UKC

A new thread is posted each week on Sunday for anyone to jot down their previous week's activity. UKC fit club is a rich community with posters sharing their goals, noting successes and failures and offering support to those struggling to maintain motivation. Anyone interested in starting is very welcome to join, but to get the most of UKC fit club you should aim to post each week, every week, however little or much you have done. By making such a regular public record of your activities and by restating your goals every week this new habit will hopefully improve your training habits and drive you towards achieving your goals whatever the level of your chosen activity.

Link to last week’s thread:

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/walls+training/ukc_fit_club_week_870-7657...

Somerset swede basher: Great work finding dry rock on what looked like a grim weekend. Seems you've gotten over that illness pretty quickly which is good. The weather has been crap, but you shouldn't have had any trouble this weekend!

biscuit: Good start to the trip, if a little challenging. We were all jealous of the weather until this weekend! Did you manage to try hard this week?

Liam P: Good training this week, and a good visit to Gollums Cave. I'm sure the cricket commentary was complemented by the dank cave situation! Sounds like a positive visit, I trust you'll be returning soon. Great list as well!

AlanLittle: Productive week. Still improving, and pushing yourself a bit. More please! Keep it up.

Tom Green: Skipping training for a sore back and neck is excusable. However, spending both days of the weekend on the tools is absolutely criminal, you psychopath! Jokes aside, great work on Hidden Dragon, another goal in the bag. Did you enjoy the crisp weather this weekend? Yates' might have been dry!

Ian Parnell: Great week, packed loads of good stuff in. Balancing strength and fitness work can indeed be challenging, especially if you naturally prefer one to the other! I have no anecdotal advice, but I know a few keen all rounders who swear by doing a few weeks focusing on one and merely maintaining the other, and then swapping it around for the next block. Possibly worth looking into if you're unable to find the balance?

Ally Smith: Good to see some progress at the dugout, bit of a nemesis that. Solid board sessions too. Nice work!

Randy: Great job fitting in plenty of training around the travel and work. Glad to hear the knee niggle cleared up pretty quickly as well.

Tyler: "Tried hard", sounds good! Hope you've had a better week committing to rehab activities.

Steve Claw: Good couple of sessions. Glad to hear the elbow settled after a slightly scary moment. Any more shunting planned?

SteveJC94: Another well managed week, keep it up. I bet you've managed to get out in this good weather?

mattrm: Excellent work on the Pen y Fal 10k, especially considering the elevation. I presume the MTG of doing a 1h 10k won't be on such a steep route!

AJM: A decent week! Good to hear there's a way to make use of being in the area each week for a bit of climbing. Also good to see you get most of the training done that you wanted, considering the busy social life.

the sheep: It is a bad time of year indeed, but you're doing great to keep the exercise in. Might be worth considering one of those sun lamp things? I hope you've had some sunshine this weekend to perk you up a bit!

Yep, had a little drop in psych mid week but yesterday was amazing.

Mon. Foundry boulder session. Did all the fluro yellow and pinks. 4x5 pull ups (I was tired!) 3x10 press ups.

Tues. 8km run.

Wed-fri some long days at work and a general loss of psych.

Sat. Beta mission to Millstone. Dropped a top rope down Masters Edge. First tie in felt really desperate but did all the moves. Second tie in got some links but still felt really insecure. Third time in got it clean on top rope. I'm not committing to anything, and I think I want another top rope session where I try and refine things and do a couple of laps but...we'll see. Also swung across to green death (which was wet) to check the peg, pleased to find options to back it up close by and potentially some other gear if I get creative. Looks like it's got enough holds where it looks blank from below to inspire a flash attempt when dry. Also worked out the beta for the next section of the keyhole boulder traverse.

Sun. 3.5km kiddy fell run club in the morning and 7km run myself later on.

Looks like some good bouldering lamp session days coming up over the next couple of weeks. Won't be able to get back on routes until after Christmas though as have family stuff booked in most of December weekends. The seed has been sown though!

