Cool pic.

Thanks Floppy!

The dives were at a flooded quarry. The picture is the top of the old crushing works.

I went climbing yesterday for 100 minutes. It was good. I was at Croywall for the first time in a while. The grading has got easier - I got huge numbers of v2-v4 whereas the previous time I struggled on these.

Cool pic bro, makes me want to do a Padi Refresher and get back to Bonaire.

But nah, almost died last time.

It did, of course, nearly kill me once. In retrospect, the bend was probably a good thing. It led to me seeing the cardioligist who gave me blood tests indicating high cholesterol, high blood sugar, and on 24 hour monitoring my BP was 140/90. So it led to lifestyle changes that reversed these things.

Here is a write up of my bend I did near the time:

I was diving on South Coast. It was the final dive of the trip, the second on the Sunday, after a 2 hour 18 minutes surface interval from the first dive. It was the third days' diving of the trip.

On the second dive, we dropped down to 31m, and slowly came up the reef to 20m. This was a slight reverse profile – we went to 23m on the first dive of the day.

I picked up a couple of minutes' deco stops; and my buddy picked up 3 minutes. We did the deco stops; and then we then did a 3 minute safety stop. We slowly ascended from 5m to the surface - I took around 3 minutes to ascend. It was quite a short dive - around 40 minutes'. We did the stops with pretty good buoyancy - my computer shows 20cm variation in depth during them.

After the dive, I walked my twinset up the hill to get it the shower to rinse it off. This done, I then walked down the hill and started de-kitting. About 70 minutes after the dive. I became dizzy. The world was spinning around me.

Club-mates helped to move to the shade, where I was given a drink. I immediately vomited.

We didn’t have club oxygen with us. A club-mate found the dive centre’s O2, and I was put on it. People were unsure if it was a bend or some other cause – scallops were mentioned as a possible culprit. The oxygen made me vomit. I carried on vomiting until just before the first chamber treatment.

A visiting paramedic at the dive site got involved in my treatment. My club-mates had called 111, but the paramedic felt a bend was unlikely and stood the call down. A club-mate says the paramedic did a neuro test on me, which I don’t remember.

After 20 minutes on O2, I was no better but also no worse. There was some discussion as to the best approach to get me to hospital. The solution decided on was for my buddy to drive my car, with me as a passenger, and another club member coming along in convoy.

I was given O2 to breathe in the car. However, it was switched off and I was unable to turn it on. The drive to the hospital took around 2 hours. I was taken to Plymouth A&E. I had an hour or so wait without O2 in the waiting room. When I was seen, the A&E doctors were concerned - my symptoms were very similar to those of a major stroke.

I was put on O2. Eventually, A&E decided to transfer me to the DDRC. This is around the corner from the hospital, but the ambulance got lost and it took 20 minutes to transfer there. I was on O2 for the transfer.

The diving doctors immediately diagnosed it as a major inner ear bend. They gave me anti-nausea drugs. They seemed alarmed about some of my symptoms. I had spent a long time not on 02, and so could have some major bubbles. (I believe the bubbles for ear bends are in the cerebellum, not the ear fluids). My leg twitched a lot, which is apparently indicative of a major CNS hit. So they decided on an aggressive treatment schedule.

Around 30 minutes after arriving at the DDRC, at 9.30 pm, I was in the pot. My first dive was COMEX 30. This is a 30m treatment, lasting 7 hours. You initially breathe 50/50 heliox, and move onto oxygen for the last 5 hours or so. The idea is that the deep section crushes any residual bubbles, and then the O2 flushes out the crushed bubbles.

The treatment did me good. However, I was still dizzy and still couldn't walk well. So a few hours' later, I did a 5 hour dive, 18m dive (I think Table 6) which was pretty much all on O2. There were encouraging signs on both dives - I was drinking fluids, jumped at the chance to eat some pizza, and had control of my bladder and bowels. After this dive, I could just about walk, and the dizziness was a lot better.

After this, I moved onto short 14m dives on O2, lasting about 2 hours each. I'd have a 3 hour 4 lunch break between the dives. The longer dives were in the large chamber; the shorter ones were in a mono-chamber with just me.

My first treatment was Sunday; the second long one was on Monday. The shorter dives happened on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, with just one on Friday. By the time of the final one, my balance was back to normal and I didn't show any other symptoms. So I was released, and came home. (There is one balance test I failed, but I strongly suspect I've never been able to pass it.)

The doctors thought it was very likely I have a PFO. This turned out to be case, and it took me 4 years to fix myself.

Was it the reverse profile that likely caused the issue? Neither of those dives seem particularly aggressive in and of themselves.

When I lived in Mexico I did a good bit of diving in Cozumel. The first dives were often 35-40 with a gradual rise in depth. I never heard of anyone having issues at 20-30m but we rarely did 2 deeper dives. The only time I did it both dives were done using 32% nitrox, IIRC.

