I am antsy as HELL.  Gotta gym it up tonight.  Legit.

Yesterday I got back on the horse, as it were.  Hit the gym for what was supposed to be a pretty light day.  Ended up being
Deadlift 3x10x115 supersetted with
One-leg squat (pistol) 4/Leg
The DLs felt decent, not fantastic.  I focused on getting my ass down before the lift, which i think helped keep the power through my heels, as its supposed to be.  The pistols were alright, I found myself losing stability on the up and not getting down as far as I'd like, but overall they're heading in the right direction, so if I just keep doing it, I'll get there.
Squat 2x15x115 These were a breeze through the first five of each set, then took focus for the next five, then the final five were surprisingly difficult given how light the weight was.
Split squats: 3x10/Leg These felt great.  I got good height and was really stable.  Also, I could feel my muscles going right up to their failure point without _quite_ reaching it.  I would take steps between sets and my glutes would tighten like they were about to seize but they never quite did.  It was about perfect.
Run 1 mile: Don't completely remember it, but it was a 1% run so it was high-speed.  Felt good, finished without feeling like death, just that I had done a good solid run.
Finished up with some simple ladder work, got a good idea from one of the trainers that I'll have to try next time (both feet out, steps into the ladder, steps out, repeat moving forward).

Today was spent taking photographs, which was nice, but left me feeling underworked, so I challenged myself to my 100 pushup time.  This was spurred by the 100 burpee challenge on the Mr. Yuk bboard.  For a while, Corey had the lead with about a 7:40.  Then a sophomore beat him by ten seconds, then Hao Su blew him out of the water with a 6:13.  This number blew my mind and, since I don't particularly care for Hao, kinda tweaked me.  Hence, the 100 pushup challenge.  I...was not too pleased with my result.  I pulled a 6:15, which means Hao can do 100 burpees 2 seconds FASTER than I can do 100 pushups.  I'll probably do this again in a few weeks.  Coming up, I'll want to check my 100 burpee time.  I'm also hoping to do a proper pull up soon.  Ahh, wishes.

Anyway, my shoulder is coming along, I think, my lower body is getting stronger and I'm getting sleep (for now).  However, I don't feel as confident as I may sound.  I'm in one of my down phases, where I feel like I'm falling behind.  Long as I keep the right attitude, I can come out of it for the better, though- remotivated and ready to ball.  Let's see what we can do.
~#28

First off- SICK.  Ughhhh.  I hate being sick.  In that "I feel like I hate it more than normal but I can't really think of anybody who _doesn't_ hate being sick" kinda way.  It just can't come at an opportune time.  I guess at the very least, Ginie's around and she's super nice and takes care of me which is really sweet.  Still, I'd rather not be sick.

Secondly- Got stronger over the weekend, and a little bit faster, maybe.  Ken's having me finish all workouts with a mile on the treadmill now, so I'm doing it in my own workouts too.  Not fun, but finishable.  Goal is going to be 7:00 at 3% grade or harder.  Haven't hit it yet, but maybe next time.  I can do it, I think.  Generally, I'm doing normal strength stuff on my upper body and dynamic/functional/power lifting with kettlebells and such on the lower body.  That stuff is fun but really hard.  I hate when my form starts to slip.  I feel it happen and it makes me frustrated, since I feel, often, like I know what it should feel like INSTEAD of how it actually feels.  Yesterday was a nice little circuit that Ken gave me, 3 rounds, moving quickly, of

10xSquat Clean/Clean and Press (45,55, 65), my squat diminished over each set, as i got tired.  Have to focus better on getting my ass down after the deadlift.
20xDB Clean (25 lb, 10 reps each arm)
20xKB Squat Clean (20 lb, 10 reps each arm)
10x upright row (45 bar, 45 plate, 45 plate) The plate added a gripping dimension to this that I liked.  Just gave me one more muscle group to work.

After this was a 1 mile run, it was 7:11 and I'll take it.  Moving up to faster next time.  My legs are handling the runs better and better each time.

