Action stations.

Right. Finally I'm over that stupid pointless cold, down to the bare minimum of coughing and have had 3 uninterrupted night's sleep in a row, which is a bloody relief. I feel a lot perkier (unusual for a grouch like me anyway).

Also, I've done a little bit of climbing and althought it makes my shoulder feel tender, I've been to see Ozzy again and he's confident in my progress - his strength tests show improvements so he reckons the tenderness is just post-exercise soreness. I've got to keep carefull with it but at least I can do stuff.

So, I can climb again (carefully), swim again (carefully), and run again. Thank fuck for that. Hurrah.

Oh, I went out to Stanage yesterday, did a few warm-ups and flash an easy arete. That was fun, hurrah for that too.

That's all, for now...

Sillver lining?

I've got a good dose of the plague that's been floating around. Just a common cold backed with a common cough, but a pain in the arse having it. I don't like being ill - the throat pain and mucus and shit don't bother me that much, the disorientating and debilitating feeling in my head does. I get one or two each year which is okay but still fucking boring at the time.

BOOORRRRED.

But anyway, this does have one minor silver lining, it's keeping me resting. Yup I haven't even been well enough to go out climbing *shock*. So this encouraged me to give my shoulder a full two weeks rest, followed by some gentle pottering recently. It still feels weak and tweeky but generally a lot better. Theraband exercises have helped, very careful management will help from now on.

One disappointment is not being well enough to run either. Hmmm! Yes I've actually missed it. Would have been a good exercise / recuperative distraction, but my lungs have been struggling with day-to-day breathing let alone the puny unfit ambulatory flapping that passes for me jogging. Oh well, soon...

Injury status 15/01/09

Back to see Ozzy today.

In the intervening week I've not climbed at all, been for one good run and a few walks. I've stretched after every shower, done theraband exercises since the weekend, a bit of icing my shoulder, and regular press-ups. Despite some bad, achey nights' sleep, my shoulder has generally felt a lot better, in fact today there is almost no pain and if I hadn't tweaked it I wouldn't know anything is wrong.

Ozzy found more aches and pains in my back, and agreed the ridiculous palm mantel press thing could have been part of the cause for that. His strength tests were better, and better after back manipulating (not as brutal this time). He's pretty positive about it, and that I can do most of the work with recuperative exercises, massage etc. He said gentle climbing would be good at this point. So, errr, I'll do a bit of that then.

Have a bloody cold at the mo. Not too bad but it puts me off running etc. Will have to wait for that to pass, and sulk in the meantime :yay:

Injury status 11/01/09

An annoyingly familiar blog theme / title.

So, shoulder tendon impingment again.

Firstly I went to see Ozzy on Thu. Possibly the most brutal session he's given me, I was out of breath afterwards. It turns out the impingment is this time heavily related to the muscles and tautness beneath my shoulder blade (last time it was further up). After 10 minutes of torture down there it was noticably stronger in his tests. He seems fairly positive about the whole thing, and about my familiarity with dealing with injures (LOL, I don't really want to be that familiar!). I felt a bit more positive to feel how much of an effect loosening my back could have.

Secondly, and since then, I worked out how I did it this time. The evening it came on, I'd been to Cratcliffe in the day. I'd done a little warming up at the warm sheltered side, then spent a while on that slab in the faint but Arctic breeze. Straight after that I'd spent the rest of the evening sitting in the car/pub/in front of computer, scarcely moving. A recipe for stiffening up, at least. BUT I'd forgotten that as part of the so-called "warm-up", Captain Loggstable and I had been doing this slab eliminate with a ridiculous left arm palm-down press on a slopey smear, eventually pretty much taking all one's weight on the locked left arm. Not the sort of motion that specifically causes a problem, but one that would be putting a lot of general strain on the shoulder joint. Didn't feel anything at the time, but take that, add a garnish of deep freeze immediately after, and serve sitting on my arse for 6 hours and it's hardly surprising something went wrong somewhere.

So I'm learning the value of warming down, active rest, and staying loose. Hmph.

At the moment it is a bit sore when I move it in certain orientations, and feels fairly weak overall. I haven't been climbing although I've been for a few strolls. A couple of poor night's sleep has made my back tight, and I'm working on that with some stretching. And today, I managed a 36 minute run with some gentle but distinct hills in. Which I'm pleased with. Onwards with recovery...

Up and bloody down.

The nonsensical roller coaster continues...

