Back to training

After 2 days of being sick, it was time to go back to training. I started yesterday (sunday the 10th) and was surprised with a gift of being able to train on the new "VIP" court at ClearOne Browngate (ClearTwo). This VIP court is the only court at ClearOne Browngate (C1B) with a wood floor underneath so it was quite comfortable on the knees! We did some mixed doubles drills, some doubles defense, 2vs1 box game, 3vs2 doubles.. and before i knew it, 3 hours was up and training was over.. I cant remember a session of training going by so fast! Feeling for some more, I ended my day with some squats on the bosu ball (half yoga ball). If you havent tried it, it's quite difficult at first, but gets a LOT easier as your muscles adapt.

Here's my bosu squat routine if you want to compare with me!
3 sets of 8 reps w/ olympic bar (45lbs) plus 25lbs on each side. bosu ball is UPSIDE DOWN meaning the curve part is on the ground and the flat part is facing up. Do as fast as you can with the most control. You DO NOT want to be doing this sloppily because it IS hard on the joints!

This morning, Monday, Jan 11, morning training with the ClearOne Badminton Academy (COBA) continues. I worked a lot on my mid court backhand. I have a bad habit of bringing my racket back and was taking too big of a swing so I had to really focus on reaching out early and taking a quick/shorter stroke. In the end =\ it still needs work...

After we played 2vs1 singles up to 11 points. RULES: If the 1 beats the 2, the 2 bends down at the net and the 1 gets 6 birds to WAIL at their asses!! I played first against Terrence and Steve. I won and got to peg Terrence pretty hard! hahaha!! Since I won, I played the 2 again but this time they had 2 point handicap to 11... I won.. AGAIN... WAILING TIME! Too bad this time i was pretty tired... missed most of my 6 shots.... ARG! Played one more time.. but now they had 4 points handicap!! I tried.. but loss.. and it was time to go. Till the next training session.. which so happens to be in 4 hours..

LUNCH: Okay for those who do not know, I LOVE FOOD! I love eating and I love cooking! But with being an athlete, I have to be preettttyyy careful about the foods I eat. I cant go and eat my favourite food everyday, the poutine... cuz I'd die of a heart-attack at age 25. SO, I've gotten to make myself like healthy foods! One of the easiest dish to make is, of course, the salad. You CANT mess up a salad (unless you're whitespot)!! But here's a quick recipe I put together!

Derrick's lunch salad

- 6 full leaves Romaine Lettuce

- 1 whole tomato chopped

- 1/4 english cucumber sliced

- 1 good derrick size handful of red kidney beans

- 2 hard boiled eggs

- 1 piece skinless, boneless chicken breast

- 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar or marble cheese

- honey mustard

1- Start boiling the eggs first cuz for perfect hard-boil eggs, it takes 17 minutes exact according to Julia Child!

2- During this time, I defrost my frozen chicken boob in the microwave. takes around 6 minutes..

3- Now while those 2 things are doing their thing, start washing your vegetables!

4- Hand rip the Lettuce to a bite size of your liking

5- Chop tomatoes, Slice Cucumbers

6- Add lettuce onto a big plate, followed by cucumbers and tomatoes and the hand full of beans!

7- Start a hot pan going with some sort of vegetable oil. While that is heating up, I cut up the chicken into smaller pieces. I then toss the chicken into the pan and I add a bit of water. As the chicken starts to cook, I throw around a teaspoon of soy sauce and around a tablespoon of sesame seeds. Do not cover! Let water evaporate!

8- While the chicken is being cooked, I cut up 1/2 cup of cheese and grate it over the salad.

9- Eggs should be ready now! Get em out of the boiling water and into some cold water! (nobody likes a salad with hot eggs)

10- Crack and put into a bowl of cold water

11- Finish cooking the chicken.. usually when there's no more water in the pan. Place the chicken on top of the salad and squirt on some honey mustard!

Here's wut my salad looked like:

Well, this picture from my phone doesnt do it much justice but hell, this salad was bloody delicious!!

Well after chowing down on that and an orange.. it was time to go back to training. Played some box game against Nathan. Each box set was for 5 birds of wailing to the ass! Hell, you DONT want to lose if that's the punishment!! Lucky Nathan is skinny... hard to hit! lol!! After a little fun, Nathan and I did 20 sets, 12 birds, mid to back court attack. He would go, then I would go, non stop... it was pretty hard being you had to go BALLS out everytime it was your turn. After played some horrible doubles cuz i was pretty done. Thank god for my protein shake because we had to do weights afterwards. I did more of my bosu ball squats and some bench.

I quickly strung up my heavy training racket afterwards and headed out to Vancouver Racquets Club (VRC) so I could hit with Kyle and Duncan.. Played 2 fullcourt vs1 halfcourt box again. I played 2vs1 but I had full court.. If i won, i'd get to hit 12 birds with them bent over against the wall! I won 25-23! Started whipping some birds and I broke a string!! UGGH!! Oh well.. Did some more fullcourt 1vs1 to 7points box to end my day..

4 sessions today.. Feeling preeetttyyy dead... and YES.. it's DINNER TIME!