Power Club 772 23 - 29 Sept 2024

[Fultonius]

Hope y'all made it outside a bit with the slight improvement in the weather (and not just with an angle grinder or hilti).

Mon: Nowt
Tues: quick lunchtime light fingerboard session and some pullups & pressups, all sub max for easy recovery.
Weds: Dumby after early finish at work. Did the new 6a that is the start of the new 7b and 7b+ that have been added left of dumb dumb boys. Good additions by the legend that is Andy Gallagher. They've been given 7b for the one that finishes into dum dum boys, and 7b+ for the more direct finish. Si had abbed in to put the clips in his extension finish (which became Eversion, F8a on Friday when he got it climbed, and had a burn so I had a good idea of the moves. Managed to flash both the F7b "31 years after" and the 7b+ "one week later" which would be my hardest flash ever. Didn't feel like my hardest flash ever, so either I'm going well at the moment (which would be surprising given how little I've climbed and trained in the last 2 months), or they're a bit over-graded. Time will tell.
Thurs: Nowt
Friday: day off and decided instead of heading north on slightly iffy forecast, to stay local have have a bash at a trad route I've mulled over attempting the onsight or flash for ages. It's known to get dirty, has a crucial peg and is all small crimps on a slabby face - Surface Tension at Auchinstarry. John abbed in a gave it a good scrub, I went down and brushed a few more holds but tried ot keep the inspection to a minimum.

Set off for the adventure. Climbing up to the peg took some figuring out, and was brilliant. I had a dilemma at the peg, tried some options, made something work which was a bit of a combination of a thin traverse, and a gentle "fall" onto a jug. I'm not sure it's the usual way.... I managed otget a red totem in where I reckon no cam has ever been before, it fitting weirdly snugly into a half borehole!

After that I worked higher, past the crucial no5 brass offset (basically the only gear above the peg except for the cam) but a combination of shoes too big, feet and calves not being fit enough for sustained edging, and running out of psyche for rolling more dice became an impasse. Slunk down, tensioned off the brass offset to the adjacent E1 and scurried away. Had to lower down to get the gear, so got belayed back up and none of it was too bad....

Saturday - despite ok weather, and only having done 1.5 routes yesterday, felt like a day off. Mainly rebuilt a section of wall on the garage that had cracked.
Sunday: Ratho - first "training session" for our upcoming short trip to Spain in November. Classic route pyramid to "see where I'm at" - 6a+, 6b+, 7a, 7b, 7b all o/s, 7b (failed at 22/25m), 7a. 175m ascent. The first 7b was more technical and less pumpy than I was expecting. Was about 10/10 for effort in first 1/4, then 7/10 for the rest. 2nd 7b was 8/10, finished with gas in tank. 3rd was harder (getting tired and I think it was a bit of a harder and longer route), max effort.

Feel like I'm in a surprisingly good starting point for the autumn. 78.5kg (down 4.5kg since the "peak" of winter), starting to notice the early signs of maybe not quite getting enough fuel in - tired mornings, sometime low mood so maybe need to carefully increase intake a bit. (without rocketing back to 83kg) but climbing well!

 

[Fiend]

Next week STG: Condition body and try to train a bit more - No.
The usual STG: Stay focused and don't make silly mistakes - n/a. Do something challenging and inspiring on a rope (fuck above a pad) - No. Keep in regular contact with suitable friends and partners - some social contact but also a bit derailed. Falling practise if I do routes indoors or out - yes. Look after injuries - pushed elbow too hard on Wed, other aches and pains might be coldy thing, (gym x 1) - x 1 but was dire, elbow rehab x 2 - x 3, shoulder rehab x 2 - x 2, stretching x 3 - x 2, should have done more..


M - Gym. Elbow rehab, shoulder rehab, misc conditioning. Felt dreadful. After elbow feeling okay the previous night, it was very sore on everything. Shoulders stiff, tense and weak. Stretching session (less dreadful).

T - Rest. Shoulders and neck bad all round.

