Last week both climbing and the gym were severely neglected. I've been working pretty hard to get a report together that surmises all of my work over the past 9 months which I finished at about 10pm on Thursday, reviewing it on Friday my supervisor and I stumbled upon a few queries which when we dug further revealed a potential hiccup in the whole analytical approach I've used. That left me somewhat deflated, what am I to do, re analyse everything in the new manner now? its due for a meeting in Warwick on the 3rd and then on the 13th I have another major deadline that will require serious man hours. Hopefully it can all be resolved today at 15:00 however right now I really don't know what to do.
The weekend was once again forfeited to family engagements, this time visiting my Aunt and Uncle in Oxford. It was a bizarre weekend to say the least, seeing very little of the people we went to visit. We returned on Sunday and my highlight of the day (driving the new lease car: 230d M sport Coupe) was ruined by a huge traffic jam, 4.5 hours from Oxford to Sheffield!!!
Monday we spent sorting things out around the flat and then eventually staggering out to the climbing works. It was understandably quiet but that was nice. Warmed up then got involved with the comp wall, I dispatched the problems in order of hold size, buckets to jugs before moving on to a crimpy orange arete problem however I'm still not very confident at that wall and therefore dropped off instead of committing to a high heal and a snatch to a jug, 6c+ supposedly. Did a few more bits and bobs, flashed a couple of 7a+'s and then moved on to the red problem through the roof, mucked up the sit start and then got confused in the roof. After a few minutes of watching people with technique (women I might add) I was disgusted to see all the faggotry going on, however the foot sequence was good and that teamed with my newly strong (alright!) gym arms meant that I cruised out to the uber jug and then locked strong to the next crimp, the line then climbs the edge of a volume before making a committing finish. I don't like to scare Natalie so dropped off at the top of the ramp.
Next I got involved with what I guess is the hardest problem on the wall, the yellow up the steep section. First I tried the move to the boss and up, basically because it looks good. Did that a few times and went through the motions of getting my heel up but didn't have the pull for the next bit. Next I worked the start, from around the corner hit a slopey crimpy edge bad, sag and hit bad pinch, sag even further and match the edge before powering out for the long crimp and failing miserably. If you're strong get to this it's a rarity in that its a fairly basic hard problem in the works.
After all of the above my skin was screaming and so too were my creaky fingers (crimping always seems a bit harsh after a lay-off). I did a few of the black circuit set by Mawson, they're nice on nice holds, well most of them are, avoid the juggy ones and you'll be fine as revolution only seem to make sharp edged jugs.
Today, while i'm sitting trying to work out where to go next in my research dilemma my forearms are sore, a good sign I think. I've got a few questions in my head though, almost every time that i've had an injury and time off associated with that injury I pick up some kind of niggle early on that eventually ends up in more time off. I don't want that to happen this time. So, do I enjoy the summer, get out climbing as much as possible and not really worry that I'm struggling on things that in reality should be well within my ability? Or do I train and climb aiming for some kind of morale boosting trip in the late summer? Or do I admit that I'm mainly interested in climbing hard and train like a headless chicken? I really enjoyed Kilnsey the other week with Dob but I've got aspirations at the crag, doing laps on FV, Comedy and Pantomime may all be well and good by the end of the summer but I've done all of that before, Yorkshire Ripper, Grooved Arete, True North that's was I really want to be on.
I was also pondering the other day (this post must be long by now) the fact that I could do all of the routes I've done at Kilnsey when I was much younger, and therefore much weaker. My max redpoint grade hasn't increased in around 4 years, ok so i've consolidated which is something I rarely do but still it should be higher by now. Its disappointing now to realise that by breaking my leg at the time that I did I may have missed a golden opportunity to put all of that training into something worthwhile on limestone, something that I really do want to climb.
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