Dark Horse 2013

Dark Horse 2013

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

(Final)ly is Over!

So this past Saturday was Dark Horse #3. Everyone was super stoked and excited to come fly in for this competition...which was stacked in both womens and mens! Even I was stoked for this comp! But unfortunately, finals week sucked out my soul.

You laugh, but literally I could not even climb a v4 on Saturday. It was horrible! I wound up withdrawing from the competition, which I have never done, even when I'm injured. I figured it was pointless to keep climbing because I am so susceptible to injury. Why beat myself down more when my body was already beaten down by 3 all nighters and some horrible tests? So instead of competing, I cheered on my friends and got some great tacos with Natasha Barnes and Steve Briggs.

Even though I didn't do well on Saturday, I would like to give myself props for such a horrendous semester. But seriously, my schedule was insane. Not only did I coach 5-6 days a week, I took 17 credits, trained for crossfit, trained for climbing, and had some time do some competitions and a paleo challenge.

Here's a little look at what my schedule was like...

6:45am- Wake up, shower, eat, and all that good stuff in between
7:35-8:50am- Anatomy+Physiology lecture....aka nap because it was 7 friggin 30 am
9:00-11:00am- Crossfit (or homework because we all know that got done over the weekend)
11-11:30am- Drive to other campus
11:30-12:20pm- Fitness for life...aka doodling fat people as my notes (yes 'as' them)
12:30-1pm- Lunch
1-2:50pm- Kinesiology Lab
3-4pm- Drive to work and potentially take a quick nap in my car
4-7pm- Coach
7:15-9pm- Climb
9:30-10pm- Make Food, unless I ate dinner before climbing
10:30- Bed

...and that was my Monday! woo what a great start to a week...........unfortunately just about everyday looked like this.

Despite the fact that my schedule was hectic, I still accomplished so many things! And I did fairly well in my classes. I am proud of what I have been able to accomplish...but I will never have a schedule like this again...ever. Cheers to a month off and a spring semester full of advanced personal training, art, sport skill classes, and rock climbing competitions!

I also have gained some pretty cool strengths this past semester. Below are some recent strengths I have developed in the past 3 months. Enjoy!





Friday, December 7, 2012

One Year

I cannot believe that it has been one year since I was diagnosed tenosynovitis in my ring fingers...a whole year!! This week marks not only the 1 year mark of my injury, but the 6 month mark of when I began climbing again (June 2012). This week also marks when I began crossfit 6 months ago. Although my fingers are not fully healed, I am making great progress for a full recovery!

This week also marks the first week where I was able to climb on crimps again with no tape! I have been able to warm up/cooldown without tape, but I decided to try climbing some crimps like these on v3-v5's in the climbing gym, on all wall angles. No pain! I do have to admit that the next day my fingers felt sore, like a sore muscle would feel. So I am not going to climb again for a couple more days. However, this is still progress in my eyes!
 


Not only are my fingers getting better, but I feel tremendously strong! I am able to lift some pretty heavy weights in crossfit, and also do some muscle ups! Here is a little video of some of my muscle up practice:

Now that my recovery is going well, I can finally focus on climbing hard again. Last year, all of my weaknesses were due to an imbalance of musculature in my body. Now that I am doing crossfit, this is not a problem anymore. I feel very powerful on the wall and I can make moves that I could never do before.

Now, my strengths from last year have become my weaknesses. However these are easy fixes such as power endurance training and specific grip strength training. If my fingers stay healthy, these things should attained in time to reach my goals!

I'd like to share my goals for the upcoming months. I have some for climbing, for crossfit, and overall health. I feel that my life is more balanced when I create goals that are not always climbing-specific. I like crossfit and I really want to get better at it. I also care about my health much more than I ever have. So here is my list...I'd like to achieve all of my goals (except for competition scores) by the end of January.

Climbing:
- Make finals for the remaining Dark Horse competitions
- Place top 15 in both ABS/SCS Nationals
- Strive to climb with no tape by February
- Work on pinch/sloper strength
- Practice Dyno's as a part of my technical training
- To climb outside again

Crossfit:
- Increase my metcon (metabolic conditioning) so that I can finish workouts faster/more efficiently
- Learn how to kip/butterfly with pull ups
- Learn/Execute proper form for all lifts
- Learn how to do double unders; get 10 in a row
- No whining/complaining

Overall Health
- Do not overtrain, listen to body
- Perform stretching/recovery exercises everyday
- Do not get injured
- Eat a modified Paleo diet (consists of Paleo with a little more carbs that can be from some grains and rice)
- Take at least 2 rest days a week


Now that I have it all written down, I hope to start working on these goals! Training all of these things without over training is a delicate balance, but seeing as I am going on 3 months with no injuries I think I can do it!


Monday, November 19, 2012

A New Chapter

The last time I posted, I was right smack in the middle of my Paleo challenge. Well, my Paleo challenge ended today! For a quick review of what Paleo is: Eating meats, nuts, veggies, seeds, and fruit consisting of 40% carbohydrates, 30% fat, and 30% protein. No grains, legumes, dairy, or processed foods are allowed.

