Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Sidelined

Of course, 1 day after expressing how happy sports and fitness have made me, I hurt my shoulder playing volleyball. Luckily its not too bad, but I will be out for a couple weeks at least. I have an AC sprain that is bad enough to cause me a good amount of pain when raising my arm over my head, and pretty severe pain when reaching across my body towards my other shoulder. Ouch! At least there is no fracture. Whew (knock on wood).

After a few days, I get to do fun exercises, some of which hurt pretty badly right now. I know you probably aren't interested in the weird shoulder exercises I must do, but I really left this link for myself, so there. ;)

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Huge milestone


Saturday was the first doubles volleyball tournament of the season for me, and it was awesome. My pitiful little mind doesn't have enough words to adequately express just how awesome it was.

First, just the excitement and anticipation of the day was great. Just to be outside with friends on a beautiful warm day, everyone with their coolers and fold-out chairs and volleyballs, the feeling breathed extra life into me.

I got to see a lot of people that I hadn't seen in a while, which was nice (for the most part, ha ha). And a big group of people who I've gotten to know and enjoy over the off-season shared two portable shelters, chairs, fruit/water/gatorade, and conversation. Then, out of 5 AA pools, I end up in a pool with some of those fun people.

Not to toot my own horn or anything, but I played very well. Blocking and serving have been weaknesses in my game in the past, and while they could still use improvement I definitely stepped them both up during this tournament. I have a hard time correctly utilizing that split-second when you need to see the set going up and decide whether to run up and attempt to block the hit or fall back and attempt to dig the spike, but I've been working on it and I could definitely see the payoff. Unfortunately it wasn't enough for me to win the whole thing, though! :) I had my chance and blew it. I finished #1 in my pool (I went 7-1 there for 139/144 possible points), got ranked #4 in the following single-elimination play-off, and lost by 1 point in the first round to a guy I have beaten many times in the past.

The best part though, of this Saturday, was that it made me realize I'd reached a fitness milestone I did not know I had reached. To provide background, I like to tell a story about last summer when I played in my first doubles tournament in about 6 or 7 years: how driving can hurt. After that long hot day of playing, everything on my body hurt from my eyeballs to my feet, but mostly my legs (quads and calves). I was driving home with the cruise control on, and as I reached my exit on the beltline, it was actually painful just to raise my foot a few inches off the floorboard and push it back down on top of the brake pedal. Now that's a bad shape to be in. The other tournaments last summer weren't so bad, but I would still be sore and tired and fighting cramps afterwards, and basically good for nothing the following day. But this time...I felt great. After I finished, I could have played much more. That evening after the tournament I had energy to give away, and even the next day there was no soreness whatsoever. What a great feeling. That more than anything else makes me extremely proud, but also thankful for having friends that encourage me to get in shape and stay in shape. A year ago today, I said that I was more fit than I'd been in 7 years. Today I can say that I'm much more fit than I was just last year. Next month? Next month I'll be more fit than I am today.