Nope, ground hog week I’m afraid. I did do some shoulder presses which were interesting (how weak my dominant right hand was) and started the ball rolling on getting some treatment but nothing substantial. 
W: Beacon trying hard. 9 tie ins, 6 at 7a or above but only one of them was successful but definitely fitter than last year. 
S: Castle Inn - set myself the challenge of doing the the three 7a’s, managed one! It was absolutely Baltic to begin with and nearly came off the 6a+ but toughed it out and it was ok in the end. 

Thanks statman Ross. Your idea of alternating blocks of focus is an interesting one. Hope you managed to make the most of this weekend. That’s a beefy inspiring project you’ve got there Swede!

STG (this month) – maintain a grip on daily life, maintain and enjoy climbing and training when possible. 1. New run/climb project Lite.

MTG (next 2 months)– 1. Success on some Grit E1/2 nemeses. 2. Give me strength – shoulders and core.

LTG (next 6 months) – 1. Give me strength – fingers, steep stuff and slopers. 2. Get properly to grips with safe Grit E3s. 3. Rheinstor Lower Traverse (f7A)?? 4. Attempt 2 on run climb project. 5. Trip to Sanctuary Wall

Mon – Strength training. Deadlifts 5 x 5 x 45kg, Overhead lift 5 x 5 x 23kg, Pull ups 5 x 2 x +10kg (1cm short on last rep), Ring support hold 5 x 10sec.

Tues –  10 miles road run. But of a struggle motivation wise, with first 5 miles having to talk myself out of quitting.

Wed – Nothing

Thurs – Depot. Tried to do ARC endurance on the bouldering wall, as none of the lead walls are open before work. Was a bit crap to be honest, with skin very sore on the new circuit board holds. Even the 6a circuit was too hard (one of the Foundry 6b+ auto-belay routes was easier). I think it’s because you have to use small foot jibs rather than handholds for feet which even on steep ground would enable a lot of weight to be taken off the arms. Switched to 7mins on, 10 mins off (rather than usual 10mins on) x 5. The last 3 sets were on a bit of the bouldering with the easy warm up bit next to it, so I could get the right level of very low grade pump. Perhaps the most boring, demotivating training around! Evening stretching.

Fri – Nothing

Saturday – Work Christmas do on Friday night left me a bit worse for wear, I’ve not got Derek’s party skills. Forced myself out for a 5 mile run, super slow. Then weather was so good I couldn't resist and nipped out for last hour of light. Visited the Loafstone in Curbar Field for the first time. Good ol’ chunk of Grit, just did 3 probs including Kneeding (f6A) but at least I didn’t completely waste the best day of the autumn/winter weather so far.

Sunday – Explored a couple of areas I’d not visited before. Stanton Moors in magical morning light gave the full test of grit skills: slopers galore, holdless slabs and scrittley top outs. I failed on all accounts, mostly by bottling out. Love to go back with a spotter particularly for the Chicken Ninja (f6A+) slab. Brief visit to Rowtor Rocks which looked really good, although a bit worn in places. Didn’t get up much but enjoyable morning. 

Reflection - Self-sabotaged the best weekend of the autumn/winter. I’m even more crap at drinking than I am at gritstone bouldering! I did manage to do some proper weight training, although took it very cautiously. I have a dodgy lower back so find the deadlifts pretty scary. Plan is once a week for the next few weeks, then twice a week for bit after that. Couple more days training this coming week then de-load with the hope that next weekend is half as good as this one.

Thank you Ross.

I don't have any specific shunting plans at the moment, but do have my eyes on a few more new lines spread out over the region.

I have been continuing with the rehab, but not as committed to it as I should be.

2 days out this week:

Thurs - Sent a new line over a short roof crack in the Forrest of Dean. Managed an onsite ascent, which I was pleased with.  Went up with some gear and brushes and managed to guess the correct beta.  I thought it would be E5 6b, but the gear was good and it went without a drama so might only be E4 6a.

Fri - Play time at Brean.  Sent L'Attraction Fatale (7c) on the first RP after a quick dog up to check the holds. Probably only 7b+ though.  Then managed a TR on the mega hard E6 6c to the right that I tried a few weeks ago.

Then as if that wasn't enough then I had a quick half hour boulder session inside in the evening.  Lots of achy muscles as I write this, but in a good way.

