7-07-17 (Friday) HY: TCF + Pickle-Ball.

7-07-17 (Friday) HY: TCF + Pickle-Ball.

Pickle-Ball Day!!!

Today was a hot day, which means the gym was even hotter.  But it was actually a little cooler than last week.  The way we came to that conclusion is because the puddles of sweat at the baseline were a little smaller today than last week.  But it was still sauna-like temps.  Also, we were under a little time crunch because Joe had some students coming in at noon, so we had to end a little earlier than usual.  I got to the gym a little early to stretch out, and since Joe was a little late, I had the time to do a nice long series of Flows.  It is always nice to do Flows in an open space where there is no fear of bumping into a wall or a low ceiling.

Because of that time crunch, we shortened our warm up time to just one round of balls.  That means four rallies until all four of our balls are at the net or off the court.  I actually liked starting off a little quicker because I would rather not hit some good shots during the warm-up.  hehe...  The first game was extremely competitive.  We were both charged and pushing each rally.  There weren't really any bad shots, and if there was, they were few and far between.  But it was evident that the "Time-Crunch Factor" was playing in our heads.  That is when we know we don't have much time but we want to still get in a good cardio workout so we try that much harder, push that much further, and attack that much more aggressive.  There were a lot of service changes which lengthened the game time.  But I eventually took the game, 15-13.  The second game, It was clear that Joe's intensity level dropped because he was hitting a lot more balls into the net off my serve.  Way more unforced errors than the first game.  But it had its share of intense rallies and awesome shots.  I took that game 15-8.  The third game was another very competitive game.  There were a lot more service changes in this game than the first game.  But the big difference was that this time, my intensity had dropped off.  I was mis-hitting serves a lot, and I was started to feel gassed out.  Recovery time after a grueling point was getting longer and I could feel my movement was not as smooth as before.  But there was one point where the score was 10-12 and it was stuck on that score for over 10 service changes.  I was like I would try really hard on Joe's serve, win the serve back, but I would be too tired to attack enough on my serve then Joe would win the serve back.  After the game, we talked about our mindset and both of us were thinking, "the one that breaks this score count first is going to win the game."  But we didn't say anything during the game for fear of jinxing it.  Eventually, Joe broke out first and went on to take the game, 11-15.  Before we started, Jo said that he needed to go at quarter-to.  We started the fourth game at 20-to.  The last time we were in this situation, Joe absolutely crushed me, something like 4-15.  And since I was already gassing out, I thought the result would be the same.  The game started out that way, but them Joe must have been gassed out too because he quickly faded and that gave me a little more energy.  Not a lot of big shots, but just hitting away and the other person unable to run for it.  I eventually took the final game at 15-6.  The time was 10-to.  We both acknowledged that today's session was a great workout.

In the end, I torched a nice 1100+kcals.  As usual, a great way to end the workout week.  Happy Weekend!