totallytinab

I am involved in 2 fantasy football leagues, 3 suicide leagues and 1 pick a winner league.  In addition, I am in 2 fantasy golf leagues and a fantasy hockey league.  Tomorrow night is our draft and I couldn’t be more excited!  I have tried to prepare by doing mock drafts and scouring the internet for sleepers, handcuffs, and td vultures.  I follow fantasy gurus on twitter and listen to the NFL network anytime I am in my car.

My husband started playing fantasy sports before me and I wasn’t sure I like it.  His focus went from rooting for our favorite team (the NY Giants) to rooting for his fantasy players to do well.  We would go out and watch a game and he didn’t even care who won as long as Peyton Manning threw 3 touchdowns or Adrian Peterson ran for 150 yards and a touchdown.  I really didn’t “get it” and wondered what the fuss was all about.  The next year there was a spot open in his league.  I decided to join.  I really didn’t know what I was doing but thought if “you can’t beat em, join em”  I was hooked!  It was so much fun to now follow all of the games and take an interest in your players as well as your opponent’s players for that week. It makes the 17 weeks of football in the Fall must see TV.

I still route for the Giants and want them to win the Superbowl.  I also route for the Cardinals and hope for a fun playoff run like we had a few years ago.  But I will also be cheering on my fantasy players and hoping to beat my opponent into the ground each week.  My goal is to make the playoffs and maybe even win the Superbowl this year.  With a little luck and the right draft strategy, I like my chances.  It would be a fantasy come true!

I haven’t posted in a little while because I have had a crazy couple of weeks.  The first week started with my duties as a coach at The First Tee Life Skills and Leadership Academy.  This is a camp for 96 First Tee participants from around the country.  They flew into Phoenix to experience life on their own for a week on a college campus.  The week was filled with golf, life skills and all kinds of fun activities to keep them busy and their minds off of the 100 degree temperatures that are the norm in Phoenix this time of year.  A fun time was had by all including us coaches and I am sure there were more than a few tears shed when they left the dorms the last morning.

Camps similar to this one take place all over the country during the summer months. There are the sleep-away camps and day camps.  There are all kinds of sports camps, church camps and band camps.  Anything that might interest your child, I am sure there is a camp for him/her to attend.

Growing up I went to several church camps and summer activity camps, but the experience I remember best was golf camp at Duke University when I was 16.  I was going to fly for the very first time and I was so excited.  Unfortunately my Mom overslept the morning of my flight and we rushed to try to get to my flight on time.  I remember running onto the plane and not even having a boarding pass!  I finally arrived in Durham and had so much fun!  I was shy at first as most kids are, but by the end of the week, I was sad to be leaving my new friends.  This was long before the days of texting and Facebook so we have not kept in touch, but those were great times. In fact, it was because of golf camp that I ended up at Longwood University which led me to the LPGA tour and now to my current position with The First Tee of Phoenix!  Funny how life’s chain of events work and it all started this one time at golf camp.

The other day at the gym, I watched a woman do bench presses with 60 pound dumb bells.  Wow!  I have no shot ever of bench pressing that much weight.  You know what?  That is OK.  I like going to the gym.  I like the feeling of accomplishment after a good workout.  I like lifting weights and getting a good sweat on.  It is not a chore for me at all, it is just a part of what I do.

I first started working out in college.  This was a long time ago before the day of golf specific exercises.  We would meet a few times during the off-season and do some light weight-lifting.  I  also would do a little running but that was mostly to work off my freshman 15.  Once I got on tour, I worked out in the off-season.  We were careful not to lift heavy weight and we rarely worked out during the season.  Tiger and Annika changed everyone’s opinion about golf and working out.  Once everyone saw it was possible and even beneficial to be fit, working out became the norm.  I hired  a personal trainer and did golf specific exercises.My goal was always to try to hit the ball farther. I worked out hard in the off-season and continued throughout the season even working out before a late afternoon round.  I never did hit the ball farther,  but it was not for lack of trying and working out still made me feel good about myself.

When I retired, I knew I still wanted to work out.  I wanted to keep my womanly figure and still be able to drink beer and eat pizza and ice cream (insert joke here!)  My issue was that my workouts had always been geared towards golf.  So I did some research, watched people who looked like they knew what they were doing at the gym, and developed a work-out routine that has been pretty good over the last few years.  I do a 2-day workout that includes some cardio and abs.  Day 1 is upper body and day 2 is lower body.  I try to change up the exercises and reps so that my body does not get too comfortable.  I feel like I push myself pretty hard and until my accident, was getting stronger. After my accident,  I had to take more than 3 months off and I really missed the gym  I have been slowly getting back but found that I lost a lot of upper body strength (and I really didn’t have much to start with!)  But I am staying patient and slowly getting back to “normal.”

I go to a local gym only 2 miles from my house.  It is pretty hard core with a lot of body builders and serious lifters.  I really like it though.  They have limited the number of members so it is never very busy.  It has all the latest equipment.   The people are friendly and the employees are helpful. I feel good when I leave.  I feel energized.  I feel strong.  I feel like I can eat a piece of pizza and it won’t stay on my hips forever.  It’s a good feeling-try it!