Played tennis against the hardest hitter I've ever faced yesterday. He won the first set 6-1. Took a while to get used to the speed. Second set I was up 5-3 before I was just so exhausted. He won the last 4 games though I think 3 went to deuce.

Ideally I'd run around my backhand a bit more and/or be a little more aggressive with it. And also be more aggressive with my forehand. I was a bit stuck in playing defensive. The top thing was I would like to run around my backhand more. But as it was I almost quit before the second set was over because I was just so exhausted. My stamina is improving but I'm still only 4 months out from open heart surgery.

This guy really hit crazy hard. About 6'2" and I'd guess at least 240. Very strong. Huge serve. The kick put it above my head on the second serve. First serve and heavy topspin forehand were the hardest I've ever faced. Enjoyed it. Actually drew a crowd (of 4 people). I did great on the ROS. Hitting two handed on both sides I guess helps as expected. But I hardly hit any winners. Just getting it back and making him move enough that he would hit errors. It would be nice to be a bit more aggressive.

But seriously, this guy hit harder than most pros. If not almost all pros. Former college player who weighs 240.

Would like to have been more aggressive. Need to run around that backhand more. Also my serve wasn't so hard today. Not sure why. Maybe was getting tired from all the running I did. Also previous match I played indoors on a fast surface. Today outside on a humid day where it started sprinkling right at the end.

Very happy with my version of the 80/20 training so far. Bought a HR monitor that hasn't arrived yet. Jogging before work while reading is awesome.

Finishing up the Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins. Reads like it's by a woman. Sort of. I thought. Which is neither a bad or good thing of course. Good and yet somewhat weird book. Really quite good. Now at the end nostalgia for the far past. Really like how it moves around through time. Usually dislike that but this is done with nostalgia. She's remembering what she forgot. Has a all powerful "wizard" who isn't nice. He "adopts" 12 children when their families die who are more like apprentices who each learn one of 12 "magical" disciplines. He routinely tortures and kills them (and resurrects them) as discipline. Also David rapes, kills, etc. Dark book. Good.

Right knee hurts. The knee that has the occasionally issue. Possibly hill sprints. Maybe just too much high intensity. Just read 80/20 training by Matt Fitzgerald. Going again to try to do that 80% super slow running. For me it's super slow. Maybe someday if I stuck with it long enough it'd get halfway fast. I recall on the treadmilll with no incline running like 10 minute miles at least, long ago at maffetone HR. And I really didn't stick with that very long. This time I'm reading while running so maybe I'll do better.

Right knee hurts just a little. Still going to play tennis this evening.... Probably going to lose to a guy I used to always beat. Just don't have the legs. Also I have something wrong with the muscle or something that lifts my right leg. Normally just bothers me when turning over when sleeping. But for the first time just now hurt when lunging forward.

I was lunging forward because I was juggling and threw it too far in front. With two or so hours of practice I can almost juggle three balls for a minute now cascade style. Well maybe 30 seconds so far. But improving fast. At first I was doing shower style not realizing how much harder that is. Also working on fountain so I can do four. Like how it makes me feel mentally. There is something neat about it. Always had wanted to do it. Really doesn't take much time. Figure with ten hours practice I definitely should be able to juggle four. Should be able to do three pretty well with another hour or so.

Moved to the hill for my sprints. Did 10 where last time only did six. My back felt it a little. Stride possibly slightly too long. Knee was perfectly fine though! Played a tougher tennis opponent. Made me run a lot more and just about collapsed. Need to make some kind of change to improve upon this. Jumped rope today. I couldn't even do it for a minute, lol. I used to be able to easily go for five. So I did 6 sets of 30 seconds. Hopefully that's been my problem and my tennis will improve now with working on this. I had read jumping rope is the most important thing you can do for tennis training. Also I recall Connors did it, at least when young with grandad. I hadn't done it because I think it was a headache trigger, that degree of bouncing up and down (as opposed to running.... but running has possibly been a trigger too....) But I haven't had a headache in quite close to six months now. Think avoiding yeast risen bread has really helped me.

