Play Hard

I am still in pain today from Sunday’s exertions. My biceps are the bits which aren’t playing ball still (the rest of the muscle groups seem to be pretty much back in order), I can’t fully extend my arms without vicious gouts of pain flaring from the muscles and even picking up the phone requires me to lean closer to it.

I wasn’t going to post anything today as I had a rest day yesterday and there is nothing to report. Then Nigel posted something about how he is a bit worried that I am pushing myself too hard and that got me thinking. Am I?

I want to get somewhere physically. For too long I have just assumed that I was a fit human being because I was quite a fit lad when I was at school. I then rested on my laurels and slowly and quietly got a bit wimpy.

I discovered almost as soon as we started training for this 2010 Devizes to Westminster race that I was not actually at my prime and it is going to take a lot of effort to get to where I want to be. So I am pushing myself hard. No pain, no gain, eye of the tiger, and all that.

But is it too much? I’m not so worried about the pain in my arms as this is a good pain, the pain of exertion. This is the pain of muscles being forced to grow bigger and stronger. But what about my shoulder injury? What would have happened if I had done more damage, maybe if I had tried a bigger weight, could it have ruined kayaking for me forever?

I read something a while ago, it was from a kayaking instructor and for some reason it managed to stick in my mind. To paraphrase the article it boiled down to this. - You only get one body, this is your vehicle through life. Would you rather drive a Ferrari or a beat up Lada?
(Actually, I know why this stuck in my mind. I liked this article, as it used cars as an analogy)
Are my excesses in the gym the equivalent of thrashing the engine before wrapping it around a tree?

And then as I contemplated all of that I remembered an advert from a few months ago that made me laugh. It was for a new Deep Heat product (Which reminds me, I really need to find out who makes Deep Heat and let them know about how much I love their product nudge, nudge, wink, wink, please could you sponsor us a K2 kayak please) where blokes were getting injured while playing sports. The tag line was Play hard – you can always get patched up.

So it’s decided. I’m going to play hard. Medical science can always rebuild me.