walking is not enough exercise

Newsflash: 5 months of walking to and fro from home and school is not enough exercise to keep me in shape. Especially if I'm only walking to the bus stop.

It was a beautiful day in Ottawa today, and yesterday it was nice as well. So I decided to break the shell of atrophy and shoot some hoops. Well, after stretching for a good half hour, it took me 5 minutes of playing to start cramping up in my lower legs.

It was pathetic.

I couldn't jump, I couldn't run, I couldn't even turn. Muscles were seizing up all over the place.

Needless to say I'm not nearly old enough, nor wily enough, to play like a wily old vet, so I have to get this body thing going again.

Atrophy n 1 : decrease in size or wasting away of a body part or tissue; also : arrested development or loss of a part or organ incidental to the normal development or life of an animal or plant 2 : a wasting away or progressive decline : DEGENERATION [the atrophy of freedom]

Screw amphetamines, if anyone knows of where I can find drugs to make my muscles not seize up, I'd appreciate it. I already have a full prescription of exercise and stretching, so anything else would help.

Jays could have used some more walking as exercise today, especially in the first inning. They played in the Boston home opener this afternoon. If it is possible to lose a game in the top of the first inning, then the Jays certainly did it today. A quick summary, top of the first, bases loaded, one out. Beckett (the Boston starting pitcher)(I don't know why I felt compelled to add that fact) has thrown about 27 pitches so far, allowing one hit and walking 3, in the inning. He was clearly not in the groove to that point in the game. On a 2-2 pitch Shea Hillenbrand grounds to the 2nd baseman and into a double play to end the inning.

At that point, only scoring one run was a killer. It's not that they scored one run or squandered the chance that killed the game for them, it's that they had Beckett by the throat. Hillenbrand should have been trying to put the ball in the air, to at least get a sacrifice fly in that situation. Anything to the outfield would have scored the run from third. The runner was Wells, and the outfield for Boston was Ramirez, Nixon, and a Canadian in centrefield, Adam Stern. I don't know how good an arm Stern has (or a good leg, or a good bat, I know nothing about this guy, according to Prospectus he's good defensively) but he was playing centre field and I imagine the a ball flying that distance would have been enough to score a guy with Vernon's speed.

Needless to say Beckett got his groove on by the top of the second, settled down quite nicely and his final line was great. 7 innings 3 hits, 1 run, 4 walks. Considering 3 of those walks and one of those hits came in the first, you can imagine that he did get his groove back by the second inning. Boston complemented his groove by scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the second (Tower's only bad inning) and then for some reason in the bottom of the seventh with a 3-0 count Vinny Chulk decided to pipe a fastball into David Ortiz's wheelhouse. Ortiz was swinging, and lead for the Red Sox was a big 4 runs (note to managers and pitchers everywhere: with a lead late in the game Ortiz is swinging on a 3-0 pitch). All I could think was 'why Vinny, why? just walk him.')

But, on the whole, the Jays proved that they can compete with the big boys in the east, for the game was a lot closer then the 2 runs show. Also, Wily Mo Pena doesn't appear to be the greatest fielder. Things could get interesting when Pena and Ramirez are on the field at the same time.

Final note, after a week of play, Bronson Arroyo has 2 more home runs than the player he was traded for, Wily Mo Pena. If I find odds I like, I'd bet that Arroyo hits more home runs than Pena this season.