Ms. Net Monster's Blog

Yay!

msnetmonster — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 17:55:24 +0000

USTA 3.0 season is OVER! Goddamn. I didn’t think it would ever end. We weren’t that great, finished next to last, but for a rag-tag team of women – most of whom had never even met each other before AND had played at 2.5 previously – we did okay. I think I will end up captaining in the winter if there is a desire. It wasn’t that difficult actually. My ladies were very easy to deal with.

ALTA is up next. Probably my last season with this team. There are only a couple of people on it that I really like and frankly, it’s not worth the money. I’m paying like $1600-$1800 a year to play at this facility and I just don’t think it’s worth it. I can play at a couple of facilities around here for like $500 a year or less, in fact, I can play for like $200 a year if I just pay the $50 per season fee instead of actually joining the club. Don’t get me wrong, I ain’t hurting for money and I don’t have to penny-pinch, but I do feel like I’m wasting cash and not seeing a return.

Another related issue, my membership at my gym is up for renewal, specifically my contract for personal training. They tell me I can renew for 6 months at $260/month or I can renew for a year for $240/month. Ugh. I really enjoy working with my trainer, but the place isn’t all that convenient and I don’t go there unless I’m seeing my trainer. The biggest problem is that she isn’t very flexible during the evenings and she is only there two nights a week. Sucks, so I end up missing a session once a week half the time. My job has a gym that is $12 a month and the person training rates are very similar and obviously since it’s right at work, trying to make a session is a piece of cake and I don’t have to drive. I could also try to find someone to share PT sessions. That could drop my per session down to like $17.50 instead of $30. Assuming I did 8 sessions per month, that’s $140. Sweet.

Much to think about.

Holy Shit

msnetmonster — Sun, 08 Aug 2010 22:09:09 +0000

Our freakin’ USTA 3.0 season is finally coming to an end. Longest season ever. One more match and we’re done. Thank Jeebus! It’s been a long, blazing hot summer. We’ve tried to mitigate the heat some by starting our matches early in the morning or after sunset, but still. With the humidity and heat, it’s been tough. It’s been especially tough the last couple of weekends. Last weekend, I played a 3-set doubles match and lost. It was a fun match to play and I enjoy playing with my partner, I think we play well together, but losing it sucked. About half way through the second set, I was dead tired and was overheating. I was steadily drinking water, eating ice and pouring water over my head. I could not cool down and recover properly. I was getting a headache, feeling sick and just couldn’t muster the energy to stay in the match consistently.

Today, I was planning on playing with my same partner again, but we had a mix up with the line ups and I had to play singles which I had no intention of ever playing again. Unfortunately I couldn’t talk anyone else into doing it. I had no expectations of winning, but I was going to try my best. I knew it was going to be a tough day when I was already sweating heavily during warmups! This time around however, I drank even more water and was constantly filling up my cup of water. I think in the end, I drank 3-4 bottles of water, a 32 oz Powerade Zero and like 4-5 cups of ice. I also had a couple bites of pineapple. I won the first set 6-4 and was up like 4-2 in the second and then something funny happened. I caught myself trying to muster up focus and a killer instinct. Next thing I knew, I lost the set 5-7. Here’s what I learned, when I try to muster that part of me or try to get hyper-focused and super competitive or try to channel my frustration/annoyance/anger, I play worse, basically I get tight and start to suck even more. When I play loose, “daydream” or have running conversations in my head, I play markedly better. It’s crazy. I won the 3rd set fairly easily at 6-3 by thinking about what I’m going to do when I’m finished, pondering about how hungry/tired I was, thinking about an email I had to write, research I had to do, what I was going to have for lunch, where my socks are, etc. When I play “instinct” tennis, I play so much better. And I have to say, I had some kick ass shots! I’m kinda proud of myself. My serves are a little erratic, but when they are in they are deadly. My forehands need work, I really need to get much more consistent with my topspin, but I’m most proud of my one-handed backhand slices. I was killing that lady with them, she couldn’t get them at all, especially to her Ad side. Wicked cool. Earlier in the match she was hitting shots to my ad side and I wasn’t getting them back because I was still trying to play two-handed backhands, once I cut that shit out, different story. I need to get better about my net game for sure though.

Anyway, I’m still fucking tired from earlier and need to chill out the rest of the day. One more match and we’re done, I might sit myself out, too much wear and tear on my knee which has been acting up recently. I’m not sure why, singles certainly don’t help.

ALTA starts up in a couple of weeks and we have our first informal practice this Wednesday. I’m not too serious about it since my primary fitness focus is going to be the gym and plus, work is taking up far more time than I anticipated so I don’t have the mental energy to waste on this shit.

Oh well.

