22 July
Bouldering at VauxWall East, aka the Sauna. Not a bad session.No v3s, though - they seem harder at East than West. Loads of silly overhangy ones done.

23 July
Indoor rowing. I did my first 10k, very slowly. It was in 2.27 pace. At least I have made future improvements easy for myself.

24;July
Bouldering in Sutton. Not a great session. I ended up doing a bunch of overhangs, as the difficult grip stuff wasn't really working for me.

26 July
Weights, 3 sets of 5, 80 kgs, squat
5 sets of 5, 50 kgs, bench
1 set of 20, kettlebell swings, 24kgs
Facepulls.
Loads of pull ups and hanging leg raises.

27 July
10 Mile walk, after buying a new drysuit. It was a bargain at half price .

28 July
8x500m rows, with 2 minutes rest between intervals. Quickest was the last at 2.01.

29 July
Bouldering for 90 minutes. This was bloody horrible, my grip strength started to fail really early in the session.

30 July
A played with a light kettlebell, in an attempt to do active recovery.

31 July
I set myself a random goal of 15,000 average steps per day for July. I met the goal, but I had to quite a lot of walking on this day to hit the target. I accidentally turned my phone off for a bit, so I think I got 23,000 steps (with 20,000 logged). Total logged steps for July were 465,400-ish.

1 August
Craggy Island bouldering. All the routes had been reset, so I had no reference points. I think I did OK. I ended up doing a lot of overhangs.

2 August
Pretty much a day off. I did 1 hour vinyasa yoga.

3 August
Rowed 8k in 2.18 pace, my best timec so far for this distance.

4 August
Lifted in the morning (bench 55 kgs, squat 90kgs.) Both felt good.
Swam in the evening - did a slow 1k (including a 40 metre underwater section.)

5 August
Bouldering for 90 minutes.
Flashed 4 new v3s. So I probably should try a few v4s next time. However, there is a v1 I cannot get, for some reason. I get my hand on the next hold in the crux move, but never well enough to stay on the wall. It is moving from a horizontal overhang to a vertical bit. maybe I can adjust my hip position bro make it easier.

7 August
I didn't exercise on the 6th - my first day off in a while. I went bouldering today. It was good - I get v3s a lot more frequently than a few weeks ago. On easy climbs, I'm trying to practice being more dynamic so when I actually need momentum, I need to think about it less.

10 August
In the morning, I did a 9 or 10 mile hike.
In the evening, I indoor rowed 10k in 2.24 pace, or 1 minute faster than my first attempt at this distance.
My weight in the morning was 149 pounds, a recent low.

11 August
6 or 7 mile walk.

1 hour bouldering. I got one new route, an overhanging juggy affair. It looked easy, but I needed a heel hook to get over the edge properly. I've not done many of these, so I had no idea if what I was trying was close to correct or not. It worked, so I was happy.

3k row. I toyed with the idea of doing 6k, but I am old and weak.

12 August
Bouldering for 90 minutes. An Ok session, but not outstanding. I got every v1 and V2 I tried, including a former nemesis, but fell off most v3 attempts. I got 2 at the end

13 August 2019
Indoor rowing. I did 4x1500m with 3 minutes rest between sets. My average pace was 2.14, with a best of 2.09.

My weight is getting lower than I'd like, so I am trying to eat at a surplus for a few days. I find it surprisingly difficult.

15 August
60 minutes bouldering. I got all the v2s, and about half the v3s. I didn't get any new routes, but it felt like I consolidated various recent improvements.

16 August
Yoga, 1 hour. I'll move around a bit this evening as well - probably weights.

18 August
Lifted, 55 kgs bench and 150 kgs deadlift for a triple. The deadlift was 2.1* bodyweight.

19 August
90 minutes now bouldering. This was a new gym for me, in Norwich. I got all the v1s I tried, most v2s, and a couple of v3s. The grading seemed about the same as Vauxwall.

My logging has been weak.

I went bouldering in Norwich one more time last week. I did one or two kettlebell workouts there as well.

I was visiting my parents, and my Dad was released from hospital. He felt a lot better than when admitted, so that was pretty cool.

