And now...onto the next chapter!

Alrighty, so last post I mentioned that softball season would be coming to an end. It doesn't appear that I'll be playing fall ball, so yesterday was my last "hurrah" for the season. Nothing is set in stone yet, and I wouldn't doubt I'll be swingin' for the fences in some capacity or other before the snow falls. But for now, I'm all for taking it easy and resting up before my next attempt to be a star athlete!

So as I mentioned above, we played in a "tournament" of sorts yesterday. In past seasons, this event has been loosely organized with a greatly varied range of expectations by players, coaches and organizers. Because of this, a large number of participants end up frustrated and sour about the whole situation, which always put a bad taste in my mouth. Things seemed a lot better this year, as we had a dedicated organizer keeping brackets and time limits and all that other good stuff. We still fell short of having dedicated umpires, and the flow of the games could have been smoother. Overall it worked out relatively well, the weather was great (more on that in a minute) and all the teams seemed to play nicely together. I brought with me a brand new bat I picked up...a Worth Toxic Titan composite that I ordered online. I wanted to have it ready for my tournament game at work, but it didn't arrive in time. The bat probably wasn't broken in very well yet but I still went 6-for-7 in the 3 games we played (5-inning games and a 12-man lineup limited my AB's) and the few teammates who used it seemed to hit well. The infield conditions were great and I was able to make all the plays I should have. However, shortly after the second game (we ended up playing three all together) I began having some bad cramping around my midsection, and eventually spread everywhere else by the end of the day. It was 90 and sunny outside, and I must have lost a lot more water than I thought...so I probably downed at least a gallon of fluid in the following hours. Still quite sore and exhausted today, but nothing more which is a good thing.

I suppose I can begin to be a little more optimistic regarding the prognosis of my bad ankle. I'm finally able to do full sprints with minimal pain, and long workouts don't seem to aggravate it much either. I've been able to manage the onset of tendonitis through rest, stretching, ibuprofen and hot/cold immersion. I don't think I've gone a full summer without significant downtime in the past 5 years. I'm hoping this trend continues on and I'll be able to participate in more activities with more sustained running and jumping (ultimate frisbee, basketball, etc.) and get my sprint speed up enough to where I can play the outfield effectively. While I have always leaned toward infield from the beginning of my baseball playing days, the outfield might be a more natural fit. We'll try it out next year possibly and see how things go.

Next up...I've got a wide open space for activities now that softball is done. As mentioned in my previous post, I'm reading a lot more. LoL has slipped a notch and right now it doesn't look like I'm going to try anything new for awhile. The role of reading and writing may increase. I'm going to work on my writing/blogging skills and hopefully ramp up my futurist blog very shortly. Other than that, I'm happy where everything stands right now and I'm not in a hurry to create any new fires. Except I NEED a vacation. Maybe just a couple days...but I need one. I need to rejuvenate mentally and I think the best way to do this would be a few days away from everything in sight!