British Team Training

Friday I travelled down to Sheffield, England for the first British Team event of the year.

Saturday we were at the Climbing Works, a bouldering venue in Sheffield. The bouldering wall was massive and awesome with loads of circuits and boulder problems. The first thing we had to do was complete 40 problem circuit, then we could get lunch followed by doing an easy circuit as fast as we could then a fitness assessment. In the assessment we had to do several different exercises:

• Tap downs, for two minutes
• Sit-ups, as many as we could complete in one minute.
• Lock-offs, For 15 seconds on each arm.
• Pulups, 20 continuous.
  Type writers, 15
• Dead hang on the campus board, for one minute.
• Dead hang on 45 sloapers, for one minute.

Day Two

Sunday we went to the Foundry climbing centre which is also in Sheffield. Sunday morning started with a 30 minute jog around the Foundry climbing wall. The run killed me as I don't have much aerobic endurance which I need to work on. After the jog we were straight into training. Ian Dunn and Tom Randle set two training sessions which each lasted an hour.

The first training session I done was anaerobic capacity, which is when you find a 13-16 move boulder problem 80% of your maximum and do it 10 times with 3 minutes rest in between each attempt, you should not manage to complete all 10 reps, you should be failing around the 8Th rep if the grade is right.

The second training session I done was a core session. We were giving 8 different core exercises to do each lasting 1 minute, we had to complete all 8 of the exercises three times. This core session lasted 30 minutes.

For the last 30 minute of the session we were giving 8 climbing pacific movements we had to complete on a overhanging board.

After a morning of climbing we headed over to Sheffield university to get a lecture on sports nutrition from Audrey Morrison and some stretching exercises with Ian Dunn.

This weekend I have learnt a lot of different and new training methods which i can now use. My next event is next month in Leeds which is a semi competition and it decided who will be competing in the European competitions this year.

Awesome training day!

After a few months of training at my local wall and my 45 board, I have been feeling that my training has not really been improving my performance, but when I was at Ratho today I was proven wrong. I was at Ratho with the HYCC and I was doing on site climbing, I attempted 4 routes at my limit:

• 8A - Managed to climb past the 7c+ lower off and fell at the last section.
• 7c - Flashed
• 8A+ - Fail! It was on the long lead wall, and at the moves were really technical. The route was not my style.

After feeling so strong when I was climbing today I am now proper phyched for training. Woow bring on the comps!

EICA Ratho

Today I travelled down to Edinburgh to climb at the fantastic EICA Ratho. As its still winter Ratho was soo much colder than my local heated wall, and I found it harder to get warmed up and stay warm. The main overhanging wall at Ratho has been re-set and there is some fantastic new routes up.

My trip to Ratho today has showing me that I really do need to train on my stamina, soo all that 4x4s I hate doing, I must keep it up!

Home Boulder Wall

The boulder wall in my garage has been changed several times, from three flat panels, to one flat panel, 20 degrees over hanging wall, 45 board and a small 90 degrees panel on the roof. Its awesome to train on. Last summer I spent more time in my garage than I did at my local wall, I could put my music up loud and set as hard as I wanted to.

Today I spent the afternoon resetting circuits, so I can get back to hard training. When I am training on my 45 board I usually train for up to two hours, usually doing hard circuits!

Right now I am training for the British team assessment which is in March, it might decide who goes to the European competitions this year, its hard for me this year because I have all of my Major exams, but I will still try my hardest to keep up my training. Where I live there is only one climbing wall and the next is 150 miles away down in Edinburgh, and in my local wall the hardest route is 7c. It really sucks but I just have to train more on my 45 board and travel down to Edinburgh more often.

Coire An T-Sneachda, Cairngorm

Yesterday I went to Corie An T-Sneachda Cairngorm, for my first multi pitch winter route. I was taken up the start of Hastons line then finished up Hidden Chimney. This being my first multi pitch winter route I was excited and when I was climbing adrenaline was running through my body. The weather was stunning there was blue Sky's and was not too windy but occasionally I got spin drifts blowing in my face, the ice and snow was nice and compacted and the route was in great condition. The climb was easy but some parts it got quite technical, but I really did enjoy myself I am so phyched to get out more and do more easy climbs to get my self used to winter climbing.

Me half way up Hidden Chimney

At the top!

New Year!

Now its the new year and I got back on the British Junior Climbing Team, I need to start seriously training again. Hopefully I will get picked to climb at some of the European Youth Comps again this year. If I do get picked my first event would be in Edinburgh on the 21/22 May, and the IFSC Youth World Cup in IMST Austria is from the 25th-28th of September.


Apart from all my competition climbing I hope I will manage to get out Ice Climbing before the session is over, and throughout the year I want to do lots more outdoor climbing and maybe a sports climbing trip abroad!

British Team Trials

At the start of December was the British team trials in Liverpool. So that involved me travelling 9 hours down to Liverpool. I was feeling fit for this comp because i was pretty phyched and had done weeks of training. Also this comp would help decide for the 2011 British Junior Team.

I had two qualifying routes to climb and then a final all to do in one day, all grade about 7c+. I have moved up a age group and now in youth A so the competition is harder. The team trials are also a open youth competition, so on the day i need to have my competition head on.

My first qualifying climb was a sustained pumpy route, over the overhanging section. I was pleased with my self, when i came off I felt I had climbed well. My second climb was on a vertical wall, which made the route pretty easy (7A ish) I topped out in that climb.

I had managed to climb well enough to get put into the final. The isolation zone was the boulder wall under the main climbing area, it was pretty big but was very over crowded and hard to warm up in. I was in isolation for like 3 hours before I got called out to climb.

My final route was a steep route up the corner of the main wall, it was very twisty and awkward to climb. I finished in 5Th place.

On the following Monday we were all told if we had made it onto the British team or not. I made it onto the team.