Time to get stronger

We're working on getting strong at the moment. This article gives an idea of what we've been up to.

The pulling hard fits in well with the winter bouldering leagues. Good fun and good for getting strong. So far I've been to the Climbing Works, City Bloc and the Foundry. All very different styles of climbing. I won some Scarpa shoes for winning the City Bloc event which is good :-)

Font Weekend

Hacked down the motorway and just caught the ferry. Lots more motorway then.... ahhh Font. An instant feeling of well-being and relaxation. I love Fontainebleau. It is beautiful and inspiring.

It was raining when we got there so we just checked out a few areas. Then it was two days of excellent weather. We went to Roche aux Sabots and Gorge aux Chats.

Time to get fitter

T'is the season to huff and puff and raise my general fitness levels.

We started off with a team fitness tests to get a bench mark of where we are starting from. Later in the year we will revisit the tests to see how we are getting on.

Since then, training consists typically of high volume, mixed intensity training with relation to climbing, not trying to necessarily pull hard. Even some routes!! Also general fitness with more cross training. Mostly running and skipping for me, along with weights and exercise circuits for general conditioning.

Why? Because it prepares my body for strength and high intensity training, reducing the risk of injury hopefully.

How does this make me feel? Good, but hungry for the challenging blocs (and things like cheese and big piles of risotto and toast and snacks ....)

Hello Peak District

I'm enjoying my rest period now my arm is starting to mend. Not only that but I've been outside to play two weekends in a row. No one will believe it!

The Peak has been sunny and midge free during the day. Ahh, fresh air without rain.

The grit has been feeling pretty grippy despite the warmth. We had good sessions at Stanage Plantation and Curbar. I didn't really do anything at Stanage, just pottered and took it easy.

A week later and my arm was starting to feel like it belonged to me. I did Gorilla Warfare - my kinda problem, but couldn't repeat Strawberries. Random weaknesses to fix when I start training again (memory could also be useful as I've forgotten how I did it).

Taming the beast

Hurrah I won a beastmaker courtesy of the CragX pull-up comp.

I discovered last year at Cliffhanger that given a good rest after the BBC I was still pretty warm and could do more pullups than I've ever done before in one go, only to be beaten by Suzie D a short time later.

I returned to the challenge this year to see how I would fair. I pulled out 27 in 45 seconds to top the women's table.

The beastmaker is going to take pride of place above the lounge door. Unfortunately I won't be able to see the tv whilst dangling, but who cares, there's no other space and it is after all meant to turn me into a beast.

Now it's time to stop being silly and fix myself before training for 2010.

Cliffhanger

The British Bouldering Championships 2009 did not disappoint. Both the men's and women's finals were cliffhangers once again with the top spots closely contested. Nice one Ned clinching first place with the last moves of the day.

I was really pleased to be climbing quite well and very lucky that most of the problems did not involve moves I cannot do due to my poorly arm. I only had to amend my tactics on one problem to compensate. The first 3 problems went ok and then I felt short on the 4th, unable to pop up into a barely balanced wide press. I was behind on attempts and was also missing a bonus.

The last problem was going well. A long problem with big moves.

Unfortunately my left hand just plain slipped as I was placing a heel hook with 2 moves to go. I was gutted to have slipped but was excited as I knew I could do the problem. Foolishly I got back on too soon and did not have enough in the tank to top the problem.

I came 3rd. Leah won and Katy was 2nd by a bonus. I needed the final top to have won, but was very pleased to podium.

Thanks to Kate from Godsrock Clothing for the photos.

China World Champs - The Comp

The comp venue was impressive. Chinese Blind Massage is very good. Dave crushed to put GB on the podium for the 1st time in a World Championships.

I sucked, but enjoyed my trip. I had a poorly arm from Eindhoven and had lost my lock among other things.

The parks and comp venue had interesting exercise apparatus. The market vendors were unlikely to ever run out of stock.

I travelled half way back to the UK on the same flights as the Russians and an Indian and a chap I met in Beijing airport who was from where I grew up. The usual small world scenario.

China Road Trip

The roads in China were exciting. Here's some photos from a fairly quiet day. We mostly stayed on the right side of the road and only stopped 3 lanes of traffic by turning stright in front of them once each trip...

China World Champs - Base

I went to China for the World Championships. I received a warm welcome at the airport along with many other competitors that arrived on the same flight. After my long flight via Dubai it was a relief to be ferried to the accommodation and training base by the hosts rather than battle the unknown.

The base had a boundary wall and guards on the gates, but we could come and go as we pleased.

We were fed and sometimes watered, but mostly sprited/tea'd. The base at 2200m altitude was also used for the Olympics and is now used by many athletes for training. Some serious training could be had going up the steep hill behind the base.

The hills were all terraced and cultivated. There were some goat-sheep at the top, the ones that could be either. One was doing a good impression of a skull.

It was good to be in the same place as all the other competitors.

Godsrock Clothing

Good news - Godsrock is coming to Sheffield. There will be a stall at Cliffhanger this weekend.

Eindhoven Photos

Ned (and his shorts) and me in the semis.

