Saturday, October 13, 2012

Who's Your Soccer Mama?

It's been a physical fitness couple of weeks for me.  First there was Wingman Day, a day where the Air Force takes some down time to contemplate taking care of ourselves and each other.  It was decided that we should have a competition between the offices at work, and each section had to field a team.  I didn't really want to participate, since I had my annual PT test coming up the following week, but decided running one leg of the 4 x 100 wouldn't kill me.  Then one of our guys claimed a bum foot, so I ended up running the first and last leg, which wouldn't have been so bad but the track was an asphalt lane around a softball field that dropped about 30 ft in elevation for the first half, then left you climbing back up on the back half.  Doing that twice at a near sprint is not as easy as it sounds, and it really doesn't sound that easy.  Throw in some lunges in a later competition and my legs were pretty used up.

The following week was my PT test - pushups, situps, and a 1.5 mile run.  I like running with music but I haven't been using my iPod during my speed work to prepare for the test, and I figured it was best to test as I trained, so I reluctantly left the music behind.  We got up to the starting line and took off.  The track is a meandering course that is 1.5 miles in length, which I prefer to running in circles around a quarter mile oval track.  And with my GPS watch, I am able to track time, distance, current and average pace.  That is, once I hit the start button.  Apparently I didn't press the button hard enough when we took off, because when I glanced down to see what my pace was it registered zero.  By the time I figured out what had happened it was too late to help me, so I was left running blind as far as keeping my pace goes.  It was quite aggravating, although I did make my goal time.  If I wasn't going to do my regular routine I guess I could have brought my music after all.

The following day we started a new initiative here to do PT as a group on Thursday afternoons.  If you've never played soccer, it's pretty tiring and really can make you sore, due to the sudden starting, stopping, and shifts in direction.  Doing this the day after my PT test certainly sent me a friendly reminder of the fact I'm not getting any younger.  I've been hobbling around the last couple of days while bruises, cuts, blisters and stiff muscles slowly recover.  On the bright side, not only did I score a couple of goals, but more importantly, I was able to steal the ball from our British exchange officer once.  Not only is he about 6 foot 6, but more importantly, he's British!  Beating him head to head at soccer was like showing up Eminem at a rapping duel.  Even if it did only happen once, it was the highlight of my week.