Well the blog diary has got neglected the past month due to my Dad falling ill and being very busy at work. However I have more time now, so here's an update.
I've been climbing again quite a bit lately, this week I've had 4 sessions up to now, all at Craggy2. With the mass of new problems that have been put up I've been down there quite a bit trying them.
Anyway back to training:
Campus boarding 1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs in under 5 minutes seems to be easy now. Even after a break.
I've also been doing a few power endurance sessions:
- 5 minutes climbing as many problems as possible(Grades V0-V5)
- 5minute rest
- Repeat first step, but on different problems.
This seems to give a good forearm pump which gradually reduces the more times you do it. In effect giving you a quicker recovery time.
Core Workout tonight (27/04/12)
- 40 press ups
- 35 leg raise crunches (Lie on back, shoulders on floor. Keep legs straight while lying on back and bring to 90' and return to floor slowly)
- 3 x 60 second leg raises while lying on stomach.
- 5 x 15 second leg raises on bar.
Friday, 27 April 2012
Sunday, 18 March 2012
18/03/2012 - Font 7c!
I had a session at Craig y longridge today. My plan was to first see if it was dry and then attempt to climb at least one 7c. After about a dozen goes on a problem called ' In Excess SDS' I finally managed to climb the problem, which is a mix of razor sharp crimps and wide pinches, you then have foot locks and egyptians to contend with to make it through the crux.
It was a great problem to finally climb and is very much my style. The problems goes up the line where this guys feet are, it's basically straight up and is hard to see in that photo, the holds are there, honest!
It's my first font7c of the year, so I'm happy!
It was a great problem to finally climb and is very much my style. The problems goes up the line where this guys feet are, it's basically straight up and is hard to see in that photo, the holds are there, honest!
It's my first font7c of the year, so I'm happy!
Catch up and crushing!
I've been a bit busy lately and unfortunately haven't been recording my climbs as I had liked to. But here is a quick history of the past few weeks:
07/03/2012
Craggy island session: I went climbing with my friend Rob who is currently beasting through the SIBL comps and HSBC comps in London. We went and tried the new problems that have been put up at Craggy2 in the rock room. Overall it was a good session and lasted for about 3hours. I even managed to climb a few hard things!
08/03/2012-09/03/2012
I spent these days re-setting the Fridge at Westway with Slim and Tricky, this was quite a fun set due to us being allowed to set lots of harder problems above v6. We managed to get 30 problems up on the first day with 3 of us, and then a further 17 on the second day with 2 of us setting. There's quite a bit of harder stuff in their now and quite a lot of problems in the mid grades as well. Unfortunately due to the new revolution holds we were using, I ran out of skin by the morning of the second day! So testing the problems later on proved to be painful!
13/03/2012
I'm back home for a few days so managed to get outdoors to Trowbarrow in the south lakes, I was hoping to try and work a font8a up there, but the holds were very damp and so I only ended up spending an hour climbing there, and then decided to head home. A short but sweet session.
14/03/2012
Due to bad weather I headed indoors to Westview leisure centre where I tried out the new problems. The session started badly with me falling off a v3! After a little pep talk I managed to then on-sight all but 1 of the problems up to v8. I then attempted the v8+'s which were left over from the NIBL comp, one of the problems involves a weird horizontal hanging sequence which I find difficult with my height. So I tried a more direct variation skipping a foothold, which enabled me to get very high on the problem into the second crux, unfortunately I ran out of skin so decided it was time to head home.
07/03/2012
Craggy island session: I went climbing with my friend Rob who is currently beasting through the SIBL comps and HSBC comps in London. We went and tried the new problems that have been put up at Craggy2 in the rock room. Overall it was a good session and lasted for about 3hours. I even managed to climb a few hard things!
08/03/2012-09/03/2012
I spent these days re-setting the Fridge at Westway with Slim and Tricky, this was quite a fun set due to us being allowed to set lots of harder problems above v6. We managed to get 30 problems up on the first day with 3 of us, and then a further 17 on the second day with 2 of us setting. There's quite a bit of harder stuff in their now and quite a lot of problems in the mid grades as well. Unfortunately due to the new revolution holds we were using, I ran out of skin by the morning of the second day! So testing the problems later on proved to be painful!
