First Lift

At 8:00 this morning, I got to see if my offseason conditioning did me any good. After a quick hiccup where the strength and conditioning coach didn't believe me that I'd been cleared to work out, we got everything cleared up and got started.

First, the setting. This is the first time I'd ever been able to use a varsity weight room. It's not very big, but it's nice. And more importantly, it is CLEAN. And ORDERLY. Every weight is in its correct place, every bar racked. It looks like a military weight room. Only a handful of machines, too; most of the space is dedicated to clean pads, squat racks, and benches. Cool, as far as I'm concerned.

The lifting itself is very orderly and as a team. After warm-ups, we paired off and headed to a clean pad. At the direction of the strength and conditioning coach, we got our weight ready, and then we did sets together. The pace was clearly set and was not deviated from. I like the order. It gives a very official feeling to the whole affair, and the varsity weight room makes you feel like you're in a club. Maybe I'm the only one who was giddy about that sort of thing, but I had to hide it anyways, since, you know, I'm the grizzled veteran and all that crap.

I was very surprised to see that in terms of the weight I could lift, I was comparable to some of the other lifters. And my form was GREAT. As expected, I'm definitely below average in strength, in terms of total weight lifted; but for my size, I am in great shape. Of course, whenever they open up the Good For Your Size League, I'll be a charter member, but until that exists, nobody cares how good you are for your size. Well, maybe in boxing. But not here.

After we finished lifting, we went outside to do a little bit of running. I was worried, because I'd worked myself pretty hard in the lifting, and Mr. Stomach didn't sound pleased to be doing any running. Lucky for me, it was agility-type things that I had done extensively back when I ran track, and I had a leg up (literally, for one of them) on the rest of the guys. At the end, the S&C coach picked three guys, and told them to pick three teams for a relay race. I was second picked! Out of like 20 guys! On the explanation that he didn't know my name, but I looked fast! This bodes well for me. And I didn't disappoint, either.

I guess this lift gave me the same feeling that I got after I hit and threw. On the one hand, one can see that I'm a smaller player, that I don't have the power or strength of the other guys. But I don't look like I don't belong, I just look like a small D-1 player. You can work and hustle and think yourself a long ways, but unless you have the physical tools, it can only take you so far. I'm learning that, actually, I can compete athletically at these guys' level. I guess I'm saying that I really do have the tools to be a D-1 player. That really helps to boost my confidence that this actually is something I can do.

That focuses me. Less hoping, more doing.