10 posts tagged “tennis”

What a long weekend.  I had to work quite a bit, but I did have time to do stuff with Mariah and the kids, and got some running in.  Saturday morning, a group of 18 of us ran 9 miles from Hawthorn Park into town to Cracker Barrel and ate breakfast together.  That was fun time.  The weather was beautiful and the breakfast was good.  I managed to get in 63 miles last week.  First time I've done that since before the Columbus Marathon training in 2006.  Sunday was a 14 mile "tempo" run done at 6:30 pace.  I was so sore yesterday, but still got in a pretty good 8 miles. Running on the trails at Hawthorn Park and Rose-Hulman helped a lot.  Tonight, I ran speed work in a light rain, although a little breezy.  3+ mile warmup, legs were kinda dead.  Then did 12x400m with 400m jog between, then 2 mile cooldown.  Not quite 11 miles for the day.  And 30 minutes on the Octane during lunch. 
Work was hectic today.  Some of it was fall out from some of the maintenance that we did on our systems over the weekend.  It wasn't very smooth.  So, I'm a little irritable today..  The French Open started this week.  I finally got to see a little bit.  I saw Mauresmo wrap up her match and watched the first couple of games in Nadal's match.  I've setup our HD-DVR to record it all.  Got to watch the remainder of Nadal's match.  Hopefully I can keep up with the tournament.

An oh, the Indy 500 was this weekend.  BFD.  Can you tell I'm not originally from Indiana?

I saw a video of an upcoming release for the Nintendo Wii and immediately recognized the bass playing on the theme music.  It was Les Claypool from Primus.  They are one of my favorite bands of all time.  But amazing that you could hear a bass guitar in a song you've never heard before, but you recognize the sound and the style.

Neat.

Secrest out.

Congrats to David Cook American Idol.

OK, now I don't agree with this.  Why in Tennis do you get to get a trainer to massage out cramps or strains?  What kind of crap is that?  "Medical Timeout?"  C'mon.  Isn't part of tennis surviving the marathon long matches and holding up through the entire tournament.  When you see your opponent becoming vulnerable, shouldn't you be able to exploit it and go for the kill?  When I run a race, you can't just stop and say, ooh, my hamstrings are knotting up, everybody stop and wait while I work this thing out.  You even let in to another runner in a race that "you're hurting", he'll (she'll) take off on you and you're done.  Show me even the slightest crack and I'll break it.

  I don't know how long ago they instituted this "Medical Timeout" in these tennis tournaments, but I'm not a fan of it.

I have managed to run 7 days in a row for the first time since last February.  I've been really tired the last two days.  Tuesday night was supposed to be a workout, but the roads were still really icy and my legs were still dead from the prior three days.  Tonight I had to drive into town to be able to run on some roads that were clear.  It was just too icy and dark where I live.  There were still some icy roads in the residential areas though.  I was thinking that I might try to do a fartlek or a tempo run, but it wasn't meant to be tonight.  My legs were completely dead, "first mile in 8:19" dead.  I managed to pick it up to around 6:30 pace throughout the run, but could only hold it for about 90 seconds each time I tried to pick it up.  S'well.  So, I've done 49 miles in the last 7 days.  Legs are going to be tired until I get used to the mileage.  Speed may suffer for a while, but I've still got 10 weeks before the Indy Mini.  I'd like to get back up to 55-60 miles a week by the end of February.  We'll see how the injury site handles it, along with the rest of my body of course.

I have been so busy lately that I have missed but all of the Australian Open Tennis.  I am watching the Women's Semifinals.  I love tennis.   I try to watch as many matches I can of each of the Grand Slam tournaments.  Today work was really stressful.  Lots of stuff that needs to be done, but dealing with production problems all day, mostly from "stupid user tricks" (did I really say that?).  And that's all I have to say about that...  D from work is going to bring me in a Grande Caramella tomorrow morning from Java Haute though in the morning for today's support.  

Today I have had a complete lack of energy.  I tried to do 60 minutes on the Octane, but only made it 17 minutes.  I am so tired.  I don't think it has anything to do with yesterday's race.  I took a 90 minute nap and have since got up to watch the US Open.  I still don't feel all that great.  I'm not dehydrated.  My right hip is a little flared up from yesterday.  Nothing that any leg lifts and some stretching can't help.  This evening we're going to trim our out-of-control Lilac bushes.  They've started to grow into our neighbor's yard through the fence, so it's time to do some upkeep on them (the bushes that is).  Watched the rest of the T&F world championships.  Pretty good.  I'm pretty impressed with Catherine Ndereba winning the marathon.  She's been around for a while now.  The U.S. almost went Gold, Bronze in the 5000m, but we went 1st and 4th.  Still pretty good.  So hopefully, if I feel better later, I'll go run in the cooloing off evening.

