Thursday 26 January 2012

25/01/12 Session

I popped down to Craggy2 last night to try out some of their new problems, generally it was a pretty fun session. I managed quite a lot of font6c/7a's first go, and almost on-sighted a font7b(Considering Craggy2 has the hardest setting in London, possibly anywhere I've climbed actually, I'm quite impressed with myself!).

I'm starting to realise that I need to really get back into lock off training though, while I can lock off quite easily, I need to start training this with full body locks on a steep board. I'm thinking maybe on the 40' at Westway that I try holding hard gaston/crimp/pocket/side pull moves for a certain amount of time until failure, in the hope of improving locking strength on steeper things. Plus it's good for your core!

We should hopefully be getting the holds to build the systems board at Westway either tomorrow, or next week. So I'm going to start training on that a lot as well, possibly incorporating it into campus/fingerboard session when I'm there.

Today's a rest day, but I'm popping back to Craggy2 tomorrow to try all the other new stuff being set today. Hopefully there shall be some font 7c's/7c+'s up by then! :)

Tuesday 24 January 2012

24/01/2012 Session

So today I went to the wall with the intention of having a weighted vest session.

I started off with a quick warm up (Without the vest).

Then I did a load of problems around v0-v4 while wearing the (5kg)vest, a few of these felt a lot harder, so I think when using the vest it bumps most problems up a grade.

I then got distracted and went bouldering with some friends(without the vest) and ended up almost doing a v9, and failing pitifully on a v8.

Mental note: Get thicker skin...

Oh and here is a photo of the weight vest I have purchased:




Please note that isn't me wearing it!

Saturday 21 January 2012

Week catch-up.

I've been a bit busy this week, so haven't had time to update, here's what's been happening:

Tuesday 17/01/2012 Session

I headed to Craggy2 today and had a session of light bouldering up to about V6.During my previous session at Westview I slightly tweaked my wrist, which left a lump on my tendon sheaf in my wrist. This seemed to dissipate over the course of the week and has now left a slight lump.

Thursday/Friday 19th/20th January

I spent Thursday route setting down at Westway setting problems from V3-V5, we had received a set of brand new holds from Revolution, which had some really funky shapes and were very abrasive! I managed to set 7 problems over 2-3hours. On Friday I headed in and tested the problems and tweaked them to make them slightly easier. In the end there ended up being 2 very tricky slab problems, 2 overhanging problems and 3 vertical problems.

While setting I also realised that the pain I had been suffering in my wrist had completely vanished. So I decided to try out the weighted vest I had received the previous week. Overall I found climbing in it proved to be relatively easy, although jumping from the top of the wall certainly proves to be trickier!

Full training shall start again tomorrow, hopefully I shall evade the injuries!

Friday 13 January 2012

12/01/2012 Session

I had a session at Westview again, the bouldering had been re-set so loads of new problems to play on.

I started off with the usual warm up of climbing routes up to v6 and then had a rest. I then on-sighted a v8+, almost on-sighted a second v8+ - I fell going for a match on the top hold. I got pretty far up a lot of the other v8/+'s as well. I'm feeling strong at the moment which is good and I have no back pain any more. Plus the weight vest has arrived, so since I'm back to London on Saturday my real training can kick start again.

Psyche is high.

Wednesday 11 January 2012

11/01/2012 Session

So I had a session today in 'The shed', my friend Iggi has built a climbing training wall in an old concrete out building.

It has a full systems board, a climbing cave, a campus board, a fingerboard, 2 pull up bars, and is soon to have a personalised campus style board. I've included 2 photos below:






Tonight we decided to have a systems sessions, so basically did a set on every type of holds and then repeated this twice. We then decided to try alternating holds when climbing up, such as left hand pockets, right hand slopers etc.

It was a fun session and lasted about 2hours.

10/01/2012 Session

I had a session at Westview today in Preston, due to the bouldering being closed it was going to have to be a route session (Not really my cup of tea). I lead for an hour or so and did a few routes ranging from f5-f6c+. Did a slight bit of bouldering on a problem that we made up on a featured wall, this probably weighed in at v8+. Then went over and played on the fingerboard.

I've noticed since coming home that my training has dropped off massively, this is due to lack of access to good training facilities. I'm off back to London on Friday so I shall be getting back into my training, plus my new weight vest arrives today. Which should be a 10kg one with adjustable weight. So I hope to intensify the training soon.

09/01/2012 Session

I had a session at my friend Iggi's climbing wall today (He built a training wall in a large concrete room - It's pretty good!).

We ended up doing sets on the systems board, but due to the power dying we were using my phones torch to give us enough light to see the holds. We then moved onto the fingerboard and did a few sets of pull ups on all the holds on the board. This was a very short session only lasting 1 hour.

Thursday 5 January 2012

04/01/12 Session

I had a session last night at Blackpool again, which consisted of rope climbing! I did a few routes up to about 7b+ on-sight. Then I decided to go for a bouldering session and managed to do 4 v8/+'s and then many other routes. It seems the reason that I had such a bad session on Tuesday was down to fatigue, I was feeling strong and psyched last night.

I find it interesting how with climbing you can have a great session, then a terrible one the next day where you struggle to climb anything, then another brilliant session the day after. Psyche seems to be a very important factor in this.

Wednesday 4 January 2012

Christmas Climbing Sessions

27/12/11

On the 27th I went climbing at BoulderUK with some friends, and managed to on-sight 2 v8's and various other routes. It was a good session for evaluating my current climbing style compared with Northern route setting.

29/12/11

I had a session at Westview leisure centre with some friends again, and managed to climb 3 v8's and various other routes. However I was feeling slightly fatigued from the session a few days before so I got tired relatively quickly.

03/01/2012

I had a short session with my girlfriend at Blackpool Sports Centres wall where I climbed a lot of the routes up to v7. However I was feeling VERY weak, and only climbed for 60 minutes.