Tool - Reflection

10 pushups

3 pushups with 100+ lb added

3 pushups with 100+ lb added

10 pushups

25 decline pushups

Knee has been bothering me. I think that means I need to be more active. Let's find out.

Drake - I Want This Forever

Went to the Karlsruhe Christmas Cup over the weekend, an annual indoor tournament where double-disc-court discs are used for all games. Kevin drove us down through the snow, so cold outside that we had to keep pouring anti-freeze out of the sunroof to clear the windshield. We got to the sleeping hall in late evening and, after checking out the "Welcome Party" for a quick minute, threw around with the DDC-discs and a good Mainz-brewed Doppelbock in hand. The hall was freezing on Friday night, almost unbearably so without a sleeping pad, but I had a borrowed sleeping bag and slept in layers with my underarmour hat on. I got basically enough rest before waking up 45 minutes before the alarm, I guess because it was too cold to sleep. Traditional German breakfast in the other hall and then right away our first game, barely begun with enough players because most of the team was late making the drive down on Saturday morning. We lost to one of the better teams at the tournament, and only by 2, but it was a frustrating game and it felt like we could have won if we had only had our full team assembled by the time it began. Remember, it was 5v5 continuous play for 24-minute games so there was no time for the latecomers to warm up or anything.

After a few rounds of byes we played our second game and got wrecked, mostly due to a ton of throwing errors and dumb decisions, miscommunications and crap defense (what else can go wrong in a game?). By the third game we finally picked a single directional-force defense, instead of having four defenses changed with audibles. We may have also been playing a weaker team, but we finally won a game and earned ourselves...last place in the pool, due to point diff. We won our two crossover games though, then showered and went to eat at a decent pub kind of place with a Giant Hamburger special and decent local beer. We grabbed a Streetcar and went to the tournament party, already in full swing. Danced for a while with teammates, watched a team put on a show to "Who let the dogs out?", called my girl and then most of the team wanted to leave. I wasn't ready to go yet, but I knew if I wanted to go back at some point during the night I'd have to go then, or walk home alone in the single digits without any idea where the sleeping hall was. So I said screw it, I'll stay and win the party--after all, there's a first time for everything. Bernhard and Martin had also convinced Kevin to stay, so the four of us grabbed more drinks and hit the dance floor again. Fast forward to Bernhard getting too drunk, he puked outside and we put him in a cab (to whom he said, when asked where he lived, "Frankfurt!" and was halfway there before he realized the appropriate answer would have been "Karlsruhe Uni Sporthalle!"). Half an hour later Kevin and I had no idea where Martin was, eventually found him passed out in a chair at the corner of the dancefloor and put him in a cab (though the driver wouldn't take him until we had sobered him up for half an hour). So then it was just Kevin and I, the two left who hadn't really meant to stay all night. We partied all the way until 5:30am, outlasting all the other teams (aka winning the party), then found our way back with the help of a Karlsruhe native. It wasn't quite so warm on Saturday night as it was on Friday, either because the hall had a lot more people in it or because I didn't notice in my post-party state.

Two hours of sleep or so later, we got up for another early breakfast and first-round game. We lost, waited around for almost 3 hours and then won our consolation game (11th out of 16). Showered real quick, commentated the women's finals (which the Mainz women lost, but only barely) and then hit the road. It was snowing hard again, slow going at some parts but Kevin eventually dropped me off in Schlangenbad so I didn't have to wait around for the bus. Overall the weekend was a lot of fun, though frustrating at times because our team wasn't playing up to what I felt our potential was. I think I played well, at least on offense--some throwing turnovers and one drop aside, I was one of the more conservative players and had a good completion percentage. I got some blocks, but had trouble at times taking away downfield cutters. I'm still not sure how to deal with a team that connects on a lot of overheads and blades, hopefully I'll get to work on that more in the States. But considering my goal for the weekend was to be a better role-player on O with fewer turnovers, I think I was successful.

