time to hang it up?

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Ricky D

Trad climber
Sierra Westside
Feb 27, 2017 - 04:29pm PT
[Click to View YouTube Video]
MikeL

Social climber
Southern Arizona
Feb 27, 2017 - 04:34pm PT
You are not your body.
jgill

Boulder climber
The high prairie of southern Colorado
Feb 27, 2017 - 08:37pm PT
You are not your body


Are you someone else's body?

Just curious.
Ed Hartouni

Trad climber
Livermore, CA
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:24pm PT
I will be mercilessly attacked for this thought, but steep sport climbing in the gym is awesome.

let me be the first... that was 6 years ago... but still, I still find it an inspiring accomplishment for a self-described "sport weenie"
neebee

Social climber
calif/texas
Feb 27, 2017 - 11:47pm PT
hey there say... Matisse, :)

hope you are feeling up to par soon, :)


say, i liked anita514's info...

and what tami said:

I completely agree with ya Anita.

Re-read the first posts on this thread. Loads of busted up people.

And, yes, loads of fit folks too.

Train smart, not hard.



but that's me, and i am not a climber, i was just a hiker...


HOWEVER, i am and was a dancer-- so, yes, we MUST keep moving...
however, it is not worth breaking ourselves, as:

there is so much to still do with our lives, and one must
be 'ready and able' and when neat new things, come our way...

you WILL find something, and you will be so glad!


:)
Phil_B

Social climber
CHC, en zed
Feb 28, 2017 - 08:41am PT
Threads like this are why I keep on checking out ST!!

Thanks for sharing how you keep the stoke on. I've found that my interests vary from year to year. Currently, I"m more into climbing and mtn. biking than my original love, whitewater kayaking. But I'm sure that since this is a crazy water year, I'll succumb to the call of the river soon.

Personally, I've had to dial it back, especially since my shoulder surgery. That arthritis keeps on reminding me I'm not in my 20's anymore too.

Do not go gentle into that good night!
rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Feb 28, 2017 - 08:43am PT
I will be mercilessly attacked for this thought, but steep sport climbing in the gym is awesome. Falls are really safe, holds are mostly finger friendly and the total body fitness is really good. The social aspect keeps you around like-minded people and the weather's great.

I made precisely this point further upthread and no one attacked. I think the climbing gym is an ideal place doddering banged-up climbers in various stages of decline to congregate, commiserate when necessary, and get the kind exercise they've loved for so much of their lives.

The video https://vimeo.com/197621404 I posted in the "Climb Forever" thread http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/2925386/Climb-Forever makes the point as well.
Reeotch

climber
4 Corners Area
Feb 28, 2017 - 10:50am PT
Really, the goal here is to see who can have the most egregious list of health problems, and still send 5.12 cracks.

Alright folks, we're gonna have to see some doctor's notes . . . (torn rotator cuff, my ass . . .)
matisse

climber
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 28, 2017 - 12:17pm PT
I appreciate all the thoughts. I really do. Thanks guys. Some of you have gotten lucky or have amazing physiology and have never really been hurt. The porter has never really been hurt. He's sprained an ankle once or twice but that been about it. Some of you have gotten busted up despite being careful, and some of you have found a limit when you went oops there was one..I want a rewind button, so I undo the injury and get a do over.

Despite leading an outdoor life, I haven't been a limit pusher since my first knee injury at 25...not unless you count doing the activities at all as pushing limits.

After I blew out my knee skiing, when I went back to skiing I fell exactly once in 3 years of skiing 100+ days a season. In bike racing I crashed three times in 6 years of racing. The one I got hurt in was when someone rode into me on the track in a training session. When I tore my ACL climbing I was on toprope, in the gym and I didn't fall, I just pushed up on my knee. This last injury I literally just fell over. I was on a beginner intermediate trail. I haven't ridden hard stuff in years. Also while I would love to walk/hike, I can't because the injury I did on my knee at 25 was too severe.

So the upshot is that I don't think I have anywhere to go in terms of limiting risk, unless I don't do any of it at all. And that is what I am trying to decide, because being on crutches really really sucks, and because my poor right knee really didn't need another insult. I dunno.

On the bright side I got the go-ahead to partially weightbear today so the crutches are going soon.


rgold

Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
Feb 28, 2017 - 02:12pm PT
Yes, it is very easy for people who have been lucky and/or genetically blessed to see their longevity and high performance as a result of their own efforts, rather than in some possibly considerable measure the luck of the draw. We all like to think we're in control of our destiny.

Personally, at 73, I'm doing pretty well all things considered, but I give myself no credit and do not pretend to know anything about how someone else should manage their aging process.
MikeL

Social climber
Southern Arizona
Feb 28, 2017 - 02:48pm PT
Matisse: time to hang it up?

Sorry, but I was looking at this on the Forum Topic listing with all the other topics today.