Busy Summer

msnetmonster — Mon, 17 May 2010 12:26:16 +0000

Well, first, I am down to 234.6 and 33.1% body fat. Not bad. Started the year off at 265 and am estimating a BF% around 40-41%. I’m feeling good! My trainer wants me to try to get my BF% down to around 30 by mid August and I’m hoping to do that AND get my weight down to around 215-ish. That would put me at a total loss of 300+ lbs and get me in fine shape for Fall ALTA.

This is going to be a critical summer of tennis for me. I am playing in three leagues: (1) Business Women’s USTA 3.0, (2) ALTA Mixed Doubles – C6 – I think and (3) KSwiss Business Women Singles – 2.5. I am really, really going to push myself and really try to do the best I can. I can’t honestly say that I have done that the past couple of seasons. My desire for better competition and frustration at our captain and her insistance on playing me with women I should not be playing with really dampened my vigor to play. This past weekend I got it back. I served as a sub for a friend playing in a charity tournament and without all the mostly self-imposed pressure and stress, I think I played better than I have in a while and oh my gosh, it was so much fun! I was reminded, again, why I love tennis so much. It was awesome! I am committing myself to trying my best this summer, win or lose. The only way I am going to be better is to keep trying and practicing and pushing myself.

Speaking of pushing myself, I have serious doubts about whether my current tennis club is the right place for me. I was talking to a teammate of mine and she expressed some similar doubts about the tennis pros and their inability to really inspire any of us to do better. In particular, two of the pros that I have worked the most with are basically coasting along. She had the best description of them – two old jocks who find themselves at the point in their lives where they realize they are stuck and have few options. Maybe they find themselves with lots of regrets, I don’t know, but their lack of enthusiasm and apathy is obvious. Why would I want to spend money on a pro who is phoning it in? They are nice enough people, but I don’t feel like I am learning anything or progressing much and because they aren’t very enthusiastic about their profession, their teaching techniques are stale and boring. I hear so much from other teams at other facilities about all the cool things their coaches teach, I wish I had access to that. I love the facilities and there are tons of courts, but I just don’t know if I am getting the value that I should be getting out of it. There is a chance I might be moving so it would be apropos to start finding another facility anyway.

Christ

msnetmonster — Wed, 05 May 2010 13:13:28 +0000

Remind me never to take two weeks off from tennis. Also, remind me NOT to play two hours of tennis after a very strenuous session with my trainer. Fucking A. My legs & arms are like wet noodles this morning. It’s gonna be rough trying to get through the day. Ugh.

Good news. I’ve been making great progress fitness-wise. I started 2010 at 265 lbs, roughly 40% BF. This morning, I weighed in at 236 for a total loss of almost 30 lbs. Woo-hoo! I’ve lost a ton of inches around my body and I generally feel great. I’ve been going to this gym for three months and am pretty satisfied. My primary trainer is awesome, she doesn’t let me get away with anything and consistently kicks my butt. It’s paying off though. My trainer thinks I need to eat more carbs. I have very little sustainable endurance. Not much of a problem in tennis because it’s all about spurts, but God help me if I need to do more than that. I have to stay away from grains so my trainer suggested sweet potatoes. I will be giving those a try this weekend. I’ve only eated candied yams so trying savory recipes is my goal.

Anyway, I’m not 100% sure what I want to do this summer for tennis. Right now I am captain of a USTA 3.0 team. I am serving as alternate on a mixed doubles team and am contemplating doing KSwiss again. Only problem with KSwiss is that it will be hotter’n hell. Brutal, but there’s nothing like walking off a tennis court, drenched in sweat so I will probably sign up. It’ll help keep me in shape. Hopefully I won’t have a heat stroke!

I’ve been playing with my Wilson KZen Team fx for a few weeks now and I don’t like it. It has a wee bit more pop than I like, plus it isn’t gripping the ball as much as I like. There’s also a bit too much vibration and I think my grip is too small. I think I might be going back to the Prince. Ugh. I will be giving it a try. My problem is that I’ve become stronger and balls are just sailing on me and I have to be too precise when trying to generate topspin. Pain in the ass.

Big changes

msnetmonster — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:54:12 +0000

I am captaining a USTA 3.0 team this summer. I’m pretty excited about it. This is my first foray into captaining, but so far so good. I have a good 5-6 players from my ALTA team sign up and the rest, around 8 or so are ladies I haven’t really met yet, but they seem cool. We have our first practice in a couple of weeks so hopefully by the start of the season I’ll have a good idea of who can play with whom.

