I have had a bit of time to reflect on my last posting… and as I was walking into work today, I came to a rather unsettling realization.
I tend to think of myself as more athletic than I probably am.
When I was younger, I was an avid soccer and tennis player. I was never really in tip-top shape, but I could perform. I could run a mile without getting out of breath, and short sprints wouldn’t kill me. I used to play 90 minutes of soccer without much problems.
Now I feel my legs getting tired after walking up 2 flights of stairs. Yes, I’m sure this has a lot to do with me being overweight and basically not exercising. And yes, I know that I could probably get back in shape by doing some workouts. But somewhere in the back of my mind, I still feel like I can play 90 minutes of soccer without any problems, even though logically, I know I can’t.
Do you have an overinflated sense of physical prowess? Doesn’t it suck to know that as you’ve gotten older, you’ve lost some of your abilities through lack of use?
I know exactly how you feel. I recently(2 years ago) had a race, actually two races. One was against a shit talking old friend of mind (36 years old) and the other was a young shit talking co-woker/friend (25) years old. I won both races, not by much, and felt great. Three weeks ago, I had a small bar-b-cue at the casa and my 16 year old, 110 pound, 5’10″ nephew starting talking crap about my age (32). Well I challenged him to a race. I was humiliated by the ease of which he beat me with that I demanded a re-match only to fall in the second race and hurt my ankle. My only redemption was the fact that I could bench press almost twice his weight but I was a broken man that day. I’m not sure who I was kidding but my days of being the Flash are long gone.