This Week in Sport

A roundup of this week’s cause-less athletic endeavors.

Monday: Ran to Jewel to buy chocolate and sour cream. Possibly counterproductive.

Wednesday: Ventured to Chi-Slam where I was handed a lesson in table tennis by an Asian man who was in disgustingly good shape. He wasn’t just in good shape for his age (probably over 40); he was a fine athlete by anybody’s standards. The fact that his legs were both way stronger and far more toned than mine, coupled with the grin he bore afterwards, made the defeat taste rather sour.

Thursday: The second soccer game of the league went the way of the first – a defeat. But this was a much improved performance from both the team and myself, and we did manage to score, even though the goal came when were already 2-0 down with just 30 seconds left on the clock and resulted from a goalkeeping error.

Lagwagon perform Weak at The Bottom Lounge on Thursday night.

Friday: If you don’t think that going to a show constitutes exercise then you obviously haven’t seen Lagwagon before. The punk legends may have made significant inroads into their 40s by now, but they still rock as hard as anyone and reeled off old classic after old classic. The crowd was riotous – jumping, pushing, moshing, and singing along like our lives depended on it. After being flung around in the melee I found myself in the second row, where I was so close to band that I actually had a cheeky strum of the bassist’s guitar at one point. It was simply awesome and I left drenched in sweat.

Saturday: Saturday’s athletic pursuit – walking – may not have been the most strenuous, but it was very enjoyable and refreshing. My girlfriend Steph and I headed out to an orchard and then the Indiana Dunes, which were beautifully awash with fall colors. From the beach we could look across Lake Michigan to Chicago, where the skyscrapers looked bizarre rising up above the water, like they had been drawn onto the sky with a pencil. From the beach we could also see two coachloads of kids who refused to believe that beach activities are weather dependent. It was well below 50 and the wind chill increased the bitterness, but some of these kids were lying on towels, others were playing beach volleyball barefooted and some of these seemingly cold-blooded creatures even wore shorts and t-shirts. None looked as cold I was, although I donned a wooly hat and four layers, the exterior of which was a big winter coat.

An enchanted forest in the Indiana Dunes State Park.

Sunday: Was it too cold to go running without any kind of under armor or jacket? Probably, but I went for it anyway and busted out four miles in the crisp fall air. Despite having to make a sprint finish to keep up with my roommate Steve, I failed to generate enough body heat to overcome the coldness and was relieved to get back inside, where I completed an ab workout on a flattened cardboard box that is currently deputizing for a gym mat.