But today I was forced to think about that short topic.
Forced, because I think I got a small rupture in my muscles near my right shoulderblade and it hurts with nearly every move.
It happened last Thursday evening, when I was trying "Game One" in Apremont Butte aux Dames.
I could feel it on the big compression moves on really bad slopers. The problem about feeling it, is that it's mostly already too late.
It didn't get much of my attention, but I did feel it vaguely while climbing on other problems since then.
Today I was thinking about that conversation, because actually, the more I think of it, I'm injured most of the time, but never give it much attention, let alone do something about it.
Basically, when I'm injured, I continue climbing, but I tend to avoid doing problems or moves that will make it worse.
Like the time my left knee was injured after doing too many heelhooks with the left foot, I tried to avoid problems that required a left heelhook.
Or as with my injured right elbow, which is still not completely healed by the way, I tried to avoid taking pinches with the right hand because it just hurt too much.
When my fingertips bleed, I might skip climbing for one day, but as long as the weather permits, I will just climb on with taped fingertips.
But then, there are times when zero is the number of fucks I give about the pain or injury and let the stubbornness take over, thinking that the injury is something to worry about later. Like today.
I know it's not good. That I should listen to my body and skip climbing for a day, or even longer, but this is what happens when climbing serves as a drug.
When I'm climbing, my body releases endorphines and satisfies my mind.
I don't smoke nor drink alcohol and I don't do drugs. That is when you don't consider climbing a drug.
It was raining cats and dogs this morning, but I went to Apremont Fond des Gorges to locate and check out some boulders.
I had only passed by the area before, but never stopped to see the boulders.
I especially wanted to see "Saigon" and luckily I had taken the GPS because somebody had posted the coordinates on bleau.info. This served me well, because I don't think I would have found it easily without them. Now I walked straight to it.
By the time I got there, the sun had come out in between showers and of course it was still wet, but it didn't matter, as I hadn't planned to climb anyway. For those interested, coordinates are N 48°25.982' E 002°38.067'.
On my way back I checked out the other boulders in the main area and found the boulder with "Chicken Skin" completely dry and in pristine conditions.
Even though I didn't plan on climbing, like most of the time I did carry the crashpad and all my stuff with me so I unpacked.
After a couple of tries however, I had to quickly move everything to shelter because it had started raining again.
It was a small dilemma to wait for the shower to pass and hope the boulder will dry quickly again or to leave.
I waited it out, it only rained for about 5 minutes, but hard enough to make the boulders soaking wet.
I could see an open spot in the sky coming my way and there was a lot of wind, so my hopes were high.
I used the time to wander around checking out some other boulders and helped the drying a little bit with my towel.
The sun came out again and together with the wind they did their job. The boulder was dry again after 10 minutes and I could try again, but I had to hurry. The open spot in the sky wasn't as big as I expected and what came after were even darker clouds than before.
I did it fast and even faster I packed again as it could start raining again any moment now.
At about 100m from the car it was pouring rain and I was soaking wet when I got in.
It didn't matter, I had my small dose of climbing.
By the time I got home, the sun was shining again and the streets were dry.
I could have gone climbing again but the muscles in my right shoulder hurt really bad and I wisely decided not to. Even shifting gears of the car hurts. We'll see what tomorrow will bring ...
Fontainebleau - Apremont Fond des Gorges - Chicken Skin 7A
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