8 months in…whew..we no longer know what a life without training is like. Unfortunately for me (Jake), I injured my ring finger a few weeks ago so I am no longer on the climbing roster for the entire month of February. It’s a little (more like A LOT) depressing! Climbing is a huge physical release for me, and while I am doing other things to train hard, climbing took huge amount of effort and I am finding it hard to feel like I’ve worked hard enough.

So how did I get hurt, you ask? From climbing harder than my body could handle at the time. This is not a new problem or issue for me. Pretty much all climbers suffer small, mild injuries to one body part or another; it could even be argued that every climber out there is climbing with injuries of some kind.

It would be dishonest to say that I am not depressed about it…some days (and Jill can attest to this) I get downright ‘bitchy’. It’s very difficult to go from being crazy strong and feeling like you are on track to accomplish your goals; King of the Mountain; to the bottom of the hill after 8 months of hard training. Well…this isn’t entirely accurate…I’m not at the bottom of the hill. I’m more like several paces back and in reality it will only take a few sessions for me to get right back into the meat of it. But I am not a patient person, so this is very difficult for me to envision right now.

Note to self: Your muscles get strong MUCH faster than your tendons and joints.

In general, mild finger injuries are quite common (I mean, duh, this is climbing after all). With a little crafty taping to support a weak or injured finger (usually at the base or below the injured area), you can keep on climbing at your full potential. In fact, probably 70% of the time I have at least one finger taped up and they all get their turn. This time, however, no amount of tape can keep the pain at bay…so the only solution is to simply stop climbing and let it heal. Being the nerd that I am, I know the exact injury is my A-2 Pully on my right finger. I learned that it could take up to 100 days for this type of injury to heal…but like I said before, I’m not so patient. If I waited that long, I’d lose all the progress I’ve made over the last year, and that is just not going to happen. If it was something larger like a leg or arm thing, then maybe I’d reconsider, but as the motto states, you;re not hardcore unless you live hardcore.

I always tell people that training for climbing always breaks down your body…even more so if you are training to climb 5.13. So how is that going anyway? With all these months of effort stacked up on each other I have gotten my body strong enough to pull 5.13 or V7 moves and work them out fairly quickly (in some cases just a few tries). The issue is that these moves are so hard that I get fatigued quickly. So the trick is acquiring the endurance to link them altogether.

The RAMPAGE of hard climbing will start in Mid-April with a short road trip to Moab, UT and will continue in UT and many parts of CO throughout the summer. That is truly what this is all about; being out in the mountains with my lovely wife going on adventures and never having to wonder if we are fit enough. Once you have the fitness level then its all about just getting out there, trying hard and having fun!

So what have the workouts looked now that I am not climbing? I probably spend even more time in the gym because I support Jill in her climbing workouts (basically I’m her belay bitch). Then when she is finished, I have to start my own workout. Circuit/Interval training with max effort 3x/week (upped from the 1x/week), core classes 2x/week, Yoga and Mediation workshops and cycling to work when the weather holds out. I also throw in a little cardio (elliptical machine) and some crafty weight training to keep the strength in my forearms and BAM…this is what I use to fill my days. From little injuries and mucho travel, I’ve learned that I can take a fair amount of time off from climbing without losing any ‘mojo’. My body tends to slide right back into the groove of it all; Life lesson here: If you stop moving in life for too long, then it’s over. So keep moving/trying and everything stays strong, flexible and supple.