Today has mostly been characterised by:

1. B0rked car. This has needed a new wheel bearing, £quite-a-lot, and removal of the damaged prop-shaft, which means it's now running as 2WD not 4WD, but is preferable to replacing it at £quite-a-bloody-huge-amount.

2. B0rked shoulder. The tendon impingement injury I had in 2007, which had completely cleared up, has now randomly re-appeared. Last night I noticed it was painful, and it's even more so today. There's no reason whatsoever for this, unlike last time I haven't been overtraining, I've been doing some balancing exercises (press-ups, running, stretching), and there's no indication anything should be wrong. Yet it is, distinctly wrong and painful.

Physio tomorrow and who knows WTF after that :(

Edit: This is really fucking not good at all :(. Even after taking Ibuprofen and massaging Voltarol into it, it's still significantly painful even doing everyday stuff about the house. I think it could a pretty fucking serious problem :(

Happy New Year!!

This arbitrary date will do as well as any other arbitrary date. This felt like a nice day out, and a bit of a buzz in the air. Plenty of snow, plenty of sun, plenty of coldness in the slight breeze. -2°C mid-afternoon, so cold snow could be brushed off problems to reveal dry chalky holds underneath...


This went down in just a few goes, and very suitable it was too. Elbow-friendly, footwork-testing, and suitably challenging for a "best conditions evar" day. So that's nice, not anything particularly meaningful or significant to start a new year, except being a positive experience, and, well, positivity being a very meaningful start to anything...

Entertainment interlude.

Funniest thing(s) of 2008:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zUDTq7cAqR0

2:14 - 2:34 being possibly the best thing on youtube evar etc etc.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=TQdIiEUFtqk

Some great MCing on this.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=ohmhZVjaqQo

0:35 is absolute class but the whole lot is too.

Most people will have seen these but on the off chance anyone hasn't, I just had to post them. I must have watched them....well into double figures now. God bless the interweb.

Rewind, reload, restart.

Okay how about a more appropriate New Year post?? I've now got over the post blue-holiday-blues, caught up on some sleep, hung out with some mates, and done some nice bouldering on grit. So feeling a bit closer to whatever freakish mental state passes for normal.

I think, maybe, I will start New Year now, not quite on the day but it feels better. Of course, considering NY itself as a significant temporal entity is open to argument (hello M.Pie ;)), particularly in the context of assigning arbitrary emotional significance to that one date. Of course, our calender is bullshit as is the choice of a New Year's date, but the years at least are completely real. Ideally NY would be celebrated on a solistice or equinox but I'm not maverick enough (hello P.King ;)) to buck the trend, ergo this time of year will do.

What exactly I will do with this time of year, I'm not sure. I need it to be the start of something, positive, pro-active, progressive. I feel I have much to do, much to learn, and much to implement. Some of that in climbing as well as life. As far at the former, I'll post some aims soon...

Defeat.

This morning I drove back from Font after our 4 day New Year trip there.

30+ hours driving
£180 in fuel
1 ½ days climbing
2 days walking around in drizzle and clag
5 peeling finger-tips
4 hours of bad sleep this morning

Was it worth it?

No.

It was the most promising start to a Font trip ever - driving down from Dunkirk to Paris it was -5°C all the way (apart from when it was -6), even when the sun came up, and Monday was a perfect winter sun day. There had been a last-minute forecast of "30% chance of snow showers" on Tue/Wed, which in theory shouldn't have been a problem given the icy temps and bone dry rock. But the reality defied all theory and indeed all common sense. Despite Monday night being at least -2°C if not colder, it somehow rained overnight, which promptly froze, completely fucking up the next few days. Thus Tue and Wed were spent reccing a damp forest - useful for future visits but little consolation really. We managed to find enough dry rock for a few hours bouldering before the ferry on Thu, but it was too little too late.

The company was good, the gite was good, and the food was pretty good. The one ambition I achieved was not bouldering but eating: I finally cooked myself some horse - with Sloper's recommendation on the cooking method - and it was surprisingly mild and melt-in-the-mouth tender. Hurrah. But having an exciting, celebratory, New Year's bouldering trip in the Forest dissolve away into grey, damp, retreat was pretty shit. I'd like to be more philosophical about this but a combination of frustration, cheesemares, long late night drives and general knackeredness has left me feeling pretty bleak today.

When this passes, I'll be able to take in the New Year more, and have some positive, productive thoughts on it.