs in Dolomites, Alps etc. summer 2015 and beyond.

M - Building site fitness (picking up radiator, holding pipes above head, running up steps with forgotten blow-torch, making tea etc.).
T - Generally below-par, so took the day off.
W - Desultory building site fitness.
T - Westway routes. Started on the auto-belay as partner didn’t turn up. Partner eventually arrived very late, insisted she belay me but wasn’t going to climb. This meant that I did 28 routes with not much rest between each. Not sure what kind of ‘cap this counts as, hopefully El Cap., but felt utterly thrashed.
F - Short jog. Stretches, usual shoulder and elbow preventative stuff.
S - Portland, with csl. 
Brilliant blue sky all day! Belaying in T-shirts! Muddy underfoot and some big wet streaks but essentially great conditions. Warmed-up. Took advantage of the in-situ draws and copious beta and encouragement provided by Bristol wads (thank you, if you're reading) to try ‘Live By The Sword’. Sooooo close on the flash, but fluffed the footwork on the last move and skidded off. Worked the sequence a few times to my satisfaction. Those who have climbed with me will not be surprised to hear I got nowhere as far on my red-point try. I should be in with a shout next time if I’m fresher and without time constraints. Got on ‘Zinc Oxide Mountain’. This felt an order of magnitude harder. Managed most of the moves in some kind of fashion but couldn’t work out what to do on two sections. Car poorly on the way home which made a long day.
S - House tidying and cleaning in preparation for arrival of family. Building site fitness.

In shock for the first half of the week due to returning to work and just being in the UK in January but I seem to have readjusted. Working ZOM was a novel experience. It felt totally nails. csl assures me this is completely normal and it will be interesting to see what kind of progress I can make if I spend more time on it. I have a feeling I should be trying 7bs rather than a tricky 7b+ at this stage of my nascent sport climbing career though. Plan is to continue with roped wall sessions, emphasising volume and aerobic endurance. Return of family will curtail trips for a little bit.

[masonwoods101]

The friction of the hook would increase the amount of force needed to lift the weight... So A low weight will feel heavier....

[cheque]

STG: 7A in session, 7A+ sieged on grit this season Rehab fingers, get tradding

M- basic strength: pull-ups, pushups, bicep curls. slightly increased dumbbell weight as usual.

T- Core.

W- Swimming. 40 lengths- best yet.

T- Various core/ strength training things.

F- Rest.

S- Roaches. for the second Saturday in a row, I decided to go and do some soloing of the easy classics in Staffs that I've never done. For the second Saturday in a row reality disagreed with me and everything was soaked when I got there and didn't dry very quickly. This week I didn't have my girlfriend with me so I got scared optimistically trying some routes that were nowhere near as dry as they looked from the floor: good bit of downclimbing-in-terror training but also some successes. Mooched round the skyline looking at stuff I want to go back and do 'til dark. Stretched fingers in evening with positive results almost immediately.

S- Birchen. Very easy soloing on the driest, lowest bit of the crag then mooching round Gardom's looking at stuff I want to go back and do 'til dark.

Physio advice on my finger joints is to keep stretching the joints until I have full movement and no small holds until that happens, so switching my focus to trad rather than bouldering for a while. Last year I didn't do any trad and reading Peak Rock made me psyched for it so actually quite up for it. Just need to wait for the crags to not be in utterly fucked condition then round up trad partners... Probably do some indoor routes and/ or aerocap this week.

[csl]

Jan Goals
Climb 3x a week - 4/3
25 Problems on Comp Wall @ Biscuit - 17/25
2x sessions on rope - 1/2
1x outside - 1/1
Lose a kilo - weight 75.5kg. marginal weight loss this week, 1500 of McDonalds finest fattiest calories yesterday probably didn't help.

Winter
V8 indoors/generally get stronger bouldering.
Book a trip sport climbing in March/April.

Mon - Biscuit. Did f7a on comp wall. Did all apart from last move on Black f7b+. Tried Tiger f7a+ a few times and various other harder problems.
Tue - nothing
Wed - Mile End. Social session meeting the NLMC, did all sorts. Boulder up to V5 onsight and did 6b and 6c circuits in Monkey house. o/s'ed the roof section of the 7b+ circuit, but fell off after that. Some random slabs and things outside.
Thu
Fri
Sat - Portland with Duncan.
Great day out despite my poor performance. Cuttings to start. Did a 6a, the had to rest on the second 6a+ warm up as I was so pumped. We moved to Battleship Back Cliff, which is great!
Rewarmed up on another 6a, then went up Zinc Oxide Mountain, 7b+. Good climbing, still need to work out a couple of sections. Particularly, on headwall getting into crack. Linking it will be very hard. Then TR on Bouys will be Bouys as the sun set, cold.
Clearly need to get on a rope a lot more as I was climbing poorly, still took a couple of good falls going bolt to bolt on ZOM.
Sun - Biscuit Factory.
Some of the new Purple V0-9 circuit and Whites V4-7 circuit, tried to concentrate on problems with small holds on vertical-25º overhanging walls. Then on circuit board, 7b - with a different hold to make it less cruxy. 1 min rest. 7a, fell off 2nd last move. 30 secs rest. 6c into 6a+. Then some more laps on easy problems. Felt pretty pumped!

