Post 10. 10/11/2005 Back in rainy England after 5 rainy days in France. Surfed twice a day for 5 days and totally exhausted at the end. Not used to this kind of exercise. Felt like I had had a hard weight training session. Sore chest, triceps and elbows but had a good time for it. Rested Saturday and Sunday and felt back to normal come Monday. Monday was gorgeous, probably best conditions all year. Straight back out on my project and made good progress. Did all the moves now just need to link them altogether. No more training until I have done it. Just got to wait for the good conditions.

Post 09. 29/10/2005 Had a crap session down the wall. Trained late which was a mistake and ended up being rushed. Not good. Medium day. Not going to be any more enteries for a week because I am off for a Surfing holiday! Diary will resume next weekend. Post 08. 27/10/2005 Rest day yesterday and definately felt a bit tired/sore from yesterday's training seesion. The one arm training is very intense and not recommended unless you are fit and healthy and accustomed to training reguarly. Even then break yourself in gently which could also be said to any new training routine or exercise. There are no prizes for getting injured and patience as I keep saying is a virtue. Weather was crap yesterday and this autumn is quickly turning into the worst in living memory. They are already saying it's been the warmest since records began and if it keeps going like this it will quite likely be the wettest. Today was nice, if you wanted to go for a walk, but hardly good condtions for hard bouldering and we are almost into November. I tried my project again and worked out a little more stuff so I can't be too miserable. Fingers sore probably train indoors tomorrow.

Post 07. 25/10/2005 Weather still terrible. Quite depressing. Hope we don't have a winter of this. Trained back at the School for about 1 3/4 hours. Felt quite heavy at the start of the warm up which could be a result of the cement mixing or just not having done anything for 4 days. However started to feel pretty good after about 15 mins and filmed a couple of the problems on the Moon board (problem 15 7b and problem 10 8a). Then did Campus lock offs for about 20mins. I did 8 on each arm with about 1 mins rest in between right and left arm (this equals 1 set) and about 2 mins rest between sets. I am working towards feeling really strong on 1-5-8 before moving on which is starting to happen. As I get stronger on this I will reduce down the amount of rest between reps and sets. When I am feeling really strong and confident even with short rests then I will move on to say 1-5-8.5. Remember, if you are doing something you did before with shorter rests then you have upped the intensity and are getting stronger. Playing around with rest periods is good but don't get hung up on time. Take what you need but not more. Putting yourself under a little pressure whilst training can also be a good thing but maybe only when you are starting to feel good. You will be under pressure at the crag so you might as well get used to it. Set yourself some goals each session maybe starting with something you feel you can achieve fairly confidently and then up the ante each session. Don't get down on your self if you fail just try again next time. Finshed with 4 sets of one arm pull ups 2, 3, 3, 3, on each arm with ab work in between sets.

Post 06. 24/10/2005 Weather still really really bad. Bad for climbing and bad for mixing cement in the garden which is what I ended up doing. Very glamourous. Definately training tomorrow (25th).

Post 05. 22/10/2005 Restday yesterday in the hope that weather would be good today but no luck. Restday again today. Not good.

Post 04. 20/10/2005 Rest day yesterday although I am not sure that swinging a lump hammer to remove a chimney breast is strickly a rest day! I was going to train indoors with Jerry because the weather looked crap but by 12 it had cleared up nicely. As it turned out it was probably the best day we've had for months. Very autumnal. Warmed up on the grit for about an hour then tried my project for about half an hour maybe a little longer. It's sharp so you can't have many tries and I didn't want to wreck my skin because I will only need more time off which is obviously not good. Now things get a little tricky. I don't like doing nothing but now I have something outside that I really want to do it's a risk to go training if the weather is shit because you could wake up the following morning to a perfect climbing day. Normally I would train tomorrow but I am going to rest in case it's good on Saturday. I ended up resting quite a bit last winter because I really wanted to do The Ace which was a bit shit but paid off in the end because I did it. Medium day.

Post 03. 18/10/2005 I would have liked to climb outside again today but skin was sore and torn. Trained at the Foundry for 1 1/2 hours. Nothing fancy just working through the problems down there. Definately feeling stronger with each session but it's been a while coming. You really need to be patient with your training and climbing and don't expect too much too soon. Stick with it and you will get your rewards. Yes I am starting to get the problems at the foundry wired but I can also feel that I am starting to get my higher level back. It's important to have goals in your training (check out Rich Simpsons article on goal setting for more info.) They give you something to focus on and keep you motivated and motivation is what it's all about. Don't be too ambitious in your goal setting, give yourself a chance and get on a roll. One of my short term goals will be to knock off all the foundry problems in a session. Medium day

Post 02. 17/10/2005 Drove over to Wimberry to meet a few of the Welshies and had an enjoyable 2 hours bouldering. Nothing too strenuous. Did a couple of 7c's that I hadn't done before and failed on a really cool 7b+ slab that I did 3rd try last time I visited! God that annoys me. Don't know why I couldn't do it which was very frustrating. Medium day.

Post 01. 15/10/2005 Since we get so many emails asking about training etc thought I might try keeping a diary for the next few weeks. No idea where this is going to lead! Finally starting to feel like I am getting somewhere. After having done bugger all over the summer months and losing all the strength I had after a hard winter and spring of climbing I have spent the past month or so trying to get back to that level for the coming winter. It's been a struggle that's for sure which is why I always tell people that no matter how unmotivated you feel try and always do something. I need to practise what I preach! Anyway, the other day I tried this project I have had my eye on for a while. It's classic and now I know for sure it will go. Since then I have felt much more motivated and this combined with the fact that the past few weeks training are finally starting to have some effect make me more motivated. Just had a good 2 hours at The School. Warmed up (felt good) did a few medium grade probs around the 7c+/8a grade (felt even better) then did a good half hour on the campus board. I was just working on basic ladders and although I certainly wasn't at my best I did feel pretty good. Finished of doing sets of 1 arm pull up with assistance and sets of leg raises in the rest period. A friends having a party tonight so rest tomorrow although I would normally rest or go on the grit after a session like this anyway. Hard day!