Badminton

I got an email in response to my post on Monday from Aidan who let me know he plays badminton every week at a school pretty near where I live. I was welcome to tag along even though I'm completely out of shape and don't really have the gear to play. I've decided saying no to things is a bad idea, especially when they're things I want to do. So, off I went!

It turns out I really am completely out of shape. By the end of the first game I was pretty close to complete collapse. I'd brought a water bottle with me, so I took a break, lay down for a bit, and drank a stupid amount of water. I figure I drank close to 3 liters of water by the end of the night. Apparently that's as much water as an average man should drink in a day, and I chugged it down in a couple of hours!

I did end up recovering, and I played 3 more games. I feel like I'm going to pay the price for this tomorrow since my elbow is already sore and I have a skinned knee. (And a melted section of my pant leg to go with it!) I simply don't have an analog setting for how much I'm willing to try at things. I am playing badminton, so I am going to do everything I can! If that means diving for a birdie I can't possibly get to because I'm rusty, so be it! But it was good to actually get out and do something!

I'm reminded of playing badminton in gym class back in junior high and high school. (15-19 years ago...) I tended to hate 'phys ed'. Super book nerd with no physical skills to speak of did not like getting marks based on how many push ups I could do or how fast I could run around the city. But I loved the part of the year where we played badminton. I would team up with Adam Mutch and we were surprisingly good. He was a pretty big boy, and I was super unathletic, but we both wanted to win and we were good complements. He always played far back and had the power to make the deep to deep hits and the foot speed/wing span to cover the whole back of the court. I played up front and made good use of my diving and drop shot skills. Good times in a generally terrible class.

On a similar topic, I decided I should weigh in on the Wii Fit before starting to exercise again. It turns out I hadn't hoped on there since mid October. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I feel like that was around when I decided to go really hardcore into avoiding the glutens. Which meant cutting out most cookies and chips. I was really close to the 'overweight' category back then, but it would seem I've lost 10 pounds in the last 7 months just from eating differently. Woo!