Thanks Ross. Health still improving, but frustratingly slowly and still a long way off 100%. Sounds like you guys had a nice late autumn weather window at the weekend - we had the first snow of the winter (gonna be a shock for Randy when he returns from India)

STG: resume something like normal training - local cragging season is probably already over for the year
MTG: Summer '24 uk trad trip with my son and/or Rough Bounds Scottish backpacking trip
LTG: Be a confident, well rounded low to mid 7's sport climber. For measurable definition see Fit Club 823
LTG: Winter 24 or 25 - do an actual off piste ski tour.

M: Lungs finally feeling somewhere close to normal again, so grabbed the chance to take the muntainbike out into the woods for some autumn light & leaves. Carefully though - kept it to just over an hour.
T:    Am keen to get back to my (not so) regular DAV group evening at the wall, but I'll still both backlogged at work and tired trom being ill, so really didn't have the time and energy for a full evening out. No-hangs & stretching instead.
W:    Had planned to do some rings & stretching in the evening but was absolutely shattered. Decided going to bed early would be a better use of my time.
T:    Bike 1½ hours
F:    
S:    Wall, Thalkirchen. Kilterboard convalescence: kept the grade and angle easy, enjoyed (hopefully!) easing back into the swing of things.
S: Wall, Gilching. Autobelay 6a+ 6a+ 6b 6b 6c 6b+ 6b 6b+ 6b+ (dnf, tired). 6c first go is an encouraging sign of form gradually returning.

Last Week:

Avg weight 77.3kg

M - Morning very light fingerboard pickups, ice baths before bed.

T - Lunchtime very light fingerboard pickups. Evening climbing. Did some pumpy circuity things and some general aimless bouldering. Well, the aim is to keep moving and avoid aggravating the injury which I suppose I did, but I didn't leave feeling inspired. Ice baths before bed.

W - Ice baths before bed.

T - Gentle Moonboard - left hand only dragging, rather successful. Kept it short.

F - Rest.

S - Busy.

S - Stanton Moor. Not a huge day, but Brad's Arête 'The Presence of Absence' (f6C+) is an absolute peach! Finger was fine once warmed up, not that I was ratting on any edges. I don't think I bumped into Ian, unless he was part of that group trying Chick Flick (f6A) in the afternoon? Ice baths before bed.

Next Week:

M - Rest.

T - Rest.

W - Possibly more grit?

T - Rest.

F - Rest.

S, S - More climbing!

Goals:

Rehab left middle finger.

Manage session load and build better habits.

Improve ability on tiny edges.

Hi fitties. Cheers for the writeup, Ross. I'll get you out on the tools one of these days! Probably would have been perfect for Yates' Layaway on Saturday, but I was elsewhere.

Mediocre week. Work and other commitments are ramping up at the moment, giving a real danger that the year could fizzle out from a climbing and training point of view. Need to be organised and work hard to fit everything in. 

Week 47:

M: Rest. 

T: Bouldering at the Dugout. No closer to pulling around the lip on Doug (f7A+) than when I tried it two years ago. Core strength definitely a limiting factor (as well as weak fingers). With (f6A+) wasn't much of a consolation prize, especially as I managed to slightly strain muscles in BOTH legs from heel hooking! Numpty!

W: Prehab. 

T: Strength, Prehab.

F: Hill run. 16.7km, 334m vert, 6:09/km.

S: Bouldering at Caley. Had a couple of hours to squeeze in between other engagements, so went specifically to try Forked Lightning Crack (f6B). Conditions were so unbelievably good that it actually felt like cheating. Went on my second proper try. Although not one of my stated goals (and also not even that hard in the grand scheme of things!) this is a bit of a YYFY tick for me! It feels like a long term project, as I first tried it in 2005, and I look at it every time I walk past! However, when I checked my diary I've only actually had two proper sessions on it (both this spring).

S: Nothing.

Week 48:

M: Strength, core, prehab.

T: Run.

W: Climbing.

T: Rest.

F: Climbing.

S: Climbing.

S: Run.

