SP Lactic Glue--Best in Singapore, JB, and some say Batam
Quick note before I hit the sack.

I lost my match yesterday a blisteringly disappointing 2-6, 3-6 to a 17 year old Indian girl also from the Academy.  She was #5 (in my excitement I got the rounds wrong!) and in many respects, I should've beaten her easily.  But let's face it--should'ves are always lousy excuses because they focus more on could'ves instead of what really was.  Should'ves ignore what really was, and what could've been improved.

So what went wrong?

I started strong, kicking off the first game of the first set with a slew of terrible serves.  The first was so fast, she didn't even have time to move out of its path before it smacked her right in the chest :P  I kept on keeping on and nabbed the first set 40-0, game.  We kept on with our cat fight till 2-2 when something started to feel amiss.  I wasn't taking her serves as well as I was giving them, and I could feel my strokes and my footwork slowing down.

"Oh no... oh no!  What's happening?!"

Perhaps it was the lack of a good night's sleep, or that a gajillion people had asked me how my previous match went, but slowly and surely, my body gave way to a paralysing fatigue.  I could feel lactic acid flowing into my muscles, seeping into my bones.  I could feel my right leg aching, my left elbow throbbing from golfers elbow pain, and no matter how hard I tried to focus, simple exhaustion started to cloud my sight.  Very painful to realise, especially when you see easy balls coming towards you.  Instead, what blurred my mind was a series of asinine distractions.  "Those kids are standing there watching the match... my opponent's coach is side-coaching her...boy the wind is damn cold... I hope it doesn't make my elbow worse...I wonder if I waddle like a duck inbetween points?"   The thoughts kept on flying, uncontrollable.  They launched on everything and anything.... but the ball.

After the match I went to Nacho (resident physiotherapist) to tell him about the fatigue and soreness I was feeling.  My left elbow felt sore, the top of my right foot painful, my right quad tight to the point of pain and my right glut painfully sore.  At the core of me, a dull dull sensation of fatigue rested.  Rested!  Ha! 

Nacho took one look at me and simply said "REST."  By sanction and order, I am off court for the rest of the week, and only allowed rehab sessions.  Capi has very kindly offered that I join him for morning sessions, so I get two a day from Thursday, Friday, and our stretching class on Saturday. 

In many respects, I'm enjoying the rest and know I will be better after it, than worse.  I see these niggling pains as part of my adjustment process to this new environment, and the fact that I am clocking close to 40 hours a week of tennis.  A big jump by anybody's standards, and so I should embrace the rest even more. 

Tournament wise, I don't think it turned out that badly.  I am quite pleased with the progress, and though the league was small by any standards, I did reach the quartersfinals.  I'm glad I beat #3 (big mental hurdle crossed for me), and most importantly, I know what I need to do next to push my game to the next level.  I've learnt that it's not about dashing as fast as you can.  It's about lasting longer, as fast as you can!

The next question to ask now is, how do I last longer?