They worked a lot better on Thursday. I slipped once, but I was butchering the beta at the time, and going a more sane route fixed the problem,

On Friday, I didn't do much. I got 15,000 steps in, but that was the only exercise as I drove to North Yorkshire for the weekend.

Over the weekend, I went caving. I learned how to Single Rope Technique (SRT) - you have ascenders and descenders attached to you, to let you go up, down or along bits of string. It was really good fun; I bought my own kit as I hope to do it again, maybe next weekend.

It was in the North Yorkshire Dales, which is one of my favourite places. Saturday was learning the techniques in a barn; Sunday was down Sell Gill, which is a cave half way up one of the local tall hills (Pen-y-Ghent).

I blundered on the way home, and charged my car too early; that meant I needed a second stop so I probably added half an hour to the trip home. It wasn't too bad; we left at about 4.30 p.m.and I got home at about 11 p.m. The charging network in the UK is such that routes do need planning - most of the very good charging stations seem to be in the middle of industrial estates with nothing around.

Pic of me going up string:

I went climbing and squatted in the week, but the details are lost to posterity.

Over the weekend, I went caving in Wales. I traveled down on the Friday after work, leaving at about 8 and arriving just after midnight. Saturday was Pant Mawr for some SRT practice. It's a lovely cave; it gets way nicer after the first boulder choke.

We set off later than intended on the Sunday, so we decided for a smaller trip. We did the round trip at OFD1. Although it's short, it's quite challenging with plenty of climbs and traverses, You need cow's tails at a few points, to clip onto wire, as there are some large drops over some of the hairier bits. We left Wales at about 5, and I was home by 9.

I went climbing. It was fun; I was in form. I got around 4 or 5 6 new 6a/6b graded routes, including quite a few session flashes.

I went scuba diving in Cornwall - I got 2 dives in today, which were lovely. My suit flooded, so I chose not to do the night dive. I somehow managed 10 miles of walking whils ineffectively kit faffing.

Weight: 142 pounds.

I just finished my diving holiday. It was lovely, the weather was way better than forecast. I saw a pipefish, a couple of dogfish, a multi-headed hydra feeding, loads of crayfish and truly huge crabs. There was a basking shark which meandered past when I was on shore. It was a huge fish; probably at least 20 feet long. (We could see its fins sticking out of the ocean.) The jewel anemones on the Manacles reef were amazing.

My drysuit leaked every dive. I was properly shivering at the end of each dive. I had a heated vest, which was nice. However, it's not really desigined for floods, it just staved off hypothermia rather than making me comfortable. Being an idiot, I still did reasonably long dives despite the cold.

I went bouldering. It was really good fun. It was a 2 hour session.

I was on good form; I sent quite a lot of stuff. There is one wall where I got all the 6A/6B graded climbs (my normal hit rate on these is around 50%). I had a go at some of the harder stuff. I didn't really get anywhere, but it felt more accessible than normal.

I went climbing on Friday . I spent most of my time projecting a new route. I eventually got it, after 40 minutes of embarrassing falls. The crux is at the top, and I'm not sure my route was optimal, but it eventually worked. (I went for an out of balance mantle pistol squat thing. I have no idea what the other options were, but I was assured they exist.)_

On Saturday, I dropped off my drysuit for repair. It leaks pretty much everywhere - I will get it back early June. I bought a back-up drysuit to minimise future lost dives, but that won't be ready until mid-June.

I wanted dry gloves as well as the repair, and the shop said they needed to measure me for this, which was why I drove down (to Portland, Dorset). It was 3.5 hours drive, and it seemed like a shame to go all that way and immediately drive back. So I did the Coastal Path around the island, for an impromptu 14 mile hike.

Today, I went for a climb at a different gym from normal. Trains were a bit broken, so I got 8 miles walk in getting to the gym and back. I was in form - it was a 2 hour session. Again, my projecting ended up concentrating on one climb, which only took me about 20 minutes this time. The route was fun and short - the trick seemed to be to ignore all hand holds at one point, which lets you get a leg against a corner, which then brings some other hand holds to within reach.

Monday was a Bank Holiday in the UK, and I took advantage of it by heading out to Malta for some scuba diving. It was lovely, a really relaxed holiday. We started diving on Friday, and dived Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We did three dives a day, typically around 50 minutes with a max depth of 35 metres. (Even the wrecks were near reefs so the average depths were shallow.)

It was my first overseas diving since 2016, due to my bend in 2017 and then lockdown after I had surgery correcting the PFO which caused the bend.

Here is a short video from one of Saturday's dives:


Yesterday, I lifted weights, doing:
3 sets of 5, bench, 55 kgs
2 sets of 6, deadlift, 100 kgs.

Today, I climbed. I got a bit carried away and had a 2.25 hour session, with quite a few successes.

I'm in Malta!