I want to give you just a quick rundown on how the diet affected me. Coming from a 65% carbohydrate (mainly grains), 15% protien, and 20% fat (mainly unsaturated) ratio, I knew that I might run into some bumps along the road with this new makeup of percentages. However for the first month I felt really no changes. I felt energetic and excited about cooking new things and trying new recipes. But about 4 weeks ago this began to change, and I began to feel really tired. I felt really foggy actually. As if I could not respond quickly to what was going on. I found out recently that my ph balance was really alkaline, being almost an 11 on the scale, where humans should be between 6.5-7.5. I'm guessing this is because I took out grains and pasta, which were the only acidic things that I was really eating. However I am constantly learning more about the pH scale and am just going to experiment with implementing different foods into my diet until I find what will make me feel better (or what is making me feel worse).

I think coming out of this challenge I am going to eat a small amount of grains/starches to see if this "fog" goes away. I think that it will, but it may take a couple of weeks. What I like about this paleo challenge is that it has helped me kick my sweet habit! I have no real craving for frozen yogurt, candy, or chocolate anymore. Pretty cool actually. I also feel much better eating foods without high fructose corn syrup (which is in basically everything now, so shopping can get frustrating)

Even though I felt I was in a fog for the past few weeks, I have made some amazing progress! Not only did I get my first muscle up, but I can do three strict muscle ups in a row on gymnastic rings. I can also deadlift 280lbs! Below is a chart of my before and after measurements. Keep in mind that I stayed a consistent 139lbs throughout the entire challenge.

Moving on with crossfit and climbing, I am seeing significant changes in my strength and finger health. I competed in this past weekend's Dark Horse, placing 6th, and realized that my fingers are doing pretty well. Even though my grip strength and power endurance was significantly weak, I noticed that my fingers are healed enough for me to begin (very slowly) training these aspects of climbing again!

Going forward I am going to continue with a mainly Paleo diet, crossfit, and climbing and add in some slight climbing specific training. My hope is that I can be strong and healthy enough to compete in both climbing and crossfit competitions this coming year!

End of Paleo!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

First Climbing Competition In 11 Months!

Last weekend I competed in the first Dark Horse competition of the season. This was also my first competition in 11 months!! In November of 2011 I competed in the Dark Horse which was my first and last competition of the '11/'12 season. I placed 2nd there, and I was feeling really strong. But I unfortunately felt the effects of my over training three weeks after.

Last weekend was what I consider the real test to see how well my fingers are recovering. I was really nervous about doing a redpoint qualifying round because I wasn't sure how my fingers would hold up with 3 hours of climbing...plus a finals round. Especially with all hard climbs. The longest bouldering session I have had since I began bouldering again in late August had been an hour and a half long and consisted of projecting a v8, climbing v5's, and rope climbing 5.10. Even though I feel that I have all of my power back, I am lacking in the power endurance range. Knowing that made me even more nervous to climb hard.

However, my fingers held up through the entire day! ...with tape of course. But nevertheless, it felt great to compete. My scores were low in the qualifying round because I was trying not to push it too hard on my fingers. I also had poor power endurance and only had enough gas in the first hour to climb hard. I went into finals in 8th place, but I am so happy that I was able to climb hard for three whole hours!

In finals I was definitely feeling tired. But it felt great to climb in front of a crowd again and the climbs were so much fun! I think that one of the most satisfying and exciting things in life is having a crows cheer for you. I felt as if life made sense again. It was great to compete against many of my friends that I had not seen last season, and to meet new friends as well. I think that I either placed 4th or 5th in finals. Scores were not posted for those not in the top three, but I came to this conclusion after talking with my competitors.

Whether I came in 4th or 5th doesn't really matter in the long run. What matters is that I climbed with no further injury and helped put on a great show for those watching; which is one of my all time favorite things to do. I also got some great photos/video of me climbing!

Hopefully I will be able to write more posts about competitions this year! So psyched to be back!
Thanks to Jordan Shipman from Louder Than 11 for the great highlight video and Natalia Boltukhova from Metrorock for the great photos!


Highlight Video:
Dark Horse 2013 Series 4 Round 1 Highlights from Louder Than Eleven on Vimeo.

Photos: (more on darkhorseseries.com)








Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Recovery Month 9 and 1/2

I cannot believe that I have been recovering from this injury for 9 and a half months now. That is crazy! Obviously this tendovaginitis had been building for quite a long time before I could feel the full effect of the damage. When I did it was already too late...like every climber's nightmare.

After taking a full 6 months off from climbing and seeing various doctors/trying many different remedies, I found myself able to climb again in June! I began on easy routes, then easy bouldering in August. With a combination of crossfit, a couple of hard climbing days a week, and lots of rest for my fingers, I found today that I am back to where I was last September! Last week I sent a v8 in the gym and yesterday I was able to climb all of the v6's in an hour. The pain in my fingers while climbing has gone from constant, to every 10 minutes, to every 5 minutes, and now to every 2 minutes. I am hoping that with slow progression, this pain will completely subside.

