soccer ban

Date	Place of run	Duration (min)	Pushups	Pull-ups	Long sprint downhill	4 flights	Start time
10 Feb	To WAT	45	25,25,25	17	59.69	20.11	7:14

Date	Place of run	Duration (min)	Pushups	Pull-ups	4 flights	Start time
14 Feb	To M. Theresa	45	25,25	17,17	20.11	7:24

Date	Place of run	Duration (min)	Pushups	Pull-ups	Long sprint uphill	Long sprint downhill	Start time
19 Feb	To M. Theresa	35	25,25	17,17	1:45.55	1:36.17	6:43

Date	Place of run	Duration (min)	Pushups	Pull-ups	Long sprint downhill	4 flights	Start time
15 Feb	To M. Theresa	35	25,25	17,15	59.59	21.10	7:12

  

            So, on the 10^th, I ran to the location of the World Academy of Tirana.  This is place where I have begun a long-term substitute teaching job. It was located where I thought, but I got there via a different route.  All is well.

            Saturday was the first day I tried to run after a bike mishap on Thursday night.  The trouble was caused by my stupidity and indecision. There is a parking garage underneath the apartment building where we have lessons.  Just off the street, a metal slotted ramp allows cars to easily drive up onto the apron.  Several times, I’ve ridden my bike over it and thought, “It’s a good thing I take this at an angle, because otherwise, my wheels would get caught in the gaps of the metal grate.”  This time, about 10:30 at night, as I drove over the ramp, I thought, “I don’t want to go this way, I want to go THAT way.”  I turned right in the middle of the ramp, the wheel slid immediately through the slot, bike stopped, and I went over the handlebars, landing squarely on my left hip. The pain was tremendous. 

            There was one guy walking by at the time.  He came up and said something…probably, “Are you OK?” but since I don’t speak Albanian, I don’t know. 

            I reverted to my default foreign language, Russian, and said, “Yes, I’m fine.  I just hope the bike is OK.”  Yes the bike was fine and remains so.  But my leg hurt.  It actually wasn’t too bad because the pain hadn’t registered yet.  But I knew I was in for it.  Rode home without incident and went to sleep. 

            As usual in such events, the next day, I was walking slowly and taking the stairs one at a time.  I didn’t run—not only because of the injury, but because I was busy with my second job. 

            On Saturday, the 14^th, the boys were over, so I got my rear going early and took a jog.  I was pleasantly surprised that I was able to run so well—not so much that I was able to do any sprinting, but still pleased.  The NEXT day, I was truly patting myself on the back when I went so far as to achieve my goal of a 60-second final sprint—by 41 hundredths of a second, no less. 

            Man! During that long, long minute, an extraordinary number of thoughts goes through my head.  For example, at the mid-point, there is a bike crossing sign.  I am always tempted to look at my watch to see where I’m at.  I always fight off the urge because I know that even a tiny lapse in concentration on my physical effort will translate into a poorer final result.  In this case, I could scarcely afford more time…after all, .41 seconds is a blink of an eyelash—or less.

            This brings us up to Thursday.  What?  Thursday?!?  You are off your schedule, James.  Yes, I know…I haven’t taken to running before my job at school yet.  Maybe I will in the future.  As is evidenced by the sprint times, I was quite unenthusiastic about the day’s run.  The thing was that on Wednesday evening, I played Ultimate Frisbee for the first time in two weeks—last week, not enough people were available. My body was hurting all the way around—well, mostly just the legs.  I couldn’t force myself to sprint.  When I began the section where I usually sprint, I barely increased my speed at all. 

            I am doing more pull-ups.  I even do a few at school during recess, or when I arrive in the morning.  Such behavior attracts a lot of unwanted, unwarranted attention early on.  Probably, after the kids get used to seeing me do this, they won’t even notice.

            An interesting experiment at school involves kids playing soccer.  If you have ever seen kids play soccer, you will have noticed that they become excited about the game.  ‘Passionate’ is a word that is totally inadequate to describe their feelings.  Of course, their excitement often leads to conflict, arguments, disrespect, and even fights.  In actuality, the conflict probably isn’t as fierce as it seems, but to those who are personally uninitiated into soccer-mania, the feelings can seem destructive.  At any rate, the school has decided to ban the soccer—

or football, as is the name in every other country in the world except for the United States. Canada might be in the backwards camp, too.  Yahoo answers says that Canadians, Australians, and South Africans say ‘soccer.’   

The ban is in effect until further notice.  I’m not well-versed in the PYP terminology yet but I think this might be an effort to increase the kids’ principles.  PYP is the Primary Years Program.  Part of this program encourages the kids to develop ‘learner profiles’.  One of the profiles is Principled: Students act honestly and with a strong sense of fairness, justice, and respect for the dignity of the individual, groups, and communities.  By banning soccer, the staff is trying to decrease the amount of discord at recess and bring more harmony onto the campus of school.

            So what?  Well, on Wednesday, the first day of the soccer ban, all the kids were spread all around the playground doing different types of physical exercise, including pull-ups.  I challenged a couple kids—I told them that at the end of this soccer ban, I’d like to see them be able to do one pull-up.  We’ll see…