Thursday, February 01, 2007

VERTICAL PAIN

I'm guilty. I fooled myself into thinking I was in great shape.

...after all, I run 5+ miles every other day. I lift weights. Watch my diet...

Surely I can go play a few games of basketball without any problems right? In a 35 and older league where, being 35, I'd have to be one of - if not the - youngest person. Some of the players had gray hair. Others had more braces or wraps covering different parts of their bodies than NOT covered.

Nah, shouldn't be a problem.

Right?

Except...I'm in pain this morning. Hell, I was in pain the moment I left the court last night and limped to my car. I feel like that kid in Shel Silverstein's 'Sick' poem. You know, the one with the litany of problems spelled out as to why she can't go to school:

"My hip hurts when I move my chin,My belly button's caving in,My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,My 'pendix pains each time it rains."

My back is most certainly wrenched. And the back of my legs haven't been sore like this in awhile.

This is my first experience in a 35+ league and here is one observation that jumps out: there is a lot more leaning that takes place. By that, I mean, generally speaking, men this age aren't as spry and,when you come anywhere near the basket, like to lay their elbows on you, apply body weight, and try and pin you to the floor. The basketball equivalent of the sleeper hold. And that is tough on the back.

The other observation last night is that you cannot take a year off from playing and expect to JUMP again. I could not even jump high enough for simple lay-ups. They were a struggle. I hit the bottom of the rim on a couple which is pretty embarrassing. That's why a lay-up is also called a "gimme" or "bunny". You're supposed to make them. Easily.

Basketball is a game of quick spurts and quick stops and turns. Running, obviously, involves continuous, almost static, forward motion. And no jumping. It is very horizontal.

My horizontal is fine. The vertical, well, that's another matter.

The 5 miler tonight should be interesting.

4 comments:

Mike said...

Dude...the fun in playing the post is the beating.

Why do you think i was in so much pain after the saturday sessions from the mackers?

Suck it up.

Nitmos said...

...I'll be back next Wed night ready to go. I need to build up my bball muscles again is all. I'm sure I got my share of elbows in...

Jason The Running Man said...

Great blog, found you off CRN. I think I would be in the same boat. Haven't played b-ball in quite a while.

Faithful Soles said...

My name is Robert Key and I am a runner from Houston, Texas. I saw your blog listed when I was looking through the RBF directory and very much enjoyed reading some of your entries. I never was any good at basketball, but I found other ways to injure myself, as in putting in too many miles and getting bad shin splints from it. However, part of the fun of this sport we love is overcoming adversity.

I have a web site at http://www.faithfulsoles.com that is inspirational stories for walkers, runners and athletes of all ages and abilities. I recently added to the site a categorized and searchable Running Blog Database where members of my site can find a blog of interest to them based on other walkers, runners or athletes of similar abilities, goals and interests. To my knowledge it is the only one of its kind specifically for walkers and runners on the internet. I would appreciate it if you would take a moment to put a link to your blog in our Running Blog Database (in less than a week of actively promoting it, we have already had over 60 bloggers from around the world link their blogs to it). Just click on "Link your running blog" under "Free Features" from the home page. If you want to learn more about my running background, just click on "Meet Robert" from the main menu , or to learn more about my involvement in the running community, click on "Faithful Soles in the news" in the left column under "Weekly Features". I also have a blog that I just started at http://faithfulsoles.blogspot.com, but most of my running information is on my web site. Also, if there is anyone else in your blogger network that you think would be interested in listing their blog, please feel free to pass this information along to them. Thanks and continued good luck in your training.