Today I took the day off from running.  I ran really hard yesterday, about 4.5 miles all together.  Unfortunately, I had a pretty sharp pain in my left knee during the run for just a moment.  I stopped and rubbed it and all seemed fine.  Didn't hurt the rest of the run or the rest of the evening.  I've been having slight problems with it on and off for the last 18 months.  But last night, I woke up in the middle of the night with it hurting pretty sharply underneath the patellar tendon.  No further incidents with it.  I managed to do just 18 minutes on the Octane during lunch today since my whole body is shot.  No complications with my sacrum, just a little tightness this morning and tiredness tonight.  I didn't have any pain with my knee until just a moment ago...  Watched a little of the U.S. Open lastnight with Roddick advancing.  Listened to Serena Williams advance while playing Stratego with Austin.  Still haven't got to watch today's IAAF Track and Field World Championships.  Tonight was Austin's first day of soccer practice.  Afterward, we went to his school's Open House.  That was pretty neat.   Then we all went to Fazoli's afterward for dinner.  Kourtney's in a dilemna because she has school pictures second hour, but she has gym first hour.  So she's all concerned that she'll still be red-faced, hair messed up, etc.  Work has been really tricky today.  So many things going on.  I've got so many things to catch up on, and I've got to come up with what maintenance we're going to do on Monday when our U.S. plants are closed.  Bleh.

Lastnight we went to the movies and watched Shrek the Third.  I thought it was pretty good.  I was pretty tired though.  I worked 12+ hours yesterday. I left the house at 5:30 am and didn't get home until 9:00 pm.  We did an upgrade to our Shop Floor Systems at work today.  It was tough and exhausting, but it was a good effort by everyone. I'm getting caught up once again on Wimbledon.  Venus Williams looks unstoppable after she beat Sharapova.  And wow Maresmo got beat really bad the other day.  I'm watching Serena and Henin now, and it's not looking so good for Serena.  Today I ran a pretty quick 3 miles.  Had to stop several times to stretch and stuff.  I ran pretty hard.  It's amazing that your mind remembers how fast you run prior to your injury, but it is much more physically demanding to try to run at that "natural" pace.  So, it's back to the Octane for the next three days and I'll try to run again on Monday.  I don't have any pain, I just have a little "discomfort" now a couple of hours later. 

Tomorrow is my mom and dad's 39th Wedding Anniversary.  Congratulations!!!  We Love You!!!  Mariah and I are coming up on 16.  Tonight we're sending out their card and a compilation CD of some of my newer favorites.  Now, I'm going to try to read "Four Past Midnight" if I don't fall asleep first.

Last night we spent the evening at Mariah's parents and let off fireworks.  Pretty fun.  Did that from dark to about 11:30.  Going to see Shrek 3D tonight.  That'll be a lot of fun.  It's funny how the Shrek movies make subtle references to popular culture from when I was growing up that don't even occur to the younger audience.  Got to watch some more Wimbledon yesterday.  All the rain in London helped my catch up on my DVR.  Pretty amazing effort from Serena Williams.  I can't wait to see the Venus Williams vs. Maria Sharapova match.  Roddick still seems to be doing well.  I'm in the beginning of his match.  I also ran Monday.  It was great.  It sure was tough but it felt great to be out.  I took yesterday off from the Octane.  I got on it for 5 minutes and my whole body was just completely shot.  So I bailed.  Today I'll try an hour.  Tomorrow I may try to run again when the kids are at the youth running program.  Austin has just informed me that he has now scored 1509 on Big Brain Academy Wii Degree.  I'm going to have to improve my score of 1256.  There's a limit to how well he can do on the Compute Phase because, being 9 years old, he doesn't know how to add and/or sort negative fractions in his head (yet).  Heh heh heh.  So I still got him there.  They should have this game at school.  My new Circa Survive CD has been rather disappointing.  The 30 second snippets on Amazon (or FYE?) gave me the wrong impression I guess.

The other day, Austin and I bought Big Brain Academy Wii Degree for our Nintendo Wii.  It is actually a pretty cool game.  Today, Mariah and the kids and I painted the garage.  The kids bailed on me after about 15 minutes.  Took about 3+ hours to do it.  Still, we've got to do the garage doors and the front above the doors.  Had just a little irritation in my upper butt out toward my hip, got it under control though with some stretching.  I think all I've got left on this injury is a lot of tight and weak muscles, but still really have no way of knowing as long as I still have pain.  I think I will be able to run this fall.  What I can do remains to be seen.  Kourtney's got two of her girlfriends staying the night.  We all watched "Children Of The Corn" today.  Kourtney and I also went to the library and got some Stephen King novels.  She got Misery and Carrie.  I got Four Past Midnight.  Hopefully I can read that in 4 weeks.  Got to watch a lot of Wimbledon today despite being outside most of the day.  Watched some while I did the Octane for an hour.  Damn that was a tough recovery ride.  I'm still kinda dead from the other day.  My forearms are sore from painting today.  I feel like the Karate Kid. 

