After a frustrating 6 months, looping in circles around a seemingly reluctant to heal pulley injury, I'm just reaching the point where things are coming in to place again. After another period of rest and some slow fingerboard progression, I'm getting to the exciting point where I can think about training and pushing myself properly again.

It's so easy to get in to a backwards-forwards cycle with finger injuries, especially during the problematic period when they permit you to climb, but not to your full ability. For those who enjoy pushing themselves, and have expectations of what level they expect to perform at, it can be really challenging to reign in and re-establish the perimeters of difficulty which you should be climbing within. That said, this slow progression of intensity is so important within the recovery process, and so this is a conflict which needs to be navigated one way or another. 

Featured in the videos, are some examples of times in which I have been recently lured astray by this very temptation to push myself at times when I probably shouldn't. Whilst success stories in themselves, I can also safely say that there were times trying these climbs where I was pushing myself beyond what was sensible, and making my finger worse as a result (spot me fiddling around with it whilst trying Chahala!). I guess we're always making compromises when trying to succeed, and perhaps in some cases getting that project done does justify the prolonging of an injury. Ultimately it all comes down to being mindful of the toll being taken on you're body and not getting carried away in the heat of the moment.

It's nice now to be at a point where I can start pushing myself unhindered and get excited for lots of training and climbing in the near future.