Team Run

8x(30 seconds sprint, 1:30 rest)
8x70yd accelerators (slow acceleration to 35yds, full sprint to end)

I feel a quickening...

Team Lift

Tabata Intervals:

Pullups: 14*, 6**, 2**, 0
Pushups: 19, 13, 8, 9*
Dips: 9, 5, 4*, 6*
45degree extensions: 10, 11, 11, 12
Deadlifts, 45lb: 15, 15, 15, 16
Lunges, 2x12lb DB: 14, 14, 14, 14
Squats, 25lb: 15, 16, 16, 17
Crunches, 12lb medicine ball: 16, 14, 15, 20*
Calf raises, 50lb: 29, 21, 21, 22

Alright, the asterisks. For pullups, I started out descending only to parallel. For my 2nd and 3rd set, I did kipping pullups. For my 4th, I just hanged down and tried to shrug up as many times as I could with my lats. For pushups, that fourth set was girl pushups. For my 3rd set of "dips," I did a 5-second static hold in the 90degree position, then did 4 shoulder presses with the 45lb bar. For my 4th set, I did 4 presses and 2 push presses. Everything else was the perscribed exercise, except I substituted abdominal twists with the medicine ball for the last set of "crunches," where twist-left-twist-right was one rep.

Basically, I tried to go body-weight where I could, then dropped down to something easier when I was physically unable to perform another rep. In the future I might try pullups and dips on the assistance machine, but there's no point in trying to nancy out at this point in the season. Unfortunately, I had only two workout partners, so I don't know how many of my teammates share that philosophy. We'll find out this weekend who is ready to work hard out on the field. I suppose we'll also find out how prepared other teams are. Right now, physical conditioning is our only hand to play--I think that was one of our main obstacles in Vegas, playing against teams that have been practicing on fields while we have been limited to indoor workouts. I think it is very possible, though, that we will be stronger for it by Sectionals.

Still taking that right road...

Lift

Mixing it up a little today...

Pullups: 2, 1 at +25, 1 at +30, 1 at +35, 2 at +20lb
2 pullups at +20lb, then 6 pullups
5 clean and press 95lb
5 pullups
5 clean and press 95lb
5 pullups
4 clean and jerk 115lb, 1 clean and jerk 125lb, 1 clean 135lb

I couldn't finish that last clean-and jerk--135lb was a lot, and it took multiple tries just to get the clean. I kept trying for about half an hour, but eventually admitted to myself that I was pretty drained and would not be able to do it today. I also threw in some static holds--frog stand, mostly--but not much. I was trying it out because I think I want to add a lot more static lifting during the off-season and the endurance phases of my training. As for my current phase, I feel more like I'm throwing different things at my body and not really moving in as clear a progression as I did in the fall. We'll see how it changes things. Ultimaxx is this weekend, so the plan is to lift tomorrow morning, run on Thursday, and hopefully get a little swimming in on Friday before we head down. Isn't it fun to be your own personal trainer, without the experience or monetary compensation that a trainer has?

Team Workout

Plyos: 2 rounds of 2x10 for ricochet hops, rapid jumps, step-up jumps, squat jumps, and burpees.

3 rounds of lunges with the resistance band, stair-runs holding a medicine ball, marking shuffles, skaters, and a suicide.

Stations: 60 seconds on, 10 seconds rest for resistance band twists, mountain climbers, crunches with the medicine ball, plank, side plank (x2), pike pushups, supermans, wall-running, wall sit, skipping in place, pushups, single leg pumps (x2), "athletic position" (think up-downs, without the ups or downs), bridge thrusts, and jumping jacks.

A good workout tonight, but not as mentally taxing or physically draining as some of the past workouts. Partially, we're stronger, but it also has to do with how the workout is changing. We're incorporating new things and doing different kinds of movements, which take longer than beasting out a bunch of station exercises. Overall, I think this is a good direction for us, and I can't wait until we can get out onto the field, where we will be able to do more movement drills and SAQ work, in addition to all of the fun sprint and acceleration work.