I come home in a little more than two weeks. Compared to the plan I set out for myself when I came to Germany, I know I didn't work out as much as I intended to. On the other hand, I got to play a lot more disc than I expected to. I haven't let myself go and I'm not fat, though I certainly ate well. I think over the next two weeks I'll mostly be doing yoga and recovery stuff, with maybe a few runs and DoC workouts thrown in. I'd like to step up my ability to do consecutive pushups before going back, and overall my goal is (as it has been) to be ready to hit winter conditioning hard. I'll be planning the next phase, too, and I'm really looking forward to having the resources at Rutgers again--dudes to work out with not the least. In the meantime...

Flipsyde - Shippin' Stones

er...150 reps of stuff. Actually 145. I wanted to do pullup-type stuff, and medicine ball stuff. This is what I came up with. "Explosive pullups" means while hanging on a pullup bar, launch your body up so you can grab onto a parallel but higher-placed bar. Doing this without the hand pads that gymnasts use is sort of painful, especially with a small-diameter bar.

5 L-hang pullups

10 3kg medball vertical tosses

5 knees-to-elbows

10 3kg medball overhead throws

5 explosive pullups

10 3kg medball throws right

5 knees-to-elbows

10 3kg medball throws left

5 single-rope pullups, left on top

5 single-rope pullups, right on top

10 3kg medball throws back over head

5 one-hand (two-arm) pullups, right

10 single-hand wall balls, 3kg 10' L

5 one-hand (two-arm) pullups, left

10 single-hand wall balls, 3kg 10' R

10 3kg medball slams

10 glute-ham raises

10 box jumps with 3kg medball

5 explosive pullups

Right afterwards, got into a solid sixty minutes of 5v5 continuous indoor scrimmage with very little subbing (for me), using Double-Disc-Court discs (smaller, with greater tendency to blade outside-in). Fun, but not as fun as real discs. Unfortunately, we're using DDC-discs for the tournament this weekend in Karlsruhe. I think I threw enough turnovers tonight for the whole weekend, so we'll see how it goes.

Tool - The Patient

10 pushups at +42lb

8 pushups at +42lb

40 close-grip floor press 42lb

Yeah, I'm working with a stack of tiles that the scale said weighed that much. Actually it gave me a number in kilograms, but that wasn't useful to me so I converted it for my (and your) convenience. Not even a workout really, but I'm taking it easy between back to back weekend tournaments.

Fort Minor - High Road (ft John Legend)

2mi and 4x5 L-hang pullups in 16:00

(I did one set at each of two places along my loop, which I ran around twice)

15 minutes stretching

King Geedorah - Anti-Matter

Went up to Magdeburg to play in their indoor tournament with a Cranberry Snack / Mother Tongue combo team, 4 guys and 3 girls (including a lady pickup from Dresden). Games were 5v5, 30 minutes continuous play so I took no subs all weekend. Saturday we went 2-1-1 (tying with "DOMinas and boyfriends") and because our only loss was by 1 point we finished 2nd in the pool, a clutch-money move that gave us a bye on Sunday until noon. We took advantage of this to party hardy after some delicious thai/chinese fusion food and a cruise 'round the Weihnachtsmarkt downtown. 3rd place in the "team shots" standings for the party, definitely first for shots-per-capita and won the party no question. Plenty of sleep, felt great on Sunday but lost our first game by one point, then got creamed by Dresden (who took our ringer lady back for the game). That set us up for a rematch vs DOMinas for 5th place. Tight game, but more spirited than our first meeting and we held on to win by two, 5th out of 10 teams.