Cool! When did you get there? I left on Monday - we were staying in St Julians.

Cool vid. Looked like a tight squeeze through the crack.

Thanks! I did another video featuring a slightly longer, deeper swim-through.

I got there on Saturday and leaving tomorrow - staying in Valletta. I am not impressed overall. I feel like the island has a confused identity. It isn't a summer holiday destination, because there are no beaches. The food is fine, but not great. Some areas are massive party places. It seems like a mish-mash of everything.

I really liked the islands (we went to Gozo as well.)

I went teetotal when I lost the weight three years ago, so the party aspect wasn't really something I looked at. That said, the worst plan on the Saturday night, at around 2 a.m., was mine, despite me being sober. and everyone else being non-sober. (I started doing a table traverse on a table that clearly couldn't bear my weight.)

Beaches aren't really my thing on holiday, so I didn't really notice them being low quality. What I did notice was stunning visibility; and loads of wrecks in easy swimming distance of the beaches.

In fact, I liked it so much I am vaguely considering moving there.

The timing was very Mediterranean. For example, on the second day, the plan was to get to Gozo by 11; dive at 12 and then 2.30; get back for 4.30 and then a night dive in Malta at 7.30. The actual timings were getting to Gozo by 1.30; first dive at 2.30; second dive at 5; back by 8.30 and the night dive started at 11. This didn't bother me at all, but one of our group was in the Navy and he seemed a bit irritated by it.

This weekend was a course on sports climbing at Portland. It was brilliant fun; very laid back when compared to gym bouldering. I think I prefer it, but hopefully I will end up doing both.

I eventually worked my way up to 6A, which isn't particularly good. But it was my first attempt at this thing, and it also wasn't bad. The instructor reckoned I was probably at 7A standard with a bit more outdoor practice, which is in line with my bouldering standard..

I went climbing yesterday (back to indoor bouldering.) I lasted 2,75 hours, which is probably too long to be sensible.

I started off really very well indeed, sending loads of stuff. I was pretty poor at the end, possibly because of the pump. The gym has two rooms; my poor session was in the room which has just been reset so was on routes I've not tried before. So it's also possible that I butchered the new stuff. I will find out next week (my next climbing will be Saturday at a different gym; so Monday is the likely day for the going back).

I also did 10 miles' walking.

Yesterday, I attempted to pick up some heavy stuff, but was quite time constrained (and weak, which limits the heavinness involved). So I ended up doing:
Bench, 2 sets of 5, 55 kgs
Deadlift, 1 set of 4, 100 kgs.

Today, I went for a climb. It was really good fun; I was in reasonable form. I sent 4 routes graded v3-v5, which were probably all closer to v3 than v5, but I got around half of the ones at the gym in this bracket.

I lasted 2.5 hours, which is probably a bit silly as the pump means I don't get much towards the end (although I did get one slabby v3-v5 on my very last effort.)

I also did around 15 miles' walking today and 10 miles yesterday.

Sunday
I intended to have a day off, as I was a bit broken, but a friend invited me on a hike with her. So I ended up doing a 15 miles hike.

Monday
I went climbing, which was fun. I was time constrained, so only had 90 minutes. I pretty much flashed all the v3s I tried - one pumpy overhang out of a cave took a few tries. The v4s are way harder, I eventually got one, which took many tries. I didn't have time to do too many of the others in earnest; they are certainly above my flash grade. I got a couple of dynos, maybe I'm finally improving at them.

I got 9 miles walking in throughout the day.

Tuesday
I lifted weights, doing:
3 sets of 5, 40 kgs, front squat. These were fun; I've not really done them before. I will definitely add these to the routine.
3 sets of 5, 60 kgs, high bar back squat. I normally do low-bar, but I was in the mood for experimenting. I went light (I weight 65 kgs) as it's not something I've done for years. I think I preferred it to low-bar; it is easier to get bonkers depth.
Bench, 3 set of 7, 50 kgs.
Hangboarding (12mm ledge, 7 second repeaters).

I failed to do significant exercise on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; although I did average 23,000 steps per day.

Sunday was fun. A few of us went climbing. I only got one hard route (v3-v5 grade), but I was the only in the group to get it. (There were 5 of us; I am probably 3rd best. It is reasonably close, though - Debbie has by far the best technique, and Jon is is strongest. I am the most stupid, which lets me get some stuff the others don't.) It took me about a minute of terrifying slab shuffling to get to the crux. There, I needed to match on a small crimp with my body leaning at an angle, cut loose and immediately swing out to get a foot on a small ledge the other side of the arrete.

We went of a barbecue afterwards. It was nice; it felt like a return to normality after lockdowns. I decided to walk home. At about 7 p.m, I thought better of this plan as the walk is around 18 miles (I had done about 6). So I got on the train, and only did about 11 miles for the day.

My logging has been weak.

