Climbed last night at the works with Nat, my forearms were still sore (a rarity) and it took a little while to get going, after that I was climbing pretty well even dispatching the red problem from the groin tearing sit start, first go. It didn't last long and I soon started to fade however due to having paid for entry (my membership is now dead) I was unwilling to quite. A tonne of black problems later and I felt both wrecked and stupid. Stop strong. Always stop strong.
Today I went to the gym to justify a forthcoming rest by tiring out all of the other parts of my body. The gym was heaving, I got lucky and as I walked in someone stepped away from a smith machine. Decline, flat and incline bench followed by behind the neck and in front of the next press. One arm push downs and then tricep split rope. It didn't take long and I felt reasonably strong (i've had a little while off), however the gym was far too busy. I thought the sunshine biceps brigade would of been put off by now but they seem pretty resolved to block the place up.
Climbing wise I'm still unsure as what to do: Enjoy the remainder of the summer being weak and failing on things I've done before? or train and do a bit (not great for motivation), the thing is I want to book a holiday for the end of the summer, it seems pretty pointless to do that if i'm weak as I hate failing on easy things.
I'm still unwilling to join the works mind you, the problems just aren't that hard and it gets depseratelly hot in there as soon as one ray of sunshine hits the building. The foundry suffers from the same and lazy route setting during the summer months but its close to me and DOES offer a training board, Nat has a membership down the works though and it seems utter madness for me to disappear to one wall as she crosses town to another. Oh I don't know.
It turns out my dissertation supervisor is a perfectionist and clearly, i'm not. Her latest comments on my report have annoyed me somewhat, I put a lot of effort in to get all the additional pieces of analysis that she wanted and it comes back with nit picking comments on it, less than 12 hours after!!! Completely unnecessary.
This weekend will be the first in four that we've had no plans, which should be nice. Maybe I should strive to tag along for some climbing somewhere?
Oh some news: Newman dispatched Urgent Action (F8a+ at kilnsey if you didn't know) and Bloodsport (Fnt 8a+ Shaftoe) this week. He's going well.
I spoke to Keith briefly about what I should do to regain some of my previous strength, the answer was (sensibly) that he couldn't give any advice before knowing exactly where I'm at and recommended a full strength test which seemed a bit heavy for this week. Maybe next week, the results should be interesting. I still wish we had the school, one session up there and I'd know straight away...
Friday, 30 May 2008
Tuesday, 27 May 2008
Oxford, climbing and ponderings...
Last week both climbing and the gym were severely neglected. I've been working pretty hard to get a report together that surmises all of my work over the past 9 months which I finished at about 10pm on Thursday, reviewing it on Friday my supervisor and I stumbled upon a few queries which when we dug further revealed a potential hiccup in the whole analytical approach I've used. That left me somewhat deflated, what am I to do, re analyse everything in the new manner now? its due for a meeting in Warwick on the 3rd and then on the 13th I have another major deadline that will require serious man hours. Hopefully it can all be resolved today at 15:00 however right now I really don't know what to do.
The weekend was once again forfeited to family engagements, this time visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Oxford. It was a bizarre weekend to say the least, seeing very little of the people we went to visit. We returned on Sunday and my highlight of the day (driving the new lease car: 230d M sport Coupe) was ruined by a huge traffic jam, 4.5 hours from Oxford to Sheffield!!!
Monday we spent sorting things out around the flat and then eventually staggering out to the climbing works. It was understandably quiet but that was nice. Warmed up then got involved with the comp wall, I dispatched the problems in order of hold size, buckets to jugs before moving on to a crimpy orange arete problem however I'm still not very confident at that wall and therefore dropped off instead of committing to a high heal and a snatch to a jug, 6c+ supposedly. Did a few more bits and bobs, flashed a couple of 7a+'s and then moved on to the red problem through the roof, mucked up the sit start and then got confused in the roof. After a few minutes of watching people with technique (women I might add) I was disgusted to see all the faggotry going on, however the foot sequence was good and that teamed with my newly strong (alright!) gym arms meant that I cruised out to the uber jug and then locked strong to the next crimp, the line then climbs the edge of a volume before making a committing finish. I don't like to scare Natalie so dropped off at the top of the ramp.
