Manhattan, NY — If my feet could talk and say where I’ve been this weekend, then mine would say that they’ve taken a journey of a thousand miles and earned air mileage points to prove it. And they would tell of things picked up along the way. Let me explain.
The day began with sprints, squats, lunges and jumps at the “boot camp” class at the YMCA in the village. This was an endurance-interval-weight training class. My instructor L mixes the training up every Saturday such that when I feel any kind of mastery in one area, I’m always (un)pleasantly apprised of yet newer heights of endurance to which I must aspire. The lesson: Benchmark yourself. And breathe through the hard parts.
The afternoon involved lunch at Tribeca’s Whole Foods Store and tennis lessons from friends at the neighborhood courts nearby. These friends compete regularly in tennis leagues so my instructions were au courant. Amazingly, lessons from my super-fit gym teacher (what was her name?) in PE class in high school had imprinted themselves. She said, I recall, to anticipate the tennis ball and position accordingly when it comes down the court. Tennis instructor D added 2 things: Look at the ball squarely when it comes and drive it back where it comes from. Where your eyes are, he said, your hands will follow.
I traded a dinner for a shower in my rush to attend the next event. At 8 PM in Chelsea, free line dance lessons were available for the price of admission at the Big Apple Ranch. The dance hall is open to gays and lesbians. J taught us how to do the two step and how to do a “simple” version of line dancing. (Simple it was not!) By happenstance, I ran into a friend from Washington State I hadn’t seen for 10 years. My friend A broke up with a girlfriend recently and was working through the recovery. She asked if there were anybody I wanted to dance with. I pointed and said I danced with him already. It turned out he and I were both better at following than leading. My friend A said “Well, it’s never too late to lead.” Ka-Ching! This turned out to be one of the day’s most instructive lessons.
Let the games and lessons begin.
photo by tranuf. licensed by creative commons
http://www.flickr.com/photos/tranuf/
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