[shark]

11.4-5 Average 158.9 (0.1lbs up on last week)

M. Rest day 4 of 10

T. Rest 5 of 10

W. Rest day 6 of 10

T. Rest day 7 of 10

F Rest day 8 of 10

S. Rest day 9 of 10

S. Rest day 10 of 10

Thank fuck that’s over.

During this week I have crafted a plan that is optimally loaded and sequenced to enable me to climb past the horn on Tuesday 5th March and then redpoint the whole route during the week commencing 18th March (I haven’t decided which day yet).

[shark]

Sorry for the off topic post

[tomtom]

Big Mac ready meal please. With beetroot juice.

[yetix]

Looking forward to seeing what the plan entails over the coming months!

M: rest
T: rest
W: BUK 55 board, worked on executing things I'd previously sent, managed 6, 4 of which had taken a fair bit of work in the past, managed to work a few more moves out for various projects on the board and send another problem.
T: rest
F: rest
S: BUK 55 board, sent a problem that's very much my anti style. Managed to repeat it a further 2 times. Managed to work another problem in overlapping halves I thought would be too hard for me.
S: depot, ticked a couple more yellows and purples. Feeling tired.

Was meant to have a lighter week this week, but the sessions ended up being quite long so not sure I've achieved the goal of recovering a little 

Slightly better news off work on Wednesdays now so hoping I can find some dry rock next week!

[tomtom]

Bad week for work....

Depot Friday, first time I'd had time to climb in over a week.
45min in at W3 as dusk fell tonight.

[36chambers]

M:
T: Bday day out. Stanage, first time in long while. Having never had an issue with flexibility I found out I'm too inflexible, and/or small, to get into position to pull onto The Joker... Brad Pitt was wet, so also had a punt on Careless Torque, which I do think I am too inflexible for
W: Fiddy board. Fingers feeling strong, but I think I may have strained my right obliques on Sunday and trying hard jumpy problems on the board royally f**ked them over.
T: right obliques and right trap hurt.
F: "
S: "
S: Cliff. beta spraying. Coughing and sneezing feels like someone is stabbing me in the side.

Well it was fun while it lasted PC, might sit it out till I'm in shape for some actual training. Allez

[lagerstarfish]

did some more measuring this week

NSFW  :

I have managed to lose about half a stone in the last month by making slight changes to my unhealthy eating habits

also found that I have a +4" ape index and can reach 7' 11" in bare feet with heels on the floor - so I am declaring myself to be officially Bigger Than Will Hunt

M - very tired after work, went to bed before the kids

Tu - Plantation! Frost and cloud inversion. Nice pottering with some like minded punters. Plattsy, Dolly and Nai turned up. Unfortunately we had to give Plattsy the news that because he hasn't done Green Traverse (qualification 7A) he is not allowed to claim anything harder than 6C+ for anything he has ever done. He took it well and did a good job of pretending to listen to the avalanche of contradictory beta we threw at him. Fun session. Because I finally had a day without cold symptoms, I was able to get my flu jab done.

W - no exercise

Th - 2 hours snowboarding at Castleford.  No queues, good grippy fast snow (colder than usual apparently) plus a test set up of Flow pro 11 bindings on Palmer Power Plates. New set up (after tweeks) allowed some righteous heel side carves and generally being able to bank the board right over without booting out. Plenty of rapid, tight carves. Big smiles. Couple of good style 360 degree carves to celebrate. Legs took a good hammering. Good learning experience with this setup. Gym when I got back to Sheff to try to simulate a day of riding - kettlebell lunge walk; legs gave up on 3rd walk. Dips, pulups, overhead press. When I got out of the van for the late shift at work my legs were proper wobbly. Ace.

F - nowt

Sa - Loads of household chores, big shop etc.. Headed toward Peak, but rain started. Went to gym and took it easy. Felt real pain when I thought about how much I wanted to live near a ski resort. Consoled myself with thinking about Tuesday's fun on brown rocks.

Su - Mini Works with the lad. Quiet. Turns out he can traverse a lot further than I expected - some good fun following each other around traversing.