STG (end Dec):

Maintain finger strength -average 2 sessions/week 

Increase core focus -average 2 sessions/week 

3 off big mountain day list.

Yates' Layaway (Probably not going to happen unless the weather seriously ups its game).

Hidden Dragon (TICK!) or White Wall (Masson, not Millstone!)

100m D6/7 in a session.

Year Goals:

110 days climbing for the year (currently 99).

1000 km running (TICK! -currently 1127km) with 40km vertical (currently 37.9km) for the year.

MTG (end March):

2+ off Scottish VII list.

1+ of Alpine Winter list.

Maintain finger strength -average 2 sessions/week.

Get ski practice in: 5+ sessions Dec-Feb.

Glad you got some of those weekend conditions Ross. I was there in the morning, luckily for you as you'd have been roped in for spotting near 90kgs of lard! Is Brad's Arete scary? It sounds high quality, just wondering if it's one for the long term list? 

Thanks for the write-up Ross.  No opportunity to take advantage of the weather for outdoor climbing, but plenty of board action.  I need to get some more core and undercut training in over the coming weeks before getting back to the Dugout.

Week 46

M – Longer than normal hip stretches and added some thoracic stretches too.

T – Late board. A bit cold n’ damp in the garage, even with the fan heater on. 5min easy foot-on floor circuits to get blood flowing, then 12x 6B+ to 7A warm-ups (flashes and repeats of 7A BMs). 4 goes on “Das Schnitzel Alt” 7B+ BM, just couldn’t get engaged on undercut. 3 goes on “This is Prob harder” 8A BM; not enough burl. Briefly tried Zanzibar, 7C+ BM but equally not feeling sufficiently “wide”. Pleasantly surprised after these failures to get “Mini Project2” 7C BM done in 3 goes :-D

W – Stretching only.

T – Another limit board session. 10x 6B+ to 7A flashes to warm-up.

“Vampiric Might” 7C/+ BM. 4x goes, hard pinch crux – L wrist felt a bit exposed/tweaky.

“Biceps” 7C+ BM. 6x goes, got the start and finish wired and got close to the crux jump move. One to go back to.

“XBOX 360” 7B+ non-BM flash. Virtually the same as Das Schnitzel but using a better undercut.

“Fatche” 7C+. 2nd go. 7B+?

“Rhythm junkies” 7C+, peeled off the finishing move on flash go and got a split = end of session.

Good bicep training on the last 3 😉, each making use of white j9 RH undercut. I felt so much stronger on this hold when I got thumb wrapped in full crimp – something to try on the smaller neighbouring i9 undercut which I’ve been taking with thumb pinching the bolt-hole.

F – Stretching and COMPEX core.

S – 3x10 bicep curls with 26kg Saxonbar and 20min to high-speed leaf raking crammed into child wrangling and large scale catering effort for…

S – …family friends visiting along with our 2yo meeting Santa Claus for the first time. A few laps of the monkey bars

Shamefully, I failed to respond to week 870.  Apologies all, but a bit of a traumatic period upset plans.  

A recap for the last couple of weeks.  An after work trip to Independence Quarry which wasn't too wet, but was nonetheless quite slow-moving - it is that kind of crag.  Only managed four routes before darkness came along.  An okay return for me, but Charles travelled from Cambridge for that!  Also had a really cold and damp day at Agden, which was hard work in those conditions and gave a very poor reward of three VS routes, one of which I hadn't done.  Forced to explore bits of the crag I normally walk past, but they were wetter and dirtier.

I was getting the training stuff out for a session on the intervening Saturday, but the phone rang with an emergency request relating to my step-daughter's terminally ill dog.  Sure enough, the dog was on its way out, so a family trip to the hospital ended a miserable day and led to several days of support for the 'parents'.

Work has been busy as well and I have also thrown myself into house projects as a distraction.  Moved my training facility on, but yet to find space to use it!  Decided work pressure means I'm not going outside this week, so will get back to some light training tonight.

If anyone (Ian?) needs coaching on partying, then happy to help 😂

Cheers Ross. Another good training week with superb connies for Saturday’s Naptime Boulder!

