I'm in Epsom, so just outside. I work in London, but we didn't renew our lease when lockdown started, so there's been no choice other WFH since then. If our business is sold, which should complete June, we get a new office then.

Is your new place still in London?

Ah yes, Epsom!

Yup, I still live in London. I have lived near Paddington ever since I moved here 10 years ago and am now living closer to Portobello road. I have wanted to move a bit further out (maybe outer edge of zone 2) and get a bigger place, but my girlfriend wants to live central, and so we compromised and are living very central.

Thursday
Bouldering. This was another very good session. I got 4 Craggy v3s, beating my previous PB set the last time. (I guess one possibility is that the route setting has got easier. But all the routes felt non-trivial - one was a nasty sloper followed by small crimps on a overhang, say.)

There seems to be a natural tendency for climbers to either say the setting is easier or sandbagging grades when they’re just flat out getting better and thus the same climbs/grades are now easier.

Sounds like you’re putting a lot of good sessions together and improving nicely, I wouldn’t think it’s anything other than that!

Thanks!

I am now on a bit of a tour of the South coast to get some dives in. The weather has been dreadful, but we got 2 on Saturday; 1 yesterday and 2' today.

The trip was scheduled to end on Friday, but we may carry on until Monday (which is a Bank holiday in England.)

Dive trip is nearly over. A full trip report will follow. I am on day 9 of 10 (I think) and have dived every day.

Monday
The final dive of my trip was a bit epic - 62 minutes on a 24m wreck, with about 15 minutes outside the wreck (most of which was my buddy's deco stop) and the rest squirrelling around in small, silty holes. I was on nitrox 32%, so I had no deco, but my buddy was on air.

My air consumption was why we needed to end - I was on a single tank, and ended on 60 bar. So it was a perfectly judged dive from that regard.

That gives a Surface Air Consumption Rate of 16l per minute, which is relatively high by my standards; but it was a relatively challenging dive. The current was running; and my drysuit leaked. So I was proper freezing at the end. The vis was probably good on the outside, but not so good in silty holes. The SAC is still probably on the lower end of the spectrum of UK divers.


Tuesday
I went climbing. I started pretty well, but got pumped quickly. I lasted 90 minutes, but didn't get anything meaningful for the last 45 minutes,.

I guess 10 days off climbing hurt my endurance. I spent most of my time on the cave routes, as climbing upside down is more fun. Maybe I should have done some slab.

Wednesday
I did lower body lifts. I took it fairly easy, as I hadn't lifted for a while due to the scuba mega-trip.

I did:
Squat, 70 kgs, 3 sets of 10
Deadlift, 100 kgs, 2 sets of 10
Walking lunges, 32 kgs, length of garden for 3 sets.

Thursday
I did an hour of yoga early this morning. I went for an evening climb, where I was unexpectedly massively on form. It was really good fun.

Here is me falling off a boat recently:

I went for a quick dive this morning in a muddy hole to check out my twinset. It seems to work; hopefully I can do shut-downs in it.

I had my second dose AZ this afternoon. It was a couple of town's over from Epsom (in Leatherhead). I walked there and back, so got 30,000 steps in for the day.

Monday
I went for a climb. I wasn't massively in-form, but I wasn't terrible either. I got one new hard route, and repeated a lot of previous harder routes.

Amazingly, I got a double dyno move to work. I fell off later on, but I rarely get the jumps to work, so it was very fun to to that.

Tuesday
I did some light benching over lunch, doing 3 sets of 5, 55 kgs.

I got a decent evening walk in, ending the day on 25,000 steps, which is good for a work-day.

Weight: 140.0 pounds. This is the bottom end of my target range, and I've been at around this weight for over a week, so I may up my calories.

Wednesday
I went for a climb. I was in reasonable form, and got two of my projects.

At this gym, before lockdown I used to be able to one of two of the v3s. Now I seem to be able to get about half of them, I think the route setting must have got easier.

Thursday
Day off, although I got a decent walk in, ending on 16,000 steps.

It is shaping up to be good weekend - the plan is a climb this evening; a couple of dives on Saturday; and a 24 mile hike on Sunday.

Friday
I meant to go to climbing, but cocked up the timing. So I did kettle bells instead:
Goblet squat, 3 sets of 5, 32 kgs
5 TGUs, 16 kgs.
100 swings, 24 kgs
Deadlift, 1 set of 5, 100 kgs (this one was barbell, obviously.)

Saturday
Scuba diving, 2 lovely dives straight outta Brighton.

Sunday
Walk, 26 miles, estimated 4,000 foot ascent. It was nice, I am not too broken now.

Monday
I considered climbing, but it typically goes badly the day after a marathon walk. (The walk was 25 miles, but I did a bit more when I got back to get to the requisite 26 miles.)
So I did some light jogging.