On Saturday, Sunday and Monday, I went scuba diving from Plymouth. It was really good. I saw a nurse hound and a minke whale for the first time. The water was warm, the visibility was fantastic, and the sea was flat.

Yesterday, I went on the rower. I did 3x10 minutes with 2 minutes' rest between sets. My average pace was 2.18; my best was the last at 2.15.

I have been targetting 150 pounds body weight. I seem to have fallen a bit below that - Libra trend has me at 148.5. So I probably need to eat a bit more food for a week.

How do you structure your exercise around diving? Do you take dive length and depth into account when deciding how much exercise you are able to handle in the following 24hrs?

My diving is pretty conservative these days, due to my PFO. My restrictions are:

• 1 dive a day
• 15 metres equivalent nitrogen depth
• 1 hour max
• No deco, which is a bit redundant given the other constraints.

However, it was exercise after a dive which got me bent. (I walked my twin-set up a hill after a dive to get to a shower to rinse my kit. This seemed to cause a shunt through the PFO, causing the bend.) So I need to be prudent about exercise. I try to avoid all exercise for 4-ish hours after a dive. This isn't always completely possible - I may need to put some kit around. But I dive single tank now, so the kit is quite light.

After 3 hours, I may do some light exercise. The most aggressive I've done recently is probably bouldering about 8 hours after the dive. That particular dive had been quite shallow (10 metre average) and I had been on 32% nitrox. If the dive had been more aggressive or recent, I probably would have skipped the bouldering.


I am hoping to get the PFO closed in November. It looks like my insurance should pay. There is around a 1% chance of the surgery going wrong (causing a stroke, or needing open heart surgery to close the plug.) So I'm not 100% decided if to go ahead.

If I do get the surgery, I will still try to avoid exercise post dive. However, there will be more variety in my dive profiles, so I will take into account the likely extent of any bubbling more than I currently do

29 August
Rowing machine. 8k metres in 2.21 pace.

30 August
1 hour yoga over lunch.

2 hours bouldering. I went to the Arch in Bermondsey for the first time. It is massive - I like it. I got a few v2s, and just about got s V3 (although I may have cheated when I cut loose - my feet touched another route.)

31 August
Lifting. Worked up to squat (90 kgs) and bench (55 kgs) both for 3 sets of 5.

1 September
Bouldering. Not a bad session - I got a couple of new routes at v2 or v3 level. I also tried the exercise of going up something easy 4 times without using a limb (one time per limb). It was hard.

I have an unlogged boudering session on Monday - 2 hours. It was fun. I got close to a difficult route out if a cave.

5 September
3 hours bouldering. Again, another very fun session. I got 2 new routes, and I am a lot further on two projects. I didn't pay attention on the rowing at home, and got off at the wrong station. So I also got over 20000 steps.

Nice work!

7 September
I got a quick quarry dive in, to re-test the new drysuit. It was dry this time, so presumably the earlier leak was user error. It has a neoprene neck seal you need to double over. I think the trick is not to double it very far. The dive was 50 minutes; the visibility close to zero (under 50 centimeters at its worst.)

8 September
I used the indoor rower, going 10k in 46.39. it is my quickest yet, but still quite slow. I then went bouldering, starting the session two hours after the row. I struggled a lot with finger strength, which is probably correlated to the rowing...

My weight this morning was 147.5 pounds, so the mini-bulk to 150 is going poorly.

I have an unlogged bouldering session, probably from Monday

12 September
Quick indoor tow in the morning, 4x1k sprints. Best pace 1.59.

Then an unremarkable hike in the afternoon. I've been on holiday in Wales. Our cottage had no electricity when we arrived, so the route was slightly as hoc.

13 September
16 mile hike with 12 peaks and around 3,000 feet height gain.

14 September
Hike, probably around 12 miles, probably around 3,000 feet ascent. It was bloody marvellous - bright sunshine, a cooling breeze, and some fun scrambling.

What is a good way of posting photos these days?

15 September
I did the Ffnal hike of the holiday,, which was probably around 12 miles. We kept it relatively short, as I had to drive back to London afterwards.

16 September
Bouldering, 2 hours. The routes had been re-set. I got my first white, which is graded v2 to v4. It was easy, so seemed to have been mis-graded. I got quite a few v3s.