Injury rant (tired of these yet?)

Last Thursday I went back to the Walker Creek boulders and my pal Pascal tagged along. We did the usual warmups and then Pascal, being the badass that he is, proceeded to add sit down starts to all of my established problems. Oh, and he also did a straight up top out on Not a Prayer, instead of trending left into easier terrain as I had done. He turned that problem, which was V4-ish, into a V6 at least, I'd say. Nice work, Pascal. It was fun having someone out there to look at the problems with a fresh eye. I hope he goes back soon to try the ridiculous looking project just to the right of Not a Prayer.

So now to the ranting. I got injured when we were at the Boulders. Again. I somehow tweaked my upper back this time. So for 3 days I had shooting pain going across the tops of my shoulders and spine right a the base of the neck. That intense pain has gone away, but the base of my neck is still tweaked to the point where I don't dare go climbing for fear of making it worse. So here's my rant: I don't drink much at all, I don't do drugs, I eat well, I do yoga, PT, I cross train; in short, I'm that annoying type-A guy about being in good shape and trying to do all the right things to climb well. And yet I still get hurt. All of the time. Almost every time I go climbing, it seems. Maybe 15 years of hanging on crimps has caught up with me, but I know other people who are still cranking after 20+ years. And Chris Sharma has climbed a few more routes than me and that mutant's still going strong.

So it appears the answer is to start drinking, eat like shit, stay out late, get an STD, and buy an Xbox. Or, I hear there is some cardio value in a Wii.

I'm trying hard to stay motivated, but damn. I'm just sayin'.