New Years Eve

2mi in 13:48 (6:00, 7:48)
60 minutes yoga

New Years Resolutions:
Lead by example.
Win the head game.
Focus.
Flip the switch.

Better

No more waiting.

Bench press: 5, 6, 6, 5 at 120lb

More to come.

Pickup

Still not feeling better, but it was too nice a day to pass up some pickup so I decided I was well enough to play. We had enough for 7 on 7 at the high school turf field, and split up alumni vs current (but we had to give them one or two at a time). It was fun--I didn't have much energy, and I am VERY rusty (which was made worse by the stiff wind), but I got to run around and throw a few goals. Get a sky D in the endzone. Make unforced errors. It's embarassing how out of it I am, and depressing to think about how long it will be until I can play in good conditions, and with my left hand at 100%.

Guess that means I should start playing well now. Why wait, right?

I ehat being sick

Headache, stomach pain, no energy.

The smell of any gran-based product made me feel sick(er). I couldn't eat anything, except a few raw green beans and some lettuce. Gestern habe ich den ganzen Tag geschlafen, weil ich so krank war. We had to cancell our ski vacation. Haven't been able to do anything.

Bonus points for getting the title reference.

Christmas Eve Tabata

Pushups: 21, 16, 10, 10*, 10*, 8*, 9*

Jog, Stretch

1mi in 7:39
20 minutes stretching

300 Circuit

10 rounds for time:
10 pushups
10 crunches
10 double-DB hang clean + push press, 15lb

Completed in 15:00
(including 2:30 rest between the first 5 and second 5 sets)

Things shouldn't be this difficult

Took a few days off after finals to get resituated in the home.
Couldn't wait any longer.

10 pullups, 4 parallel grip pullups, 4 chinups
Stairs: 10 minutes straight, every step
then (no rest) 5 minutes straight, one leg only for each flight

Later, the most difficult tire-change of my life, in 20 degree weather. Rusted bolts, stripped lug-nuts, a dinky little jack, more than two hours and we still had to get towed. Annoying.

Lift

A few pullups and ab rollups as part of the warm up, then:

8 squats 45lb
8 overhead squats 45lb
8 squats 95lb
8 squats 115lb
10 squats 135lb
8 overhead squats 45lb
48 incline medicine ball situps w/ throws, 8 twists
24 incline medicine ball situps w/ throws, 4 twists
16 incline situp + military press with 25lb plate, 16 twists

A little something

20 minutes stretching

1 meeting to discuss possible TiV trip

150 pushups, in sets of 25

Big Chill, then Pickup

5k race in 19:59
6:10, 6:40, 7:09 (6:26 pace)

46th place
44th out of 706 men
33rd out of 348 men 18-24

One 14, one 15, one 16, one 17, two 51s and one 53 year old beat me. So did a 41 year old woman, and a girl in my grade on the Rutgers women's track team--she ran an 18:30. But I ran under my goal time and this was about beating myself, so I feel pretty good about it.

About pickup, not so much. 6v6, I made a few nice plays, ran down a few hucks, but couldn't catch up or couldn't catch a lot more. Drops, bad throws, a couple bad choices, and (only) one (bad) layout. I handblocked DB's extension backhand, and later boxed him out for a goal. I got tackled mid-jump from a stationary position for a high blading backhand, and the >6' dude contested. I was pretty upset about that, once I realized he was not joking. His argument was that he "got the disc first." Despite all my mistakes the pickup was fun, not as cold and windy as I feared it would be.

Getting Ready

1.5mi run, increasing speed
20 minutes stretching

Lift

Went to Werblin with DB

Bench press: 8 at 45, 2x10 at 95, 8 at 105
15 medicine ball slams
10 each side medicine ball throws
15 medicine ball jump-shots/catches
10 hanging ab-rollups
15 vertical leg-raises on parallel bars
20 pushups, alternating one hand on medicine ball
15 pushups on bosu ball
10 pushups

Climb, Throw

I don't know whether it was a good idea, but I went climbing tonight with the guys. I made it up a G1 and maybe 3/4ths up another G1, tried to be conservative with the thumb but may have put a lot of stress on it at one point or another. I'm scheduling physical therapy for it soon, and I am really looking forward to being stronger than I was pre-fracture.

After climbing, we threw for maybe 45 minutes, much of it doing thrower/marker drill indoors. I marked one-handed, and tried to hit a specific spot on the receiver's body with all my throws. Many were successful, got handblocked a couple times, and determined that it is much harder to pivot back and forth in sneakers on hardwood.

I hope it's warm this weekend.

Swim

Warmup:
50m free in 44
6 seconds rest
50m back in 1:04
56 seconds rest
50m breast in 0:58
6 seconds rest
50m fly (untimed)

3 minutes rest

Workout:
250m free in 4:55
250m back in 7:35
30 seconds rest
125m breast, 125m fly in 7:30
30 seconds rest
250m free in 5:50

Total: 1200m

During the last 150m of the workout, everything took on a blue tinge. After I got out of the pool, I couldn't walk straight...my legs were were wobbly and I kept feeling like I was going to fall over. I had to lean over the water fountain for a minute or so and take it real easy walking back into the locker room. I peed, rinsed, spent a few minutes in the dry sauna, showered, and felt okay by the time I walked out of the gym. But that was not a feeling I enjoyed.

Pickup, Lift

Buccleuch Pickup, took a break to go house-hunting with other guys from Machine, then got back in time to play 8 more points before everybody called it quits. Felt pretty good, break throws were working but my regular throws were a bit off. I didn't get the chance to make any bad decisions deep, and maybe threw one huck at the most. I caught a few, though, threw some goals and scored some as well, tipped a huck but didn't get the D, played good defense on a quick new player, got boxed out of for a huck to me that bladed short. Moved the disc pretty well, and was overall satisfied. I've been feeling lately this pent-up aggression, and it isn't the first time. Fencing used to be a good outlet for me in the winter--I got to fight and stab people every day. Endurance workouts aren't really an ideal outlet for me because they're more about pacing and enduring pain, rather than causing it. I'm looking forward to the next phase of the journey.

After pickup, DB and I hit the gym:

12 pullups
6 pullups
8 BB hang pulls, 55lb
8 BB pulls, 55lb
active rest: incline situps
8 BB deadlift to hang pull, 65lb
20 vertical leg-raises (partner throws legs down)
15 vertical leg-raises
32 situps (every other 4 are to alternating sides)

Later, 100 pushups. 20 for getting boxed out, 20 for not getting that D, and 10 for miscellaneous. 50 for failing a teammate on his own time--even a receiver drop is a thrower error.

