Sports Blog

Hey friends,

I am sitting here and I was thinking about what I am about to Blog about. I could tell you a cool story, I could fill you in on what has been happening since the last blog, or I could tell you about a realisation I have had while sitting here.
Well, it is not really a realisation, I have known this for a long time, but when you really think about it, it is like, whoa, Sport hey!!??
 

What I mean is, how much does sport take up my life, across all areas and in all ways.
To keep it a little bit more conscise... the last blog got a bit lengthy with flying distractions amongst it (if you don't know what I am talking about, read my previous blog!) I will break it down into major categories.
Social, Work, Food, Leisure/Free time, Entertainment, seem like good categories, you could even throw in Future and boring things like Daily living, expense, etc.
So lets have a look at this then.

I am sure I am not the only one with this addiction, affiliation and passion for all things sport, but here is my personal take on how it engrosses my daily life.

Work: considering I am a P.E. teacher at a school for students from Kindergarten to Middle School, it is fair to say that almost all of my work time is made up of teaching, demonstrating, playing, officiating and generally being amongst physical movement all school day. When  I am not with a class, I might be uploading photos or videos of the previous class doing different sports, writing reports about students in the class using sport related words, or planning the next lesson or sporting activities coming up at the school. Along with the Sports coaching of Cross Country and Track and Field at the school which I do, and being on playground duty, where most of the kids are running around being active, I would say that my work day is pretty sport filled. The only time it is not, is when I am sitting down to eat something in the Staffroom. Which leads me to my next one.

Food: So I would not say that I am obessed with food, but I do like eating, generally large portions, as fuel for the fire, charging up for more sport. If I am not eating or drinking enough, then I won't have the energy needed to do sport. So basically, this is important right? I guess I could take it up a notch and make eating a sport... well at times it can be, when I am using my competitive instincts to eat fast, so I get a chnace at the last slice, order big at resturants so I can win the 'best meal on the table award' (note: this award does not actially exist) or make some fancy food so I can enjoy the spoils later with a big eat.

Social: Many of my social networks are sports related, be it training partners, friends to go and watch sports with or talk about it with and then actually planning social events that involve some sort of movement. Example, hey guys, do ya wanna meet up and go for a run in the morning? or hey, its nice weather, lets meet at the beach volleyball nets and get a bit of a game going, after we can go eat, you wanna?

Leisure: So as with the above, my free time is inundated with sports activities. For example, last night when I left my sport fuelled workplace, I went to the Physio, to get some treatment for a sports related problem, so I can then go on and continue doing sport. After this I came home, switched on the TV for a few minutes to watch some of the Euro 2012 Soccer match between France and England, while I was getting ready to get out the door for an hour run with Renate. Then we got back, did a circuit and stretching, then ate, and then settled down to watch the next Euro 2012 match, Sweden versus Ukraine. When this was done, it was time to get off to bed. I fell asleep pretty quickly, as I was tired from a big day and happily started dreaming about sports...so much so, that I was jolted awake when I was punched in the guts, in my dream boxing fight versus, Super heavyweight champ, Wladimir Klitschko.
Good story hear, and completly true.... I got puched in my dream fight, it woke me, then I must have jumped a mile as it also woke Renate and I distinctly remember making some sort of sound effect that resembled being punched in the guts by a heavyweight boxer, then Renate turned over and said... 'It's ok, go back to sleep'... maybe she saw the look on my face!? I only remebered this early sleeping incident in the morning and am yet to ask Renate for clarification, but that is how I remember it!







Entertainment: well obviously it would be sports viewing (live, online or tv) or playing that would be my number choice of entertainment. When I have had a break with running, I will always fill this time with other sports that I don't generally get to do when in full time training (last time it was Beach Volleyball, Squash, Tennis and Basketball) as well as looking for Sports events to watch, I even considered going down to the local indoor sports stadium to watch the World Champs in Curling when they hit town a couple of months ago!

Future: I am not talking about any Michael J Fox movie or anything here, more my personal future. When discussing the future, we have talked about where we might like to live in the future, which holiday destinations we would like visit, how we want to spend money... It all has a similar theme, sport.
When we were looking online at places to live here in Switzerland, the first thing we checked was how close it was to a good forest with running trails in it, thereafter we considered how close it was to shops, how big the apartment was, vicinity to public transport, price. etc. This is a major factor in our choice of living and in the future what decisions we make.


