I've lately been suffering from a lack of motivation to post anything on my blog as I feel there is no point if nothing is being achieved and prefer to pour my time into other things such as training and reading (as well as finally getting around to sorting out learning to drive!)
It is only 14 days from now that myself, Mark and Andi will be heading over to Magic Wood for a 2 week jaunt of endless crushing and big numbers... maybe with Tom but I won't hold my breath ;)
After the trip to the Lakes in June, it has been a quiet time, just training for 2 weeks indoors and then getting down to the Cave quite regularly twice or more a week working on things I feel I should be able to do but never seem to finish off.
I've managed to punter up the finish on Pit of Hell and Broken Heart recently (conditions have been far from ideal with wet holds and muggy weather but I feel I should be capable of these problems where there are no real hard moves involved.
I decided I am lacking in the endurance department so have been climbing a lot of the endurance 7B and above problems at the end of sessions once I have battered myself to deep fatigue and hopefully these laps of long 20+ move problems will have some crossover benefit to the long hard problems I have been working on.
I'll quickly sum up what's been going on over the last month and a bit;
Early July
Managed to get the cave a lot, dropping Pit of Hell finish a couple of times, started working on Crucial Times. Crucial Times hurt a lot as well as the pull off the ground being nails. I at least highlighted a clear weakness in being unable to pull off undercuts and thin sidepulls above my head! Managed a good new problem (the ss to Clever Cleaver) and had a look at We've a Beaver but it was wet and greasy. I suppose the good thing is that I can still lap Rockatrocity with ease thankfully!
Mid July
Kev and Liam made an epic drive up to the cave for the day to meet up with myself, O and Pete and we had a good session. I was massively impressed by Liam's beastly levels of strength and the ease in which he could lock holds down, he got me to try the footless finish of Lou Ferrino that is given 8A+ in the guide but seems a bit soft at the grade? i managed all the moves bar the drop down match before you pull into the finish slot (the big iron cross span across from pocket to pocket felt ok every time). We got psyched for Broken Heart and Liam was managing to crush the backhand method in a super bunched position. There is no way I'll do it this way so I tried for ages to get the heel-toe method to work to no avail.
Kev was getting good links on RA once I showed him a switch in foot position for the move to the flake and will probably have it in the bag next time he comes up.
A few days later and I had my first trip to Rubicon with Mark and Andi where we met up with psyched Sam who never stops talking ^^. I had just managed to do Kudos before he arrived which felt nails. With some beta I got a couple other things and tried the Press but kept greasing off after locking to the edge. We hit the Tor after and I got a couple of old nemesis' from my last trip about 2 years ago in Rattle and Hump start and undercut to crimp. Sam gave beta on Right of Ben's Roof and I fell off the last move on the flash much to my dismay!
Tues 21st July
Me and a gang of yoofs from Liverpool had a short roadtrip to Wales where we spent Tuesday in the cave all day for an epic 8 hour session where there was quite a bit of wetness so tried Clyde and got straight through to the cross under move with feet high up in the roof. I never managed to make the move but was getting closer to it every go slowing down the move and feel it will go with less grease. Shauna amazed me by being able to span the move to the greasy pinch having a massive reach disadvantage and got a good flash of Lip Service.
Sean repeated Clever Beaver and Mark put some time in on Pillar start as he tried to get accustomed to the less steep side of the cave. (I find most things on left wall desperate compared with pulling through a roof)
I finally managed 1 new problem at the end of the session getting an ascent of Beaver Cleaver Direct after finally working out the feet positions to catch the lip and stay on :)
We had an entertaining night of bivi'ing in Shit infinity where after about 5 cans of strongbow I claimed a headtorch ascent of Organ Grinder without being able to see my feet or where I was dynoing to!
Wednesday 22nd July
We had a massive breakfast in Llandudno's Weatherspoons and were dismayed by the locals already on their 4th pints at 10am in this grim seaside theatre!
Back to the cave and I was in a great amount of pain, so dosed up on painkillers and worked on Clyde again and Halfway briefly with Ben Pritch. I felt terrible so decided to try and wake my body up and did a lap of RA followed by a lap of Lou F from 2 moves in. This sprung me into life and Jim showed me the foot lock on Broken Heart. After a few goes it finally stuck and flowed until a couple moves from the end of Bust Lip only for me to power out and fail! Gutting.
Thursday 23rd July
The team was feeling a bit wrecked so after a brief play on Bellpig (A career nemesis), we drove to Beris where I purchased some Boreal Blades much to the mirth of the young sponsored heros I was with. We got a shower in Pete's, then attempted to put Mark's 6 man £30 Fisher Price tent up in the pass in ridiculously strong winds which shut us down! We bailed to Pizza and a Pint night which was, as always, amazing. The weather looked dodge, so we sacked it home to Liverpool then set out to Raven Tor on Thursday. Mike and Sean got shut down on what we thought was a 7a warmup route that had at least a v8/9 boulder start?! So then they did Little extra which looked ok. I warmed up on the direct start a few times then went over to Ben's Roof and crushed the problem right of Ben's 2nd go after dropping the finish hold on the first attempt of the day (Cheers to Sam for the heavy beta last week!). The skies opened and we went to Stockport wall where I continued to break myself by climbing every problem bar 3 in the session.
Sunday 26th July
2 days of pain coming down off the heavy ibuprofen doses and we went to check out the Depot. I have to say it is the best indoor climbing facility I have ever been to and the problem setting was very good. We warmed up crushing almost the entire yellow circuit and the Blades were working nicely! After a long lunch break we felt like we could move again and after warming up on a couple purples... went to work on the black circuit (You get a months pass if you crush them all in a session I believe?). I scoped out a crimpy board style one and managed to flash it much to my suprise. The one opposite up an arete with compression and heels looked most suited and this too went down first go. On a roll I moved right and saw another involving a slappy start followed by pinches and heels. After the first 2 moves I knew it was in the bag and got the top without much effort! After this it was downhill as the far end prow towards the new area shut me down hard along with the black through the barrel roof. I managed the one opposite the entrance after many goes where you cross over your head with a heel on the starting block (dropping the last move twice before finally dispatching).
We were shown the new giant roof as well as Ned and Dan's woody and they looked absolutely amazing for training. We stopped off on the way home to have a look at City Bloc which didn't really inspire me in the same way but the setting looked good. Sugden wasn't in which was a shame as it would have been good to see how he is getting on.
The next 2 weeks
I think it's a bit too late to do any beneficial training for the Magic Wood trip, so I'll focus on eating well and drinking less in the build up as well as getting in plenty of mileage and resting properly. I have ordered the all important stove top espresso maker today and a giant tub of protein powder to aid multiple days on :)
If I can get any photos off Mark from our recent days out, I'll get them up on here, to make this less of a ball ache to read!
