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.

(Pre)Practice

5 rounds of 5 L-hang pullups spaced throughout my morning at work, done on the lip of an I-beam. That started the day out well--after lunch, I couldn't lift my legs into an L anymore. After work I made my way down to Gunswick for practice and got in most of the Pike workout beforehand.

2x(100yd sprint, 20 burpees, 60sec throwing)

3x(80yd sprint, 10 clap pushups, 60sec blades)

5x(60yd sprint, 10 burpees, 45sec throwing)

Then I went right into leading the warmup for Rutgers. At practice we demonstrated throwing, explained how we want them to make deep cuts, then put on a little returner showcase game to show them the intensity and effort we want them to bring (lopsided teams, mine lost 2-3 I think). Finally we split everybody up into four teams and had 2 games of 7v7 going on simultaneously, with only a few subs each team so people got good playing time. I think it went well overall, though I felt rushed the entire time. Maybe it was also the rush of a fresh season, who knows.

First Pickup

I am hopping in anticipation of the upcoming season. Though it will be short, I plan on making the most of every moment I get. I hope to be transitioning from my current job to a mixture of part-time work and tutoring so I can be in New Brunswick for practices. I'll be able to put more time and energy into preparing myself for the Series as I fight to earn more playing time on Pike, and mentally I'm going to have the wonderful challenge of leading Rutgers as well as I can before leaving for Germany. My departure date is still up in the air and I'm debating on how long to push back my trip, depending on which tournaments fall on what weekends, but I know the trip is something I want to do even as I regret the semester I'm missing at Rutgers. Being at pickup, and then afterwards going to Brower, I was the happiest I had been in a while and at the same time very chagrined that I would not be attending classes or spending my nights on campus. I can't wait to see what the team looks like tonight at practice.