an update on where things stand in the land of miche

today was the first workout done by yours truly in about two weeks. now if you don't know me very well you are probably thinking that two weeks off from the gym is no big deal. but if you do know me you are probably well aware that such a long layoff has had me completely out of sorts. messed up to the point where i have been making a lot of errors at work. luckily the errors have been caught by either the marketing manager or myself before anything was printed but since i am generally not unreliable at work this turn of events has frustrated me greatly.

the other thing that i have not mentioned in a while is my basketball story. first i had interviewed a woman who played collegiate ball, who played travel ball in the u.s. and who coached and refereed basketball games. i felt that she was an excellent source to help me with the details that would add necessary realism to the tale i was trying to tell. after our interview, i completed the section of the story that involved the in-game action. my 'expert' had offered to read through the chapter and give me some honest feedback. the story was delivered and i received confirmation from her that she had indeed received my email. unfortunately that was the last i had heard from her and subsequent contact was ignored.

my first assumption was that the story was so horrible that she couldn't comment and chose to ignore me rather than try to set me straight. i understand and appreciate difficult it is to give constructive criticism especially if one struggles to find something positive to say.

those who are supportive of my writing endeavour's recommend that i not read too much into the lack of response. my brother who is a basketball coach of a boy's team gave me the contact information of a woman who coaches a women's collegiate basketball team. as the head coach i feared she would be too busy to help me herself but i thought perhaps she might be able to direct me to someone who had the time and necessary experience to help me out.

as luck would have it the coach offered to read it herself and she also offered to answer any questions i might have. i happily sent the chapter off to her after a re-write and i waited. and i waited. and still i waited. as more time went by i was convinced that the story was just that bad. i toyed with the idea of giving up. i considered shelving the story with the intention to attend the 2014 SEC tournament in atlanta. i thought perhaps if i saw the game live i might be able to see where i went wrong.

once again my support unit assured me that i could not and should not give up. my brother and 'the bloke' both felt it was imperative that i try again to reach out to the head coach. i was fortunate to have a couple people offer to read the story for me. although i appreciated the offers and subsequent show of support i am convinced that i need to run the story past someone with experience with the collegiate women's game.

i am not concerned about the validity of the conflicts in my story and am fairly confident of the entertainment value of what i have written. my concern is if the player contact during the 'game' is accurate to how the women's game is played. the basic difference's between the sexes means that the men's game of basketball in may ways is vastly different from the women's game. what men are able to do on the court differs greatly from what the women do. a fact that is further illustrated by the difference in their respective audience bases. simply put the men's game is far more popular.

there is also a huge difference in the women's game when it is played at the high school level versus how it is played at the collegiate level and differs further between the collegiate divisions. in the u.s there are three basic programs: division one, the level of play with the most skilled player who likely move on to pro careers in the WNBA or overseas. division two consists of players who aren't as skilled as their division one counterparts and. if a division two athlete goes overseas to play professionally they play exclusively in division two leagues. finally there are the division three athletes and i will be honest i have no clue what becomes of those players upon graduation.

anyway after exactly four weeks without a response from the head coach i sent her a follow-up email, to date five days have past since i sent the email and sadly i am still without a response.

so where does that leave me? that is one hell of a question and frankly i am conflicted on how i am going to handle it. do i give up? do i shelve the project and get my ass to atlanta for the SEC tournament? do i finish the story and keep it to myself or do i finish it and let anyone who reads it know that it has not been 'blessed' by a beta reader?

decisions, decisions

setbacks suck

i know that i things have been all kinds of quiet here on the blog front but once again i've had a setback to contend with. a few weeks back i felt something peculiar deep in the back of my left leg while in the leg press. it was either an injury of the hamstring or in my glute-ham tie-in.

i took days off. i trained through the pain. i soaked in a hot tub. i applied ice. i massaged the injury with a tennis ball. all of my efforts were, as they say, for nought.

when i worked out in the east end of the city i used a massage therapist who was very good. he was always able to get into the muscle fascia and dig out any and all knots. unfortunately work moved from the east end to the west end and try as i might the commute was next to impossible to make. no matter how much time i allowed for the trip it would take at least 30 mins longer. so i would frequently arrive with 15-30 minutes left in my appointment.

it was harder than it should have been to find a massage therapist out in the west end. especially since i didn't have any contacts out in the west end. when the injury became too acute to ignore i tried the online equivalent to opening the phone book and picking a name. which led me to 'european massage' and based on their website all of their massage therapists were well versed in deep tissue massage. i called and booked an appointment with olga. how could i go wrong?

well i wasn't on the table five minutes when olga mentioned that i probably needed a therapist who did deep tissue massage. i was confused because her online bio listed deep tissue massage among her specialties. i asked her about that and she said that all of the therapists had areas that they specialized in. i asked what she specialized in but never did get an answer.

my other complaint was she seemed disturbed by the fact that i had not removed my bra. it was only a 45 minute appointment and i went for treatment of a specific injury. i was pretty sure treatment would take the entire 45 minutes.

olga stuck her elbow into my glute/ham tie-in for a little while and i was able to put on my pants without pain. i booked an hour long follow-up appointment with elizabeth. again based on her online biography she was well versed in deep tissue massage. elizabeth she spent the balance of the hour treating my neck, my triceps, my calves and my back and she kept running in and out of the room with hot packs. she barely spent any time at all working on my injury. needless to say that was my final experience with 'european massage'.

thankfully the guy out in the east end started doing saturday appointments. i went and saw him yesterday. he spent the entire hour working on my injury stopping only briefly to wipe the sweat from his brow. he used his knuckles, his elbows, his thumbs and this zany looking implement called 'the thumper' that reminds me of my dad's belt sander. after he was finished i was able to move my leg with far less discomfort.

it has been two weeks since i have last trained i hope that i will be back in the saddle come tuesday.

courtesy of my buddy the poorboi, i am now the proud new owner of a nikon. i have been trying to figure out the wonders of digital photography and have gone out on a couple of occasions with the camera. instead of a trip to the gym i went to a marina out along the lakeshore and shot the above pic. enjoy!