Time to get in shape!

When I was younger man, I spent almost every minute of free time I had doing one of two things: Fiddling on computers and playing basketball. I worked at a Pizza Hut during the day, and after most of my shifts I would go straight to the basketball courts down the street and play until dark. From there I would return home and work on my Amiga until I was too tired to see any more, then go to sleep and repeat the whole process over.

At 20, I was a decent player. 6' 5" and 165 lbs with a streaky jump shot and quick first step. Never was a great ball handler (couldn't go left for anything), but I did have pretty good hops...for a white guy. I loved dunking on people. And I could do it on a pretty regular basis.
By 25 I was working 70 hours a week in a job I loved (thanks to all of that fiddling with my Amiga), but I still managed to squeeze in a night or two at the local hoop houses.

At 30, I was up to 200 lbs and playing ball about once a week. Life tends to catch up with all of us, and I had so many other priorities to take care of. Now, I could still get up and throw one down when I needed to pump my ego up. But the writing was on the wall and I started thinking about the one thing that every man does when life starts to catch up with us:

"Was that my last dunk?"

Well here I am at 35. I weigh about 220 lbs and my knees are achy. I haven't had a good dunk in about a year. In fact, I think it has been about 3 years since I actually had a legitimate slam down on a regulation rim. To tell you the truth, I can barely grab the rim any more.

Knowing that I can't dunk any more isn't so bad. My game has evolved. I can still shoot well, and I have way more moves around the basket now that I can't rely on speed and jumping ability to score. In a lot of ways, I am a way better player now. The thing that kills me though, is that I never knew that the last dunk I had was it. To be honest, I don't even remember it. That just isn't the way I want it to go down. I want one last dunk.

This my friends is my personal journal of this quest. I am going to give myself 100 days to achieve this goal. I don't know if it is possible considering the wear and tear I have placed on myself over the years. At the very least I will hopefully be in better shape than am today.

Game on!