We had "spirit circles" and spirit games after each game, which was a little different but kind of cool. Overall I had a lot of fun, a great experience for my first German tournament. Learned a bit about how things are done here, at least in mixed. The competition was pretty strong, but there's a much greater emphasis on avoiding contact and players don't tolerate the same kind of bumps and checks that American teams would call incidental. The biggest problem was the floor, though, which was super slippery. I saw a bunch of people bust their ass trying to change direction, and between that and the no-wind there were tons of blades to the break side for goals, very difficult to take away options downfield. But most teams had a wide spectrum of individual skill levels, so I still got a bunch of D's (and of course threw mad goals) all weekend. A bunch of turnovers too, but it's hard to say how many were receiver error. I think at my next indoor tournament I'll be with a stronger team so I can play more of a role and focus on no-turnover play, but this weekend was very much about fun and flash with not many real handlers to work with. It felt great to get out there, though, and it's cool that I get to prepare so well for Mercer Midnight Madness and NJ indoor league. Home in 3 weeks!

Jay-Z - Blue Magic (Big Z Remix)

3kg medball 300 with sprints:

after each exercise, sprint 20yds out and back

Overhead squats

Wall balls

Clap pushups

Chops R

Chops L

Big circles clockwise

Big circles counterclockwise

Swings

Rotations (20 to each side)

Split squats R

Split squats L

Rocky solos clockwise

Rocky solos counterclockwise

Situps with a bounce-pass off wall

V-ups, pass ball between feet/hands

all exercises 20 reps with a 3kg medball, except pushups

Completed in 11:20

25 3kg medball slams

25 3kg 10ft medball sideways throws R

25 3kg 10ft medball sideways throws L

25 3kg medball throws up, high as possible

Practice was mostly scrimmage, and I worked on tight defense. Looks like I'll be attending an indoor tournament this weekend. Sweet.

Missy Elliot - Wake Up (Ratatat Remix)

1mi in 6:05 (3:05, 3:00)

walk 800m rest

1mi in 6:13 (1:33, 1:34, 1:33, 1:33)

10 pullups at +3kg

8 pullups

25 SL RDL 3kg each leg

Did the run before practice. Worked on the ending height of my throws during practice. After practice did the exercises with a medball, but they were closing so I couldn't do the rest I had planned. Actually I didn't even do the 8 pullups in the hall, I had to climb a streetsign post to do them.

Jay-Z - Sunshine (Ratatat Remix)

4x(5 pistol squats per leg

10 decline pushups)

1x(10 pistol squats per leg

20 decline pushups)

10 deadlift 19.5kg (42lb)

Tabata abs: 8x(20sec on, 10sec off)

30 toe touches (legs vertical)

15 leg lifts

12 scissor kicks (four-count)

15 flutter kicks (four-count)

23 toe touches (legs vertical)

15 leg lifts

13 bicycles (four count)

14 V-ups

8 pushups at +42lb from ground

Jay-Z - DOA

30 pushups

1.7k uphill in 10:15 (1.06mi)

5:30 rest

1.5k downhill in 6:30 (0.93mi)

20 decline pushups

15 decline pushups

10 decline pushups

10 pushups

5 single pushups, from the ground

30 minutes stretching/yoga

King Geedorah - Next Levels ft...

Went out early again and met Doug from Harvard (and Longmeadow HS) for some jogging, around a mile working my way from slow to strong. Tried a bunch of times to do a muscle-up, unsuccessful but close a couple times. Worked on my mark during the throwing segment, did well in the box-out-while-cutting drill, then we worked on indoor zone defense. I love shredding zones. Afterwards scrimmage, almost exclusively zone...I got some good D's as the deep, skied two defenders for a goal, got skied once for an ill-advised razor. Afterwards a beer with the guys Fun night, though I miss full-field Ultimate with full-field cuts. Hopefully will get some on Sunday.

Lil' Wayne ft. Drake - I'm Goin' In

21-15-9 pullups/burpees

Completed in 9:12

Medball 300: 20 reps each of

Overhead squats

Deadlifts

R chops

L chops

Wall balls

Standing Russian twists

R big circles

L big circles

R split squats

L split squats

Clean and press

R SL RDL

L SL RDL

Situps, bounce pass off wall

V-ups, pass ball from feet to hands

At beginners practice in Mainz I worked on accuracy from different release points (because we threw for more than 300 minutes), dump defense, and...ok the scrimmage was not very helpful this time. Too many people who had no idea what they were doing.

