I played some squash with my friend again yesterday. It was good fun. This time around, I actually did a little better than the first time. I didn’t tire out quite as quickly. I actually made some good shots. We had some good rallies. It was a fun time. I’m hoping that after a few more times out I’m able to be competent enough to win a couple of matches and make my mate break a sweat.

Now, the problem is that after I finished squash, I then went out sailing. We sailed all the way to Ferry Reach and back to RHADC. While it was great fun and I had a wonderful time, it was quite a bit of work too. So, all of the squash pain is even worse because of the amount of rope pulling, winch cranking, and generally running around I was doing on the boat.

I really should do all of these things on a Saturday so that I have Sunday to rest before work on Monday. That way I won’t feel like a great big bag of pain.

It certainly has been some time since I’ve written a new post on this thing that I suppose could be called a blog. A lot has happened in the passed little while. But I’m not going to bore you with all of the details. What I want to talk about today is the pain of exercise.

I was recently in Toronto and I decided that I would try to pick up a decent squash racquet at a good price. I managed to find a Dunlop Black Max Titanium 510. I have no idea if that’s a good racquet or what but it certainlly does look nice and it had some pictures of good squash players that I’ve heard of before. So for the cost of about $60, I bought it.

In order for you to comprehend my pain today, you must understand a bit of my past. I was fairly athletic when I was younger. I have always been pretty slim. I always played a variety of sports. I was never an all-star but I could hold my own. I played squash in high school. Some of my friends were into tennis so they had some sort of racquet sport experience. Apparently, this didn’t help much since the way you play squash is rather different from tennis. I was smoking a pack a day and still playing sports pretty proficiently.

Fast forward to today. I haven’t really played a sport in years. Not even recreatively have I tried to do anything. I spend most of my time working at a computer whether it be at home or at the office. While I could get away with this before because I was younger and my metabolism was strong, I’ve taken advantage of that too much and now my metabolism has slowed down. I’m not fat but I can see where this is going. I don’t like it. So, I decided that squash would be a good game for me to pick up again. It’s a good work out and I always had fun when I was playing.

Yesterday, after a bit of a delay, I met my friend for a session in the morning. It all felt pretty familiar for the most part until we started actually trying to have rallies. Do you want to talk about missing the ball? How about hitting the ball with the frame instead of the netting? How about every drop shot falling short? Yeah, it was pretty bad. And yet, somehow, my friend was slightly impressed. He told me “that it looks like it’s just dust.” In other words, it’s all still there as far as technique goes. I just need to get my fitness levels up and get accustomed to how to hit the ball properly again.

By the end of our so called “match” I was panting, sweating, and sucking at the teet of the water jug. Today, I’m having some trouble walking. My buttocks in particular seems to be the most sore. I guess I haven’t used those muscles in a very long time. I sitting kind of hurts, let alone trying to stand up or walk. But it’s ok. It’s good pain. I just need to keep on going out there to play. The more I’m out there, the less it’ll hurt afterward and the better I’ll get.

I look forward to being in shape again.