I'm 63!

Happy Birthday me! This birthday has been a bit strange as for the last 9 months or so I have thought of my age as 63. Not 62 as actual.

I have just partaken (not competed as such, although it was a competition) in the Auckland Badminton Assn's Masters/Vets Tournament. Any dreams of glory in the singles were quickly eliminated by my first game. There were only 6 entries in the over 55 open age group, but a few of these seemed to be operating at the B grade level. (I'm officially a D). Which made it rather tough for me, but I did try.

The doubles were equally disasterous. At the end, I was a little bit stuffed to put it mildly.
This is a day later and I am only just getting back to normal, just need a new ankle and knee, then I'll be fine.

I did have this silly idea that the running 4.5km on Mon/Wed/Fri and 10km on Sundays would make me Mr Fit. Unfortunately, the opposite seems to be holding true as my badminton seems on a downward spiral. Time to give it up?

I have booked myself in with a badminton coach, something I've always wanted to do.

The funny part is that if I take it easy on my 4.5km run (ie about 50mins), I get back feeling fine and ok for energy. If I try to do the same trip in 40mins the result is a near heart attack at the end of the run. So I'm going to take it a bit easy.

We had a running guru come to work and tell us how to run. Unfortunately I only got 15mins of his presentation, but he was saying interesting things like: You have to stress your body, but just as importantly, give it time to recover. You also have to build up your training in waves, not just in a straight line graph. Apparently he has seen many such people as me training for a half marathon, who with incorrect training, end up injuring themselves. Not a good outlook if I keep up the present course.