getting in shape for climbing: what not to do

Don’t get pneumonia. I did. And it sucked. It sucked so bad I had to go to the hospital. For 17 days. Meanwhile, I lost 25 lbs. That’s 25 lbs on top of the 25 I lost before I went to the hospital. That makes me 156 lbs with 6% body fat. I don’t look healthy and I’m not climbing well. Now that I think about it, I’m not breathing well. Lungs are something I probably took for granted before. Not anymore. My lungs remind me of their significance all the time now. It’s been 23 days since my vacation at Santa Barbara’s Cottage Hospital and my lung capacity is about 50% what it normally would be. On a positive note, I’m still alive. Clearly, things could be worse. They couldn’t be worse for my climbing though. Maybe that’s not true. Last weekend was my first day back climbing. Don’t tell my pulmonologist. On Friday I bouldered at Lizard’s Mouth then toproped at Gibralter Saturday. My ticklist for the week: V1, V3, 5.4 (toprope), 5.5 (toprope) and 5.8 (toprope). Yesterday I did some hangs on the campus board at the shed. Pretty impressive, I know. Whatever. Rehabilitation is something I can do. I’ve done it before. At 29 years old I know I still have the capacity to fully recover. And the pulmonologist’s prognosis is great. It’s certainly better than the outlook from my first days in critical care. At that time the consensus was that I would not live – which means no climbing. Perhaps I shouldn’t complain too much. Long story short, I will again crank. Maybe not today. Maybe not this weekend. Maybe not even next Wednesday. But I will be back. Oh, yes. I will be back and you better watch your ass, Hard Boiled. For now though, I will be playing Call of Duty 4.