it was all going so well....again

OK so this time its not 8 weeks of nothing but it might be a week or so. P and I had Friday off work and went to Yorks. climbing with a mate. We met up in the car park of Giggleswick North and headed up to the crag. It was a cold day, but the sun was in and out and it was pleasant. Having not climbed more than a handful of times since October either on rock, plastic or woody, I stuck firmly to the second end of the rope. I didn't expect much and didn't get much. The first route a 6a with a single tough move, required one rest as I wrong handed myself on a crimp and didn't have the strength to hold onto anything else to swap. The 6b required 2 rests to get past the two tricky slightly reachy moves and I couldn't get up the 6c on either attempt - I red pointed this route 2 years ago with not much bother, and on Friday I couldn't climb it at all. I just had no strength! I was going to have another go on my turn, P was looking at a 7b, and Andy was aiming to red-point the 6c, when I managed to slip off the path at the crag and fall head first down the steep slope. I came to rest fairly quickly against a fallen branch but the damage was done. I think my foot just slipped on a wet rock, but a bumped and grazed head, skinned palm, bruised knee and buttock and a puncture wound to my shin was what I got for my carelessness!

I was so mad at myself. P and I had a weekend planned up in Dumfries and Galloway mountain biking and maybe checking out the bouldering. But one look at my shin, said that I needed a proper clean up and a night in a proper bed in a warm house, not a cold night or two away in the van in freezing conditions. So that was P's birthday weekend mucked up by me!

Before that I'd been getting out for some good weekday evening runs, getting the miles in (for me) during the week, but frustratingly the long runs haven't been coming. This has been due to family weekends taking me away from the hills. I just can't run long distances on the road, boredom strikes! Monday I rode into work and back on the only frost free morning of the week. Tuesday was local speed work, with an extra warm up totalling about 6.8 miles, Wednesday I clocked 9.4 miles over the fells, although had to work a bit hard to get a respectable ascent tally for the run. I felt really good too. Thursday evening was sacrificed to the god(-dess ?) of baking, as I made two rounds of bread rolls, a honey cake and a batch of chocolate cookies for the weekend. As well as packing etc.

So with that disaster of a weekend over, my shin is sore but doesn't look infected. The other bumps and grazes are just annoyance, but my shin is going to take a few days healing before I can do anything. I'm walking with a bit of a limp, I think more due to bruising around the wound than anything else. Just have to plan how to make it up to P!!