Tennis Tired and Happy

I am sitting at my desk, quite elated, and quite exhausted! 

This morning I actually slept till 7:40 a.m.  It was a deep and restful sleep… the wonderful kind that I enjoy when I eat clean… no grains, no dairy other than whey protein powder, no added sugars, and certainly no alcohol.  Great sleep.

And I woke up eager to get my week started.

I had coffee and then changed into my workout gear, got out my dumbbells and exercise mat and after a short warm up, got to work on a great upper body/core workout.  It took about 20 minutes and I tacked on 10 pushups for good luck and then did a full body stretch for 5 minutes.

I made breakfast for both of us and then we changed clothes and gathered our new tennis gear.

Several months ago, I won a Sport Chek gift card from Tara Martin (@tidbits_of_tara) and another from Sport Chek directly… and finallly got around to spending them this past week.  For those of you who aren't familiar with it, Sport Chek is a Canadian retailer and they sell it all.

Tennis has been on our minds for some time now.  We are finally land based and living in an urban neighborhood that has 2 sets of public courts within a nice walk from our apartment.  We played years and years ago, but without any regularity and we both thought it would be a great way to have some fun together… outside, and moving.

So, we lucked into some nice racquets on sale, and I spotted the last tennis gear bag in the store, and we jointly decided on the Slazenger balls.  A CLIF Builder’s bar almost polished off the balance on the card… see that little bit of silver in the middle of the picture?

Yeah, that one.    There is 20 cents left on that card.  I should really have passed it to the next person in line at the store but didn’t think of it till we already outside… Love the Sport Check slogan.

So I packed some water, that CLIF Builder bar, a towel and some fresh socks, and off we went… a 15 minute brisk walk to the farther set of courts from our home.  And when we arrived there were 2 courts being used by a bunch of men who were playing doubles on some kind of rotating basis, and an empty court.  YAY!

We hit balls back and forth for a whole hour!  Thank goodness I was wise enough not to do any leg work in my morning strength routine today.  It was hot and sweaty and I was actually a lot better at running down and returning shots than I thought I would be after such a long absence.  Must be the all the inspiration I got watching the ladies at the U.S. Open these past 2 weeks… getting ready to watch the men’s final shortly, actually.

It was so much fun. I think my lips hurt from smiling for that whole hour.  I ran and ran and jumped and spun and lunged and squatted and reached and wore myself out.  Now I really know why they say 'play' tennis. It is play and it is wonderful!

And when we were done, we towelled off, shared the water and the Builder bar, changed our socks and walked home… a longer route along the Strait so we could enjoy the moist breeze blowing off the water, and at a much slower pace. 

When we got home we both drank a lot more water and I made sure to stretch out my tired legs, too.

Okay, lunch done and I am finally ready to hit the shower… tired and extremely happy and looking forward to going again!

Oh, and more more thing… got these rain boots yesterday at Joe Fresh, marked down to $9.94 – aren’t they cute?

Have you ever played tennis?  What is your favorite way to get some active play and fun?