The Burn

Yesterday was the second day of this weeks sporting heaven/hell. And so far, I've been doing surprisingly well.

As you may recall, I played badminton last night. I haven't played badminton in almost a year (ever since I sprained my ankle really badly last year) and I knew I was in for trouble. Sure enough, it took me a good 20 minutes before I managed to get back some of my timing.

However, this wasn't what surprised me. I figured that after so little strenous exercise (although I play squash occasionally, I'm not very good hence the lack of strenous exercise) for a year, I would really struggle to last the distance. However, despite being really tired, the adrenaline was just enough to last the whole 3 hours.

After I got home last night, I immediately took a hot shower and liberally spread Bengay over my muscles. Bengay is an analgesic heat rub used to reduce muscle pain. If you have never used it - then either you don't do much sport or you are extremely fit! Anyway, after spreading Bengay, my arm and leg muscles felt like they were on fire. If nothing else, this is a real indication of how much punishment I had put on my muscles.

So far, the above hasn't been too exceptional (and if I'm being honest, I would say it was what I expected). What happened this morning was unexpected.

When I woke up, other than my arm muscles feeling a little tired and stiff - I felt fine. This was wholly unexpected. You may recall this post in January detailing the pain when I first started playing squash. In fact, I was expecting something similar today after such a strenous badminton session last night.

However, I was fine. I guess the squash games have been doing me more good than I realised.

Can't wait till Friday now where I can round off this weeks sporting bonanza and then brag about how fit I am that I can play 3 nights of sports in 1 week.
:p