Christ. What the fuck to put on this?? It could be "stay alive" or it could be "burn AndyF off by the sole virtue that I can probably get at least one E3 done next year" or it could be "regain strength fitness and confidence, actually tackle some of the trad inspirations I've shelved, do regular trips to Wales / Lakes / South West, plus some dream trips to Bohuslan, Ettringen, and Pfalz for a fortnight". And I could fail to do any or those at all....
So I guess anything I write has go to be a vague and speculative compromise... I can assume that realistically my power-to-weight is going to keep declining, my fitness is unlikely to improve, my mental health will stay very challenging and get in the way of climbing especially the logistics, I will be at a constant injury risk due to weight and age so won't be able to actually "train" in any progressive form, and I will always struggle with like-minded partners suitable for my current fragility. In that context I guess I should focus on learning from recent years, trying to slow the decline, and have some possibly feasible, gentle, but attainable goals:
1. Stay alive. Not always desirable but I'm not likely to tick other aims if I don't tick this one.
2. Continue to work on my mental health self-care. I can't predict what will happen, but I can keep trying.
3. Keep trying hard to build and solidify a social life, including accepting that overall it's far more skewed to me having to initiate contact, communication, and plans, but if I keep putting the effort in it will incrementally improve.
4. Keep active. Preferably active in ways that directly factor into my climbing, injury management, or slowing weight gain, but otherwise any activity that doesn't harm those aspects is valuable.
5. Keep Lancashire cleaning to a manageable minimum. Don't get carried away, don't get burnt out, don't get fatigued, don't sacrifice multiple potential climbing days. Get the big jobs done over a damp winter and stick to small amounts on climbing days in the trad season.
6. Keep up with the volume mileage indoors in crappy weather. Possibly increase intensity or add board sessions if....
7. ...take care and rehab my tennis elbow, and keep working on my shoulders. Ideally avoid other injuries roflbbqmaolol.
8. IF in a fit state, get back into rotpunkting as good all round training for trad. And do this instead of hacking away at ferns and turf.
9. IF I maintain enough strength / fitness / confidence / stability - set up partners and hustle to get on what I really want to do. Or at least a tiny bit of it.
10. Get back into checking for the NWB Coastal Crags guide. Curtailed by weather, injury, weather, punterdom, weather, etc but keen to do more exploring and checking.
11. Get back to Pfalz for 2 weeks in autumn, plus ideally one or more of Bohuslan, Ettringen, Pedriza, Annot, Font, etc etc. Not expecting to get even a halfway house here, but a couple of good trips would be great.
12. Do more trad in Wales, Lakes, Devon. A very low bar given the dismal 2023, but fundamentally important to me.