Bit of Bicep Bother

After two trips out with the axes I finally had an opportunity to head out rock climbing last weekend, the first time for 4 months. The plan was for a gentle day out with mates at Froggatt but after a few careful VS's for a warm up and on my 4th route of the day an attempt on Chequers Crack was literally cut short as I snapped my bicep tendon.That's at least another 3 months out. Operation tomorrow. Perhaps it's time to take up knitting or Golf (with full protective head gear)?

We can rebuild...

Apologies for the gap in blogging. There are a variety of reasons but the main thing is my left knee, which blew up in April and I've been able to do nothing climbing-wise since. After a 10 week wait I finally got it medically examined and the surgeon has booked me in for surgery within a week. It's looking like a tear in the meniscus cartilage something I had surgery on 11 years ago. The good news is that, that time I recovered within 6 weeks to travel out to Alaska on my first trip there and climb an amazing new route on Mount Hunter.

The challenge is obviously going to be the physio afterwards and this pic shows a little of what needs to be done. Even though Ive had perfectly reasonable movement you can see the amount of muscle wastage in my left thigh compared with my right (both are tensed in this pic). Just this morning I read a little sports history piece in the Times which illustrates how battling with injuries is such a large part of so many sports performers lives. It covered the 1992 Olympics of the British 400m runner Derek Redmond. Redmond had had to pull out of the previous Olympics just 90 seconds before the start of his heat due to an Achilles injury. In 1991 Redmond was part of the British team that beat the "unbeatable" Americans in the 4 x 400m relay in the World Championships. A real medal contender in 1992 Redmond was the fastest first round qualifier but in the semi final his hamstring pulled and he dropped to the floor in the back straight. His final 250m where he forced himself to finish with the help of his father is one of those famous moments of Olympic spirit (The film is here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MRoIDXeuY&feature=related ).

What I didn't know was leading up to the 1992 Olympics Redmond had had eight different operations on his various injuries. The mind boggles at the perseverance and dedication to keep getting up from those set-backs and explains why he was so distraught in 1992 when it all fell apart. In my case I'm obviously hoping for a happier ending!

Every A2 pulley has a silver lining

Since Yosemite I've been concentrating on family things and attempting to do a little sports climbing. I've always found sports routes particularly challenging and I guess in the past avoided the humiliation of constantly flailing on everyone elses warm ups. This year having had a fairly intense winter climbing up in Scotland I thought I'd try again as a low stress fun option for the summer. Unfortunately the fun went out the window last week when penultimate move last redpoint of the day on Witches Brew a fairly feisty 7a+ at Kilnsey there was a loud crack from my right hand. Initially I thought I'd broken the hold off immediately followed by the thought oh beep, thats beeped it for the beeping summer. I'm still waiting for a physio appointment but it's obvious Ive well and truely beeped the A2 pulley on my right ring finger. Whether its a bad tear or fully ruptured we'll see but I'll clearly not be climbing for a while.

After a few days of deep sulks, I've decided to try and turn round this "problem" into an opportunity. I used to run alot as a kid, competing for Swindon athletic club as an 11 to 15 year old and occasionally representing Wiltshire. I was never an outstanding athlete but I used to love running and I was left with a really good fitness base. In my early twenties I had a resting pulse of 32. Since then I've probably squandered a lot of that fitness with only very infrequent return dabbles at running. I started again recently to try to loose weight for the Sports climbing. Initially it was purgatory and I could only really manage 20 minute runs. I've had a couple of months now and have built up to hour long runs, so with climbing off the calendar for a few months I've decided to put some proper effort in and try and regain some proper running fitness. I'm even contemplating entering the odd event (it would be daft to call it a race as I'll only be racing myself).

Whilst trawling through the net looking for running advice I came across the following extraordinary link. http://www.bobbysrun.co.uk/ironman.html
It details I guy called Bobby Browns attempt on a Deca-ironman triathlon, yes thats 10 ironmans back to back! Strangely compellingly inspiring.

More Proof Positive

Even when I was still at Malham I knew I'd come a bit of a cropper. Cleaning the last two routes simultaneously! rushing to get home in time for Daddy duty I pulled a little too hard on exhausted muscles and tendons and felt something give in my shoulder. The following day my shoulder was throbbing away although luckily not completely seized up. I think its my bicep tendon but will know more in a couple of days. This didn't really come as too much of a surprise as seemingly every time I try hard (particularly training) when rock climbing something snaps. Obviously this could easily put a spanner in the positive thinking speil I psyched myself up with just days before.

Then today I watched the Grand Prix motor racing down in Melbourne and it reminded me why however bad things look you should never give up. For those who didn't see the race; Jenson Button, who after being flagged up as the new British hope of motor racing has spent the best part of his career languishing at the back of the grid having to keep his composure and his dodgy car on the track while being routinely mocked by punters as talentless. Then at the end of last year's season it looked like his team were about to give up F1 all together leaving him with no job. That a hastily salvaged team could actually make the start this season was amazing enough, but for Button to go on and win (and his team mate Barrichello to come second) was pure fairy tale stuff.
An equally impressive story filled third place where Lewis Hamilton last year's champion but this season driving a dog of a car made it from a starting position of 18th onto the podium.

I'm off to the Alps in 2 weeks so I feel a bit like Hamilton 18th on the starting line with a sea of cars between him and the podium. Time to turn on the positive afterburners.