Back in the gym

Had a rest day on Wed as a project manager at work very rudely arranged a meeting during lunchtime so I had to skip my pilates class.

Got out to Ratho in the evening and completed 4 sets of 3 by 3's - felt pretty good and in control. Achieved correct levels of pump.

Highlight of the night was Rosco nailing his first 7A - Yellow route left of turtle shell - great effort!! He's well pleased. So is 'Coach Gordon'.

So got into the gym this morning for lots of assisted pull ups - fast up - slow down
Followed by frenchies - real fun
Hanging knee raises to failure.

At lunchtime got a 5k run in 30 mins followed by lots of stretching.

Tonight more pull ups at home on the fingerboard followed by a power endurance circuit of hand moves and finally 3 sets of repeaters (nine 10 sec hangs in each)

Friday is a rest day.

Training

Got into work early on Monday to work the antagonistic muscles with some free weights. 1 sec up / 3 secs down. Ouch! Followed at lunchtime with an excellent Pilates class. Severe core burning sequences. Got home and worked through a fingerboard power endurance session.

Today did a 5K recovery run in 30 mins at lunchtime followed by copious amounts of stretching. Body a bit stiff after yesterday. Feeling good though.

Hard Project Day

Great day today. Lots of failed attempts but generally my technique feels good, the finger strength is creeping back and although I fell off a lot it wasn't due to the pump for a change - definitely due to finger strength.

White 6C - Comp wall - Best yet - managed to clip 12 before falling. Good fun!

6B+ - Robbie's new route on the slab which I really surprised myself on. Felt really good going up it. Really enjoy this sort of marginal, balancey climbing. Loads of possible combinations of moves/smears really gets you thinking. 1st fall at tricky rockover and 2nd fall at very last committing smear move. Reckon I could nail this now.

7A - Middle of tortoise shell - Got to the middle of the shell for 1st fall. A couple more falls and got to the top eventually. Good route. Going to take a wee while to overcome this route.

6C+ - Lisandro route - Got to the bouldery move again and fell. Continued to roof and fell knackered from there.

6B+ - Old comp wall leading ladder route. Should have done better on this route and know I can. Previous routes took their toll on this one. Crimped out!! More like 6C this route.

Stamina & Belay Glasses

Out at Ratho on Wed night for stamina training. Managed to fit in 3 sets of 3 by 3's before time ran out. Got the pump level just right on all three sets. Felt pretty good.

Had good Pilates sessions this week and got a 5k run in on Tuesday afternoon.
Just had my first fingerboard session since December and recovery from injury. Felt good to get back on it. The fingers need the strength badly. Not lost too much though so quite happy.

Tried out my new belay glasses on Wed night - hence arriving a little late after picking them up from 'belay glasses Pete'. Cost me £85 which for a lot of climbers is probably quite eye watering! However I've spent about £160 over the last two months on Physio and sports massage to release all the muscles down the right side of my neck all the way to my elbow. I think the £85 is going to be a pretty damn good investment if it helps prevent my muscles tightening up again (which every time I was belaying I was feeling)

Takes a wee bit of getting used to them and you don't want to put them on until your partner is at least 4 clips up but after that you get a very interesting and slightly magnified view of your partners attempts. You kind of watch them climb away from you along the ground and you can see some interesting things in their technique and shifting of weight. You can really watch them the whole time and with no neck pain. Perfect! I like them.

Project Routes

Good session at the weekend - Loads of great routes to work and good atmosphere - everyone's psyched. Loads of good falls being taken - Robbie's the pick of the bunch with a slow motion 'shhhhiiiitttttt' as he flew threw the air. High five!

My routes as follows

White 6C - Middle comp wall - Got to 13th clip and ran out of steam - best so far


Red 6C+ - Lisandro route - i.e. crimpy/balancy and needing mutant capabilities. Got to the layback/slap out with flag - difficult move where I took repeated falls. Eventually sussed it and got to the overhang where I was able to reach the hold above it before admitting defeat. One of favourite routes.

Purple 6C - Right of the tortoise shell. The first section is fiendish but I got past the layback crimp to the pocket before 1st fall. Then made it past the overhang where I treaded water for a while trying to get some energy back to no avail. Fell as soon as I moved on. Then straight to the top. Also a favourite route. McGeek evilness if I remember correctly.

