Injured, again...

Bad news, I've managed to incapacitate myself once again! At least, that is, from climbing - I was taking part in a casual bouldering competition at the local rock gym, pulled myself up on a couple of three finger pockets, then as I shifted my weight onto my left hand as I made the next move, I heard/felt the dreaded 'pop' of my A2 pulley rupturing, this time in my left ring finger.

Fortunately it is only a partial rupture, but will nonetheless set me back several weeks as I recover from it. Given that I have sustained the same injury in the same fingers on both hands now, I think I can conclude that I need to work on both my warm-up, and my overall finger strength - once my finger is recovered I shall be getting a finger strength training board and doing regular training with it, along with engaging in much more extended warm-up exercises than I currently do. I think extended stress was also a culprit as I had climbed three days out of the previous four, and prior to the injury had only had a short warm up, followed by flashing 12 routes in the space of 40 minutes.

Still, I'm staying positive; lesson learned, I suppose. I've also just got an excellent new guidebook called 'Over the Moors', which has details of many more little known climbing spots local to me, along with a much more updated guide to the climbing at New Mills than I previously possessed - I'm sure I shall occupy my time checking out these new crags, and of course riding the bike (although more gentle trails will be in order until my finger is at least partially recovered).

Stay tuned, Mischa.

Oh, and the E2 route I completed on Sunday has been identified too me, thanks to the new guidebook - 'Soiled Goods', E2/5c - so I wasn't far off the mark with my guess of E1/6a.