Tuesday 20 September 2011

First Steps

Got back to work today and had a driving lesson after two weeks off of both because of my knee. Tomorrow is a bigger day though. I've decided it's the day to go to the gym, mainly because it's when training is and I'm not ready to go back to that yet.
First I'll just do a fast walk and then decide whether I feel comfortable enough to have a little jog. Fingers crossed I don't tweak anything!

Tuesday 13 September 2011

Knee...

Well, I haven't posted in ages...
Had the first competitive League game Saturday before last and injured myself in the first minute. Played on because I thought it would go away, but I could tell it could give me trouble after the game. I brought myself off after 60 minutes because it was giving me problems. Next day(with a hangover after a big night out, which probably didn't aid my knee) I woke up with a swollen knee and it was pretty painful. Went to A&E the next day and turned out I'd torn the cartilage in my knee. The doctor didn't seem to think it was that bad, so I was pretty surprised when he said it may be up to 8 weeks until I can play Football again...
I'm going in tomorrow for a check and hopefully they'll say it won't be that long, but I'm pretty bummed as it is...
Bring on November!

Thursday 18 August 2011

Feel the Burn

Thought I better post seeing as I haven't in a while. My loyal fan base must not know what to do with themselves. I definitely should be writing an essay, but this is a good way to put it off for a little longer.
Yesterday was Football training. Yesterday was a very hard session of Football training. It has been the only time I've remembered in a long time when I've actually not wanted to play a game of Football. After an hour and a bit of thigh burners, passing, heading, dribbling and control drills and sprints I was completely done, and so was the training, until someone suggested that we overrun and play a game as well. Normally I would be right up for it, but I literally wanted to die. My legs were in agony and I was completely out of breath. Though, after a couple of minutes of rest it seemed worth doing again!
It was the first time I'd done the thigh burners and sprints in the same session. The sprints were right at the end and the rest of the training had clearly taken it's toll on everyone there. The feeling after was very, very good though!
I ave neglected the gym AGAIN this past week, so I must go tomorrow and get burning some calories and getting my cardio fitness up! My excuse for this week is a hangover from a weekend in Wolverhampton lasting several days...

Monday 8 August 2011

Driving Me Crazy

Let's get the title out of the way first. I've been driving lots and stuff and that's a really poor pun for you all, which is possibly stolen from Man to Man with Dean Learner. I had my first lesson in aaages earlier and it was very nervy. He kindly pointed out all the bad habits I'd picked up just driving with Mum. No surprises there.
In other news, I played in a friendly on Wednesday and came on for the last 35 minutes or something. It was great to get in to a proper full-sized match and I think I did ok. We had training on Saturday as well, though only 10 people turned up and I know 3 people weren't there because they went out the night before. I was assured they'd be there but I assumed that they wouldn't be, and I was right. Slackers.
I haven't actually been to the gym too much because of a slight niggly knee thing, but I did go today for a run. Well, I had planned on just doing a run, but I went at it a bit hard at the start with a few sprints and only ended up running for just over 20 minutes and then moved on to a few leg weights. Tomorrow I think I'll just go for a steady 45 minute run. I haven't done enough to burn off last night's Lick'n Chicken meal and a Pizza that I had at a not-so enjoyable gig. I'll make it for it tomorrow though. I will I will I will.

Monday 1 August 2011

Aching

The weekend just gone was a tiring one. On Thursday and Friday I got some runs in before Football on Saturday. On Thursday I wanted to try and recreate a game of Football on the treadmill, which isn't really possible, but I gave it a go anyway. It involved walking, slow jogging, fast jogging and sprinting(or as fast as I feel I can safely run on a treadmill) and it wasn't fun, but I need to be doing stuff like that, I feel.
On Friday I planned on doing a nice slow, easy run for about half an hour, but instead I did a faster than usual run for 25 minutes, but I was feeling ok on Saturday so I don't think I overdid it at all.

Saturday... Saturday was a good day, but a good day that went very slowly and quite painfully at times. I had work at 6.30 then finished at 10.30 and me and the boss went straight from there to Football to take part in the 8-a-side tournament. At first I thought I was going to have to play every game because we originally only had 8, but then we had 10 so I was worried I wouldn't get to play at all. However, our player manager did in his knee in the first game and one of the players went to play cricket after the second so I ended up playing every game but the first one.

I got put on the left wing, which I wasn't expecting, but I didn't end up doing too much attacking, mainly because I was worried I'd completely knacker myself out having to track back after sprinting all the way up. I had quite a lot of banter coming my way from some idiots who I'd been at school with sat at the side of the pitch and I also got hacked quite a few times  during the tournament. One guy gave me a kick as I went past him and got a good talking to from the ref. Still feeling that one. The hardest thing about the tournament was probably all the waiting in between games though. There was only one pitch and with ten teams involved we were waiting half an hour for each game. After the second game everyone started getting pretty stiff so we definitely weren't feeling 100% for most of it.

Anyway, we somehow managed to get ourselves through to the semis and went out to a team who I think are a league or two higher, so it wasn't bad at all after our performances at the start. I'm definitely still feeling it now and I wanted to go to the gym tonight but I'm not sure if it's a good idea.

Time to eat a pie...

Thursday 28 July 2011

Panic

Been to the gym and a couple of times, including today, but am now really just doing running, exclusively. Someone on the Football team said he just wants me to do cardio to get fit. I'm not sure how serious he was being, but that's what is actually going to be useful to me so it is now going to be the majority of what I do at the gym.
My visit today was a Football related run and it wasn't particularly fun. I mixed in sprints with fast running, slow running and walking, but nothing for any more than 2 minutes. I did it for 45 minutes and was pretty tired at the end, which isn't great, but at least I lasted up to then.
I'm playing my first ever matches with the team this weekend and I'm pretty nervous. It's an 8-a-side tournament on full size pitches and the matches are all 10 minutes. As far as I know, there are only 8 of us going, so I'm going to have to play every game and I'm probably going to be completely knackered after 2... or maybe the first 1... I haven't got any skills in the locker to impress and gloss over the heavy panting, so I'll just have to defend stoutly and try not to make any mistakes.
I've just had a pie(and some weird 'gravy' I made to go with it... it was strange) to put back on any calories I've burnt off and am about to go on a drive with Mum. However much it'll be great to have the freedom of driving, I still dread each time I go out... But I'm 21 and it's getting silly.

Monday 25 July 2011

Freedom...

I moved it up a notch today with a 6 mile run and a sprint at the end. I held the sprint for a minute and it completely knackered me out, which felt great! I feel like I should be running on the road because it's all I've really been doing at the gym, but I think I'd be more likely to stop when I got a bit tired if I was on the road. I did a few other exercises too for a bit of a stomach workout, but nothing big.
I have Football training tomorrow evening and I'm hoping my legs aren't sore at all from the run. They seem fine at the moment so it's looking good.
Also learning to drive at the moment. This is actually my third stint because I never really stick at it as I really dislike it. But now I'm at the point where it's just annoying not having the freedom and I want to be able to drive back from Bath to play Football at home twice a week so I really need to stick at it this time! haven't gone for a drive today but tomorrow we're going for a longer one than yesterday and going to try and get a bit closer to the city.