Guitars & (More) Pain

About to go over a few songs before I get ready to head to band practice today. I’m gimped today, and it doesn’t bode well for practice. I have to break this cycle of not going over the songs the first couple of days of the week and then marathoning toward the end of the week. I’m playing too much toward the end of the week, and it  takes a physical toll.
At the moment, the problem is that I’ve been working on lead breaks a lot lately. That means loads of string bending. Believe it or not, that takes a toll on the fingers… not the fingers pads; I’m talking about the cuticles. That’s what’s wrong today. I work on songs so much the past couple of days that my cuticles have taken some damage, and at least one finger is inflamed and crying “don’t make me play anymore!”
I’ll take it easy in band practice today, but I need to change the way I’m approaching this. It’d make a lot more sense to work on songs for an hour or so each night all through the week so that I’m not shredding my fingers by marathoning toward the end of the week, when I’m trying to catch up. It’s a bizarre cycle, because I go into practice each Sunday with sore fingers and play some of the leads miserably, then I don’t play at all for the next couple of days because my fingers are sore. Which, of course, tends to lead to marathons toward the end of the week, and even a few hours before practice.
Obviously, I’m putting off going through those songs again. I know which ones I need to work on. Maybe I’ll try a more sensible approach this week and see if it can’t help me to cross that final bridge into guitar player territory. The guys deserve to hear me finally bring the goods. My frequent protestations of “I’ll get it” are beginning to wear thin, I think. It’s high time I began proving that I am actually getting it, instead of looking toward some distant point on the horizon. These guys have been patient enough.