The BWC in
Innsbruck was my best competition last year and I wanted to make it a good one
this year too. However it all came different. On the qualification day I felt
tired because I could not sleep the night before (excited!!), however that was
not the first time and I normally can handle that quite well. But as soon as I
stood on the mat in front of the first boulder problem I felt that something
was different today. I felt jittery, uneasy and couldn´t find my zone. Problem
three did then the rest. I climbed to the bonus 1st go and hesitated
for the next move and fell off, than I couldn´t to the start again and got
really frustrated, finally I managed to get the bonus again and my hand slipped
of the small crimp. That was it, I knew that if I want to get into the Semis I
have to climb this boulder. All sudden I climbed to one move before the top but
I only had a couple of seconds left to complete the bloc. That’s when
everything went wrong. First I hesitated, than I made the wrong decision and
gone with the wrong hand to the top hold. I grabbed the top hold but had too
much swing and the next thing I remember is that I was on the mat and my right
ankle felt strange, not painful or swollen. Even if I could not stand on it I
was convinced it was only bruised. Obviously I wasn´t allowed to complete my
round and I came for a check up to the hospital and found out that I have
BROKEN my ankle and it needed to be operated. Without realising or wasting time
I had an operation on the same night, where they fixed my broken bone with 3
titanium screws.
Two nights
I had to stay in hospital and was released with two crutches and a cast for six
weeks. It may sound a bit strange but the
recovery phase after an injury seems almost too familiar to me and it feels
like a part of my training cycle. What I learned from my previous operations
and injuries is, that the first period is the hardest you have to make it as
pleasant as you can. Hang around with friend, train whatever you allowed to do
and most important don´t look back how everything was before the injury, except
that it happened and the new goal is to recovery and look ahead.
To pass my time with the cast I trained on the fingerboard and the gym. My highlight of the 6 week period was to travel with Stew to Frankenjura and listen to his talk about injury prevention in sport climbing by a medical symposium. Straight after we went for a week to Manchester to see Stew´s family. The hardest thing for me was to chancel my trip to rocklands and the thrombosis injection every night.
As soon as
the cast was off, life returned to normality. I recovered quickly, thanks to
the daily physiotherapy appointments in our praxis physioIötztal with Stew.
Beside climbing on top rope I am going mountain and road biking (thanks to
Babsy for lending me the bike) a lot. I decided to not take part in the BWC
Munich, by the European Championship and by the Adidas Rock Stars. My leg would
be probably okay by then but as I learned I know that the head needs much
longer. Therefore I am going to enjoy my time and try to get fit for my
projects on the rock. Hopefully I have soon something to report.