Next I got involved with what I guess is the hardest problem on the wall, the yellow up the steep section. First I tried the move to the boss and up, basically because it looks good. Did that a few times and went through the motions of getting my heel up but didn't have the pull for the next bit. Next I worked the start, from around the corner hit a slopey crimpy edge bad, sag and hit bad pinch, sag even further and match the edge before powering out for the long crimp and failing miserably. If you're strong get to this it's a rarity in that its a fairly basic hard problem in the works.
After all of the above my skin was screaming and so too were my creaky fingers (crimping always seems a bit harsh after a lay-off). I did a few of the black circuit set by Mawson, they're nice on nice holds, well most of them are, avoid the juggy ones and you'll be fine as revolution only seem to make sharp edged jugs.
Today, while i'm sitting trying to work out where to go next in my research dilemma my forearms are sore, a good sign I think. I've got a few questions in my head though, almost every time that i've had an injury and time off associated with that injury I pick up some kind of niggle early on that eventually ends up in more time off. I don't want that to happen this time. So, do I enjoy the summer, get out climbing as much as possible and not really worry that I'm struggling on things that in reality should be well within my ability? Or do I train and climb aiming for some kind of morale boosting trip in the late summer? Or do I admit that I'm mainly interested in climbing hard and train like a headless chicken? I really enjoyed Kilnsey the other week with Dob but I've got aspirations at the crag, doing laps on FV, Comedy and Pantomime may all be well and good by the end of the summer but I've done all of that before, Yorkshire Ripper, Grooved Arete, True North that's was I really want to be on.
I was also pondering the other day (this post must be long by now) the fact that I could do all of the routes I've done at Kilnsey when I was much younger, and therefore much weaker. My max redpoint grade hasn't increased in around 4 years, ok so i've consolidated which is something I rarely do but still it should be higher by now. Its disappointing now to realise that by breaking my leg at the time that I did I may have missed a golden opportunity to put all of that training into something worthwhile on limestone, something that I really do want to climb.
The weekend was once again forfeited to family engagements, this time visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Oxford. It was a bizarre weekend to say the least, seeing very little of the people we went to visit. We returned on Sunday and my highlight of the day (driving the new lease car: 230d M sport Coupe) was ruined by a huge traffic jam, 4.5 hours from Oxford to Sheffield!!!
Monday we spent sorting things out around the flat and then eventually staggering out to the climbing works. It was understandably quiet but that was nice. Warmed up then got involved with the comp wall, I dispatched the problems in order of hold size, buckets to jugs before moving on to a crimpy orange arete problem however I'm still not very confident at that wall and therefore dropped off instead of committing to a high heal and a snatch to a jug, 6c+ supposedly. Did a few more bits and bobs, flashed a couple of 7a+'s and then moved on to the red problem through the roof, mucked up the sit start and then got confused in the roof. After a few minutes of watching people with technique (women I might add) I was disgusted to see all the faggotry going on, however the foot sequence was good and that teamed with my newly strong (alright!) gym arms meant that I cruised out to the uber jug and then locked strong to the next crimp, the line then climbs the edge of a volume before making a committing finish. I don't like to scare Natalie so dropped off at the top of the ramp.
Next I got involved with what I guess is the hardest problem on the wall, the yellow up the steep section. First I tried the move to the boss and up, basically because it looks good. Did that a few times and went through the motions of getting my heel up but didn't have the pull for the next bit. Next I worked the start, from around the corner hit a slopey crimpy edge bad, sag and hit bad pinch, sag even further and match the edge before powering out for the long crimp and failing miserably. If you're strong get to this it's a rarity in that its a fairly basic hard problem in the works.
After all of the above my skin was screaming and so too were my creaky fingers (crimping always seems a bit harsh after a lay-off). I did a few of the black circuit set by Mawson, they're nice on nice holds, well most of them are, avoid the juggy ones and you'll be fine as revolution only seem to make sharp edged jugs.
