Frustrations.

You guys, we all know that I'm not the most proactive/energetic/excited-about-physical-activities person. So, having found something that I not only love and also allowing me to participate in a decent exercise, I have been pretty enthused! And what is this particular activity, you may ask (assuming that you haven't heard my incessant ramblings on the subject)? Climbing. Rock climbing.

Okay, so I'm not the greatest at it. In fact, I'm far from that. But I feel that I have come a long way in the past four or so months that I have been doing it. The first few weeks were spent with a frustrated climbing partner who couldn't focus on my climb for more than 30 seconds at a time while I was struggling to climb up 5.6s and 5.7s (the grades used to sound like bra sizes to me. I have the mind of a 13 year old boy, no big deal). Eventually, I hit my stride as I improved to 5.8s, 5.9s, and finally I'm in the middle of working on all the different levels that can be found in 5.10s!

Because I started out this activity with little-to-no arm strength (let's be honest, NO arm strength) and because I was using my arms in movements that they weren't used to in the least, I got tendinitis in my forearms. Tendinitis sounds a lot worse than it is - The remedy is basically rest, advil around the clock, and icing your arms to get the swelling to go down. And you're good to go! I suffered through that for a few weeks because I had become addicted to climbing and didn't want to rest long enough to let my arms heal.

Eventually the tendinitis went away in my forearms and I was able to climb normally again. However, I believe it is back in my bicep region because not only has it been hurting for the past couple weeks, but I woke up much earlier than my alarm clock this morning to the most intense pain ever. Now, it's back to resting and taking time off of climbing, which I am thoroughly upset about. All I want to do is climb. I think about it most of the time, and I even dream about it. This is going to be torture.

So there you have it. This blog post is a little pointless and is all about me venting, but I hope it also allows my friends to get some insight to how I feel about this new chapter in my life, and how deeply it has been ingrained in me. I love climbing and I think everyone should do it. I've got free guest passes and would love to take anyone willing.

kaythanksbai!