Throw, Lift

Threw with DJ and JK for half an hour, focusing on hucks. Then:

8 pushups, 8 bench press 45lb
2x8 bench press 95lb
8 bench press 105lb
bench press: 1 rep at 115, 1 rep at 135lb
8 pushups, hands on medicine ball
16 pushups, feet on bosu
16 body weight squats
16 pushups, alternating one hand on medicine ball
8 one-arm pushups each side, other hand assisting
3x8 BB overhead squats, 45lb

"Other hand assisting" means I stretched the arm out and wrapped my hand around the handle of the small medicine ball which has a handle. Stretching it out puts most of the weight is on the other arm, but not all--I'm trying to work towards one-arm pushups, but can't do them yet. By the end of each arm's set, it took me a couple tries to finish a rep...I was tired. My shoulders were the weakest link in the chain. I'm happy about the benching, though--135 is my personal best, and today I did it after a couple sets that weren't exactly easy to push out. I can tell that my shoulders are getting stronger, too, because the overhead squats aren't as difficult as they were before. I think that shoulder-girdle stretch really helped.

Practice Cancelled, so I'm Running

4.5mi in 36:49 (8:11 pace)

1st 1.5mi in 12:26 (8:17 pace)
2nd 1.5mi in 12:46 (8:31 pace)
3rd 1.5mi in 11:47 (7:51 pace)

That second lap was rough.

Is anybody watching this Rutgers-Louisville game? 49-0 in the first half...

Lifting Clinic

0.25mi warmup, stretch
various demos of squat, deadlift
two sets incline situps
8 BB overhead squats, 45lb

Run, Practice

Ran to practice:
3.1mi in 23:40 (1.5 in 11:30, 1.6 in 12:10)

After warmups and thrower-marker, we split into 5 teams for a round-robin mini tournament. I did half the warmup, meaning the jog and stretch but not the dynamics. I threw, but opted out of thrower-marker to save the thumb from potential catastrophe. In mini I ran the gamut, from playing conservative and moving the disc quickly and efficiently, to putting up blade flick hucks and big hammers for goals. Many of the shots were successful, some were barely out of reach (receiver error! okay maybe not) and some were just bad decisions. My short throws were good, though, and I get open when I wanted to. I played good defense most of the time, occasionally sagging after the point dragged on, but I played really good deep D. Most of the time I boxed out really well, but I also got two huge sky D's with my left hand, wrapped in an ace bandage, at the peak of my jump. Both were against taller opponents, so that felt pretty damn good. I also got a handblock, which was a little surprising because I could only put up half a mark, with my left hand usually behind my back (or at least out of the way).

But my team lost all but one "game"--even though we won a decent number of games to 3, apparently only the first one counted each round (who set up this tournament?). Did I mention, I think teams were unfair...the only team we beat definitely got the short end of the stick, but my team was mostly bottom-of-the-barrel returners. The captain that picked teams definitely gave himself the strongest team, and (no surprise) went undefeated. C'est la vie, it felt really good to play despite the frustration I had for the leadership. This included the way that the team each round with a bye ran some handler-motion reps, but they were being taught by a guest coach who did not do things the way Mio has taught us. A little weird, but luckily my team got that out of the way in the first round.

Lift

With DB:

1mi warmup (moderate increasing to fast, untimed)
30 partner-clap pushups (15 each side)
20 med ball side throws (10 each side)
30 partner-clap pushups (15 each side)
15 med ball slams
8 hanging rollups
2x8 hanging knee-raises
2x8 DB shoulder press, normal to the incline bench, 20lb (unilateral)
2x8 DB shoulder press, normal to the incline bench, 25lb (unilateral)
2x15 pushups on bosu ball

Partner-clap pushups means, two partners face each other, push up, clap right hand to right hand, return to start, repeat. "Normal to the incline bench" means you're in the middle of an incline situp, perpendicular to the bench, and you do the presses from there--unilaterally means, using only one dumbbell, do the set of 8 on one side and then on the other. I really like these, and the medicine ball throws as well.

20 minutes throwing, focusing on catching with one hand.

Tonight I caught a disc with my left hand only for the first time since I broke my thumb...it was the first catch of the throwing session, on a very floaty backhand, and even with that soft stress I could feel my hand was unhappy. The throwing session evolved into a game, which we are calling "hands." Two opponents stand facing 3yds or so apart. Serve the disc by throwing any throw between the opponent's knees and face, players catch and throw back any throw within the circle of stationary catachability. One hand only, throw with the same grip used to catch, any throw counts, no chumps. For a more advanced version, opponents must maintain eye contact. I am convinced that these games improve a player's reaction time and catching ability. Plus they're fun, and a good way to end a throwing session.

That's right, I'm lazy sometimes.

An hour or so of ice-skating.

Call it another off-day.

Actually, I've gotten really congested and developed a sore throat. I'm up to 146lb on the family's digital scale, but who knows whether that's accurate. If so, it will be easier than I thought to reach the goal of 300lb combined weight for me and DB by College Sectionals.

Speaking of Sectionals, I'm volunteering to be the SC this year. I think I'll try to find a TD to help though, because I have other business to take care of during that tournament.

Soon I'm going to see if my thumb can withstand swimming. I'll also be forcing my sick self outside for some running in the rain, so hopefully the cold will freeze my faucet dry. Or maybe I'll just get sicker, who knows. I love the Metro East in winter.

Alumni Game Part 2

So today was the real Alumni Game, so each team came out in greater numbers and with more fire to win. The day was warmer but windier, so it was fun to see how exposed many of us were (by the wind, not by lack of clothing--it wasn't that warm). One of our alums is coming off of foot surgery and could barely jog, which is no excuse for screwing up the first pass of the game--we let off a break to begin, then somehow went up by a few before giving up most of the lead. After a while we made up the score and then finished out the game playing zone D and better O. Notable moments...I got handblocked by my favorite kid from the class of '09, I handblocked the upstart kid brother of one of the former captains, and I enjoyed the game with players old and new.

Thanksgiving!

Between 3pm feasting and our evening dessert marathon, a quick workout:

8 pushups
8x(deadlift to hang clean to shoulder press)
8 pushups
8x(hang clean to front squat to shoulder press)
8 pushups
8x(snatch to front squat to push press)
8 pushups
8 split squat each leg, 40lb
8 pushups
25 crunches, 8 leg lifts, 25 lemon squeezers, 8 leg lifts
8 pushups

All the combo exercises were done with 20lb DBs.

Alumni Pickup

7 alums and the coach showed up to play 10 or so of the current team. It was sort of close, but mostly because nobody warmed up and the alums took a very long time to stop turfing and dropping. I skied a couple times on defense, but I was dropping most of what was thrown to me. One hand in the cold is hard, especially when the disc is coming to your ankles. I had too much fun, I think I'll be serious for the post-Thanksgiving alumni game.

Cold Run

In the midst of finishing out my classes the week, I left all my underarmour in Stirling.

So, I decided to do my workout tonight in shorts and a jersey. Outside. In the cold.

It started to rain as we walked to the workout location: a 400m stretch of College Avenue.

3x400m with 1:30 rest (1:19.7, 1:13.8, 1:23.2)
5 minutes rest
3x400m with 1:30 rest (1:17.6, 1:29.7, 1:17.8)

The odd numbered sprints were uphill against the wind, evens downhill with wind.