Troubled in Vegas, Part 2

After that first "power pool" game on Friday evening we had another bright and early on Sunday morning. We stopped at the Jack in the Box again for sustenance, watched Ariel's van give a ride to a hitching girl's team (whom Dan Johnson immediately asked, "so how good are you?"), stocked up on Powerade and Monster, and made it to the fields without much time for idling. I wore my athletic pants and jacket liner for the warmup, wanting to make sure I got good and loose before the game, which was against Georgetown. They had a lot of goons--tall dudes who were not particularly athletic or skilled, but got the job done if you gave them opportunities. Which we did. Another frustrating day for the offense, which seemed to think mental errors won games. The wall defense looked better in this game, though, so it wasn't all bad. We did lose, but the team is starting to (inconsistently) gel. I remember having some good handler motion in this game.

After a bye we had Virginia Tech, a team we lost to at Southerns last year. I remember our wall defense improving more but our offense still giving up the disc in silly ways. Same story for our next game, vs Chico State (again), although our man defense got a little better here too, whereas before it was pretty flimsy. I remember baiting an in-cut in the Chico game, getting the D on my dude, sprinting deep and catching a huck for the goal. I spiked the disc, full of energy and fired up, but now regret it. There really wasn't any reason to do that--we were down by a pretty bad margin and the point was to improve our game, not be jerks. Anyway, we lost both of these games. Afterwards, we stretched in a circle and then sat down to talk about, as a team, our impressions from the tournament so far and how we wanted to move forward. I heard some really good feedback from the freshmen, some things that really give me hope and pride for the future of our team, so long as they can back it up. A lot of the guys went back to the hotel at this point, but a few of us, myself included, stayed to watch Wisconsin vs CUT and Florida vs Arizona. Sick games, especially to watch the intensity and speed of play in the Wisco-CUT game. Something to aspire to.

We headed back without Dan Johnson (who apparently got a ride from Hector Valdivia, who was freestyle rapping for his car-ride companions?), showered up and headed to the Freemont Street Experience. Browsing the various gift shops, we saw all kinds of shot glasses, trick brandy glasses, playing cards with naked ladies on 'em, plastic slot machines, dice, and cheap t-shirts galore. There was a life balancing-act duo, and also one of those steel cages with up to 3 dudes on motorcycles whirling around inside. Ladies bedecked in weird glittery costumes welcomed you into the casinos lining the street, some guy was spray-painting these awesome pictures, and there was some kind of Chippendales gazebo with half-naked dudes posturing for cameras. There were tons of daquiris in the hands of the pedestrians, cheap disgusting foods hawked from a couple of corner stores, and bums all around asking you to buy them alcohol. I stopped in the Playboy store, which was nothing but women's t-shirts and bunny ears (no porn, no novelties, quite tame in fact), and took a peek into the Harley Davidson shop (which was more impressive, with biker gear everywhere). We even got to see a 3-woman dancing show going on inside one of the casinos, though we all had to stand outside of the store-front-wide "door" because we were underage. We wandered around for an hour or two, ogling like everybody else. The giant screen on the roof of the whole walkway was pretty neat, showing clips and short movies from time to time and claiming to be the largest TV in the world. In short, it was a terrific, gaudy smorgasborg--definitely a good way to pass some time if you've never had the pleasure of immersing yourself in the seedy fakeness of Sin City.

But eventually, we made it back to the hotel for some pre-gaming before heading over to the party. I grabbed a sub from Subway, sipped a Monster-bomb (which really peeved Thales, who thought it was a travesty to not gulp it down like you're supposed to), and we walked to the bus-stop on the other end of Freemont. There was supposed to be this bus that would take us to the general location of the tournament party, but when we got there we found out it would cost us like $3 per person and we'd need exact change. That, and the fact that a thousand people were trying to cram onto these busses, made us rethink our plan. We called Pete to pick us up in the minivan, I told four girls that there wouldn't be room in the car for them, I got yelled at ("There's always room for girls!") and then we packed 15 people into a 7-passenger van. Driver, shotgun, four in the middle, five in the back, four in the trunk. That automobile was riding so low, we could only make it up to around 60 on the highway and I was worried that some cop would pull us over for ridin' dirty, and we'd catch some serious shit. Either that, or somebody would cut us off, Pete would have to swerve, and we'd all die in the crash. Thankfully, we made it to the supposed location of the party unscathed, searched for a parking space well away from the lot guards, and proceeded to amble around looking for a large group of very drunk individuals. At first, all we saw was some random girl with her back against a dumpster, pants around her ankles, peeing in the parking lot. Eventually, though, we found the "party." It must have been at least 400 people walking through the (full) parking lots behind casinos, yelling like fools and drinking jungle juice from gasoline canisters. Most of us were not impressed, but a few joined the crowd right away while the rest of us shook our heads. The predictable few elected to stay at this "party" but the rest of us rode back to the hotel. A couple freshmen pledged to find some girls and have their own party, others probably played a few drinking games to close out the night, but I ended up going to sleep--after all, we had another 8am game the next morning.

