Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Reincarnation, sadly, is not instantaneous

There is much of nothing to say. The weeks preceding Joe's were spent in a state of rest where I would take a week off climb once and repeat. This being rather uncharacteristic of me has a reason. I managed to hurt my finger, completely intentional, by campussing. As I well know, everyone is very interested in the background story. Well I was feeling like a was hitting a rather high peak. Crushing (plastic) projects had been the agenda on the two days of climbing previous to the injury. Adapting myself to a stress much like what I would encounter in Joe's (climbing multiple days on), I was often climbing 5 days in a row. So I was thinking, third day on this can't be anything but healthy for me. I threw down with some huge move routes, which a rarely do, and then proceeded to the campus board to finish up this short session. The small rungs, beckoning me to climb them, decided to beat me. In all honesty, I was feeling invincible. Going up and down with three fingers exhilarated me. Only planning on doing six sets, I began to feel pain on the fourth set. I taped tighter. I finished off the sets with constant pain in my right finger. The pain wasn't crippling; however, it was building my apprehension. I took one day off after. Two days later I returned to the dungeon (garage/climbing gym) only to be pushed away.

The next three weeks slowly ate me.

And then, the Joe's trip arrived. I was going to climb at my lowest, a depressing notion. Not only that, but I was fearful that I would make it all the way down there only to find I still couldn't climb.

Turns out, I could climb. The highlight of the trip was succeeding on No Substance. Looking back, it is mildly depressing to see that as the pinnacle of my trip. My last year trip which lasted only three days was much more successful. Despite my negativity on here, it was an amazing trip; climbing again felt fantastic. The Saturday traveling back from Joe's, I attended a competition in Sandy, Utah. Here, I was shot down. My finger was once again hurting; the same one and a new one: lucky me. After destroying two routes (beginner top-ropes), I waved the gang sign and disappeared.

A comment on this competition: I was disappointed in the way routes were set. They used liked colored holds and no tape. Now I would agree this is awesome they have enough money to pull this off, but if you have a yellow route next to a dirty white route, not cool. Not speaking from experience or anything though.

Upon my return to Cody, I found myself with finger pain when I attempted to climb. There was yet another competition I needed to attend to meet the minimum requirement for local competitions to pass on from regionals. The competition, on the sixteenth in Bozeman, MT went down in much the same way. Do (two) route(s), roll out. After the competition, I went with my father to bikram yoga. If you ever have a chance, go.

Over my actual spring break, I did not climb once. That is a depressing truth. One of those things a person hears and goes, "Wow, that is like child abuse." And I would say, "Yes. But imagine something twice as detrimental to a person's mental health."

Now, currently still on time off. I wait for this weekend, yet another comp where all I will do is make my presence known and lose some money. I will try to climb in the beginning, but if any thing goes south (why is south bad?), I will immediately stop.

Wish me luck on the healing. Time. Time is such a fickle thing.