04 September 2021

Aches. Moving without an ache is near impossible at the moment. 
However, they are happy aches. After a year, I have returned climbing 
with some daft idea of being able to climb 2 days in a row. It has 
been lovely to feel the burn on my hands and work out routes etc. 
Climbing is my way of doing weight training. I find the gym most 
boring and so have to have an alternative. My form seemed better than 
it was at the end of 2019 which surprised me. I was suffering muscle 
wasting around then as a side effect from taking statins. It has taken 
until May this year to get off any type of statin after trying a 
couple of new ones and raising levels etc. I flew up walls without the 
usual struggle. Then the lack of fitness came in but that can be 
fixed. Thursday was spent at a new climbing wall in Warwick Uni. It is 
a nice area although slightly cramped. The routes seemed alright. The 
people there seemed fairly rude and did not respect other climber's 
space. I was belaying for a friend who was just about to climb and 
then some one started a long lead climb before she could get on the 
wall. As we waited for the first rude one to finish resting, some 
others started climbing behind us on a route hwere failure leads to 
big swings. Most disconcerting. However, that seemed to be just an 
hour of bell ends. I met some new people and spent time with friends 
from work I had not seen for a while. Friday was spent with my scout 
climbing friends. This was at Creation in Moseley, Birmingham. It is a 
nice climbing centre and has some great top rope routes. The people 
are nice, friendly and respectful of space. It was a harder climb 
while aching from the Thursday but nice to return. I have a bouldering 
session planned next Thursday with another work friend and I think I 
will be back at Creation on the Friday as well..... Ah well, mistakes 
are normally repeated a couple of times! It is great to be climbing 
again and the aches are a reminder of the fun had the days before.