Tuesday
Climbing. I think this went really well. They reset in the main room, and haven't tagged the climbs yet, so I have no idea how hard any of them were. But there were a few I sent which felt like as difficult as I am capable of sending.

I am toying with the idea of moving to Plymouth, as the diving there is world class.

Thursday
Climbing. Decent enough session. My endurance is coming back; this was 90 minutes and only ended due to the gym closing.

Friday
7 mile walk

Saturday
Climb.
I wasn't in particularly good form. I went to Vauxwall for the first time since lockdown, and didn't send much of note at all. I left my jumper there, so I may go back tomorrow. 2 hour session.

I've climbed twice in my life and once was at Vauxwall!

Cool, I think my first climb was at Vauxwall. They have opened a new arch - it's got bigger. I tend to not go there that frequently, as it's my little brother's least favourite gym.

I went back to pick up my jumper yesterday, and got a climb in. I haven't recently done two days in a row, but I wanted to pick up the jumper I left at the gym.

It was not bad. I was slightly better than last time, although I was out of form on Saturday. 2 hour session.

I got an 8 mile walk in after the climb.

I did an hour's yoga this morning, and my arms felt pumped from the climbing in the morning. So I'll probably pass on climbing for a third day on the trot.

In other news, I seem to have passed my 800 day anniversary of consecutive MFP logging.

Monday

I had a vague aim of having a rest day. I failed. I still had a pump on waking, so climbing felt unwise.

I did an hour of yoga in the morning. I did an evening walk, not very far - probably 4 miles. I then lifted a little, doing:

3 sets of 10, 70 kgs, squat
2 sets of 8, deadlift, 100 kgs.

Tuesday
Bouldering, 90 minutes.

This felt like a pretty good session, although I got very pumped by the end. My crimping strength is definitely better than before.

I managed a lunch-time walk as well, so finished the day on 18,000 steps. My local park has recently put in monkey bars, so I entertained the local weed-smoking youths by doing a couple of rounds.

I got back from bouldering at around 9.30 p.m., and I was wiped out - I barely moved for the rest of the evening.

My vague plan for exercise is along the lines of:
Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday or Sunday: Bouldering, aim for 3 or 4 times a week.
Tuesday, Thursday: Lifting, aiming for 2 to 3 times a week. If my arm pump has recovered, include some hangboarding.
Saturday, Sunday: Hiking, and/or scuba diving, and/or lifting. Aiming to do something both days.

This may be too much volume, but my body seems quite efficient at telling me when I've overdone it (and that is not very frequent).

Thursday
Climbing, 100 minutes.

This was pretty good. I went to Croywall for the first time in a while. I got quite a few white routes (v2 to v4), one of which was a flash. A couple more are close, and should go next time.

Friday

Climbing, 100 minutes

This was a good session, I got a few projects. I get about half of the v3/v4 graded climbs at Craggy now.

I seem to have been bouldering 5 days out of the last 7, which is arguably too much volume.

Sunday

I went climbing for 2 hours. It was my first trip to VauxEast post lockdown.

I was on form, it was a bit of a sending spree. I got a v3-v5 graded one - I think my first. The crux was at the top, and on the fourth go I went for it in blind terror. To my surprise, it worked and I got the route.

I also got 20,000 steps.

Tuesday
2 hours climbing at Craggy Island. I spent most of my time on tiny crimps, fortunately my pulleys still seem to be intact. It was good fun. I got two new routes. One actually had a dyno, and I'm terrible at them, but I managed it eventually. There is a V1 slab that is beyond me, though - I can't get the final move.

An upside of climbing frequently seems to be on resting heart rate. Fitbit reckoned it peaked at around 55 in lockdown; it's now fallen to 48 which is pretty much where it was pre-lockdown.

In non-exercise news, my company is hopefully being acquired by a SPAC. The SEC has approved the deal, which should complete within in a couple of weeks. I'll go from being a fairly minor shareholder in work to a very minor one in the SPAC.

Damn super jelly you’re climbing a ton lately!

I seem to prefer the endoprhins from climbing to other forms of exercise, so I try to get to the wall as frequently as possible.

Wednesday
I lifted, doing:
3 sets of 4, 55 kgs, bench
3 sets of 8, 100 kgs, deadlift.

Thursday
2 hours climbing, Croywall.

This was an odd session. I started off feeling lethargic, and falling off the wall a lot. I then perked up after about 30 minutes, and started sending stuff, and I was still getting decently hard stuff (by my standards) at the end of the 2 hours.

All the LCC centres now seem to have a competition wall. These are fun, but the grading is way harder than the regular routes. I get the v1s, but don't often flash them, and I can most of get the v2s eventually but they are all projects. The v3s are all lol/what?

I thought it was just me finding them hard, but someone yesterday flashed a murple regular climb (v6/v8) then spent at least an hour projecting, but not getting, a v3 competition route.