Lift

Went with Frenchy to the gym.

24 decline ex. ball pushups
8 DB shoulder press 25lb
4 overhead DB squat 15lb
24 decline ex. ball pushups
8 DB push press 30lb
4 overhead DB squat 15lb
24 decline ex. ball pushups
8 BB push press 65lb
4 overhead BB squat 65lb
2x8 incline bench press 65lb
abs (incline med. ball situps, etc)

Lift

12 dead-hang pullups, 12 90degree pullups, 12 chin-ups
Bent-over BB row: 8 at 45, 8 at 65lb
3x8 BB high pull, 65lb
8 single leg 30lb DB snatch (opposite leg)

Pike vs PoNY

Woken up at 5am by the thunderstorm, had lucid dreams until 8am. Watched a few highlight videos, showered, had a pear and two slices of bread (all I had in the dorm).

At the fields around 10:20am, throwing around and cleating up, then warming up and getting ready for my first tryout experience. We played three or four scrimmages as X/Y teams, then one Pike vs PoNY scrimmage (lost 9-15). I made a couple poor throwing choices--one, in particular, where I tried to rush a huck after boasting that I have hucks (stupid)--and a few execution errors. Mostly, though, the difficulties I ran into came from not knowing the team very well. I did feel strong as a handler behind a zone, and I definitely made some strong deep cuts (and even caught a few huck goals, one after a good box-out in the big game). I didn't always know what spaces were open, but I cut hard and often got open, after finding open space. I put in a lot of effort when I was on the field, but my tendonities came back by the third scrimmage and limited my playing. I definitely favored offense after my knee started to hurt, but still got in some D points. I think my downfield D was pretty good, and I definitely stayed tight when I was on handlers, but this is one area where I'd like to put some extra focus--playing shut-down defense on club players is a skill that will directly translate to my play with Machine. So I'm learning. I was somewhat hazy on whether I should be taking away the io or oi break at any given time, and thereby let off a few around backhands--but in general kept a low, active mark. I didn't feel 100% but I felt good working hard.

For the next two weeks, it's rest and rehab again--except for the alumni game.

Lift

First, I tried to do a muscle-up. After failing, I did a few with 30lb assistance, did 4 explosive pullups, then tried a few times to muscle-up with only 20lb assistance. It didn't work, so I moved on.

10 pullups
One-hand+two-finger pullups: 2 each hand
2x4 one-leg overhead DB bench squat, 10lb
2x10 clap pushups
2x(8 rapid jumps, 4 quarter-squat jumps, 4 one-leg jumps each leg)
8 upright BB row, 65lb
8 upright DB row, 35lb

I also did some various warmup work with the 45lb BB (squats, deadlifts, hang cleans, presses), a few reps of SL DB RDL at 10lb, and a few 45degree extensions at +10lb using one leg at a time. Trying to loosen up those legs without irritating the knee. I did lots of stretching before the lifting.

Quick Lift

8x(pushups + 15lb DB row)
8x(pushups + 15lb DB row), +12lb on back
8 pushups, +16lb on back
8 wide-grip pushups, +16lb on back
2x8 decline pushups

I added to my body weight with bags of lead shot, attached to a diver's belt and hung around my neck. There was little to no rest between sets. My hamstings feel tighter than is comfortable, which always happens after a good hamstring workout...it's the only kind of tightness that makes me angry, because it's so painful to stretch that I won't do it, or will stop after a few seconds. Which, of course, means they stay tight for longer. It sucks. Gotta suck it up.

Lift

My knee hurts, so I stretched for 20 minutes and then did some exercises that (hopefully) won't make it worse.

Muscle-ups, 30lb assistance: 5, 5, 3
4 pullups
4x(hang clean, press, press) with 45lb BB
45degree extensions: 8 at body weight, 8 at +25lb
2x8 (deadlift, hang clean, military press) with 25lb DB's
2x6 single leg 30lb DB snatch (opposite leg)
4 explosive pullups
ab circuit

More icing/stretching tonight...