Today, while i'm sitting trying to work out where to go next in my research dilemma my forearms are sore, a good sign I think. I've got a few questions in my head though, almost every time that i've had an injury and time off associated with that injury I pick up some kind of niggle early on that eventually ends up in more time off. I don't want that to happen this time. So, do I enjoy the summer, get out climbing as much as possible and not really worry that I'm struggling on things that in reality should be well within my ability? Or do I train and climb aiming for some kind of morale boosting trip in the late summer? Or do I admit that I'm mainly interested in climbing hard and train like a headless chicken? I really enjoyed Kilnsey the other week with Dob but I've got aspirations at the crag, doing laps on FV, Comedy and Pantomime may all be well and good by the end of the summer but I've done all of that before, Yorkshire Ripper, Grooved Arete, True North that's was I really want to be on.
I was also pondering the other day (this post must be long by now) the fact that I could do all of the routes I've done at Kilnsey when I was much younger, and therefore much weaker. My max redpoint grade hasn't increased in around 4 years, ok so i've consolidated which is something I rarely do but still it should be higher by now. Its disappointing now to realise that by breaking my leg at the time that I did I may have missed a golden opportunity to put all of that training into something worthwhile on limestone, something that I really do want to climb.
Tuesday, 20 May 2008
A Decade...
No that's not the amount of time its been since I last posted something of interest, as of my birthday just over a week or so ago I've been climbing for around 1o years.
I was going to get all nostalgic and go through what I've done, who I've climbed with and all of the best bits but I really can't be faffed.
It's been a while so this is all a bit haphazard and long so apologies in advance:
For my b/day Nat took me to Leeds for a weekend where we ate and drank far too much, it was all great apart from a nightmare train journey to get there. Points failure led to them almost sending us back to Sheffield, 2 hours after that we arrived. Nice.
The week after I offered to belay for Dobbin up at Kilnsey, hoping to regain some of my psyche (cue doyle's Sunday sermon, too true). I really like Kilnsey, its where I started climbing on Limestone and where I excelled as a youth-ier yoof:
Pantomime, what a route! Strangely I prefer it to comedy. (for age reference, look how short Tom Newman is!)
I got the train to leeds (with ed brown) and then we drove up to Kilnsey, to be honest the car journey was worth the train ticket, non stop banter, I'd umm'd and ahh'd about climbing opting out of making a firm decision until I arrived but as soon as we neared the crag I was already pretty psyched, unfortunately the view of kilnsey isn't as inspiring from the Leeds end, come from the North and you turn a corner at the top end of the valley and notice half a hill missing somewhere in the distance.
I decided not to bother with the Diretissima and instead had a rope on Face Value, Ed commented that some people are wanting to Retro bolt it, i'd be strongly opposed to that.
After a sh*t warm day doing trad nonsense up at Rylestone I joked to the group I was with about doing it, on the way home they stopped by to stop my winging. I warmed up on Diretissima and fell of loads, the wind was bitter and I was pretty nervous having just fluffed the warm up more than once despite that I lowered off and went for it, everyone was fairly quiet...
I arrived at the chain tasting blood, i'd somehow managed to bite through my lip whilst climbing. Its one of those climbing moments that has stuck with me for ages. The thing is I've spent so much time there over the years that there are a lot of memories like that and routes that I simply can't get enough of, any other crag will struggle to beat that, not to mention the twisting B roads that you approach on from the north, that teamed with a mini cooper in the latter years of living further North was amazing.
Anyway this is all getting a little too near to the nostalgia I was trying so hard to avoid, with Dob and Ed I basically got spanked, it was the summer before I broke my leg that I last tied on and therefore (understandably) I was unfit, I could still remember all of the moves on the routes (and noticed that my sequences were from a time where I NEEDED every single trick and intermediate that I could lay my hands on) however I just didn't have the stamina, it comes quickly though, something to do with being light i think.
I climbed last night at the works, my membership had finally expired which was a bit of a pain, I did a bit but took it relatively easy as crimping small holds always seems very brutal after a little lay-off. Mike asked to be shown the rings afterwards so I went through the entire workout for him, to be honest I felt pretty damn strong, doing fly's from my meet on a chair (more stable now due to mat covering) and at the end doing 3x3 cross pull-outs. These are basically an iron cross in an L-sit position with your toes clinging on the edge of a chair, keep everything taught and lower into the cross then press it out. I've never managed more than 1 before and it can only be down to the weights.
