🍋 Climbing diary #2: When life gives you lemons, etc.

Are the dog days of summer over already? We’re fast approaching summer solstice, but here in London every day is overcast. Sunnier days have been and gone, and my internal monologue is slightly more pessimistic than usual.

I know. If my mood really is causally tied to the weather, why don’t I just pack up shop and hitch a ride down to the Amalfi Coast, buy a plot of arable farmland, and cultivate lemon and olive groves? Well, duh… because… Wait. Honestly, not a terrible idea.

*sips Limoncello*

Focus! This is meant to be a blog about 👉 climbing. 👈

*sips coffee*

Today marks the day that I discovered my body’s physical ceiling for climbing.

Not to be dramatic, but I fear this old dyno-bro has sprayed his last beta… at least until Sunday.

I’ve climbed on and off for about five years now. But injuries, that whole covid thingamajig, and waves of apathy contributed to stagnation. During periods of consistency, I only climbed once or twice a week. By yesterday, I had accumulated 5 climbing sessions over the previous 6 days.

That this was my limit was obvious as of ~5am yesterday morning, when I woke in the night to my left arm painfully pulsing. No, not a heart attack. Just one too many mornings spent shamelessly and physically abusing my body – see: Masochist –, so that one day I can retreat into the jungle to live with the lemurs.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that I’m little more than a fragile bag of meat and bone, and that meat bags like me have limits.

Irrational mind: Which is precisely why, instead of climbing today, let’s cross-train. Football, running, or that whole callisthenics/plyometrics jazz you fantasize about being good at, take your pick.

Rational mind: That’s dumb. You’ll just end up injured if you don’t let your body recuperate.

Irrational mind: Sure, but better to get bEaCH b0dY rEAdÝ for when the sun comes out again.

Rational mind: Oh, shut it. 🙄

Hot take. It can be a net bad thing to be overly motivated.

Motivation, much like a cookie in my line of sight, is fleeting. The trick is to recast those healthy behaviours as habits to where they’re second nature, otherwise what could’ve been part of your lifestyle will just become a flash-in-the-pan period of your life that you’ll have regrets over for not keeping up.

But the thought lingers. Perched sultry in the back of mind like some unwelcome ooze. The worry that my current motivation spike towards climbing / sport / “healthy living” / whatever mightn’t transition into longer term routine.

In the end, worrying about it all serves scant purpose. What counts is squeezing the most out of the lemons that life throws at you.

… and if not turning them into The Good Life™, at least turning them into Limoncello.