Gijon: Day 2

A rather eventful, but relaxing, day. We made our first trip to the training "facility" made available to competitors. The bus ride over reminded me of what civilized public transportation is and it was cool to travel the length of the town and check out a slightly different part of it. We passed the Playa de Poninete and after going to the wrong municipal gym (because there was a 2014 IFSC World Championships sign hanging in the front window), were directed to the correct venue, the Pabellon de Deportes Mata-Jove. It is a totally bare-bones facility; you need your own ropes and draws to put up routes. But it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and I warmed up on some easy leads and TR's. My main objective was to loosen things up without causing further injury to my fingers or foot.

We returned via the same bus line but got off near the Cimavilla, a promontory jutting out, fairly close to the older part of town where we had had our Sunday meal (Plaza Mayor). Up until now, I had thought Gijon was nice enough, but nothing to write home about (besides the food). The lovely weather, azure shade of blue of the water and rather lovely views of the main beach and headlands changed my mind.

Plaza del Marques near Cimavilla

Headlands in distance

Elogio del Horizonte

A rather lovely shade of blue

The main beach, Playa de San Lorenzo

Here is a picture of the training facility. Like I said, it is rather "rustic". But I actually enjoyed the little features on the surface, and was able to lead some easy routes despite the broken fingers, so that made me feel better about getting back on long, steep jug-hauls on lead when I return to my regular climbing gym.

We had a delicious lunch of seared bonito and some fried papas, followed by a stop at what seemed like a pretty famous/major Pasteleria. It is a good (or bad) thing I love all things almonds, because a lot of the sweets are made from almendra.

 

 

 

Hard-core training food

It also appears that the start-lists are up. I am in one of the most competitive categories (strongest climbers and most number of climbers). The IFSC decided to call categories that had fewer than 4 climbers "Paraclimbing Masters" : http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!type=starters&comp=1604

And categories with more than 4 climbers "Paraclimbing World Championship": http://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/world-competition/calendar#!type=starters&comp=1501

There appear to be some really strong women in my category. If I weren't totally broken every where, I would be psyched to have such strong competition. Now I am just nervous and feeling bad about climbing poorly.

Competition wall. Not sure what part of the wall I'll be climbing, but I will be nervous.

Gijon: Day 1

Even though we arrived in Gijon yesterday afternoon, I am going to count today as Day 1.

Upon arrival to Logan Airport, Boston, we found that Iberia Airline's baggage handling system was down. This resulted in a 2 hour delay while they manually checked in every ones bags. One bonus was receiving an upgrade to business class, which helped my leg and back immensely (my left leg and foot swells up a lot on long flights due to the poor circulation in it). Madrid's airport has some cool architectural features, but I found it to be poorly organized. We eventually got on our internal flight to Gijon, and saw many other climbers and climbing officials on the same flight.

We managed to check out the older part of town (Plaza Mayor area) and were blown away by the food. Even the most casual restaurants served up amazing Asturian fare. I am trying not to completely blerch out before the comp. We were caught in a torrential downpour yesterday (sans appropriate clothing) so waited out the weather with pulpo de gallegas and an amazing flan made with the local apple cider.

After a scrumptious buffet breakfast (I really dig having fresh tomatoes, garlic, cheeses and breads alongside other fare) we made our way over to the Palacio de Deportes for athlete registration and medical exams. The wait for both was long, especially the latter. I was examined by a medical official and I was surprised by how close to the Neuro A and B boundary I was. I was assigned a numeric score (1.37) - I have no idea how they arrived at this final number - and 1.40 is the cut-off between the categories. This means I will be competing in Neuro A (more able-bodied).

I am all official now.

Trying to keep off my broken foot. Opening ceremony tonight. More later.

Radio silence and departure for Spain, tomorrow!

Well, I am departing for the IFSC (International Federation of Sport Climbing) World Championships in Gijon, Spain tomorrow. There probably should be a lot of exclamation marks and excitement, but injuries have really gotten me down. As usual, I've been questioning my involvement with Paraclimbing and intensive indoor-climbing training. I received a wonderful card from my best friend, Cathy, reminding me that while I might not think of this as being a big accomplishment, it is something that is pretty cool and something most people would not get to do, so I should document my experience, at least.