Semis - a miss and a hit. It was an awkward off balance launch.

Qualifiers - pop for the top. There was a nice crimp on the sloper :-) for my third flash

Qualifiers - first 2 flashes

Fontainebleau and Eindhoven

I had a few days holiday in Fontainebleau before going to the last round of the World Cup in Eindhoven, Netherlands.

We got 2 days climbing out of 3. Good considering the amount of rain in between times. Real rock felt a bit foreign and I struggled on the slopers. I thoroughly enjoyed myself but didn't manage more than half of anything in the 7's. I did however do lots of very nice 6bs.

The World Cup went well afterwards. I qualified in joint 15th and went on to come 15th in the semi-final. My best result yet placing me 29th overall at the end of the World Cup Series. Ned Feehally came 6th in the comp - an awesome effort. There's an article on UKC.

Vienna WC

I had a good World Cup in Wien and felt strong after my finger strength intensive.

I was the penultimate climber out which gave me plenty of time to warm up. I started well with a flash. The second bloc with chunky holds gained via heel hooks was not so successful. I messed up placing my hand incorrectly on the bonus and hung around for ages trying to correct. By the time I did I was wasted. I should have let go and repeated as the move was actually ok. I didn't have enough left to finish the problem but I believe I could have topped it if I hadn't hung around. The end moves looked totally do-able. Grr


I recovered well in the rest period to be faced with a really awkward double handed dyno from bad holds on the 3rd bloc. I caught it on my 7th go and topped with seconds to spare. Super - chuffed and somewhat surprised I moved on. Jon caught my leap on camera.


Only 2 others topped this bloc.

I went on to top the last two blocs to get 4 tops in 14 and all 5 bonuses. Angelica was congratulating me on making the finals, then the results were finalised... I was the only one with 4 tops not to qualify and only one other had all 5 bonuses. Unfortunately I had too many attempts placing me 11th in my group, 21st overall. I needed bloc 2 then I would have been 2nd in my group!! What a difference a couple of holds make.

Dave and Stewart crushed coming 6th and 8th. Dave 'won' the semi. Nice one.


I had a look around Vienna with Jee. I wanted to go on one of the Segways. Instead we went on foot, but saw most things. It's quite a compact place with lots of nice buildings, horse drawn carriages, tons of statues and several large gold balls.

DIY

I'm resting/tapering for the next comp. We decided to do some DIY in the lounge. We are now proud owners of some handcrafted shelves.

Plywood Masters '09

I had a very enjoyable trip to Blackburn yesterday. There were a lot of faces that I hadn't seen for a while Audrey turned out with a group from London, Naomi and Jordan were both looking strong. There was also some good local talent with Gill Peet making the finals in her first comp.

I came second behind Leah. We both topped all the final blocs, but I had a couple more goes. I think this is the first time I've topped all the final blocs in a comp so I'm really chuffed, especially as I was up against the very imaginative setting of the Boulder UK crew.

Finger beasting

I'm on an intensive fingerboard 3 weeks.

I feel that I've come full circle since first starting full training. I started with strong crimping fingers, but lots of other things to work on. Now I feel like my finger strength is holding me back, especially open hand strength. Hence the intensive.

I have never done much fingerboard work am really noticing the difference already after the second week of three 1.5hr sessions a week. Each session comprises of encores of increasing difficulty, warming up and then working my fingers up to back 2 (see the beastmaker site for explanation). I'm doing these sessions on days I do not climb.

I'll taper my training in the 4th week ready for the next comp.

World Cup Hall, Austria

Here are some sideways videos of me on the blocs in Hall for you to watch whilst stretching your neck.

The first bloc was frustrating being easy to the last move. A pop on a slab where I could get the height but not the trajectory. I dropped two other blocs, topped 2 and got all the bonus holds to come 31st. I was a bit disappointed as I felt I should have got further on a couple of the blocs.

Central Tokyo

Just playing with the lights in the dark

Better late than never. Some more photos.

We liked the plastic food in the windows showing you what you can get. Fish, unless its me trying to buy raw fish. Then its deep fried pork. Good job I was really enjoying the deep fried pork.

We also like the skyscrapers - especially the one with the free lift to the 46th floor.

World Cup Kazo, Japan

Kazo was good. With a huge cherry tree and a handy shops. The street was lined with IFSC WC flags and streamers with disc pictures of climbers stuck to them, prepared by local school children.

Lots of fish flying (carp) for the the comp and childrens day on May the fish-th. I found a good big fish, little fish, cardboard box scenario.

The comp - it all felt so hard... and it was. A hard set of quali blocs. I flashed the first and got a second bonus to qualify joint 20th. In by the skin of ma teeth. I felt I climbed slightly better in the semi, apart from on the first block where I felt like a sack of spuds. I came 18th - my best result to date.

Leaving Kazo was the hardest journey as the map was in kanji only. Spot that town you want to go to? Easy if you know its the chest of drawers followed by the fat man with three legs rather than some now useless latin characters. Engineering logic took over that its still the same map. Alternatively buy the cheapest fare and adjust on arrival. All the systems are so very well thought out.