Read a study that compared 4x4 min, 4x8 and 4x16 min. Found 4x8 worked best. Very stupid because 4x4 is only 16 total minutes while 4x8 is a much better 32 and 16 minute intervals aren't even really intervals. Seems highly likely that 8x4 minutes would work better. Can't say for certain. But bet they would find that. So, doing that for the bike. Thing is, despite the biking I've done so far, I played terrible tennis the other day. All kinds of enforced errors, not to mention getting exhausted. This compared to how I felt against Chi when I was doing stairs two at a time. Perhaps the greater ROM makes a big difference.

Workout plan now is 4 minute intervals running and biking, aiming for 32 total minutes. 15 to 25 or so second "sprint" intervals up the hill for hopefully well beyond 10 reps. Jumping rope, hopefully getting up to 10 minutes at least. Some stair walking with 25 pound pack.
1. 4 min runs
2. jumping rope/stairs/4 min bike (high resistance)
3. hill sprints
4. tennis
(5 min weight lifting on fridays)

Watched a video and within 45 minutes can juggle. First tried it doing it the wrong way and did it, the cascade, but it's really really hard that way.

So after voting to read that terrible book, The Passage. This month that book group voted for The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson. Sounded to me like the zany adventures of Walter Gump (Mitty/Forest). The one guy assured me it wasn't and compared it to Douglas Adams. I read the free kindle sample. He steals a suitcase that it turns out was owned by some hardened criminal who is now after him and it's some kind of comedy and I've seen this movie many a time already, why would I want to read a book that adds nothing to many light movies I've already seen. Movies I can't remember the name of. Like Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels but with less of an edge I guess. Stupid book. A best seller of course. And I'm done with that book club. They're just going to pick best sellers every month.

And it's nothing like Douglas Adams. That guy is an idiot to make that comparison. Lost all respect for him by saying that. It's similar in that they're both attempting to be funny. What the fuck?

Instead I read my own suggestion, The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman. It jumped around a bit much. Also gore and excessive killing isn't really my thing. But he really brought the characters to life. Such details of their life. So real. Felt the mother's anguish for her son more so than just about in any other book. All the little details she remembered about him made him so real. And so it was with just about everyone. He made them real and such a good ending too.

All in all not quite as good as Lesser Dead because of the way it jumped around. Also the bad guys weren't as cool, interesting, etc as in Lesser Dead. Really they were dumbasses. But still a good book.

The Vegetarian by Han Kang.
Reading of course because I'm a near ethical vegan. Really boring book. Boring characters. Don't care about them. Quit 60% in. Not much worth saying. Artist guy just seems like a pervert. The lady who went vegan ought to be able to explain why at least somewhat. Otherwise I'd divorce her too and I even am a vegan. So she's just annoying. Blah.

The Age of Myth by Michael Sullivan.
Pretentious title. Was a nice book though. Unfortunately first of a series that isn't finished yet. And I barely remembered the book until opening it back up. Can't remember anyone's name. Guy kills a "god". Everyone thought they were immortal but they weren't. Little village. Now "gods" are pissed. But end up having one of them helping them. Silly little book but was enjoyable.

SPQR by Mary Beard
Thought from the NPR interview she'd spend way more talking about how the actual people lived but so far it's just been endless rulers/politics. Kind of stopped 52% in. I guess I'll try a bit more. She does say unfortunately that's just what we know about. Don't know as much about the actual people. Both she and Michael Parenti basically make Cicero sound like an asshole. I guess it's a good history.

Today I got up at 4:45am and did 6 100 meter (about) wind sprints outside my house. It was pretty easy to do and it at least seemed like I was going pretty good.  I'm sure slower than 12.0 but surely faster than 15. Been so long I guess hard to say. I stopped at six because I'm worried I'll be feeling it in my back or knees later, though they felt OK at the time.Why would I be doing such a thing anyway?

