10/23

Climb 3:00

Badass session. Started warming up with some heinous boulders and put in single burns on 6-7 V3, only one of which was successful. Was a little pumped at this point and worried the session was over an hour in

Switched to top rope and the rest of the session was awesome. Sent a 5.9, a 5.10, and two 5.10+\11, all of them 20-25 feet and very cruxy. Nowhere to rest on a single route above 5.9. Got beaten by a few other 5.10/1- and then fell on a 5.9 and called it a session.

Loved this, pretty sure I’m switching to climbing primarily top rope until this ab strain heals. Several awesome projects here and the climbing feels so much more intuitive than the V4-5 boulders I’ve been working. There should be tons of good routes at the other gym too. This should be a good way to improve my efficiency/technique as well as endurance, and possibly even increase volume without overkilling intensity or hurting myself. Would like to flash an 11 next month, seems very doable

Super heavy today too, big cheat yesterday, probably 3500 kcal. Back to <2k now

Looking to put in another session this Friday

10/14

Climb 1:15

Had an awful day and hate myself now. **** me basically. Went for a short climb and mood improved a lot. Just climbed the rest of the 5.7 and 5.8 in the gym. There’s now 2 5.9 and 2 5.10 I have to send before I break into the 11’s which seem super hard

Will do PT tomorrow and climb again over the weekend

If I can string together another few optimal diet days in a row my weight should be back to its low earlier in the month and then I can get back to progress

Waist is down 1.5”. Another 1-1.5 and my best jeans will fit again

10/25

PT 1 hour

This was crushing. I went easy but tweaked my left trap in the last series of supersets. I know exactly why this happened and what I can do to prevent it next time. It’s unclear if I am ready for the landmine press. Should be fine to climb on Sat but I’ll be careful

Would like to progress the decline TRX rows to 3x12. I find these slightly harder than pull-ups if done with a full ROM and hands to chest lockoff

Pull-ups im just gonna do 3x6-8 until I feel ready to add a little weight and go for 3x4-6.

Felt a slight right trap or shoulder pain on 3rd set of pushups when I went a little wider. Won’t do that again

10/26

Trap didn’t improve overnight. Looks like climbing Sat is off. So disappointed this happened doing PT of all things

Culprits

1) went wide on a set of pull-ups and went too low and felt something weird in left upper back
2) felt slight trap pain doing low cable rows and stopped
3) felt pain again doing landmine press and finished set for some dumb reason

Basically everything was ok until the end of the workout. In general I think the workout was hard on my traps which could be better conditioned, but I suspect the pull-up and not the band row is what did this, and landmine exascerbated it significantly

Hope I can climb sun but definitely gotta rest this tweak

Happy I am back to doing pull-ups at least

10/27

Trap strain is unimproved. Clear I won’t be climbing this weekend

Super disappointed at this setback, especially happening as a result of PT. Especially since it’s partly my fault��Will be lucky to climb again on Monday

10/29

Climb 1:30

Trap pain was way down and rowing pull-ups and shrug motions didn’t cause pain so I went for it.

Sent my 5.10/11 project on the first attempt. Sent another 5.10 with one heinous move. Fell on the top of my 5.10/11 project twice: couldn’t match the crimp with awkward body position

Tried 4 5.11 and the furthest I got was halfway.

Couldn’t make one 5.10 work but was super inefficient and crimps we’re burning me out so i moved on after 3 tries

Was probably on wall about 20 times today. Basically practiced sprinting up routes, resting 5 minutes or less and repeating

This felt like a very low wear and tear session. No pain anywhere all session. Can’t climb Weds so looks like I’ll either be doing light aerobic roped climbing tomorrow or holding off until Thursday

Neck hurts when I turn my head left through a full range of motion. Not gonna do PT this week. I don’t think I should be pressing until this tweak finishes healing

Doing a little better emotionally than last Weds (and then the injury Thurs off) but still not 100%. I think how this coming Weds goes will be telling. Could be utterly devastating, very dissapointing, or just meh/whatever. Or it could be a good day. Who knows

Damn man what’s up?

