Seeing Him...

Seeing Him

In spite of the cold, it always makes me feel so young.  It only happens once a year.  Each year I yearn to experience it as if it were the first time that I remember from so many years ago.  I yearn to believe and continue to believe.  Although an entire year has been added to my age each time it happens, I quickly regress to the era before I was the one being called Dad.  Back in time I would travel, to when I was eager to venture into the frigid night, to stand with rapt attention peering into the darkened sky, searching for the sign.  The feelings welling up inside of me always cause me to reverse in age, if only for a brief stint.  The excitement I experience, waiting to catch a glimpse of my oldest friend.  I believe that he has always been there, though we only rarely commune.  He is up there now, I know it.  I’ve always known it.  I believe it.  High overhead; out of sight; never too far from my thoughts.  For some, he has ceased to be.  Luckily, this has not yet happened to me.  As far back as I can recall I would brave the weather, entering into the cold night, to go through the annual ritual of seeing him again.  Just on this one night and ever so briefly.  In my mind’s eye I can make out every detail of him, along with his trusty steeds.  Regardless of my age, or maybe because of it, the details seem always be clearer than they should be.  When I was the child, the details were just bits and pieces of the whole vision.  As I aged, the details would alter as my experiences were developed.  What I never realized as that child from long ago was that all this vision started with a single color. The color red.  No matter what was in the sky, at the suggestion of that blinking red light sailing overhead, the vision begins.  Real or not, the rest of the dream wasn’t actually there at all.  Yet it seemed then as clearly as it seems today to be so real.  The rest of the details simply became real as it filled itself in; as I believed.  Now I perform the role of the Dad, the ritual continuing, granting my children the opportunity to have their one on one encounter with him.  To call him their friend as I have.  The mere suggestion of that glowing red orb is all it takes to begin to paint the entire picture, and once again meet my old friend.  I look forward to meeting him again and again and relish the chance to introduce him to each of my children with every passing year.  On marches time, on continues the ritual, each year waxing and waning, and the belief gets stronger as the seasonal reunion approaches.  I believe.
 
 

Kylie and Racquetball in 2012

This year has been a huge one for Kylie and racquetball. She is a full fledged member of the Evening League with me at Orem Rec. Often we do not even play a game together, and she plays the other players from the league.

She has also attended High School Racquetball LEague on Mondays for practice, and Thursday for games. She has yet to be defeated in the Thursday games with the other travelling high school teams she has been pitted against. Each player on each team is ranked, and then they are pitted against those of the other team in similar order. Sometimes her games have been challenging, sometimes not. She has won them all.

She has participated in various tournaments this season. As a single player, and as a double partner with her dad. It has been a great experience. The last tournament, the UVU tourney, she took first place both in the doubles division and the singles division she entered. She actually was a little bored in some of the games, wishing that the competition was a bit tougher.

Tonight is our regular league night, and High School league is over for now. She misses playing racquetball, and didnt play since almost a week ago. She expressed to her mom how excited she is to play tonight, as she has missed it recently. Some weeks, she'd play almost every day.

She has gotten pretty tough, has learned some great skills, and has earned confidence in herself, her skill and her game play. Its great to see her progress. Its even funner to see strangers come up and ask us about her, having heard about her from their friends, and wanting to know more. How did she get so good. How old is she. How long has she really been playing racquetball. And so on.

Go Kylie, Go!!!

Racquetball and Fitness

I play a lot of racquetball, and do so because it is fun, but offers rewards in fitness as well.

But in order to keep track of each time I play, I use a tool called RunKeeper that doesnt translate well to racquetball. It wants to know how far of a distance I ran? or hiked? or biked? But how far would I run if I could keep track of how far I move in a racquetball game? The court is only 40 feet by 20 feet. But if I run a bunch within the court... how far did I go?

What about calories burned? Ive read that in a competitive game one could burn up to 900 calories in an hour. This is a gauge I have been using for some time.

But today I found a website that has some descent information about the game and how it translates to other activities.

Here is the website. Here is the information.

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FITNESS BENEFITS

The average number of calories burned during racquetball play ranges from moderate at 640/hour (Prevention, 1995) to 794/hour (Men's Health, 1995) - to a high level at 822/hour (Sports Training Institute). At the UW Racquetball Club, according to commercial heart rate monitors, top players average between 1000 and 1200 calories burned in an intense hour long match.

An average game will take 20 minutes, during which a player will run a distance of approximately 3,650 feet - or over two miles in one hour of play. (U.S. Olympic Training Center).

Racquetball players work at a constant rate of 75% to 85% of their maximum heart rate for the duration of the typical racquetball game. (USRA Elite Training Camp, 1992).

Racquetball offers both aerobic and anaerobic benefits, with both sustained high level heart rate activity and quick bursts of energy required during play. The nature of the game, with intense bursts of exertion, is similar to high intensity interval training which has been shown to be the most effecient method to burn fat. (The main difference is that racquetball is fun!)

Racquetball works nearly every muscle group, including sustained, repetitive use of large muscles that increase calorie burn and reduce fat percentage.

PARTICIPATION (based on the 2005 SGMA study)

There are 5,533,000 Racquetball participants in the U.S.

The number of players increased by 13% in 2004.

69% of the participants are men.

Racquetball participants are more likely than the general population to engage in activities such as squash, scuba diving, volleyball, and rafting.

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According to this, an hour of racquetball gains me nearly 2 miles of running and almost 900 calories burned. Of course, if the level of play was less, these numbers would be less as well.

This I will use from now on, which will help me keep track of the numbers that RunKeeper likes. As well as notifying my of goals met or exceeded. If I play for 3 hours, at a high level, this would be a record, for example.