Daily Thoughts

Apr. 15th marked my final PT appointment for the tendon injury I have been battling. I knew things weren’t healing as well as expected before walking in there, and wasn’t surprised to receive a poor analysis on my situation from the trainer. She recommended I have an MRI done to check for any tears in the tendon, which I was planning on doing regardless of her final thoughts.

Overall, I’m pretty unhappy with the whole physical therapy thing. From the start I had been telling them where the pain was located, what caused the pain and what didn’t, and how things changed from week to week. Just one month after the injury occurred I was starting to believe that perhaps I was suffering from something more than just a strained tendon and muscle. The trainer believed otherwise, and part of me wonders if it was all an attempt to suck as much money out of me as possible before filling out the discharge paperwork.

So tomorrow morning I’m off to the doctor and then hopefully I can schedule the MRI for the same day, as I only have ten days to let Sportrock know if I’m going to be out for another month or not (most likely my RTC date (“Return To Climbing”) will be pushed back yet another month. For a tendon tear, possibly more.

Final thoughts on Physical Therapy  - I don’t think I will ever be wasting my time or money again. I know the body can heal and recover naturally from simple injuries and generally being overworked. For potentially more serious injuries, I’ll go straight to the machines that can tell me exactly what is wrong, rather than sit around for two months while some speculates.

I went to the physical therapist today (Loudoun Physical Therapy in Leesburg, VA), and got a pretty positive diagnosis. They don’t seem to think I’ve torn or broken anything, and feel that the injury is nothing more than a really, really bad pull or strain on the tendon (although we’re going to watch it over the next 1-2 weeks and hope for progress).

For now, the plan is to limit use to activities that produce no pain, do bi-weekly physical therapy sessions with Loudoun PT to promote and speed recovery, and to stay off the wall for 4-6 weeks (ugh). Looking forward to seeing what types of exercises they will have me doing to get me back in tip-top shape. I am hoping I can get into the gym and do some other exercises though… possibly work on my core strength, upper body strength, and endurance. Trying to look at the setback as a blessing in disguise!

If you read my last post, you would recall that I was smashing routes all over Sportrock Wednesday night. Well, I must have really overworked my fingers and arms because last night at the gym was quite possibly one of my worst climbing sessions to date. I felt a little weak after my V0 warmup, and was winded after completing one of my favorite V3s that I can practically do blindfolded. I couldn’t complete any of the V4s I’d completed on Wednesday, and struggled with the Junior Team Campus Training routes that I usually enjoy.

Endurance is obviously a large factor in the success of long routes or multi-pitch climbs, and I would assume that the best climbers out there have both an incredible level of endurance and efficient techniques for managing fatigue. I know that my climbing endurance is one of my biggest problem areas, and I’m curious as to how you deal with climbing fatigue.

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Just a quick update tonight since I’m really tired and want to crawl into bed. Went to Sportrock again today (third day in a row), seeing as I had some free time and felt like I still had some strength left in my fingers.

Started off climbing 5.9s as usual, and then climbed the 5.10- I have done repeatedly over the last two days. Sportrock was quite crowded for a while today, so ropes were in short supply and we didn’t feel like searching or waiting for another rope to free up so we stayed where we were. My brother climbed the 5.10- after me (and completed it!), and I was eyeing a 5.11- marked with bright yellow tape (easy to see!). I decided to give it a whirl.

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