(June 15th-21st: <10 mins read)
TL;DR:
– 🤕 Ankle pains put running on hold
– ⚖️ Weight on a downward trend
– 🥾 A ‘ruck’ with no negative effects
– 🧗 Bouldering is 99% back to normal
Milestones (click to collapse)
| WK35 | Milestone / Significant Event |
|---|---|
| D-1 | Running ‘on hold’ due to light ankle pains |
| D-2 | 🧗 Half a VII+/VIII- route on auto-belay |
| D-3 | 🤕 Am a little sick, for the first time in ages |
| D-4 | Weight dips under 68kg / 150lbs 🥳 |
| D-5 | (this is 8 months post-injury) |
| D-6 | 🥾 9km hike / 360m ascent / 16kg pack – 3 rounds of my local ‘training mountain’ |
| D-7 | 🧗♂️ A second 6er boulder post-injury 💪 35 weeks / approx 12k steps per day |
< Note: For a complete list of milestones click <here>.
Real-world exercise (& movement)
This week was marked by minor sickness: a mild fever led to tossing, turning and sweating through the night Tue-Fri, with mild sore throat and headache. I’m almost never ill, so I figured I should back off from the sport a little, trying to keep up my physio at least. In any case, my mildly painful ankle was being fairly persistant, so I thought it’d make sense from this point of view too.
< Note: For my physio protocols click <here>.
Walking / Hiking (click to expand)
On Saturday I was feeling pretty much ok, and the ankle pain also seemed to be gone, so I figured I’d get out for a training hike. I’d been pondering if I wasn’t ramping up the volume too fast on hiking – comparing it to running, where I’d taken around 8 weeks to get up to 5k, trying to add a nearly 3k round every week was probably daft.
Back in 2019 when I’d started training for the Welsh 15 peaks with my brother, I’d done a significant hike once every two weeks. Perhaps it would make sense to add a round without the pack one week then add the pack the week after; the week after that add a round but lose the pack again, and so on.
At any rate, I thought I’d aim for at least 3 rounds and see how it went.
3 rounds it was – if you look carefully at the cadence as I go up the steep incline for the third time, you’ll see this drooped: I was listening to music with BPMs in the range of 120-132 as this helps maintain a regular and symmetrical cadence … but on the third round I couldn’t maintain it as I neared the top; coupled with that I saw my pulse peak over 150 for the first time. These two factors made me decide I’d reached a reasonable limit. The absence of any negative effects the next day – also no ankle pain – would suggest this was sensible.
There’s always another day for the 4 rounds … and 5 rounds … etc.
Running
No runs this week due to ankle pain and mild sickness.
Cycling
Nothing worth noting, just A-to-B.
Climbing
The Tuesday manager 1:1 call is finally history – hallelujah. It was always manageable somehow, but it was also essentially always a pain in the ass. My role change at work has meant the climber manager is now, once again, my direct manager – for this I am eternally grateful 🥳 😁.
This meant, after the usual bouldering session, J and I had the chance to go climbing again … naturally, with a coffee break and chat beforehand – what can I say, kinda highlight of the week. I count myself incredibly lucky a) to have the freedom I have with my job to work when I want, as well as b) to have found this sport and all of the great people I’ve met through doing it.
At any rate, J continues to make really good progress – we both hit a VII+/VIII- on auto-belay, both of us getting more or less halfway up before our strength gave out; she’s 5cm smaller than me which in a couple of places on that route makes a huge difference, so it’s really cool seeing how far she gets on top of the fact that she’s grinding away at her fear of heights.
The Sunday afternoon session with the larger group was also great: the route-setters had been at work on Wednesday again, there are about 8 new routes as usual … not only did I flash two of the three new 5ers, but I also cracked a grey sinter 6er on something like my 3rd or 4th attempt 💪. Okay, it’s an easy 6er … buuuut it’s still a 6er, so I’m counting it 😁 – I think that’s only the second 6er I’ve managed post-injury.
The several chat breaks were great too … Sunday afternoon has slowly mutated to centring (at least for me) more around the social side of things than the climbing. Or maybe it’s more 50/50, I guess. At any rate I love it!
In total, things are really almost 100% back to normal with climbing: I don’t think about the injury any more when I’m on auto-belay; even whilst bouldering, after seeing I can take a controlled fall, I’m pretty much not holding back anymore. On top, my weight dipped under 68kg (150lbs) for the first time in something like 2 months, which of course really helps.
