It’s too much, Rain ride

I once again extended myself too far with pickleball. Last night as I tried to walk I wound up sliding my right foot under me instead of trying to take a normal stride, it hurt that much, but let me rewind the clock.

Friday night instead of doing a happy hour I was quite content to just stay at home, make a pizza and enjoy a Mexican Coke. I had to stay awake until almost midnight to initiate a process at work. I stayed awake by playing WoW and watching some 1980 Shogun. I fell asleep very quickly after the remote process was done. I have been going to bed late consistently in the last few weeks which has been leaving me in a sleepy state more often than I wish.

On Saturday morning I played pickleball. My knees already had a degree of soreness from the prior week of activity but I was out there for another three hours almost. I was feeling beat up, my knees had had enough. To add to the fun I accidentally kicked the leg of a table with my left foot, leaving my left pinky toe painful and a gross shade of purple.

During the day I worked on several things including taking apart my Master for the second time, hoping I would find an obvious reason why the tire was rolling crooked. I did not. The wheel will remain in it’s current form until the new tire I ordered shows up and I get a chance to install it.

So Saturday evening the other group of people that I have been playing pickleball with asked me to play, again. At first I declined, citing that I played earlier in the day and was already hurting. However they didn’t give up easily and I eventually agreed to go. I popped my second set of Advil for the day and headed to Veterans Park to play in North Naples, a place I had not played at in a long time.

Play was fun. Instead of filling up my water bottle with water I chose to use Cayman Jack instead to hydrate. The six of us had fun playing and then went to the Tacos and Tequilla up there for more drinks and dinner. By the time we got up from our high top table I could hardly walk. Each step with my right leg radiated pain, I knew I had pushed it too far. I also knew I was supposed to play Sunday morning once again as well as do a swamp ride Sunday afternoon with Garrett who was visiting from out of town. I was not quite sure how I was going to get through both of those obligations with how I was feeling. The answer was, with Advil.

I was up really late once again Saturday night and was not happy to hear the 6:30 alarm go off. I felt like shit. The first 10 minutes out of bed I shuffled around with my right leg and lower back feeling like hell. However I just kept moving, took more Advil and headed to the courts thinking how if I was a sane individual I would have just texted my friend Sue and told her I couldn’t make it. Nope, my sense of obligation over ruled my personal aches and pains.

I did not play particularly well which did not surprise me. I was just looking to survive the session, conserving whatever I had left to do the swamp ride later. Once the Advil wore off I was back to limping around but I didn’t have much time before I took round two as Garrett showed up around 2PM. He flew down from western PA but had his wheel shipped to my house ahead of time which worked out well. He is actually going to be spending most of this week in the Orlando area with his girlfriend but he came right from the airport to my place to start his trip off with a swamp ride.

Shortly before we were ready to drive to the swamp in the truck it started to rain hard at my place. I assured Garrett that just because it was raining here that does not mean it would be raining at the swamp. I told him I wasn’t worried about getting rained on anyway which he was glad to hear because he was really looking forward to the ride.

When we parked at the nearby park out there it was not raining although there were threatening skies very close by. We rolled into the swamp knowing it could be a wet experience. Ironically the swamp itself was quite dry. The water levels had dropped dramatically since I went in there with the ET Max somewhere around a month ago. We barely have had any rain during that time period.

The trail was in good shape with only a mild amount of gators spotted, somewhere close to 20. Instead of staying by the path as we approached all the gators instead decided to jump in the water as we got near. About half way into the ride it started to rain, light but steady. The rough terrain was hell on my lower body, even with suspension. Once we exited the 13 mile swamp loop and got back on hard surfaces the rain intensified. By the time we got back to the truck both Garrett and I were pretty soaked but neither of us really cared. He really enjoyed the ride.

On the way back we stopped at my original DD to grab some coffee before heading back to the house. When we did get back we had a bit of a show and tell session. I let Garrett try out my Mten Mini as well as the One Wheel. He put together his off road unicycle, yes the type you pedal, and showed me how he rides it. He started riding regular unicycles late last year and has been loving it.

After an hour or so he packed up his rental car to head out. I presented him with this gator ride sticker that I have been handing out to swamp riders. He again expressed his great appreciation for riding with him which was nice and mutually appreciated. It was yet another positive experience when I meet up with people that know me from my YouTube channel.

I spent the rest of the evening editing the video from the ride. By the time I got out of my office chair the advil had worn off and I could hardly walk, again.

This weekend made it clear that I simply have to be more reasonable when it comes to what I expect my body told hold up to. In addition to the sore knees and back my feet hurt as well from all of the play. Hell even my right elbow and forearm are feeling tender from all of the paddle swinging. It’s going to be hard to say no to playing but if I keep on the path I am currently I could wind up injuring myself in a way that a couple Advil will no longer mask.

The good news is between the various activities and limping around in pain this weekend it left less time for me to dwell on thoughts that don’t serve my greater good.