Is this the beginning of the end?

I meant to post this Monday but I was too depressed. I'm starting to wonder if, at the ripe old age of 43, my natural athletic ability has left me.

It all started Friday night with our first playoff hockey game. I arrived early and got plenty of warm up time (too much, maybe). No signs of what was to come a short time later.

The game starts and for some reason I keep tripping, stumbling, basically acting like I hadn't ever done this before. Then I started having good scoring chances and either losing the puck or shooting a weak ass shot into the goalie. No signs of the guy that lead the team with 23 goals during the regular season. I don't think I could have played any worse and while, personally, I was quite down on myself, at least the team picked me up and we won 7-1.

Then Saturday comes around and it's time for our first golf round of the year. We head out to the Oaks and I hit pretty well on the range so I'm feeling pretty optimistic. I keep forgetting the old "good on the range, shit on the course" adage. And that's pretty much what happened. I hit a few decent drives but my iron shots were, for the most part, horrendous. I kept chunking so many shots.

I probably can blame some of that on 1st time out. Stuff like flying a lob wedge 15 yards over the green is mostly just a lack of playing time and re-learning my distances again. But I was taking 20 yard chip shots and hitting them 10 yards into a bunker, taking divots big enough to start my own lawn sod business, etc. I also managed to hook a hybrid on the par 5 15th over a fence and land it in the middle of the road, luckily between 2 sets of cars or I might have caused a major pile-up.

And to make matters worse, Retro beat me for the first time, 104-106 (yes, I had a freakin' 106).

There were a couple bright spots, mostly long drives, but I did birdie the par 3 7th hole with a nice 6 iron from 175 to 12 feet. Of course, that was sandwiched by triple bogey 7's on 6 and 8. Oh well, tough day, but at least it was sunny and warm in the mid 60's (tapered by a good 15-20 mph wind however).

None of that is why I felt depressed come Monday. It was the fact that I was winded walking a golf course (pushing a cart no less) after 8 holes. I'm so out of shape I think it's finally starting to catch up with me. Outside of hockey once a week I really wasn't doing much (I did play basketball 3 times in 3 months too). So, this week began my quest to get back into shape and not be that beer belly toting inactive putz that can barely waddle his way to the kitchen for another bucket of ice cream.

I'm not a fat guy mind you, but at 5'8" tall I should be in the 155ish range and I'm over 20 lbs beyond that. 20 lbs, amazing what that little difference can do to you. Of course, it's all in the gut region and no, I'm not going to quit drinking beer so it's going to take some actual body movement to do this. My goal is 156 (20 lb loss) by my 20th anniversary (May 15th). That gives me 6 weeks to lose it, a little over 3 lbs per week. I did it once before about 4 years ago but put it right back on. However, until recently I never went much over 170. I think working at home and having access to a continuous flow of snacks is not helping as I'm heavier than I've ever been in my life after only 2 1/2 months of doing it.

So now my weekdays begin with a vigorous 30 minute workout on the elliptical machine and some upper body weight work. Now, staying disciplined and doing it every day is where I've always failed so I'm going to have to be stronger and fight through on those days when I just don't feel like it.

Wish me luck...