My understanding was that for non-deco dives, reverse profiles aren't considered particularly risky. Obviously, this was a deco dive, so it may not apply, but the amount of stops was pretty minimal and I had my computer set relatively conservatively.

(Here is a random DAN article I found on it: https://www.dansa.org/blog/2015/01/2...e-it-backwards)

However, it does add to the risk a bit. I was on air rather than 32%, as the dive centre was low on its Js of O2. I also had quite a lot to drink the previous night, and I was a bit dehydrated. So there were a few minor risk factors, and unfortunately they all aligned that day.

The major risk factor was having a PFO, of course, and exercising after the dive. (My tanks are steel, so a full twinset and kit is about 50 kgs, So walking it up a hill is not a trivial task.) It was about my 300th dive, and I know quite a few people who have PFOs who managed 100s of dives before getting bent and finding the bad news.

I dived Mexico once (the Soccorro Islands rather than Cozumel.) I really liked it, it would be nice to go back. The cenotes look fun.

Thanks for sharing that. It seems like it is often the interaction of several small mistakes that create problems rather than just one big mistake.

A friend of mine in Mexico dove in Socorro every year. The pictures he would share from it were always incredible. The cenotes in the Yuctan are certainly special. I'd certainly recommend taking a trip. The Pit, Angelita and Cenote Zapote or Hell's Bells were my favorites and really quite amazing.

I went climbing. It was fun.

I concentrated on v3-v5 graded ones, which are normally too hard for me. I tried 4, got 3 with a flash on one. The last one was my last climb of the day, after 100 minutes. I fell off the first move about 10 times, then unexpectedly got the whole thing. Yeahhhh buddyyyy.

I also got some walking in, so I am now on 25,000 steps.

Climbing seems to be improving

Diving stories freak me out.

My main successes climbing recently have been slab, I think my foot work has improved, and my finger strength seems OK. I am skeptical about the advertised grades, though. (I tend to think anything I climb is v2 max.)

I went climbing on Monday, and was really poor. I lasted 2 hours and was very pumped at the end.

I lifted yesterday, doing:
2 sets of 6, bench, 50 kgs and 1 set of 5
3 sets of 6, deadlist, 100 kgs.

Weight: Still 142 pounds (64.5 kgs). I seem to have been averaging 20,000 steps a day recently, which isn't too shabby. In non-exercise news, I'm test driving a Kia EV6 soon. I'm still unsure if to go for an electric car, or follow my old approach of hot hatches. (If I go petrol, Civic Type R is definitely on the shortlist.)

I went climbing. It was a monstrous 2.5 hour session. I concentrated on overhangs, as I'm not very good at them and I want to improve. It was an OK session, but not outstanding. For those interested in HR, Fitbit claims the max was 142, and the average was 120. I also did a stack of walking, getting in 21,000 steps in the day.

I downloaded my nutrition stats since 7 July, the previous time I updated. I may upload giraffes, but that requires work and I am lazy.

Calories: Average in 2003, max in 2,803, min in 1,099 (I was travelling back from a scuba trip that day so didn't manage to eat as much as normal. This is an outlier - the next lowest was 1,300.)
Protein - Average 151 grams, max 250 grams, min 58 grams.
Fibre - average 36 grams, max 63 grams, min 13 grams on a very low calorie in day.

So I've been pretty consistent over the last 6 months.

I went climbing. It was a very good session - I got 4 new routes. They were ones I tried the previous session, but didn't get then. One was a session flash.

I concentrated on overhangs again, and didn't have stacks of time available. So it was only 70 minutes. It was really good fun - I have started to enjoy overhangs again. (I went through a bit if a slab phase recently.) The new rtoutes wereall 6a/6b graded, one needed a dyno to get things started.

I liked the EV6, so I bought a brand new one. It will be delivered in February. I went for a 320 bhp variant which does 0 to 60 in 5 seconds.

I went scuba diving on Sunday in a quarry to practice skills. I was terribly bad, my shutdowns were awful.

I went climbing yesterday. It was fun, I was in form. They had reset in one room so the climbds in there were ungraded. I got some harder slab in that room. In the other room, I got some overhangs. I session flashed a project I fell off the previous 6 visits.

I also did a pre-breakfast walk, a lunch walk and an evening walk, so ender up on 28,000 steps.

I lifted weights last night. (I am weak, lol 50 year old tinybro.). I did a spot of hangboarding, which was OK - my finger strength has improved recently.

The main lifts were:
Bench, 50 kgs, 3 sets of 7
Squat, 80 kgs, 3 sets of 5.

The bar moved quite quickly on both lifts, so I may put more weight on the bar next session.

I had my Covid booster this morning (It was Pfizer, my first two were Astra Zeneca.) I feel fine, so I'll go for a climb later.

I squatted on Saturday, doing 85 kgs for 3 sets of 5. It felt way heavier than 80 kgs. I then did a walk, getting 20 miles and loads of hills.