Tool - Forty-Six and 2

DoC day.

Spades: overhead squats

Hearts: pushups

Clubs: burpees

Diamonds: lunges

Completed in 19:37

My draw: 3d Jc 8d 5s 8h 7d Ac 8s Jd Jh Kc Qs 7h 4d 7s As 9s 2c 9c 5d Ad 6h 3c 4c 5c 10s 4s Qh 5h 6d Js 9d 4h 3h 9h 8c 2d Ks 2s 6c 10h Ah Kh 10d 10c 7c 3s Kd Qc 6s 2h Qd

MF Doom - The Drop

Headed out to Mainz early to get a workout in before practice.

For time:

25 squats

400m run

25 pushups

400m run

25 burpees

400m run

25 squat jumps

400m run

completed in 9:22

10 reps of each, with a 3kg medicine ball:

overhead squats, russian twists, chops

deadlifts, cleans

pushups, both hands on ball

pushups, one hand on ball

overhead split squats (ball in one hand)

wall balls

situps with throw/catch off the wall

Practice was a stack timing drill, a marking drill to stop overhead throws only, and some more zone practice/scrimmage. Then "full" 5v5 scrimmage. A little more trouble today, playing the zone D...zone O is pie. And I love pie. Happy Thanksgiving.

Jay-Z - Allure (Ratatat Remix)

Went to Berlin for a few days. Back now.

10 L-hang pullups

2x5 knee-tuck pullups

Indoor beginner's practice in Mainz, where I adapted to suit my needs. We did maybe 30 minutes of throwing, so I worked on pivot-to-throw at varying speeds with accuracy. During the drill (simple throw to simple out-and-in cut) I pretended the throw was break-side, and tried to refine the pace on my throws. Worked on some skying--found myself getting good position to get the D a lot, but was having trouble making the catch. During the scrimmage, I was all about defense...but this was easy, because we were mixed and heavy with beginners. So I took it as a challenge to maintain intensity regardless of opponent.

MF Doom - Vaudeville Villain

30 minutes stretching

10 minutes foam rolling

Then I headed out to Mainz for an indoor practice with a mixed group of guys, with the ladies practicing on the other half of the indoor surface. It wasn't turf, it was more like rubber-coated concrete with traction slightly better than a basketball court, but it made for very few layouts. We did a couple drills practicing the timing of cuts out of a vertical stack (of four people, because indoor is 5v5), and the most glaring and immediate difference that separates them from all Ultimate I've ever played is the plain ubiquity of blades and hammers. But mostly blades. Holy shit, do they throw a lot of blades. And I'm not talking about curved hucks, I'm talking about razors at every opportunity...I guess the high ceiling, small space and lack of wind make these more viable, but I did notice that at least sometimes they're just too lazy to throw a flick. Oh, and we spent 5 minutes working on throwing/catching blades, and then another 5 minutes on throwing/catching short passes--including throws with the off hand.

In any case, after the drills we moved into 5v5 scrimmage. I tried to cover the ones that looked like they knew what they were doing (which was not everybody, as this was not the "advanced" practice), and held my own. I threw a bunch of goals (threaded a few needles, needless to say) and got a couple D's. There was a good deal of clam thrown into the scrim, even when the O got close to the endzone, again a strategy perhaps viable because of the tightness of the space. I preferred the directional-man, though I found myself getting open either way. Subbing wasn't a problem because there were only 14 of us there, and by the end my left knee starting complaining a bit.

Perhaps the weirdest thing is that the guy running practice spoke exclusively auf Deutsch, but I was able to keep up with just a little help from the various English-speakers there (including one American). It helped that I have a solid background in strategy, though...it seemed like clam was a new concept to some of the guys. I could only understand perhaps 30% of what was said, but between that and gestures and watching the other dudes, I could pretty much figure it all out.