It’s a horrible hole, and is the least preferable option, but it’s still a free ‘woody’ when it’s chucking down with rain! 

Tue

• Pinch Block Lifts: Warmup 10/15/17kg. Working Sets 5x 7s @18.5kg RPE(9)
• Front Lever (with assistance band) 4x 10s RPE(8)
• RTO Dips 45deg lean. 3x 1 RPE(9)
• Standing Ab Wheel (75%) 3x 3

Thu

• 20mm Block Lift: 12x 18.5kg, 10x 25kg, 8x 35kg, 6x 40kg, 2x 50kg, 1x 52.5kg, 1x 53kg, 1x 53.5kg. RPE(9.5)

Fri

• OA Lockoffs 5x 10s (82.5%BW, 85%BW, 87.5%BW, 90%BW, 92.5%BW, 95%BW) RPE(9)
• Assisted Front Lever 3x 10s RPE(9.5) - tired after the lockoffs I think.

Sat

• Weighted Pull-ups. 3x 3 35kg RPE(8)

Bouldering

• Perfect conditions for friction climbing so went for a session on Knuckle Duster (f6C). Used the left hand bump method, previously discussed with AJM, and started slapping a couple inches short of the rail. No tick but this is the closest I’ve got so far. Confident it should go next session and then on to Knuckle Duster (Sit) (f7A), just need another dry spell and high pressure system. I did dry-fire out of the pocket and had my ‘Knuckles Dusted’ which was nice, but also had my car keyed which wasn’t very nice!

STG (end Dec):

• 2 sessions per week.
• Benchmarks: Fingers- 20mm Block Lift 1RM @60kg (53.5kg), Block Pinch Lift @ 20kg (18.5kg). Core- Unassisted Standing Ab Wheel (75%), Ring Wipers with Ankle Weight  (Tick). Pull- Weighted Pullup 1RM @50kg (47kg), OA Lock Off @90%BW (Tick). Push- RTO Dip with 75deg lean (45deg).

MTG (April):

• 3 off my Brizzle boulder List (1/3)
• 3 off my Cheddar List.

LTG (next 6 months):

• 1 off my Headpoint List.

Thanks Ross. Alas I didn't. It was our annual club do in Llanberis on Saturday and I was a little pushed for time so didn't manage to get out on Saturday and was far too hungover on Sunday to make the most of the conditions - sods law! Looks more promising this week though.

M - 1hr Zone 2 on Zwift (160 watt average)

T - 2hr board session, focusing on volume

W - Strength & conditioning - push ups 10 x 4, deadlifts 5 x 5, squats 5 x 5, pull-ups 10 x 4

T - Rest

F - 1hr Zone 2 into 3 x 12 minute Sweet Spot (215 watt) intervals, with 6 minute Zone 1 recoveries, back into 30 minutes at Zone 2

S/S - Rest 

Had to report in!  Completed a 40 minute session!  All felt quite hard, but great to get something done.  Stand down the tar and feathers cos I'm back in the game!

You’re made of sterner stuff than me, I’m meant to be out in the annex and I can’t even be arsed to roll off the sofa to do some stretches

Exactly my recent pattern.  Eat. Drink. Rave.  Sleep.  Repeat

I never mentioned anything about raving!! That’s even further in the past than training

I misunderstood - I thought the Beacon was a night club...😂

Excellent! That’s the kind of Beacon I’d buy a season pass to!

Monkey bars are just an entry level Bachar Ladder, right?!

That’s an inspiring recce day on Saturday. Look forward to seeing that come to fruition!

I'm mostly scared of it almost coming to fruition!

Thanks for the stats. 

Weight - 14st 5lbs

STG - 25k a week by end of Nov - done

MTG - 10k 1 hour

LTG - 30 mile ultra (July 24) and 86 mile (Sept 24)

M - Rest

T - Climbing at Summit

W - 4k run

T - 6k run

F - 5k run

S - Rest

S - 10k, Pen-y-Fal, 450m asc about 1h 55m

Weekly kms - 25k

Great week.  Hit the STG still in November.  So now it's 30k by Dec.  Nice enjoyable runs all week.  Will probably roll it back to 20k next week, don't want to risk an injury.  But it's a nice solid base which I'm gradually building up.  Also got down the climbing wall.  Spent a nice evening bimbling up some 4s and 5s.  Also catching up with a good mate.  So lovely all round.  Lets hope I can keep the momentum going.

