Exercising?

Unless you count the time I went on a bike ride and kind of wanted to die, I'm pretty sure I haven't exercised in...7 months. Between the surgeries and treatments and whatnot there just weren't many days I felt like doing it. Lately though (i.e. the two months in between the last surgery and the start up of chemo again) I think I've just avoided it because I'm still getting used to the bag. I DO have a nifty little "stealth belt" which is supposed to make the bag secure for sporting endeavors (including water skiing!), but I guess I still don't trust my little bag to stay in place while I'm running around being sporty. So I mostly don't exercise. Once in awhile I'll walk around more than usual (like random pacing?), or do a few fake push-ups (okay that only happened once and I think I only managed 5), but mostly I try to hold as still as possible and not upset the bag. You get burned by ol' baggie a few times and you learn to respect whatever baggie wants.

That said, after the first treatment and feeling pretty crummy, these last few days I've started to feel like my old self again. And my old self used to like to go play volleyball on Wednesday nights. So my newly feeling good self decided to strap on the stealth belt (also supposedly helpful in case you want to "get intimate") and go be like my old self.

It was great to be doing something again, but honestly quite a pathetic showing. Most pathetic of all was realizing that my vertical is now 2". That's not an exaggeration. I could barely get my fingertips over the net when trying to jump as high as possible. Which was awkward when I would get set the ball and would try to jump and hit it and would over-estimate how much time I thought I would be in the air. Never good when you jump, land almost immediately, and then hit the ball.

I didn't even try blocking. Occasionally I'd stick an arm up there like I was something to be afraid of, but I'm pretty sure all the hitters just ignored those little fingers poking over the net and hit the ball wherever they wanted to. One time I actually grazed the ball as it was coming over and excitedly yelled out "TOUCH!" but I'm pretty sure my team was not impressed with my ability to touch the ball and yet have no impact at all on it's trajectory or speed.

Next time, next time.

Also, turns out you use your quads in volleyball. Many of you volleyball players may not have noticed this because you have quad muscles and so it's no big thing to be semi-squatting a lot. But if you're me and you lost all your muscles somewhere between January and now (they abandon you so quickly), trying to call them back to activity - even church level - means you'll end up awfully sore the next day. So. Pathetic. And also, if you're not used to smacking the ball with your hand, or absorbing the hits off of guys, then the next day all you have to do is run your hand over your little radiuses (radii?) and your whole arm will feel like a giant bruise.

I'm totally hard core.