Well, an 8:30am game, as it turned out. Another trip to Jack in the Box, a long warmup in the chilly air, and a few stories about what went down at the "party" the night before--I'll say no more than to mention that one particular person exposed himself to a group of girls in exchange for some fake money. Yup, didn't I wish I was there to see that. In any case, Syracuse showed up to play us, and we only sort of showed up to play them. Our offense would look great one moment, disorganized and shitty the next, and we had some problems transitioning from wall to man. It was a close game, and I feel like we definitely should have closed it out, but again we killed ourselves with execution errors and mental lapses and gave it up. On the plus side, we played in our darks for the first time all tournament. Next, we walked over to where our final game was supposed to be, but found out that our opponents had bagged. I think that's really some bullshit, that a team ditches and we, who came all the way from the east coast, missed out on our "guaranteed" 9th game. Instead, I played "how fast is your flick?" (45 mph for both backhand and forehand), scored some sweet shorts from the 5Ultimate tent, and then got back to the team for a hammer-cut drill. We then split into three groups--mine went back to the hotel, showered, ate at the buffet, then made it to the fields in time to watch the second half of the semis and all of the finals. Sick games, all, and it was really nice to just chill with teammates in the sun and watch some good Ultimate.

The trip back was quicker but no more enjoyable. It was excessively windy coming into Newark International, 30mph gusts that rocked the plane on approach--I was not a happy passenger. I did drink at least 64oz of fluids during the flight back, though, which probably helped get me through the day. We got back to Rutgers at 7:30am, ate a huge breakfast at Brower, and everybody headed back to their respective homes for some rest. Except I didn't go to sleep--I checked my email, showered, and went to class. I have four classes on Monday, and went to all of them (physically, at least...I was mentally absent for perhaps 30% of the time). The only way I lasted through my final two was with a healthy dose of Monster and an iron will.

It was a terrific experience, and I'd do it again in a second. My only hope is that next year, we are more prepared and more in tune as a team, so that the tournament brings us a little more success and a little more productivity--the closer your games are, the more you get to work on your game. For what it was, though, it was good--three days of the most perfect weather for Ultimate that I've ever had, a ton of teams, and a good time in a ridiculous city. Next up, Ultimaxx.

Team Lift

Basically a repeat of the last team lift. Tabata intervals:

Deadlifts, 12lb medicine ball: 19, 19, 21, 20, 19, 20, 19, 20
Squats, 6lb medicine ball: 20, 20, 20, 19, 19, 20, 21, 22
Lunges, 6lb medicine ball: 17, 17, 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 16
Dealdifts, 45lb plate: 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 15, 16
Squats, 25lb plate: 15, 15, 14, 16, 16, 15, 15, 16
Lunges, 2x10lb DB: 14, 14, 14, 13, 13, 13, 13, 13
Pushups: 21, 17, 4+6*, 8*, 8*, 8*, 8*, 8*
Abs: 24, 22, 24, 24, 22, 22, 24, 48

Deadlifts were much more awkward with a weight plate than a bar. For abs, I did crunches, crunches, right and left side crunches, crunches, alternating crunches, bicycle kicks.

Team Run

I had to leave early, but here's what I did:

5x(sprint 1 minute, walk 2 minutes)

Troubled in Vegas, Part 1

Not a typo!