13/03/2012
I'm back home for a few days so managed to get outdoors to Trowbarrow in the south lakes, I was hoping to try and work a font8a up there, but the holds were very damp and so I only ended up spending an hour climbing there, and then decided to head home. A short but sweet session.
14/03/2012
Due to bad weather I headed indoors to Westview leisure centre where I tried out the new problems. The session started badly with me falling off a v3! After a little pep talk I managed to then on-sight all but 1 of the problems up to v8. I then attempted the v8+'s which were left over from the NIBL comp, one of the problems involves a weird horizontal hanging sequence which I find difficult with my height. So I tried a more direct variation skipping a foothold, which enabled me to get very high on the problem into the second crux, unfortunately I ran out of skin so decided it was time to head home.
Monday, 5 March 2012
Catch up over the past few weeks.
24/02/12 Session
I had a session at Craggy2 about a week or so ago, which went terribly . It was one of those sessions where I had no energy to pull up on anything, so I reverted to slabs which I also failed at. Not a good session...
27/02/12 Session
Again I returned to Craggy2 and had a session which went surprisingly better! I managed to work out some new beta on the font7c+ which makes one of the moves a lot easier. So hopefully in the next few sessions I should be able to climb it.
29/02/12 Session
Again another Craggy2 session, this time I tried out the new problems that have been set for the comp. They were pretty good. One of the problems starts with a massive dyno to a thick edge, which you then heel hook and pop up for a small hold. I found this problem very hard due to me kneeing myself in the head because of cramped move up to the small hold. Being tall sometimes fails!
01/03/12 and 02/03/12 Setting
I ended up setting the new boulder wall at Westway and managed to stick up a few harder problems for once around the v8 mark, which is nice to have. Unfortunately I bruised my palm from too many press(y) problems!
I had a session at Craggy2 about a week or so ago, which went terribly . It was one of those sessions where I had no energy to pull up on anything, so I reverted to slabs which I also failed at. Not a good session...
27/02/12 Session
Again I returned to Craggy2 and had a session which went surprisingly better! I managed to work out some new beta on the font7c+ which makes one of the moves a lot easier. So hopefully in the next few sessions I should be able to climb it.
29/02/12 Session
Again another Craggy2 session, this time I tried out the new problems that have been set for the comp. They were pretty good. One of the problems starts with a massive dyno to a thick edge, which you then heel hook and pop up for a small hold. I found this problem very hard due to me kneeing myself in the head because of cramped move up to the small hold. Being tall sometimes fails!
01/03/12 and 02/03/12 Setting
I ended up setting the new boulder wall at Westway and managed to stick up a few harder problems for once around the v8 mark, which is nice to have. Unfortunately I bruised my palm from too many press(y) problems!
Wednesday, 22 February 2012
21/02/12 Session and General North/South musings
I've barely climbed in the last week unfortunately, but I've had to rush back North due to my dad being taken into hospital. So climbing had dropped onto the back burner for a while.
I managed to go up to Westview in Preston last night and had a good session managing to climb a few v8/v8+'s. It wasn't really a major session though. I find now that the gradings between north and south are quite different. It seems problems in London are far harder, but not as fluid and nice to climb.
I guess it just depends on the setters and the type of climbing they mainly prefer. At westview it's mainly crimpy problems due to Ian Vickers setting there who is a very strong climber, the current set had a lot of gaston moves in it which I find are lacking in London.
I think that currently in London one of the best walls for bouldering setting would be Craggy Island, with Mark Croxall as their main setter. It seems for me that his style matches my style very well. Plus I've had to learn how to hold wide pinches on steep overhangs! Which I use to be terrible at doing.
I managed to go up to Westview in Preston last night and had a good session managing to climb a few v8/v8+'s. It wasn't really a major session though. I find now that the gradings between north and south are quite different. It seems problems in London are far harder, but not as fluid and nice to climb.
