One more season for this ol' gal
I am starting a journal here to give me a single place to refer to my progress. It is more fun to journal than keep excel spreadsheets though I may do some of both...
I mostly post in the female section and I play football so you would think I belong in either the female journal section or the sports journal section but my story is more about being 47 years old than it is about being female or being on a woman's pro football team.
Last year I was on my way to the bbing stage when I stumbled across the opportunity to try out for the Portland Fighting Fillies ([url]www.fightingfillies.com[/url]) I figured I would not pass the tryouts but showed up to tryout anyway. I had always wished to play football my whole life and was never allowed so I felt like trying out would give me the chance I have never had. I ended up surprising all the coaches and myself at the tryouts and making the team.
It was a wild year as I started to train for sport instead of bbing. While I was strong as could be and fairly ript (around 12% bf when I tried out), I was also prone to injury due to my lack of functional training and very low bf%. In order to survive I did a "fulk" to put on some fat and paid attention to more functional types of training while allowing my strength in my major lifts to decline.
Our football season runs from Jan-Jun with game season starting in March. Our football camp last year was in Vegas in Jan and that is when the **** gets real. Following the training camp, we all travel home and the 11-15 hours a week of training start. Because we are a pro team, we have a LOT more things to do besides practice and train. We have to do press events, community events and fund raising events/suck up to sponsors. We also have to run the business of the team. All in all, this takes around 20 hours of our weeks outside of our normal jobs. In game season we have to travel to Vegas, CA, Utah, Idaho and other PNW team areas.
I actually did exceptionally well my first year. I played defensive back and also played wide receiver. While I was not one of the team's super stars I did manage to get in the game for about 10 downs every time and I always played a solid role. I am older than the teams average member by 15 years so I get a lot of press attention and I've earned the respect of all. I won't lie though about how tough it was for me. I did not suffer any MAJOR injuries but I did break two fingers and suffer two muscle strains that had to be carefully managed. I also left the season with a really bad case of tennis elbow.
July 4th was the first week off for our team and most of my teammates where signing up to play soccer, basketball, etc in the intramural teams around here. I did nothing but nurse my broken finger, my tennis elbow, my stiff knee and my piraformus strain. And as of last week I am starting back into the weight room. Things should be a bit easier for me this year as I am actually conditioned for function and I have some bf to support the recovery. Even so I will have to manage the season and my training with extreme care. I feel for Brett Favre when he says he is waiting to be cleared for return. I understand his refusal to show up for early camp. It takes longer to recover and heal after 40.
Still with proper management and the right team of experts we can do it despite the age. It just takes more thinking and more active recovery techniques.
My teammates tell me that the rookie year of this sport is sort of a waste as you spend much of your time on the field confused and/or scared. They tell me that season two is a whole new ballgame and that is where players really come out as players. I am committing to one more season to allow myself this experience of "coming into my own" as a football player. But after this season I am pretty sure I will come back to bbing. I miss the progressive lifting routines, the muscle that I gain and the looks I achieve with bbing. So I am going for just one more season and then coming back to prepare again for the stage.
In the meanwhile please bear with me as I chronicle the events of this new football season in this bbing folder!