Throwing, Series Prep

I've been throwing every day. Stepping out, crisp catches, and mixing it up:

Throwing blades to myself to practice hard catches
Throwing off pivot-foot only (forehand and backhand)
Throwing while falling into a lunge (release before foot touches ground)
Letting the disc pass by me before catching it (trailing edge catches)
Turning my back to the disc for a few moments after the thrower releases, then spinning around and finding it in the air before catching it, and then quickly throwing (simulating a surprise reception and quick disc movement)

I love that last little variation. I've had trouble in the past tracking discs or catching things that are thrown over my shoulder/head, dropping discs when I didn't expect to be thrown to, that sort of thing. After looking at some of that fre-flo-do stuff, I realized it might be beneficial to develop some muscle memory outside of the standard step-throw and catching from a standstill. Even a couple years ago, I would try to attack the disc while throwing around, especially as I tried to become more consistent at catching hard passes. But losing sight of the disc, finding it again and then attacking it feels useful--and it's fun! I would make sure to try to get off an accurate quick-release after each catch, too, and I especially worked on hammers here. I wanted to make sure I am able to pick a target and hit it quickly, regardless of how far away or how the wind is blowing. I feel like if you're always standing still, hitting stationary targets, of course it's going to look like you can throw hammers. But being able to do it in a game, from motion, while finding a target whose specific position you were not aware of until you caught the disc and looked up? More difficult, and good to practice.

More things to add to the throwing drills are self-macking (to practice bobbled catches) and razors/blades. I still feel like I need to toughen up my hands and not be afraid of the damn disc, even for an instant.

As for my knee, the doctor diagnosed a mild case of patellar tendonitis. I did a pistol squat for him when he asked me to squat and tell him if there was any pain...he was impressed by the "strength and balance" and said he had never seen anybody do that before. That sort of makes me worry about his credibility and knowledge of sports medicine. Disregarding that, he said that I was okay to play, though I probably should rest, and if I decided to play through any pain (he understood what Sectionals means) then I can take some Advil, because the risk-benefit ratio was in my favor. Weird things have been going on with the knee since I saw him, so I'm still icing, etc. I intend to play at 100% on Saturday.

I went swimming on Sunday, and today did a short workout in the gym--stretching, 10 dead-hang wide-grip pullups, 2 muscle-ups with 30lb assistance, and two complex reps with the 45lb bar (2 deadlifts, hang clean, 2 presses, squat, snatch, overhead squat, 2 presses). Practice tonight, some rehab exercises, stretching, and preparation for the weekend.

Twinges in my Tibial Tuberosity

Since before my last workout, the bony protrusion under my right knee has felt...wrong. Not a sharp pain, not exactly a dull ache, but something that bothers me--when jogging, and especially when I squat with my weight on my right leg. I can also feel it when I lunge, step out on my throws, climb stairs, etc. I looked it up online but don't feel like assuming what the problem is, because a) I don't know and b) the recovery doesn't change based on the diagnosis--stretch, ice, rest, repeat.

So I've been stretching regularly, icing every once in a while, and refraining from physical activity to the best of my ability (go figure, the one time the elevator in my building is broken is the one time I ought to be avoiding stairs). I have an appointment with the sports-medicine doctor on Tuesday, and hopefully I'll be feeling better and he'll give me good news. Best-case scenario is that I can participate in Sectionals 100% without worrying about making my knee worse, so I'm going to focus on that.

If it is an overuse injury, it's almost certainly because of spring break. We had a lot of Ultimate condensed into 7 days, and only one day off in the whole span of time. When I consider that I put myself in a bad way with my calves a few weeks ago, I'm starting to see what kind of changes to make to my conditioning program in the coming seasons. I'm certainly going to incorporate more rehab and recovery work (i.e. stretching and icing even when I don't think I need to), and probably refrain from playing such a condensed schedule. In the meantime, I'm going to have to take it easy and play it by ear--I've experienced the foolish pain of returning too quickly after an injury, and don't want to go through that again. To be fair, though, I might've tried to push through some of this were it not for a particularly concerned individual, so thank you (you know who you are).

Lift

4 sets of 5, with each rep a combination lift:
RDL to bent-over row to high pull to hang clean to front squat to military press

Everything was done with a 25lb dumbbell in each hand, only setting them down in between each set. The weight was a bit light for hang cleans, but it was no joke for most of the exercises in each rep. By my last set, my grip was really starting to feel taxed. I went full-ROM with the front squats, and did the rows at the bottom position of each RDL.

Roll Call

The past week or so has been a blur, so please excuse me if not everything makes sense here.