Yellow 6B+ - Old comp wall leading ladder route. Ithink this is easily 6C as well. Renewed my battle with this route. Fell at first rockover. Next fall on final 3rd as I went for the home straight only to realise I'd bloody z clipped it! Ahhhh!

Green 6C+ - Left of tortoise shell - First go at this route. Got to mid point of the shell for first fall. Pressed on with a few more falls to get to the section above the shell. Totally goosed by this point so had to come down. Excellent route. A perfect project to work. Quite technical with some evil crimps and very pumpy and sustained. I'm going to enjoy this one - it will take quite a while to complete this one.

So pretty happy with my committment - lots of strange grunting and about 85% of the time made extra moves beyond where I wanted to take and took the falls. Almost enjoying the falls now but I'd rather flash the route given the choice. However if I wasn't falling then they would be too easy. My arm/shoulder felt great as well. Finally all the patience of the past weeks has paid off. Bring it on!

Stamina

Good Pilates session on Monday. Still feeling the core and front of both shoulders. Got out to Ratho a little later than anticipated due to wife getting home late. So had to rush into the 3x3 endurance sets. Robbie very kindly belayed me for 2 sets which let me make up some time. Got a final set and one top rope in before the end. All a bit rushed but probably good for it. Not too much rest in between so I was totally knackered by the end. Good to be climbing injury free again!

Good week

Good week! Got through 4 sets of 3 by 3's on Wed night although the pump factor on the second set was way to high. My brachialis was still very tender but already feeling much better.

Out to Ratho today for the project routes. My arm did not trouble me at all and I was for the first time since Dec 18th able to crank hard and really go for it. Loads of good new routes to smash myself against as well.

Orange 6C - main wall - got 2/3 before first fall. A couple more attempts at the last section but couldn't make it stick.

Purple 6C - Right of tortoise shell - First fall at nasty pinch to 3 finger pocket - 2nd fall after getting over the overhang. Excellent route. I can do this route in a couple of week I think.

Red 6C+ - Lisandro masterpiece - Crimpy, balancey and technical. Got halfway to a tricky bouldery move that I could not stick. Awesome route.

Yellow 6B - Same line as Lisandro's - quite sustained crimpy stuff which I am weak on at the moment. I could do this route if I'd done it first.

White 6C - Line up the middle of the competition wall. About 10 clips so 1 clip less than 6 weeks ago. Not lost too much then. Good long fall.

Great day - feel I'll get back to where I was within a couple of weeks. Took some good sized falls - grunting and barking like a rutting stag on most of these routes but I was at my absolute limit so I don't care. Seems to be a lot of psyched kids and adults at the moment. Really good atmosphere in the arena.

A wee clip of Rosco on the campus board after his projects - he is so close to nailing 7A's at the moment. He didn't know I was filming him or it would have been forbidden or he would have tried harder and made more manly noises!

Pilates

Got back into the Pilates classes this week. Had a good session on Monday which I could feel today during today's class. Can feel those core muscles burning. My Brachialis muscle still very tender today so probably a good thing that I am climbing tomorrow night instead. Otherwise feeling good. Cold almost gone as well.

Source of weirdness located

Had a good session with Jane (sports masseur) at lunchtime today and discovered the source of the weird pains in my shoulder/arm region. As soon as she started to work my right brachialis I experienced the same weird pains and a lot of discomfort. This muscle runs between my bicep and tricep and had a nasty knot which was fecking painful when Jane ironed it out. Even now the whole area is very tender and painful but it's such a relief to discover what I think is the final piece of the jigsaw. My neck muscles are now much better and my rotator cuff muslces are all in good shape so I need to persist with all of the previous stretches and add some new ones which Jane is going to send me. Also need to stretch the pecs more as they are still a bit tight. So all of these tight muscles seem to have added up to referred shoulder pain and that should be a warning as I reckon I stretch more than the average climber and yet I was still able to have a lot of tight muscle. So I think I will see Jane every 3 months for a maintenance massage to check me over and pro-actively seek out areas of tightness. £35 quid every 3 months will be better than the £140 I reckon I've spent on physio and massage so far and not too mention the 4-5 week period of stationary progress in my training.

The line has been drawn in the sand this week - I'm coming back stronger! COME ON!!