Poepstring

I know it's not my hamstring, but this one is just on the outside of my hamstring. And it's sore.

I played my first game on Tuesday eve - they flung me into the midfield, which was nice (most new teams insist on playing me up front, which I don't appreciate... remember, I prefer playing fat, scary sweeper at the back) so I got to do quite a bit of running.

I had also cycled to the hockey match - ambitious, I know, but I had to start some time. I think it's the cycling that did it. The poepstring, that is.

You see, seeing as the hockey club is on the way to the beach, and it being the Netherlands and all... cycling towards the beach means cycling uphill. True, it's not much of an incline (there aren't really hills anywhere in the country), but it's up nonetheless.

After the match I had to cycle home. With my thighs feeling like gelatinous toxic sludge, I was quite looking forward to the freewheel down the hill. Unfortunately I hadn't counted on my bike light. This wonderful contraption works on kinetic energy and is required by law when cycling at night. You flick a switch and the lamp attaches itself to the front wheel of the bike - the faster you pedal the brighter it glows. It also tightens the wheel's rotation to the point that I might as well have been cycling through a pot of my nana's Sunday gravy (it was fairly chunky stuff).

Freewheeling on the downhill didn't happen. If I stopped pedalling, the bike had slowed down the point of falling over within 20m. I put it down to weak legs from the game, but last night I had the displeasure of cycling home from dinner with my light on... same exhausting result.

I'm sure I'll get used to it, but cycling is meant to be easy.... with the bike light on it feels like I'm trying to complete a mountain race. And the strain has resulted in me pulling a poepstring. I just know it.