Got Stronger AND Better.  First Chest with K, chest pressed 110, which might be a PR (not sure).  Had a weird plyo circuit on a medicine ball and a half balance ball, then ran a 7:17 mile.  I thought the mile would be faster, but whatever.

Later hit up throwing with Toad.  We started with the usual free throwing and I was pretty regularly out-throwing him.  That felt good, not gonna pretend it didn't.  Then it was a marking drill- no arms for two rounds, then arms for two rounds.  While he landed more shots, I shut him down on a lot of pivots.  I'm looking forward to game time situations.  My foot speed was not as low as I worried it was, but still is too low.  If I'm gonna come up against, say, Zelnik again, what I've got will not cut it.  Finally, we ran a weird modified Nietzsche and then Toad ran a plyo-100 (10 yds, 5 tuck jumps, 10 yards, 5 split squats for 5 reps, then a sprint back) and we bailed.  Right now, my abs are feeling something, not sure what, but they're sore.  Overall, a pretty legit day and a great way to use the 50 degree weather.  I'm really looking forward to winter league now.

Got Stronger last night.  Funtional lifting/power lifting.  A pretty tough circuit of

Clean and Press with the bar (45, 65, 65)
DB one-motion straight up (3x25)
KB cradle snatch (3x20) (the last two were 1-arm)
upright row (45, 65, 65 with the last two sets as 5x65, 10x20 because I could no longer row the bar)

This was really rough.  I started out each set with a good strong explosive lift, so I know I _can_ do the movements.  The problem is when I start getting tired I can feel my upper body taking over.  Like I said, I could explosively lift the first rep of each exercise and I could usually explosively lift one or two more across the set _and_ I got good snap out of most of the whole first round, making it deep into the sets BUT by the second round of the circuit, things had dropped to being much much harder.  I was lifting hard, as evidenced by my lightheadedness, but I'm not sure that wasn't caused by my form.  I was happy that I got to do it and perhaps I'll run the circuit again sometime soon.

After the circuit was simple abs- 3x[10xknees, legs, knee/legs] on the captain's chair.  Then Ken hit me with the treadmill.  The challenge was to run a sub-9 mile after that workout, any incline.  Having run a 7:30@3% on Wednesday, i figured runnning it again at 1% should compensate for the workout.  I....was wrong.  I hit the wall well within two minutes, even keeping pace for a 7:30, and cramping started almost immediately.  This was my second hardest run (for some reason, I had a bitch of a time running a 7:30@3.5% a few weeks ago) and required some real focus to push past the pain.  And by focus I mean berating myself for being such a bitch.  I ended up running 3/4 at 8mph, 3/16 at 8.5mph and finishing the last 100 at 9mph.  this run absolutely ruined me for a long time.  Especially my concentration.  I tried to write my weights and the details of the workout and i just _could not_ put pen to paper constructively for probably ten minutes.  Obviously my legs were pretty shot but my lungs stayed not-too-upset the whole time.  Same for my heart rate.  My cardio is not in as terrible a shape as I thought.  That said, I remember how fucked I was at Yuk practice.  Spring really will require focus, deep focus, on hitting the hill, hitting the track and getting to a place where I can compete with college kids who are just gearing up for Regionals, Nationals what-have-you.

Let's do this.  Doin' Work,
~#28

Get Faster last night.  Slightly faster.  very slightly.  But I'm happy.  I had a TERRIBLE day at work and was in a foul mood all day.  I watched a trailer for The Blueprint (hodag repeat DVD) and got amped before walking out the door, driving straight to the gym and getting changed.  I stretched (a vaguely dynamic stretch, but mostly a weird hybrid dynamic/static thing) and hopped on a treadmill.  7:30 later, I had run a mile at a 3% grade.  Next time it's a 4% grade.  After 4% i'll have to make a decision about whether I want to up the grade or the speed.  Moving from 8 to 9 mph could do me good, but I think I'm more likely to prefer the uphill running to increase.  9 mph is nowhere near my sprint and I don't think I really do much for myself other than cardio by running a mile at that speed.  When it comes time to do speed work, it'll probably be on the Tufts track.  Hopefully, I'll be able to maintain most of a base through treadmill work.  Maybe by February I'll be running 2 miles or something.  I kinda doubt it though.  I'm happy focusing on strength and agility and then getting out to do Tabata hill sprints in the month before tryouts.  Yeah, that sounds reasonable.  Hoping to hear from Ken about training today after work, otherwise I'll just do it myself.  Getting frustrated, I am.  But if I can work things out with Ken, it'll all be good.