I went climbing on Sunday. It was fun. I tried a new gym (https://www.citybouldering.co.uk/). It is nice, reasonable selection of routes and completely empty on a Sunday. It's a feature of the City that it is quite quite at weekends. I may well go back. I expected to be broken, given the excercise the previous day, but I seemed to be fine.

I did a couple of walks yesterday, managing around 12 miles in total. A quite often do these walks with a friend who lives nearby; she needs some cancer screening which she's getting this morning.

It wasn't cancer, thank God.

I failed to climbing on Tuesday, as work was silly. I lifted instead, doing:
Deadlift, 2 sets of 5 @ 100 kgs, 1 set of 5 @ 110 kgs.
OHP, 3 sets of 5 @ 35 kgs.

I tested my max reps for unweighted pull-ups. I got 18, I am definitely capable of more (my hand slipped on the last rep, my arms and shoulder felt ready for more.) I'm fairly sure this is a WR.

I went climbing on Wednesday. It was fun, I was on a sending spree. The one I'm happiest with is a v3/v4 overhang I'd not got before. There is an enticing penultimate hold which is very negative, I couldn't get anything from it at all. I ended up bypassing it, which meant I needed to dyno the last move. Craggy has stacks of dual texture climbs, normally with a v3/v4 minimum grade. I got one of these for the first time.

It will be my last gym climb of 2021; I want to isolate for a bit before seeing Mum. Omnicron seems a bit prevalent at the moment in the UK.

to cancer free friends

18 goddamn I gotta get to work on my endurance

Yea my whole family is debating how to get together for the holidays. Sister’s kids all have Covid now so could be off the table. Hope you’re able to see her.

Omicron effective reproduction is probably going to be close to chickenpox.

It can't be stopped by hiding. Boost up and see family as normal.

Tx - it's odd, I haven't really trained endurance or pull-ups at all recently. I guess climbing a lot trained it indirectly.

Loco - I seem have become risk averse when it comes to Mum's health. It may be unnecessary; losing Dad recently has not helped, though.

I lifted yesterday, doing:
3 sets of 5, bench, 55 kgs
Deadlift, 1 set of 5, 120 kgs
Hangboard.

Today, I did a 21 mile walk. My step count average has been over 21,000 a day for to the last few weeks.

My most recent BP reading was 102 over 56, which is a bit on the low side

I had the same experience with pull-ups. I was able to do 17 a few years back without ever training rep pull-ups. I haven't tested my rep max since then but I assume it would be similar.

All the sub-max pulling that gets done while climbing is probably pretty good for building endurance. Having skinny legs also helps!

^Indeed. There seems to be little point in training it specifically.

I was relatively active over Christmas, but spent a lot of time with family away from home. As COVID is so prevalent, I didn't get much climbing in. I did go on my little brother's home wall on Christmas day. I was terrifible on it - I need to practice crimpy overhangs.

I decided to start the year in a non-sedentary way. I did a 26 mile walk over many, many hills. It took around 8 hours. I had lunch on the go to avoid stopping. (The walk was the Three Peaks of Surrey https://www.threepeakschallenge.uk/s...aks-challenge/

That website claims it is only 22 miles; the 26 miles was from Fitbit. I did one of the hills twice to avoid walking along a narrow, busy, unlit country lane with no pavements at night. It may have been a bit over-enthusiatic on my part.)

Today, I did an hour's yoga; a morning walk and then an hour's climb on my home wall. It was good, I now feel chilled.

I thought it could be worth setting some 2022 goals:

• Keep my weight between 140 and 147 pounds. I have been in this range for around 2.5 years now
• Climb v5 under Craggy Island grading. (I am arguably there under Vauxwall grading.) This will be hard to get.
• Get qualified to breathe fancy gas in scuba (e.g. 100% 02)
• Get to at least 10,000 steps every day. I failed in this in 2021 - I got 362 days. I am unlikely to make this, it will be difficult on the day I drive to the Orkneys, (about a 16 hour drive).
• Don't get weaker at any of the main lifts.
• Eat a decent and varied diet, e.g. 10 portions of fruit and veg per day; fish at least 5 times a week. I failed in this in 2021, the issue being when I was away from home. I am likely to fail for the same reason this year.
• Carry on logging on MFP. I am over 1,000 consecutive days now.

I spent the weekend caving in Wales. It was good fun. There was a lot of climbing, and a 80m squeeze which felt longer. The trick, if you feel stuck, seems to be to exhale and relax, then you can slither a bit further.

Both trips were to Ogof Ffynnon Ddu, were there was a rescue last year. The guy has a broken leg, and the nearest exit was through the 80m squeeze. There is no way you get a stretcher down there, so the rescuers has to go the long way around. The rescue took 300 volunteers nearly 60 hours (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/u...-b1954908.html).

Me disappearing down a hole. It is high at this point - I am not yet slithering like a snake, merely crawling.