What doesn't kill you....

I've been nursing a shoulder injury for a couple of weeks - my right shoulder popped out, as it often does, when I threw a football back to some kids outside work, and it's been painful since then. I've also had a tendency to get twinges and gripes in my elbows.

When I went back to the climbing wall last week, I found I was being ultra cautious and over protective of my shoulders and elbows - but this was actually helping me climb with better technique. I was really focussing on keeping my arms straight to avoid unnecessary tension, and making sure of my feet to avoid shock-loading my elbows.... and almost without realising it, I cracked an overhanging 5a boulder problem that had been eluding me for months. Then it dawned on me - I should have been climbing this way all along. Caution and care were giving me a smoother, slow-and-steady style of climbing, as opposed to the brute-force, upper-body-intensive style that I'd been using up until my latest injury.

Emboldened by this success, I decided to cautiously see how far this new style would get me, and I beat a 5b route on a top-rope yesterday afternoon, without too much trouble. Admittedly, it probably wasn't the hardest 5b I've attempted, and I still struggled with a fiendish 5a later on - but even Lisa also had to admit defeat on that one, so I'm not too worried :)

Martin's back from the alps

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Originally uploaded by cassiocassio.

Good to see that our climbing buddy Martin Storey got back safely from what looks like a very cool trip to the alps. He's got one of those insanely shiny digital SLR cameras, and takes some great shots - of which this is just one.