I love this game!!
After 7 weeks in Africa, all I wanted to do when I got home, as far as workouts went, was run and play soccer. That’s it. Those two things had me all excited. And if there’s one thing that I’ve learned in my many years on this planet and playing at this game called “Life” is that when we’re doing what we like we have more fun, have a better attitude, and actually work harder. So this week, I’ve just been alternating running and soccer each day. For the most part I put my usual Weekly Online Workouts on hold. I threw in some strength training activities from my WOWs just to make sure I retain my title of Ms. SuperFit in the Middle Aged division. Gotta keep my core and upper body strong too, you know.
Yesterday four of us hit the park near our house for a soccer-flavored workout. We started with some individual dribbling, then did some juggling, and passing the ball around one leg while standing on the other. Then we did some receiving drills – kick the ball high, control as it lands dribble and repeat; 30 seconds in the circle receiving and returning balls served by the other three players. We threw in some (35) pushups with our feet up on the balls and Jackknives with feet on the ball (20). For the next 3 minutes we each threw our balls out into the field, took 5 touches toward the goal then shot. The one with the most goals won. A miss or hitting another person or their ball resulted in Burpees.
All that took about 30 minutes. Now it was time for the best part of the workout. Time to play some soccer. Out came the Pugg goals and it was 2v2 time. We picked teams and played. First team to score 5 goals wins. Then we remixed the teams and played again, and again, and again. During one of those games it was Dolores and I against Shauna and Melina.
Shauna had the ball, dribbling toward my goal. But, NO, she was not to succeed. She was to be thwarted in her attempt. I used my mad soccer skills, highly refined after decades of playing (ha!), to steal the ball. I put my body between her and the ball (also known as Ball-Body-Bozo) and used more truly mystifying futbol skills to get off a superb pass to Dolores. I felt both of Shauna’s hands on my back during this time. Then I felt something more, something I knew she was capable of, but something I didn’t really think she’d do. Not to me. Not to her girlfriend and ever-loving and faithful partner in life. But she did.
She took those two hands on my back and pushed me hard. Just as I released my pass to Dolores I went flying, did a spin in mid-air, and landed hard on the grass. My head even gave one of those nice dramatic THUDs on the ground. (Where is the slow-motion replay when you need it most?) When the stars stopped spinning, I looked up to see my bruiser of a girlfriend grinning down at me with her most innocent of faces. Hmmmm. As if I would believe that this huge foul was nothing more than a mere mistake. I know this girl though. She gets a bit “excited” in competition. As her mother told me, “Shauna has always been the whatever-it-takes-to-win kind of girl.” I’ve seen her tackle pre-teen girls in a touch football game, give other soccer players a good whack in the ankles, and have been on the receiving of several good pokes, grabs, and butt-checks from my girl while playing everything from basketball, football and soccer. This time she full-on decked me though.
It was all good in the end. When I looked up from the ground it wasn’t just Shauna I saw. I also saw the ball in the goal and Dolores standing there with a huge smile on her face. We scored even though Shauna, the bruiser, decked me.
What’s the moral of the story? Don’t play soccer against Shauna unless you are ready to get fouled? Not exactly. Do what excites you. That’s the message here. Do what you are passionate about. Don’t feel stuck in your workout routine. If you are in the mood to run, then run. If you want to play soccer or whatever your sport may be, do that. Your fitness should be fun, interesting, and exciting to you. Just make sure you are doing something every day and try to keep your whole body involved. By the way, this simple truth goes for the other areas of life as well. If you like what you are doing, you’ll put more into it, do better at it, and never dread it. So as the Life is Good people say, “Do what you like. Like what you do.”
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