I hate 400m repeats. But "I'm going to work so that it's a pure guts race at the end..."

Pickup

Walked to Buccleuch to stand around and watch the pickup crowd. Laughed at my inability to throw into stiff wind. Ended up playing 5v5 pickup. Dumb decision, but one consciously made after assessing the risks. I tried to keep my left hand out of the way and was mostly successful, but the disc knocked my wrist a little during a pancake and it worried me, but I think I'm okay. I made a nice move to get open deep--found myself between two defenders, mine and the last back, so I drove a step in towards the last back and then turned as he bit on the fake. The last back had his back deep and couldn't catch up, so I scored a nice long goal. Scored a couple other times, too, threw at least one, and got one real D. But I was unable to jump through a guy to catch a floating huck (I thought I could have done it, but I wasn't aggressive due to bone troubles) and missed at least two other D's and a chance to save possession because of the damn thumb. There was one point during which Dusty and I coordinated to shut down a few cutters with some mutual poaching, and I thought it was cool that we just recognized the situation and didn't have to say anything. So I'm still learning from pickup, which is cool (and not unexpected, given the guys that show up).

It felt good to play again.

Stretch, Run

15 minute massage for lower back
45 minutes warmup, stretch
1.5mi in 11:08 on treadmill, 2 mins rest, 1.5mi in 11:24 on road

I don't know why I decided to run. Certainly not because I felt good. Ugh.

Lift, Run

8 deadlifts 45lb
8 romanian deadlifts 45lb
8 deadlifts 95lb
8 romanian deadlifts 95lb
8 deadlifts 115lb to 8 romanian deadlifts 115lb (no rest)
8 squats 95lb
20 pushups, 5 knuckle pushups, 5 downward-dog pushups
1.5mi in 10:15 on treadmill (6:15, 4:00)

It takes almost half a minute to get the treadmill up to speed, and treadmills are weird for other reasons, so I am not really happy with that time. But I kicked my ass a little to do that first mile, and just ran out of gas. I had to drop down to a slow jog for a quarter mile, and as I was slowly picking it back up I decided to cut my losses and get off the damn thing. I'll try to get on a treadmill again because I think it will help me find the rhythm I need to hit fast miles, but I don't want to just hop on and burn out like I did this time. It probably didn't help to do those deadlifts beforehand, either. Oh, and pushups are very difficult when you can't use your thumbs..and haven't done pushups for a long time...and did shoulder work the day before. Excuses!

Lift

A light lifting day to break up cold weather running.

9 pullups
8 DB upright row to shoulder press, 15lb
8 wide-grip pullups with 20lb assistance
8 DB upright row to shoulder press, 20lb
8 DB overhead squat, 10lb
8 DB overhead squat, 15lb
8 BB overhead squat, 35lb
8 BB shoulder press, 35lb
8 BB overhead squat, 45lb
8 BB shoulder press, 45lb

Then 30 minutes of throwing with DB, focusing on stepping out to full extension and throwing nearly-flat inside-outs. We were trying to figure out what our extension was, how it worked, and how we could improve it. My hamstring tendon started to feel weird, so we went back to regular throwing near the end. I scared myself at least twice after almost attempting to catch the disc left-handed. Not remotely ready for that, and I'm a little worried about lifting with it weak and not totally healed. But I'm being careful, and stopping when things hurt the hand even a little.

Run, Practice

Ran to practice.

3.1mi in 24:20 (7:51 pace)

It was cold. Very cold. I didn't push, but I didn't take it easy either. I planned to finish in 24 minutes, and I did. Not a workout, per se, but not mere recovery. Basically, trying to get my body used to running 5k in the cold. Hopefully this prep will help, even when I'm not killing myself to get my time down.

Practice was warmup then scrimmage. It was freezing. I stood on the sideline and tried to be more constructive, instead of just angry. I think I did an okay job, but things got really sloppy because of the cold.

Stupid Metro East.

Run

4.5mi in 32:40

1st 1.5mi: 11:00
2nd 1.5mi: 10:38
3rd 1.5mi: 11:02

DB ran with me for the first two laps. He probably could have pushed out a faster second lap, but instead kept my pace. I ran the third lap alone, and I didn't have much left in the tank by the time I turned the corner for the home stretch. Generally I am able to step it up for that last half mile, but no dice--instead, ab cramps. Maybe because of the workout yesterday. So I was sucking wind and forcing it back out in an attempt to ignore the cramp, but it definitely prevented me from opening up the stride as I normally would. But the good news is that I am getting closer.

Lift, Run

Jog 0.75mi warmup
30 mins semi-active stretching

With 8lb med ball: 8 squats, 8 squat+press, 16 overhead squat
Then 8/8/16 again with the 8lb med ball, but on a bosu ball
8 shoulder press each arm with 10lb sandball
2x8 DB upright row to shoulder press, 15lb
9 pullups
8 DB shoulder raise, 12lb
Wall shoulder girdle stretch
8 hanging rollups
In roman chair: 8x(knee raise, leg raise)
On incline bench: 8 situps, 8 alternating situps each side, 8 situps

Plus a few other abs exercises, like leg lifts. Immediately afterwards,

2.4mi in 18:40 (7:47 pace)

I want to smash my PB for the 5k. I have 4 weeks to prepare. I'm talking under a 6:30 pace, and down to 6:10 if I can do it. Last year I did 6:20, 6:40, 7:30 splits. 6:00, 6:20, 6:40 gets me under 19:00. Let's see what I'm made of.

ARJI 08

Rain, turf fields, coaching Rutgers B, fraternizing with CHS A, encouraging WHRHS, and trying to be on my own time at least half the time. I really wanted to play with the B team when they were up against zone D in crazy wind. I resisted, but made bad jokes about how they should take injury subs for me on the goal line. Good thing nobody did.

It rained hard during that Showcase Game. I really wish I could have played. But to be honest, I would have been a little psyched out--the game was very fast, mistakes were very visible, everybody was athletic and skilled, and you could tell. It wasn't like the club season, where I had a team to back me up and pick me up. But it was fun as hell to watch. I had to root for my club teammates, but I was very impressed with the high schoolers. They're going to add some serious talent to college teams next year.

Practice

Shortened practice due to some high school girls' soccer game on our turf field. I sat out again, watching from the sideline and wishing I could play. Damn.

But the captains/officers got the schedule worked out for the winter and spring season, which is exciting. Tuesday morning speed/quickness workout (sprinting, change of direction, etc). Tuesday night endurance run (likely 3-6 miles on the loop I usually do for my long runs). Thursday night circuit workout with Satan (aka Coach). Saturday noon pickup at Buccleuch. Sunday afternoon outdoor practice. Which means Monday and Wednesday are my climbing days, Friday my swimming/recovery day, Saturday and Sunday my lifting days. Can't wait.

Stretch

Woke up this morning with a pain in my back that prevented me from turning my head down or as far to the side as I should be able to. So instead of lifting, I stretched for 30 minutes at the gym, trying to work out the kink.

