Injured Big Toe Conytingency Climbing Plan

After a week of no climbing due to bad weather, it is hard to get back onto the rock.

Did Past the Bosh (PB: 17) as a warm-up and attempted Juice (20) only to realize that I had injured my big toe on my left foot during the randori with Lee, so I bailed half-way.
I'll have to continue going climbing so that it doesn't become so hard to climb, but I will do low grade ledgey climbs so that the pressure is evenly distributed through my left foot and not concentrated on my big toe.

These are the climbs that I hate the most.

Table Tennis Singles Handicap:15

Arrived at 10:30, need to arrive before 09:15
Handicap of 15 given. Lost first match but won the rest. Very enjoyables games with impossible shots performed. Tired after when finished at 12:00. Legs and arms sore.

Saturday Randori with Lee kun and Shige kun

My body is still tired and sore from yseterdays randori with Lee kun. I did 3 by four minute sessions with Lee and Shige did between 6-6 and a half minutes of 3 seesions with Lee. Lee's leg work are unpredictable. The only way I could see of getting near him is to come in when the opportunity arises so that his kicks aren't as effective. I could deal with his punches then. Shige's attack against Lee is smooth and powerful. The problem with Shorinji Kempo is that we don't attack enough. Although the philosophy of it being a purely self-denfence martial art is valid in a randori situation attacking is necessary. I think I have to learn attacking methods from somewhere else.

Sometimes when I avoided Lee's kicks, I wondered if I really avoided them or it was because of his masterful control of his leg works. I received a blow to the back of the head from his axe kick. It dazed me for a bit but next time I duck I should protect myself with an uchiage block to soften the blow a bit. My right hand has a tinge of soreness from puching Lee. I might have sprained it.

Randori is fun and dangerous. I get the same feeling from it as I did when I am sweating at a crux of a climb. That feeling of danger is exciting and makes me become alive. It really tests the reflexes, happomoko and what we learnt in the dojo under control conditions does not really apply in a randori situation. It is especially hard to guage the distance between fighters as it changes all the time. Maybe I am just not skillful enough yet, afterall I am only a sankyuu going up against a black belt in Taekwondo and a practitional of various other martial arts.

1st week of uni

Not being able to climb or do anything physical for a week due to the bad weather and the getting used to the first week of uni is starting to give me the heebie-jeebies.

Sunday morning sluggishness

Did not climbed today as planned. Woked up with a slight headache as if there is a small pressure on my middle eye. I felt sleepy and tired. Maybe it was the polaramine. I should only take it no later than 2200 hrs. I want to go to bed early but the insomnia bothers me. I will need to sort this problem out if I am going to stick to my schedule. Red-eye helps with the sluggishness of the waking up. In this situation I feel unmotivated to do anything. Next planned climb is Tuesday, so that makes it three rest days in a row

Unschedule rest day

I had trouble sleeping last night from the lactic acid in my arm so I decided not to climb today. Today is too beautiful a day to stay indoors. I took a walk along the cliffs. I was tempted to bring my climbing shoes along but resisted. My arms needed to recover. The winter sun seems to give me life and I am glad that I didn't bring my shoes along, otherwise I would have done some bouldering. I'll save my climbing for tomorrow before Shorinji Kempo training.

Day 5 Since Coming back to climbing

Section 3 of 8 taichi by video started

Climbing time: Approximately 14:30 - 17:30
Warm-up climb: Past the Bosch (PB:17)

Working Climb:
After the Gold Rush (ATGR: 20): 2 rests
After the Gold Rush (ATGR: 20): 2 rests
After the Gold Rush (ATGR: 20): 1 fall, 1 rests

Fatigue Climbs:
Past the Bosch (PB:17)
Past the Bosch (PB:17): 1 Fall
Halva (H:16) with red backpack

Total Climbs: 7

Shorinji Kempo training from 19:30 - 20:30

need to be less sociable and more discipline

Played Table Tennis from 10:30-12:30. I should play at least once a week.
I was a bit tired afterwards but went to the cliffs with the intention to climb. I met Scotty Redhelmet and chatted. In doing so, I lost the motivation to climb as it was getting late and cold. The regular crowd shuffles in on the cliffs and it becomes too distracting for my liking.