This week, eat a bit better. Do some running. Start introducing a bit of PE/endurance so my next days sport climbing isn't quite so disastrous.

[205Chris]

Once I replaced this with a pulley my 'assist' weight for one armers has gone from 10kg to (ahem) 20...

This doesn't make any sense, a pulley would reduce friction so more of your assisting load will be assisting rather than overcoming the friction of your rusty hook arrangement (aren't you a scientist??). You should need less assisting weight, it would seem you have had a massive power leakage!

I disagree, assuming that the assistance comes from the opposite hand pulling on a rope connected to a pulley system, then the resistance of the hook assists the hang i.e.

Force needed for tomtom to do a one armer = force from one arm + resistance of hook + weight

If you decrease the resistance of the hook, you need to increase the weight to balance the equation.

[nik at work]

Ahhhh, I assumed the assistance was attached to a belt/harness.

[205Chris]

Ahhhh, I assumed the assistance was attached to a belt/harness.

In which case, you were right 

[tomtom]

Ahhhh, I assumed the assistance was attached to a belt/harness.

In which case, you were right 

it's an assist rather than resist set up.. So friction makes it harder to pull down on the pulley - making less weight needed.

[tomtom]

The friction of the hook would increase the amount of force needed to lift the weight... So A low weight will feel heavier....

Correct

[shark]

11.8-9

M. Eve Fingerboard
T.  PM Messed about doing some fingery endurance stuff and adding my new crusher crimps to the systems board which was exciting..for me anyway. Eve. Foundry with Poppy. 40 deg board. busy. Poppy forgot harness so free to do what I wanted. Went back on the Oak lurch I set after xmas and managed to do it a couple of times and was also close to linking a couple of moves into it. Encouragingly Gus and Bob didn't find it piss or in fact do it.  Did a couple of 8sec 3finger drags on #10s which is an improvement on the 4 secs when first tried it a few weeks ago. Ok at 1-4-6ing large rungs.Good session.
W. Eve. Quick Foundry hit. Was going to do easy traversing but it was rammed so did a bunch of easy boulder problems (level ones) as a type of active rest
T. Noon. Was going to go to Remergence but Lagers texted to say there was a massive puddle so stayed home. Had an OK fingerboard session but no better than the last one. Perhaps the active rest wasn't that restful. Eve. Weights.  Was umming and ahhing about doing another session but glad I did. Session included weighted pullups and deadlifts natch (140kg since you asked)
F. AM Burbage North with Larger and Tomtom.  Cold windy overcast. Started on slab beyond Remergence - not been on that for for 20 years did them except right hand one (plus ca change) but Tomtom got it via a novel headbutt and belly flop manouevre - gritstone wizardry at its best. Went on the bulge and did the campus moves off the slopers in isolation but didn't link into it. Larger did the 7B version which was impressive for one so fat. Few goes on Blind Date. Felt better on sloper but still struggling to get left foot up. Split a tip as usual but a different one this time. Larger thanked me at the car park for making him look good. Next time I'll thank him for making me look thin
S. AM Headed out for a run with Poppy in the Peak but turned back at Fulwood as it was sleeting. PM. Second attempt at going out and did a 45min  jog round higgar surprise view loop. Poppy had a few face plants till she got used to the terrain
S. eatswood. Cold but not much wind. Got some good links on the Reverse - see below

Good week of activity - but lack of weight loss was disappointing but exercise does make me hungry. A few minor lapses on the alcohol front to declare.