Tuesday and Thursday were the most fun I have had in ages

Hoping I can keep eating normal - it would be nice to get down to Not Overweight

Going back to Jasna in March and looking forward to doing lots of turns on the board, so trying to create some relevant fitness. Last March went well despite being unfit and heavy. Lets see...

[Will Hunt]

I am honoured by the naming of Power Club this week.

M -

T - Dismal conditions. Humidity in the 90s. Could barely see to the end of my road with the mist. Had scheduled the Depot for later in the week so was somewhat at a loose end. What does one do in such circumstances. Lamp session on Red Baron Roof of course. Treated it as a working go as connies were, incredibly, actually quite good, despite high humidity and mist. What's that all about? Was comfortably doing the moves to get near the stand but toe was pinging out of toe hook and spitting me off before I could move to the sidepull that gets you into the stand proper.

W - Hit Stubbs up for RBR beta and he mentioned he didn't use the toe hook at all. Curiouser and curiouser.

T - Depot. Bought a comp sheet. Was there with Sean and Anna, ready to resume mine and Sean's friendly Depot winter comp rivalry. The place was rammed. Hot, sweaty. Climbed like crap. Think I might sack off the comp. It started as being a good excuse to make a weekly Depot trip over winter, but now that this is ingrained doing the comp seems counter-productive. You're not going to get stronger by trying to flash stuff. Moved to the board but was too far gone to make good use of it.

F -

S - Day out with the family. Gale force winds at Harewood House made seeing the penguins all the sweeter.

"S: Shipley Glen, best conditions I've ever experienced, velcro would love to be as adherent as the rock was today. Warmed up on the usual circuit of technical aretes and walls (all soft by at least 2 grades) and then got on Red Baron Roof. Did it third go of the day, ending my multi year siege. Felt easy, probably only a grade harder than Demon Wall Roof really, just didn't really suit me."

Not quite. Popped into Saltaire with family to do a little Christmas shopping. Had a picnic in the park and walked back up to the Glen. Grabbed the pads and went to the Roof. It was a bust - starting foothold soaked from seepage running off from the break. A working go it is then. Could try the roof bit from right hand on lip and left hand on lip crimp using an alternative foothold. Tried the roof bit with a Katana on the left foot to see what the toe hook was like in a flatter shoe. No go. Couldn't toe into the roof foothold at all. Muiras back on. Tried getting to the sidepull using Stubb's beta and found that it worked. Excellent, progress made, but still falling from the stand. Put a bit of time into working the stand, which feels ridiculous given that I've done it tens of times before. Really got the hang of where the good bits are on the arete and was resolved to going really high on the first arete hold.
Tried it from my "higher" start and got to the top. This was massive - the first time I've ever gone from the roof section through to the top. With all the beta tweaks I've applied this season it felt fine. Began cursing the fact that this is the day I didn't bring a beer towel to the crag. Daisy and Jess arrived and, using a nappy, spare vest, a spare pair of leggings, and a few minutes of sunlight and breeze, the foothold was dried.
Began at the start and climbed it perfectly, though not without having to try very hard on the very last moves - matching left toe onto the lip and slapping the arete with the left hand. Was nearly off.

10 plus sessions spread over three years. It's over. In the interests of continual improvement, what lessons can be learned from this?

I was really surprised today that there was still room for optimisation on the stand, and it made an absolutely massive difference. It's amazing how far you can go with optimisation of beta.

Psychology and tactics. When I think back to early 2016 when I was very close to doing this, I was just desperate to get it done and was just going at it again and again without changing anything. In hindsight my beta was crap and I could have done it if I'd really optimised. This season I made a point on each of the four sessions to try some alternate beta.
Also, doing it from midway through was a massive confidence booster. Knowing that it was "on" helped hugely.

My apologies for the long and self-indulgent post.

[andy popp]

Its funny to think back to all those years ago - must be at least ten - when you first came round to my board as a spotty oik (figuratively). Great effort Will.

[user deactivated]

Drying the foothold with nappies 🤣 excellent stuff there’s got to be a hashtag in there somewhere. #nappies #bouldering #respect

[teestub]

 In the interests of continual improvement, what lessons can be learned from this?

