Day 161: FORE!!!!

I recently took up golf.  Sort of.  Again.  Kind of.

I got roped into representing the company at a corporate golf tourney a few weeks back, and while I do own a set of golf clubs and a really cute bright yellow happy sunshiny golf bag, I can't really say that I knew much of anything about how to play.  Or really, why people play.  It seemed so lame.  A very "old man" thing to spend your weekend doing.  So I figured I'd just drive the cart and provide entertainment with my nonexistent golf skills.  And I was excited about the opportunity to wear a cute golf outfit.  But enjoy the game itself, no way.

Until I got out there with my work buddy who knew just about as much as I did but who was equally excited about shopping for a cute golf outfit.  Luckily, the organizers paired us with these two supercool dudes who were pretty close to our dads' ages and took it upon themselves to teach us how to play over the course of the afternoon.  We learned all sorts of new things, and we amassed an impressive new golf vocabulary by the 18th hole. I will share my new-found knowledge for the benefit of the other non-golfers out there.

It was a scramble (golf tourney term meaning they could pick the best person's shot to play from each time on each hole--so you get the best of the best), which was great for anytime we were anywhere near a water hazard (a big pondy thing designed to swallow all your golf balls), or really anytime I was called upon to use one of my woods (the golf clubs with the big funky heads that hit the ball the farthest, in theory at least).  But I held my own at chipping (those little shorter, choppier shots where you try to get the ball onto the green (the place with the flag and the the little hole where you want your ball to go) and putting, too (everyone knows this one--putt putt is universal).

I also learned all about the mulligan.  There was a bar called Mulligans but it apparently has a pretty specific golfy meaning.  I don't know why they can't just call it what it is--a do-over.  But I guess golf is kind of a snotty sport (sport?), and they want it to be as confusing as possible to nonplayers.  The tourney organizers gave us each 5 mulligans, and they proved pretty handy.  We let the boys use our mulligans, and with double-mulligans, we all scored pretty well in the end.

So, I'm giving myself a mulligan.  And I can do that, because I'm the keeper of the rules, and because I just worked my a$$ off.  I was up and doing P90X by 7 a.m. (despite being up till 1 the night before), and after completely burning out my arms and shoulders (typing hurts), and hit the the gym for 2 hours of leg-shredding spin class.  After the first hour, I was soaked to the bone and had drained my water bottle dry.  But I stayed on for another hour, and I did manage to walk--not fall--down the stairs after class.  So 3 hours of pretty intense stuff, if I do say so myself.

Sounds like I had a pretty awesome day, training wise, and it's only noon.  Why the need for a mulligan??Well...

I didn't work out at all on Friday, unless you count walking around the Crawfish Festival for a few hours last night.  (We did have to park outside of town a ways over some railroad tracks, so there was a bit of a hill involved).  I did stick to the diet, and I passed right by all the deep fried [insert whatever some crazy Texan thinks up to batter and drop into a vat of hot grease] and all the booze (still on the wagon--it's been almost 2 months, I think) and just ate the teeny tiny morsels of boiled crawfish meat that my buddy dug out for me (I offered him a nice deal--I buy the crawfish--you're in charge of peeling it all for me).  But I slept terribly Thursday night and couldn't get out of bed Friday morning.  And I knew I wouldn't get a workout in before the Crawfish Festival, so I was sad thinking about how much I'd miss the Killers, again.  :(

But I'm the one who made the deal, so I have to stick to it.

Well, if you look at the reason behind making the deal with myself, it was to encourage me to keep up the pace, not to get all lazy...and I didn't skip the workout because I didn't want to workout--I got about 4 hours of sleep and just couldn't open my eyes.  And then I wasn't choosing to sit on my butt and watch TV instead of working out--I had stuff to do.  It was Friday night for goodness sake!!

So I told myself if I busted a$$ on Saturday AND Sunday, I would make up for the Friday miss, and I could cash in my Mulligan.  I think that's more than fair--if you miss a day (where the goal is to work out at least 1 hour) and you triple your workout time the next day, a Mulligan would technically not even be necessary.

Indulge me for a sec....

So bogey (overshoot by 1) a Par 3 (a hole that should take 3 shots), but then birdie (undershoot by 1) the next hole, and you're back to Par (the number of shots you should have used on those holes per the dudes who designed the course).  Or even better, get an eagle on the next hole (2 shots under par)...based on the number of double and triple bogeys we got, I'm guessing those Eagles are tough to come by.  Anyway...

That's more like what I did...yesterday was a bogey...I owed myself an hour of workout time, but I missed it.  Today, I made it up by working out for 3 hours--I got an Eagle of a workout, so I actually finish with one surplus hour of workout time.

No do-over necessary.  I more than made up for my missed workout opportunity yesterday.  So I'm still on track to see The Killers.

(I can talk myself into or out of almost anything.  I guess law school was worth something...)

Alrighty then, off to wash the stench of a 3 hour workout off me and get ready for the rest of the day...Celtic festival with a bunch of Scottish folks, who, as I and everyone knows, invented the wonderful(ly frustrating) game of golf.  Maybe I can learn some more new words today...