W - 2 hours steady turf digging / brushing. Not fatiguing, elbow and shoulders okay. Indoor routes @ Parthian. F6b, F6c, F6c+ F7a, F7a, F6c (F6c+), attempted F6c+ (F7a, one fall), F7a (close, slipped off sloper). Decent practise falls on all. Interesting comp route set with some knacky moves, which was good, but also LOTS of lock-offs from right arm, which was bad. Elbow sore. Elbow rehab. Too much. Elbow more sore.

T - Rest. Stretching session. Elbow less sore. Feeling coldy.

F - Active rest. Tiny bit of climbing and cleaning. Elbow much more sore. Feeling coldy and achey. Cold sore / mouth ulcer combo on lip.

S - Intended to meet people at Summit Quarry. Fell asleep for 2 hours instead. Turned up late but did a tiny bit of climbing and cleaning. Elbow slightly less sore. Feeling coldy and achey. Cold sore / mouth ulcer combo driving me mad.

S - Indoor bouldering @ Rock Over Bolton. 10 x V2-4, 10 x V3-5 (9 flash, 1 x 2nd go), 8 x V4-6 (4 flash, 1 x 2nd go, 3 x 3rd go, plus attempted 5 more that I couldn't do in 3 goes (2 x too squirmy, 2 x too elbowy, 1 x really good but cranky)). Elbow okay, a bit sore but backed off the worst problems. Felt like I could do V3-5 all day, but V4-6 were bit of a step up. Good fun as usual though. Shoulder rehab and elbow rehab before climbing. After: approx 2 minute cold water dipping inc. 30 seconds full immersion. Cold. Still a bit coldy and achey and mouth still annoying, but no worse.


Meh.


Next week STG: Condition body and try to train a bit more (rollover)
The usual STG: Stay focused and don't make silly mistakes. Do something challenging and inspiring on a rope (fuck 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.

 

[duncan]

Thanks Fultonius, good effort on Surface Tension, the temptation is to leave testing trad. onsights for ideal circumstances which of course never occur! (I took the liberty of editing your original title as I feel this matter can be left to its own thread)

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

T - Hip flexibility. Brief fingerboard session.

W - Shoulder/elbow/wrist conditioning: reverse curls, lock-offs, hand-stands, side-planks.

T - Shoulder conditioning to warm-up. Westway autobelay ‘aerocap’: 500m of 5/5+ in 2 hours. Not quite 24 hours of Horseshoe Hell but a good session.

F - Battered. Hip flexibility.

S - Down to Weston. Shoulder conditioning.

S - Wyndcliff quarry with the Environmental Agent. Cold, windy and felt like it was about to start raining. Warmed-up on The End and the other 6a+ just to its left. Onsighted the very good Shin Gi Tai (6c) and was intending to try The Arete (7a+) but it started to rain properly so did the inappropriately named The Sun Is Shining Down (6a+) instead as it was just about staying dry under the canopy of trees.

No concerts this week for the first time in more than two months, must pull my finger out.

Feeling reasonably confident in polished bolted quarries, I hope this also applies to trad. sea cliffs this week.

 

[Duma]

M - lunch, Redpoint, 120 min. Another relaxed session mainly for social. 6a+ 6b+ 6c+ 6b+ 6c 7a+ 7a.
12 hr night shift.
T - aft, TCA, 90 min. New set half roof half vert. 2 whites (1 flash, 1 with a bit of effort) 2 blacks (both flash) brief attempts at 1 blue. 12 hr night shift.
W - 12 hr night shift.
T - 12 hr night shift.
F - took too long to drag myself out of bed after nights, so aft, TCA, was only 30 min. Window corner upstairs, all vert ish. 2 whites (1 flash, 1 quick) attempts on 1 black and 1 blue.
S - morning, TCA, 90 min. Finished the black and blue from yesterday, then attempts on various bits of unfinished business.
S -

71 kg.