Hit Stubbs up for beta

Could have saved yourself a few sessions, but then you probably would have plumped for a downgrade 

Great work Will, always good to see the dads still crushing.

[36chambers]

Hit Stubbs up for beta

Could have saved yourself a few sessions, but then you probably would have plumped for a downgrade 

If that's the case, he might have saved himself a few seasons if he ever asked his mates for some beta...

[Coops_13]

M:

T: Arch. Max hangs BM2K lower outside crimps up to +20kg (three sets). Finished on problems and managed a green (V6 - 8 ) - fingers were sore after. Knee bad after, not sure when I did it.

W: Knee really bad, could barely walk. Pain at inner side where quad meets knee and outer lower side of LCL (I think) and also pain in under the patella. Feeling a bit better with ice and ibuprofen.

T: Arch. Warmed up down-climbing rather than dropping off. Knee flared up badly, could barely walk again - I think it was twisting my knee and applying force through it while climbing. Max hangs 10 sets BM2K lower outside crimps up to +24kg (+12, +16, +16, +20, +22, +24, +22, +22, +20, +16). Finished trying stuff on the board one-legged which was fun

F: Knee ranging from not too bad to almost falling over, kicked off the insurance process to see a specialist

S:

S: Arch. Playing around on the 50 one-legged. Fine balance of using small enough holds to make it hard but with the odd larger hold to cut loose on to move the good leg. Finished with some rings (T, Y, I) and some weighted pull-ups up to 1RM(ish) of +60kg

GP for a referral this morning and hopefully a specialist ASAP to tell me what's going on / get me on the mend. It's the same knee I had keyhole on 8 years ago so could be related. My abnormally long period without injury is over

[highrepute]

Well done Will! when I did Stu's Roof I was told Red Baron be good to try as similar in some ways. Next project?

Last week I pledged to not get into a "too tired too busy" mentality but seem to have failed miserably!

M - spare 30 minutes so did my pull-ups. I find pull-ups very hard to warm up for and only feel good on them after climbing for a good amount of time so just doing pull-ups always feels hard and potentially injurious. Perhaps 30 mins better spent on the board?

T, W - planned social activities

T, F, S, S - no climbing - all three of us ended up with a cold, all sleeping badly for various reasons and visiting family at the weekend. There was a potential window on Sunday afternoon but we ended up all going for a nap that was greatly needed. On a positive note, we did buy a new mattress which will hopefully make what sleep we are getting better!

So, a difficult week on the climbing front. But a new week begins every week and the cold seems to have cleared. Consistency over the years is key, missed weeks/months here and there fade to insignificance in the grander scheme.

Planned board session tonight with cousin. Be interesting to see what someone strong makes of my board.

[Yossarian]

Missed the previous three weeks, mainly due to being insanely busy.

STG: 147, 7ANYTHING, weight down to 85kg
MTG: 7anything
LTG: 8something

Weight: 88something kg - crept up slightly, must address.

Managed to get to wall twice a week and keep up some other training inc some attempts to progress muscle-ups on the rings (resulting in multi-day DOMS), weighted pull-ups / assisted one armers, and fingerboard. Re the latter - realised that I drag everything on the BM2000, and have been trying to introduce more half crimps. Despite crimping quite comfortably at the wall, I find it quite uncomfortable on the BM, but hopefully this will improve in time.

The last week:

M: Wall. Mini board session and then some campus. Quite unexpectedly managed 146 on both sides - yay! Pretty syked to focus on pushing on to 147 as arms seem to be responding quite well at the moment. Some decent progress on 7A-B problems on the main wall too.
T:
W: Wall. Started on board but felt a bit tired so sacked off in favour of trying to flash some “easier” things downstairs. Semi-successful but left feeling like a bit of a punter.
T:
F:
S: Wall. Brilliant session trying the new comp wall set. Made decent progress on various things I wouldn’t have been able to touch a few months back. Daughter was on fire too, which helped with collective syke.

Delighted to be making some progress under suboptimal conditions of stress and time constrains. Trying to figure out whether a day or two on the grit before Xmas is a possibility, as it would be good to finish the year with something outside.