We got to the fields on Saturday morning in Bumblefu..excuse me, Poolesville, Maryland. They certainly looked like nice fields, soft with green grass, but the ground was neither flat nor even in most places. It was also cold as shit, so we did our best to warm up. Our first game was against Syracuse, a team we lost to last year in the spring and this year at Vegas, so we all knew we had business to take care of. The rotation was very tight for this game, with the offense scoring most of its posessions and the D struggling to get a break. I think we were down 5-7 at half, but put together a run to win 11-9 in soft cap. It felt good to win, but things were less than pretty throughout the game. Our next round was a bye, so I snagged some thick-as-mud hot cocoa and rolled over to watch the women's team play Boston College. Somewhere during the second half, I went back to warm up before our next game--Lehigh. We've gone back and forth with this team, playing them in tight games last year and losing on DGP in the fall (as a half team). We played them tight again, but couldn't get many breaks and gave up a few turnovers that allowed them to beat us 10-12. Mio had arrived during the second half and opened up the rotation a bit, but I doubt we could have kept going for the whole tournament the way we were during the Syracuse game. Either way, we weren't able to put together the breaks we needed at the end of the game.

It was a similar story against Georgetown, who has crushed us twice already this season--at Vegas, and at Ultimax. This game, we wanted bad. We traded points, went down a break before half, and then broke back a few times to go up 9-7 before the soft cap went on. A few dumb mistakes and it becomes 10-10, DGP and it turns into the point from hell. It lasted at least 15 minutes, with numberous turnovers on each side, several great defensive plays and not a few infuriating flubs. We put up at least a couple decent hucks to open guys, completed even one or two that couldn't make it into the endzone, but just could not get it done. Ariel tried to get off a forehand huck that was handblocked by the sign-post holding up the score card on the sideline, and the other team just snickered and called it a turnover. We ended up losing, 10-11, and it felt awful...it was frustrating to play these guys, because they made several bad calls and contests, fouled more than I think was reasonable, and were sort of jerks in general. Depressed after the loss, and starting the game 10 minutes after the round was slated to start because the last round lasted forever, we played a lackluster game against Messiah, who beat us 5-11 to win the pool.

Sunday morning we woke up to find our van had been broken into and Pete's GPS navigation system stolen by unknown persons in the night. Apparently, the thief or thieves also left condoms around the crime scene, which boggles the mind. A portion of the team, including both captains and a couple injured players, stayed behind to deal with the police and clean up the van while the rest of us went to the fields. I was not in a good mood, not feeling well, thought my UnderArmour leggings had been stolen, felt unreasonably cold, and didn't want to run because my feet hurt. To overcome these, I trudged to the tournament HQ and poured myself a cup of coffee with lots of sugar and non-dairy creamer, listening to my iPod as I walked there and back to our fields on the other side of the world. I warmed up apart from the rest of the team, took a whiz in the grass along the far edge of the field site, pet a horse that had ambled up to the fence of his enclosure in curiosity, and then borrowed a left-hand glove from the lefty on the team. Wearing my winter shell, I got into the team drill and started feeling better. The game against VCU went well, even without some of the team leaders. Lines of only freshmen were able to score on D points, albeit with some difficulty once they got the turn. We rolled to an 11-2 win.

Because some of the teams in our bracket had bagged Sunday, we were faced with a bye before our next opponent, SUNY-Oneonta, who also had a bye. They refused to play the game early, though, because they wanted to warm up against VCU before playing us. We couldn't persuade them to not be bitches about the whole situation, so instead we went to cheer on the girls against Wellesly and watch CHS play Swarthmore. After the round ended, we geared up to play Oneonta and immediately went up by a few breaks with crisp offense and some solid D. Our zone O was flowing nicely, and although we had a few more problems with man O we still got the job done, for the most part. The SUNY guys were a little hotheaded, and had one or two real asshats on their team, so pretty soon we ran into some conflicts. Bad calls from them, drunken heckling from our injured sideline guys (one of whom later puked in the car ride home), fouling on both sides and we let them back in the game. We pulled it out for a 13-9 win, but it got a little ugly by the end. Next up was NYU in the game for the bracket. I remember feeling almost uncoverable as a handler early in this game. We basically traded points, went up a break early, gave up a few more before the soft cap went on, and ended up facing 6-5 in a game to 8. We let them score, let them score again after a bad drop or something, then put our goal in with more work than it should have required. DGP for the bracket, we pull and get another hell-point. Not as bad as the one against Georgetown, but still kind of fugly. I got a nice half-layout D on a huck, it went back and forth a few times, I threw the winning goal. There, that felt better.

More to come?