Humbug!

Feel like I'm falling apart at the moment. Looks like I have a mild rotator cuff injury on the right shoulder and I'm now doing lots of strengthening exercises after resting over Xmas. Was supposed to be climbing tonight and on Sun but have decided to do the sensible thing and rest. Sooo annoying though as I was just starting to feel some benefits but I guess another weeks rest won't hurt. It's too damn cold at the moment anyway and I still have a raking cough and my left wrist has just flared up with a touch of tendinitis which has not happened for ages. I'll be glad when this festive period is over. I'm falling apart!

Thanks John for reminding me of my flying time yesterday. Quite pleased with that fall!

Cold Finger Training

Feeling much better today after Friday's rest. Arrived at Ratho this morning with Ross and John and it was pretty cold to say the least. I was to attempt my 5 hard project routes and 2 x 2 lockoffs at 6A after. The guys were doing their 4 sets of 3 by 3's - 6B/6A+/6A+. Biggest problem was staying warm between attempts.

Good progess today.

Grey 6C - Completed 1st attempt - correct hand sequence made the differance
White 6C - Fell just before the apex - mistake with right foot cost me.
Olive 6C - Correct sequence but fell just before rail and fell as I touched the last hold.
Yellow 6B+ - Fell at rockover and then at final move. Need to be more assertive at the rockover.
White 6C - comp wall - Got 11 clips out and a couple of moves further than last week before falling - Very cold holds

Lockoffs - 2 x Yellow 6A and 2 x Blue and Tufa 6A - Lockoffs felt not too bad

Overall felt pretty motivated and took some good falls - happy that I pushed on and took the falls - it's the only way. Quite optimistic that within a couple of weeks some of these routes will be ticked off.

Only downside is my right shoulder has a bit of a twinge but with a weeks rest ahead will be fine.

Pictures are of John (top) and Ross (bottom) working their stamina on their 3 by 3's

Grotty Day

Still feeling pretty grotty today but not bad enough to prevent excercise. Got the next week off as a holiday so plenty of time for rest then. Got in the gym this morning. Wide and close grip pull ups, frenchies and hanging knee raises with twists to failure.

At lunchtime down to the gym for the final accumulator class of the year. Egle the high energy Latvian put us through our paces. Squats with 20kg barbell, press ups, sadistic running plank thing, triceps extension, leg lunges with 20kg barbell, burpies, ab crunchs with full leg extension and holding the plank for a minute. Repeat ten times. Savage.

This evening more wide and close grip pull ups followed by 30 hand move sequence on the fingerboard x3. Then 3 sets of repeaters hangs for 10 secs each and reducing the rest between each to 5 secs. 9 hangs in each set using slopers, 4 finger edge and 3 finger edge.

Still feeling a bit grotty but rest day tomorrow so should improve before Saturday climbing.

More stamina required

Last pilates class before Xmas today. Core is still burning. Out at ratho tonight for 4 sets of 3 by 3's. Got way too pumped on the second set due to poor warm up but the final two sets were perfect. Rosco making a good dent in his 7a projects. Need to work hard to keep up. Feeling a bit snotty but hoping it won't come to anything.

Recovery day

Feeling not too bad. Bit of stiffness in the arms after yesterday but fine really. Got a 30 minute recovery run in at the gym at lunchtime followed by some stretching.

9 out of 10 climbers

Got Dave MacLeods new book today. 9 out of 10 climbers make the same mistakes. No doubt i'm one of them although I hope i'm already addressing a lot of mine there should be some good info to mull over.

Full on Monday

Cycled into work and got an antagonistic weight session in early doors. Bench press, incline bench press, shoulder press, assisted dips, triceps, biceps and lat pulls. 2 sets of 20 reps each. Felt prety good. Just managed to complete the shoulder presses.

Pilates class at lunchtime focused on shoulders, arm muscles, legs and core. Moved up to 3kg weights for each arm. Felt good. Shoulders coped better than I expected.

Fingerboard session this evening. Wide grip and close grip pull ups, 30 move hand sequence sets x 3 and repeaters x 9 for 3 sets using 4 finger edge, 3 finger pockets and slopers. Skin stablising on fingers again. Starting to feel much stronger again.

All in all, a good day.

Recovery Run

Got out for a forty minute run around the Water of Leith. Cold, crisp, muddy and beautiful. Felt good. Rest of day for resting and a 1st birthday party for one of monkey boys pals.