Today was our last ALTA match of the season. We got spanked on all five lines. Well, that’s not true. Two of the five went to 3 sets and there were also 3 tiebreakers played. That team was good and completely different than ours. They are a church-based group and were super friendly and incredibly supportive of each other, I was impressed. They invited me to their services next Sunday so I will probably go. I grew up in the same denomination as them, but when I got older, I strayed. I’m not an overly religious person – I certainly believe in God, I just got disillusioned. I miss it though, not so much the religion, just the community and fellowship aspects of it. These ladies seemed like they genuinely cared about each other and they really strengthened each other without a lot of BS. No such thing exists on our team. I can’t lie and say the fact that they have a good tennis team is not a factor, it certainly is. They practice three times a week too. I love it. We barely get in a good hour. The other important factor is that they only pay for the coach for the season which is probably $60 a season and they split $150 over the course of the season for court fees. I mean, c’mon. I pay $120 a month! This includes the gym, the pool and a few other amenities, but I don’t use those amenities. I’m all about tennis. I don’t know if I could give up my current membership – it’s not about the money – I just feel like there are richer more enjoyable tennis worlds I could be existing in and I don’t want to miss out because of blind loyalty. I feel like my team is holding me back from progressing.

Well this may soon turn in my favor. I have a tentative offer for a new job that puts me close to their facility which would make it easy to hit the courts after work for practices and such. I’m not sure though. I still work out with my trainer twice a week and I can’t make those appointments then try to drive all the way back for practices. Not gonna work so we’ll see. I’m not making any moves in the forseeable future so it’ll just be something in the back of my mind.

This upcoming is looking good for tennis. I haven’t played in a week which has been good. It’s nice to take a break, besides my trainer has been kicking my ass! I’m playing tomorrow & Tuesday, taking Wednesday off, maybe Thursday and then Friday. I’m going to contact a couple of ladies I played against in KSwiss to maybe set up something for the weekend. Good times.

Progress is good

msnetmonster — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 21:26:30 +0000

You know how you sometimes get down on yourself when you feel like you’re not making any progress. I’ve been feeling like that lately. Here’s the deal. We all know I’ve been working out, going to the gym and playing much more tennis – especially now that the weather is nice. I’ve also tried to pay more attention to my diet, trying to greatly reduce the number of carbs in general, eliminate grains specifically. This is a constant struggle. My sweet tooth has often got the best of me and I’ve had some forays into the depths of sugar hell, BUT I’ve reined myself in quicker than in the past and have been more mindful about the depth and breadth of my “binges” – I might as well call them that because that is exactly what they are. It is often how I reward myself – not a good behavior, I know, but I am working on it. Anyway, all of this is to say that comparing these past 3+ months to any 3+ month timespan in 2009, there is a big difference. I’ve never been this active before. Never. But you always wonder “what if I had been perfect with my diet & exercise”, y’know? How much further along could I be? So it has been in that vein where I have felt like – in many regards – I haven’t made much progress and it was bumming me out. I look at myself in the mirror and I don’t see much of a difference. Any slight change I see, I don’t know if it is real or not, y’know. It’s not like I dropped 3 clothes sizes or anything. I started the year off at a bloated 265 lbs and now hover around 238 or so, if I am lucky I’ll hit 235 in a week. My body fat has dropped from like 42% to around 33.6% which is good. I feel more fit and definitely get around the court better, all good things, no doubt. I just wasn’t convinced that I actually looked any different.

The past several days, however, have really lifted my spirits though. On several occassions a few folks have remarked to me that I look like I’ve lost weight. One lady didn’t even recognize me from behind. I swear, this boggles the mind. I can’t possibly look *that* different…can I? It’s certainly great motivation to keep plugging along. I shouldn’t worry too much about what the scale reads and just focus on doing what I need to do to keep going.

Done

msnetmonster — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 22:16:15 +0000

I finished my last K-Swiss match this morning. I won 6-1, 6-3. I should have won 6-0, 6-0 but I was trying a few drop shots and a tweaked forehand grip in the second set that proved to be a bit troublesome. I won easily, but she did make me run a bit. The tweak I was working on was in an effort to generate more topspin without having to over-exaggerate the windshield wiper thing at the end of my strokes. I’d rather generate topspin via grip moreso than motion. Anyway, mixed results but I still won. Almost all the points I lost were by my own errors, she only got me maybe once or twice on good shots of her own. My K-Swiss record is 3-4. Meh. I am definitely signing up for the summer. My biggest obstacle is my mental game. The only way I can improve it, is to keep playing so I will.