Monday I was a bit time constrained. So all I did of note was front squats (3 sets of 5, 45kgs.)

Tuesday I went climbing. It was really fun. I was in the gym for over 2 hours; I left when they threw me out. I got a couple of hard routes right at the end. This was on a wall which was reset recently; I got none of the routes last time.

I got over 10 miles walking both days.

Wednesday, I was a bit time constrained. (There was an office party with a 3-line whip to attend), so I just did deadlifts. I worked up to 1 set of 7, 110 kgs. I did my customary lots of walking.

Thursday, I went climbing. I wasn't in particularly good form. I repeated a lot of stuff I'd done before, but didn't get anything new. 2 hour session.

I went caving in Wales for the weekend. It was a nice, relaxing weekend.

Friday was not much exercise, as I drove down to the hut after work, actually arriving before midnight this time.

Saturday I did the OFD1 to Cwm Dwr through-trip. You follow the stream for a bit; have a bit of a climb through the letter-box into a crawly maze; climb down diver's pitch (12m but easy) have a bit of a walk to an easy traverse, a bit more of a walk, an easy crawl, a bit of a an easy climb, and then out for tea and medals. (The crawl at Dwm Dwr was way easier than before - the South Wales Caving club have done some work moving out the pebbles. Previously, at the narrowest point, I needed to breathe out, relax, and possibly dig a bit. This time I didn't need any of that fancy stuff.)

We were 4 hours for the caving bit, which is reasonably fast for this route.

Sunday was the round trip at OFD1. This starts off the same as the though-trip. But you turn off the stream-way a bit sooner, through some crawly stuff to the helter skelter. This is a twisting down-climb where you can't really see the footholds, but it's easy. Then there is the roly-poly. This is a crawl, but it's high enough and wide enough that you can roll your way though as opposed to crawl. Then there is a the bolt traverse, which is a traverse with a wire you clip into as it is slightly hairy. It's pretty easy. This leads onto the Airy Fairy, which is another wire traverse. This is also easy - there is a bit you need to move onto a lower ledge which is not obvious, but straightforward if you know about it. Then it's back to the streamway.

Pic of me at the start of the Roly poly. It is a very wide, tall crawl so you can roll round and round as opposed to crawling.

I went for a very short run this morning (probably about 3k in 20 minutes.) I went climbing this evening. It was decent; I got 4 new routes including three long term projects.

That looks creepy tight to me. Your diving vid with the swim through the rock cracks freaked me out too, this looks worse. I'd hate to see what you consider tight.

I've only done one really extremely tight crawl. I was lying flat, with my arms in front of me, and I couldn't move my head at all as rock pressed down on it. Moving my arms felt hard; I think I would have needed to to dislocate my shoulder to go much further on. It turned out that I was lost, having taken a wrong turning. I couldn't turn around, but I was able to slowly crawl backwards and reunite myself with the path.

On Wednesday, I drove down to Portland (Dorset in the UK variant) to pick up my newly-repaired drysuit. I did about 15 miles walking.

On Thursday, also in Portland, I was on a diving trip. The organiser dropped out with Covid. So it ended up with only three people on that day, and I was the only one qualified to drive the boat. So I did skippering duties for the day, and failed to get a dive in. (It was actually quite good - it's the first time I've taken the boat out with no-one else competent at it along, and I'm now confident in my rhib skippering abilities. To quote NWA, I'm skippering with my full capabilities, and now I'm living in correctional facilities.)

On Friday, an extra couple turned up, and Rich is competent at picking up divers. So I got two dives in. They were lovely. I did the dive planning for these, which was more work than Thursday's as the conditions were rubbish on Thursday and so we only did the harbour wrecks. We went 10 miles from the harbour for the first dive, and came closer in for the second.

On Saturday, Rich came down with Covid-like symptoms, and Emma left to do some jubilee-related nonsense, so there were only two of us left for diving. This wouldn't work off the boat; and we were too lazy to do the shore dive. (It's a lot more faff than boat diving.) So we put the boat away and came home.

On Sunday, I intended to do a very long walk. But my central heating broke, so I needed to use the morning calling plumbers, and by the time it was fixed it was 2 p.m. So I changed my planned route, and got 23 miles in, leaving from my house. (The original plan was 30 miles from hills a few miles from my house, but the revised plan was good too.) It drizzled most of the way.

I went climbing. It was fun. The session was just over 2 hours; I left the gym when they threw me out. I got two long term projects.

One has a very easy start; the difficult part is the last move. The final hold can't take any weight so you need strong feet. The trick is to move your left foot up to a tiny hold slightly above the penultimate hand holds. I'm not that flexible, so it was really hard. I relied on crying and praying. It was around my 4th or 5th attempt at this route this session; I had tried it a few times over 3 earlier sessions.

The other was a thuggy overhang just needing brute strength and ignorance.

I also managed 10 miles' walk.