Power Club 751 29 April - 5 May 2024

[duncan]

Hello everyone, it's the long weekend so expecting late entries. The weather appears to have been intermittently better so hope people have managed to get outside. If not, keep showing up for when you can.

M - Hip flexibility: prone frog stretch, standing pancake stretch, sumo squats.

T - Hip flexibility. Walked 12km and stood for three hours (Donizzeti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, the archetypal 19th century opera: romantic love versus family obligation, the men are useless or shits, the heroine dies a tragic and unnecessary death in the third act but not before treating us to some transcendentally beautiful music. Katie Mitchell’s feminist staging was thought-provoking, Nadine Sierra was superb in one of the great roles of all opera.)

W - Tired. Hip flexibility as above.

T - Fingerboard pickups, left only, 18mm edge: 41kg x 7s for half crimp, 5s for full crimp. Shoulder and elbow conditioning: handstands, side planks. Hip flexibility as above.

F - Hip flexibility as above. Leg conditioning (box-steps, heel raises, single-leg squats).

S - Fairlop Waters concrete boulders with AJM and miniAJM. The latter has the tenacity and love of refining sequences that suggests he’ll be burning off his dad in the not too distant future! I felt completely out of gas for no apparent reason and barely did anything. Elbow was still sore after a trivial amount of climbing. Hip flexibility as above. Walked 10km.

S - Hip flexibility as above. Walked 8km.

Good to meet up with AJM and M.

A week's rest resulted in a PB in finger strength for the left hand, hopefully a good sign in the long term. The right elbow is now feeling a bit worse if anything, this should encourage me to stick with being moderately active as a strategy. Hampstead mixed pond has reopened at 13C, a bit cold for me right now, but will resume swimming fairly soon which might help. Sitting around at home is not helping my power-weight ratio!

Doesn’t now seem worth going to Scotland this month so I need to rejig my ideas for later in the year.

 

[alba]

Hi, thanks for the welcome last week and starting this week's thread. Welldone on the finger strength PB.

I can't fully remember my climbing this week apart from Thursday and then Saturday. Should make notes really.

Thursday: Climbed the 6a+ sport route I'd tried 2 or 3 times before. Wasn't that hard this time. Also climbed a boulder problem I'd been trying for quite a while, a V3.

Saturday: Got within about 3 moves of a 6b+ sport route. I imagine I'll go back and get that in the next week or two. I also made good progress on a Moonboard V3. I could barely do one move when I started and am now 3 or 4 moves into it. I feel like it's doable at some point which is great. Good thing about the moonboard is I feel like this is a proper V3 and it trains my weakness which is steep overhanging terrain.

I can now do quite a few of the V4 and even the odd V5s in the bouldering area although I know these are overgraded. Only thing that matters is they are largely right in relation to each other. Got close to a V6 on a slab.

 

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - DL 531 week 3. Bentover rows.
Tue - farmer's. Pull ups. Heavy.
Wed - tired. Board climbing, set and climbed a problem just at the right intensity. Board fitness is one problem. Back work, bar work.
Thu - weights, pull ups.
Fri - dips, push ups, DL 531 week 4.
Sat - regular weights.
Sun - boxing bag.

 

[SA Chris]

Not much to report training wise, not a good week.

M - not much, taking it easy after cheating my way round 15 mile run on Sunday. Usual coffeemaking pullups but little else.
T - same
W - same. Think I did a few pickups with the edge.
T - was going for a lunchtime run, but got a last minute doc appt.
F - drive to Glen Affric, got there later than intended thanks to detour. 14km cycle to YH with stupidly heavy pack. Light needed for most of the route. Drank whisky until too late.
S - misty start, both in head and outdoors. as weather lifted, headed up Beinn Fhada, great views all round, but a demoralising circuitous descent - 22km. More whisky, determined not to carry it back out again.
S - slow start to cycle out but a lot easier with lighter pack - 14 km. Stopped for a look at the Ledge in Inverness, but non-climbing mate not keen to hang about..

 

[Duma]

Thanks Duncan. Bit of a nothing week for me, missed a couple of windows to get out then working for the weekend.

M - sleeping off nights, then declined invitation to get out from Adam Lincoln of this parish as feeling like death. Should have made the effort, but as anyone who's recovered from nights will know, that's a hard call just after lunchtume... TCA later (eve), 90 min. Still feeling pretty groggy but repeated a couple of blues first go, and minor progress on current projects.
T - jerked awake unreasonably early by phone call. Banging headache all morning. Lunch , UCR, 120 min. Just some easy routes up to 7a, not feeling up to anything harder. Eve, TCA, 120 min. Mainly there for the social but obviously got drawn in to the reset on the roof. Managed a white and a black but pointless session really.
W -
T - eve, TCA, 120 min. Reset on the vert corner upstairs, 6A to 7A+. 10 problems, did all, flashed 8, one misread but fine second go, one actually tricky, maybe 10 goes. Then downstairs to the new roof set, slightly better than Tuesdays effort, progress on a tricky black but no tick.
F - 12 hr shift
S - 12 hr shift
S - 12 hr shift

72 kg.

