Ticking over but not ticking.

Another week of doing a lot yet doing little. With some inspiration to get bigger and stronger, I have been training a fair bit and pottering on sport climbs a fair bit. The latter being good training in itself, both physically and more importantly psychologically, the main benefit being doing sketchy moves on lead. I haven't actually climbed anything BUT I am feeling a bit leaner and meaner, okay the latter might just be my latent misanthropy (probably reactivated by my continual bewilderment and incomprehension of the Scottish climbing scene). This is a good thing and may feed back into short term results and long term Easy Trad desires too.

One notable aspect of climbing has been GOING TO THE GYM. In particular to do CV exercise - something I've always rightly disdained, the ludicrosity of paying to trot along on a running (or cycling) machine inside when there is, well, the entirety of Planet Earth's landmass to run (or cycle) on outside, for free. However now I am....minorly disabled....there are some important benefits, for someone in my situation at least...

The other week I went to see a top vascular surgeon in London. No news is not really good news and he confirmed what the other specialists have said - leg veins are now blocked too, any blood return will have to be done via minor surrounding veins, these will develop over time but (in my estimation) this could be a very slow process - decades rather than years. BUT one useful issue was discussed, as regards to how crippled I am fitness-wise for walking uphill and running. The surgeon highlighted the importance of leg orientation for improving or inhibiting blood return, in particular the difference between vertical exercises and prone exercises (fnaaarrrr).

This apparently was a beneficial aspect of swimming that I hadn't considered, and could be applicable to other exercises. Thus I have been trying rowing and recumbent cycling at the gym. And, hurrah!! Both of these exercises I can do a lot better than running and walking uphill. At first I thought this might be because they were too easy....but then I realised I was dripping with sweat in an air conditioned room. So I must have been doing something right. Combining this sort of exercise with a bit of weights and some prior fingery climbing training seems to give a nice rounded feeling and avoids errr having too much of a nice rounded feeling ;)