So with this recent breakthrough, what comes next? Well in my last post I spoke about how I was shifting my focus to my nutrition and overall fitness. I truly believe that if I can get a good routine going with these two aspects of my life, it will have dramatically great effects on my climbing. I figure that this will help my fingers recover and help me reach my big goal for the year.

My big goal of 2012: To make a full recovery in my fingers by December...and to stay un-injured.

December 3rd of 2011 was the first day I had felt the pain in full force. I am expecting this recovery to last one full year (2 and 1/2 more months to go), so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! Until then, I am going to focus on climbing 2-3 days a week and doing crossfit 3-4 days a week.

...
 
A week and a half ago I began my paleo diet challenge. Right now I feel as if my body is detoxing. I do not feel very energetic while working out and I sometimes get headaches. But I knew from the start that this would happen to me. I also know that this will most likely go away within the next week or so. It is just my body's response to such a drastic change in diet.

With this diet I am going to keep close tabs on my body fat percentage and document my results. I had a skin fold caliper test done the other day to see (roughly, since this test is not completely accurate) what percent of body fat I have. The test said that I have 18% body fat. So my fat percentage is somewhere in the vicinity of that.

These are my body shots from Day 1 of paleo. I am going to compare these with the future photos I will take at the end of the challenge.




Psyched for what the rest of 2012 has to bring me! I am going to do my best to make sure that does not involve more injuries!
 

Sunday, September 9, 2012

The Paleo Challenge

For the past month I have stated that I was thinking about going to the SBC pro in Seattle at the end of this month. Well I have decided not to go. Simply put, I feel that my fingers are just not ready for a competition that requires me to climb hard two days in a row. For the past month I have been bouldering v8 in the gym, but I cannot climb hard for at least four days after a bouldering session.  I really just want my fingers to heal appropriately so that I can attend these competitions without any hesitation in the future!

That being said, my main goal for the rest of 2012 is to have my fingers make a full and healthy recovery. I really think that this can be done successfully. Then I will CRUSH in 2013! For some reason I can already feel that 2013 will be a good year!

So what now? 

Do I just sit and wait for my fingers to heal? Of course not. That's way to boring. So I have decided to switch my focus to gaining overall physical fitness of my body. I have already begun to balance my muscles with the crossfit workouts I started three months ago. I have also focused on balancing my bouldering and sport climbing so that all of my climbing muscles are developed properly.

You might be wondering what else an overall physical fitness entails other than the balancing of muscles. Well, along with playing other sports and just being active in general, I think that nutrition is a huge part of physical fitness. Being helthy will not only limit my risk on injury and illness, it will also cut down on some body fat that I have (except not too much; I am already pretty skinny).

The subject of nutrition brings me to the title of this blog post: The Paleo Challenge! Basically, the paelo challenge is a two-month diet/lifestyle change. The Paleo diet is based upon what the Paelo cavemen ate way back in the day (when every caveman was supposedly jacked). Eating on the Paleo diet is basically just eating meat, nuts, veggies, seeds, some fruit, little starch, no sugar, and no dairy. It is also made up of 40% carbohydrate, 30% fat, and 30% protein. This challenge is done through a company called Lurong Living and is strict Paleo, meaning no cheating (cheating is a deduction of points). Cheats include eating legumes, grains, alcohol, and basically anything that is not listed above. However because this is a nation-wide lifestyle challenge, Lurong Living provides supplementary crossfit workouts, resources for documentation of progress, and of course prizes. If I can go three weeks on the challenge I will get $85 worth of fitness gear!

To most, this challenge might seem crazy. But I am also on a team with some of my crossfitting friends and we are going to prepare our weekly meals every weekend. Doing this with other people is really motivating! I am also extremely interested in how this diet is going to affect my body. I have never restricted my eating before, except for when I gave up alcohol and sweets for a short period of time. I wonder how my body will react! Will I feel more energetic? Will I build more muscle? Will I become more lean? Or will I become ill? Will I injure myself?

I can only answer those questions in the way I knew best: experience. I am the type of person that needs to experience things in order to learn. I cannot experience a diet through a powerpoint, just like I cannot experience coaching without actually coaching. Or climbing without actually climbing. I want to feel the changes so that I can share my experience, whether it be good or bad, with other people.

The Paleo Challenge begins on September 17th. I am going to start posting my experiences of being on the diet while I try to crossfit and climb. I am going to pay specific attention to how the diet is affecting my finger recovery, my hypothyroidism, my muscular hypertrophy, and body composition. Hopefully only good things will come from this experience!

For more information on the Lurong Living Paleo Challenge, click here.

Friday, August 31, 2012

Awareness

As my last year of being in the teens is climbing to a close, I'd like to reflect on this year. Looking back, this year has been, to put it lightly, a total shit show. I began the year with a heart procedure to get rid of my SVT, endured some tendonitis and ended up taking a full six months off from climbing for tenosynovitis in my ring fingers. Not only that, but I had other responsibilities such as going to school full time and coaching two climbing teams. Oh, and I broke my ankle walking...that one was harsh Mother Nature.