[nai]

Effort Will

STG - do a pullup
MTG - 7C before June
LTG stay healthy, keep climbing

M - nowt?

T - Plantation with Lagers, Dolly & Plattsy. Fun easy circuit with the master in his element, watching a problem demonstrated two different ways then seeing an aspirant go to pull on only to be told another way then another and just give up bamboozled. Magnificent.
Shoulder felt ok.
might have done some core afterwards, it was the other day so should have done

W - very short, very light TRX session. Shoulder still ok.

Th - 2x 10 mins LI AeroCap. Core

F - nowt

S -Core and a few BW exercises

S - figured that if I couldn't put full weight through shoulder if I reduced the number of digits in use I could maybe fingerboard?  So did F2 & B3 1/2 crimps standing in a 15kg resistance band. Shoulder ok.

[spidermonkey09]

Well done Will!

M - rest.

T - Depot. Did the Oak problem which was nice. Not a replica though! 

W - Depot. Tried 'Bat Route Easy'; James' initial effort of creating a Bat Route esque problem on a fixed 50 board. Nearly did it so can't be that hard. 36C burned me off despite being injured.

T - Rest.

F -drove to Wales for Christmas get together with uni crew. Drunkenness ensued.

S - Wet walk around Tryfan via Heather Terrace ( I think). Cooked Xmas dinner, got pissed in evening.

S - Woke up at 11! Drier walk to Carnedd y Filiast. Drove home. Not the remotest sign of dry rock all weekend. C'est la vie...

Dreadful outside week once again but not bad on the board. Few more indoor sessions this week and also seeing Free Solo. Also going to Glasgow on Saturday to pick up new van! 

[SA Chris]

M - Squat diddly
T - 7 k at lunchtime. Lovely conditions cool and windless.
W - bouldering wall closed for reset, so had a fair campus and circuits session, got bored, so ended up making up probs on the circuit board
T - nowt
F - Bouldering comp. Interesting scoring variant where 1000 points allocated to each problem, then split between people who did it. I managed to be the only one to lank my way up one of the probs, and thought i had it in the bag, but it seems like there was a juniors variant with extra holds, so one of them got half my points so i finished second in my category. Free bar for Xmas night after, but i was too broken for more than a couple of points.
S - Nowt - Panto pm.
S - Nowt - shopping. Went for 11.5 km run on the bypass in evening, last chance before it opens this week!

[highrepute]

T: Bday day out. Stanage, first time in long while. Having never had an issue with flexibility I found out I'm too inflexible, and/or small, to get into position to pull onto The Joker...

I had a similar thing, I think we are similar heights. I could pull on with a pad on the starting block raising me up a bit but it felt like a real contortion to get the foot on. I guess it's a weakness of the line. Put me off it until I'm good enough to do the ace start.

[cheque]

Effort Will.

Must be terrible to not climb for ten whole days Shark.

Rehab Diaries Week Sixteen

STG- Leading low 6s/ HVS & carrying normal loads to crags by end Sept 2019.

M- Rest.

T- Fingerboard! Only the third time this year, the last being on the 28th of February, which feels decades ago. I'd completely forgotten that I'd actually got a routine that worked: there were only three holds on the BM1000 that I could hang my bodyweight from in February and I'm even weaker now so most of this is done kneeling on scales to see how much I'm taking off. It's pretty cool as it allows me to do repeaters on gradually smaller holds and the failure point is when I run out of pull rather than when I just get to a hold that I either can't hang from or tweak something trying. Going to do this weekly for the whole winter.

W- Gym. Back on the bike after a week where I did the stair-treadmill and a week of holiday. Still managed to increase the level on each interval by 1 though.

T- Rest.

F- Foundry autobelays. 6a & 6b warm-up then alternating goes at the crimpy green 7a and steeper, more varied yellow 7a+. Progress on each (I believe I'm getting to the start of the crux sequence on the yellow now  ) then my warm-down, which involves battling to do the two 5+s with no finger strength left.
 
S- Rest. Squelch around muddy wood with my sister's family.

