They say 'pain is good'...
Okay, had I received a cake on my last birthday, the collection of candles upon it might well have exceeded the bylaw for open fires in our town. Thirty-five small flames make for a fair amount of light!
Add to this equation the fact that though I am around 5'10" or so, the majority of my adult life has been spent with a weight in the 235+ range. I'm currently flirting with 225, which is okay, but I'd rather be considerably lower (I'd even take 200!).
To help lose some of this flab, I've been in karate for most of the last 2-1/2 years, first at one style, now at our Shogen-ryu dojo. I know my limitations - my kicks aren't as high as some, and my reflexes simply aren't as fast as a teenager's any more (though I'm told that they could be, through an awful lot of practice). My pushups are (pardon the pun) up and down, as sometimes I can do 25 or more, and sometimes I can't do 5 (though this may partly because I'm transiting to "proper" knuckle pushups, in which one's elbows are actually beside one's ribs as opposed to out to the side - different muscles!). So, hey, I'm fit enough - let's play some baseball this year! I mean, let's ignore the fact that I'm already coaching two teams and just to all-out and play!!
Sunday night, first games - double-header!! I was put in at shortstop, as I'm an aggressive fielder and like the infield, but since we only had ten players for the first game and eleven for the second, I didn't miss a transition all night. (Ironically, my brother was playing at roughly the same time, the same way, but down in Windsor... and had the same problem afterwards!) I was fine after the game, but the next morning, the long muscles on the top of my legs started to just ache. Karate last night helped a bit, but not a lot; and today, my legs just plain hurt. Plus, my sensei informed me that my entire lower arm is inflamed from the baseball/punching combination in 24 hours - ice and ointment, he says! Great...
I know I'm not "young" any more, but I didn't realize how quickly we get "old" in these bodies, and how hard some of the pros must have to drive themselves to keep up in a game that features virtual children, to their eyes. Roger Clemens and Chris Chelios have ten years on me and are determined to keep going - I'm just a paltry amateur trying to get some exercise.
Still, the pain will go away... eventually. And I'll be back out on the field next week, ready and rarin' to go, and I'll hopefully just hurt less, and by the end of the season I'll not be sore at all!
Hey, a guy can hope...!
Add to this equation the fact that though I am around 5'10" or so, the majority of my adult life has been spent with a weight in the 235+ range. I'm currently flirting with 225, which is okay, but I'd rather be considerably lower (I'd even take 200!).
To help lose some of this flab, I've been in karate for most of the last 2-1/2 years, first at one style, now at our Shogen-ryu dojo. I know my limitations - my kicks aren't as high as some, and my reflexes simply aren't as fast as a teenager's any more (though I'm told that they could be, through an awful lot of practice). My pushups are (pardon the pun) up and down, as sometimes I can do 25 or more, and sometimes I can't do 5 (though this may partly because I'm transiting to "proper" knuckle pushups, in which one's elbows are actually beside one's ribs as opposed to out to the side - different muscles!). So, hey, I'm fit enough - let's play some baseball this year! I mean, let's ignore the fact that I'm already coaching two teams and just to all-out and play!!
Sunday night, first games - double-header!! I was put in at shortstop, as I'm an aggressive fielder and like the infield, but since we only had ten players for the first game and eleven for the second, I didn't miss a transition all night. (Ironically, my brother was playing at roughly the same time, the same way, but down in Windsor... and had the same problem afterwards!) I was fine after the game, but the next morning, the long muscles on the top of my legs started to just ache. Karate last night helped a bit, but not a lot; and today, my legs just plain hurt. Plus, my sensei informed me that my entire lower arm is inflamed from the baseball/punching combination in 24 hours - ice and ointment, he says! Great...
I know I'm not "young" any more, but I didn't realize how quickly we get "old" in these bodies, and how hard some of the pros must have to drive themselves to keep up in a game that features virtual children, to their eyes. Roger Clemens and Chris Chelios have ten years on me and are determined to keep going - I'm just a paltry amateur trying to get some exercise.
Still, the pain will go away... eventually. And I'll be back out on the field next week, ready and rarin' to go, and I'll hopefully just hurt less, and by the end of the season I'll not be sore at all!
Hey, a guy can hope...!