Sent my line!

I managed to send the line I was after in Cheddar,

'All Hands to the Pump'

Good fun route, I reckon 2* is fair. Relatively easy climbing up to some crimps and then the fun begins with a couple of tough reachy moves that lead to jugs to the end.

I felt it was perhaps a little easy for 7b but maybe just on the easy end of the grade as opposed to 7a+.

On the crux of 'All Hands to the Pump'

I then went over to the wave and had an attempt at 'Greed' it was supposed to be 7b+ but I couldnt even get near touching one of the holds, so I suppose there must be some helpful beta that I clearly didn't find.

I repeated Raw Deal first attempt it is a very enjoyable route when it is dry, smallish dynos that are protected with well placed bolts. Just a shame that the last bolts are so awkwardly placed that they form the crux of the route.

I also attempted 'Insatiable' which is just to the right of 'Greed'. I am really excited to get back on this route when I have some proper fitness back. Easy climbing up to a flat hold, leads to a duo and some tough climbing with strong clipping, finishing on a victory jug. I got all the moves but I was so knackered that by the end I was barely able to strip it. It seems harder than 'Chullila' but hopefully not so hard that I will have to spend a long time on it.

I also met a couple of guys down there who suggested heading up to 'Mescalito' which I think is given 7c-3* and apparently 'not that bad'. So once I am back to strength I will be right up there with the best of them.

I'd also like to take the oppertunity to thank Jonny for belaying me on both days out there, very close to getting both 'Raw Deal' and 'All Hands to the Pump'.

One should go next time.

:-)

Finger is still feeling ok, I just tape it up so I cant full-crimp too hard now.

Of course - on Cheddar rock that is easier said than done.

Beautiful words

I decided to listen to Carmina Burana tonight with the translation alongside, the music fits the words beautifully.

In the 5th part a certain line took my fancy

Miserable is he

who neither loves

nor frolics

under Summer’s spell.

Just thought this exemplified what I think summer is for. I will most certainly be frolicking upon the rocks in fontainebleau this summer, we have booked a couple of rooms in maisonbleau for 2 weeks and now looking forward to a great season :-)

Going to cheddar early tomorrow, hopefully I can get back in time to get to Jonny's for lunch :-S

NEWSFLASH

I was just pointed to this site

http://listen.grooveshark.com/#

imagine spotify, but free, no adverts and no signup! HOORAH!

Well the rubiks worked I think

I had my first two sessions back on plastic and rock this weekend and today respectively.

I set a few problems that were completely outside the grade range in the red circuit and climbed them without breaking myself on the Saturday, although I don't think Paul was too impressed with it...English Tech grades are stupid anyone - no one knows how hard a 5a move is!

I also went to Cheddar today which was neat, I warmed up on a 6a+ on Arch rock - just ticking off the routes on it still. Then I got all the moves down on 'All Hands to the Pump' which was nice, managed to avoid crimping too hard and my finger still feels ok now. I appear to have lost a lot of stamina and a fair amount of strength. Not to mention gaining 3kg in my month off >:-O.

It should go next time I go down to cheddar which, needless to say, is hopefully soon given the proximity of victory on what will be my third >7a+ of all time.

Finger is still a bit under the weather, I would put it at perhaps 70% of it's former strength but rapidly improving in terms of not being injured and instead just being weak.

Plan now is to get on some circuits at TCA and get some fitness back, oh and we have these exam things...guess I should look into them too :-P

Rubiks to Recovery?

Impossible to grade recovery rates, but I think that overall, this one has been slower than the previous two that I ruined by climbing too soon.

However I have also been deprived of an insane amount of rubiks cubing during the recovery period for this latest attempt...

Is there anything in it?

Who knows?

-I found my cube today and I already feel much better :-P

2x2 3x3 and 4x4 hopefully coming soon.

As normal

I'm once again approaching recovery, no crimping = no pain.

This means I can do pullups now so I might as well do so...

I was considering signing up to go to the roaches this weekend, but now that I am writing this I can instantly see that this would be exactly the wrong thing to do at this stage.

Still got a bum finger, but to add to my worries I now have an infected astro burn, an unhappy right knee and 2 unhappy wrists.

To add more positives to my extended list I have misplaced my rubiks cube and have to put up with a useless glitchy one now.

9 more days.

Since I cant climb...

I set up a calendar a few days ago to count down days.

13 down 15 to go,

I thought I would be dealing worse with this but I seem to be OK at the moment, just keeping myself occupied doing other things.

Unfortunately I am still eating rather too many chocolate biscuit and I should swap these for some sort of fruit in the near future or risk getting mildly obese.

I have also fallen into the pit of DFBWGC on UKB, but I'm not complaining...

I went slack-lining today in the sunny sunny sun. Most enjoyable.

Over a week since the last post

I'm gutted,

Finger got twinged again last week so I really need to do this recovery thing properly. I currently set up a calendar where I can count down the days till a vague level of recovery should have been reached.

However I need to keep up the commitment to icing and massage/stretching that I was so good at before these holidays - hopefully this will improve once I get back to Bath.

It is hard to explain my feelings but I know anyone that has had a sport stopping injury will know - it is absolutely wrenching to hear of other people's performances and improvements while you are broken.

All congratulations to Anthony, Tombi and anyone else who climbed well on the fontainebleau trip. And particular congratulations to Tris from TCA who just climbed his first 8a in Spain. However it is really killing me to hear everyone elses stories of success while I have to sit around unable to do anything but fitness and recovery.

On the other hand- knowing that people are in the same position as you seems to lessen the burden and I think in this situation I am blessed.

TCA does not seem to have a good track record on this at the moment.

Simon has tendon issues

Paul broke his leg

Tris had some kind of elbow/shoulder worries a while back

Ben has a child that eats his time

Put simply I could have a much worse time of it and I should be thankful that the injury that I do have is relatively minor in the whole scheme of things.

I will come back stronger this year and my targets remain unchanged.

Summer Fontainebleau plans are starting to shimmer in the haze and I need to remember that if I recover in a disciplined fashion, I still have the skills to climb to the best of my ability.

Finger is still shit though, minor full crimp load is all it takes for pain...

I'm not going to proof read this because it is already inane o'clock and I need to bust a move in a bedward direction