Injury time.

Well I’m definitely injured. The tweak in my elbow is a tear in the bicep tendon where it joins the elbow bone, caused by tweaking it on one particular move down the wall a month or so ago, and accentuated by not resting it enough in the weeks following. I’ve been to see Ozzy at The Clinic, Sheffield’s foremost sanctioned torturer aka physio, who gave that diagnosis but was confident - particularly since it seems to be an acute rather than chronic injury - that it would heal soon. In the meantime I’m restricted in what climbing I can do, and have to be particularly careful not to aggravate it (as I did on a gentle circuit down the wall the other night).

So I’m writing about being injured. Should I turn this into a blog of shoe-gazing woe, the blog equivalent of whining, soul-dampening indie music?? Droning and mumbling on about the mundanities of one’s life and luck and lack of climbing, without any concern for how bland it all is??

Perhaps not eh. It DOES dampen my spirit, but that’s for me to deal with! It is what it is (pushing oneself physically whilst climbing being so intensive) and I just have to work with it. No real way around it, and I can still potter around, especially on trad. In fact, recently I managed some wonderful routes like The Phantom at Gradbach Hill and Flashdance & Blinding Flash down in Torquay, so I won’t complain. Though, I miss the social scene down the wall, funnily enough!

What is of some interest to me is that I seem to be getting more injured these days. Two tweaks in two years, as opposed to one A2 pulley injury in the previous 4 years - it feels quite odd to be “injured again”. A function of getting old? Or of just pushing myself harder? Or maybe or just climbing a lot while doing less “balancing” physical activities? Or probably all three. A lesson to be learnt: I should be taking this increase in susceptability on board, and being more aware of it. Prevention better than cure and all that.

Another plus side, all my previous injuries, I’ve recovered from and got back to feeling as strong and fit as ever. This one too, I hope.