Wednesday and Thursday Climbing Training Log

Holy hell I'm absolutely buggered. But the last few days have been really good in terms of the climbing training; I think I'm still getting used to how the sun rises super early and haven't yet adjusted to that, so I've been really tired. But that hasn't put me off training and I've been up to some good stuff over the last couple of days.

Wednesday:
Pretty much had a whole day of clinic but got some training in the afternoon. Decided not to do any cardio because I'd rode bike the day before to uni and back, which totaled around 46km. Cleats are coming soon so I'm pretty excited!

• Got down to Lindfield Rocks in the afternoon and just got through a whole bunch of climbs. I think the bouldering's also helping mentally in terms of keeping my cool when I'm getting close to the top; I know Lindfield isn't that high but I'm hoping that it'll translate over to lead climbing and helping me keep my cool when I'm a little bit further and setting protection. Lindfield's also really great in the sense that there are so many great problems there; I've found a bunch of problems that are super awesome which I'm almost finishing(V4), but then I struggle on other climbs that are only V3? So I'm a bit confused as to how I can get through those (crimp strength? Just learning to climb outdoor better?) 
• Oo - on the bright side, I finished my first ever V4! Kim's Arete - a super super classic on slopers at Lindfield, which was super fun and really great to get through. (Yes, I'm feeling really proud about it!)
• After that; pretty much took an hours rest and got to the gym to get some more bouldering done; my fingers hadn't completely given out yet. Just working on the same projects; it's a bit odd because the route setters are alternating on the bouldering walls at the gym, and so one guy always sets super classics whilst the other guy is young and sets all these huge, super powerful moves. It's interesting to see the variation in style (and it's also really difficult to get through when you're slightly tired!)

Thursday:

Huge day. I had to bike around quite a bit today but all in all it was great. I think Bellevue Hill should be renamed Bellevue Mountain because there were two of the steepest hills that I've ever attempted riding up in my life. Hopefully the cleats make things easier.

• Well - what did that all total to? 56km of bike riding today. Shit yeah, so I'm hoping that's actually enough cardio to offset the pizza that I ended up devouring in the afternoon. On the bright side, the bike times are also getting faster which is pretty interesting as well..
• I decided to have a peek at the bouldering at USyd gym and can proudly say that I've come a long, long way since the start of the year. I also managed to get a pair of shoes from the desk and get through half an hour of bouldering which was sick fun, on some really great puzzles. Looking forward to spending a little bit more time in there over the last couple of weeks of uni.
• Lots of chest/core work in the afternoon. Still working on the tuck front levers and just overall core strength. 

That's it! I've decided that towards the end of the year, I'll take a full week of training and start working on the mental aspect of things, and working around how to just be more calm overall, especially when leading. Definitely something I'm looking to work on over the next year (and hopefully that will be the key in leading 22/23's over the coming months).

Keep training - Stay strong!

Phegan's Bay and an interesting last few days..

Hey guys,

A pretty interesting last couple of days - got some training done. Mainly was a lot of fingerboard stuff, just working on been able to use the 35 deg. slopers and the pockets. Practiced a lot of clipping the other day but just really recovering from the sprained ankle - which is coming along pretty nicely. I got a few runs (actually ran my fastest km ever) which was awesome, and did some stuff on the erg as well.

On Sunday I got out to Phegans Bay with Dom and Justin; but it really wasn't great. We had some rope issues (refer to the picture for details) with some miscommunication, which took up a whole bunch of time, and the climbing just wasn't great; the routes were pretty short and I think that generally just took a lot out of the day. Personally I'm pretty sure it was the fact that I couldn't lead and we had no idea where we were/which climbs we were going up on, but it really took away from the day. That was also probably combined with the fact that the entire area was pretty quiet; it didn't look like it had a whole bunch of traffic going through it (LOTS of spiders....), and a lot of the holds were glued on.

All in all - not the greatest trip. Considering I only did roughly half an hour of climbing, my fingertips got absolutely trashed.

Today - got 40km out on the bike with the ride to uni and back, and completely forgot about the trashed fingertips, so I went back to the gym... only to remember that it was too painful to boulder anything difficult about twenty minutes in. But I got some core work in (still working on those tuck front levers), which is good. That'll be sore tomorrow.

Probably taking the day off tomorrow, I got a wine and cheese night which should be fun (and perhaps messy). I'll get some training done on wednesday (probably negatives and chest, with some fingerboard) depending on how the hands feel.

Lemming, out.

An awesome view from the top of the crag, which made us think the day of climbing was going to be awesome...

Rope woes... Don't miscommunicate!!!

Trashed fingertips.. Hopefully healing soon!

Working around Injury

Yeh so there was no way I was about to just sit around for the next week and a half not really doing anything, and the ankle really isn't feeling that bad (RICER really does wonders), so I did some fingerboard last night. Pretty upset at how much strength I've lost with only a week off, but really glad to be back on the fingerboard.

Basically did warmup and fiddled around on a bunch of holds, and did a pair of frenchies as well on the 25 deg. slopers. There was a lot of sustained work on rebuilding stamina as well with a primary focus to be able to use the 35 deg. sloper with feet loaded.

I also did some work with the bands that I've set up - I'll post a photo of the training area that I have on the site later this week; it's simple but remarkably effective. I'm trying to do a lot of exercise now by removing all sort of leverage - many of the principles are just from witnessing how incredibly strong a lot of the climbers are with their isolation, so I'm trying to emulate that in my training.

There's also a fantastic article which I'm trying out half the exercises - it's called "How to build an olympic body through bodyweight conditioning". I've known this article for about 5-6 years now but never really worked on anything in it, and I plan to work towards been able to do a tuck front lever by the end of the year.

Goals for the end of the year:
* 35 degree sloper unassisted, set of frenchies.
* Tuck front lever for 40 seconds by the end of the year
* Forward planche w/o assistance of the arms for bodyweight.
* Lowest row of fingerboard.

If I can't reach those goals by the end of the year - no worries; I'll extend them out to the end of summer. But that's what I'm focusing on!

Keep training - get strong.