Run, Practice

2mi in 15:14

Practice was very frustrating. Unable to play, I watched bad decisions and bad cuts and not enough effort from too many people. I probably yelled too much.

Oneonta Invite

Went up to Oneonta, NY with 6 players from the B team, plus DJ and alumnus PH.

Game 1 vs SUNY Binghamton started out well with us going up by at least 2 breaks. Then they started to play zone and we weren't practiced enough to work it up every time. Really, though, we kept it close and I think the only reason we weren't able to put it in the bag was our lack of depth on defense. We just didn't have as many athletic bodies or experienced players as we needed, and Binghamton had a few sweet handlers from Stuyvesant HS that worked the disc well enough to eventually find open guys with blade shots. They didn't have a very organized dump offense, but they looked to attack upfield in a way that our guys were unfamiliar with, so we got caught with our pants down from time to time. Game ended 10-13, not bad but I wanted it and thought we could have had it with one or two more A players.

Game 2 vs Lyndon State...a very, very young team that didn't really know what was going on. The just sort of let us take over, so we took half 8-0 (accidentally played an extra point before half) and won 13-1.

Game 3 vs Cooperstown, a mixed highschool pickup team. A hurricane descended on Oneonta, and both teams played huck-and-hope because the weather was the only real defense. I was deep-deep, and knocked down enough garbage to give us the chances on O, and we had enough patience to work it up that we scored without too much trouble. Our opponents were able to come down with a few big hammers and hucks, but I sent a few of my own shots deep in what we decided was our new "Gameplan: huck to DJ." It worked, everybody forgot what the score was, mutually agreed on pretending it was 8-4 us (skipped halftime) and we won 13-6.

The meaningless crossover round was cancelled due to torrential rain, so we all went back to our hotel and showered before eating at a down-home kitschy family-style place with a great Saturday pork loin special, ate way too much food and then took a nap. Watched some TV, ate some delicious pizza, watched more TV, some guys went to the tournament party, heard loud sex noises from the room above, eventually fell asleep.

Game 4 vs SUNY Oneonta was our quarters matchup because they switched the bracket around to play us. In the first half we lost DJ to injury and one of the B dudes had to go home early, so we were down to 7 against a team with more collective experience and more tall athletic dudes than we had. The wind picked up, too, giving me and PH some trouble, while drops and such from the B dudes made up the rest of our turnovers. I got some D's, PH got at least one, and we tried to make a comeback with wall defense but we didn't have enough to get it done. Lost 4-15.

Game 5 vs Manhattanville, which also had some players from Ramapo, started out with a lot of SOTG but almost no effort or focus from our side. They went up and we caught up, they played zone D and went up again, we started playing wall and caught up, and it became a battle at the cap. They were up 8-10 when the horn blew, we scored, 9-10 game to 12. We scored, they scored, we scored, universe point, we pull and we score so we win. I'm skipping over the details because it was mostly me getting a deep D, us working it up until we sent something deep and a new kid came down with it. I got kickblocked once but I got plenty of D's and assists to make up for it.

We bagged, but so did our final opponents so we tied for 5th. Seeded 6th, so we "upset" and came out with a winning record, so not bad all around. I dropped the disc maybe twice because of my cast, failed to lay out several times (because of my cast?) and missed a couple D's (definitely because of my cast), threw the disc away a couple times but got a lot of real D's (almost all on hucks) and threw a bunch of completed hucks and scores. Not great, and I certainly didn't work very hard--it was more like high school, where I handled and played every point but didn't get too tired because the competition wasn't great and I didn't play tight man D but rarely. I think I sat for fewer than 3 points all weekend.

Practice

I got to coach a new kid on his throws, and he improved a lot very quickly. I love that. I think I am good at coaching a person learning how to throw. As long as they want to get better, at least. I enjoy helping, too.

I also got to play! Zone offense, in sneakers. But on the turf field, so it wasn't a big problem. I really enjoy zone offense, too, so it was a fun practice for me. Break throws felt good, damn good. I don't think I ever got D'ed, and only "dropped" one throw, because it was thrown behind me to my left side and my cast hand can't catch by itself. My thumb took a light hit that made me conscious of how I need to be careful, but it didn't really hurt. I broke free deep and got hucked to, caught that pancake. Can't wait for this weekend.

Go go go go go time. I get to have FUN this weekend!

Lift

3 right-hand pullups at -70lb, 4 at -80lb
6 right-hand pullups at -80lb
8 good-mornings at 45lb
3x8 BB overhead squats at 35lb
8 DB snatch 45lb, right hand only
3x15 hanging leg-raise
15 lemon squeezers, 15 double-crunches

I was tapped out for this workout. Probably because I only got 3.5 hours of sleep last night after kicking my ass in two workouts. I need to stretch and rest up for this weekend.

Run, Practice

3.3mi in 26:40 (8:05 pace)
30min rest (I voted, it took 30 minutes exactly)
2.6mi in 20:30 (7:53 pace)

I just watched and coached for most of practice, until the workout at the end:

50 body-weight squats
30 star jumps
30 burpees

No rest. My form was not great for the star jumps, but I was able to do the burpees with my right hand and just the fingertips of my left. My fingers hurt afterwards, but it was worth it. Most people did squat-thrust-jumps instead of burpees, though, so I was the second-to-last person to finish. I got cheered on, which doesn't usually happen...nice.

Lift

Squats: 8 at 45, 3x10 at 95lb
3x10 calf jumps
DB shoulder press (right hand only): 10 at 20, 10 at 25, 10 at 30lb
Fly machine: 8 at 70, 2x8 at 80lb
15 calf raises with 45lb BB
15 calf raises with 45lb BB, toes on raised surface
15 calf raises with 45lb BB held overhead, toes raised

Squatting felt good. The shoulder presses were hard, and the fly machine much harder because of it. I don't know if holding the bar overhead does anything for calf raises, but I tried it anyway. Can't wait to get my cast off, so I can do overhead squats again.

Hardly worth mentioning...

0.8mi jog

Lift

Good Mornings: 8 at 45, 8 at 65, 8 at 75lb
8 DB shoulder press (right hand only) at 15lb
Dip-station reverse shrugs (resting on forearms): 3x8
Deadlift: 2x8 at 45lb, 8 at 50lb
DB snatch (right hand only): 8 at 40, 8 at 45, 8 at 50lb
3x8 bent-over row 50lb
1 farmer's carry (right hand only), 50lb

Finished the workout in time to catch the end of warmups at practice. I chose to not participate in the drills and scrimmage. Instead, I threw a bunch of backhand and forehand hucks into a miniature soccer goal, focusing on speed (I threw a fake before each throw). Probably 50 of each. Then I worked on short throws with a new kid for a while. Then I practiced screaming encouragement at my teammates.

Run

With DB.

