Dougal Campbell's geek ramblings

I’ve spent years at a desk job and very little in the way of extra-curricular activity, so I’m not in the best shape of my life. In fact, I’m in pretty poor shape. I’m grateful that my doctor was diplomatic about it when I had my 40-year-old physical last week. But I’ve been making somewhat of an effort to get myself into better general health over the last couple of years. If nothing else, I eat healthier foods now, generally speaking.

Thus, a few weeks ago I signed up to play on our church softball team, figuring that it would be a good way to commit myself to getting some exercise. We had our first practice on Friday night. I didn’t embarrass myself too badly, considering that it’s been nearly thirty years since I played little league baseball. I did a pretty good job catching fly balls, but I need to work on grounders (can I blame it on my bad knee and a glove that isn’t broken in yet?). At first, I was missing almost every pitch in batting practice. But my teamates pointed out that I was consistently swinging high. I was swinging for a baseball pitch, but with the slower softball pitches, the ball drops more at the end of its trajectory. Once I began swinging down under the pitch, I started hitting pretty consistently. We practiced for a tad over two hours, so I expected to be pretty sore over the next few days.

Saturday morning wasn’t as bad as I expected, though. I expected soreness in my legs, shoulders and throwing arm. But I didn’t expect the soreness in my right hand and in my feet. Still, not too bad. Then on Sunday, I did some yard work. I needed to finish pruning the crepe myrtles in front of our house, and also some shoots from the pear trees. Then I had to haul all the branches from the front of the house down to the woods at the back of our property.

Yeah, that did it. I’m really good and sore now. Fortunately, it only hurts when I move. I think I need to make time a couple of times a week to do a little touch-up exercising. That should help remind my muscles what they’re there for, and keep them from getting a once-a-week shock. It’s bound to mean more pain at first, but I’m looking forward to the pay-off (losing weight, gaining muscle tone) in the long run.