still ill...
just thought you'd like to know....
I'm okay if I stay still otherwise feels like my head is gonna explode and my neck is gonna snap...
Another sleeping in front of the TV day - too hot outside...
Am thinking about doing more dead hangs.... fingers are weak - everything's weak...

okay so I guess I'm ill.... had a few low energy days and I've finally given in and turned to Uncle Beecham for help.

Went up to Lincolnshire on the weekend to see the in-laws, managed to sneek off on the Friday to Cratcliffe - had a great morning, just me and a million flies trying T crack - didn't get it but felt really good about the progress 'til I found I'd been using a foot hold that was out and not used a hand hold that was in (eliminates ehh), that's when it bit and the lack of skin got to me (conditions were less than kind - very damp). Climbed the wall above Jerry's at 7a 3rd go but this didn't make up for it.

Went to outside for lunch and was reading climber (that's where I found out about the eliminates) - got mad and went back when I shouldn't.... actually turned left and went to Robin Hood's Stride to do the cave original - shouldn't have bothered - I was beaten and the slopers were, well wet would be a very accurate description. messed around with a crap sequence for too long.... in the end did all the moves but didn't have enough to put it together - will go back and it'll be easy - so that was a recipe of 3 days off till my hand's stopped bleeding..

Yoga on Monday again - still hard work. Mostly Iyengar yoga so holding poses with correct alignment etc - lots of downward facing dog that makes my shoulders and triceps feel like they're gonna explode....

Tuesday went to Craggy - low energy day - now, with hindsight decided it was an ill day - warmed up on the traverse and did the 7a - cruxy, actually only one hard move... then started doing multiples - first triple (6b+) felt okay the second also (6b+ but sandbag) managed only 1 1/2... too hot, arms didn't have any stamina in them. training wasn't happening so went and tried the new routes on the comp' wall. Nice routes but grading - now firstly really what do I know - nothing really but I can have my say. Now compared to Westway where I've climbed 7b+ and outdoors in at Portland, Rubicon and Horseshoe, where I've been climbing up to 7b the grades on the craggy comp wall are bogus - was told that "Westway was 2 grades soft" because "the girls are climbing 8a at the Westway!" Now granted the shortness of the craggy wall needs extra difficulty but the stuff I've been doing outside is shorter.... why whine, grades mean nothing anyway... actually they do - ego is there if it isn't you'd never push to improve and rubbish grading can kick your psyche in the nuts....

okay moan over, need to concentrate on getting better now and maybe plan some real rock routes to get me energised again.... back to watching the Tour..... out

So went to pick up the comics from steve the comic book guy at darkstar - actually very skinny for a comic book guy but has knowledge of all things marvel and DC that would outstrip his more famous yellow animated co-professional.... didn't get there though.. the bottom plate of the car fell off whilst doing 70 in the outside lane grrrr - fitted it back with finger tape and went back to quikfit.. it's an interesting experience being on the hard shoulder with cars whizzing by only inches away... Anyways they fixed it back no arguments

went climbing after that at craggy and stuck to Dr Gresham's prescription for stamina - namely triples on 6b-6c+ leads. managed 5 sets with 10ish minutes in between, felt so good on one I went for a fourth burn, the 6th set was a one and a halfer... nevermind felt a really good burn...

sausages now

over and out

So five minutes ago I was aching and sweating like a smack head going cold turkey - ok so that's a bit of an exaggeration but it was pretty hard work in the shed today; not that that's all I've been doing, in fact it was a pretty short session but it was intense - more of that later

As for this morning the main thing I did, other than a mountain of washing up, was start to repair the plaster work in the front upstairs room (a kinda spare bedroom/home gym). It's gonna take a while, not because there's a lot to do just because the hole is pretty deep and if you don't do it layer by layer it doesn't set properly yada yada yada...