I skipped all my classes on Thursday to handle some last-minute homework and (unnecessary) travel preparations, then met the team at the Gunswick train station around noon-thirty. Train to air-train to terminal, played some cards and bought an iPod charger (expensive, but worth it) before boarding the plane. Worst plane ride ever--long, and there were a couple bad swoops where the floor dropped out, which really makes me uncomfortable. Not in the sense that I feel sick, but in the sense that I get freaked out. After reading the first act of Othello, I rocked the iPod for the rest of the flight, fading in and out to the sounds of Alice in Chains, BNL, the Cranberries, Savatage, and Streetlight Manifesto (recently acquired). Approaching Vegas at night was pretty sweet, with the lights stretching for miles in the middle of desert so dark, it looked like ocean. Touched down, picked up the rental minivans, divided into groups, and made it over to the hotel to check in before a late dinner. I went to a Japanese steakhouse with Mio, Pete, Thales, and Andrew, choosing a nice rice/chicken/egg dish and sampling a shot of the most delicious alcohol I've had the pleasure of drinking, TY KU sake liqueur. After dinner, we pretty much went right to bed, because we had our first game at 8am the next morning.

I slept well, but woke up before my alarm went off and stayed in bed for a while thinking about the day ahead. I got up and showered, we headed to Jack in the Box for some breakfast sandwiches, bought $1 Powerade at the attached convenience store (money!), got to the tournament and found our fields. It was chill, with dew on the ground and the sun barely coming up. Even though most people were still wearing UnderArmour and warmup gear, I had mentioned before that I would wear only shorts and my jersey no matter how cold it was in Vegas. I delighted in the chill, because it was only an early-morning chill and would quickly evaporate with the day. A quick bathroom stop to make sure my urine was clear, and we warmed up. I didn't get a lot of throws in, but I was feeling pretty good nonetheless. Even though Dan Johnson kickblocked me six times in a row during the 3-man marking drill. So began game 1 vs Western Washington B. We started out slow the first half, clearly out of practice and rusty, and were down at half. We picked it up our offense a little, though, and won the game by a smallish margin. I can go over this game in more detail later, if the mood hits me, because we got most of it on tape.

Game 2 was against the University of San Diego, and we went down even worse in the first half of this game. I think it was 2-7 USD at one point, but we stepped it up and won the game on universe point. We then had two bye rounds, during which time I sucked down water, watched Wisconsin beat UCSB, watched a couple girls teams duke it out, met Bob, and threw around shirtless in the sun. Our final pool-play game was against Chico State, a team of funky dudes who moved the disc much more quickly than the previous two teams. They were also fairly athletic, came down with a lot of jump balls, and beat us 8-12. Again, the first half featured us tanking and in the second we tried to crawl back, but this time the hole was too deep. Taking second in the pool, we had to play a final game on Friday against USC. I had some Monster before the game and felt really good, played pretty well in the first half but got sidelined a lot in the second as we let them run away with the game. I wish I could have played more, or had my PT more evenly distributed, because it really sucked to see us lose such a winnable game. We let them beat us in the air, and though our defense looked marginally better we gave the disc up much too easily on offense with a lot of mental errors. We lost, went home, and I crashed.

(Team) Lift

I missed the team workout tonight, but did it on my own anyway.

Tabata Intervals!
Squats, 6lb medicine ball: 19, 17, 18, 18, 18, 19, 18, 18
Lunges, 6lb medicine ball: 15, 16, 16, 16, 15, 15, 15, 16
Deadlifts, 10lb medicine ball: 14, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 17, 19
Squats, 25lb plate: 15, 15, 15, 16, 16, 15, 14, 15
Lunges, 2x10lb DB: 14, 14, 14, 14, 14, 13, 13, 13
Deadlifts, 45lb BB: 13, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16, 16
Pushups: 20, 16, 9, 8*, 8*, 8*, 8*, 8*
Crunches: 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 22, 22

I suck at pushups. My form was atrocious by the end of each set of 8*, which means even girl pushups were too much for me. My form was very good for the squats, though, and I made sure to go deep into each rep with my back straight and my head up. For the crunches, I did different kinds--for the first two sets, I touched my wrists to my knees. Next four, I did regular crunches. Last two, I did side crunches. This workout was tough on the muscles, but I'm getting better at pushing through pain.

