Monday, May 28, 2012

Fitness and other issues

Had another trip up to the Mall tonight scouting cos I needed trousers ...

Had other reasons too but trousers were the pressing one. Have to say, it felt great to realise that trousers I retired last year (pre-diet but after the leg infection) now felt baggy. Lots of room there and it was good that I have a decent belt. The belt is 2 (occasionally 3!) notches tighter now too than it was last year. I had to get a new pair though cos my keys were attempting to escape through the pocket. The last pair got retired cos of a "oops - I shouldn't have bent down quite like that ..." incident ...

Other Mall trip scouting :

Fence and fence posts. Need to repair the fence to next door as the old panels were rotten after falling victim to heavy wind. Still need to investigate what's there at the moment and therefore how big a job it will be. Need to repair the fence posts too which to be honest is the most icky part. Hopefully it won't need concrete (saw something at B+Q today that would serve, if there's concrete there already for it to work with)

Couldn't investigate that over the weekend cos there were nasty chemicals but I can check it out tomorrow evening.

Fridge/freezer - mine's getting old now. It needs defrosting again (next weekend when I don't have to keep an eye on workmen) but still works well. Had an initial peek tonight for new ones, so I know a little more about what I'm looking at.

That's how I buy stuff, some would call it procrastination (it is) but I call it gathering knowledge so you know what you're looking at. Then when you buy, you get something perfect instead of merely shiny. Like I now know how big a variety of these there are, so before I go looking seriously, I'll measure the hole.

Same with - washing machine. It works. I think. But I'm not confident that it works 100%. Either that, or I need some serious stain removal stuff to get the grass stains out of my cricket whites :-).

Loo - I could do this on my own. If ... I could acquire something with like-for-like fittings. That means having the same place for the drain (not a problem), the wall fixing (issue), the overflow and the water inlet (both problems). I'd like to do it on my own because that's the way I like to do things. I may have to bite the bullet and get a plumber to replace it (cos of the overflow + inlet) but I have another idea for tackling those pesky wingnuts ...

Wait ... this was supposed to be about fitness wasn't it ? (it was a busy Mall scouting run)

I used to grade myself as A, B or C level fitness for how intact I was, with 1,2,3 etc for how match ready I was.

Grade A would have everything working correctly, with no residual injuries. My knees were the first thing to degrade but didn't knock me out of A too much.
Grade B has something complaining. Like a sore back, a broken finger or something else that means I'm not 100% intact but there's no reason for me not to play. My groin tear puts me at Grade B, because while it's annoying (minor limp again today) I can still run at full speed with it. Same with the spectacular bruising on my right leg.
Grade C means something major is broken. My shoulder would put me at Grade C, as did the leg problem from 2 years ago.

I've accepted now that my shoulder is seriously compromised. I can't bowl with it and I maybe have 1 good throw per game. But that 1 good long distance throw will hurt like hell, so I save it for when it's crucial. However, because I have a role batting and fielding where throwing is short distance, I can still play with it.

Last year's cricket was spoiled by 2 things that dropped me to Grade C - I hurt my back at the start of the year and the leg infection made my skin to weak to risk on the field (it would break when I walked!). While I have the minor groin tear this year, my back is happy as long as I keep using it plus the leg infection is sufficiently healed for cricket.

The numbers said how much of a lazy git I'd been. A1 fitness meant I'd finish 40 overs of cricket as strong as I started, having done a full quota of bowling overs. I'd have a resting heart rate of 56-60. 2 meant I'd be ok but not quite match fit. 3 meant I'd be struggling. At the moment that resting heart rate is about 80.

How am I at the moment ? Honestly - C3, hopefully B2 by Thursday's game. C cos I dunno about the damage to my left shin, plus hayfever is in my lungs. But time should help with those. I'll be ok for Thursday's game by abusing natural fitness and ignoring pain again but I'm nowhere near "match fit".

Oh - I also scouted vacuum cleaners as one reason my lungs are bad is because of an attack of house cleaning. I knocked over a glass of coke with the vacuum, which led to me scrubbing the floor and getting dust in my lungs. It shows how bad the football was on Saturday that it drove me to cleaning. I had done some vacuuming in the afternoon but the vacuum had declared : "It's too darn hot, I'm shutting down for a while". Hence scouting for a new one ... it worked later when it cooled down.

Ramble over - in the style of a Dodger vid, the latest of which I'm about to watch - Cya tomorrow (maybe) :-) MWAH !

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