Yoga

60min yoga

PT, Practice

Morning:
60 minutes physical therapy: ultrasound, massage, trigger point needling, foam rolling, electrical stimulation.

Afternoon:
3mi in 21:30 (11:00, 10:30)

Evening:
45 minutes throwing/catching
60 minutes cutting/marking drills

Originally planned to lift before practice, so we showed up early. Apparently nobody had checked to make sure the place would even be open on Memorial Day. It wasn't. Woof.

Watching, Thinking, Planning, Pushing

I spent most of today indoors, casually watching the College Championships on ESPN. Even with the frustrations of a spotty stream, it's amazing that I could do that. It got me thinking.

This season has been, for me, an exercise in frustration. What should be the most amazing opportunity of my career to date has been, if I am honest with myself, clearly not nearly the experience I might have hoped it could be. Some of this is outside of my control, and some of it is my own attitude.

There are excuses aplenty. Between the difficulties we had getting off the ground, embroiled as I was in the early struggles we had with team leadership, and my own frailties as a player/leader/person, it would be all too easy to point out how the season's failure had been predetermined, to give up and take comfort in the commentators' dismissiveness.

Then add on top the three major injuries I've had: out four weeks for a calf contusion, out one week and limited another for second degree burns on my ankle, now out two weeks with a bruised hamstring tendon. I've never been the always-injured guy, but now that's how my teammates think of me.

It's taken a toll on my positivity. From being back at the end of 2012 the strongest I had ever been, to now barely making it by, my confidence is low and I've been playing out of practice. Then there are the difficulties that come with being a captain of a struggling team, in a new league with higher hopes than it's perhaps ready for.

All of this while settling in to a new city and a new job, nurturing a now nine-year relationship, and keeping my own business going so I can juggle my student loan debt and other big bills. The cost of relocating to DC was also much higher than it should have been, due to a rental car mishap that saddled me with an additional debt to pay.

But today I watched ultimate on ESPN.

So here's the thing. Today I signed up for 14 hours of yoga. Tomorrow is a holiday. I will see the PT. I fully expect to go for a run afterwards, then watch the College Finals while stuffing my face, followed by practice in the evening and foam rolling to finish. This week I will push, and I will prepare.

We have seven games behind us, two of which I sat. Two more I'll miss for work, leaving seven ahead. Past is past and I am focused. Seven games. Seven weeks.

It will be quite the ride.

DC Breeze - Season 1 Game 7

14-16 vs Rochester Dragons

Warmed up but didn't play.

Breeze Practice

In lieu of participating:

Military press: 10 at 45, 8 at 65, 7 at 85, 5 at 95, 3x3 at 100, 10 at 75lb

DC Breeze - Season 1 Game 6

17-18 vs Philadelphia Phoenix

I tried to warm up, but there was no way it was gonna happen today.

Breeze Workout, Car Crash

Did some footwork and positioning drills before talking team business over beer and pizza at the coach's pad. On the way home, our car got hit from behind as my co-captain was driving and we slammed into a pickup truck on New York Ave just inside the District. Nobody was hurt in the accident but we were pretty shaken up, and the cars were pretty busted.

After getting out and walking towards the cops I fell into a storm drain where the grating was missing a bar, and didn't stop falling until my knee got caught in the grate. The bars scraped all the skin off both sides of my knee and bruised the hell out of my hamstring tendon.

This is the third major injury I've sustained in two months, and two of them had nothing to do with playing or training. Frustrated does not begin to describe the season.

Cardozo Workout

Brief, wasn't feeling it today.

1mi in 7:30
Throwing
10 pistol squats per leg
2x10 single leg box squats per leg
3x15 inverted rows
5x5 handstand pushups
Throwing

Breeze Practice

90min indoor practice

DC Breeze - Season 1 Game 5

18-13 vs NJ Hammerheads
(7-1, 12-4, 14-9, 18-13)


Points played: 16 (4 on O, 12 on D)
Completions: 25 of 28 (89.3%) (Team: 233 of 252 for 92.5%)
3 assists, 1 D (handblock), 4 turnovers

Breeze Practice

90min outdoor practice on 1' high grass

Breeze Workout

3x10 pistol squats
3x15 inverse rows
3x15 SL RDL
4x7 HSPU

For time:
50 burpees (2:45)
50yd inchworms (walk-out pushups)
50yd forward bounds
100yd walking lunges
Completed in 11:25

2x(25yd slow shuffle left, 25yd slow shuffle right)
2x50yd wheelbarrow

Marine abs in group of 4:

10 pushups, front plank
10 leg lifts, front plank

20 scissor kicks, side plank
20 flutter kicks, side plank
10 toe touches, front plank
10 toe touches, front plank
20 flutter kicks, side plank
20 scissor kicks, side plank
10 leg lifts, front plank
10 pushups, front plank

After dinner, watched the footage from Sunday's game against the Philly Phoenix and recorded commentary.

DC Breeze - Season 1 Game 4

18-23 vs Philadelphia Phoenix
(3-6, 10-12, 16-16, 18-23)

DC Breeze - Season 1 Game 3

11-25 vs New York Empire

Pre-Game Workout

1mi jog
10min stretching
30min throwing
60min Spikeball

Breeze Practice

Drove out to an unkempt grass field by Washington Bible College in Maryland, ran around for maybe 90 minutes to practice vert stack and jump balls with a small Breeze contingent.

Breeze Workout

400m warmup jog
Static/dynamic stretching
Cut and throw drill
5 reps star SAQ drill
5 reps resisted sprint starts
10 reps body-up drill
Tabata sprints: 8 reps for 960yd total