S- Gym- leg-pressed my bodyweight (with both legs) for the first time since the accident (first time ever since I didn't know what a leg-press machine was before!) and broke the 20kg barrier with my left leg too . More machine stuff as well.

Then went for a walk up to Wimberry. Most strenuous bit of hillwalking I've done for months (a good reminder of how steady the walk-ins to most Peak crags are!) but even after "leg day" in the morning I was pleased with how I did, particularly the downhill scrambly descent which was the sort of thing I was rubbish at a few months ago. Very impressed by my first visit to Wimberry, very keen to go back and climb in the spring, although Bertie's Bugbear may be a more realistic target than Blasphemy!

[jwills]

Congrats on the send Will.

M: Rest

T: 90% hangs on a small campus rungs followed by strength/core intervals on the moonboard

W: Aero cap on my 15 degree woodie

Th: Rest

F: Strength Intervals on the moonboard . Sent a long-ish term moonboard project (Mirror Wall) which felt so far away when first trying it. Core workout.

Sa: Bit of weights at the gym (dumbbell presses and shoulders)

Su: An Cap workout which felt great followed by a ring core workout

Overall felt great this week. Rest-ish week next week.

[spidermonkey09]

10 plus sessions spread over three years. It's over. In the interests of continual improvement, what lessons can be learned from this?

I was really surprised today that there was still room for optimisation on the stand, and it made an absolutely massive difference. It's amazing how far you can go with optimisation of beta.

Psychology and tactics. When I think back to early 2016 when I was very close to doing this, I was just desperate to get it done and was just going at it again and again without changing anything. In hindsight my beta was crap and I could have done it if I'd really optimised. This season I made a point on each of the four sessions to try some alternate beta.
Also, doing it from midway through was a massive confidence booster. Knowing that it was "on" helped hugely.

Lot to take away from this thats relevant to sport climbing too I think; namely constantly trying new things to optimise bits you already think you've got sorted; Will, see the top of Space Race!

Theres also a temptation to which I often succumb to get into a redpoint mindset a bit early when the psychological impacts of links are yet to be fully taken advantage of. This can obviously be taken to extremes but theres often a good gains to be be made that I ignore when I'm just desperate to get it ticked!

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - fingers, system session full crimp +4 kg, good.
Tue - rest.
Wed - power snatch up to 52 kg, new PB. EMOM set power cleans 60% x5x12. EMOM set pull ups 5x12. Brilliant session.
Thu - ab wheel, good mornings, clean and press, high pulls, pull ups x5x6. Very tired.
Fri - quick weights session. Light.
Sat - rest. Kind of.
Sun - rest.

[duncan]

It’s December, it has certainly got milder but, fundamentally, it been a bit shit for rock climbing since at least 1978.

Except on Sunday. Well done Will. That's a big number in V-land.

M - Micro fingerboard session (for how micro, see Tom_PR’s warm-up video, that’s my session right there). Stretches
T - Shoulder strengthen. Tweaked left shoulder doing Is and Ys.
W -
T - Hips and knees
F - Micro fingerboard session.
S - Micro fingerboard session. Shoulder strength
S - Portland Cutting with the retired super Alpinist. Various to 6b+. Good company, glorious crisp day, and a complete joy to be outside. If you could bottle and sell this feeling...  Could have tried something harder but slightly freaked by tweaking my left shoulder. It’s usually the good one but something similar happened shortly before dislocating it it 18 months ago so I was cautious.

Plan: watch the forecast for any available opportunity to go outside, any Londoners interested in a midweek hit somewhere? Otherwise continue strength 2-3 week.

[36chambers]

T: Bday day out. Stanage, first time in long while. Having never had an issue with flexibility I found out I'm too inflexible, and/or small, to get into position to pull onto The Joker...

I had a similar thing, I think we are similar heights. I could pull on with a pad on the starting block raising me up a bit but it felt like a real contortion to get the foot on. I guess it's a weakness of the line. Put me off it until I'm good enough to do the ace start.

Cheers, good to know. It certainly spoils the problem somewhat. Might as well hold out for The Ace then.