1000 today

When I injured my hamstring ten days ago, my frustrations with my health rose dramatically. I want this season, the 2007 club season, to be my swan song, and for that to happen, I have to be in fantastic shape to make the team. Mischief has little sympathy for under-performers, offering practice spots for those whose athleticism has declined with age. I don't know that I'd particularly mind having a second National Championship playing Women's Masters (where the minimum age is 30), but I'd much rather have it in Mixed with Mischief.

The biggest issue in tryouts this season will be fitness. Since running has thus far been out of the question (my being unable to straighten my left leg when sitting down, my leg at 90°), I've been struggling to find other activities. I'd really like to go swimming with Megan, but we haven't quite connected on that endeavour yet. I'm still hoping, especially since Megan will most likely be able to help me become more water efficient: I can get from one side of the pool to the other, but my dogs who hate water have more water grace than I do.

Unless, of course, we're pool jump racing. Then I kick butt.

Horsing around several days ago, I pulled out the jump rope and started jumping. I managed very few jumps, maybe twenty straight, which is lame, but I managed them without harming my hamstring any further. Very excited, I jumped around sixty or so straight.

Kris watched me, then said, he'd challenge me. He then jumped hundred jumps (without breaking a sweat, actually). My turn to jump. He decided that the most he could increase the target number is by 50%, regardless of how many he jumped, but that I could over jump him as much as I could manage.

The next day, my second set of jump increases made the count all of 102. Kris easily increased it to 151 that day. It seems each time I overjumped Kris, he just outjumped me like he'd been doing it all his life. Mostly because he has: his best is 11000 jumps in a row, when he was 18. That number took him about an hour to jump.

So, 151 from Kris, 165 from me, 235 from him over the next few days.

Today, I decided I was going to jump 1000 jumps, not necessarily all at once, with secondary goals of not re-injuring my hamstring and also jumping over 235 jumps.

My 1013 jumps were in sets of 6, 53, 245, 12, 15, 74, 47, 74, 47, 18, 6, 10, 112, 9, 56, 70, 18, 77, 16, and 110 jumps.

My third set of 245 beat Kris' 235, resetting the jump count to 245, where Kris could jump a maximum of 1.5 * 245, or 367. After finishing up strong with my 110 jumps, Kris stood up and declared I inspired him with my 1000 jumps for the day.

So, he jumped 994 in a row.

I have a long way to go.