school boy

I'm trying to keep up a steady two on, one off climbing routine at the moment in an effort to build up some fitness for Mallorca. Sunday, as most of you will know, was a day of fantastic weather and muchos muchos psyche.

I had a late start, but thanks to British Summer Time we climbed until about half 7 in the evening. I was out with Dave, Toby and Tom and top of the list was the Weedkiller Traverse at Raven Tor where Dave and I had unfinished business. I warmed up on the last moves, using a different hold to my previous efforts, then sent it first go. Dave cleaned it up in a few goes.



I watched Toby send the classic Undercut, Sloper problem and got psyched to try the Undercut, Crimp version, a grade easier at 7b+. This went down in a few goes and then I spent some time trashing the skin on my right fingertips trying the Sloper version.

Next, Toby showed me the Direct Start to Wild In Me, going at about 7b and finishing with a long reach from positive crimps to a knifeblade edge. I did this quality problem quite quickly.

These three problems added up to the best day bouldering I've had in ages - not just in terms of numbers - but in terms of atmosphere and sheer enjoyment. After some goes at Pump Up the Power where I got one move further (I'm trying it ground up as a boulder problem rather than working it as a route) we piled into the car and drove round to Rubicon.

Me and Toby went to the Kudos wall and while I sent A Bigger Splash Direct, Dave and Tom had a go each on Rubicon (F7a+). This is a route I have wanted to onsight for a while but I couldn't help but pick up some beta from them. Dave climbed it second go, leaving the clips in for me to have a go.

School boy error!

My thought process here should have been, "I've done three 7b problems, its the end of the day, I'm shattered, I can come back and do this first go anytime, leave it." But instead, I tied in, climbed to the first bolt, clipped and down climbed. I felt good. I pulled back on, climbed to the third bolt and rested on the enormous jug supplied. Then, feet up, stretched to a crimp, pulled and... nothing. I wasn't pumped at all, there was just no more pull in my arms. I tried to bring my hand back down to the jug but came off.

I was so irritated, and I still am. I finished up the climb in a huff and lowered off. I've definately learnt something here, but I should have already known it.

Yesterday I ached everywhere, and my elbow was really sore. Still, I forced myself to have an easy day at the Works with my girlfriend and then retired gracefully.

The next two days are going to be sport climbing or traverses only.

I'm so annoyed! I would definately trade the three boulder problems I did for the onsight of Rubicon. It was a short term goal too. Aaargh! Oh well. It has been relaced with A Little Extra at the Tor as the F7a+ to onsight.

Oh yeah, I've found the battery charger for my camera, and I'm pretty pleased with some of the shots I got.

something stupid

I've spent the last two days with my brother at Malham Cove, the only rock to stay dry in the current showery weather.

We rocked up on Thursday and, after relearning the sequence for Consenting Adults to warm up, we got on Something Stupid. This 12m route forms the first section of The Groove and is F7b. It is technical and fingery and really quite different to the 20m routes we'd been doing at Horseshoe. Matt worked out a sequence for the bottom and I figured something out for the top section.

After a second play on toprope I felt ready to lead it. Matt went first and fell near the top. On my attempt I messed up the bottom sequence slightly but managed to complete the climb.

This was my first F7b and I was really chuffed to do it in one session, first redpoint. I finished with another lap on Consenting Adults.

The next day I felt pretty beaten up but I caught the train to Matt's again and we had a morning session at the Cove. The conditions were a lot colder and there was a strong wind buffeting the catwalk.

We warmed up on Consenting Adults again and then Matt went for the lead on Something Stupid. He got closer and closer on each of his three goes but just couldn't quite hang in there. I had two goes on toprope first doing it in two halves and then doing it from the bottom jugs.

I ached so much and my skin was so trashed we decided not to bother getting on any other routes. I did two laps of Consenting Adults in quick succession and we left.

There are a couple of issues I noticed over these two days that need to be addressed in the next couple of weeks. Firstly, my fitness is clearly rubbish as two days of sport climbing nearly crippled me! Secondly, I get pumped much more quickly on crimps than on any other type of hold. I need to start using crimps more in my PE training to ensure this weakness is balanced out.

enduring

I haven't posted for a while, I've been losing interest in writing about my exploits, but here's an update.

On the 16th March I had a fingerboard session that caused my elbow to swell up and hurt. Since then I've sacked off physical training, have been icing my elbow and generally just taking it easy.

On the 18th I had an awesome afternoon at Horseshoe Quarry with Matt. The weather was fantastic and we had a relaxed time warming up on the Rotund Rooley/School's Out Link (F6a) then climbing Shot Yer Bolt (F6b+) and Megalithic Man (F6b+) onsight. Megalithic Man felt so easy compared to Shot Yer Bolt, at least a full grade easier. I feel really confident onsighting this level but F6c just intimidates me and F7a even more so. I think I get too worked up about it, overthink it and underperform.