 

[monkoffunk]

M - Yoga
T - Gym, deadlifts, weighted pull ups etc.
W - Yoga. Rest.
T - Few recruitment pulls and body weight hangs.

F - Portland in the evening. Back to the Snowflakes boulder to try the project along the lip. Worked the moves to warm up. After a couple of false starts to get back the knack for the first move, the problem went. Liberal Agenda, 7A+ first ascent.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6ifTEnNJOn/?igsh=a2wxOXRkOGY2NmNz

A good line, probably overlooked due to its location off the beaten track (hidden in a pit) and somewhat awkward landed above a block. Then repeated Snowflakes, mostly for the grade comparison, but also adding proper blinkers at the top to just use the small crimps on the arête as per FA.

After this went to try a couple of 7Bs, Bordo Della Terra and Workshy. Bordo went well. Reassuringly I did almost all the moves on the 7B bit, and the moves I didn’t do were mostly on the start shared with a 6C+. Here my serious lack of finger tip skin integrity let me down. Not enough rock or plastic. Too much friendly wood.

Workshy somewhat further away, but still an improvement on when I tried it a few years ago! One move to do but it’s a proper crux, by far the hardest move on the problem, and essentially what the problem is all about. Perhaps not quite enough juice after everything else, will try again another day.

Definitely helped me to confirm that Snowflakes and Liberal Agenda are both in the 7A+ bracket and not hard for the grade. First move is a bit of a stopper though so I think 7A+ probably is justified.

S - Rest.
S - Yoga and rest

Very happy with the week, only my second first ascent and the other was eight years ago.

Going to take a few rest days now as been feeling the elbow extensors a little bit recently when training, nothing bad, but need a bit of a de-load.

 

[oldfella]

Thanks Duncan

Monday -

Finger board on 18mm edges
6x 10s hangs.
4 hangs at a total weight 79kg.
2 hangs at 84.5kg.
Effort level 7/10

Tuesday
Elbow strength training

Wednesday
Rest

Thursday
Fingerboard on 18mm edge. Half crimp
Six 10sec hangs. Total weight 82.9kg. Felt good. 7/10 effort level

40min peloton Tabata ride



Friday

Saturday
Golden Wall
The wall & the climbs were better than expected. Enjoyable afternoon with Phil.

Undiscovered Blacks 5c Lead β
Poison Flowers 6a+ Lead β
Black Bryony 6b Lead β
Blinkin' 'eck 6b+ Lead β
The Blicks 6b Lead RP failed Onsight, did next go
Really enjoyed Golden Wall. Did all bar 1 route which looked the worst of them all. Which I’d not return for, but overall, I’d recommend a visit if your operating in the 6’s and want a 4 hour session on rock.

Wanted to climb at 3new crags in the Peak this year. Done two already.


Sunday
Strength training at Virgin Gym
Upping the weights. Elbow strength increasing.

 

[Duncan Disorderly]

Better late than never... club.

M: AW - Few MB problems up for 6A+ then routes up to F6c.
T: 15 miles on the push iron (well it's actually carbon but you get the drift)... Nice to get out but seemed to cause issues with elbow and shoulder....
W:MB @ AW - 10 problems 5+ to 6C+ inc new 6C flash!
T: Sheaf Bloc - 1st time this year - Hoped after all the MB work it would feel easy... It didn't! Couldn't even do the hard move on the Traverse FFS... Had to remind myself that it always feels about F8a until you get it dialled then it goes back to F7b (not that I have any idea really as I'm the only idiot who does it).
F: Rest
S: Surfing @ Cayton - Nice session! Followed by a walk round Bemptom RSPB to see some puffins and Flamborough to see some seals - nice!
S: Drove over t'lakes and biffed up some multipitch VDiffs with the GF in the drizzle - Great!

Not the best training for Verdon week! Have somehow managed to re-tweak my SLAP torn shoulder and have some acute hip pain on the LHS (possibly brought on by sitting on my surfboard of all things!) so am going to need to rest a bit more than I want and just accept that I'll possibly be sub-par in the Verdon... Hopefully experience and not being in excruciating pain will count for something - we shall see!