3mi in 22:37

1st 1.5mi: 12:12
2nd 1.5mi: 10:25

It was cold, and I was wearing only shorts and a jersey. I also neglected to take a pre-game dump. But the run was about right--a medium jog for the first lap, picking up the pace for the second. My running partner lost full lung function near the end and had to quit, so I wasn't able to push myself as hard without him there (ok, excuse) but I put a solid effort into that second lap. Better preparedness for the weather, next time.

Lift

Squats: 8 at 45, 3x8 at 95lb
3x8 calf raises each leg
6 one-arm pullups with 80lb assistance
Single-rep DB snatch: 40, 45, 50, 55, 60lb
Hanging leg-ups: 3x12, 16, 12
Lunges onto a step: 2x8 each leg

I also tried some shoulder raises on the cable machine. It hurt my broken hand, so I stopped pretty quickly.

Lift

Good Mornings: 8 at 45, 8 at 65, 8 at 65lb
Dip-station reverse shrug (resting on forearms): 3x8
DB snatch (right hand only): 8 at 30, 8 at 35lb
Fly machine: 8 at 60, 8 at 70, 8 at 80lb
45degree extensions: 8 at body weight, 8 at +25lb

I also did one set of hamstring curls on the exercise ball. I was mostly trying to figure out what kinds of exercises I could do in the gym without a left hand, and without getting kicked out (I had to keep the cast hidden with long sleeves). I can't do regular deadlifts or RDL because the doctor said not to use my left hand to pick up or hold anything heavy, but I can rest the bar on my shoulders as long as there's not too much weight on it. The fly machine works fine, and tomorrow I'm going to attempt some tricep extension stuff. Bottom line is that I can still lift, as long as I am careful to not need my hand, and careful to not be caught.

Practice

I only ran, and threw hucks for the deep cutting drill. When I saw the dark team playing offense against a zone, I whispered to a wing (the guy who helped me break my thumb, in fact) to come off and let me sneak on during a stoppage of play. I went in, dropped an easy pass (my hands were FREEZING), played good D (my guy never got the disc) until the other team dropped it, then handled until we scored. Sweet.

My left hand got so cold from exposure (the cast doesn't help) that when I came back inside after practice, I couldn't extend my fingers without separating them. Physically unable to do something that is normally quite easy. It took me ten minutes to regain complete use of my hand. I need handwarmers.

Do it anyway.

Got my cast--fire-engine red.

3mi in 21:17

Lap 1: 10:57
Lap 2: 10:20

Pace under 7:06. I like it. I really pushed during that second 1.5mi lap. I need to take "Torture Me" by RHCP off my running playlist, though--that song made it so much harder. "Breathe" by Fabolous helped me kick it up a notch, though, and I finished strong with "Here's to Life" by Streetlight Manifesto. At one point I felt like puking, and by the end I was hurting in all sorts of places--calves, shoulders, shins--but thankfully my thumb didn't complain too much.

Snap.

5 minutes left in practice.

We're doing a deep drill. Offense gets a headstart on defense, the thrower puts something up and the battle begins. I've been throwing, but decide I need at least one battle before the day is done. I pick my matchup--arguably the most athletic sophomore--and cut into the front of the O line on the backhand side.

Disc in. I sprint. Disc up.

I read. I get position. I go up a fraction of a second too early to make the catch with both hands. Some contact. I go down, on my feet but into a crouch, and watch in slow-motion high-definition as my left hand reaches out to the turf to balance my landing, to absorb my impact.

Why does my thumb look like that? Why, hand, would you put yourself at that angle for landing? I see you touch down. I see, millisecond by millisecond, the angle between my thumb and hand contract in the wrong plane.

I hear a snap.

A crack, a shot loud in my ears as my eyes register the pain. I stand, and know something is not right. I feel woozy. I feel numb. I feel angry, helpless, violent, alone, and clichéd. Swelling, pain--it is familiar, but wrong. This should not be happening. I am supposed to be swimming, rock climbing, catching bullets, and preparing to be in the best shape of my life. I am supposed to have all the balls in the air.

Now, I have something different to look to. Doctor appointments. My second cast, maybe even my first surgery. Time spent feeling like time wasted. Pain, mental and physical. Creative training. Weaknesses to attack.

It's all about focus.

Run, Practice

2mi in 13:52

then practice, which was good until...

Brodown Stats

Del Y: 6 OP, 2 DP, 3 A, 0 G, 0 D, 4 T (-1)
Ge W: 7 OP, 6 DP, 4 A, 0 G, 0 D, 2 T (+2)
Catlic: 4 OP, 5 DP, 4 A, 0 G, 0 D, 1 T (+3)
Pitt B: 2 OP, 7 DP, 3 A, 0 G, 1 D, 4 T (0)
Pitt A: 8 OP, 2 DP, 0 A, 0 G, 1 D, 6 T (-5)

Total: 27 OP, 22 DP, 14 A, 0 G, 2 D, 17 T

Fantasy: +4 on Saturday, -5 on Sunday, -1 for the weekend. Good to bad ratio: 0.941

0.347 turnovers per point played
0.286 assists per point played
0.824 assists per turnover
0.118 D's per turnover

I'm going to push for plus/minus stat-keeping at our next tournament. I thought I scored a couple goals, and I thought I got more D's than that--but I guess they only counted it as a D if you actually touched the disc to cause the turn. When I look over the numbers, though, I start to question whether the statkeeper counted things fairly...

60 minutes of bouldering on the rock wall, then 20 minutes of throwing. Finished with throwing/catching bullet passes of varying heights, clap catches and one-handed grabs. It feels really good to force yourself to catch bullets, to grip it and rip it back to a trusted teammate. Catching is a practicable skill...

Space Bastard Brodown

Drove the minivan down to Maryland this weekend for my first tournament of the season with Rutgers. I had a car full of kids new to the team, old grad student as my copilot, and leadfoot gumshoe urge to book it down I-95. I had my music all planned out and made it without incident to the destination--first down by at least half an hour. Okay, so I had a few minutes' head start. In any case, I check into the hotel and hit the sack while the new kids traipse over to IHOP for a very early breakfast. It takes me a long time to fall asleep, due to excitement and loud noises from the new kids.

Up at 6:20am, ahead of my alarm by 25 minutes, I relax for a while until some captain comes banging on the door to wake the rest of us up with the news that our first round had been pushed up by half an hour. Luckily I had given my room a generous amount of time to get out the door after waking up, so we hurried over to Dunkin Donuts and hit the fields at 7:30am sharp. We were the first ones there--UMD hadn't even arrived on the scene yet. It was chilly and I had forgotten my hoodie, and I was too lazy to put on UnderArmour (which I would then have to wash), so I tried to stand still and ignore the cold while watching the guys throw around. I found out which field we were on and eventually we started warming up. I didn't want to warm up. The team we were supposed to play didn't show up until 5 minutes after the first round was supposed to start, so when they ambled up to the sideline I walked into the captain-captain discussion and said, "Either you give us everything we want (dark, pulling, from this side) or we're assessing you points." Response: "oh, in that case, sure, sorry about that." Boom. We give them another ten minutes to get on the line, and then:

Game 1 vs Delaware X starts off with us getting D's, giving it back, and getting D's again before finally converting. We went up by several breaks, then gave a few breaks back when we failed to connect on deep shots to open cutters (and a dump miscommunication throwaway). Del starts playing better, but they're plagued by drops and we start putting more pressure on them. We also start cleaning up our shots and put the goals together to win 11-7.

