The old man showed up yesterday on the ice … and the old man was me!

It’s been a slow start back to playing hockey regularly.

The first time I played this fall I felt pretty good. I had some speed, hands weren’t too bad, scored a few goals. Things were looking promising.

I had worried that after turning 60 in June I somehow wouldn’t be able to skate any more or pass or shoot.

But from my first outing, things seemed just like they were when I left the ice in the spring.

Now I’m about a month into playing again and yesterday there was a shortage of players for shinny. We had to play four aside with only one sub.

Let me tell you, I needed that sub!

I think I was coming off the ice twice as much as the other guys on my team … and it wasn’t because I was trying to be courteous.

I needed to come off; I was dying!

With only four guys on the ice, there is so much more ice to skate and it was wearing me out. Mostly my legs were in a lot of pain.

It felt like I had shin splints after about 30 seconds into a shift – sharp pains in my shins that traveled up to my thighs as well.

All I needed was about a minute on the bench and my legs returned to normal, but it sure made it tough to skate when I was out there.

It didn’t help that I had the three oldest guys playing on my team. In fact, we may have had the four oldest.

The young guys on the other team didn’t seem to want to take it easy on us either. They checked us close and made us really work to get the puck out of our end.

I felt like an old man, not able to skate like I once could, having to take rests more frequently than the others.

It was pretty discouraging.

I know I could still skate well if I didn’t have the pain, and I know I could have more stamina if I was in a little better shape.

The pain in my legs has been happening since I had a heart attack over four years ago. But it has gotten a little worse.

I’ve tried loosening my equipment, and drinking insane amounts of water, but the pain doesn’t seem to be a circulation or an electrolyte problem.

I think it’s coming down to either my medication messing with my muscles, too much sugar in my system, or my heart not working at the capacity it needs to to enable my legs to work properly.

… I really don’t want it to be the latter reason. So my next step is to work on my sugar intake. For the next while I’m going to cut all deliberate, unnecessary, gratuitous sugar from my diet.

Let’s see how that goes and how it effects my muscles. I’ll check back on this later.

Here’s the thing: When you face something that doesn’t seem right, always question it, seek to discover possible reasons for it, and try potential solutions to solve it. The best environment for this is in consultation with God. Meet with and ask God for help as you question, discover and try to get past what you’re facing.

That’s Life,

Paul

Question: What difficulty have you faced and just accepted, rather than trying to solve? Leave your comments below.