I can sit here and complain about this whole year and how horrible my luck has been, but I am not going to do that. I will not do that because, simply put, this year was not so horrible. I had the most incredible learning experiences and would never have the knowledge I have right now if it was not for this year. Being able to feel the loss of climbing, feel the stress of full time school, teach while my climbing was impaired, and endure whatever else was thrown at me, has taught me some huge life lessons.

One of these lessons is that I am actually good at climbing. Not only am I good at climbing, but I have a good understanding of how the muscles respond to training and training in general. I understand how it feels to be injured and out of the game, which is huge when relating to others. Especially to others that I coach. I also am a very good goal setter. I have been able to achieve every goal I have written down since I decided to seriously train for climbing back in 2010. That excludes this past season of competition goals because of injury. But those goals are now for 2013.

But that is not the biggest thing I learned. The biggest thing I learned is how to be aware of my body. Not only how my body responds to training, but when my body needs rest. I've learned how to be more health conscious and what/how much food to eat. I've learned that even the slightest mistake could ruin my chances of recovery. I've even been more conscious of my stress levels and mental psyche. All of this is such a powerful tool I've never tapped into before! I am now learning when it is good to listen to my body instead of pushing through pain and unmotivation.

Knowing how to be aware also comes with difficult decisions. One of these decisions is whether or not I go to the SBC Pro competition at the end of September. I am financially stable enough to go and I have the ability to climb hard enough to compete. So why not, right? Well the fact is I am still recovering and it would totally suck to mess that whole thing up. But the real question is: Can I give up if I feel pain? Maybe that is an easy "yes" for most people, but that is actually a very difficult question for me to answer. I have been thinking about this question for a couple of weeks now...and I'm not sure if I can give up.

You see, I am what I consider an intense individual. I give 110% every time, no matter what it is. But I especially give my all when it is a competition. I just love to compete and I know that I am also pretty stubborn. I mean, I had an SVT attack during the qualifying round of the 2011 National Championships and I kept climbing...for 4 more climbs. Then I had to go to the hospital. In retrospect, it was a great decision because I was able to qualify for the Vail World Cup. But my heart did not require a prolonged rest period. I even competed at the Nor'Easter four days after having my heart procedure! But my fingers do need rest and if I am able to take myself out of the competiton completely, I will not get injured. I'll have nothing to "give my all" for.

So that is my biggest decision at the moment and I have to make that decision within the next few days. But looking at my future goals, I want to do well at Nationals. If I rest/recover now and spend my time practicing my awareness, I will crush in 2013. There will always be more competitions and more opportunities for me to succeed. I want to win someday and I cannot do that if I am plagued with injuries. So I'll keep you all posted!

Also, here is a photo update of my climbing/crossfit training. Not much difference from the last considering it has only been a month, but I can tell that my chest is more toned.

Monday, July 9, 2012

Summer Recovery

The last time I posted on this blog, I had briefly talked out my plans for getting physically fit. I am happy to say that I have had a lot of progress! I am also excited to say that I have had NO PAIN while climbing!! This is such a huge step for me!

Climbing has not been the only thing I have had progress in either. Six weeks ago I could just barley run a mile at 5mph. Now, with the help of an inhaler, I can run three miles at 6mph. Now that I feel that I can actually run well, I am starting to like it. I run a lot in crossfit and I also run through the side streets and park near my apartment. I can tell that my midline is getting thinner and I am pretty excited. Not that I need to lose weight, but it is nice to have a less bulky build. I feel lighter and more healthy.

I also said before that I was going to start crossfit. I took what is called an "on-ramp" class, where we learn different lifts and workouts required of us. So far I have been doing crossfit for five weeks, three days per week. I can already tell that my body is getting stronger. The first day after our on ramp was over, a staff member moved me from their "below beginner" level to their "advanced" level. I'm psyched because my workouts include more complicated lifts, chest to bar pull ups, and handstand pushups! It is nice to have a challenge that is not climbing. I feel that crossfit is another outlet for me and can help my competitive climbing. Ultimately with crossfit, I think that my body will be in a more balanced physical state which will help both my climbing and mental state.

I have also made large strides in changing my diet. I am trying to eat three balanced meals a day with fruits/veggies mixed in as snacks. So far, my only issue is cutting down on dark chocolate and frozen yogurt. Those sweets are my vice and when I get stressed I tend to eat a lot of it! However so far I have been pretty good (we'll see how that goes on my vacation next week). 

With all of this progress in my life, I feel pretty good! Actually, I feel much happier than I have in the past nine months or so. It is nice because I now have some outlets that are challenging for me. Since I am doing all of these things, I am trying to document all of my progress. Along with this blog, I keep a workout calendar and two journals. I also document photo and take video of me climbing so that I can see my progress. I think that most of my problems stemmed from the fact that I could not see that I was progressing in the sport.
Below is a pretty interesting photo I put together showing my physique change in the past seven months. My shoulders have definitely shrunk, but now I look a little slimmer.





