26

That's the number of days that I haven't been climbing because of my wrist injury.  

The first week was a bit difficult, but then I sort of got used to the fact that I couldn't do it and organised more walking instead.  This year I've done a lot more climbing than walking over the summer and I know that I'm not as fit as I was this time last year.  Yes I'm a year older, but that's not the reason!  Climbing is good for strength - especially core strength, flexibility and balance, but it's not aerobic... the walk to the crag may be, but in the Peak District that doesn't take very long.  So over the last couple of weeks I've been thinking a lot, and I've come to the conclusion that I've been climbing too much and not walking enough. I need to find a balance, allowing myself more recovery time and continuing my daily stretching and wrist and shoulder strengthening exercises.

I've always been reasonably fit, with intermittent periods of more intense activity over the years with jogging, netballing and swimming all having their day, but it was still a bit of a step up for me to start walking and rock climbing at age 61 after fifteen years of not doing anything more energetic than walking the dog and gardening. 

My wrist's a lot better after a 26 day rest, even though working at B&Q doesn't do it much good - I really have to be careful - and so I'm going to try climbing tomorrow.  We're going to pick out some slabby routes to make it a bit easier on my wrist, and Mary's coming too so that if I find I can't cope, she can do all the seconding for Paul and his day won't be cut short.  And he'll get to know Mary so they both benefit from another potential climbing partner.  Win, win from that point of view, but we'll see whether it's a win for my wrist tomorrow and if not I'll probably forget about climbing until the spring.  Who would've thought I'd ever say that!