Nice one, Matt. You’re really on a roll with the running now. Top job. 
 

(good shout re keeping me eye on the injury potential though… when you’re going so well it’s so easy to do too much too soon!)

Great week there, well done.  Little and often plus one longer one a week and you'll see big gains in no time.  Worth a lighter week every 4th week to stop injury although I'd imagine life will provide this without having to plan it in!

DOMS!  Quelle surprise!  Run tmro, so that will be me unable to walk by Friday 😂

My vague assumption is that the Christmas week will either be a great week and I'll get out loads.  Or I'll struggle to do anything.  I'm betting on the latter if I'm honest.    So yeah there's going to be a rest week built in soon I'm sure.

Thanks Tom.

...and 5km completed in just under 30 mins.  Sorry about the immediate reporting, but it's helping get me back on track!

Wooo go Derek!!!

All those all night dance marathons must be good training!

I've been massively encouraged by seeing your weekly numbers steadily rising!  So as not to overdo things, I am targeting 15 kms a week by end December.  I've got some walking / mountain objectives next year, so hope the cardio will help!

My inability to put any strain on my lungs for the last six weeks certainly isn't looking encouraging for my Scottish backpacking goal next year - especially since I'm thinking in terms of late spring / early summer before the midges are out in full force

You seem to have improved recently though and it still gives you five to six months (assuming May?) to get some recovery going.  I think you should get your legs working well enough by then.  I checked my log and I haven't run for over six weeks, so consider that I tailed off in sympathy!

thanks Ross. Didn’t get quite as much done this last week - my wife was pretty wiped out all week, I was away two days, then we all went away at the weekend for my dads 70th - each thing in isolation might have been fine but the combination went over the threshold of stopping other stuff getting done. I went to the wall on Monday and generally had a decent session, although I hurt my shoulder a bit on one problem. I took it easy for a bit to rest it, I think I did some rehab later in the week but I forget when and the weekend was just swept away with stuff.

Hoping for better this week, including hopefully a day out this weekend in the crisp sunshine…..

Sorry for the late reply, i have been a little bit busy with work and travel this week.

Recap last week:

Mon: Treadmill running: 30 minutes, 5:27/km, 132 heart rate

Tues: Weighted Pullups + 8kg: 2x12,11, Fingerboard Repeaters, 75% BW, 6x12x7,3 with 2 min rest, felt a little bit tired and not really rested

Wed: Treadmill running: 30 minutes, 5:27/km, 132 heart rate

Thur: Weighted Pullups + 8kg: 2x12,11, Fingerboard Repeaters, 75% BW, 6x12x7,3 with 2 min rest, felt better but still not progress with the weighted Pullups. Maybe i was also just getting heavier due to good Indian food, but at least the repeaters felt better

Fri: Rest

Sat: Treadmill running: 40 minutes, 5:27/km, 136 heart rate

Sun: Weighted Pullups + 8kg: 2x12,11, Fingerboard Repeaters, 75% BW, 6x12x7,3 with 2 min rest, repeaters felt again easier but no progress on pullups despite not feeling too bad on the first set

Another decent week considering the circumstances. Next week will be even more hectic before i fly back to Germany, but hopefully i should be able to focus more on my training afterwards.

Yes, Bangaluru already felt cold to me after staying in Chennai for the first 10 days

I would not worry too much. Rule of thumb is that it takes as long as the break was to get your cardio level back to your previous level. So if you are fully recovered by end of this year you should be more than fine for any late spring goals.

You're in Bangaluru? Have you ever had a look at the granite domes on road to Mysore? Tuolumne with leopards.

