Soccer

I've added soccer to my life. And I'm not sure it will fit very well with distance training. I'll admit that my main concern is injury. Soccer involves a lot of quick sprints, sudden stops, exciting turns, and sometimes being crashed to the ground by an opposing player. I came home with blood on my knee yesterday.

I haven't played since the age of ten, one season in a girls' house league. I was fast back then, and my coach suggested I try out for the select team, but my brother was sick at the time, and my parents never followed up. In the years since, I regretted that. In fact, I never played organized team sports again after that season.

I wasn't sure I'd like playing a team sport, but so far it's been really fun. My first game, I was very tentative, and we were totally out-matched by a much more skilled team. But yesterday's game was played against a team of similar skills (and ages), and suddenly -- I was super-fast. I could run past all of the defenders and in for the net. But I couldn't get the damn ball to go in. I made a couple of decent crosses in front of the net, but my inexperience showed. I was placing the ball to close to the goalie.

I did less well the second half. In part because my right thigh was aching. At least this is a new injury! My hip seems quite all right. But the quick sprints use different muscle groups, as does the kicking and passing, and my right leg is getting more of a work out than my left. I'm stiff as a board today.

I got up early this morning for a swim. I was slow in the pool, and my thigh still hurt a bit, but it felt good to be in water, and to stretch out. I went 2600m, slowly. I really enjoyed swimming again, and it felt like good exercise, good for the lungs. I wasn't too tired afterward either, and felt that I could have gone further. But not faster, unfortunately.

I did not do a long run this weekend. Frankly, I was just too tired. I also wasn't sure I'd put on enough miles over the course of the week. Next weeked is a break from soccer, so I'm hoping to run about 15km. I ran 14.5km last weekend, and then played my first soccer game the next day. Bad idea. Might have had something to do with the original leg strain.

I'm finding the distance running challenging. I did keep a good pace throughout the 14.5km run, though, clocking in at about 5:20/km. My aim was 5:30. Even when my legs felt jellyish, my feet kept up the pace.

My hope with the soccer is that I will get comfortable with the sprints, and this will add an element to my training that I'm not currently doing -- interval training. It could be an opportunity to get faster.

Or it could be an opportunity to get hurt. Yes, I feel my age these days. Sigh.

One final note: I'm not doing yoga right now!!! I really miss it, but there is no time to squeeze it in, unless I get up early one extra morning a week, which hasn't been feasible recently. With everyone in soccer, we're often not home and putting kids to be bed until after 9, at which point we still have supper cleanup, dishes, and laundry. I'm falling into bed around 10:30, utterly wiped, with no real downtime. It's felt relentless, honestly. It's a tough pace. Some mornings, therefore, I choose sleep.