~#28

Got Stronger yesterday.  Pretty funny too.  After my legs ached all day and I stayed on my feet an equivalent amount of time, I got to the gym, knowing only that I wanted to do anything BUT legs.

Naturally Ken decided it was a leg day.  It was fast work, so I didn't take down weights, just exercises but Ken mentioned that my quad extend has gone up like 50 pounds.  I think he's wrong, but I'm sure I've added about that to certain lifts.  And that's awesome.  He teased some jumping work.  Of course, after the one day of functional lifting, he hasn't returned to it, so....

Just having the thoughts now, after a day of reminiscing-

I'm not really sure what role I played yesterday.  I certainly wasn't a handler.  I pushed back anytime i was asked to handle, to the point where I think I might not have been called a handler all day.  I think maybe I spent most of my time set up at the front of the stack, waited for opportunity cuts back to the disc or to the break side and then went out to play some D.  I know against Zone D, I was in the middle taking up a lot of space (and pissing off my fellow cutters) trying to get open for our handlers.  I have memories of catching goals and throwing a few, but I think mainly I worked the midfield.  That's really strange, and it's just as strange that I can't remember what exactly I did.  Other than pull.

Not much to say.  5-0, Div 2 Champions, winning every game we had.  Couldn't jump to Div 1 so we won as best we could.

I'm feeling great about these wins, especially since I played a real part in all of them.  I felt strong and fast the entire time and I covered whoever got thrown at me.  I shut down a good number of cuts and I got open almost all the time.  One guy did completely shut me down for a while in one of the games, but it got dealt with.  I also had a number of points where I just did nothing.  Motivation completely failed me.  I'm...okay with it though.  Not sure i should be.  I don't know if it's related to the weather or the fact that I felt like we were winning and trusted my team to get it done or what, but I just didn't feel as bad about completely not contributing as I should have.  There were multiple points where I would stand at or near the front of the stack and just stare at my handler.  Sometimes they'd clearly motion for me to cut to the break lane, and I'd do it, but usually I just followed the play most of the way down the field.  It was pretty lazy now I think about it.  Oh well.  Like I said, 5-0.  Jobs got done.  Work got done. 

I...really don't remember how many D's I got.  I just know I got a number of monster point blocks.  Once on Gary somehow in front of his body.  Once a full hand across a backhand huck- I can still see some marks from where i took the hit.  Anytime a disc stays flying for like, five more seconds AFTER the point block, you know it's done some serious damage.  It was three points or so of my hand down my pants after that just to get feeling back.  Surprisingly, I don't have a bruise on the tip of the finger.  I thought I would.

Anyway, I played well today.  I'm really happy.  I don't know what it means, given two games were against high schoolers and one game was 123 Frisbee, but we won them all and I scored a lot of fantasy today.  I don't really know how many turns I'm responsible for either, but not a huge number.

Oh, also my pulls were commented on repeatedly.  I don't know where it came from, but I was semi-routinely dropping them in the mid-endzone depth.  I was really surprised but I was definitely gonna take it.  I also put up a few nice deep shots.  A few not-so-nice deep shots too, though.  I had a few I was really happy with.  One in particular, where Toad got block on the dump as I marked, I called him off as he went for the disc and then I bombed it to him perfectly.  That one felt really good.

Man, I was so psyched to win and do it with a bunch of my good/best friends.  Becca was in town, Katie cleated up (and played like a beast out of the gate, getting a point block on her first mark), Toad as well.  It was a fantastic time when I wasn't noticing how incredibly cold my hands were.  Keeping a handwarmer in my pocket was an excellent idea.  Gonna hold onto that one.