The next day I caught the bus out on my own to Raven Tor for my first ever session there. My friends had raved to me about the Weedkiller Traverse so my goal for the day was to tick it. I warmed up on some of the route starts - Boot Boys (6c), A Little Extra Direct Start (7a) and then got sidetracked by some of the powerful problems that an aquaintance was trying. I did Rattle and Hump the hard way (apparently) but it felt about 7a+ to me. I didn't try the easy way as the starting pocket was dripping wet.

It finally felt time to get on Weedkiller and after I was shown the best sequence I jumped on. My first go went badly, on the first hard pull my right hand shot off a crimp and I fell back-first onto a rock. I walked it off and got back on and had about three decent goes, each time failing around the second to last move. This was frustrating but also gives me a clear power endurance yardstick to measure myself by. Next time I'll do it. The session after that I'll lap it. Then Powerband.

I'd love to get Powerband done before I go to Mallorca. A couple of other traverses need ticking as well, Rose... and Jerry's Traverse on the Business Boulder and the Mid-Height Traverse on the Calf, Ilkley. These should provide good solo training!

After my Raven Tor session I had to go home to earn some money so I had 4 rest days. Then yesterday I had a really good power endurance training session, doing circuits on a F6c circuit with 4.5 minutes rest. However this time around I forced myself to simulate onsight climbing, moving slowly, chalking up, hanging around on good holds, and 'clipping' every 5 moves. This meant that I was on the wall for 2 and a half minutes, a minute longer than in my previous PE phase. I managed 7 laps, failing two thirds of the way round the eighth and felt completely boxed but totally psyched. Next session (Friday) I'm going to do 9 laps of it. I'm hoping that, as it did in the first phase, my body will react quickly to the power endurance training.

Tomorrow I'm heading to either Giggleswick South or Malham depending on the weather. Mallorca is fast approaching and I need all the fitness I can muster! Adios.

bugger bugger bugger

Training this week has not gone well. To summarise, I haven't done any. What I have done, is have 4 days on again. I guess I could fool myself into believing this is good training for my trip, but its not and I'm really frustrated with my lack of discipline.

Tuesday - Fingerboard
Wednesday - Matrix (shit session)
Thursday - Climbing Works (busted out a 1-4-7 on the big rungs, a PB.)
Friday - Horseshoe Quarry (got one route done before we were rained off).

If I had stuck to my plan I could have had some quality training this week. Instead I've just made my skin worse and got myself quite demotivated. There's just 4 weeks now until my trip, which means just 3 weeks of heavy training time left. I am going to have to knuckle down, man up and get on with 3 sessions of interval training a week to make up for the lost time.

Hopefully, I will find that my body adapts quite well again due to the long lay off inbetween power endurance cycles.

rest

After my four days on I've had two days of complete rest and I feel so much better for it. My skin is still absolutely shagged but my upper body feels great.

I've waited til now to post about CWIF '09 because the scores finally came out today. I scored 145 and this placed me 52nd. Not quite where I hoped to come, but to say it was my fourth day on I'm still pretty pleased. It gives me something to aim for next year too. To get into the top 40 I'd need around 170 points (if the same people showed up and didn't improve...) so I'd need to flash 3 more problems.
I had a fingerboard session this afternoon to ease myself back into training. I followed the Neil Gresham workout which is basically sets of pull ups. This didn't seem to aggravate my elbow very much and has got me a'thinkin'.

My elbow feels worst on deep locks when I'm climbing. Since most of my training has been deadhangs at about 120 degrees, this hasn't really prepared my elbow for such deep locks. Therefore, if I keep training pull ups and lock off strength, then maybe my elbow won't react as badly to deep locks when I'm out climbing!

You may have noticed its now March 10th (why is this year going so fast?!) and, yes, I have failed to meet my short term goal of onsighting F7a. Ah well. I did try, and I did it second go... I think the main problem was just the lack of real sport climbing. But this month, the weather will be better, I'm a hell of a lot more motivated for routes and I've got a list ten strong of routes I'm going to climb before Mallorca.

Top of the list is Rubicon (F7a+). I am determined to onsight this and I think it will be good to have a specific route to train for. Basically I need to get good at hanging around on a steep roof while I work out a sequence. Or alternatively get better at reading sequences.


Jerry Moffatt in Tom's Roof

Happy training. I'm off to rest some more before I tear down Stoney Middleton tomorrow. Oh yeah, I still love Stoney. In fact, after watching One Summer last night I love it even more. Jerryatricks this month? You can bet your arse!

three days on

My arms ache; my joints ache; I'm fatigued; my skin is absolutely trashed. Wednesday was Curbar, Yesterday the Matrix and today I went to Curbar again. This is the first time I've had more than two days on in ages and I am really feeling it.

