First Injury crisis
It’s not how you deal with the ups it’s how you deal with the downs.
So I’ve done something to my arm. Something random and the day before my week’s holiday to a big cave. And without an obvious cause. I wasn’t bouldering hard or doing anything odd. I had done a bunch of warm ups, a load of core, some light fingerboarding and was doing a few easy and familiar circuits circuits on my board. I hadn’t had time to do the ‘Split Conti’ session Tom had planned for me but I thought that a light session at the end of a boring week-end of shopping and working followed by a rest day as we travelled south in the motorhome would be perfect.
Yet an hour later I was very sore, with a ring finger which felt odd and a line of pain from my elbow which ran up my arm? A muscle pull, or tendon, something light, or something very bad? It was an injury I hadn’t had before (and I’ve had plenty) soI took some brufen, iced it and went to bed…
Next morning as the brufen wears off I am despondent it’s really sore and I am committed to a trip away…a first big trip with the guy I’ve been climbing with for 5 years and my ‘reward’ for the first few weeks of my training…
So what do I do?
My normal reaction to injuries is to drink!! And stop everything…and my first reaction here is to cancel my trip and curl up in bed and mope.
But this is a cycle that always defeats. Stop everything put on weight, get injured again…I need to be positive so I mentally tuck away the white flag and decide to have a holiday.
To see a part of Spain I haven’t seen, to try the food, take photos, document the trip enjoy the ambience and relax in the sun!!! It’s February for f’s sake who’s going to moan about a few days in southern Spain. I have a guidebook to finish, Blogs to write, fotos to edit. Fuck, my job isn’t, in the immortal words from ‘Letter to Breshnev’, sticking my hand up chicken’s arses 8 hours a day and I’m not trying to escape Aleppo…so what have I got to moan about.
I pack the computer, a bunch of books, my yoga mat, my running shoes and download a load of core and stretching videos. Worst case I don’t climb at all but I come back as fit than I left, having seen a load of new crags to go back to and discovered another part of my adopted country.
Is this what they call progress…??
PS Thanks to everyone who offered advice on my FB…
PPS. I could tell lots of stories about pre-trip injuries where I have cancelled and missed out on amazing journeys – and I don’t want another one.
PPPS. My partner Mary has just endured the same – her voyage to climb in the canaries was screwed by a probable slap tear. She went and had a great fun.
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