Project Routes

Had a rest day yesterday. Still pretty stiff around the shoulders today and can feel the legs but otherwise good to go. Out at Ratho with Rosco and Johnny who were doing 3 by 3's and 3 sec lock off climbing. This fitted well with my day which was to climb 5 hard project routes and then some 2 by 2's.

1 - Blue 6B - Gaz parry line - Onsighted - good start
2 - Green 6Bish - climbed with no rests - first time i've completed this route
3 - Olive 6C - incorrect hand seq caused first fail, then climbed and fell at final clip. Tough route.
4 - Grey 6C - incorrect hand seq caused first fail, then finished. Next time I can do this!
5 - White 6C - Comp wall - 11 clips before failure

Pretty happy overall. The olive is gradually coming within range. Sustained and pumpy but a good route. Next week will be harder as more 6C's required and there are some good ones to try.

Finished on a set of 2 by 2. Red 6A+ and yellow 6A. Rushed all the way home to find family are out and I could have stayed longer. Bugger!

Health hath returned!!

Great day after feeling like crap for 24 hours or so. Despite being stuck in traffic on the M8/M9 for what felt like an eternity last night I managed to complete three sets of 3 by 3's at the wall. Arrived psyched and ripped into it until time ran out. This involved picking a route 3 grades below your highest one and then completing another 2 routes a grade below this back to back followed by 15 mins rest. I was using 6A+/6A/6A. Not bad for the 2 hours left when I arrived. Warm up left a bit to be desired though! Technique felt good, seemed to make all the right decisions.

Felt even better today so have moved my morning gym session to a Thursday so that I can have a clear rest day on the Friday before Saturday at the wall. Kicked the sprog out of bed early so he was first at nursery today. It's good to suffer in company! Got a good core and climb specific conditioning session in which involved a lot of pull ups , frenchies & 3 way knee raises. Frenchies are particularly savage.

I knew I was going to suffer in the accumulator class at lunchtime as Rebecca has a sadistic streak and always seems to know which muscles I've already worked. So lots of side raises, leg lunges, shoulder presses, step ups, triceps presses, crunches, toe taps & planks. Felt strong.

Once monkey boy was sound asleep in bed I was able to complete an anaerobic endurance session on the fingerboard with a stimulating view of the kitchen. More pull ups (arghh) followed by a circuit of 30 hand moves repeated 3 times. Then three sets of repeaters using slopers, 4 finger edge and 3 finger edge to complete nine 10 second dead hangs changing the grip each hang.

Felt strong today although now in bad need of tomorrows rest day. Left shoulder a little tight. Not surprised really. Had a good stretch so should be ok.

Urgghh

Today was a total washout. After going to bed last night I was kept awake most of the night with a very dodgy tummy. Woke up with a raging headache, aches and zero appetite. Had to spend the day in bed recovering. Feeling better now although still some weird gurglings coming from my gut. Received my training plan which I am to follow for the next 3-4 months. Looks pretty full on but this is exactly what I need.

Monday

Monday began with a quick sprint along the canal path on the bike to work. No 14kg child on the back so felt fast. Spent 45 mins in the gym at work and worked back muscles, legs and forearms. Savage pilates class at lunchtime focusing on shoulders, arms and core. Felt strong and maintained good form with the 2.5kg weights. Sprint cycle home and spent an hour on the fingerboard working my way through the edges, pockets and slopers. 10 sec hangs with 3 secs between each hang and 2 minute rest after each set. Fingers felt a bit tired and I've noticed a very slight bulge at the first joint of my ring finger on my right hand. Not painful but i'm a little concerned. As a result thought it worth starting some cold water treatment as a precaution and will apply ibuprofen gel to see if that helps. Good day overall. Body well worked. Need good sleep now.

The beginning

I've a good few years climbing under the belt now and at age thirtysix and with a two year old child i'm finding it very difficult to progress to the level of climbing I desire. It's the start of winter and the perfect time to get into it. Had a good personal coaching session at Ratho today with 'McGeek' who is now preparing a training programme to last about four months with the goal of arriving in spring fitter, stronger and leading 7a comfortably and bouldering at a much higher grade. I'm currently leading 6b/6b+ without too much trouble and boulder at V3/V4. My reason for blogging is primarily selfish as I need to keep a training log over the coming months and figure this to be a good way of doing so. I've also like most climbers read a lot about how to improve your climbing but rarely by anyone holding down a normal desk based 9-5 job and bringing up a family at the same time. It's a large juggling act to find the time to train effectively and requires a lot of motivation to do so. I'm hoping to gain some insights and perhaps provide some for anyone interested in improving their climbing under these very normal circumstances.