Phew, that was close...

After my finger misery of the last post I continued to wallow in a depressed funk and was generally grumpy, not a great pleasure to be around for that time. Anyway come Saturday the finger, whilst still uncomfortable and not right, felt as though it could be climbed on. Obviously when I say it could be climbed on what I mean is any intelligent rational person would rest for a few more days and monitor progress before diving in at the deep end but obsession being what it is I climbed.
A delightful day was had with the Guru, the rare treat being a complete lack of curfew, this makes days out so much more pleasurable and relaxed. Guru made good progress on his chosen target and I likewise made inroads on a (hopefully) short term goal. The climbing was (or certainly felt) fingery and powerful so provided an adequate test-bed for finger damage assessment. And the verdict was that whilst it wasn't right, it wasn't that wrong either. Woop woop. Or so I thought...

Roll forward to Monday evening and I decide to try the board. The warm up went fine, although I still felt a bit stiff and sore from Saturday (it was a long day), and even the circuit went OK, two and a half laps (a couple of moves shy of my best) but then onto the power problems. Oooof, the finger didn't feel so good then. Hmmmm, a bit of thinking about things led me to what is a pretty obvious truth, sometimes when you think you're pulling hard on routes, you're just not. On the board or perhaps bouldering are when you really pull down.

Anyway whilst out on Saturday the Guru and I discussed our aims for the coming winter on grit and we both appear to be suffering from the same malaise towards grit bouldering. There's still problems out there to do, but the buzz isn't quite there. At first I thought maybe this was because (in my case at least) I wanted to cling onto the remains of the sport season and get a tick or two done. But a bit more analysis led me to the conclusion that the routes were calling, maybe it's time for me to get back on the trad? And to that end I think I'll spend the afternoon surveying a couple of local prospects. Cheery-bye...

Bum bum bum.

I'm not a happy camper.
Last night I had a board session with Pasty and Memory Man (a newcomer to the fold). It was an enjoyable session, Pasty was looking stronger again on the steep stuff pulling on smaller holds and even his footwork seemed more crisp and precise. Memory Man struggled with the steepness but had pretty good positional awareness and reasonable strength in his arms and core, his fingers were his weak link (and footwork of course...). Anyway it was a fairly steady session with a healthy ratio of chat to climb. I didn't want to push too much as my left hand split tip was still at a critical re-splitting stage which would mean back to square one.

Roll forward to this morning and I am woken in the early hours by pain in my right ring finger and wrist, WTF?? This pain grows throughout the early hours making sleep difficult and causing my mood to deteriorate rapidly. Breakfasting the family and dressing Lard was undertaken through gritted teeth (caused by pain and poor mood) and now all family members are packed off to work/playgroup I've had a chance to assess the damage. My thoughts are thus:
1) This is very annoying
2) I don't think it's a pulley thing in the finger, it doesn't feel like it is and I don't remember doing anything last night that felt poppy.
3) I think the finger is probably some sort of lateral straining, I have noticed recently that my fingers have felt weak and painful when a lateral force is applied so I think I've aggravated this. I'm hoping it's just some light bruising/straining type thing and it will clear up in a day or two.
4) This is very annoying as I was hoping to get out and (assuming I could find dry rock) I was optimistic about getting some sport ticking ticked.
5) I am more concerned by the wrist pain, this is currently the less painful area but I think this has to be tendon (or some supporting structure) that has taken a hit. Again I don't remember anything that pulled it but that's all I can think of given the area/nature of the discomfort (as I dredge up anatomy from the far recesses of my mind...). Luckily this isn't so painful so I hope this is a minor tweak which will again sort itself in a day or two. My worry is that it could be a longer term problem, visions of G-lanks multi month rehab from pulley poppage...
6) This is very annoying as I'm going to Font in two weeks.
7) I'm annoyed.

Anyway enough negative stuff, I'll go off and concentrate on mending...