That Was Then, And This Is Now
In the past, I always swore that Ocular Fusion would never devolve into one of those TMI “OMG, my big toe aches and I want everybody in the universe to know about it and sympathize with me” kind of blogs.
But that was then, and this is now.
That was before I happily ventured out into the sunny, 65 degree Alabama weather this past Saturday and down to McGucken Park to fling the Frisbee disc with Number One Son and Uncle T. who was visiting from Colorado Springs.
And now my right gluteus maximus is tied-up tighter than King Tut and a tombful of his Egyptian cousins and concubines.
I just thought you needed to know that. Can I get a witness?
I honed my mad Frisbee skillz in the parking lot of The Roanoke Church of Christ in the 1970s and raised them to a high art form on the quad at Harding University in the early 80s. Even as recently as a few years ago, one of Number One’s friends saw me playing (they must have been about twelve at the time) and was so impressed that he asked, “Hey, did your dad used to be a pro or something?”
Yeah kid, and don’t you forget it. I was a shoe-in for the National Team roster and headed for a lucrative pro Frisbee contract when I got distracted by that whole optometry thing. Cue Springsteen’s “Glory Days.”
But that was then, and this is now.
And now I would have been much better served by taking it easy and recalling that throwing the disc over and over and over involves mainly one side of the body and the repetitive contraction of a muscle that one normally doesn’t use that much or even think about having much less say out loud (i.e., the gluteus maximus) and the overextension of that same muscle when catching the disc between one’s legs (yes, I can still do that and all kinds of other gnarly things!).
Back then I would have been able to throw the disc for hours on a beautiful and tantalizing sneak-peak-of-Spring February day and awake two days later feeling just fine.
But now I’m feeling the burn of that 48-hour lactic acid lag and hobbling up and down the hall so badly that I’m starting to get some sympathetic glances from my walker-assisted 80-year-old patients. And I in turn am eyeing their titanium-reinforced walkers and thinking, Hey, those are kinda nice, I wonder if Mr. Geezer over there would mind if I “borrowed” his?
True, that was then, and this is now. But one thing hasn’t changed—I had a blast. And honestly, if I had it to do over again, I probably would.
11 Comments
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Jeff Slater
I also honed my Frisbee skills on the quad at Harding in the early to mid 80’s. My son and I enjoy throwing the Frisbee around at the beach, and he’s amazed that I can throw it with such accuracy — he rarely has to move to catch it.
I wish Frisbee skills were marketable…
Laurie
Ah, Frisbee. Haven’t done that in years.
And ah, the aging process. Went rollerblading last week for the first time in a year or so and I was in similar straights the next day. But, like you, I’d do it all over again. And will, if this snow ever goes away.
P.S. for some reason I can’t get your post to load in either AOL or IE. I get the header, and the headline, but no posts. I had to go to Firefox to read about your glutes.
Maybe Internet Explorer and AOL have delicate sensibilities? 🙂
Mike the Eyeguy
Laurie, was it just this post or is that a regular occurrence?
If it was just this post, then I bet it was because I hastily copied and pasted a Word document to WordPress. Let me know.
Laurie
This is the first time it’s happened, at least to me. It’s taken out the whole blog for me — with the exception of the header and the headline. There’s not even a scroll down bar on the right. But again, it’s fine in Firefox.
And of course, it could be my computer.
Mike the Eyeguy
Nah, I bet it’s because I used Word. Now that I know that, I won’t do it again.
Laurie
I rebooted my computer and it’s fine now. So maybe it was me? No idea. I’ll let you know if it happens again.
Mike the Eyeguy
That’s because I deleted the offending HTML code in the original post.
I’m pretty sure you’re normal–or at least as normal as a soccer blogger can possibly be.
Hal
A classmate of mine at W&L was the quarterback for our football team. I asked him at one of our reunions if he could still throw the football as far as he used to. He said that he still gets out and throws with his son, and can still throw it just as far. But now it takes him 3 days to recover. That was then, and this is now.
Mike the Eyeguy
I’m moving a little more smoothly today; 3 days sounds about right.
My secret to such a speedy recovery? The Stick (click here).
That, and ibuprofen, a first rate heating/massaging cushion, muscle relaxants…
carolinagirl
ME: Ah, the comforts of aches and pains. Aren’t they a way of your body telling you that you’re…growing older…out of shape? It’s not like we really listen to them anyway.
Monday was such a beautiful day that I shed my sweats and ran in my shorts and windsuit top. I probably could’ve shed the windsuit top as I had on a long sleeve tee underneat, but why tease my body into thinking Spring has sprung. I’m feeling aches of the run now, but my body appreciates it.
On another note…if I can just get rid of the knee pain I’m still feeling from having run Disney, I’d be alright. Should I dare mention on open forum that as of two days ago, I’m now without three of my toenails. Uh – we won’t mention the colors they had turned or how easily it was to pull pull them off.
The true comfort in dealing with the aches is praying for good weather this coming weekend so you can do it all over again.
Mike the Eyeguy
Is your knee pain lateral? If so, I bet you have some Iliotibial Band Syndrome. I had some of that after my marathon a few years back. It took a few months to go away. Those elastic, velcro-attaching bands that go right beneath the knee cap helped a lot.