I'll start off my summarizing my shit-show of injuries. Turns out that BOTH middle fingers are broken, partial tear to the collateral ligament on my left finger. I was aware of one of the injured middle fingers prior to Nationals in Atlanta in July, but only found out about the other middle finger in August - says something about my tolerance for pain. So I was doing very little climbing, trying to keep up conditioning of the core and other parts of my body, but I had/have lost all my finger and hand/grip/contact strength.

Last weekend, I returned from a great weekend of trad climbing at North Conway, NH. I was teaching a friend the finer points of trad, and did all the leading because he was not confident in his gear placement abilities (it is funny, because he climbs 5.11's on sport routes). My right foot was achy after the weekend, but I didn't think too much of it until I tried to climb on it on Tuesday. Then, an explosion of pain erupted. I frantically sought medical advice the following day, which turned out to be pretty useless. The X-rays did not show any obvious broken bones, but it did not rule out a possible stress fracture. I need to wait till I get in and see the podiatrist and get an MRI to ascertain whether that is what I have or not. However, after internet self-diagnosis, I am almost certain I have a stress fracture in my fifth metatarsal. This is probably not a huge surprise given all the cranking and work my right foot does, and the odd positions it often assumes. I am taking massive doses of anti-inflammatories and comically taping myself.

All this has left me less than enthused and public about my training (or lack thereof) in the run-up to the World Paraclimbing Championships. I am even more bummed/worried that I will not be able to spend time in the Valley at the end of Sept-early October as planned, which reflects what is really important to me about climbing - trad (or aid) climbing with wonderful people outside.

So, yeah, I know I am being a total sour-puss about all this. I am trying to adopt the, go have fun and be inspired by others attitude, but as you have probably ascertained, not performing at my best (far far from it), really gets me down. The competitor in me wants to win or at least medal, but the realist in me knows that this is unlikely given my injuries. It is also hard to take this kind of competition too seriously when there is such huge variability in peoples' disabilities and the competition in each category. For example, my category (Women's Neuro) usually has the most number of competitors (and there is a huge variability in how limited we are, physically), whereas some categories, like Womens Lower Limb or Upper Limb may have only 3-4 competitors.

It would be interesting to learn more about training challenges faced by other paraclimbers. I only know about my experiences and limitations to train. For example, I know going forward, I really have to avoid too much volume and too much crimping because my fingers really work so much harder to compensate for my left-leg.

It is also interesting to observe the different paraclimbers' attitudes towards this competition. For some paraclimbers, this is a once in a lifetime event, possibly due to uncertainties about how their physical condition could degenerate (e.g. Muscular Dystrophy), or financial reasons. For me, I feel like I'll still be able to climb/be around for the next Paraclimbing World Cup in two years time (Paris!) One paraclimber went so far as to tattoo the logo of USA Climbing on his thigh!

I am trying to keep a long-term view of all this and remind myself that if I am careful about how I treat and rest these injuries, these could be but small pebbles in a long climbing career. But this whole experience highlights just how much of a gaping hole is in my life when I can't climb, and it makes me feel like a dumb, one-dimensional meat-head jock who has not evolved.

Raising funds for 2014 World Paraclimbing Championships

I swallowed my pride and started an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds for my trip to the 2014 World Paraclimbing Championships being held in Gijon, Spain 8-14 Sept, 2014.

Thank you for all your support!

http://igg.me/at/wendyong/x/8260406

There are some neat perks that go with your donation! I also welcome suggestions :)

2014 Paraclimbing Nationals: Champion

Well, I am staying on my bi-annual post schedule. I apologize for being so out of touch. The last few months have been quite tumultuous.

Despite my ambivalence over competing in indoor climbing competitions, I decided to take part in Paraclimbing Nationals in Atlanta, GA as they served as qualifiers for the International Paraclimbing Competition in Gijon, Spain in September. I had been climbing with a torn collateral ligament in my left middle-finger for awhile now, so I was not happy have that injury interfere with my ability to train and climb my hardest. I received a further setback, when the X-ray results showed that I had an avulsion fracture on top of my ligament injury. This is when the ligament actually rips off a piece of bone from bone. Sometimes having such a high pain-tolerance and being so stoic about it is not good: "Generally muscular avulsion is prevented due to the neurological limitations placed on muscle contractions. Highly trained athletes can overcome this neurological inhibition of strength and produce a much greater force output capable of breaking or avulsing a bone." (Source: Wikipedia)

I received this information on Wednesday afternoon. I was to fly out to Atlanta on Thursday and the competition was on Friday, July 18th. Yes, hardly the best timing. Many emotions as well as starting to weigh the benefits-risk of competing ran through my head. This kind of injury needs rest, immobilization and usually several months of healing. But, I had been climbing through the pain for awhile now; travel expenses to Atlanta were paid for; and this was a competition I had prepared for and served as a qualifier for Spain! But I know my priority lies in having a long climbing future climbing outside with wonderful people; I didn't want pulling on plastic indoors to cause permanent injury to my finger and affect the long-term range of motion of it, for climbing or for every-day work reasons. I have been buddy-taping like crazy and am typing with effectively 9 fingers right now, which is a bit awkward and also makes me want to change my counting to base 9.