All in all, as you may have gathered from the above, sport takes over and is what makes up me personally. If it wasn't for this healthy addiction, I would be unemployed, probably obese, bored and untravelled. Thankfully I found sports at a top level to be involved in (which I have been doing competitively since I was 9 years old) as well as teams to support, across a range of sports, and reasons to see the world. I believe sport gives you a purpose in life, and in your day to day activities. If it wasn't for that, why get out of bed in the morning?  Instead we choose to go to bed earlier, to wake up earlier, so we can go for a Long Run on a Sunday morning, while the rest of the world sleeps in and misses out!


So that's why I do it, comment below or respond as to why you do it, I would be interested to hear from you all.

That is it for now, I am going to go on the Guiness Book of records website and see if there is a section for the most mentions of the word 'sport' in a blog post... if not, then I reckon we just may have a winner!

Catch ya soon, and feedback is appreciated
Cheers
Clint

Trying to get it "back" together!

Hi there,
just checking in with a bit of an update and unfortunately on the running side of things not the best of news...

Hang on I have to pause, I am just trying to kill a fly that has been hassling me while trying to be on the World Wide Web.....damn missed him...but gave it a stern warning not to be hanging round....wait on, the cheeky bugger is back and just taunting me....arrrggh strike two, I Mr Miyagi'd up to him, all stealth like, but this guy is a player and is quick... maybe I don't have enough fast twitch fibres in my hand to activate and get him... if pain in the arse fly doesn't leave me alone I am gonna look like one of those crazy people you see in the street.... all agitated, talking and swearing (presumably at nothing, but most likely at an agile and annoying fly)...ok stop, he is propped on the actual screen of my Laptop, he absolutely wants to get smacked, here we go.....ah ha, boo haa, got that sucker, with the classic thong wack (that's a flip flop for any Nth Americans playing at home, not a G-Banger, I am not that weird!).
Luckily for me, the weather is warm enough that I can cruise around the house in my red thongs, and have them handy for any fly issues... ahhh the peace of no more buzzing, now I can get back to it.

 

Ok, so anyway, before that distraction I was saying..... Yeah so, the running caper is a bit up and down at the moment, I have been able to put together a few decent weeks, but it all got a bit too much this week. I was running with super tightness all over in my body, in the mornings waking up, I felt like an 99 year old, not a 29 year old, so I cracked it and booked in to see a Sports Doctor, here in Basel.

I was sore all over, so I explained this to my Doctor, and he took a look at me, checked me over, and found that my spine was shaped less like a spine, and more like the letter 'S'!! He siad the curvature was the wrong way around, and this was the primary reason for my pains further down the chain in the glutes, legs and especially calves and achilles.
He was confident he could get it all sorted, starting with multiple accupucture needles all down the spine, and across the upper back, to 'unfreeze' the muscles that had gone into spasm to protect the back. Along with this he was finding pressure points, all over the place, where I didn't know there where even pressure points.
After about 45 minutes of treatment, I left there feeling alot more relaxed in my back muscles and more confident that I can build back up without too many more hurdles, here's hoping anyway!

 

I have had a staggered re-build since the marathon, and quite possibly it has been due to these frozen muscles in the back, along with some sickness and business with work, I think it has all come and gone and I can look forward to a bit more of normality and routine (which I am sure I have mentioned in a previous post). This will be helped with finishing up at work for our long school hoilidays next week! Almost 7 weeks to get back at it, and re-charge those batteries!
 

So with holidays around the corner, I look forward to some more time to relax and hopefully have a bit of fun along the way, Renate and I are in full swing of Wedding planning, all of which took a bit of a diversion last week, when our initial Reception location dogged our party for another one with double the numbers and kicked us out of our spot. The guy made up some bogus story that we never confirmed the date with him and that he tried to call us to speak with us. He was such a spinner, that I wanted to head butt him, but I held back, we breathed deeply and went on search for a new location.
To cut a long strory short, we had some stress, we dealt with it, we looked for alternative venues, in which many were already booked as the date is less than three months away, then we got a confirmation from a better and cooler loaction on Tuesday. So suck on that, bloke from the other Reception place, we are all going to have a more fun time at the new location!!!!






We have some music, cars, menu, and some suits to organise over the holidays, but we are chipping away at it and am sure we will all have a good time.

With that said, I better get back to it. One last shout out to my Fiancè, Renate who had her birthday yesterday, good luck to Ev in his new job in Sweden, well done on a new 5km PB Collis, and awesome news that my brother, Brad has commited to making it over for the Wedding Day too. Everyone else (if anyone is reading!) keep it real and good luck, machts gut and viel glück!!

Clint