Seven More Minutes, Seven More Days

Thought of the moment: "Play with your feet more than your hands."
Chow of the moment: Mixed berry yoghurt and multi-grain toast with butter.
Music of the moment: George Michael+Mary J. Blige's As

I pulled a groin muscle slightly during morning practice today.  I can think of three reasons how I could have avoided this.

1.  Done a more thorough warm up.  It's amazing how we take the functioning parts of our body for granted until something cocks up and we're left in a semi-state of paralysis.  And pain.

2.  Stopped when I was supposed to have stopped.  The plan was to stop after an hour in the morning, but I was so into the rhythm and enjoying practice so much, I decided to continue doing controls.  A few minutes more into the control, I felt a groin pull.

3.   Been more conscious about how my body was feeling--not just during practice, but vis-a-vis the fatigue it felt from a whole week's worth of training.  Friday was the last day, and sometimes in the midst of adrenaline rushes, we forget our bearings.  Maybe under-training is always much better than over-training (read: higher injury exposure)....

I was initially very pek-chek with the pull.  I hobbled to the physio and was grim-faced the whole way.  The good thing is that I have learnt to feel my body well enough to know when I have to stop.  I felt it during the rally--initially wasn't sure, gave it one more rally, and stopped halfway in the second.  "I can't.  I pulled something, I need to go see physio."

Another lesson learnt.  Good news is I will still be able to keep training, but just at a lighter load.  I should be back in full game by the end of a week.