Out of commission

I injured myself really badly today at the health club. When I say badly, I mean it in the way that someone who is nonathletic and has never injured themselves during a sporting event, and finally has an injury, would say it. It happened after my morning workout. I met Jen at 9:00 a.m. for elliptical work, power walking around the indoor track and then weight training in the Magnum Room (the other day the trainer said to meet her in the Magnum Room and I thought we were going to a wine bar). But that’s another story. So today, we were finished lifting weights and I remembered that they were starting a volleyball group for open play on the basketball court. Jen and I booked it to the court and proceeded to play a few matches with the other members.

There weren’t enough players and the trainer who was in charge went to the men’s weight room and recruited some big guys to play with us. The minute they showed up it totally changed the dynamics of the game. These guys acted like the current match was the most important volleyball match in the history of the world. This guy would jump up and spike the ball with all the power he had in his overgrown bicep. He had no control over where the ball would go either. Usually he used so much power that the ball would boom past the back line and be out anyway.

So it was my turn to serve and I thought to myself, I’m not going to let this muscle head beat us. I was able to suck it up and actually serve about six serves that the other team couldn’t return. I was sweating and my heart was pumping and I was totally taken back to when I was 16 and played on a girls volleyball team. It was the one sport I was pretty decent at. That girl came alive in me today and when the other team finally returned a ball, I was jumping and hopping around the court like I thought I was Gabby Reece. I leaped to get a rougue ball and felt something pop in the back of my leg by the calf muscle. I went down and cracked the opposite knee on the wood floor. Everyone gathered around and I tried to stand up, but couldn’t. Muscle Head broke the tension by saying that they could wheel me over to the back line and I could just serve for the rest of the game. Everyone laughed. O.k., so he wasn’t all bad. We iced my calf as blood trickled from the opposite knee. The trainer wrote up an accident report and said that I was in shock, but I know this much, I hadn’t felt so alive in years.