Today I ticked Jihad on the Gorilla Warfare bloc in a couple of goes, along with repeats of all the problems I did on Wednesday. Not bad to say I was only going along to take photos of my friends Tom and Dave! I'm certainly glad I decided to stick my boots in my bag! It was another day of fantastic conditions when I was just glad to be out climbing.

Tomorrow will be my fourth day on and the CWIF will probably leave me completely spanked. I'm under no illusions, I don't think I'll perform well enough to qualify for the semi-finals, but I'd like to place fairly highly. Top forty would be nice and, hopefully, not inachievable!

I'm mildly concerned about my ability to cope with all this training though. My left elbow was aching quite a bit after today's session. It has calmed down now but its worrying me with only 6 weeks til my Mallorca trip. Hopefully getting back into route training will be just the change I need to keep any injuries at bay. I'm going to start looking into antagonistic muscle training too as I've read that elbow injuries can be caused by imbalances in the muscles.

getting sidetracked

I have had a fantastic day.

It really was just one of those days where everything seemed to go well. I went to Curbar in the afternoon with Toby and his friend Beth. As I usually do when I go somewhere I haven't been before, or in this case for three years, I spent the morning going through the guidebook picking things to do. But instead of picking a 7c that would probably take me a few sessions, I picked a couple of problems around the 7a mark and just thought, "It would be nice to get these done quickly."

We warmed up and I repeated Trackside in a few couple of goes. I was feeling strong, but my abs were horribly sore from a core workout I did yesterday (more on this later). I had a couple of goes on Play Hard, a 7c, but the conditions weren't great and I sacked it off. Toby and I did Sidetrack, the other side of the arete, and this was pretty cool.

Toby showed me Gorilla Warfare. Beth and Toby had both done this before and both gave me different beta. On my flash attempt I had to make a decision about which one to use and, guttingly, the one I chose didn't suit me and I came off. I climbed it second go, using the different method. Early Doors got climbed quickly too.

Its a strange feeling, being incredibly pleased to climb something second go, but just as frustrated that I didn't flash it. In the end, I'm just excited to get these problems done quickly. I do love a battle with a problem, drawn out over the course of weeks, but when I'm somewhere I don't visit often, ticking a few easier problems is, for me, satisfying, rewarding, fulfilling.

I had a fantastic day today. I climbed some excellent problems, got some great pictures and I'm completely psyched for climbing.

I'm having a brief indoor session tomorrow, resting resting resting on Friday and then going to the CWIF on Saturday. Then my bouldering phase is over, and power endurance will govern my climbing life for another four weeks.

pen trwyn raiding

On the first day of the new month your dear narrator embarked upon a daring raid on North Wales. My brother drove us down and despite some rain on the way down, Llandudno was drenched in sunshine when we arrived at half past ten.

We warmed up in the Split Infinity cave, traversing and generally getting the fingers working. We moved into Parisella's Cave and I tried Rock Atrocity for fifteen minutes or so. I could do all the moves and linked from the start to matching on the flake. It is very powerful and fingery though, I think I need just a little extra to be able to crush it.

With my appetite for bouldering satisfied for a short while, we moved up the hill and Matt got straight on to Fears for Tears, a F6c. He lead it with little trouble and I lead it after. I got surprisingly pumped on it - too much trying to recover on good holds in a poor position, instead of pushing on through harder ground to a good rest.

We walked on to the next sector and I tried to onsight a F7a called Bring Back Fred Gwynne. It was really steep, but big holds. I made it to the second bolt after a couple of false starts but found myself very tired so rested on the bolt. I bolt to bolted the rest of the route. It was just too steep for me to hang around working out sequences! I was pretty frustrated but I armed Matt with my knowledge and encouragement and he had a wicked flash attempt, failing at the final section of hard climbing and only just - he missed a crimp by about 3 inches. Psyched by Matt's efforts I tied in and did it clean. I messed up the sequence at the top, I didn't quite get the crimp right and instead of adjusting I just cut loose, swung my feet round and pulled through to a good hold. Spicy, but excellent!

Here's a photo of me shortly before failure on my onsight attempt, trying to recover on jugs with no feet and not realising a knee bar could be had just one move away...


After this we played on some of the boulder problem starts to the routes nearby and then drove round the corner to do a F6a, Belay Bunny Bounces Back, a good climb and well within our capabilities. We drove on further and I had a play on Pill Box Original, a steep V6 problem, but didn't manage it.

I was feeling very tired by this point, it was about 4pm. Matt tied onto a F6b but couldn't get past the first bolt. We seemed to have hit a wall so we called it a day and drove back to Saltaire.

Some analysis then. It was a really good day trip and overall, I'm very pleased with it. However, it could have been much more successful if I hadn't had a split focus. I should have just concentrated on routes with Matt instead of playing on two very powerful boulder problems.

My endurance is still not up to snuff. I need to increase my stamina so that I can hold on long enough to work out sequences.