Climbing wounds

I always forget to ice any bruises I collect from climbing. This past weekend was not different. And as a reminder, it still hurt while I was climbing this evening. I finally put some ice on it when I got home this evening - a couple of days late, but at least I finally did it. My climbing bruises like to congregate around either of my knees. I tend to not realize I have a bruise until a couple of days later, when I'm in the shower and I happen to notice my painful, discolored knees.

I know the exact moment I got the bruise on my left knee this past Saturday - I bumped it on a hold on the way down on one of the routes I had trouble with. It wasn't as big as the one I got on my right knee when Viv was in town the previous weekend (that one covered my entire right knee, and hurt like a mofo the next morning at pilates!). And, to go along with my bruised left knee, I now have blisters on my left hand from this evening's climbing session. I thought for sure I'd have blisters on my right palm since the ropes were super slick and I could feel the friction start to sting a little when I was bringing Magnus down from the top of the walls. But no, they are on my left hand, so I guess they must be from the holds.

I think I may get a bit of a break from climbing again since Serena can't climb for a couple of weeks (she sprained one of her wrists a few weeks back). Magnus will be out of town for a week, so I may not be climbing until he gets back. Nice - allow my climbing wounds to heal. Sadly, the break comes once again at a time when I'm really starting to improve. I've been trying a lot of different routes, even ones that look really hard because they have a lean back, but some how I always manage to make it to the top, it may take me a while, and I may have to cheat (use a few holds that aren't on my route) a bit, but I eventually complete the route. I've also been a lot more confident in trying some of the techniques Serena has shown me, like smearing, or using a side wall ('naturals', or 'nats') when I don't have anywhere else to put my foot to get further up the wall. I even had a couple of dynamic moves on a few of the routes. Pretty exciting! I still think I need to stay on the white routes a little longer though, at least until I can climb the harder white routes without cheating.