June Update/Injury TMI

I've done a pretty poor job of staying on a schedule with this blog. I think I managed 3 or 4 weeks in a row before I faltered, and that's really not a good record... I think it's a combination of a bunch of things that are tying me up right now, but no excuse is really a good one.

So, instead of doing research and putting together a really thoughtful post, I'm going to just do a personal update...

The biggest recent news for me is that I'm not playing baseball this summer after all. It was a tough decision to make, but my arm began to feel like it did in High School. That would be a good thing for most people, but for me it wasn't fun to return to that form. I had some fun with my arm going dead during practice and even waking up not able to lift my arm above 90 degrees after one game back in the day... I just wasn't looking forward to experiencing that again, so I gave it up. It sucks, but it has served to revive my interest in Ultimate.

Speaking of Ultimate... I went to tryouts last weekend for Eastern Motors, a local DC club team that I played for 2 years ago. I had a good time and even managed to place in the top 2 on 3 consecutive 70 sprints... That was a little bit of a surprise, and, I'll admit it, I haven't been running much recently and I'm still feeling it a little today. The practice went well though, and I'll be attending the Cazenovia Ultimate Tournament in NY this weekend with the team. It should be a good time, and I'm definitely feeling more of a spark than I have the last few seasons. I think it's a combination of being away for so long and finally dropping some of that excess weight (yeah, I guess 10-15 pounds really matters). I'll take some pictures and hopefully have a recap when I get back.

Golf and rock climbing have entered the picture for the summer as well, and I managed to get in the trifecta this past week. Saturday was a 6 hour round of golf at Langston with Arin, Sunday was EM's 3-hour tryout, and Tuesday was a few hours of rock climbing at a gym in Rockville. Weight training has been holding steady at 2-3 times a week, but things have been interesting since my arm issues flared up. It is nice that Ultimate doesn't cause the arm to flare up despite similar action at the elbow joint. It's really that overhead stuff I guess...

You didn't ask, but I'll tell anyway... background info on the shoulder issues:
In addition to the elbow/shoulder pain I found myself in during high school, these things may be compounded due to a little skiing mishap from 2005... I was skiing Breckenridge and found a sweet little jump in the middle of one of the blues. Joel dared me to get some air on the jump, and obviously I took him up on the dare (or else I wouldn't be writing this). I turned off the lift and pointed the skis straight downhill. I had a pretty good head of steam going by the time I hit the lip of the "jump." For air in the middle of a run it was pretty decent and I had more than enough time to make a nice "X" with my body and even reign my skis back in before landing. I remember looking down at the skis to make sure they were nice and straight before I hit the ground... well, they were, right up until I made ground contact. I flipped over the skis and threw them as soon as I hit the ground, and my shoulder slammed into the packed snow. You know that wet crunching sound your ankle makes when you roll it badly? Well, my shoulder made that noise. I'm pretty sure it's the same noise Sam Bradford may have heard against BYU; maybe not as bad... Anyway, long story over, I laughed it off until I got on the lift at the bottom and couldn't pick my arm up. So now I get random pain in the AC joint area with overhead activities and occasionally while bench pressing. It's normally not bad, but the baseball aggravated the hell out of it...