Father’s Day Pt. 2: Shaking Up the Workout Schedule (And Realizing I’m Not 30 Anymore)

I’ve taken Mondays off for the last three weeks, either for rain or just because. I always feel a little rough on the warm-up for Tuesday night, though, and I don’t like it. I’ve been thinking, maybe if I shake things up a bit and do something different…

My eldest daughter had to work Father’s Day afternoon so she wasn’t able to play putt-putt with us. With power out at the office yesterday due to a fire at a neighboring building, we all headed for home to work. My daughter asked if we could go play tennis to make up for Father’s Day proper. I jumped at the chance. It’s been a while since we hit last.

The warm-up was fine and I learned I’m quite rusty after a full spring of getting reacclimated with tennis.

Then the match started. Bella’s gotten considerably better since the last time we played but I’d found my old cut serve where I can impart enough spin to make the ball make a left turn, then bounce even further left on landing. I handcuffed my daughter twice and took the first game. We played to deuce in the second but she held on to her service to even the score. She broke my serve the next game and never looked back, destroying me. She’d drop little lobs just over the net, then smash passing shots if I was lucky enough to return the first shot. I had a few flashes of brilliance but was terribly out of practice and Bella smelled blood in the water.

I did, however, find my serve for a minute and smashed two aces that had her lock up and just watch them pass… but that was about it for me. My kid dismantled me.

I loved that my daughter could take me apart like that. She’s got a lot of talent.

Unfortunately, when I woke up this morning my shoulder felt like it had fallen asleep. I raised my arm to put my robe on and I felt gravel in my rotator cuff. I tried to raise it to the side and it went dead about halfway up. I was nervous. I’ve known I damaged the rotator years ago, playing softball, but if I warmed up and threw properly, I could make it through a game no problem… but this trouble was new. It’s since warmed up and I don’t have any problems lifting my arm anymore, but I know what’s coming down the road. I’m going to talk to a doctor friend and hope I can let this go for a while until it becomes a real issue but I’m putting off the inevitable. I know what comes next.

Methinks it might be time to ease up on the serves, though… It’s not like I’m 30 anymore.