Round and Round, Round and Round

Round and round the bases I go, bases I go, Bases I go, round and round...

So a few hours of softball did what running for a few hours couldn't do. I am sore. Not in a bad way, but in a tired, my legs feel sore good way. I joined my friends for a nice softball game to celebrate a birthday. We actually had two full teams and then some, which is a lot more than we usually get (usually it is around 10-12 people, this time we had 20+). How does this change things? That means we have less at bats than usual, which means less sprinting and running fast, which I thought would make the day a lot easier.

That still didn't stop me. Crack, I whacked that one good. I knew it as soon as it hit the bat. I was off, sprinting faster than I had in a long time because I knew I had a double, very likely a triple, and if I went fast enough than I could get a home run, the first of the day for both teams. By the time I reached third I was getting out of breath, but I was still moving extremely fast. When I finally crossed home and scored the first home run of the day I was winded. I mean, this really surprised me because I run a lot.

The next day compounded my confusion, as I was sore! My glutes, my quads, hamstrings. Practically my whole lower body was sore. Strange. The only time I feel this is after a 4-5 hour run in the mountains, or my sub 4 hr marathon (which had my hamstrings sore only). So not only was I winded, but I was also sore. Strange.

Which only showed me more than anything else that cross training is very important, not only for running but for all sports. Add to this that I haven't worked any speed training yet and I now understood what I need to do. I mean really need to do in order to speed up. I understood this before, logic being something I, uh (hopefully), was born with, but I am a creature of habit and usually need a real life experience to teach me. So this it did.

Speed training here I come.