Last but not least, this is my climbing blog so I do want to talk a little about my climbing progress. As I said I have been documenting my progress on video. Six weeks ago I was getting pumped out at the end of a 5.10. Now I am making good progress on a (finger friendly) 5.12d circuit that we have up in our training room. Not only that, but I have flashed a couple v6's and got to the last clip on a 5.12 second go! But that is not the best part: I have NO PAIN. I can't even believe it. I don't even have pain the next day! Even still, I am trying to take it easy. I am only climbing twice a week and the last time I climbed was July 1st. I am also taping my fingers. I really do not want another injury, especially while I am trying to recover.

Below is a link to my climbing video documentation. I can see my progress through the weeks and I welcome you to check it out as well. I am psyched to see what the rest of the summer holds for me!!

Video Progress

Thursday, May 31, 2012

True Inspiration

Exactly a year ago, I was in a hotel room in Vail, Colorado anticipating the qualifying round of the Vail World Cup that would take place in the morning. I was the third youngest female competing. I had skipped my high school graduation to go to Vail saying, "I have to go; what if I never have the chance again?" However in reality I felt like this was the beginning to my professional climbing career. I envisioned myself competing in world cups for years to come.

Unfortunately, I did not foresee a finger injury lasting six months and counting. These past six months have been the most physical, mental, and emotional taxing months that I have ever endured in my entire life. Transitioning from high school to college, moving in an out of multiple places, having minor heart surgery, sinus infections, a broken ankle, having my car constantly break down, and getting asthma attacks have not been helping my non-climbing experience. Through this time period, I felt like I had reached a breaking point and then just kept drifting away. I became so broken down that I felt like I was stuck and could never pick myself up. Things like reading climbing books, doing p90x, eating right, and just being fit in general didn't seem appealing anymore. I felt pretty depressed for few months. Although recently I have realized something: These past six months I would not trade for the world.

You are probably thinking why? All of that sounds pretty shitty. But through this time I have learned more about myself than I ever would have if I had kept climbing. Becoming a pessimist and hating the world is something that I just needed to experience. I needed to realize who I really am and why climbing means so much to me. Even though these past several months have been terrible, I recently have had the time to rest from most of my stressors. These past couple of weeks has let me reflect on these months. Turning my optimism back on, I have realized that life has become truly inspiring.

This "true inspiration" I am talking about is not just my life, but life as a whole. I have had the chance to talk to people who have gone through things that I feel are much worse than what I am going through. With this time I have had the chance to experience intense emotions, which really can change a perspective if you let it. I have been able to look at life in a more delicate manner and also look at my accomplishments. For the first time I am actually proud of all my climbing accomplishments instead of feeling that I am still not good enough. Through this time I have been able to look at myself and realize that I love competition and have an unwavering motivation to do something great. This motivation is what made me take this time to learn, appreciate life, and be inspired by it.

In recent news, I am still injured. I have started climbing jug hauls, which is great, but not satisfying. I have decided to broaden my fitness horizons. I recently began running, which is something I used to (and still sort of) hate. I also signed up for a 4 month crossfit membership. My crossfit training begins Monday. For the first time I am getting excited to try something physical that does not involve climbing! However I would love to try trad climbing this summer. So if anyone is in the New England area and wants a trad buddy, I will totally come! You will just have to teach me some stuff.

To conclude this lengthy blog post, I would like to thank my friends who have supported me through these past several months. If I had never taken the time off from climbing, I would not have become close with many of these people. I also hope that this blog post inspires someone to appreciate life. As much as I hate not climbing, my life really is something great and I feel that I have become a better person because of these past several months. And whether I am able to return to climbing or not, I will find something that I can strive to be the best in.



Friday, April 6, 2012

Bionic Fingers

It has been exactly 4 months since I stopped climbing. I have been to two specialists who have both diagnosed me with chronic tenosynovitis (inflammation of my tendon sheaths). I found out that the original clinical term for this was tendovaginitis...you can see why they decided to change the name. I asked the nurse why it was originally called that and she paused then said "Because when your tendon sheaths are swollen, they sort of fold together and are squishy"... Which also makes me wonder what doctor would ever make the conclusion that inflammation in the tendon sheath should be called tendovaginitis? ... Anyways the new name "tenosynovitis" comes from the word "synovial" as in the type of fluid that builds up in the tendon sheath. I guess if you want to change the original name, tenosynovitis is the second best....I may still call it tendovaginitis...

I have tried climbing only a couple of times since December and it all ends in pain. The first specialist I saw suggested I try massage therapy and acupuncture. The second doctor I saw specializes in inflammation disorders and tendon injuries. He suggested I wear coban, an elastic adhesive tape, and some plastic "pulley protectors". He thinks that by protecting the pulleys, the swelling in those areas will displace itself. I have to wear those things 24/7 for 8 weeks...then after that time period I can try climbing again. However I will have to wear the coban and plastic pulleys for many more months to come. So for now I am wearing these bionic finger protectors and I am going to try acupuncture in a few weeks.