I have to be more antisocial and more disciplined. Plan to climb tomorrow on ATGR and Juice, to make up for today. Two days on, one day off, one day on, one day off is a good pattern for climbing.

Day 4 since coming back to climbing

Met Herb, have chat. Hard to be motivated after 3 days straight without climbing.

Climbing time Approximately 15:00-1700

Warm-up climb: Halva
Working climb: ATGR
Fatigue Climb: Past the Bosch x 3
Halva with Red Backpack

Total climbs: 6 all clean

Taichi Breathing works for recovery.

Rest Days

This is the third day in a row that I haven't climb. It gets harder and harder to get back on the rock after the second day. I should only have one rest day between climbs and not let it get past two rest days in a row, or my demons will come to get me.

Uni Results
=============

CLB021 ESL CURRICULUM STUDIES 1 5
CLB320 STUDIES IN LANGUAGE 5
EDB002 T & L STUDIES 2: DEVELOPMENT & LEARNING 4
EDB031 FIELD STUDIES 1: DEV & LRN IN FLD (SEC) S

Not bad considering that I spent a week in hospital for a kidney operation and my Blue Card which certifies that I am not a paediphile by Queensland Police and the Working with Children Commission arrived after the first block of prac was finished. So I started and completed my prac later than everyone else. It's been a really disruptive semester. I am glad that I passed EDB002. I resent being treated like a primary school kid in a university unit. I shouldn't have gone to lectures, but still I wrote in my essay that I hated this subject so much that it has taught me to turn it into a positive by studying hard for it so that I don't ever have to do it again. Maybe that's why I got a 4. As long as I pass these subjects, I don't really care what marks I get because I already know from prac that I could teach.

============
Phase 2 of 8 in learning taichi by video started.

Climbing Log

3rd day of climbing since the come-back

Climbing time: approximately 14:00 - 17:00
Warm-up climb: Past the Bosch
Working climb: ATGR - 1 fall + 1 rest

Approximately 30 min break

Working climb: ATGR - 2 rests
Fatigue climbs: Past the Bosch x 2
Fatigue climbs: Halva with red Backpack on - 1 fall

おのれ道(みち) :My Own Path

Lyrics from the ending song of the anime "Gokusen"

おのれ道(みち) :My Own Path

泣(な)き声(ごえ)あげて

人(ひと)は皆(みな)生(う)まれるの

この世(よ)で背負(せお)う

幾重(いくえ)の悲(かな)しみや

心(こころ)の痛(いた)み

辛(つら)いから

一人(ひとり)で震(ふる)える日々(ひび)は

私(わたし)の両手(りょうて)が掃(は)ききれないは

険(けわ)しい山(やま)はおのれ道(みち)

振(ふ)り返(かえ)らずに進(すす)め

---

My Translation (line by line)

Crying voices are rising.

Persons all being born of

this generation are burdened with

multitudes of sorrow and

heartaches

that comes out of bitterness.

My lonely, shivering days,

both my hands cannot brush away.

The steep mountain that is my own path;

I can move on, by not looking back.

---

Translation from the anime

Everybody cries

When being born

It’s because life in this world is burdened with

Repeated sadness and

distress

Bringing bitterness to everybody

The days I trembled alone

Cannot be swept away by my hands

Even if my fate looks like leading to a steep mountain,

I will keep going forward, never looking back.

Decontruction & Reconstruction

I feel physically fudged from yesterday's climbing. My body is becoming more solid again, especially my forarms. I am in the process of deconstructing myself as a climber; forget everything I ever known about climbing and rebuilding it from the beginning. What is hard to deprogram is fear, but I think I will be successful and lead on natuarl again. This mean that I will need some successful air-time and fall on lead eventually. The falls will come with my current mindset of indifference to everything I do. My climbing is much stronger now than my last attempt at coming back when I had a stent in my kidney and I was pissing blood.

