Weeks 6 & 7: fast recovery

What I did:

The physiotherapist was shocked at how quickly my pulley injury seems to be healing. I guess I did good the last 2 weeks! And maybe the collagen I took also made a difference, who knows.

I mainly spent time working on mental skills, fear of falling, climbing in the flow, switching on/off (ability to switch between pulling as hard as possible and climbing as efficiently as possible).

I also managed to climb with my coach, who gave me loads of great tips that I will incorporate in future sessions. I'm really proud of an indoor 6a I managed to lead climb. I know this doesn't seem like much but those kinds of endurance routes are hard for me and I managed to apply what I've learned: the on/off switch was huge and allowed me to recover on rests! 

Reflecting:

I climbed with some people for the first time and they didn't notice I still had a fear of falling. And you know what; looking back I would get scared toproping just 3 months ago... So maybe I'm being too hard on myself! Rather than trying to become fearless, I will try and be more positive about my gains so far. And maybe I can frame the leftover fear as a healthy excitement for sport climbing :)

Training the on/off switch was huge! In fact now it seems like endurance is the biggest bottleneck. So I will prioritize training endurance, and spending more time climbing. Most climbs in Holland are toprope, which I've been avoiding to focus on mental skills, but for endurance it's great. I'll try to find the right balance between lead climbing, movement skills and getting loads of experience (and endurance) by just climbing.

Also on the last day I noticed an intense fatigue. I think I need more than 1 rest day a week. 

What will I do next time:

I will try and go bouldering twice a week: once I will focus on strength, doing climbs mostly on kilterboard around 6c-7a (just below my limit). Once a week I will focus on endurance using the drop interval (6 by 6) routine in the crimpd app by Lattice. Whenever possible, I will try and incorporate climbing moves that I'm bad at like crossovers.

I will try and g climbing twice a week: once I will work on a 7b+ gym project I've picked and try and get loads of 6a-6b toprope climbs in. And once a week I will do ARC training and do dozens of 5a-5c climbs in a light overhang for endurance.

The weather is starting to look better too, so hopefully I'll be able to swap a bouldering session and two indoor climbing sessions for a weekend at the crag. That would be great, I have my eye on a specific 7b I think I can do. Would be my first of the grade, so I'm super excited!  

Statistics:

Climbed 0 meters on real rock.

Climbed 550 meters of aerobic endurance laps (while doing movement drills).

Taken 9 falls while committing to the next move.