(August 31st – Sep 6th: <10 mins read)
TL;DR:
– 👣 Over 500k steps in Aug 😮
– ⛑️ I take my partner to hospital after a fall
– ⚖️ Weight definitely under pre-injury level
– 🧗 Climbathon good / VIII- (5.11b) climbed
Milestones (click to collapse)
| WK46 | Milestone / Significant Event |
|---|---|
| D-1 | 🧗 5th in a row – climbing with S: – again, deliberately easy, like 50-60% max 👣 498.635 steps logged (iPhone) in Aug 😮 |
| D-2 | 🧗 6th ‘easy’ climbing session in a row: – curious to see how my body reacts 🏃 ‘Hill climbing’ run: 5k (6 circuits) – 31:47 / 6:21min/km / 137 avg. pulse |
| D-3 | 🧗 7th ‘easy’ climbing session in a row 📆 this is 318 days / 45w 3d post-injury |
| D-4 | ⛑️ My partner has a fall -> off to hospital 🧗 8th ‘easy’ session with S & J |
| D-5 | ⚖️ Weight now under 65kg / 143lbs 🥳 🧗 9th ‘easy’ session with T & R |
| D-6 | 🧗 10th ‘easy’ session with J – just for a change went to Munich |
| D-7 | 🧗 11th session with K & S – completed project VIII- (5.11b) w/ shaking legs – transferring my PT exercises to climbing gym 👣 46 weeks / approx 12k steps per day |
< Note: For a list of milestones click <here>.
Real-world exercise (& movement)
The first thing to note this week is that I realised I had done well over 500k steps in August 😮. I mean, exactly how many, no idea, because my iPhone is not ‘glued’ to my body … so when I see I’ve done 498.635 steps as far as the mobile is concerned, I know I’ve done well over that. And that was without even really looking at the steps, at least not actively trying to maintain some kind of daily or weekly number.
Which means that I could do waaaay more if I targeted it. Buuut … who gives a crap, really? For me, this was just a surprisingly high number – whether I pump it up to a million, or it drops to 300k … not really going to be decisive for any kind of actually meaningful life goal. In my opinion 🤷.
What will make more of a difference is the plan to hit the climbing gym as close to every day as possible. Not to necessarily climb/boulder on a daily basis … at any rate not to aim for any real ‘climbathon’ target. Rather, there is an exercise corner, with some weights, mats, dip bars, hangboards, etc. It seems a reasonable thing to aim for to simply turn up every day, make the PT exercises a priority, and, if I still feel like it / my hands, tendons, muscles, etc. are all up for it, I’ll do some low-effort / low-volume climbing and/or bouldering.
And if I do no active climbing or bouldering: if the weather is nice, I can sit outside and do some work; and if the weather is shit, I can sit inside and do some work. Plus a super positive point: social contact … this is one thing that my injury has really boosted, specifically wrt the climbing hall. So many open, welcoming, different people.
At any rate, my weight is coming down nicely:
< Note: For my physio protocols click <here>.
Walking / Hiking
Had kinda planned with a power hike on Saturday … but ended up with other priorities (specifically helping my partner with getting dressed, shopping, and everything else that you can’t do easily with only one hand).
Running
Due to everything else that happened this week, and pushing the 5k ‘hill climb’ from Monday to Tuesday, doing a volume run on Thursday or Friday just was not ‘on the menu’. Still, the 6 x 500m circuits of the local mini nature reserve with about 20m elevation per circuit was better than nothing:
It’s not a crazy piece of trail running, but it’s got a good share of navigating tree roots, slight slants, ups and downs … certainly not the kind of boring road running that I can do but really don’t love.
Climbing
Indeed, I hit the climbing gym every day this week. Not that I ‘powered through’ each time … quite the opposite: I’ve maintained for some years that 2 days of hard climbing/bouldering in a row simply is not doable without injury in a fairly short period of time. I stick to that … at least for people like me at my age.
HOWEVER … what if I were to only do a 50-60% kind of session each time? I mean, we walk (i.e. use our legs) every day without fail, as long as we’re not injured … but there is, of course, a HUUUGE difference between a few thousand steps of walking during a 24 hour period or walking 100km in one go, or doing a marathon, etc.
So I figured I’d do a kind of mini experiment (with myself as the one and only subject of interest). I’m monitoring my fingers in particular, the skin on my hands, but also my elbows (the dreaded ‘golfer’s elbow, which I’ve had 3 times in the last 11 years 😬); I’m warming up my fingers with a 5 min routine from my climbing trainer friend R … and on top of that, I do all the 1-2 boulders nice and slow as a warm-up before I do ANYTHING else; any boulders are done slow, controlled, ninja-noiseless (well, as far as I’m capable of doing this 😅).
On top of that, in general no big effort boulders, certainly no ‘finger-killer’ routes, no hard climbing routes (VI+ max, except for one last go on Sunday at the end of 10 days of an unproblematic ‘climbathon’).
