Sleep

Weight loss

Climbing

9/23

Climb 2.5- 3 hours

Almost didn’t do this session

Slept 9.5 hours last night and had ok energy today.

Warmed up expecting to not send anything harder than V3 and found the old beginner wall had been replaced with problems V4-V9 or so. Sent some 2’s and 3’s and hopped on a new pink route with the worst crimps I have ever used. I put in 15-20 burns on this and miraculously found beta and sent it. I think this Boulder would get the 5 6 7 card at rock spot, and is almost definitely a V6. The beta I used reduced the difficulty of the climb and was only possible with my reach, there’s no way I would have been even close to sending this route if I had to use all the holds as intended. Anyway I was super happy with this climb, it’s definitely my hardest send ever and I’m psyched to climb it again and try to make it smoother.

Was also surprised to see the heinous yellow route I had climbed about half of was graded V7. I thought this was gonna be a 6 but could not do a ridiculous core tension foot swap nor another foot move that doesn’t really feel possible which is required to link with the 2nd part of the route. I don’t think I’ll be able to get this one but the first foot swap is close and I’ve only attempted it 10x or so, so I’ll keep trying

Had a big meal out last night and came in 3+ pounds heavy today, didn’t matter even a little

Hoping to go hard again Tuesday or Weds and keep the progress going. Will likely work on some shorter boulders in Boston

9/26

Good sleep continues. Still slightly sick and tired during the day.

Found out my new sleep med also reduces chronic pain... I think this explains above all why I am sleeping well again.

Right inner hip still very tight and sore or I’d climb today. As is gonna have to wait till Friday

Experiencing a weight spike from last weekend, will take a few days to go down before I hit a new low. Not the best week but ultimately one high calorie day and 3 maintenance days aren’t gonna kill me. Back to 1700 kcal as of yesterday. This feels like a really good number for me at least 4-5 days/week, then one maintenance day and one 2500-3k day seems ideal

Climb 2:30

Did top rope today with my old climbing coach. This is the first time I’ve climbed routes over 20-25 feet so I didn’t know what to expect. Flashed 5.7, 5.8, 5.9-, 5.9, and a 50 ft 5.10 and then basically ran out of power and fell on another 5.10 and two 5.9 before finishing it up with two 5.8. I thought for sure I’d get pumped out on climbs of this length but it wasn’t a problem. This was fun but not sure if it will carry over much to my bouldering, the climbing is just so much easier than what I’m used to. Basically everything except maybe the crux of the 5.10 was mostly sequencing and endurance

half crimped the 10mm for 2x2 secs just to see if I could..felt barely possible

9/29

climb 3:15

Worked boulders V1-V7. Sent my new V5/6 crimp climb 3 times. Fell on another longer V5 crimp climb. Made no progress on my V7 project except hitting the heinous foot swap but my hand ripped off the sloper right as right foot hit the next hold. Worked a new V6 sloper climb but had no idea how to do the first move. Was able to do the rest of the boulder in a few attempts happily.

Sent two new V3/4 and fell on final move of one V4 and one V5. Video of the V4 below. I improved my beta on the finishing move after I took this video by improving body position but still couldn't quite get the move. Finishing hold is essentially unusable and might as well not be there. I think if I get both feet on the volume or left foot and right toe hook and lean forward into the wall I can probably get this next session.

Not my best session despite coming in light, but progress is still happening

Roped climbing session last Weds got me excited. Think I'll do some more auto belay my next session and see if I can knock off some more 5.10

Diet going very well

BW: 192 (-10.5)

10/3

climb 2:30

Back to hell gym in Dedham. Climbed the hardest V1-3 in I remember ever climbing, including falling on one V1 when I made a sequencing error. Didn't even send the 3 since it had a terrible move and was pumping me out despite that it was supposed to be part of my warmup, so I moved on and found an interesting V5 and put around 15 burns on it. Was able to do every move and all of the 1st and 2nd sections of the boulder but could not make the link from the start. The move linking the two is essentially a campus move and super hard for me, the next move is also low percentage for me but I sent it my first try when fresh, and once I hit it I'll always send the route. If this is a V5 it's the hardest one I've ever climbed. I'm tempted to come back to this gym and work this and another V5 project plus climb some hard V1-4.

On the other hand I got 5 tears today. Two of them were bad flappers that bled like hell and are in a position thats very difficult to tape. My skin is not physically tough enough for these hellacious boulders. Gonna go for a weekend session at the usual CRG gym regardless and consider heading back to dedham and getting soul crushed

V5/6 project:

https://imgur.com/UQbMXeA

https://imgur.com/kL4VI0d

Hold on the volume isn't the big one, it's the smaller rock beneath that.

