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Clockwise from below:<br />
Caroline enjoying the lead on<br />
Void (E4 6a) at Tremadog, North<br />
Wales. Photo: David Simmonite<br />
Caroline climbing on Bee Wall<br />
in Chattanooga, USA. Photo:<br />
Eddie Gianelloni<br />
Injury allows time to catch<br />
up with some reading.<br />
Photo: Yannick Long<br />
Because I feared to self indulge.<br />
I couldn’t see the difference between<br />
my mind being a little lazy and my<br />
body asking for a break.<br />
Over time I have gained experience,<br />
or perhaps I have learned to accept that<br />
I am not superwoman and my body has<br />
its limits. I can usually feel and decipher<br />
pains that won’t lead to injuries from<br />
pains that must be taken seriously but<br />
that kind of experience, by nature, is<br />
hard to explain. Maybe the first rule<br />
would be to really listen to your body.<br />
To take the time to experience it, and<br />
remember it is just as you focus on a<br />
sense when you taste wine, but focus<br />
on the senses inside your own body.<br />
It is all good and well talking about<br />
experience, but here I am, not climbing<br />
for three weeks now with a partial pulley<br />
in my little pinkie. So what did happen,<br />
and where did I go wrong?<br />
Maybe the first rule<br />
would be to really<br />
listen to your body<br />
Since I stopped competitions five<br />
years ago I have not had one injury, or at<br />
least not a serious one. As I didn’t have<br />
the time pressure of competitions, where<br />
one has to be ready for D-day, I was<br />
usually able to skip one session, or one<br />
week if needed. Of course, the overall<br />
intensity has a lot to do with it, and since<br />
stopping serious structured training<br />
(don’t read this the wrong way, I’m still<br />
training, a lot, just with more days at the<br />
crag and more trips away) my body is<br />
also taking less constant punishment.<br />
James on the other hand has never been<br />
so injured as these days – he’s also never<br />
been as strong. A testament to how little<br />
training he was doing before and how<br />
you perhaps can’t have it all. There is a<br />
lot to say about finding your own body’s<br />
rhythm and balance. It takes time to develop<br />
strength and fitness but, more importantly,<br />
it takes time for your body to<br />
grow strong to cope with such intensity.<br />
Anyone can train hard for a season; very<br />
few manage to train hard for a career but<br />
I’m losing myself… 6<br />
www.climber.co.uk Sep–Oct <strong>2017</strong> 51
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