Then we had a bye from 10am to 4pm because they forgot that UMD had booked the fields for some homecoming rugby thing. Nice. We ate gyros and people-watched for an interminable amount of time, got some Cold Stone, sat around some more, then started warming up at 3pm to get ready for:

Game 2 vs George Washington. It started out with something weird. I forget what. I think it was us racking up a bunch of breaks right away. Then things got weirder. After we called a few picks during one point in the first half, one of our newer guys rolled his ankle and called injury. In response, a GW leader-type says, bitterly and half aloud, "you guys call a lot of shit." Sorry, next time we'll try to not let our injuries interfere with your offense. The game somehow became chippy at this point--GW made some questionable calls and used loud voices to contest reasonable foul calls. I remember my mark wrapping his left arm around me and initiating contact, then holding me back as I tried to pivot to the forehand side. I called foul, he said "contest." I said, quietly and politely, "hold on, I'd like to discuss this. You wrapped your arm around me and initiated contact, without giving me disc space, that prevented me from pivoting. That is the definition of a foul." Response from GW player, very antagonistic: "Are you done?" "...yes." "Contest." "Okay...coming in on 4, I guess." So they crawled back by a bit, but we were up 7-2 at half and, after a hellishly long point (made so by lots of turnovers from one of our captains...), we cruised to a 13-6 victory. I threw an AWFUL hammer turnover--it slipped out of my hands because i couldn't look at my target, because the sun was in my eyes, and I had some other excuse too. But I played well overall.

Game 3 vs Catholic was right afterwards. They were a bunch of nice dudes, but we were rolling at this point and let up only 2 points each half. Our deep shots were connecting, and we got back the few turnovers we had. I threw another awful hammer...actually two of them in this game. But I had some really sweet hucks, and ran down a few for goals as well. Like I said, we rolled, 13-4 win. Done for the day, ate at a Chinese buffet, then chilled at the hotel. I watched Chris Rock, then had a two hour discussion with the other team leaders about all kinds of team shit--something we had not done formally yet, which I think really helped us to work through some things and provide a space for working out more in the future. Went to bed at 1am, and had only slightly less trouble falling asleep this time.

Up at 8:15am before the 8:30am alarm, quickly showered and packed up, checked out and hit Dunkin Donuts, got to the fields and warmed up in the wet grass behind the endzone of the fields being used in the day's first round. That's right, we had a first-round bye on Sunday because of the field screwup on Saturday--how cool is that? Anyway, we get up and ready for:

Game 4 vs Pitt B, in which we have a few problems with matchups but overall played more consistently than they did. We exposed their lack of experience and took the game down 13-6 to win the pool. The field screwup meant that our pool win put us into:

Game 5 (Semifinals) vs Pitt A. We gave up a bunch of breaks to start after taking a lot of deep shots that failed for one reason or another--new player dropped it in the endzone, some Pittsburgh goon jumped over six guys for the sky-D, or we got boxed out by the short handler we underestimated. Our handler motion was stagnant and were not putting any emphasis on in-cuts, so huck after huck got ate up and Pitt had the patience to grind it out until somebody got an unmarked throw to a streaking receiver. I was impressed by their composure, frustrated by their overall height, and unreasonably adamant that my teammates stop hucking it deep. Some of our shots eventually worked out, but I for some reason wanted us to only hit in-cuts for a while, just to change up the pace if nothing else. But we got dominated top to bottom, and lost 3-15.

So we bagged our 3/4th place game. I floored it home to see my lovely lady, so long absent and angry at my insistence on attending these damn tournaments every weekend. I was proud of my team this weekend, though--pleased with our performance in pool play, dissatisfied with our semifinals showing, and happy we got out of there before CHS tried to con us into playing some shortened game while Pitt A dismantled Pennsbury. (15-3 says the score reporter) I feel like I played very well on Saturday, well enough against Pitt B, and comparatively well against Pitt A--meaning they were stronger opponents and so I should have adjusted my decision-making process, but my effort was there and my defense was not poor. I think I played well defensively most of the time, but still got caught with my pants down too often. There is a lot of opportunity ahead, and I am hungry for more.

Practice

Pretty good practice. Had a couple nice deep shots, trusted the new kids, got to run around a lot. I got some D's. I skied alumnus Pete Holt, and that felt pretty good. I celebrated like a jerk, though, wiping the disc on him as he complimented me. oops. My team won the scrimmage, but the last couple points dragged on for a while because people couldn't catch in the endzone. By the end, I stopped playing good defense--I was getting tired. DB faceblocked his old HS captain, who was throwing a big huck to me. He said it took him a while to remember his home address--not a good sign.

Tournament this weekend!

Climb

Climbed the rock wall tonight at the College Ave Gym. Well, mostly I belayed for DB, but I also got to try two different G1s, and made it up both on my first try. Nice.

Practice

Felt good tonight, got in a groove starting with the warmup and rode it through practice. Not everything was perfect, but I felt up to speed and confident in my choices. I played good defense, too--got an interception on an alumnus, then threw the 30yd backhand goal to the casted-up captain. Missed a deep huck over my shoulder because I couldn't track it, and even though it wasn't a good throw I'm starting to get really frustrated when I miss those. I missed one at Regionals, and that cannot happen.

Two goals for this season:
Kill Mode (aka takethediscawaydefense)
Focus (in choice, execution, and effort)

Swim

100m free in 1:26
3:34 rest
200m back in 3:23
3:37 rest
300m free in 6:00
4:00 rest
200m breast in 4:38
1:22 rest
100m fly in 2:06

Total: 900m in 28 minutes

I think those rest times are correct. I'm confident in the swim times.

Regionals

One season ends.

Focus shift:

Go.

Practice

Focused on getting up to speed. Threw lots of turnovers.

Practice

Threw lots of turnovers. Got up to speed. Stretched afterwards.

Stretch, Throw

45 minutes stretching / bouldering on the rock wall
30 minutes throwing in the gym, focus on accuracy

Swim

200m IM at warmup pace
200m IM at moderate pace
200m IM in 4:05

Happy 21st Birthday to me!

Practice

Practice in the rain tonight. It wasn't much fun, but hopefully everybody got something out of it.

