After going to my first sports training session in 17 years I quickly found out that my fitness wasn't what it used to be.
It's not like being 18 again and just running for the sake of it when your 36 and have had a full life's worth of injuries and repairs.
Luckily the level that I jumped into matches my ambition and while i was a small bit of the general level of the others it's not a huge gap and one that can be closed down with a bit of effort.
Junior C hurling is Sunday league and the other players are mostly around my own age with various levels of fitness and skill. While I will hardly catch up on a lifetime of skills training with a bit of hard work I think that i can close the fitness gap.
Firstly I need to shake off some of the belly that i've built up since becoming a father. Not that I ever had the love island six pack but it's definitely gotten bigger over the past couple of years and not helping my stamina on the pitch.
At 94KG I've added a lot more weight than i had planned to since hovering around the 80kg mark for a long time until recently. That need to change and will make a huge difference if I can cut it back a bit.
We have an exercise bike in the house ( rarely used ) like most of them but i've been going onto it for a few minutes every night now.
I managed 8 km in 20 minutes which is 4 minutes faster than when i started last week.
Small steps but if i keep it up then i have options to go further, go faster or to add more weight onto the cycle. Once it's progression thats the important thing to me.
I've signed up to training again this Friday so i have a goal to work towards and there is talk of a challenge match the week after so another big step up if i can keep the training going.
At the moment I would be the worst player on the roster since it's my first week and they have been playing and training for years but that suits me just fine.
It gives me a lovely target and motivation to keep taking these small steps towards a healthier and fitter body.
I need that motivation to get me moving in the evening as it's too easy just to sit down and eat some snacks after a busy day of work and kids.
My wife is great to go for walks every evening and to sign up for gym and yoga classes but i don't enjoy those. For me it has to be team sports and competition so this has been a great push for me to get up off my hole and do something as we say over here.
Hopefully more updates to follow as i keep pushing forwards.
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