Tag: football

About today

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I ducked out of football tonight after a weekend with an iffy viral thing. Nothing too bad – I just slept a lot. And while I’m feeling much better now, I tried a run this morning, and there’s not an awful lot of energy in the tank. Almost 30 seconds per km slower than usual, and the hills left me broken. So better to prudently withdraw, rather than try to push things too hard and give myself even more from which to recover.

I did get the opportunity to try out my new running jacket, though: this time in proper rain. Because it actually rained quite hard today. And it handled it perfectly. That Water Column Rating of 10 000 mm (I don’t know what this means) really worked well, and the Breathability: well, I know it says 10000 g/m²/24h (again, no idea how this works), but it genuinely felt so much more.

In other news, things are starting to end for the year. Exams are done (finally), piano lessons finished yesterday, art school today. The last singing lesson is on Thursday, and there are only 6 more days of school: mainly for exam paper handbacks, prizegivings, and general end of year celebrations.

We’re away for a few days at the end of next week: a place somewhere in the Swartland with a pool and a hottub and very little else, and I can’t wait. I’ll be working doubly hard in the run up to that little trip so that I can get some blog posts pre-written and ready to go, leaving my time free for relaxing and braai’ing. Some exercise wouldn’t go amiss, perhaps a spot of photography, and there might just be some olives and a wine farm or two on the cards as well, given the region’s outstanding reputation for Shiraz.

It would be rude not to.

But more on that nearer the time.

This evening: United at home to Oxford – one of my old stomping grounds. It’s going to be another late one, but I hope it’s another good one too.

Reset

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I haven’t played football in ages, and I hadn’t realised how much I missed it.

So, when the offer of a Sunday morning friendly came up – and with it, a chance to review the revamped facilities at Hellenic – I jumped at the chance.

This was a good morning, and the social afterwards only added to the fun. A real reset with some great guys. Everyone giving their utmost in the 32oC heat, but all in really good spirit.

The cold beers were never more welcome, and I can’t wait to get back to some regular games as soon as the new season starts.

In fact, all in all, it’s been a very good footballing weekend.

Related: I am BROKEN!

Back to footy next week?

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I’m getting older. Looking back, this has been going on for just about my entire life.
Have a think: it might be happening to you, too.

My body is not as resilient as it used to be, and there are regularly a couple of aches or strains that wouldn’t have been a problem 20, 10 or even 5 years ago. The irritating thing about with these minor injuries is that they happen more often, they take longer to heal, and they are more likely to reoccur if you’re not careful.

But I’m also getting more sensible about getting older, and so I am being more careful.

I spotted this Unspiration-style image online, this morning.

Brilliant.

And it resonated. My hamstring isn’t exactly killing me (that was last week, lol!), but it isn’t quite 100% either. Still, I want to play some football and it’s annoying that I can’t. A few years ago, not playing wouldn’t have even been a consideration. And indeed, I could go back this evening and give it a go, and it might go well. But then also, it might go twang, and then I’d be out for n weeks or even longer.

The temptation to play is strong though, and so that sensible bit of me was looking out for a way to convince myself not to. And then the call came through that the MBCC dinner was likely to be moved forward by a day, and the decision – which was 95% made anyway – was rubber-stamped, popped into a brown envelope, and ceremoniously sealed.

A couple more days looking after the leg with kid gloves (arguably the best goat-based products I’ve ever bought) will undoubtedly do it a lot of good, especially when compared to 40 minutes of 5-a-side. Add in some helpful protein molecules this evening, and hopefully (because you can never be completely sure), it’ll be absolutely ready to go for next week, and won’t choose to break when I give it a run out.

Let’s hold thumbs.
But not too tightly: you’ve got to take care of those ulnar collateral ligaments at this sort of age.

And that’s why I do it…

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Well, it’s one reason, anyway.

I regularly refer back to a post from 2008 on this blog. This one.

Brian Micklethwait’s words originally, but something that I live… er… blog by, every day.

And, if you can’t be bothered to click through, then you probably just need to know that despite commenting on everything from news to sport to weather to politics to whatever this falls under and everything else, this still remains – from time to time – a personal blog. And because this is a personal blog, I do occasionally put personal stuff on it. And then when I look back on it, I can be reminded of exactly how I felt about something back then. Whenever that was.

Like this post from last August:

And it’s a really good thing that I can be reminded of good stuff like that, because last night I played football and it was shit. Really shit.

Sore arse, 40km round trip through the traffic, some floodlights not working, ball with an egg in it, a whole 15 minutes game time, I was rubbish, our whole team was rubbish, the referee was a complete [censored] clown from start to finish and yes, we lost, but to be honest it would only have been very mildly better if we had won, such was the general attitude on display and overall crapness of the whole evening.

Worst game of football (that I was playing in – there have been a few United performances that would still beat it) that I can remember. I broke my rib in two places and tore ankle ligaments in one of them, and it was still better when you consider last night’s bollocks.

I came home and went to bed. At least that went ok.

So maybe I’ll look back on this post in years to come and think: “hey, things have gone better today than I thought”, because I’ll helpfully have the memory of yesterday evening with which to compare it.