[JackAus]

STG: Finger recovery then V7 and DWS project.
LTG: V11

M: AM DWS before it gets too hot.
Had 5 attempts today. A couple of slaps for the top. Really need to lock allot deeper before the slap. Still about 8 inches short from topping.
Mentioned this last week but had my worst fall so far.
Mid-crux, 10m off the water, coming out of the roof and onto the face. Right foot up around my ears on a very slopey hold, bump rh to the micro crimp intermediate and the second I catch it well, foot slips. Windmill my fat arse into the water with enough rotation and height to have feet down but torso flat. Instantly winded and struggling under water. Only a couple metres from a exit ledge but took me about 30s to swim there, struggling. Sat on the ledge getting breath back for a couple of min before I could scramble out.
Video is pretty funny. Will have to post it when I get my laptop fixed.
Only had 1 attempt after the big fall. Tbh, was still in allot of pain, just forced myself back on it so I didn't get scared and wind up hating the line.
Did another lap off the 45m 7a traverse and had a couple attempts of some of the lower lines.
T: Hot. Worked until about 830pm then went for a night bouldering session. Rained when I got to the crag (massive roof cap on entire crag) making it really humid and sticky. Didn't climb that well. V7 project started to get wet fairly quickly, everything else is either miles too hard or I've done it... Left about midnight.
W: Felt rubbish so just an easy hour on stationary bike before working late again.
T: AM DWS. Felt pretty rubbish again. Warmed up on 7a traverse (not something I normally do. Normally just get straight on...). Timed my rests and limited myself to total of 2min spread over 2 rests. 2nd is always the longer of the 2...
Then only 1 attempt at project. Fell in the crux, held the cut, struggled to place foot then didn't hold the crimp. Didn't feel good, decided to do lower lines.
Did 2 lines, 1st is out of the first rest on traverse and 2nd is out of the 2nd (about 3/4 of the route).
Both about V3 (lower wall is only about 5m high, so lines are getting boulder grades) but both very fun. 1 involving 2 precarious mantles and the other  a wicked dyno that I flashed. Left chalk bag in the rest thinking I'd fall so did the full traverse again to get it. Struggled, pumped out of my mind... Only just made to 2nd rest...
Work late...
F: Work early. Finished at noon. Drove 2hrs to Canberra . Got word of an older, unknown V12 very local to me with loads more potential around it...
Didn't do any exercise but my work is fairly physical. Lots of lifting shit.
S: Boulder near Canberra. Already have no skin so pulling on tiny granite crimps will be fine, right? 2 of us cleaned up 4 new lines climbing 2 of them, getting V3 and V4. The V4 took us ages to work out until I found a hidden hold unlocking the whole thing. Repeated it much smoother for video. Very good climb. Shredded fingers...
S: No climbing, no work. Easy 1hr on the stationary bike before drinking through the afternoon playing with Lego....

Overall, finger is on the improve... Didn't feel good on the night boulder but then the rock at that crag always seems to savage my hands. Dws, as usual, it feels fine until the very crimpy crux. And granite bouldering, it wasn't too bad as I did my best to avoid small holds...

Kicked off my developing year. Only 99 more new lines to go...
Sunday and Monday rest. Then back on the project first thing Tuesday morning... Fingers fucking crossed...

[lagerstarfish]

14.10-13

M - gym. contemplated joining a spin class, but none of the available bikes had a good view, so did my own thing. 5 reps of (8 pullups, 10 dips, 15 pressups, 8kg dumbell complex) with 2 mins bike or jog between reps, no rest. 10 mins easy bike. 10 mins looking in the mirror. 20 mins steam room and floating in warm water. hot shower to warm down.

T - obviously over did it on Monday, should have quit before hitting the mirrors

W - as Tuesday

Th - went to look at wet rock and lake under Remergence. realised that I would need an expert in flood management to advise me on how to proceed. thought about playing a cruel practical joke on Shark by telling him that conditions were great, but thought about the effect this might have on the rest of his family. texted Shark with accurate conditions report

F - a shark a starfish and a hydrologist went climbing... this scenario caused me great amusement - I watched Tomtom and Shark try my increasingly bizarre duff beta for some easy eliminates at Remergence. I, of course, floated effortlessly up the problems using various cheats. I accidently let Shark see my full reach whilst feeling the holds on Blind Date - kicking myself for letting this happen - I had expected to get several sessions worth of sandbagging out of this secret weapon. after comparing my performance to the two high achieving thin people I was left wondering why I can't a) boulder 7C, b) lead 8b. 3 seconds of reflection led me to the conclusion that it's because I don't try either of these things

S - felt like I'd been given a good kicking - I must have been trying harder than I thought on Friday. Intercostals hurting due to the effort taken in stifling my laughter while the shark and the hydrologist attempted the duff sequences I made up.

