Drive

I find drive to be a bit of a double edged sword which forces me to push myself, but sometimes clouds my judgement.

For one reason or another I haven’t had a decent night’s sleep in ages. Last night at the wall I wasn’t up for much, so I decided to go for quantity over quality. My goal was 10 V4’s and two V5’s.

After fighting my way through about 7 V4’s and one V5 (I told you I was tired!) I decided to try a second V5. It was one that completely played to my strengths and indeed I got it initially on my second try. Last night was different. It’s a fairly sustained problem and I managed the bottom and middle sections fairly well, but towards the top I was flagging and to compensate I fashioned a really poor heel-hook rest. This left me in a completely unstable position for the last move.

I was tired, pumped and set up wrong; however I still threw for the last hold. I did this problem a ton of times before and I really, really wanted to do it tonight. I had it – right?

Wrong. I fell in a completely uncontrolled manner, half back slapping and half compressing my spine. Ouch.

I normally am acutely aware of when I am in a potentially hazardous position to fall from and won’t do the move, unless I am about 95% certain that I will make it. Last night, due in part to being tired, but also on account of wanting to reach my goal, this judgement was clouded.

Besides being shook up about the prospects of what could have happened if landed slightly worse (self-inflicted paralysis never appealed to me) and a bit of bruising, I’m OK, thankfully.

It was a good lesson to be reminded about.