Just having some relationship problems that have brought me down a bit. Should have some degree of resolution tomorrow it seems

Feeling pretty good today. Might go for the light climb after all. Will just attempt
to onsight as many 5.7 and 5.8 as I can, perhaps a few harder routes if there’s anything really interesting looking

10/30

Bouldering 1:15

Pull-ups 1x10

Last day with a membership to the bouldering gym. Basically a continuation of yday’s shorter climb. Climbed 3-4 V1 and 5-6 V2 in a row and then 4-5 V3. Tried two ungraded routes that looked V3 but turned out to be around V5. Made it to the final move of one route and was stuck and fell not very far into the other route. Tried it twice more from the point I fell and found the crux was a few moves later and really horrible. The first route I almost sent was one of my better climbs in a while, at least. Finished up failing to send the last V3 in the gym which I had previously flashed, and called it a day

Very short rests until i made it to V3. Probably won’t have a session like this again (or likely climb 2 days on) for a while, but we’ll see

Back to a membership at Rock Spot Boston as of Nov 1 to focus on roped climbing and possibly short boulders

10/31

Pull-ups 1x10
Pushups 1x10

Climbing Fri or Sat. Shoulders didn’t love bouldering on Tues

11/2

Top Rope 2:15 S Boston

Onsighted 3 new 5.10 and one V3 I tried between routes. Fell on 5 other 5.10 and one 5.11 without sending any of them, every time due to beta issues/inefficiencies. Put in 3-4 burns on all of these.

Pump was surprisingly low this session.

There are only two 5.11 on auto belay at this gym and no 5.12. Tons of 5.9 and 5.10 though. Between this gym and dedham there's a good selection of routes 5.9 to 5.10 and some 5.11 to challenge myself. A lot of the 5.11 in Dedham seem on the far end of the grade though and barely doable

Still gonna want to do some bouldering as I'm making a lot of progress at the V3 level recently, despite the ab strain. Particularly happy I've been sending 3's in the cave.

Don't think I'll stick with Rock Spot indefinitely, the bouldering is too crappy and eventually climbing tons of 5.10 is gonna get old

11/6

BW: 192.0 (-10)

After 2-2.5 weeks that were at best break even for diet I’m back to making progress. <190 incoming. Great last week and a half

Unfortunately last roped session made the trap worse for a few days. It no longer feels upper trap, instead I’m getting pain referrals to my left upper back/armpit when I do a chin tuck or turn my head left through a full ROM. In general the left arm feels a little sore when I reach hard with it. Goal today will be to not get stretched out on it and pull, which seems like the only thing that’s really problematic right now. I got way stretched out under a sloper last session several times when my beta was wrong and I think that got me

Would like to get back to PT tomorrow or Thurs but gotta be super careful. I think I can do all the exercises again but will probably avoid landmine and keep intensity low on pull-ups even though fromma strength perspective I’m ready to add weight

Overall the injury is making progress and isn’t prohibitive but I still have to be careful on it

Left ab is improving and barely hurts when I try to run but still needs time, maybe even another a month. I should probably still avoid cave climbs but might put in 1-2 burns today anyway

My insane former climbing partner/coach thinks he got a minor shoulder tear Sunday... so then he went to the gym anyway and climbed 17 V4 in 34 minutes lol. Insane

11/6

bouldering 1:45

short rests

Sent a new V4/5 short sloper problem on a corner in 5 attempts. Really nasty foot swap and some bad holds. Sent some new V2-3. Turned one V3 into a 4+ or 5 by skipping 4 holds on the route

Trap is still hurt. Tried to not get stretched out at all. Route climbing would not have been great for that purpose

Saw a problem I flashed a couple weeks ago was graded V5. Nice. Re-climbed it, felt like a V4 but one move was really hard so idk

Hang Board 3x10 second

not sure if it was cuz end of the session or hang board was slopey and greasy but I could barely hang onto the 20MM for this duration open handed and when I switched to half crimp my grip failed and slipped into open handed again. Fatigue perhaps. Not sure if I should do this once or twice a week at this point, didn't feel this in my fingers at all the next day

Heard a podcast where a group of lower strength climbers given a 1 month hang board protocol improved 36% in strength + gained endurance... crazy

Link to podcast?

https://trainingforclimbing.com/podc...training-tips/

I think it’s worth noting that though a portion of the group was lower strength they were still strong enough to dead hang from an 11MM crimp as an “endurance” test, so this may be applicable to intermediates. Protocol was 3x10 sec with 3 mins rest in between and near maximum added weight

I typically do max hangs after my warm-ups and before hard or limit bouldering. Last season I tried doing them after climbing outside and was too fatigued to give a good effort.

