Week 52: the finale

What I did:  

I managed to squeeze in 4 sessions. The first was focussed on breathing, but despite 2 days of rest, the compartment syndrome got so bad that I couldn't hang onto anything. I could barely climb, so it was a disappointing (and painful) session. 

After this session, I did a lot of googling, and found that creatine increases the pressure inside of the compartments. It does not cause compartment syndrome, but I assumed that it would aggravate the symptoms in someone who already has it. I stopped with creatine, and it made a massive differene.

The next session started the same way as all the others: with a lot of pain.... but during the session, the pain actually got less. And as a result, I managed to climb 3x more than my other sessions. I was focussing on speed, and managed to double the speed with which I moved through the crux. Fun!

The day after, I had a rest day, and for the first time I had almost no pain in my forearms. I was super excited! This meant that I would have 1 good session to try and red point.

The next session I climbed up to the ledge, and tried the crux 5 times in total. I was getting really close to sticking the dyno, but was lacking commitment. If I'm honest with myself, at this point I had already lost all confidence... so despite trying to psych myself up and try hard, I don't think I actually fully committed to grabbing the jug after the dyno (despite my hand being on the hold twice).

In any case, I had loads of fun this session! The next day was the last day of the year, and therefore also the last day of the 7a to 8a in 1 year challenge. My forearms didn't hurt in the morning, but they started to hurt while I was climbing. I missed the jug pocket in my dyno attempt (I was a bit too high and to the right), but otherwise that was my best attempt yet. I started at the dyno and stuck the next go, and managed to climb to the top with 2 hangs. 

However, after the dyno my forearms started to become swollen and painful again. And once I got past the section with the pockets, my forearms were just as painful as they were before. Therefore, I'm not sure if stopping with creatine made any difference, but I won't be taking any creatine until the surgery for my forearms.

I managed to climb all the way to the final clipping jug, but by this time I was completely out of power and couldn't hold on (despite standing on a ledge and holding a jug). I grabbed a quickdraw, and spent a few seconds in absolute agony as I was clipping. The pain was close to intolerable, but I am SO proud that I managed to clip the anchors and to be able to clean the route myself. The goal was to climb an 8a in a year, but this challenge was in service of a greater, more important objective: to overcome my hip impairment. And in that sense, this year has been a great success. Although I must admit I'm very relieved that the year is over :)

Reflecting:   

I learned so much this year, I'm really grateful. But a full year of pushing myself to the limit was a bit too much. I pushed myself beyond my limits, and I have the injuries to prove it. Even my digestion isn't working properly anymore due to the many training hours and busy weekends. It was simply all just too much.

So next time, I don't think I'll have such a big goal with such a strict deadline again. I will have short term goals that are specific, and long term goals that are a bit more abstract (especially in terms of deadline). In any case, I feel like I learned the important things. My hip impairment is not the end, I can still improve in loads of different ways. I've learned how to climb to circumvent the limitations that my hips give me. And I'm getting better at climbing in such a way that prevents my hips from hurting more than they already do. 

At the same time, I feel like I never got a proper chance of completing the challenge, because compartment syndrome made it impossible for me to climb more than a few meters at a time. Although that is a bit sad, it's also strangely reassuring that my hips were not the limiting factor in this project. I'm looking forward to all the ways I can still progress!

What will I do next time:

 There is no next time, at least not within this 1 year challenge. But, in 2023 I have some goals. I want to make a couple of documentary style videos, I want to see a psychologist about my hips (to truely accept what is happening, rather than fighting it like I have this last year), I want to do more bouldering, I want to climb in Berdorf more often and do all the beautiful routes I've been skipping, and I want to keep training - albeit now in a more chill and sustainable way. From now on, I'm playing the long game! Really looking forward to it!

  

Statistics:

Climbed 280 meters on real rock.

Climbed 0 meters of aerobic endurance laps (while doing movement drills).

Taken 15 falls while committing to the next move.