Back to Wimbledon, Maria Sharapova seems to be a little more humble now.  It's hard to watch her play though because she takes forever to serve.  Venus and Serena had a much better second round.  Tim Henman lost as well.  I guess he was on the comeback trail and just fell short.  Roddick's looked good so far on the two matches that I've seen him on.  Maresmo sailed through of course.  I haven't seen Henin though...  French Open Champion.  Hmm...  I wonder if she withdrew..  One thing that really sucked last Sunday, was the local blackout of the USATF Championships (Indianapolis).  I recorded it, and when I went to watch it, it was the Vigo County all-star football game broadcast from last fall!!!  WTF?  I wanted to watch the finals dammit.  Well Austin has just scored 1297 on his BBA guy, so now I'm going to have to play it again.  My high score is 1258.  Pretty amazing.  I'm more computational, memorize and analyze than Austin, but he's more Visualize and Identify than I am.  Pretty neat.  Damn I'm sunburned from today. 

I've had the last two days off of work.  We went shopping yesterday.  I bought "Circa Survive"'s latest CD.  Pretty good.  Kourtney got some good deals at JC Penney.  Austin and I bought yet another game for the Wii, "Big Brain Academy" and "Super Swing Golf".  Big Brain Academy is really cool.  Lotta fun.  I finally got my Rush MVI DVD in the mail.  Of course the album is part of the content, but it also came with a "Making Of" video and has lyrics, artwork, etc.  It will only play on DVD players, but has songs "saveable" so you can put it in iTunes or burn it to a CD that you can take with you in the car.  Been watching Wimbledon.  I'm a day behind.  I'm trying to keep up with it before my DVR HD fills up.  Pretty good matches so far.  Tomorrow we're going to paint the garage.  Mariah power-washed it yesterday while I scraped off as much old paint as I could.  We also poured "something" to get rid of weeds and vines.  Poured it all in the cracks of the sidewalks and the driveway, and a pesky poison ivy plant that we've tried several times to dig out of the ground.  I seeded a lot of the yard earlier in the week and with the arrival of rain earlier in the week, a lot of the bare patches toward the front of the yard has new grass.  Had an excellent workout on the Octane Wednesday, went the farthest I've ever gone.  Did an easy 75 minute recovery workout today while watching Serena Williams make it through and Andy Roddick make it in straight sets.  After a long day, we burned two storms worth of branches (plus firewood from inside the garage) and had Mariah's mom and dad up here for S'Mores. 

Today Kourtney and I did yardwork, cleaning up from Friday morning's storm.  Big pile of sticks and branches.  Mariah and her dad went to Menard's and bought some paint for the garage.  He also brought up his power washer, so if it quits raining tonight, we'll try to paint the garage tomorrow.  So, we're finally getting some long overdue rain, but that means we're going to end up having to cut the grass of course.  Kourtney and I watched Stephen King's "It" and then "Hairspray".  "It" wasn't too bad.  Kourtney is now starting to show interest in Stephen King.  My first Stephen King book was "The Stand".  I've offered to let her read it, but she wants to see the movie first.  I told her that that is not how you do it.  You always read the bood first, then watch the movie.  And she'll learn that nine times out of ten, the book is better than the movie.  In anticipation of the new release of "Hairspray" on July 20th, Kourtney wanted to watch the original (?) one again (the one with Riki Lake, Deborah Harry, Sonny Bono).  I don't know if there was a prior one.  I know it was a play first.  Boy today was just ideal for running.  65 degrees, post-rain, 5 mph wind, overcast.  (Deep Breath In).  Did 65 minutes on the Octane today (during Hairspray).  Didn't have any pain during the workout, but had discomfort most of the day.  I go back to the doctor July 2nd.  Going to discuss the stress fracture, pelvic floor muscle issues and also get my first ever cholesterol, etc. check.  Don't miss the USA Track and Field Championships!  And Wimbledon is only a week away!  Federer finally got beat at the French Open earlier this month.  We'll see what Wimbledon brings and see if maybe Henin can grab the Grand Slam.  She's playing excellent this year.  Don't know how Blake and Roddick are doing.  It'll be fun to watch, especially now that we've got our DVR.