Afterwards they invited me to have a beer with them at the Kneipe next door, and I enjoyed my Köstritzer Schwarzbier as well as the conversation--though, admittedly, most of the German flew over my head.

Kanye West - Get 'Em High (Ratatat Remix)

"Cuz we don't wanna hear that weak shit no more."

Half Tabata intervals: 20sec on, 10sec off

Burpees: 7, 8, 7, 7

Pushups: 16, 14*, 11*, 11*

Squats: 20, 21, 20, 20

Abs: 18c, 14v, 18c, 14v

(no rest in between exercises)

*means girl pushups, because my chest is sore from yesterday's pullups and one set of legit pushups tapped me out. Yes, I realize that is weak shit. For abs, "c" means crunches with legs on a chair and "v" means V-ups. I picked half Tabatas for today because it was the last workout for my "base" phase (other than tomorrow's movement prep work), why not throw in some intensity. Next phase is Strength, so I'll be backing off the distance for runs and therefore bumping up the pace. The plan is to mix up the body weight workouts. Some will focus on explosivenes, others on heavier "lifting" by adding to my body weight and making form a priority. We'll see how it goes.

A Perfect Circle - Weak and Powerless

3x5 L-hang pullups

2.3km in 11:30 (1.4mi at 8:13 pace)

(0.7 in 4:00, 0.9 in 5:00, 0.6 in 2:30)

Later, after a nap...

5 L-hang pullups

8 L-hang pullups

3 L-hang pullups, 2 L-hang pullups

2x10 knees to elbows

Green Day - Castaway

Interval run, timed by a playlist on the iPod. I was running along the length of Im Wiesengrund, a relatively level street, from the apartment to a corner 480m away. I tried to remember how far I got during each interval, then used the distance measuring tool on Google Maps, but there only distance I'm sure about is the total. Though the pace I recorded throws me off, because I didn't think I was in shape enough to do that...

1400m in 5:08 (Refused - New Noise)

450m in 2:59 (Ratatat - Spanish Armada)

1450m in 5:14 (Flipsyde - US History)

400m in 2:49 (Jay-Z - Sunshine, Ratatat Remix)

1450m in 5:06 (Young Buck - Stomp, Ratatat Remix)

430m in 3:11 (Jose Gonzalez - Down the Line)

1400m in 4:42 (Streetlight Manifesto - Here's to Life)

Total: 6.98km in 29:09

or 4.34mi at an average pace of 6:43

Young Jeezy ft. Bun B - Over Here (Ratatat Remix)

5 rounds for time:

(5 pullups*

10 burpees

15 pushups**

20 squats)

Completed in 8:00.

*First round I did L-hang pullups.

**Only 10 pushups in the last two rounds.

Somewhere in the middle, a nice old lady stopped me to ask what I was doing and why. I had just finished a round of burpees, was a bit winded and couldn't really tell what she was saying. I know she asked what sport I was doing it for, so I told her Ultimate Frisbee. She looked puzzled for a moment, but after I repeated it she seemed to know what I was talking about. She nodded and smiled and then went on her way, so I went on with my workout.

I hate how bad I am at pushups.

Citizen Cope - Let the Drummer Kick

Was going to run 10k today, then plans changed after I was in bed until almost 3pm. Might have been running a fever, but I'm not sure because you can't do the old hand-against-the-forehead trick on yourself. Whatever, I felt okay after taking a shower so I went running anyway, but cut the route short because it got dark real fast and I was running on main roads. I also kicked up the speed after deciding to drop the distance, finishing up the last 0.85mi in 5:15.

Total: 3.75mi in 30:15 (8:04 pace)

30 minutes stretching

10 minutes foam rolling

Beanie Sigel ft Jay-Z - Glock Nines (Ratatat Remix)

4 rounds of 30 seconds each:

(burpees

jumping jacks

mountain climbers

V-ups

fast shallow split jumps

pushups*)

No rest between rounds, but 2 seconds between each exercise to allow for transition. Rounds timed with this free interval timer program (found on Ross Enamait's website, a good resource for workouts--esp ones you don't need a gym to do).