My insomnia was getting worse last night as I was thinking self-destructive thoughts, but then I thought of the time when I met Marcia on the bus and we talk about meaningless shit that made us both laugh. It was an event that has no particular significance but the funny discussion just made it better. I am beginning to relax more now and become more sensitive to the wind, the sunshine and the natural elements that are hidden in this synthetic landscape of the city again. One day I will shut out this silent solioquy inside my head and feel nothing but the emptiness of the cosmos.

Table Tennis with Obaasan & Ojiisan

I don't know what time I fell asleep last night; maybe it was between 3:00 to 4:00 a.m. in the morning but I managed to wake up before 9:00 a.m. I played 2 hours of table tennis with the old people. They're not bad. As long as they give me a work-out, then I am happy with it. This is my only means of aerobic exercise. My forehand and single backhand went in more often at the end because I was just resting the bat on my fingers and my wrist is relaxed. This allows me to put more spin on the ball as I flicked the wrist at the end of the shot. My double backhand is improving and the version with the side follow-through allows me to place it anywhere on the table with power and accuracy. I haven't used my straight-drive double backhand with the upward follow-through yet. This is an even more powerful shot with a lot of top spin. Even if it hits the net, it would just crawl over with the spin and power behind it. Apparently all my serves were illegal because I didn't toss the ball high enough before I served. That is something for me to work on. Now that my forehand shots are going in, I could also try the smash next time as well. Hahahahah (evil laugh) watch out next time, Obaasan, Ojiisan!!!!.

Got home at 13:30; had a shower; ate lunch and program the first movements of taijiquan into myself.

Climbed at 15:30 finished 17:30 Total: 4 Climbs

Quick warm-up climb: Halva

Working climb: ATGR 2 rests

Warm down and fatigue climbs: Past the Bosch; Past the Bosch - 1 rests

I am afraid that the part of me that wants to die will come back. It's probably the cause of this imsomnia and my natural reaction to this is to take part in all these activities. I've been told that I know more than I realize.

Taijiquan for recovery

I still woke up late this morning. I have to get my body clock back into synch. It was too late for climbing. My arms were still sore from yesterday anyway. The day hasn't been wasted though as I did some errands which I had scheduled for other days. I hope to climb tomorrow.

I am thinking of relearning the 24 simplified taijiquan form so that I may recover quicker from these hard sessions. The regulated breathing will replenish the body with the needed oxygen. I tried some moves last night from the video. I have forgotten most of the moves but my body remembered. It will be easy. Chen style new form routine 2 taijiquan looks good but it is too long and too explosives for my needs at the moment. I'll learn it some other time.

The Re-program

I was suppose to play table tennis with the old people today, but again I slept in. I must start to program myself into the required routine before semester starts or I will struggle. I will concentrate on making a habit of what I wanted to do and that way all the bad habits will be overwritten. It sounds easier than it really is.

Having slept in, I decided to go climbing instead. Before climbing, my mind was dull and my thoughts wondered and I struggled with the decision on wether to go or not. Procrastination starts to set in.

Finally, I made it to the cliffs. I started on the usual warm-up climb. After that, instead of doing laps of these easier climbs like I normally do in my multiple attempts at a rockclimbing come-back, I decided to work on a harder climb. In the past when I was a better climber,I did laps on this climb but now I could barely remember the moves. Purely relying on techniques, I struggled up it for two hours. Techniques are useless, if the strength or physical fitness isn't there to execute them. In the end, I summited with many rests. I then set up on an easier grade climb which I powered through with one rest. As I was about to climb the warm-down climb with my back pack on, my hands stung whenever I touched the rock. I climbed one metre and decided to bail. The pain was too overwhelming. My hands were red and sore.

It took more than three hours to do three climbs, but I was happy. For the first time in a long time, I felt the exaltation that comes with climbing for the first time. My mind is refreshed, my body is exhausted. Tomorrow I will climb again.