Not Climbing Fit

In the last 2 years I've kept myslef in shape by training in TaeKwon Do and I've done pretty well, increasing my body weight by around 5 kilos and not gaining any extra fat - I've won 2 golds, a silver and a bronze medal at the British Championship and a gold and a bronze at the Scottish Championship. I've also been running and completed numerous 1/2 marathons and a couple of marathons. I thought I was in really good shape.

Compare this to when I was climbing, where I drank heavily, didn't sleep well and spent my time hanging from my finger board of doing pull ups, again I thought I was in pretty good shape.

I am bigger, stronger, fitter, more flexibile and healthier now - but ultimately I'm a worse climber.

G at Sandyhills, my favourite problem - font 6a, the second one I ever climbed - I've climbed it hundreds of times and even started to work on a very improbable sit start that would push the grade way beyond anything I'd ever done before. I was stopped on this by weak legs, hamstrings in particular - surely now with my strong legs I could bag this or at least make a decent effort at it...No!

The holds that 2 years ago I could actually pull on, I could barely find this time. Once I had found them I just couldn't comprehend how to pull on them - with my strong legs and strong body but weak fingers. So I started again on the original problem. 100% confident that I would complete this 1st go...No! Not second, third, fourth, fifth... I don't know how many times I tried this, continually getting to the last hold and not being able to hold it (and its a good hold)

Gutted, frustrated, but pleased that I'd tried I wondered back along the beach to the car, clicked the button to open the boot and to my horror I couldn't lift the boot! My fingers and forearm were just numb and with a little hint of pain, something was wrong - had I injured my fingers or hand when trying G, maybe this was the reason I kept dropping off the final hold.

A failed attempt at G (you're right Chris, I do need a tripod :))