Keeping my hand in #1

In accordance with my general plan of keeping training while circumstances and weather are preventing proper trips, I had a flying visit to Aberdeen over the weekend. After a couple of weeks of fairly regular indoor wall, and less  regular gym training, I wanted to keep my hand in on the trad, and of course just do some fun climbing ;). No big plans, just a weekend of steady mileage on surprisingly dry rock in surprisingly good weather. Hidden Inlet, Promontory Wall, Dykes Cliff - all the classic Aberdeen hallmarks of short, steep, pokey routes with fiddly gear and either obscure moves or shocking pump for their size, or sometimes both. An acquired taste which I still find curiously irresistable, and intricate enough to keep a good trad focus.

I actually got quite syked in the end, and I'm assuming that if the weather reverts to Met Office's ominously predicted "normal conditions" i.e. being fucking shit in North West Scotland, then the East coast will get some respite and I might be back there more often. Which although it's a consolation prize is no bad thing as I have quite a few inspirations along that coast.

My elbow has been fairly sore recently. 2 weeks ago it was fine when I was doing 3 gentle sessions at TCA. Last week I went to Ratho and it was sore (not sure why?) and again doing row weights on Wed (a bit of a mistake) and again on a slightly stiffer circuit at TCA on Thu (overuse by then). The weekend it felt tweaky with the odd nagging pain, but I was careful with warming up and massage, and I think the Easy Trad(tm) was fine as the last two days have been better. I think I got a bit carried away with the TCA training - again! I had to start off easy because I was such a fucking punter after not training for ages, and then climbing-wise I moved smoothly on to more challenging circuits, but I don't think my elbow was quite ready for that. I need to stick to more stamina stuff, if I can find anyone to go to the bloody lead wall with!