Lift

Pullups: 9, 4 with +10lb, 1 with +20lb, 6
3x8 DB upright row 25lb
Lever incline row: 8 at 65, 2x8 at 75lb

I also did three sets of one box overhead squat and 4 shoulder presses with the 45lb bar. Still trying to get loosened up, and we have a nice hard Tabata workout tomorrow, so today wasn't too strenuous.

Recovery

The Vegas recap will be forthcoming.

Today I did 30 minutes of stretching, plus some body weight squats, overhead squats with the 45lb bar, a few single pullups, bouldering on the rock wall, and a short ab circuit. The goal was to get loosened up and do a few exercises, for the body to move a bit after three days of hard Ultimate.

Team Lift

pullups: 8, 4 at +10lb, 5
3x10 DB squat + shoulder press, 25lb
2x10 forward lunge at +40lb
10 backward lunge at +40lb
3x8 dips

I got to throw around yesterday in beautiful 50 degree weather with one of the freshmen. I was out there in a t-shirt, pants rolled up to my knees, enjoying the warmth. My throws came back a little, and even though my hucks weren't feeling quite as buttery as I would like, I figure that's what happens over winter break. At least my mid-ranges were acceptable, and I was starting to find my various release points again. I've been having some trouble for the past year with my low backhand--I think it's because I've been trying to step further out laterally, and my body isn't used to the rotation and form for that kind of throw. I need to find my way to that low, slow-rising, smooth and flat throw so nice to receive on an in-cut.

My forehand felt better than I might have thought it would, after the last couple Buccleuch pickup games. Limited distance, but good form. My hammers were accurate, which was cool, though I'll probably be hesitant to break them out this weekend--I hear it gets windy in Vegas.

I gave a few pointers to the freshman to help him work on his longer backhands, 40 yards plus. He caught on quickly, probably because he wasn't far from having that throw already. It's nice to see improvement in the young guys. It would be even nicer if he had a consistent forehand, too, but that takes time. Something in his release was giving it a wobble, but I couldn't tell. It reminded me of how I want to tape myself throwing to analyze a little more closely how solid my form is, why a small percentage of my throws come out weird, how I can improve. Especially once I get a mark on me, then it would be useful to see what processes I go through to break him.

In the meantime, I think it would be valuable to work on a few specific things in Vegas. I noticed in some of the past videos that my arms often drooped on the mark, so I want to consciously keep them out wide and have a strong mark. Second, I'm going to focus on completing all my dump throws and catches. I figure it's a good place to start eliminating risks and drops, since these cuts more strongly stress possession. Finally, I want to be a positive presence on the sideline. That gives me one specific focus for each of the three things I'm doing at a tournament--D, O, and sideline. I'm really pumped for this tournament--watching some of the college UVTV footage, the Rhino reels, etc. It all starts Friday.

Team Workout

Another indoor session. This one wasn't nearly as bad, but still a good workout.

Plyometrics: 3x10 for wall taps, riccochet jumps, step-up jumps, box jumps, squat-jumps, one-legged hops, and skipping.

Acceleration/deceleration: 3x6 sprint 20yds, stop as quickly as possible, jog back to start

Stations: 2 rounds of 50 seconds on, 10 seconds rest for single leg shallow squats, sky humps, wall sits, pivot lunges, crunches, skaters, pushups, superman, plank, mountain climbers. 4 minutes rest in between rounds.

20 squats, 20 split-jumps, 20 lunges, 10 squat-jumps, 20 squats, 20 split-jumps, 20 lunges, 10 squat-jumps.

Pickup

Buccleuch had a good turnout today. It was still pretty cold, but really only due to wind chill. I got a D on some guy who apparently used to captain Pike. I hear he's the D captain for Sockeye, now. That's pretty cool. Unfortunately, I landed in the mud after getting the D, so I picked up the disc with slick hands. I tried to throw a forehand swing, and the disc flopped out of my hands. Awful. Dono roasted me on a deep cut--much faster than I expected, especially with the quagmire that was the field. I threw a couple goals, though, played some defense. There was one real nice sequence with flow that I was part of, and in general it was a good game. I busted my right pointer finger open, though, at the nail. Hope that heals without lingering effects before Thursday.

Thursday, because that's when we go to Vegas.