July 15 - Keeping the ball in Play
I try not to complicate these things.I am getting my lungs back and my running legs back. Running legs that will need to be used for tennis—so tennis legs. The time is 10:31 PM and I am sitting back down to write a recap of the day after running two miles in about nineteen minutes.
The pace feels slow, but like I said, I don't care about pace right now. My mind wants me back to two miles in 14 minutes, done easy, and maybe that's not that far off. But again, stop thinking about running, Jordan.
That's what I keep telling myself. Stop thinking of yourself as a runner who has to get a certain time in to boost some sort of thought: “Okay, now I am in shape, now I can compete as a tennis player.”That's just not how this works, I'm learning. Or at least I'm trying to learn this—to feel this, and believe it—and most important, to stay patient with myself. To not just trust and know, but to also feel in my body the truth that I don't have to be the perfectly conditioned tennis player who's able to fly around the court for three hours tonight.
It doesn't have to happen tonight—and it can't happen tonight. All I can do tonight is just keep chipping away.I am grateful that tonight I don't have to fire up the camera, set up the tripod, and put my face on TikTok and Instagram again. Not tonight. Tomorrow, yes, but five days straight of recording myself and posting—that was a lot for my nervous system. I've literally never done anything like that before. Because there's no script, it feels good to know: Jordan, you don't have to record your recap every single day.
Some nights you can just write. Like this. Just breathe. Just write one sentence. Just keep the ball in play. So that's what these words are—me trying to keep the ball in play. No, me keeping the ball in play. Understanding that you can't hit a screaming backhand down the line straight winner if you never actually hit the ball. So this is me, hitting the ball.
Reporting live and sharing that after 10 days of training and running and hitting on my own, it felt really good to see Chris Thomas again—CT—and to get back into that backwards treadmill walking, skipping, and jogging again life. Twelve minutes in and I'm already sweating. Then come the leg raises and leg lifts, then the deep squats and the squat jumps, then the 5 sets of 10 pushups x 2 for the daily one hundred, and then the shoulder stretches to keep things free and loose for serving, then the core work for stabilization.
I just remember waking up this morning and seeing that already there was a heat advisory, and even though it was only 10 AM, the temperature was already 86 degrees. Yeah, it was a hot one, and yeah, tonight's run felt good—making my way through a very humid July night and keeping the dream alive.And our team meeting at 8:00 was one to remember, definitely. Plans for building the league are crystallizing and we're circling one weekend in September—the same weekend of the US Open finals, the 11th and the 12th—for our first formal introduction to the community.
More details to follow.Tonight I could have kept running. The sun is down, and in a perfect world, I'd have a court with lights to keep training. But yeah—there it is again. That pressure that I'm trying to get rid of.Not everything has to be NOW, Jordan. You can and will train again in the morning. Tonight, please—please, please—try to rest, try to breathe.