The problem with doing the rings in the works is it becomes one massive spectacle which I don't really like. Fair enough with a few people up the school testosterone and ego's can help play a decent roll in creating a good/hard training atmosphere. At the works you just feel like a twat, I would of loved to see where I was at with a lower down or a powerspot (or my dream machine) in a cross position but with that many people, well I can just see the w*nker smileys piling up as I type. Sorry for the crap writing above, I haven't got time to read it all back through, a bit report is due on Friday and I'm a little behind.
Picked up my School T, very nice.
Keith, you'll look like a bin man.
I was going to get all nostalgic and go through what I've done, who I've climbed with and all of the best bits but I really can't be faffed.
It's been a while so this is all a bit haphazard and long so apologies in advance:
For my b/day Nat took me to Leeds for a weekend where we ate and drank far too much, it was all great apart from a nightmare train journey to get there. Points failure led to them almost sending us back to Sheffield, 2 hours after that we arrived. Nice.
The week after I offered to belay for Dobbin up at Kilnsey, hoping to regain some of my psyche (cue doyle's Sunday sermon, too true). I really like Kilnsey, its where I started climbing on Limestone and where I excelled as a youth-ier yoof:
Pantomime, what a route! Strangely I prefer it to comedy. (for age reference, look how short Tom Newman is!)I got the train to leeds (with ed brown) and then we drove up to Kilnsey, to be honest the car journey was worth the train ticket, non stop banter, I'd umm'd and ahh'd about climbing opting out of making a firm decision until I arrived but as soon as we neared the crag I was already pretty psyched, unfortunately the view of kilnsey isn't as inspiring from the Leeds end, come from the North and you turn a corner at the top end of the valley and notice half a hill missing somewhere in the distance.
I decided not to bother with the Diretissima and instead had a rope on Face Value, Ed commented that some people are wanting to Retro bolt it, i'd be strongly opposed to that.
After a sh*t warm day doing trad nonsense up at Rylestone I joked to the group I was with about doing it, on the way home they stopped by to stop my winging. I warmed up on Diretissima and fell of loads, the wind was bitter and I was pretty nervous having just fluffed the warm up more than once despite that I lowered off and went for it, everyone was fairly quiet...
I arrived at the chain tasting blood, i'd somehow managed to bite through my lip whilst climbing. Its one of those climbing moments that has stuck with me for ages. The thing is I've spent so much time there over the years that there are a lot of memories like that and routes that I simply can't get enough of, any other crag will struggle to beat that, not to mention the twisting B roads that you approach on from the north, that teamed with a mini cooper in the latter years of living further North was amazing.
Anyway this is all getting a little too near to the nostalgia I was trying so hard to avoid, with Dob and Ed I basically got spanked, it was the summer before I broke my leg that I last tied on and therefore (understandably) I was unfit, I could still remember all of the moves on the routes (and noticed that my sequences were from a time where I NEEDED every single trick and intermediate that I could lay my hands on) however I just didn't have the stamina, it comes quickly though, something to do with being light i think.
I climbed last night at the works, my membership had finally expired which was a bit of a pain, I did a bit but took it relatively easy as crimping small holds always seems very brutal after a little lay-off. Mike asked to be shown the rings afterwards so I went through the entire workout for him, to be honest I felt pretty damn strong, doing fly's from my meet on a chair (more stable now due to mat covering) and at the end doing 3x3 cross pull-outs. These are basically an iron cross in an L-sit position with your toes clinging on the edge of a chair, keep everything taught and lower into the cross then press it out. I've never managed more than 1 before and it can only be down to the weights.
The problem with doing the rings in the works is it becomes one massive spectacle which I don't really like. Fair enough with a few people up the school testosterone and ego's can help play a decent roll in creating a good/hard training atmosphere. At the works you just feel like a twat, I would of loved to see where I was at with a lower down or a powerspot (or my dream machine) in a cross position but with that many people, well I can just see the w*nker smileys piling up as I type. Sorry for the crap writing above, I haven't got time to read it all back through, a bit report is due on Friday and I'm a little behind.
Picked up my School T, very nice.
Keith, you'll look like a bin man.
Friday, 9 May 2008
I should really update this soon, maybe sometime over the weekend but I simply don't have enough time right now, anyway Jon's boltfund update is now here as well as on UKB:
http://thepeakboltfund.blogspot.com/
http://thepeakboltfund.blogspot.com/
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