These are my bionic fingers!

Fingers with coban

My plastic pulleys!


Day 3 of pulley protection...swelling gone down??

Saturday, March 24, 2012

March Madness 2012

This weather is crazy! It has been 60-80 degrees for the past two weeks! However I am not so sure how I feel about this nice weather. The warmth and sunshine is great, yet I cannot climb in it. Such a bummer. But you know what I realized? I haven't climbed during the month of March for 4 years!!! This year I have crazy swollen fingers. Last year I tore a collateral ligament in my finger. The year before that I bruised my ulnar nerve (funny bone). The year before that year I had pneumonia! So insane! The month of March just does not like me.

Anyways, yesterday I picked up my camera and went to Lincoln Woods to take some shots. It felt great to get outside and also be around climbers. I shot all in manual for my first time yesterday. I think the shots turned out pretty good! I had to use photoshop to adjust the lighting in one picture. The rest were great and just needed a border. Look below!



Lincoln Woods

Gravity Hits v10

Mosquito Bite

Guide Book Reading

Pocket Rocket v8

Pocket rocket v8

Sunset

V7

Pocket Rocket v8

Gravity Hits v10

Sunday, March 18, 2012

It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better

Last week I got an MRI on my fingers. I got it read just a few days ago and it wasn't very good news. Apparently I have chronic inflammation of all the tendon sheaths in both of my hands. My ring fingers hurt when I crimp because of the pressure I am putting on those fingers while they are swollen. Unfortunately, I do not have a timeline for when this injury will end. There is also no cure other than rest. However I am going to try massage therapy and acupuncture. I am also going to get a 2nd and maybe even a 3rd opinion about my fingers. Maybe someone will have a good idea that may help me return back to climbing sooner than later!

Even though life is really difficult and dull without climbing, I am trying to do the best I can to be happy. I strongly believe that things get worse before they get better.

I also believe that the recovery process of an injury is the same as one dealing with a illness or death. Last year, I created a book in my AP studio art class that illustrated my perspective on dealing with a death of some sort. I looked at this book today and I feel that I am going through the same recovery process now. There are no words, but each pages describes a different phase of tragedy and recovery.

Below is the illustrated book I am referring to. I am not going to explain the pages because I feel that the recovery process should be associated with emotions, not words. Therefore, everyone should interpret the book as they see it. That is the best part about artwork!










Wednesday, February 29, 2012

3 Months and Coaching

So it has been about 3 months since I stopped climbing...with the exception of a few days of attempting V1's. I feel like a broken record right now. I am just blogging about injury after injury. I feel like it is kind of boring. I am injured, still. I have no clue when I will be able to climb again. Maybe June? September? Good news though: I got my air cast off!! Whoop!

But I am not going keep blogging about my injuries today.

Youth ABS Nationals is on Friday and I am SO PSYCHED!! I have been working really hard with the climbing team and I feel that our team is ready to go. The team kids have worked so hard for this weekend and I know that they will do well. I am so interested to see how they place in comparison to the rest of the nation. This weekend will be a big learning curve for my coaching. Just like every other competition, I can earn from the other competitors. I can learn from the other coaches, the rankings, the styles of the climbs, the climbers. I think that going to this competition will help me with both the training of the team and my own training.

Last year was my first year coaching and three of the team kids went to ABS Nationals. Two of the kids placed in the 20's and the other placed 11th. This year, there are four team members from Worcester, two from Hadley. It is not many, but considering how hard our division is, I am very proud. I think that because our divisional was so hard, these kids will do great. Not to mention the training and nationals training camp Shane, Josh and I have put them through.

Last summer, I went to Youth SCS Nationals and stayed with my friends Sydney and Tyson. Tyson really opened my eyes up to what successful team is: Very strong and supportive of one another. Their team camaraderie was unmatchable to the other teams at the event. All of the kids were so proud to be a part of Vertical World Climbing Team. They also supported one another and really acted like some sort of crazy family. These kids didn't have massive ego's either. In fact, they didn't have any egos at all from what I saw. They were just confident competitors who were there to have fun with their friends and family...and crush. 

Seeing the Vertical World Team made me think of what my team could become. I came back to coaching in the fall with a new attitude: helping the kids not only get good at climbing, but to help them become confident, respectable young adults. I tried hard to get the kids decked out in Team Ascension gear, to get them excited about being a part of the team. With the help of the other coaches, I think that we are able to accomplish that and much more. I look at our climbing team and just think, "Wow, I am really proud right now". I can see that these kids care about one another and about climbing. They care about rock climbing lifestyle, not just the competition.

To coach this team make the pain I feel from injury go away. This team is something that I had always wanted, but never had. They are a family-like support group for one another, just as they are teammates and fellow competitors. I feel so accomplished to be a part of building this team. To offer someone else something that I could only dream of is a really, really great feeling.


