Starting another hobby

Looking back to last spring.

Day Tripper, Lands End, BMC International Meet

Today I picked up my axes for the first time since I broke my ankle and went for a fitness test on the chalk.  FAIL.
My ankle has been improving steadily but the pace of improvement has slowed recently and I was starting to get a bit more bored and unmotivated.  An x-ray two weeks after the break showed that the bone was healing well but the fracture was still clearly visible and some foot movements make me jump.  Also on my mind is knowing that an x-ray doesn't even show anything that might have happened to tendons, ligaments or cartilage.

Thinking about the powerful style of world cup competition climbing leaves me knowing how badly prepared I am!!  Blasting up the steep routes for 6 minutes requires strength and power, even before the weeks of break induced eating and drinking my training had been long walk-ins and hanging on for days placing wires in icy cracks rather than one armers.  Oh well, I've got the memory of the highest UK finish (10th) in the world cup since the early days of the competition, with some support there is no reason why another UK athlete could not challenge for a good finish. I'm not totally giving up as there is another couple of weeks before the World Cup starts for me so hopefully I will be able to at least climb to my current potential and maybe part of the competition will be placing a cam behind an icy flake or driving a warthog in to a blob of frozen turf.

At least I can walk sort of normally on a level surface now and even kick gently with a mono point so that's progress but any ankle twisting makes me flinch.  I have been doing some stretching but the best physio was walking uphill from the pub with an alcohol anaesthetic.  Today though, trying to actually climb on chalk was like learning a new sport.

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