*Round 1 grasshoppers

Round 2 on left leg only

Round 3 on right leg only

Round 4 regular pushups

Rick Ross ft Jay-Z - Hustlin' Remix

Ev'ry day. Jeden Tag.

1.5mi in 12:24 (8:16 pace)

60 minutes yoga

30 minutes foam rolling

Tool - 10,000 Days (Wings for Marie pt.2)

Found a 42" roll of fiberglass. It's light but good for simulating the arm/shoulder position in overhead squats. Today was about form, mobility, body control and functional stability--especially in throwing motions.

10 reps back-to-wall shoulder stretch

3x15 body weight overhead squats

Spine mobility progression:

Overhead lunge to 0, 45, 90, 135, 180º

" " with counterclockwise twist

" " with clockwise twist

" " with lean to outside

" " with lean to inside

15 throwing lunges each side, full extension

3x5 single leg hip bridge

3x5 slow running man

10 spiderman pushups each side

10 grasshopper pushups each side

10 walk-out pushups (5 fingertips, 5 fists)

10 V-ups

Flipsyde - Someday

"Wanna get to the top, better start now."

Run 5k (my route was actually just over 4.7k)

--every 5 minutes do 25 squats and 25 pushups

--the clock does not stop for the squats/pushups

Completed in just under 30 minutes, so 5 rounds squats/pushups.

Tool - Wings for Marie

30 minutes foam rolling.

That shit hurts.

Tool - Disposition

2.85km in 15:00 (1.75mi at 8:37 pace)

15 minutes self-massage (neck was tense)

3x15 slow running man each leg

hip and glute activation/flexibility:

3x5 breaths fire hydrant, bird dog, SL reverse extension

30 min yoga

Jose Gonzalez - Down the Line

4x(5 pullups, 10 pushups, 15 squats) in 4:30

Kept it light to prevent elbow tendonitis, which I tend to get when trying to do a bunch of pullups after a long time off. The only place I've found to do them is a square crossbar holding up a café sign.

Recovery:

45 minutes yoga, deep stretching

15 minutes foam roller work

Cake - The Distance

Spring season began today. Shorts and a shortsleeve jersey in the cold nearing dark meant that my wrists were freezing up a bit, and the steep hills are killing my shins, but I'm working with what I got. Which is hilly roads and body weight.

4.2k in 20:30 (2.6mi at 7:53 pace)

10 pushups

10 spiderman pushups

10 grasshopper pushups

10 decline pushups

10 pushups + rotation

15 tricep pushups each side

25 crunches, legs on chair

25 leg lifts to hip thrust

25 slow bicycle kicks each side

p.s. I'm going to be titling each post with a song, as an experiment. Maybe they'll be related in some way to what I did, what I'm thinking, how I'm feeling...maybe they won't.

Recovery

3x

(10 L-sit pull-throughs

5 forward lunges each leg

5 backward lunges each leg

5 sideways lunges each leg

5 walk hands out, pushup, walk hands in)

Would have done more, but a very unpleasant and piercing pain sprung up in my left knee (right where the quad attaches) during the lunges in my 3rd round. The body probably wasn't ready to go on consecutive days like this after my little hiatus. I'll do more stretching and foam rolling tonight, and find out tomorrow whether it's ready to go again.

Intervals

2:00 moderate uphill

3:00 hard uphill

3:00 easy flatground

3:30 hard flat, downhill, uphill

2:15 easy downhill

3:30 hard down and uphill

Total: 4k in 17:15

I threw some backwards running in at the end. I followed the winding roads of Schlangenbad, so "flat" is not exactly flat and "uphill" means I wouldn't want to stop if my car had a manual transmission.

Jog, BWW

After about a week of travel and adjustment, it's time to go.