Lift

8 pullups (2 with knees tucked)
4 overhead squats, 4 back squats at 35lb
6x(deadlift, clean, push press, overhead squat) at 45lb
6x(deadlift, clean, push press, overhead squat) at 65lb
6x(deadlift, clean, push press, overhead squat) at 85lb
6 clean and jerk at 95lb
3x8 hanging knees-to-elbows
incline situps with 10lb medicine ball passes
12 turkish get-ups (6 per side) at 30lb

Pike Practice

In Philly. For some reason, I couldn't throw. I think I played decent defense, but I had a lot of turnovers--dropped an easy huck in the endzone, threw the disc into the dirt or defense, stupid shit like that. I tried to work hard and put in a lot of effort, but the focus of the practice was to stay focused, and I did not.

Frustrating.

Using this week to get ready--physically and mentally.

Stretching, Throwing

Stretched for 45 minutes with DB, then threw around in the light rain for 30 minutes. Focused on stepping out, hitting a specific point on the receiver's body, and pushups for any drops.

Practice

Practice in the rain tonight. It wasn't much fun, but hopefully everybody got something out of it.

PTW, Practice

8x(sprint 40, sprint 10, sprint 40yd)
rest
8x(jog 10, sprint 10, sprint 40yd)

Practice was good. I matched up with DB in the scrimmage, played good D but threw a few turnovers.

Recovery Swim

100m backstroke (untimed)
200m breaststroke (4:45)
200m freestyle (3:45)
100m butterfly (2:02)

Swimming 200m without stopping is very hard. My technique for every stroke deteriorates after 25m, and by the third 25 I can't put my head under the water for lack of oxygen. I persevere, however, and feel good afterwards.

Pike Double Practice

Drove DB's manual car down to Philly for practice without too much trouble. The BBQ on Saturday night was awesome, but I don't think I played well enough this weekend. Not enough energy, I kept realizing too late in a point that I had more in the tank. I was really angry today, and overall I think my attitude sucked at different times.

I realized today that I have only ever played containment defense [when I played defense at all, I ruefully think to myself]. I want to take the disc away from my matchup, to dominate him like I see my teammates dominating their matchup. I can tell when my teammates are thinking to themselves that I let them down, by the voices on the sideline and the reactions of the players on the field--that I failed, again, to make the great athletic play, failed to make the defensive effort, played without energy or heart, gave up. Today I allowed myself to get boxed out and skied three times in the endzone by the same player. I'm angry. If I had played perfect offense, I wouldn't be as upset, but I remember the bad choices, bad vision, the trying-to-do-too-much that I've fought to overcome. I'm also frustrated by teammates who show the same weaknesses, and I know that all I can do is support and push them--and I know that first I have to push myself.

So I have two weeks to do it.

Granted, I do believe I had good moments, good plays, periods--however brief--where I played good defense, attacked on offense. I just expect more of myself than I felt able to give these past two days. It doesn't help, of course, that my feet are killing me.

Practice

We had practice.

Afterwards, I taught the handler motion to two freshmen. That was cool.

Lift

I skipped power gym this morning in favor of getting enough sleep to recover from last night's workout/practice. Later, went to the gym with DB to swim, but the pool was closed. So...instead, we did a quick weightlifting workout. Neither of us brought a disc, so throwing was out.

8 pullups
4 pullups with 30lb assistance, 6 with 40lb assistance
2x8 DB hang pulls, 25lb
2x8 T-bar row, 65lb
12 back extensions, 8 back extensions with 25lb
8 BB hang clean + push press, 65lb

PTW, Practice

2x100yd, 3x80yd, 4x60yd, 6x40yd
For the 100, we had to sprint 80 and then back 20, because the field was short. We timed with a stopwatch, but remember to leave room for human error. Rest was approximately 45-60sec between each sprint.

DB's 100 Times: 14.31, 14.53
GP's 100 Times: 14.40, 13.66

DB's 80 Times: 10.22, 10.53, 10.56
GP's 80 Times: 9.87, 10.31, 10.03

DB's 60 Times: 8.00, 8.00, 8.00, 7.81
GP's 60 Times: 7.56, 8.03, 7.50, 7.41

DB's 40 Times: 5.34, 5.78, 5.65, 5.63, 5.72, 5.41
GP's 40 Times: 5.47, 5.34, 5.53, 5.60, 5.31, 5.28


Practice was a mix of drills and throwing, so I took advantage of the opportunity to hone skills. My goal is to throw every day until Regionals--18 days in a row.

Recovery

Afternoon:
20 minutes stretching, pushups
12 minute jog (start slow, build to fast)
8 dead hang pullups
8 DB overhead squats, 10lb

Evening swim:
200m warmup (50 of each stroke), stretching in pool
25m legs only, 25m arms only
8x25m (50 of each stroke) with rest (treading water)
25m water-running (propel yourself by pretending to run, don't touch bottom)
25m freestyle sprint

Power Gym

Early! with a turnout of nearly 12.

The trainer put us through a fairly intense warmup of lunges, plyometric pushups, single-leg squats, and squat jumps. Next up was 2x(10 deadlifts, 10 jump shrugs) at 99lbs. Ladder drills came next, and finally a bunch of single- and double-leg jumps for distance. It was a pretty good workout, but nothing too strenuous--presumably because the trainer is getting a feel for what kind of condition we're in and getting us to learn the movements. For fun, when we were putting the weights away, I clean-and-pressed my 99lb and tried to do an overhead squat, but couldn't quite lower to parallel. Maybe with a little less, and with a spotter.

First Practice

Late night, lots of newcomers. Throwing, warmup, throwing, drills to practice throwing to space for cutters, semi-organized scrimmage, throwing. I liked the atmosphere, and it felt good for the size of the group. I see a lot of potential, and hope attrition doesn't take too much of it away.

AM Practice

At pre-breakfast practice this morning for Rutgers, I warmed up and then assisted in the drills, but declined to do anything more than throw. I was feeling a little beat up from the weekend, and just wanted to work out a few kinks. At the end of practice, however, when we did 3-man marking drill, I got cracked in the knee by a backhand fake, right where my tendonitis presents. It hurt.

Ouch.

Heavyweights

We played a couple good games, a couple games not well. I'm not very interested in explaining the weekend or even talking about it very much, except to perhaps recall some of my highlights and lowlights. I turfed a forehand that should have looped through wide-open space to Ellis in the endzone. I got a block in the endzone. A teammate hesitated to throw to me for a goal, and when he finally threw it my defender layed out and D'ed the disc into my face. A (Machine or BAT) defender threw himself onto my back, but I caught the pass and moved the disc. A (Los?) defender fell into a heap at my legs, kicking my achilles and getting in my way, but I finished my cut upline and threw a goal (or, at least, we scored within ~2 passes, I forget). I threw a few forehands into the wind over the heads of my receivers. I dropped a pull. I boxed out a Machine player very well, for a goal. I tossed the disc up in a nonchalant semi-spike, and got some dirty looks from the opponent sideline (I intended no ill-will or disrespect, honestly). I struggled at times to feel like I was contributing positively to the offense. I doubted at least one of my teammates, and felt justified and yet bad about it. I had a nice forehand huck in our Pike-v-Pike scrimmage at the end of Sunday. I ended the weekend wondering where we will take this team, but even more hungry to pull and push because I know we can be better.