Unfortunately, i just stayed for two days and did not saw much more than the hotel, the office and some nearby restaurants

Hi Ross,

Time to rejoin after a brief absence, a lot going on…just wasn’t feeling up to joining in. Some of the stuff going on is even good (no nightmares since early October – ahh, to finally sleep occasionally) …

To begin a couple of sessions from the last few weeks:
21 Oct: Oberes Pleitlewandl, 7 routes, moved well until it was time to venture into the ‘unknown’ – and there it was, timidness…
27-29 Oct: Vinschgau, South Tyrol, last block of climbing for this year with my experienced friend. Juval and Huafwond – contrasting crags, really enjoyed both: Juval down in the valley with a stream running beside it, Huafwond relatively high up, lots of sun, spectacular views back southeast to the Dolomites, Rosengarten & Marmolada visible. My first time on granite/gneiss, so footwork was pretty poor initially, perhaps even non-existence. After a couple of really discouraging lead attempts (timidness again…I wonder what it is? Even taking a fall didn’t shake it out), I switched to just seconding. Things came together on day 3 and I moved quite well. Once I had a sense of what to do on them, I felt I could have given them all a good go on lead…not sure what was going on…
 

4.11: wall, Thalkirchen, nice solid session, with lots of 6bs.
10.11: wall, Thalkirchen, good session, 12 routes, so decent volume, and tried three 6c’s – even ticked two of them first go, a pleasant surprise.
16.11: wall, Thalkirchen, auto belays, 8 routes, plus downclimbed a couple of times, got up two 6c/+s first go.
19.11: wall, Bad Aibling, first ‘family’ climbing session for the winter season: very relaxed, moved quite well, surprised myself with a 6c+ ‘on sight’.
26.11: wall, Bad Aibling, 11 routes, another 6c+ first go, plus two others which I’d top roped in summer. Quite encouraging…despite a bit of stomach bug…

Uncertain about training plans and goals on plastic. I’ll just try and keep things ticking over as best I can. My regular climbing partner has had to commit herself to a psychiatric clinic for depression and is indeed suicidal – I pick her up from the clinic and we do some auto belaying together. I have to bring her back. It’s all pretty heartbreaking…not much else to say, really…contributing in whatever way I can to restoring her health and wellbeing takes precedence and so all the rest – motivation, goals, training – seems a bit out of place at the moment – but I’ll get back to it in due course.

Hope those injured and ill are on the mend.

Paul

Glad to hear from you again, I was just thinking we'd missed you for a week or two.

If you have any more Vinschgau plans, Latsch is also well worth a look. I'd probably say I prefer it to Juval, although Juval has a bit more atmosphere back in the little gorge. Both definitely head & shoulders the best crags I've visited there.

Hi Alan,

thanks for the welcome back.
Hope your recovery is going well. You'll be up to speed in time for Scotland!

Funny about Latsch. On day 3 we were humming and hawing about where to go after the late morning Juval session. Thumbing through the guide I came across Latsch and suggested it - my partner laughed, he'd already been there three times...
I really enjoyed Juval - atmospheric as you say...got a bit chilly though.

Stay healthy and enjoy the weekend.

Paul - I think 'timidness' or whatever just comes along sometimes.  It can be all manner of things that interfere.  I've got much more accepting that, for one reason or another, sometimes things just don't feel spot on.  I recognise it more quickly and just second things or step it down until I am back in the groove - quite quick usually.  I've learnt that trying to push on just makes things worse.  Roll with it.  Just keep moving.  It won't last.

Great to see you back.

The station bar in Latsch seems to be where it’s at on Saturday night too. Live music and gute Stimmung. At least a couple of times when I‘ve been there 

Hi Derek,

thanks for your input. Slowly I'm coming around to the 'roll with it' - it's a process for me. I think a lot of my previous hurdling of the timidity barrier was the need to prove myself - mostly, or almost exclusively, to myself...and now, as a tangible fruit of therapy, I seem to have far less of this urge...which is great and a huge relief - just need to readjust and listen...to intentions and motivation - if it's spot on, as you say.
I was actually quite happy and content with my decisions once the ruffle of disappointment settled down.
And you? Good conditions for running? No doubt that partying also contributes to all-round stamina...hope you're out on both fronts this weekend.

Now then, perhaps Axel (my partner) was avoiding Latsch for different reasons...we needed to get back that evening. I'll have to ask him about the station bar.