So training - tried to save skin so it was system type stuff today - did the usual warm up stretches , pull ups and push ups then straight into what I now lovingly (and through gritted teeth cause it's torturous) call the Steve Mac campus - the feet on 100 hand moves deal I was talking about earlier. On wooden rungs with minimal twisting and no slapping so as skin friendly as you're likely to get. Can't really compare with last time as I hadn't done a hour's bouldering before but had a heavy boulder etc yesterday so... oh and yoga but more of that later... this time got 5 sets done with 5 minute rests between each one... very noticeable that pump set in sooner each time - the last set was a killer but instead of racing through I concentrated on getting the shake outs so it was in good style... After that I took 10 minutes or so off - went and checked on our retarded tadpoles - still tadpoles, fat ones but taddies none the less - I think our pond is a never never land for frogs. Watered the veggies too, the leeks are gonna be bomber but, whilst the chilli plants look sweet, I don't rate the chances of them fruiting much. Also managed to get bitten more frequently by horse flies than I used to get by drunk girls at parties back in the day.. and I wasn't allergic to the girls either - though they didn't get slapped and squashed.... So back to the training and with the power endurance done I thought a little power might be reasonably skin friendly so sets of 10 pulls with 10kg on the harness, 2 minutes in between - a quick bit of math tells me that's 13% of mu body weight extra - I guess I was giving more than 110%... So I was aiming at 5 reps but managed four in reasonably good style when my left shoulder started feeling it so I stopped to fight another day.

Tomorrow'll be doubles and triples at craggy then Thursday drive up to see the in-laws, might get a gym set in at the hotel, but more likely just a sauna and jacuzzi... Friday I'll be visiting the works-s kinda up for trying the green and spots circuit I think it is - nothing harder than Ft5+ but 7a+ route all the way round... sounds like the type of thing I should be trying

Probably going to see Wanted tonight - wanted to read the comic first but hey what the hell...

out

So I'm typing with fingers covered with anti-hydral (purchased by my tame German - thanx JPS) which'll probably give you a clue as to what I've been doing today - yep training again...

After the Westway which left me broken yesterday was a rest day which basically involved mowing the lawn, waiting for England to take a wicket (didn't happen) and watching back to back Sopranos on DVD. So today, after taking the pig in for a new exhaust - driving back from the westway I heard the roar of a superbike, but there was no bike... just a detached tail pipe! - I tidied and hoovered the shed before doing an hour's bouldering on the 40(ish) degree board - got a new cramped traverse followed by stretchy rock up, very nice, can do the end bit fine (6b/c?) and can do the traverse in and up to the last move, but not quite the last move.... will get there and it's gonna be about 7a+ I guess...

Half an hour for lunch and onto the power endurance, unfortunately 36+ degrees in the shed had lost me a bit of skin... opps.... So did 50 hand moves on the yellow circuit clockwise , 10 minutes off then 50 hand moves anti-clockwise... the catch up moves on the traverse bits can count on that one because they're all weight bearing... 10 more minutes rest followed by a hybrid of the 2 blue's, 4 big slopery pinchy types at the top, half a dozen crimps from slap along the bottom; about 10 proper hand moves each way round so aiming for 5 laps... 3 1/2 laps clockwise was a bit disappointing so after 10 minutes rest went anti and got 4 laps, fell got straight back on and did the +1.... it hurt, arms, fingers, shoulders the lot - tried to get on the red which only really works with no matching and crossing, made about 20 moves and died, no skin too painful to move on and off the holds.... Had something left though so did some dead hangs, 15 sec on 45 off with 10Kg on a harness holding 1st - full hand slopers shoulder width plus a bit apart, 2nd - open handed on 2 joint sloping crimps, 3rd - half crimp on campus rung and 4th - matched on full hand sloper.... 3 sets and that was about that...

The wife is dragging me off to yoga tonight so tomorrow will definitely be a rest/skin growing day - i.e. watch one tree hill reruns and doing the house work - how glam.....

so here we are again.... Sunday morning listening to the cricket and eating a couple of mozzarella and chilli sauce rolls. No way I'm gonna be climbing today, totally battered. Took a trip up to the Westway yesterday but I'll get there in a moment, lets just back this week up...

Wednesday - went to the westway for the first time to lead climb, was there a few years ago for a SIBL and, I think in the same year, for a BRYCS... no not that long ago, I was never a climber eligible for BRYCS, started far too late, I was there as a judge. Interesting twist I remember Neil Gresham failing at the top of the last girls route on the comp' wall, he recovered it well by stating it was "something for them to aim at!"... excellent.
Best explain why it was a twist hadn't I, well I was up at the Westway for a coaching session with Neil, a 30th birthday present from the wife. Very interesting time, to cut a long story short I have reasonable technique and strength but absolutely lousy power endurance/stamina. Tell truth I probably warmed up a little too hard, was taken with the problems on the new bouldering wall, but that aside did pretty well. It was all onsighting, no second chances, was absolutely fine up to 6c+, even with the height compared to craggy, which now seems decidedly stubby!
After that I had a little more trouble with the 7b's, interestingly was always fine to just over the height of the Craggy wall then the fingers just gave up... Got one 7b, sort of anyway, fell clipping the chains not remembering that the top of the wall counts as the finishing jug up there, came off on a couple of tiny intermediates, Neil gave it too me, more for the fall I think, had missed the penultimate draw and somehow managed to spin so most of the fall was face first......
So the outcome I have already alluded too.... must train power endurance.