36% gains in a month seems nuts. I would assume people just got a lot better at the test over this sample. 10-15% gain in strength seem reasonable for intermediates. Advanced climbers I would imagine are more like 3-5%.

Edit: I mean't to say yearly gains of 10-15% or 3-5%

11/10

Pretty sick session. Sent 2 5.9 falling once on each and then flashed a 5.9 and a new 5.10. Sent my 5.11 project about 1:30 into session. Super happy with this, hardest sequence was around V4 and there were some really greasy feet. Counting this as my first legit 5.11 ever. I fell on the same move 5 times in a row before turning the right foot into a heel hook and sticking it.

Switched to the short bouldering wall briefly and flashed two V3 boulders and then flashed a corner V5 problem. Problem is a low start on two slopers on each side of corner that goes to a tiny crimp side pull on the right and a giant slopey pinch on the left, then turns into a pretty desperate feeling climb up the slopey arete on the right and a series of two giant pinches on the left, and finishes with a big move to a sloper. Felt like the 2nd hardest problem I’ve sent, but also like it played to my strengths in about every way.

Went back to routes and flashed a 5.9 and 5.10 and fell 4-5 times on a 5.11 lunging for a crimp.

Finished up climbing a few V2 and one V3 that all seemed way hard for the grade.

There are now one 5.10 and two 5.11 I haven’t sent in this gym. Unless they reset routes I’ll have sent all the hardest auto belay routes here likely by my next session and probably won’t bother come back here again.

Was worried about my injury but felt ok. We’ll see how I’m doing tomorrow though, there was definitely a little pain a couple times in this session and the injured area feels tighter. I also took a fall onto my back while bouldering and chin tucked pretty hard, a movement which was also creating the same referral pain.

That's progress! Nice work. Keep crushing!

Thanks! I’m trying. Hoping this injury resolves and I can really start pushing it

11/13

Climb 2:30

Bouldering

Flashed a V3 crimp climb. Flashed a V2 and then V3- cave climb. Did 2-3 moves on a V7 cave climb starting with a heel hook, but pinches were too hard after that. Sent a V4 slab crimp climb. Climbed another V4 slab climb minus 2nd move which I couldn’t do. Couldn’t do first move on another V3 slab climb somehow. Feet cut on a V3 cave climb and got 2 tears at once. Couldn’t figure out beta on a V3 crimp climb. Got most of the way through a hard black sloper V4+ but didn’t have it in me. Skipped the start and did campus moves on a V7 sloper problem that seems somehow possible. Crux move looks totally insane though. I am gonna try this one again starting with the campusing and see if I can get my foot up to even attempt the crux. Finished the session super strong flashing a longer V4 crimp climb.

Injury didn’t bother me except on a nasty pressing move

Big session in CT coming next Weds

11/15

Injury got slightly worse from last session and tears are pretty bad so no climb today

Hoping it will massively improve the next 1-2 days and I can get in a light climb before my big session next Weds

At this point might just take off till Weds representing 7 days of rest. Would almost certainly benefit the ab strain and this upper back thing. Would also hate to hurt the progress I’ve been making and not be able to go Weds

Nothing hurt during Tuesday’s climb except a mantle I shouldn’t have done on left arm.

Doctor appointment Tuesday

Does your shoulder bother you at all on the side where your trap hurts? When my shoulder was at it's worse I had pain in my trap and neck. Lately I seem to get stiffness in my trap anytime I overstress that shoulder.

There’s a little pain or soreness when I press on the front delt but that’s all I’ve noticed

One thing that the shoulder doesn’t seem to like is my arm getting extended way overhead and pulling from that position. Hard to assess where the shoulder is at right now but it could definitely be a piece of this. Really feels upper back now though

11/17

Rested until injury felt a lot better

Climbing 2:00

Sent a V6 slab problem in about an hour the 2nd half of the session! Probably my hardest Boulder ever. Fell on the final move 4x before hitting it

Before this had the nice experience of sending all the problems I worked on including a few new V3

Left with a good amount in tank. If injury isn’t even slightly worse tomorrow I could do a low intensity top rope session. Otherwise I’m just resting till the big session on Weds.

Pretty epic last few sessions for me. I didn’t have any expectation of sending a 6 in the Warwick gym this year. Glad I tried

https://youtu.be/e31-1owOtfA