The move from the position I'm in there is right hand match on left hand sloper, right foot cuts and try not to rip off the sloper while swinging wildly, then right foot on the original right hand sloper, big pull and right hand hits volume and bumps to the hold, then left foot matches where left hand is, left hand matches with right hand and the rest is straight up and over

I tried it with a right foot heel hook matching the right hand on the right sloper and couldn't get the hand to stick. I also tried cutting the foot and just campusing from the iron cross position but couldn't do it.

This is my initial thought on the beta. Even if that goes the moves after that look a bit awkward. Were you able to keep your left foot on one of the start holds when you were going for the hand foot match?

Yes, when I go for the heel hook I switch left and right food and then right foot goes to the heel hook matching right hand, at which point left foot isn’t really doing anything and just cuts I guess.

The good thing about the heel hook is, if I can somehow get it to stick I can probably do the next move to the volume without having to fight to get the right foot up first

I did hit this move and control the swing a single time but couldn’t replicate it when I tried the move from the start. I was also only hitting the move to the volume 1/3 the time

10/6 climb 2:30

Sent a new V4 project on the first attempt of the day and worked new routesV3-6 basically just trying everything. Don’t think I got a send over V3 apart from the project, but today was a high gravity day and my skin was ****ed up plus some forearm soreness

Heard a bunch of setters and employees for the gym talking **** about how bad the setters are at rock spot. Apparently the reason I destroy my hands every time I climb there isn’t necessarily because my skin is soft or that’s what rock climbing is like. It’s because they don’t know what they’re doing and the grading is preposterous... hmm

Climb 2:15 Warwick

Flashed a hard new 3 and fell on final move of a crimpy 4 I tried too early in the session and climbed too slowly, resulting in a wicked pump 45 mins in I never fully recovered from. Almost every fall after this was due to pumpout.

Guess I climbed 2 days ago, not a surprising result.

Still sent 3 new V3 total and came close on 2 others and 2 V4 despite doingmax 4 burns on any problem. Calling this a good session. This gym grades hard.

Decided today to make this my home gym. It’s 20 minutes further than Framingham but the diversity and quality of climbing is a step up. Framingham has only one cave/heavily overhanging overhanging climb below V4, and otherwise the routes are just too weird to spend too much time on. I don’t think projecting a lot of these routes will make me physically stronger, and there isn’t enough volume to do repeaters at V2-4 plus V2 is too easy and V4 is at least half super weird specific climbs. Many of the boulders also go too high for the level of matting and have unnecessarily scary moves near the top, + there are lots of volumes and compression moves, making many falls scary. I have a few projects to finish off at this gym, otherwise I’m gonna focus on Warwick. Just have to find a way to not get so pumped. Gonna start with spending more time visualizing routes and trying to climb them way faster

10/10

climb 2:00

Sent a new V3 and mostly climbed V2's. Fell on a couple other harder routes near the end.

Will take 4-5 days off to fully recover the bicep and give my ab some rest. Will have to get in some other exercise, its about time to go back to the PT gym

10/13

Climb 2:15

Onsighted two new overhanging V3’s with some funky beta including having to do a campus move on one, and then sent two heavily overhanging V3 cave climbs. These heavily overhanging routes are new to me so pretty happy I am sending them without too much work. Mostly flailed on some V5’s apart from this.

Started this session as the first session I haven’t needed to tape my hands for several months and ended with 4 fingers taped due to tears lol

Next session Tuesday should take out the rest of the V3 in the gym and a couple V2 cave climbs I haven’t bothered with yet. Perhaps will start sending some new V4/5 too

Nice work on those cave climbs! Time spent on newish movements will certainly pay off long term.

Thanks. They were a lot of fun. I’ve never worked climbs above V2 on a 45 degree overhang (done a little on a roof) so this was an experience. Efficiency seems so important, otherwise I just run out of grip strength and fall. As long as my ab strain doesn’t flare up I will definitely keep working these, though the way this gym grades the V4 climb on the same wall might be too much for me without projecting.

Some really nice V3-5 climbs that start in a cave and finish on a slightly slabby wall too.

10/25

PT 1 hour (will list exercises next session)

Back to weekly PT. Perhaps I will up it to twice a week in the intermediate future

Let calories drift to 2200 average this past week. Will have to correct this week and get them back under 2k. I don’t think the past week was the problem, it’s the bad stretch I had 8-10 days ago that’s still having an impact plus the fact that my bad day the past week was as recent as last Friday. Still, I can do a lot better.