Honestly, I think this climbing team is one of the only things getting me through this hard time of injury. I am glad to be a coach and I am glad to be working with some of the most supportive people I have ever met. Through everything I have gone through in the past couple of years, I never thought that coaching would be this gratifying.

Team Ascension! (There are a few missing, but Optimus Prime is serving as their replacement)

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Accident Prone

I always thought that I was invincible, even when walking. I mean, who doesn't feel confident while walking? You always expect to have your feet hit the ground and to keep you moving to your destination. Well, that is where my confidence took a big blow the other night. I was demonstrating to a climbing team member how to properly drop knee. As I got off the foot holds that were 2 inches from the ground, I hit the padded floor wrong and rolled my ankle. What followed shortly was a giant cracking sound as I collapsed to the floor.

Well long story short, I fractured my ankle. Usually when someone rolls an ankle, their ligaments stretch which produces a sprain. In my case, my ligaments are "so healthy" (says my doctor) that instead of stretching, they stayed tight and quite literally chopped a piece of my bone off. So I have what is what is called an evulsion fracture. Now along with my tendovaginitis, I have a nice air cast to wear for four weeks.

I used to think my friend Matt was the definition of accident prone...I think I just proved that wrong.

Seriously though, this is super lame. I am really, really bummed out right now. I just started P90X two weeks ago! However, I can't be depressed about this situation. I mean, how could I have prevented this injury? Also, I can still do P90X. Just not the plyometrics (That's okay though; I hated the plyo anyways).

When things like this happen, I feel like the most important thing to do is to keep your head up and stay optimistic. My motto since I was ten has been "shit happens". Really, it does and there is nothing you can do about it. Just make the best of it.

Through these past two months I have learned and experienced much more than I ever have while climbing. I have been hanging out with a really inspiring group of friends that I met at the gym. I would have never became friends with them if I didn't get injured because I was always so focused on training. They are truly a great support group. I have never had such a great group of friends like them, and it means a lot to me that these people care. I also just moved into a new hall at my school with a bunch of really great people. Being sociable with all of these people and focusing on things like coaching are what is keeping me inspired. Coaching has been the most amazing experience these past couple of months. The teams are doing amazing and I really feel accomplished when I see these kids succeed. You can say that I am living through them in a way, but I feel that I am more proud of what I am building and sharing in their pride.

Now, going back to the "shit happens" motto...I really decided that it was going to be my motto when I lacerated my spleen. When I was ten I tried to dyno to a tree branch and missed it. I wound up falling ten feet down to the ground and punching myself in the spleen. My mother drove me to the hospital where I was life flighted to a larger hospital all while going into shock. I had a 3rd degree laceration of my spleen (one more degree of hurt and I would have ruptured it). The doctor said that if I had gotten to the hospital just 10 minutes later, I would have died. After this incident, I realized that there are some things in life you cannot control. Yes, life can get frustrating at times; but since then I have always felt that life should be lived optimistically. Living through the hard times will just make you stronger and more knowledgeable. If you try and be optimistic, you will gain a lot from the experience. That is how I feel right now. My year of being 19 is off to a rough start, but I have learned so much from my friends, my diversity in workouts, coaching, and the climbing books that I have read. Even though this is a rather depressing situation, I am making the best of it. This has been the longest time I have taken off from climbing, but hopefully I can grow stronger from this. I mean, I am only 19. I am lucky that is just a stupid fracture rather than a life supported coma.

Anyways, that is really a day in the life of Melissa Godowski. I also decided that I am going to go pro at guitar hero. Surprisingly, it is good rehab for my fingers!
(notice I am wearing one 5.10 chase shoe...just in case things get crazy)

Doin' the finger rehab and rockin' the boot!

Too bad I won't be competing at ABS Nationals this year. Oh well, there is always next year.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

P90X

So I have been going to hand therapy for the last two weeks. I have been seen by multiple hand therapists at one time as they work together trying to further diagnose my condition. I guess my injury isn't something they see everyday. One of the therapists said that she was just so excited to work with someone other than an old person. I laughed at that and I really am happy that this Umass hand therapy office has taken such an interest in me! It is like I am a star!

Unfortunately, my current diagnosis does not seem very good. My intrinsic muscles in my hand are apparently exhausted from climbing so much. My extrinsic muscles in my hand are also very under-developed. With those two issues, all of the stress has been placed on my fingers and my tendons sheaths essentially became destroyed. They therapists think that I have adhesions built up in my tendon sheaths, which is constricting my tendon. So when I crimp, it hurts. When I am not putting weight on my ring fingers, it is fine. That being said, they do not think that i will be climbing until March. Super sad face. I also apologize if I am not using the correct medical terminology; this is all very new to me.

