Here it is, Monday morning, and I am still recovering from beating myself up on Saturday playing paintball with my 20-year old son. Just another reminder that my 48-year old carcass takes longer and longer to bounce back from activities I used to do with little or no consequences. I guess it has been a while since I’ve been running through the woods, and and crawling over mud and rocks on my hands and knees. Thank goodness we decided to head home after 4 hours instead of buying more paint. If we had stayed, I’m not sure I would be walking today! Hard to believe I used to be in as good a shape as the kid is today!
So what have you done recently that took the greatest toll on your body, either for recreation or otherwise?
Climbed the hiking trail to the rim of Mt. Vesuvius (30 degree grade, one-half mile). Thought I was going to die. And I power walk on my treadmill five days a week.
What you rehabbing? I’ve been fortunate. The last 2 times I had surgery on my wheels the docs and therapists were amazed at how quickly I bounced back.
I was recently at the Desert Sand Dunes in Colorado. I was so enthralled by the view I said, Heck, lets go to the top!
Yeah, 2 hours later I was still sucking sand climbing the last dune to the top. Safety tip, The “top” of the dunes is not like a mountain, it’s more like a small knoll in hell, just up from the river stix. Gah!
Couple of years ago I did paintball with friends, including a friend’s boss, and including said boss’s two fifteen-year-old sons. I was in my early forties.
Hours of crouching down in the woods, thighs flexed, at high psychological tension.
The next day my thighs were in inconsolable agony. It was 2-3 days before I could walk comfortably. Oh-My-God I was in distress.
But the pain was somewhat alleviated by the fact that I got 12 people cold before any paint touched me – and that paintball that did hit me didn’t break. The 12 kills included, among others, one guy who was crouched in a hide, shooting through a slot a few inches wide, while we rushed across broken ground – I fired one shot from the hip, it went right into the slot and hit him in the facemask.
The pain was totally alleviated by the fact that, on the long ride back home, the fifteen-year-old boys allowed as how I was “all right for an old guy.”
Ran 25 minutes straight. Which will quickly be overtaken in the contest of Thing That Most Kicked MsWhatsit’s Ass by the 28-minute run I am doing on Wednesday.
I got into it when my son was 14-15. Learned they would tolerate my presence if I was their designated driver and occasionally flexed my plastic.
I tend to get impatient and get tagged too quickly. But my shot-of-the-day was one I’ll long remember. We were on a field full of wrecked cars. My son was to my left, guarding the sideline. I had a nice spot closer to the center of the field, but was running low on ammo. 3-4 guys were pushing hard towards my son. I was calling out their advance from car to car, but he had no angle on them. I was down to my last paintball, when one guy broke out of cover and started running towards my son’s position. As my son told it, he just caught a glimpse of the guy coming around his car as he saw my paintball burst on the guy’s mask. Doesn’t get much better than that!
Any kind of interval training. Either high-intensity or the regular stuff. In addition to my normal runs, I do a 12-15 mile long run every week and one 3 mile session worth of invervals (plus a mile warm-up and a mile cool-down), and I would rather do the long run anytime. It’s hell and I’m practically dry heaving by the end of it.
I started playing soccer in a women’s over 40 league. I have never played soccer before. My kids play and I love watching professional soccer so when a couple of my tennis buddies suggested I join their team, I said sure. Now I play tennis 4 - 5 times a week, both singles and doubles so I was certain I could handle it. WRONG. It took me three days to be able to walk up a flight of steps without wincing in pain.
Fortunately, I had such a blast playing I kept going back, but come each Monday morning, Waaaaaaaaahhhhh!
I’m 44 now. Back in my 20s and early-to-mid 30s I was a semi-serious gym rat; 4-5 workouts per week, 45-60 minutes each workout. Got married (again) late in life and had a kid. At this point in my life I haven’t, or hadn’t, been to the gym in about 7 years.
Last week the missus got us a family membership at the YMCA. Last Wednesday, I swaggered into the gym assuming my tired, old, slightly flabby body could still work out as hard as before. I worked out with a will for about an hour, even managed to bench pres my body weight (about 188 lbs)…twice.
Since last Wednesday every single muscle in my body has hurt. The first few days were bright, white-hot, fiery needles of pain lancing through me, now it’s just a constant dull ache. Christ, I’m OLD.
Many years ago I had a Total Gym, it’s one of those exercise machines that Chuck Norris pushes. I used it every once in a while till the grown kids broke it messing around on it. I bought another this weekend and last night put in about an hour on it. I could barely lift my arms this morning.
Earlier this year I was in an exercise class and went home and decided to practice over the weekend. The one that killed me was, from a kneeling condition, slowly arch back as far as you can until you feel the stretch in your thighs. Oh, I felt it, all right! I sprained my thigh muscles :eek: - was in utter agony for two days and had to go down the stairs sitting on my butt and bumping myself down, stair by stair. A charming sight, and a humorous one judging by the pointing and laughing I endured from the family.
A week ago, I climbed a 12,804’ mountain, with a vertical gain of 4000’ in about 3 miles. I was definitely gimping before we even got to the top. I will draw a veil over the trip down. Especially the approaching storm that required a “brisk” pace.
However, I was only insanely sore (silly walks, waddling down stairs) for 2 days, so all my regular hiking must be good for something. So who’s turning 40 on Saturday, anyway?
Every session, I start with 20 minutes of running, and then the hard stuff starts. Good lord.