Muscles

Today is Sunday, which means it was my exercise day. Sunday is the day when I play all of the following: Phanic, Volleyball, and Ultimate (frisbee). Unfortunately, I couldn't play volleyball, because I wasn't in town during practice time. Also, I couldn't play phanic, because the phanic group didn't play today. I did, however, get to play Ultimate.

I was on my way back from Indianola. We stopped at a Pizza Ranch, when Chris (my best friend's brother) called me. he asked if I wanted to play ultimate, and I told him that I would be home by 4. He told me that that would be fine if I got some high-schoolers to come play (he is a freshman in college). I agreed, and started a mass text, which proved to be difficult, because my phone only allows me to send a message to ten people, but that is an issue for a later time.

I got 2 "yes, I will come"'s. These were from a freshman and a sophomore, both of which are good and dedicated.

I got to Kennedy about five minutes early. Chris was there playing tennis with a very attractive girl. I remember thinking good job, Chris! But as soon as I got there, she left and Chris challenged me to a game.

Usually with Chris, whatever sport he plays, he is great at. This is true, according to me, because he only plays one sport, as far as I know, which is Ultimate. I expected him to destroy me at tennis, but would give it a shot anyways.

He asked me if I would like to serve, and I said yes. I knew the lingo (love=0, scoring goes love, 15, 30, 40, game, etc.) from when I was very little. Also I have played with my good friend, Alex, a few times. Alex always said that I should join the tennis team, because I am better than half the people there. I was going to, too, but it would take up lots of time and I wanted to work, so I decided against it.

I served it hard, and it was nowhere close to the in-bounds-box. I tried again, lighter, and I missed again. He got the first point. After this, the tides turned in my favor. Once, he accidentally lobbed a ball right in front of me. I took this chance, and hit the ball as hard as I could and with as much top spin as I could right back at him. It was cool that I could see how much the spin affected the ball's path.

After I won that game, someone else showed up. We put the rackets away and started throwing the frisbee around. When there was about twelve people, we started.

The first two games were the worst. The first game I was, as always, not on Chris's team. I played hard, but after a sprint down-field, I wouldn't run for a little while. My calves hurt very bad. They had hurt since last Friday, when I played a different game of ultimate.

After the second game of ultimate, my calves started to hurt less. I didn't know why, and I still don't know why. I joked that maybe they hurt so badly, they just went numb. I really don't think this was the case, however. But after the second game, I started running harder too. I ran like a sprinter; I ran on my toes. This, I think, uses more calf muscle, but didn't hurt as bad. For some reason, it seems like running om my heels and then on through to my toes is hurting my calves.

Last year at about the same time, this happened to me really bad. My coach was convinced that I had shin splints, but I wasn't so sure. My shins hurt a little, but that wasn't where I felt the pain. I saw the school physical therapist, and she said that it seemed to be the place where my calf muscle attaches to the tendon. She said to just work my calf muscle out by stretching it a lot and doing calf raises.

Maybe I have a bad connection there. Maybe I am just over-thinking this pain. Either way, I'm not going to do anything about it. As baseball season went on, my legs hurt less and less. This will probably happen the same way this year, but I'll try to keep track of it better.