I guess it just depends on the setters and the type of climbing they mainly prefer. At westview it's mainly crimpy problems due to Ian Vickers setting there who is a very strong climber, the current set had a lot of gaston moves in it which I find are lacking in London.
I think that currently in London one of the best walls for bouldering setting would be Craggy Island, with Mark Croxall as their main setter. It seems for me that his style matches my style very well. Plus I've had to learn how to hold wide pinches on steep overhangs! Which I use to be terrible at doing.
Tuesday, 14 February 2012
14/02/2012 Session
I had a session at Craggy2 today which went really well. I managed to finally work out a move on the font7c+, which involves a simultaneous toe hook and heel hook while throwing up for a sloper on a very steep overhang. Hopefully next session I shall managed to climb the whole thing in one go. So hopefully 3 sessions and it's done!
I also spent a lot of time creating my own problems to try, which involved lots of hard gaston/press moves that are almost at full reach, so it makes you really have to use your shoulders on the problems.
I then finished off the session with the following:
1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs - I managed all of this in under 5 minutes without really getting pumped!
I then did a set of 1-5 and reverse with both hands separately on all 3 sets of rungs, this is the same as mentioned in a previous post. So one hand on and one foot on a small foothold below the campus board. The smallest rungs are trickier to hold as expected and holding the 5th rung is quite tricky.
Nail bed update/ Chalk update
Interestingly after having a 2hour session I had no nail problems today and no pain at all in my fingers. I think this is definitely down to the change in chalk that I have been using. I shall keep track of this over the next few weeks and make notes for each session. It seems all I needed after all was pure old Magnesium Carbonate.
I also spent a lot of time creating my own problems to try, which involved lots of hard gaston/press moves that are almost at full reach, so it makes you really have to use your shoulders on the problems.
I then finished off the session with the following:
1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs - I managed all of this in under 5 minutes without really getting pumped!
I then did a set of 1-5 and reverse with both hands separately on all 3 sets of rungs, this is the same as mentioned in a previous post. So one hand on and one foot on a small foothold below the campus board. The smallest rungs are trickier to hold as expected and holding the 5th rung is quite tricky.
Nail bed update/ Chalk update
Interestingly after having a 2hour session I had no nail problems today and no pain at all in my fingers. I think this is definitely down to the change in chalk that I have been using. I shall keep track of this over the next few weeks and make notes for each session. It seems all I needed after all was pure old Magnesium Carbonate.
Saturday, 11 February 2012
10/02/2012 Session
I headed down to Craggy2 for a session yesterday, I had decided beforehand to tape over the nail injury and see if I could still climb on it. The result... I could! So I climbed quite a few problems up to about v6, it seemed anything harder than v6 I wasn't able to climb due to lack of friction with the tape on my finger.
I decided to then go and have a campus session, and managed to following:
1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs.
I then decided to do doubles up the medium sized rungs and managed 1-9.
I then tried something new, basically I kept 1 foot (Lets say right foot) on a foothold below the campus board and with my (right) hand I would then go up the campus board one hand only up to the fifth rung and reverse it. I did this for both hands/feet on each set of rung sizes. The smallest rungs are quite tricky.
It seems to be quite a good exercise for body tension and contact strength for when you lunge for holds with only one hand.
I think I shall now incorporate this into my training routine and hopefully it will help for those pesky lunging climbing moves...
I decided to then go and have a campus session, and managed to following:
1-3-5-7-9-11 and reverse on all 3 sets of rungs.
I then decided to do doubles up the medium sized rungs and managed 1-9.
I then tried something new, basically I kept 1 foot (Lets say right foot) on a foothold below the campus board and with my (right) hand I would then go up the campus board one hand only up to the fifth rung and reverse it. I did this for both hands/feet on each set of rung sizes. The smallest rungs are quite tricky.
It seems to be quite a good exercise for body tension and contact strength for when you lunge for holds with only one hand.
I think I shall now incorporate this into my training routine and hopefully it will help for those pesky lunging climbing moves...
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