Urrrgh

Somewhere down the line in the last month I have become a shocking 3kg over where I would like to be.

My pullup strength is pretty marginal,
I look 3kg heavier which makes me sad,
my stamina is through the floor,
my finger strength has taken a battering.

but despite that, I still managed to claw myself up various 'hard' stuff on the weekend - and I sure as hell dont know why it felt easier now, than it did when I did those routes for the first time while I was fit.

Today I went and had my first game of badminton in ages - no superstars present, just myself and housemate for about an hour or so.
With luck I will find some more people to play with and really run myself into the ground so I can rise again and float on the rock.

Until then I will have to use this extra weight as training balast...
I also need to ice my hand a bit more since it seems to have gotten a little worse.
Effort!

I feel like dying!

4 mile run...

uuurgh...

Catharsis...

I needed that.

How to tire yourself out.

I sometimes wonder how I manage to injure myself so often,
but looking back over the past week or so it is pretty easy to see.

I finished my exams on the 25th of May and since then I have only had 1 good nights sleep - and that was last night.

26th - Drove home to take tent back.
27th - Drove back to Bath.
28th - Worked in TCA.
29th - Worked in TCA.
30th - Bought new shoes and went to Avon Gorge.
1st - Bought approach shoes and went to the Peak district (slept badly in tent).
2nd - Attempted to climb in the peak district (failed badly) and bought new camera.
3rd - Early start to do my final viva.
4th - Cheddar with Tombi, then came back and went out to climb in fairy cave quarry.
5th - Today is a rest day...it must be...or maybe I will do cardio.

My right hand finger is a bit tweaked still and I need to start icing it - which I haven't actually done since I got back from font.
Initially I thought it was just a minor tweak, but now I think it is a bit more than that.

Main aim for the next couple of weeks now
-Lose the weight put on in exam period.
-fix my finger.
-get some stamina.

Apologies

Apologies to those who have read the removed post - it was a bit ragey after a heavy session of being made to feel like a complete idiot.

Suprised I dont feel like that all the time tbh

:-P

Fingers are getting there, one more week off - hopefully spent on a beach in spain and I will be fixed and ready to start getting back into shape.

Interesting Insight

I just watched this, and the first few questions are really interesting for me.
Just hearing the thought process that goes along with his improvement to being one of the best climbers in the world during his era of action.

His thought process on ice/mountain climbing is very similar to mine too, but he is having a shocker when he answers the final question.

I absolutely hate climbing badly and thrutching my way through a problem even if I do finish it, climb hard - climb well.

Fontainbeast!

Fontainebleau Special!




So as I may have mentioned about a month ago I farked my finger (flexor tendon strain) and was very worried about going to font and being unable to climb anything worthy of mention.

I spent a long time icing my hand and doing fairly aggressive rehab compared to the injury I suffered at the end of my last font trip.
I was still quite worried by the time we went out there, and found it very hard to get psyched in the first half of the trip.

Instead I organised a couple of early morning sessions to film Marijus on Karma. Hopefully once revision and exams are over I will be able to find the time to make a nice video for him and his sponsors. Until then I have a couple of pics from the 5/6am starts.



While we were there I also tried pulling on Moutton a cinq pattes but the left hand pinch strained my finger quite a lot so I sacked it off and sat around for the rest of the day.

Somehow I eventually found some psyche and got started.
I cant remember the trail of events that lead to my eventual ticklist but my hand eventually manned up a bit and I got on with it.



7a's
JetSet
Graviton - First attempt of the trip
Lapin ou Canard - Flash
Vin Rouge - 3 Times
Le Flippeur
Holey Moley - YYFY! 3 years coming and it felt so easy when the friction was alright.

6c+'s
Charcuterie
Corto Maltese - First attempt of the trip

6c's
Duroxmanie - excellent problem
Little Karma
Coquille Stand
Some random roof at isatis - ridiculously easy flash
Composition forces

6b+'s
Angle Serac - (other side of the arete to Angle Bens)

6b's
Roof at Bois Rond - cool problem

6a's
I reckon I made a first ascent of a slab in font! it was all green but an awesome problem. I worked it for about 30 minutes I reckon. Tricksy one.



Needless to say I am quite chuffed about the final result. I was fully expecting to act as a glorified chauffeur for the troops but instead I think I may have come away with the ticklist of the trip...
Depends what you want from a trip of course, but a solid ticklist is always top of my targets.



Anyways, I need to go do some more work instead of writing this and watching house.

I wish I could write something a bit more in depth or introspective...but my mind is a little skitz right now.