I Should Know Better: Hamstring Injury

First, thanks to the kind folk who took the trouble to comment on my previous technical mishap. Your feedback is always very much appreciated!

Today's post will hopefully not be lost to the etherspace. I have wracked my brain trying to figure out what happened and have concluded that I must have hit "publish" at the precise moment that the blog was autosaving. I guess that post was just never meant to happen.

And now for today's pearls ...

I feel pretty stupid right now. For the last few weeks I have been training with the local high school squash team doing circuits.

At first I thought I may have bitten off more than I could chew, but two weeks further on and my fitness has significantly improved. High intensity circuit training, early mornings and healthy competition ... a sure recipe for effective weight loss and rapid improvement.

Eager to try out my new-found conditioning improvements, I went off to the local squash courts to play a few games with a good mate of mine who is also joining me in these intensive early morning training sessions.

We were both significantly more mobile. Although my courtcraft and ball control skills were shocking, I felt I'd made substantial gains in speed and fitness.

Twenty minutes into our game, I pounced on a drop shot ... and felt the searing pain of a torn hamstring. As I dealt with the pain (hami injuries that are more than just a tweek are always pretty painful) all I could think of was how I would miss my training. I would let down the coach, my training partner, the kids ... oh and myself too!

How could this happen? How could I have been so careless? What was I thinking? Two weeks ago I would have looked at that shot wistfully and let it go. Now I thought that in just 14 days I had become superman.

And I'm a somewhat seasoned trainer who should have known better.

My conclusion: we can never stop learning. Sure, I had taken the precaution to warm up fairly carefully. Sure we were well into our third game when it happened. So it was not a case of inadequate warm up. I was just being competitive. Brains were relaced by testosterone. Again.

Don't us men ever learn?

I've spent the last few days limping around the place. Our flat has far more stairs than I had ever noticed before. But I think I'll recover quickly ... as long as I resist the urge to come back too soon and risk further damage.

So ... I have learnt yet another lesson in patience, progressive preparation and ego management. Let's see if I can get these next few weeks absolutely right and turn a setback into a positive.

I'll keep you posted ...