Serene Saturday ...

Another brick in the wall ... 

A great Pink Floyd song, to be sure, but also a favorite saying by the great Bubba Sparks, someone I am privileged to call a close friend and brother. Bubba and I practiced pole vaulting together every Sunday morning for a solid year, beginning back in Oct. 2017, at Kris Allison's place in New Braunfels. Then, Bubba -- a national champion vaulter in college, and world champion in Masters vaulting -- moved back to Houston, where we both grew up a few miles apart and went to the same high school a few eons ago, and so our weekly practice commute unfortunately ended. 

But how many people get the chance to not only be trained, coached, mentored, encouraged by a world-class athlete, but also to become lifelong friends? 

Amazing to think about .... 

And that is one of the many pearls of wisdom Bubba has shared with me over the past couple of  years or so -- everyday, he says, put another brick in the wall. Do something positive every day toward reaching your goal(s).

So that's what I try to do.

Today, I continued my upper-body strength training with a visit to the gym. Right now, I'm resting a slightly damaged knee (thinning meniscus gap, slight to moderate osteoarthritis on the inner side, and a small bone spur or two), after an ultrasound injection. That was last Friday, and the doc said to wait until at least Wednesday to try it out, but I've extended that to next Friday. A good, solid two weeks.

The knee feels a whole heckuva lot better, but I'm still a little concerned when I feel the occasional twinge on the inside there. Nothing like it was, but not quite 100 percent.

So, this morning I cranked out a set of incline bench press: 10-8-6-4-2, ending with 135 pounds. Not bad for me, and I'm already stronger than I was a couple weeks ago, when the last set of 125 was a struggle. I did some straight-arm cable pushdowns for lats and shoulders, some small barbell shoulder presses (50-60-70 pounds), some dumbbell triceps press, dumbbell curls, dumbbell pullovers, and I think that was it. My stamina is starting to come back a little bit, so I'll be back to an hour-long workout with the weights pretty soon.

Next Saturday, I plan to resume Shawn Francis' Team Hoot three-month conditioning program, albeit in a modified format. Some of those hops, skips, and jumps that are in there will be off-limits for a while -- maybe forever. Some of that stuff doesn't feel too good on a nearly 63-year-old dude with knee issues.

But that's about it for today, I reckon. 

Remember to check out the book I wrote about my pole vaulting journey, including that year of training with Bubba and my appearance in the National Senior Games. To take a look at "Finally Fit: It's Never Too Late to Achieve a Dream," click right HERE. 

More later, y'all ...