Most of my ALTA team is opting to play mixed doubles this summer so I am going to ask the pros at my facility if there is a 3.0 women’s team I can join. I just don’t know about mixed doubles because, for one, they play Saturdays at like freaking 9AM… ugh, and second, they tend to want to do husband/wife pairings which tends to leave me out. I like the better competition, but I’d like to start going to cardio tennis Saturday mornings @ 10AM. Hmmm. I’m not sure what I will do, but will need to decide soon. If I do K-Swiss again and USTA women’s, plus 2-3 practice sessions a week, that’s plenty tennis for me, I think. One of my favorite feelings in the world is the feeling after playing two hours of tennis, when you’re drenched in sweat and totally exhausted. It’s like nirvana.

Chill

msnetmonster — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:36:09 +0000

I’ve had a crazy few weeks. With all the rain on Sundays and a more busy schedule than normal, I’ve been almost non-stop running around for over a month. Tennis-wise, things have been a mixed bag. I have a 3-1 record in ALTA. It would be 4-0, but we had to forfeit a match because mid-match it started to downpour so we reschduled for a couple of days later, but within that time, my partner got a wicked kidney infection and we weren’t able to get the match in before the deadline. K-Swiss has been not as good. I have a 2-4 record. Three of those matches I could have won, but I don’t know what my problem is as of late, but I have been having major mental issues when I’ve been playing. It’s like I’m playing mind games with myself. Too many mistakes, wildly inconsistent yet I have absolute moments of brilliance. My fitness is much, much better and I’m getting to balls I NEVER would have gotten to before. Sigh. It’s my biggest obstacle so far.

I’ve been going to the gym and working out with a trainer for over two months now and I love it. It’s hard, grueling work, but it’s paying off for sure. I can absolutely see the difference in my tennis. It’s amazing, I often shock myself. My shoulder problems are non-existent. My serves are now deadly! So freaking cool! No elbow issues either. The increase in strength and endurance is dramatic. One side effect is that I don’t know my own strength. It is taking some getting used to to try to gauge how strong I need to hit the ball, I find myself over-hitting again so it’s just something I need to be cognizant of.

I had been feeling a little bummed about my own self-perception of lack of progress. I am the last person to see any difference, but a lot of people are noticing and let me know. This week alone two people have noticed me losing weight and one lady said I looked “beautiful”. She didn’t recognize me from the back when I had my hair up. I don’t think I look *that* different. I know I’ve lost around 25-28 lbs of total body weight and have lost around 7% body fat which is awesome! My clothes are looser, but not dramatically so, but I do feel more taut. I wish the scale would drop faster, but the drop in body fat is of great comfort. It means I am doing something right.

Nutrition is still an obstacle. I had gone down to 2 protein shakes a day and eating more carbs, but I’ve since gone back to what I know. I am now doing 3 shakes a day and will probably boost that to 4 on strength training days. My carbs are now sub-50 or so. I’ve rid my diet of all grains. Next week, I’m giving up coffee, mostly for the Splenda. Too many artificial sweeteners. I have around 25 more days in my 60 day challenge and I want to get down below 230. I started the year off at around 265 and hover around 237 right now. I don’t like to tout goal numbers, I’d rather focus on the process, but I want to be able to do well and show my trainers I’ve been working hard… and I have been. I’ve definitely had my lapses, but I’ve kept my eyes on the prize.

I’ve been more active in these past few months than I have ever in my life. I workout at the gym twice a week. I play tennis 2-4 times a week. That’s completely unheard of for me, but I enjoy it. I hardly watch TV anymore and I don’t miss it much. Never would have thunk that.

I feel good about how things are going, just gonna focus on the next few weeks and crank things up.

Christ

msnetmonster — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 13:49:24 +0000

I am so tired. This week has been hellish. Actually, the last several weeks have been incredibly busy for me. Usually I have some light days, but such has not been the case. The rain on the weekends has pushed many a tennis match to weekdays causing my nights to be filled. One thing I am definitely more cognizant of is the fact that it’s tough when you work a full day, have a semi-long commute and then have to go play tennis. Not easy. It’s not only physically draining, but mentally as well, especially toward the end of the week. Sucks.

Thankfully, I am done for several days. I’m really looking forward to chilling out this weekend. All I have next week are a couple of KSwiss matches, no ALTA for awhile. I’m taking next weekend off. I deserve it. I’m just going to go see my team play and just relax, I’m on call that weekend anyway, so it’s good that I’m not committed to playing.

Easy Win

msnetmonster — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:03:02 +0000

Just completed my first ALTA match of the season. I played Line 4. Yes, I know. Anyway, I played with “C” whom I shouldn’t be playing with, but we won. We played a pair that were beginners. One girl, this was her first match ever. Sigh. Needless to say, we won, but it wasn’t any kind of challenge. They got two games off of us because it took awhile to get used to the slower pace of the ball. The ladies were super nice and I enjoyed playing them, but if this is going to be the case, I’m not sure I want to finish this season. Again, I’m wasting my time.

I didn’t even break a sweat….