First jog in Germany: 4.5K in 21:50

Later, for time:

2x(25 squats, 15 pushups, 15 lunges per leg,

10 pushups, 10 lunges, 25 situps)

2x(25 squats, 15 pushups, 15 lunges per leg,

10 pushups, 10 lunges, 25 full body crunches)

Completed in 11:34

Letzte Practice

bevor Deutschland.

Warmup

Comeback drill (5 rounds in groups of 5)

Pull-cover sprints

Gauntlet drill (run through a zig-zag of cones, receiving a pass at each cone)

Waterfall catching drill (two hands, right only, left only, two hands)

Game to 2 (4 teams, the 2 teams on the sideline practice marking with "no around" and "no huck" calls)

Fight club, do body-builders until everybody else is done

Burpees for drops: 30, because the highest number of turnovers at tonight's practice was 30

It was cold. I was sweating profusely. First time I was not in the first group for fight club--even though I started in the back line, I made it to the first group before tripping at the last cone. That second lap felt like death. Best practice of the year, if I do say so myself.

TCNJ Invite

15-6 against Princeton, who had a huge roster and probably spread their PT around. Got broken to start, then got our heads in it and started gaining a lead with breaks here and there. Ordinary game, considering we were playing a Sectional rival.

15-5 against Johns Hopkins, who was missing their "best player" according to scouting reports.

15-6 against Hofstra, mostly because of their 7' kid.

Chipotle and a birthday party.

14-10 against Franklin and Marshall, some questionable calls and animosity. A closer game than it should have been.

15-10 against Johns Hopkins, "best player" was back but we were able to control the game with some big blocks by Bruce.

9-15 against Millersville. We scored on D, they scored and then broke us 6 times in a row. Easily the worst I've ever seen Machine play in terms of mental focus and execution--poor throwing choices and drops from pretty much everybody. Big problems in the red zone. We crawled back with more huge defense from Bruce, I threw 4 goals in 5 points to get us back in the middle of the game, but overall there were too many miscues to overcome. They were a small team of big dudes, most of them slow but they were really good at using what they had. A couple really good throwers and they just made all the plays while we consistently gave them the disc. Very frustrating.

Overall the tournament was fun and I saw us flow on offense very well at times, working within the ho-stack cleanly and efficiently. Our defense needs a lot of work and we need to clean up those unforced errors, and our lines were pretty lopsided (O couldn't play D, D couldn't play O) but I see great potential. Lots of work to do, but I think we had a good tournament for it being so early in the year.

Run, Practice

3mi in 20:18 (10:04, 10:14)

I did a lot of teaching in practice, trying to explain how spaces open and close on the field for a ho-stack. Hopefully the new athletic players we have start to internalize and understand how to dominate out there.

Flying 30s

3x(30yd high knees, 30yd backpedal, 30yd speed skaters)

throwing

3x60yd accelerators

throwing

3x30yd sprints

throwing

3x60yd sprints

throwing

3x60yd sprints

throwing

We had a stiff wind to work with/through.

Half a workout

Upline cuts to continuation hucks / deep cuts

60 minutes climbing

On the grind

at work, anyway. Coordinating Sectionals and my job got in the way of working out for the past couple days, but I finally got a chance to hit the gym tonight.

10 overhead squats, 45lb

Squats: 8 at 115, 8 at 135, 8 at 155lb

Pushups at +45lb: 10, 10, 9

3x5 hanging ab rollups

75 minutes climbing

Practice

Pre-practice, 11 pullups at +8lbs (approx)

Practice included lots of body-builders after an excess of turnovers. Also, our first Fight Club of the season. Gotta get it together.

Post-practice, 7 wide-grip pullups

Practice

Sealing the line, thrower/marker, scrimmage.

Bought the Sectionals food beforehand. Nice.

A-team Practice

Dump sets, drills, scrimmage.

Climb, Bike, Throw

60 minutes climbing

Biked 3mi

60 minutes throwing, focus on form/consistency

Practice

4x(0, 15, 0, 25, 0, 40) suicides before practice, cut short the full workout because of practice.