Thursday - climbing wise was a rest day, did a few push ups and half an hour of "cardio yoga" off of a women's fitness DVD!!! But that wasn't the main highlight of the day, surprising as that might seem... No the highlight was Sian's 3 month scan, yep we can tell people now, there's a bambino in there; 2 arms, 2 legs, 1 head and all the measurements are kosher so massive relief... The rest of the day was spent seeing friends and phoning parentals and that was pretty much that.

Friday - first day of the new training routine. Primarily a bouldering day so a couple of hours in the shed was the call. Started slowly with the warm ups, mixing up the crimpers and the slopers and got onto some tricky stuff later on. Big victory was the fact the blue project finally fell, slightly chagrined to admit I was forced to use some technique, a big rock over replacing the dyno I could never latch after the initial few moves, still probably the hardest thing I've done on plastic.
After all that I tried a power endurance work out as explained by Steve Mac in last years 8a yearbook. In very basic terms foot on campus rungs, 100 hand movements, with required feet moves of course, then 5 minutes off. Repeat 3 more times, well that's the theory, in practice I only made 50 moves on the fourth repeat, funny how you can aim for a rounded number... very hard work and absolutely beasted after that....

So finally yesterday (Saturday) - Westway for a session, decided against going down to the island with the completely unreliable weather we've been happening. Should have been doing triples if I'd been down at craggy, i.e. up, lower off at speed the hold on until the rope is down then up again etc... anyways after warming up on the high walls it was doubles 2 or 3 on 6c(+)'s mixed with singles on 7a, 7a+ and 7b type routes, redpointing some of the ones I failed on on Wednesday and onsighting a 7a that was big upped by medic Steve earlier in the week. Sian had a good session too, obviously no leading at the moment but she was onsight seconding 6b/6b+.
Very big day, lots off good work so now, rest, play on the computer, and listen to the cricket....

So just come back from the island and anyone who's been in the UK the last couple of days will be amazed to hear we did actually get some climbing in... woke up to some good weather yesterday morning, Friday night was washed out by weather and heavy traffic going down, but didn't look like it was going to hold so the plan to go down to the hidden zawn to sent the 7a that had handed my arse to me on a plate last time down was abandoned (low tide wasn't until earlier afternoon) and instead we headed to my favourite haunt of the New Cuttings where Sian wanted to have a go at Bun Fight at the Portland Corral 5+ maybe 6a. Well we both onsighted, well I onsighted and she flashed it if you want to get specific, so I turned my attention to Deadlosski must Die which, at 7b, would be the hardest route I'd ever done on rock. I knew the finish would be fine, it shares a top with two routes I'd done previously, but that meant that all the 7b difficulty would be at the start in concentrated form... took a while to sort the sequence but after 30/40 minutes work all the moves were just about there, the draws where in and it was time to rest. First red point attempt was a big time failure - bad feet and a hot head saw me kneeling at the bottom gasping after falling off mid crux sequence. So with the sun out it was time for food and a lie down; there was a one hell of a blow coming off the sea but the new cuttings is sheltered at the bottom so a touch of sunbathing was undertaken and I might even have dozed off for a while. Second proper redpoint I breathed properly, slowed the pace, and thought about me feet.... so much so that I found myself looking at my left hand mid crux sequence having taken if off the rock thinking "where does this go then??? oh right crimp" - I suspect my beautiful belay slave was going apoplectic at this point.... anyways long story short finished it off with the most beautiful feeling I have climbing (well since I felt exactly the same thing on Stompin' with Bez a few weeks earlier but that's the point isn't it...)
so what today - rest I think, took a lot out of me, as did the drive back through the monsoon this morning, tomorrow back to the Grisham arm sequence then some light bouldering in the shed Tuesday and a master class with the man Grisham at the westway on Wednesday (30th birthday present from the wife!!!). Actually I've got to take the cardboard to the recycling so that's what for now
peace out