Sore

WEATHER THERE: sunny, -4C (-7C with windchill), 8 km/hr cross/headwinds
WEATHER BACK: cloudy, 2C, 22 km/hr cross/tailwinds

As my daughter might say: I'm sooooooore!

I don't really have any hobbies, sadly. Ever since grad school, and especially since becoming a single parent in grad school, I haven't had the time or money to really be able to do much of anything fun. I go out to movies whenever I can, and I read whenever I can, but for the most part I have ceased to be a remotely interesting person. That kind of sucks. So I decided to change that - I decided to join a recreational dodgeball league! It was either that or softball, and since I don't really know how to play any team sports and never have in my life, I figured the learning curve would be more manageable for dodgeball. Also, it seemed like a lot more fun!

My first game of the season was last night. Turns out - I suck! But there is a lot of room for improvement, and by the end of our one-hour match I made a couple good catches and got a few people out. It might take a while, but I'll get better with more and more practice. Nothing but better from here, I say!

The downside is that even before the end of the game I was sore. I threw out my left hip because of the weird way I throw the ball with my right hand, and by the time I got home from the game last night I was limping and feeling pretty stiff. It only got worse overnight, as my right shoulder started to seize up as well. This did not bode well, especially since I had planned for today to be my first day back to biking since that short spate of nice weather we had in mid-March. Despite waking up with aches and stiffness all over, I determined I'd stick to the plan, and I biked my daughter to daycare with the trailer before biking to work this morning.

Ultimately, I'm sure the exercise actually helped with my soreness and stiffness, but man did my commute-time suffer from my stiff-and-out-of-shape-ness! It took me a solid 30 minutes from daycare to work, and although there weren't a lot of bike commuters out this morning, I did get blown past by a cyclist on campus who put my palty 16 km/hr to shame. And I was working for that! Blargh! Ahh well. The more I bike, the easier it'll get. And the more I play dodgeball, the better I'll get at that - and less sore, too. The point is that I'm becoming interesting again - I officially have a hobby! Hell, maybe even two if you count biking! Despite the soooooore, this is turning out to be a mighty fine personal development . . .