I wonder what really gets hung up? (The vernacular is *very familiar,* . . . but really . . . .)
donini

Trad climber
Ouray, Colorado
Feb 28, 2017 - 03:28pm PT
Being lucky and/or genteically blessed is part of the equation but nothing, and I mean nothing, beats attitude. You can count the number of injuries, ailments and surgeries but you can't quantify attitude.
I've seen people like Mal Daly, Hugh Herr and Eric Weinmyer do amazing things with disabilities that would defeat most people. And I have seen many, no names mentioned, who just let themselves slide into inactivity for reasons that can only be described as attitude.
There is no mind/body dichotomy.....behavior is a function of both. Our physical health can be affected by genetics, injury or life style but, bottom line, how we deal with what we have is our attitude.
Good health certainly effects attitude but many have shown that what you do with what you have is, in the end, up to you.
Melissa

Gym climber
berkeley, ca
Feb 28, 2017 - 03:49pm PT
Although I still climb something long and easy a few times a year, I decided to "retire" when I was more sick of being in pain and dreading the pain I would be in than I was psyched to climb. (I have a high grade spondylolisthesis.)

For a while after I quit, I didn't know what to do with myself other than take walks (which was pleasant but boring), but then I discovered downwind SUP and more recently SUP surfing. I didn't think I would ever feel this good in my own body again. I have less pain than I've had in years. It's so much fun, and generally more thrilling than risky, though I could certainly find risk there if I wanted to go looking for it. It's also a great excuse to take vacations to warm and pretty places.

I think I might have retired from climbing sooner if I didn't feel so invested in it and if I knew that there would be something else that I could enjoy even more. I also think I got used to being in pain all the time and thought that it had to be that way. I suppose for some people chronic pain or anxiety over potential injury is something that needs to be accepted, but for me it wasn't necessary, and ultimately wasn't worth it.

I hope you're happy and feel good in whatever direction choose...or that chooses you.
Ghost

climber
A long way from where I started
Feb 28, 2017 - 04:02pm PT
I wonder what really gets hung up?

Skates. She's Canadian.
kunlun_shan

Mountain climber
SF, CA
Feb 28, 2017 - 04:22pm PT
Not sure how relevant this is, but, nevertheless, an interesting story:

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/08/well/move/lessons-on-aging-well-from-a-105-year-old-cyclist.html

At the age of 105, the French amateur cyclist and world-record holder Robert Marchand is more aerobically fit than most 50-year-olds — and appears to be getting even fitter as he ages, according to a revelatory new study of his physiology.
rbord

Boulder climber
atlanta
Feb 28, 2017 - 04:37pm PT
Nicely said donini.

I guess I'd lump attitude into all those other attributes in terms of it being "up to you" or not. Hard to say where any of it comes from. I've got a 9 yr old girl with an attitude that kicks my butt every day, and it sure didn't come from me!

After I messed up my back I went on a long river trip. I was in pain. Most of the time. Not debilitating, but pain sucks. It affects your attitude. Better maybe to say it affects my attitude. Cut it down so I only went for half a trip. Wasn't sure I should go at all really. At the put-in I had a hard time mustering the resolve to walk to the outhouse. But of course once on the river you start to focus on other things. Tried not to whine but I'm sure that stuff shows up to others in different ways.

We had a companion with a bad hip (motorcycle accident). He had had it replaced, so was doing pretty well. But my friends told me tales of before his surgery, when he could hardly walk at all, but still, he'd come along in high spirits, and rig his boat and row it and have a smile at the end of the day. Every day, he'd have to crawl the trail to the groover. Eventually folks noticed and they'd set it up closer and closer to camp. What's privacy among friends? Never complained. Physically I had some strengths, but in retrospect, attitudinally, not so strong.

Yea hard to give advice for others with different strengths of physicality or attitude or luck. The best you can do is the best you can do. Hope your best (whatever that is or was or continues to be) pleases you.

In my experience, if you can relax your grip on mastery, the steep end of the learning curve can be a pretty rewarding place to swim :-) Kind of frees you from a lot of those expectations that can get in the way of fun. Mix it up and see what happens.
matisse

climber
Topic Author's Reply - Feb 28, 2017 - 04:39pm PT
That's a cool article. I saw it when it first got published, because that's a journal I read regularly. The original article is for available for free on the journal of applied physiology website if anybody's interested
kunlun_shan

Mountain climber
SF, CA
Feb 28, 2017 - 04:46pm PT
Glad you saw that, matisse. :-)

Pretty amazing at that age.

The study is here:

http://jap.physiology.org/content/jap/early/2016/12/29/japplphysiol.00569.2016.full.pdf
MH2

Boulder climber
Andy Cairns
Feb 28, 2017 - 04:51pm PT
So the upshot is that I don't think I have anywhere to go in terms of limiting risk, unless I don't do any of it at all.


The upshot is bad juju?

I recommend that you keep rolling the dice, and keep the crutches just in case.
phylp

Trad climber
Upland, CA
Feb 28, 2017 - 05:26pm PT
Matisse, I just wanted to send some good thoughts your way! It sounds like part of it is that you are at at emotionally low point right now.

There are a lot of great posts here in this thread, lots for you to think about. I really like what Melissa posted about her own transition to something new.

The one thing that you wrote which kind of distressed me was this:

Unfortunately I have the bones of a 60 year old woman, because guess what? I am one

I hope you are working with your gynecologist actively on this issue. I just got my every 10 year bone scan last year and my bones are as good as when I was in my 40s (I turn 65 this year). If you'd like to have a conversation about the particulars off-line let me know and we'll get connected.

Phyl
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