Climbing tomorrow. Not gonna be at a new low point for BW like I’d hoped but should still be fresh enough to put in a decent session

Shoulders are still holding me back a little. Right arm overhead ROM was unexpectedly great today, left arm not so much

Still PT said I shouldn’t let shaky arms/shoulders limit me and should get back to pull-ups and possibly start hang boarding if my fingers will permit it

10/16 climb 1 hour

Session started off great and it looked like I’d send a 4 and a 5, then got a deep tear in the same place as 2 weeks ago at rock spot and it bled for 20 minutes despite me applying pressure with a towel. Taped it after this and tried two V3 on the slight overhang and experienced total power out, grip just completely gone without even getting pumped. Guess I went from climbing every 4-5 days to 6x the last 2 weeks plus did PT yesterday. So not surprising. If tears are manageable will try again on Thursday, then Sunday. If not will hold off till Sat.

Gonna have to avoid PT the day before a climb, TRX rows killed my pulling power in the cave

Position I got stuck in on a 4/5 route:

https://imgur.com/a/3DM5lzp

Think I could have just committed to standing on right foot and then left hand to sloper up top but right hand ran out of juice on the bad crimp and couldn’t pull on it

Also got stuck on a slightly harder 4/5/6 route in this position. Think next move was right hand bump, crimp right hand was on was terrible though

https://imgur.com/a/jBxnyIZ

10/20 climb 2:30

Went to Framingham and had an ok session. Onsighted a terrifying new overhanging V4 and two V3. Sent the rest of the V3 in the gym. Got far into a cave V4 but messed up beta. Almost sent a V4/5 crimp climb but fell on final move. Made it partway into a semi soft sloper V6. Called it quits when my skin prevented me from climbing a V2 in the cave.

Had some mini shoulder pain before and after this session and a little lower back pain on a move I shouldn’t have done

I basically hate this gym and if I come back it will only be to work 2 climbs in the cave and a couple crimp climbs. Many of the other V4-6 are just super weird with weird hard single moves and all but one V3 feel easy. Also so many shouldery moves in this gym and the boulders go dangerously high on several walls

Hope I can climb again in 2-3 days and send more hard V3 and maybe some 4/5 in Newton or Warwick

Taking some minor steps to accelerate diet

Are you part of a group of gyms or just paying day passes at all these different places?

They’re all “Central Rock Gym”, a big chain in the Northeast

Briefly had a membership to both CRG and Rock spot but that’s over

10/21

Ab strain is pretty sore today as is upper back and rear delts, but forearms and fingers and front delts are all surprisingly ok.

Would love to do some super easy top rope today and maybe 3 sets on the hangboard like I did last week. Not sure if I should rest the ab strain though. Could always head into gym and just use the training area to do PT and hangboard

Pretty clear I gotta cut back to 2x/week max again, preferably once every 4-5 days. Ab strain has not improved at all for 2+ weeks.

This is a good time to hangboard and hit the PT hard and make progress with my pulling strength and general fitness

Excited about some dietary changes I’ve made. Calories have been fine but I’m getting healthier from here on out. Been neglecting fruits way too much

Ever thought about grip training besides hangboarding? Ive been debating it as perhaps the strongest pound for pound guy in the world climbs at my gym and it’s crazy impressive how easy he makes it look. Turns out he dominates grip sport stuff and is like 100lb lighter than everyone else.

Stuff like the rolling thunder, farmers walks, etc... would be curious if it carries over to climbing at all. Might be easier on the ab strain as well.

Yeah I’ve considered it, especially pinch training which I don’t get enough of climbing.

I’ve tried farmers walks and have mostly avoided them because I feel pretty strong on them plus I figure the extra forearm soreness will detract from my climbing. The other thing is I was concerned these were more related to crushing grip than climbing specific grip but could be totally wrong

Since I’m in a lower volume period with climbing though, could be a good idea to put some time into that kind of training

Who is this strongest P4P guy? Pretty amazing how strong grip can get irrespective of size

I personally don't train pinches. I have encountered very few pinches outside on sandstone and granite. I think they are more of a limestone feature and of course show up a lot in gyms. I'd put some effort into it if I climbed on them regularly though.

RE: farmers walks. I actually had this conversation with some people on Saturday night. The consensus was the crushing grip doesn't translate well to climbing grips and folks are better off spending time on the hang board or limit bouldering. I'd imagine there would be some transfer though since both grips strengthen the finger flexors.

Can you do really easy climbing with the ab strain? Like 3 out of 10 intensity? Just logging some easy mileage may allow you to sneak in some more practice while the injury heals. I feel like even at low intensities I can still get some quality practice in. Plus it's great for building aerobic fitness in your forearms.