So there was the dilemma of risking long-term damage or competing. And if I did compete, it seemed like a lose-lose situation. I would be sad if I didn't place at all (top-3 go to Spain); I would be pissed if I didn't come first because of my injury; and if I did win, I would feel like it was a hollow-victory because I didn't have to climb my best :-/ Yes, I realize my mind-set is sometimes problematic. Many people advised me to do just enough to place and not further injure my finger. I agreed, but knew I would not be happy with just placing.

You would think that I would be better at keeping all this in perspective, after the much more severe traumas and health issues I have been through.

I climbed extremely conservatively, probably only 30% of my capacity. I really hate not giving things my all. But, it was enough to place first, not only in my category (Neurological) but also across all the other female categories, making me the Paraclimbing National Champion.

Good enough

I guess it was the best possible outcome; first place without further injury. But as you have probably come to learn, I still feel slightly unsatisfied that I didn't go out and crush/climb my hardest.

It was wonderful to meet other members of the para-climbing community. I was especially impressed by the dedicated adaptive climbing programs for kids around the country! It was an honour to be a small part of this growing movement.

I am going to take a week or two of strict rest and manage climbing with the OT and hand ortho who I am scheduled to see in mid-August. I am getting splinted next week (after telling the OT that there wasn't really much point in immobilizing my finger on Wednesday, climb on it on Friday, have it swell up and have the splint not fit); I hope I can find an understanding doctor who realizes that I have to climb just for this short while, but I won't do anything to permanently injure things. I am keeping my (other) fingers crossed that surgery will not be required.

If any of you out there are aware of sponsorship opportunities, for my upcoming trip and future expenses, please get in touch! I think I have a pretty compelling story and message that could be promoted well with partners/companies.

Here's a pic from the comp. This was actually taken when I was standing on a monster ledge, mid-route, resting. As you can see, I almost always have more chalk on my face and hair than on my hands.

Q: Have I changed since my accident?

I'm always curious what other people's response to this question is. I posited this question to my close friend, George (whose opinion/thoughts I value tremendously), and this was his response:

"I don't think you've changed as a person -- you certainly seem like the same person to me, and you are behaving as I would expect you to behave given the circumstances. But of course it is the circumstances that have changed drastically, so to answer your question, you are the exact same wendy as before, but the situation you are in now is very different from before, so your interactions with the world certainly have changed because of that... But like I said, it's still "wendy interacting as she would with these new conditions". does that answer the question? I think that might sound like it's just a semantic argument, but it's not -- for instance, if you had a serious brain injury, then you might actually change as a person and have a different personality.

Seeing you endure has been awesome, frankly. At first we were hoping you'd survive, then we were hoping that you'd be able to walk again. When I visited you in the hospital in Reno, we all thought you'd be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life. Then you started getting around with your brace but it was a huge effort and still mostly used the chair and we were all very happy to see that maybe you wouldn't be completely bound to the chair... anyway you see where this is going; every time I see you there is an improvement in how you experience life, and every time I think "this is the new normal", you come back again and raise the bar. And that's really cool! 

Btw, I was using the leg/walking as the example, but your mental state was also very much the same sort of thing: in the beginning you were depressed and I was afraid you might try to kill yourself. But with time as you regained some functionality and also had been able to date people and realize that you aren't doomed to a life of loneliness, your mental state has improved in the same sort of way, and I'm really glad to have witnessed that (and am really glad that you're not thinking suicidal thoughts anymore too)."

Quite an eventful last week. Made a very quick trip to the Bay Area, to replace my lost drivers license and to climb in Yosemite Valley. I guess it is kind of a big deal that it doesn't seem like such a big deal any more :) Will write more about my experience climbing in Yosemite and Ouray in a little bit...

Ouray - more later.

My happy place