I also had fun getting out of the parking lot...

Watchung Practice

Showed up for a practice with the high school kids tonight. There were only 10 of us, but we did a few deep drills and some sprints before calling it quits. I got to practice my bad hucks, which was fun. After 3 guys left, there weren't enough to do mini--we would not have been able to satisfy the first rule. Too many complainers.

5x40/40yd sprints

Pike Double Practice

Saturday was a good rough practice, lots of punishment. The O team still only shows up around half the time it steps on the field, but at least our good moments are getting better. I know I started playing strong(er) D by the end of the day, but don't remember much else.

Sunday was marred by lower attendance, and I personally stunk up the field for one of the 3-pulls with 2 turnovers--one quail forehand into the wind and a huck to a receiver who was too deep. Then we split into teams based on which players we would or would not want to date our hypothetical daughter, and I was put on the upstanding team. After getting bodied up by a skinny O-line player in the first point while making an in-cut, costing us the disc, I turned up the heat. I played better defense, made a few bids on offense (not real layouts, but good efforts), and started moving the disc like crack in a bad neighborhood. Dishies, dumps, handler cuts, and one sweet forehand huck to Tous. That was fun. My team won the scrimmage by a fair margin.

Afterwards, lunch at Chipotle and a drive through traffic to Turkey Swamp Park, where I paced the fields to figure out how many we can fit for Sectionals. It's getting closer...

Home Lift

5 ledge pullups, knees tucked
8 SL RDL per leg at body weight
5 ledge pullups, knees tucked
8 SL RDL per leg at body weight
4 ledge pullups, knees tucked
8 SL RDL per leg at body weight
2x(12 bent over DB row, 30sec rest, 12 upright DB row) at 20lb

Hadn't done back/biceps/shoulders in a while. I anticipate lots of sprinting and plyometric pushups tomorrow, so I kept it (very) light with the hamstrings. I like how the ledge adds grip difficulty and the tucked knees puts more emphasis on controlled motion with a strong core. I also focused on stability and control during the SL RDL, because I'm awful at those "running man" things we do in warmup (basically SL RDL, but faster and without pausing).

PTW

Suicides on turf, with cleats:

4x200yd (0-15-0-25-0-40-0-40) with 1:45 rest
37.78, 36.41, 38.44, 39.19
3:00 rest
6x120yd (0-15-0-25-0-40) with 1:15 rest
23.87, 23.59, 23.44, 23.94, 23.22, 22.64

I am humbled once again.

200th Post

3mi bike ride

2mi jog
60mins yoga
2mi jog

I didn't time anything today, mostly took it easy but ramped up for the last mile of my final jog. First time I've biked in a long time, thinking about buying one to commute from Rutgers to my job. It would also be a pretty good way of getting around campus.

Pike Practice

9am-4pm in Princeton, so I made the drive down without meschaunce and cleated up. Throughout the warmup drills, I felt like I had lost my ability to throw, and was having trouble especially with hucks. During our scrimmages I felt a little better, and generally worked the disc well and played reasonably good defense--perhaps with not enough energy here and there in the longer points, but I'm putting a lot more focus into (O team) D. Practice was tiring, though...before checking the time at 2pm I thought it was closer to 4pm, and so was startled that we had put in so much work already. I could have put more effort into one or two of my punishment-sprints, but I worked hard in every scrimmage and drill. After a while we did that drill where a feeder gives little passes to a thrower cutting in a triangle motion, throwing to in-cuts and out-cuts for 20 passes or so. Once I did that drill, I felt much more on point and in rhythm with my throws, including hucks. During our final scrimmage (where we split the team in halves not O/D), I threw the disc away on the goal line but also threw a sweet huck goal and caught a couple too. Overall, a good hard practice.

Afterwards, BBQ at Kyle's house and throwing discs to crazy people laying out into the pool, sometimes three at a time to fight over the disc. Awesome entertainment, and aparently I need to practice more throws.

Work Sucks

and yet should not be an excuse. Nonetheless, I attribute my workout slump to long hours at my job. Good thing tomorrow is my last day, because getting in shape is a long-term process that requires a more constant committment than I have made recently.

That being said, track workout tonight. I just ate, so hopefully I don't puke afterwards. Either way, I'll post what goes down (or comes up).

EDIT
3x200m with 0:45 rest (29.9, 31.2, 31.1)
2:30 rest
2x200m with 0:45 rest (32.3, 31.5)
2:30 rest
2x100, with 0:30 rest (14.9, 14.5)
4x100m accelerators

I felt awful and out of shape. I did almost throw up after my second accelerator, but held it down. More running is necessary.

Pushups

No-time workout, tabata pushups: 20, 16, 10, 6, 9*, 8*, 6*, **

*girl pushups
**lower from pushup position on a 5-count, x3

Run, PPW

1.9mi in 15:50 (9:05, ~6:45)

much later...Pike plyo workout. I rushed through it, though.


So, I was not able to find people to do the SGW with at a time that fit within my work schedule. Crap. Gotta get ready for the weekend anyway, some way.

PTW

10x(30sec easy, 60sec hard), total distance covered: 1410m
14 pivot-throws to a target, 14 soft space throws
4x100m accelerations
14 pivot-throws to a target, 14 soft space throws
7 backhand hucks, 7 forehands hucks (into the wind)

Nucci, Pike Practice

I picked up with the "MCUDLers" at the Nucci Cup. Playing bad Ultimate has not very much fun for me right now. I did enjoy playing against SoL, though--had some good break throws and played what I thought was good defense on one of their strong players.

Pike practice, though, was much better. I was just a little tight from Saturday, enough to make me work during warmups, and I liked the feeling. We basically did a 3-pull then drill, repeat repeat, then a scrimmage to 9. The O team lost all the 3-pulls, but won the final scrimmage. It rained pretty hard for about half of practice, but in short spurts that came and went every five minutes or so. I think the best part was that nobody complained--the weather was a welcome challenge, and while it did affect play (and the O still needs a ton of work) there were no heads hanging. The structure kept things competitive, and other than two throwaways in the same point I felt pretty good throughout practice (despite all the pushups I had to do). But I'm still trying to figure out how to make plays on offense, rather than being content to fall into a limited role as either handler or cutter--get the disc and do something dangerous with it, instead of just moving it when it comes to me or creating space for others. It's no good to be passive or timid out there with this team, so I'm looking to be more or a threat. I did throw some breaks and some goals, and boxed a guy out really well for a sky goal. That felt good.

Pike Track Workout

Mediocre times, but the track was wet and the sky was dark. Running alone sucks, but I forced myself to get out there anyway. I rounded up my times to the nearest tenth-second. Rest was walk whatever I just ran. For the last 100m I think I ran a sub-14, but I clicked the button twice so it kept counting.

100m in 14.3
200m in 31
300m in 47.7
400m in 1:11.5
400m in 1:12.4
300m in 48.03
200m in 29.4
100m in ?