Although I am injured, I feel like I can take away a lot from this experience. I have read a lot of books about climbing and have been putting more of my focus on coaching. Last week, I decided to start P90X. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a 90 day at-home fitness program that gets the body "ripped". I strongly believe that if I go through this program correctly, I will get in what might be the best shape of my life. I have always wanted to try this workout, but climbing has always gotten in the way. Now that I have the time, I am dedicating myself to this fitness program and also to a nutrition plan. My goal is to prove that P90X can really give you a "ripped body". I also want to lose 2% of my body fat. I am at 17% now but would like to be at 15% for when I begin climbing again. I decided to cut out all of the saturated fats and bad sugars that I am eating. So bye, bye skittles, burgers, cheese, ice cream, cookies, etc!! (We shall see how long this lasts). Essentially I just want to be more healthy.

So it is week 2 of P90X for me! The first week was brutal. However I am already feeling stronger. The P90X instructor also advises us P90X-ers to take photos on day 1, 30, 60, and 90. Here is a picture from my day one. Maybe we will see results? I am hoping so because I have lost a bit of muscle from all of my non-climbing these past 8 weeks. Also, I hope you don't mind my crazy attire.

Day 1 of P90X
I am somewhat looking forward to the next 12 weeks of P90X! I am doing it with a few friends and it has actually been quite fun! The friends and the load of workouts is helping me keep my mind off of the fact that I can't compete in any national or world championship events this year. Oh well that's life. Hopefully by the time these 90 days are over I will be healed and ready to climb again!

Monday, January 9, 2012

Diagnosis

I have been on a break from climbing for 5 weeks now...this is killing me. I haven't taken off this much time since I was 17. For the past 3 weeks I haven't done any other strengthening exercises other than aerobics and core. I keep catching myself thinking: How did this happen?

So today I went to a hand specialist. I went to Dr. Dietz last spring for my past finger injury. He sees a lot of climbers and was able to easily diagnose my finger and then send me on my way with a taping method that let me train for the Vail World Cup. At the office I had him look at my two ring fingers, my right middle finger, and my left wrist. He told me that I have tendovaginitis in both ring fingers and in my wrist. My wrist was originally diagnosed as a muscle hernia (Dr. Dietz laughed at this...apparently he doesn't like Dr. Barret, whom I saw for my wrist last month). However, by resting and not doing any pulling on it has allowed my wrist to heal enough to do pull-ups again! My middle finger was diagnosed with pulley strain (which is something I have always struggled with in that finger).

To further explain tendovaginitis, it is the inflammation of the tendon sheaths. This occurs from overuse. What is odd about my case is that my fingers do not hurt until I actually try and crimp...and I don't close hand crimp. Many who are diagnosed with this usually have trouble making a fist and can be mislead into thinking they ruptured a pulley...so maybe there is hope?

I don't know how long it will take to heal. Dr. Dietz said that it could take up to 6-8 more weeks. Until then, I can experiment with taping, climb lightly to test it, do pull-ups...and just wait it out. I am also going to do occupational therapy.


So again I come to the question: How did this happen? Well obviously overuse. But really I had three major flaws in my training:

1: I overlooked the fact that it was fall and that I would be climbing outside on the weekends. So during my training weeks I didn't take the weekends into consideration.

2: I didn't do any antagonist muscle training. This is probably the most important thing that I have overlooked. The fact that I knew I had to do antagonist muscle training but didn't because I was unsure what to do...just plain stupid. Even though I was in school, I should have made the time to at least look it up. Not only is this important for me, but it is important for the climbing team kids as well.

3: I didn't rest enough. I heard a great saying the other day, "You don't get stronger on your training days, you get stronger on your rest days." I just don't understand how I messed that up. Looking back I think that I just got over-excited. I tend to gain too much confidence in my body's healing abilities and then over-train. That has been my downfall since I was born. I always get over-confident and will take things to the extreme until something gives. I just need to take a step back and slow down.

As I continue to heal I find myself asking another question: How can I learn from this? And I really mean that. Obviously I haven't learned anything from my past mistakes and I feel that this is the time to really buckle down and force myself to learn. At least I have taken the first step and decided to study exercise science. Now that I am on a break from school, I am reading climbing and training books like crazy! Currently I am reading Training for Climbing and One Move Too Many. I think I can also learn from other coaches and fellow climbers. Being around many talented co-workers has helped me put my efforts into coaching and organizing the team. Overall, I hope to gain much more out of this rest period than the strength and time I have lost.

It pains me to think that I will not be able to compete at ABS Nationals this year. This will be the first time in 4 years I have not competed at a National event. There is a teeny possibility that I may heal in time to compete, but is it really worth it? Is it worth risking my health, money, and time? Honestly that is a question that I am still trying to answer. Maybe I will be stupid and go, maybe I won't. However I am looking forward to having a free summer. Hopefully I can take a trip out to Colorado, other "colder" places, or maybe internationally if the weather is good enough. All thoughts that can't be answered yet, but will in time.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Been Reading A Lot

With a break from school and more free time now that I'm not climbing, I've been doing a lot of reading. I'm actually pretty psyched on all of these books and I'm happy that I'm taking the time to read them. I just feel this information is worth knowing and (forgive me for being nerdy) I am really enjoying reading this stuff.