Cricket Training begins

I don't think it's unreasonable to forget everything you know about a sport in six months. Nor does my body, apparently.

The good news is my calf doesn't hurt after cricket training last night. The bad news is everything else does. As always, the start of the cricketing season is always a difficult time.

Cricket to me is very much a game which relies on muscle memory, which means the first session for the season can often be dispiriting. Things aren't as easy for me as they were six months ago, and also I'm performing actions I haven't done for six months either. Batting and especially bowling involve actions you wouldn't otherwise do.

So my shoulders, lower back, obliques and abs are all sore because they've been dormant for so long. If you remember, when I organised my gym workout I tried to target these groups but had no luck. Clearly.

The other completely dispiriting thing for me was how poor both my batting and bowling was. But that's another story for another time. Or never, preferrably.

One final comment on the cricket training, something else I saw through rose coloured glasses with the benefit of six months' hindsight: it wasn't the fitness workout I'd remembered it to be. At the end of the session I was sweaty and a little tired, but it was a different sort of training to my normal, endurance training.

Training (and cricket itself) features running in short bursts: running in to bowl, running between the wickets, chasing after a ball. Walking in with the bowler is enough for some of us.

The other trait in training and definitely in cricket itself is concentration. Not just watching the ball, but concentrating on your action and stance. It was this that hurt my lower back, particularly batting. But I know it gets better.

Anyways, while I thought at the time I'd done a bit of exercise, in hindsight I'm not all that surprised with the result of my week's training. I went to the gym again tonight although it was an abridged session (didn't really get time to test the calf), and I was denied a chance to run on Tuesday by an extremely frustrating incident that evening. The less said about it on the internets the better.

In the end, I probably did about the equivalent of one session of exercise this week, so I souldn't be surprised that I'm on 89kg. Up a little even.