 

[nik at work]

Mon - nothing
Tues - Family trip to Awesome Walls. Pre-Kaly routes for all, lots of belaying and half a dozen routes up to 7a.
Weds - nothing
Thurs - Works with Rick, Nick and the boys. Adults hid on Irn Bru’s and Wasp’s while kids did mints and bounced around the spray wall.
Fri - nothing
Sat - The Tor. Me and Rick tried Out Of My Boots, felt weak and struggled with move up and right from flake. Rick left and I belayed the boy on Rooster Booster. Then dabbled with Ben’s roof briefly.
Sun - Works with the boy, failed mish mash of random murple and mints, half arsed play on the circuit board, wombled around on the fingerboards for a bit then went on the beastmaker board… or more accurately lay on the beastmaker board mat and suggested holds to the boy.

Was surprisingly ok on the fingerboards, but became apparent that my right shoulder is a mess. Can’t hang straight arm from it, agony on the top of the shoulder joint.
Anyway hoping to gather together a modicum of route fitness over the next few weeks for a low to mid 7 rampage in Kaly over half term…

 

[SA Chris]

At risk of stating the obvious, but that's a lot of climbing on a fucked shoulder. Get a pro to look at it asap?

 

[Nibile]

Power Club

Mon - farmer's.
Tue - weights.
Wed - mental day. DL 6x6 110 kg.
Thu - 6x AM session, core.
Fri - AM push ups, bike trip.
Sat - bike trip, weights.
Sun - bike trip, weights.

 

[andy popp]

At risk of stating the obvious, but that's a lot of climbing on a fucked shoulder. Get a pro to look at it asap?

Also - and you can tell me to butt out Matt, as this is completely unsolicited advice - but two days of feeling cold-y and achey ahead of the weekend (plus developing a cold sore/mouth ulcer) would spelled two days of complete rest over the weekend to me. And I mean complete rest.

 

[Fiend]

I think you're confusing Nik AtWork's shoulder with my elbow?

 

[seankenny]

Also - and you can tell me to butt out Matt, as this is completely unsolicited advice - but two days of feeling cold-y and achey ahead of the weekend (plus developing a cold sore/mouth ulcer) would spelled two days of complete rest over the weekend to me. And I mean complete rest.

Good advice. No one takes minor viral infections seriously, until they take you seriously…

 

[nik at work]

At risk of stating the obvious, but that's a lot of climbing on a fucked shoulder. Get a pro to look at it asap?

Fair comment
I’d say that shoulders have always been a weak link for me, but I did also tweak it on Thursday so hoping that it’s mainly that. I can climb pain free, and day-to-day no problems. It’s only when I hang one-handed off a piece of lovingly crafted wood with a fully extended arm that it’s painful, I’m going to avoid doing such things in the short term and seek advice of the knowledgeable…

 

[Fiend]

Also - and you can tell me to butt out Matt, as this is completely unsolicited advice - but two days of feeling cold-y and achey ahead of the weekend (plus developing a cold sore/mouth ulcer) would spelled two days of complete rest over the weekend to me. And I mean complete rest.

Well okat since i've been chatting Sean too...

Two complete rest days is only feasible for skinny / light climbers . Or at least those who train hard and regularly.

But in the spirit of things I took a complete rest day yesterday and will take another today. I can feel myself decaying already...

 

[oldfella]

A light week for me.
Monday & Thursday were finger board sessions and had a quick hour hit at awesome walls on an auto belay. Goal to do a 7a in a session. Came close but no cigar.

Having to do less exercise lately as I’ve gone from 87kg to 73.5kg in around 12months. The last couple of months had been quite a significant loss.

Starting to feel tired, poor concentration and muscle loss.

I know the cause and waiting for an operation date.

So I’m sticking to finger strength work twice a week and a short session of climbing / feet on campus each week.

 

[Duma]

Hope everything is ok Gav

 

[Fiend]

Yeah, good luck with whatever is going on Gav.

 

[GuyVG]

Best of luck, Gav.

 

[Fultonius]

Yep, same from me. Hope it all goes well bud.

 

[Nibile]

Best of luck Gav. Stay strong.

 

[nik at work]

Hope all goes well Gav

 

[webbo]

Hope it turns out ok.