Practice included dishy drill, competitive scrimmage, ~6x(2x40yd) chaser sprints, one 70yd accelerator and one 70yd sprint. I won half the suicides, all my 40-40 sprints, and came in 3rd out of 30 in the final 70yd sprint. Pretty sore from yesterday, not enough sleep.

Lift, Climb, Throw

10 overhead squats at 45lb

Deadlift: 10 at 89, 10 at 133, 10 at 157lb

6 hang clean at 111lb

2x6 clean and jerk at 111lb

2 sets of incline situps with 10lb medball

45 minutes climbing

90 minutes throwing, focus on consistency

Practice, Lift, Pickup

Pike practice yesterday on Skelly Field.

Today, the following with Frenchy and Geoff:

Overhead squats: 10 at 45, 10 at 65, 10 at 95lb

Squats: 10 at 135, 6 at 155, 2 at 185lb

Incline bench press: 10 at 95, 7 at 105, 5 at 105

Mixed pickup with the girls team, 6 on 6.

I'm starting to remember

just how hard it is to run a practice without having your own play suffer. Tougher than I want it to be. I didn't play well, but then again the overall quality of play was somewhat low---it was the first chilly night we've had, with misting rain and wet turf to compound the cold. We taught some concepts before practice on the whiteboard, mostly ho-stack cutting. Saw some good potential, was hoping that the first A-team practice would be better but it's a good reminder of how much work there is to do this year. We have a long way to go.

Oh, and before practice...

Noon: 0.8mi in 5:40

1pm: 0.8mi in 6:45

5pm: 4.2mi in 32:50 (7:49 pace)

0.8mi

is the distance from my house to my job. Normally I bike there in the morning, home and back to work for lunch, then home again afterwards. Today the bike was out of commission so I footed it.

8am: 8:30

Noon: 5:10

1pm: 4:50

Swam later on, practicing my freestyle and backstroke, then learned how to do a flipturn. Did some kicking work, then a 50m race (which I lost, but not by as much as I thought I would).

Practice tonight was attended by a much larger group of dudes, an anticipated challenge. We worked on in-cuts, change of direction, and catching. I demonstrated everything but did a lot of watching/coaching during the drills, rather than participating. I ran a lot in the scrimmage though, trying to break in my new cleats.

5mi

Biked 5mi in 18:30

Gunswick Workout

With Frenchy, DJ, and Sanborn. Focus was footwork and acceleration.

Warmup

10x(sprint 3yd, backpedal 3yd, sprint 3yd, backpedal 3yd, sprint 10yd)

10x(10 seconds fast feet to 10yd sprint)*

30 second endzone cut/defend drill**

15 body builders

5 rounds of comeback drill, 1 layout per round

100yd marking shuffles fast (50 out, 50 back)

100yd marking shuffles slow (50 out, 50 back)

*mixing up the orientation of fast feet, so you have to turn into the sprint in different ways

**1 thrower, 1 cutter, 1 defender. The cutter tries to score as many times as he can within 10 seconds, the thrower only throws when he's open, the defender tries to shut him down and bid whenever possible. Keep track of goals caught. We did one round of offense and one round of defense with each partner.

Workout, Practice

Bench press: 8 at 115, 4 at 135, 5 at 125lb

One arm, single leg DB snatch: 6 at 40lb

One arm DB snatch: 6 at 50, 6 at 60lb

BB push press: 6 at 65, 6 at 95lb

DB push press: 6 at 40lb

Stair workout, College Ave Parking Deck (80 steps):

Every other

Every step

Every other

Every third

Every other

Double leg hop up 2, down 1

Every other

Every third

Every other

Double leg hop every step

Every other

Right leg every step

Left leg every step

Every other

Every other

Speed skater every step

Every other

Completed in 16:18

Practice was warmup, throwing, marking drill (painful after stairs), one-on-one cutting/defense drill, scrimmage. I looked off a lot of open vetern receivers trying to get new players to cut more aggressively. Hopefully they understand and step up to the challenge.