Originally I was annoyed that I was practically collapsing while playing doubles tennis, so I was trying to strengthen my legs and so I decided to sprint up some stairs. I immediately played such better tennis that I was like I got to sprint stairs all the time! And then..... I had a day where I hurt my knee. (Thursday?) Not sure how. I had done some stair sprinting, some treadmill running at 8% incline (thinking similar to stairs) with 30 second bursts and mowed someone's lawn. I don't know which of the three did it. But then it didn't feel great sprinting stairs for a day or so.

I think I took Friday off....? Tennis Saturday morning (6-1, 6-0, 6-2 against Yang) but was ready to collapse at the end. Why? The heat? Legs not strong enough? So I went back to the exercise bike Saturday evening and did intervals where I put it on its max resistance (22) for 30 seconds and then went easy for 3:40 (8 to 10 at 10 mph or so). Did this for 50 minutes and really liked how it felt. Sunday just went "easy" on it for 60 minutes (gradually increasing resistance from 10 to 14).

OK. So I'm unhappy with how tired I still get playing tennis. Thinking it's my legs. But could it just be issues with the heat? I don't know. So I've been sprinting stairs and riding a bike. But then mixed in here is that I would like to run a decently fast 5k one of these days. And I guess I got to thinking about that guy I knew in the military who ran a 4:05 mile (and abruptly quit training for some reason) based off of 40 sprints of 100 meters (walk 100 inbetween) M, W, F and then a 5 mile run on T and Th. I had tried it myself and felt Horrible. Didn't make it even a couple days I don't think. All those sprints, even when going really slow, my chest felt funny. Of course I didn't work into it slow enough. (Also think i was bouncing the bar off my chest a bit doing heavy bench presses, gave me pleural issues for years back then, doh).

But I've thought of this here and there. And.... got up this morning and did six sprints. And they felt so easy. I guess because of the stair sprinting and hard intervals on the bike. So I find myself planning to do:
Day 1- lots of 100 meters sprints
Day 2- 30 minute run
Day 3- bike intervals at max resistance increasingly longer and longer for close to an hour
Day 4- an easy hour bike.
Maybe spread across 4 days, but maybe 6 or so, depending on tennis, etc. But maybe my knees or back will feel the sprinting later. We'll see. And in retrospect maybe I should just do them up a hill. Today I did the first 60 meters on a flat. A hill would probably be better for my long term health, though it's harder on a hill. On a flat I just feel like I'm spinning along against no resistance.

Another issue is that I'm only going to do those sprints in the early morning when everyone is still asleep. Because it's just too strange for a 43 year old (or just about anyone) to be doing such a thing in this here world. But worried I'll be exhausted at work. But, I sure feel fine after doing six. Six was very easy. Though, again, it mostly wasn't up a hill. If I move up the road a little maybe it will take it out of me much more. Also there may be days I'm supposed to do the sprints where I really don't want to get up so early. And then soon enough it will snowing instead of too hot outside. We'll see.

Another thing worth mentioning is that it's a reclining bike and I can (and do) read a book while on it. Though not when I have the resistance at 22. Considering that multitasking, it's not really that much time spent on exercise...

Anyway running a 400 in 80+ seconds is ridiculous. No wonder my 5k best was only 22 minutes. A bunch of 100 meter sprints, whether or not they're on a hill, and if I don't injure myself, I should be able to run a 400 surely in less than 70 pretty quick, if I don't just hurt my knee, etc. And then with just a bit of endurance I should be able to run longer distances faster. Perhaps.

All that anaerobic stuff makes you want to lay around and sleep. But then throw in the longer aerobic stuff and it has the opposite effect. Hence waking up at 4am this morning. Slept great though.

So I'm 43 and I'm running wind sprints at 4:45 AM before work. Kind of silly. Most likely I'll stop very soon due to injury or whatever.