Sun - 20 mins jog on Sheffield's uneven pavements. incorporated some willpower training by passing both McDonalds and KFC on the route. 3x30 pressups

[tomtom]

#hustler

[rich d]

another week of the sharkathon.
another week off the booze.
Mon to thurs assorted core, press ups and short fingerboard sessions. - starting to feel a little better.
Friday - felt wasted and aborted a fingerboard session after the warm up pull ups then did nothing -  Shark punter away.
Saturday felt much better for laying off on Friday - after inferring from the forums that it might be worth checking out Leicestershire rock  (supposedly peak was wet) went to Beacon Hill with wife and kids - the rock's shit - don't go! so had a walk around the woods etc then came home and did a decent fingerboard session, planks and leg raises.
Sunday DIY spent 6 hours putting up dildo rails and skirting boards, did my minimum 30mins core and press-ups.

1. Learnings for the week. At 41, fat and out of shape 2 weeks without a break from training hurts.
2. DIY is shit and can lead to potential divorce - get someone in instead.
3. When you can get to the peak in just over an hour don't bother tossing about with shitty bits of rock for a short session.

[Ti_pin_man]

STG: 7a

The NY and my cold before Xmas has slowed the 7a, lost a couple of weeks doing stuff just really for maintenance.  So now looking to pick it up.

M - Core101 and stretches and 250 pressups - the 'geordie dave' challenge
     2.5 hours climbing long bouldery stuff
T - core101 and 250 pressups
W - 20 miles cycle / core101 and 250 pressups
T - 20 miles cycle / Gym set / core101 and 250 pressups
F - rest
S - 3 hours climbing around 6b/6b+ but think all these pressups have stressed the sholders as I felt them doing 6c's, odd, maybe an old man like me needs to wait for the body to adjust a little, ha.
S - an hour doing traversy stuff

A disappointing week, not enough climbs and too much of other stuff, such is life, but still a bit short of my own expectations of getting the 6c's.  I'll continue with the geordie dqve press up challenge for this month and see if my body adjusts and gets more used to it PLUS this coming week looks like I'll get three climbing sessions in.  wahooo.

[T_B]

86.3Kg

M -
T - Lunch: CWP fingerboard prog, plus 50 press ups, 100 crunches. P.M. Home fingerboard sess. 2 x sets of repeaters on 15mm edge, lots of attempts at front levers.
W - P.M. Routes - Foundry (flashed a 7a and a 7a/+, tried a 7b+ but miles off). First time I've tied into a rope since July 2013 and first time doing indoor routes since August 2012. Felt like a fish out of water - got scared and pumped.
T -
F - Foundry lunch. Problems on the board, plus two problems on the Wave.
S - Took kids to the Mini Works in the morning, ignored the naysayers and headed out to Stanage for 2pm for my first time on rock since 12 September. Twas damp as we warmed up, then turned mint. Tried sitter to Help the Young, getting established OK and generally making some good progress fathoming it out. Amazing moves! Avoided anything vaguely high or with a dodgy landing. Pulled onto the Joker crimps at the end and they felt good, but no way would I have the confidence to properly go for it yet above mats.
S - 2.5 hours at the Play Arena, followed by 2 hours on a desperate set of Works comp wall problems, following by swimming with the kids. Totally destroyed 

After the double fingerboard session on Tuesday and having made plans to do routes on Wednesday, I thought I'd turn the week into a 'shock the system' week. 2 hours in the cold trying to compress a gritstone arete was enough to kill me off, but I made sure I could hardly lift my arms come Sunday evening by getting stuck into a load of ridiculously burly problems on the comp wall at the Works. Back to some simple deadhanging + circuits this week I reckon...

[Schnell]

revised goals;
STG 7B this season which is fanciful unless I start getting out more.
MTG, sport climbing oriented, Ceuse trip this summer would be optimal

This is a two week post sporting climbing trip to El Chorro entry. My aim was 7b+ which I didn't manage but I'm happy enough. I did 7a+ onsight and fell off fingertips from two 7b and one 7b+ (7c in the local guide) onsights, two of which I'm pretty sure I would have polished off if I'd got back on them.  The girlfriend wasn't keen to belay me repeatedly on projects so I basically got one go on any route. Anyway I gained a lot of confidence and did loads of mileage and had a good time.

It did confirm my total shitness on steep climbing though cos I tried to 'onsight' a roof 7b and ended up going bolt to bolt to get the draws back. Not sure how to tackle this. I struggle on roof bouldering (probably technique, core strength/lankiness) as well as long juggy steep sport routes (bad endurance). The solution probably involves pitching tent beneath the roof section of my local bouldering wall in the short term and long term doing better planned enduro aerocap and ancap training before my next sport trip