Donna went out for a long bike ride Sunday morning. She rode through the Red Mountain neighborhood then climbed up through Las Sendas to the top of the mountain. Her route brought her downhill on Hawes before she headed back on McKellips. It was a 27-mile loop with some long climbs.

While she was out, I went to the pickleball courts. No one was there, but that was okay. I wanted to work on my serve. I spent a full hour practicing and improved my serve significantly.

Later, after Donna returned, she wanted to practice serving. I went back to courts with her. She would hit half a dozen serves across to me, then I would hit them back. We practiced like this for half an hour, then we practiced serve and return. The idea was to work on a strong return of serve, hitting the ball deep to the baseline. It was a good workout and we enjoyed the time on the court together.

We were on the courts again at 9am Monday. This is when the more experienced players show up. We are competitive with some, not quite up to the level of others. Because we are new players, we play separately to even the teams out.

We were a few points into our first game. It was me and Vaughn against Donna and Sally. Sally was serving to me when it happened. I was playing back at the baseline – this is the typical position to return a serve. If you play too far forward, a deep ball to the baseline will have you scrambling back for a difficult shot. By rule, you must allow the serve to bounce before you can return it. If you play back at the baseline and the serve is short, it’s easier to move up to the ball than it is to scramble backwards.

The serve came short and low. I lunged forward, pushing off with my right foot. I felt the calf muscle tighten up on my right leg, then suddenly release. It was quite a strange sensation. It was like stretching a bungee to its maximum extension, then having some of the elastic cords inside break and the bungee suddenly extends another inch.

I hit the return low and deep to the baseline and won the point. I was aware of this as I stumbled to my left and found myself on the ground next to the court, holding my right calf. The pain was intense. After a few minutes, I got up and limped to a chair. I kept hoping it was a cramp that would pass, but I knew better.

About ten minutes later, I knew I wasn’t going to play any more. I told Donna to stay and play and I hobbled painfully home. I looked up calf strain on the Internet. The information I found seems to indicate I have a grade 2 calf muscle (gastrocnemius) tear. Further reading said this injury occurs fairly frequently among middle-aged weekend warriors competing in tennis, squash, basketball and so on. The usual treatment is known as R.I.C.E. (Rest-Ice-Compression-Elevation).

I spent the rest of the day on the sofa, icing my calf for 20 minutes every hour, then elevating my leg with slight compression on my calf. I read all afternoon. I read over 400 pages and finished a novel by Lee Child called Persuader. It’s part of his Jack Reacher series of mystery shoot-em-up books.

Last night, Donna prepared wild Alaskan cod meuniere. Served with steamed green beans, it was an absolutely delicious and nutritious meal!

Wild Alaskan cod meuniere

This morning I found our toilet wouldn’t flush. I tried to manually open the flush valve, but it didn’t seem to work. I thought we might be in for trouble. On a whim, I limped outside and opened the black water valve. Sure enough, the tank was full. It was only 10 days since I last dumped and flushed. I was surprised that it was so full.

Today I’ll do the full dump and flush routine. Other than that, I’ll stay on the sofa, continue the R.I.C.E. treatment and read another book.