I'm happy.  I did work.  Let's keep ballin'.
~#28

Got Stronger last night, but not a lot.

I've decided to start letting my shoulder recuperate.  It's been bothering me for almost four months now and that's way too long for me to be complacent about it anymore.  I need to start taking steps to let it chill out.  I don't know exactly what's wrong, my worst-case fear is partially torn rotator but I'm leaning away from that given the normal amount and frequency of pain (in both cases, relatively low).

     Step one is to ease off lifts that tax my shoulder, especially where the tendon moves over the joint, which is where the pain is.
    Step two is fixing how I sleep.  This one is much harder, especially given that I'll be, y'know, unconscious...I normally sleep on my stomach with my right arm up and my head resting on my forearm.  This keeps my right shoulder in a flexed position all night.  I'm going to work to make sure I start sleeping on my back, at least for now.  It's really unnatural, but hopefully it'll work and things'll improve.
     Step three is recommitting to an advil/aspirin regimen.  I try and try and try but never remember to take advil every night.  I'd really like to give my body a better chance at healing by taking the anti-inflammatory right before bed, then letting my systems heal while they aren't inflamed.  The analgesic properties are useful enough, I guess.
     Step four is keeping up with my pills.  The Centrum especially, though the flaxseed oil can't hurt.

Alright, that's my plan.  I'm still jazzed for GHHH.  I've been jazzed for days and now it's all i can do to keep from constantly thinking about it.  Every minute not spent on work is spent thinking about how I'm gonna play.  In all my visualizations (so much less creepy a word than fantasies), I neglect the weather, which will inevitably be cold and taking a toll on my lungs.  Hmm.  Well, no point in picturing myself in pain, I'd never be able to do it anyway.  Might as well just keep pretending it's the middle of June.

~#28

The weakness of the Faster, Stronger, Better system reveals itself now.  I hit the gym last night, as planned, Got Stronger and went home.  I wake up, now, rather weaker since what I really did was put a bunch of micro-tears in my muscles which now need to heal.  When I'm really Getting Stronger in these few days AFTER the gym.  I can say this with certainty because right now, I'm feeling preeeeeeeeeeeetty sore.  In a good way, but sore nonetheless.  Especially in the calfular region, having hopped on the standing calf raise for the first time in a while and topping out at 10x215.  Fun but painful in the aftermath.  I also hit the OH squat clean which was alright but in dropping the bar back to the clean position, I tweaked something in my left shoulder which is now also slightly weaker.  I'm less worried about that one, since I'm not going to use my left shoulder for....anything in the near (next 30odd hours), it's just annoying.  Overall, I'm pretty happy with my workout.

Oh, forgot to mention, I've got my little Corner of Athletic Usefulness at work now- my gatorade, some flaxseed oil (for Omega-3s) and Centrum Silver (for combating osteoporosis and also just getting regular vitamin supplementation).  Makes me smile.  I'm taking a set of pretty huge pills every lunch now, and that's kinda balls, but it isn't really that hard.  And again, dividends get paid in April, not over the winter.

Rest day today, nothing planned, no gym, no treadmill, just chilling out and probably gonna try to get to bed early (we'll see how that works out...) and hopefully I'll be at 100% on Sunday.  Should be possible if I don't do anything stupid or get sick.  The latter is looming distressingly large over my life- yesterday I was in a meeting of 5 people, only 2 of us in this tiny conference room weren't sick.  Ugh.

Well, whatever.  Let's Do Some Work,
~#28

Got Stronger yesterday, with Ken.  Did Back and Biceps as I suspected.  Got decently sore for today, which is a) unusual and b) a good change.  I also hit two PRs, I think.  I'm gonna do Legs again tonight since I'm taking the weekend "off" to play (Getting Better again!  Finally...) at Get Ho Ho Ho.  Our team is looking like they'll be pretty middling, but that means we'll hopefully get some good variation in competition.  If the weather isn't godawful, I think I'll really enjoy cleating up again.  I just want to play again...

It's been about 6 weeks since Clambake.  I was pleased with my play (mostly) at that.  In the meantime, I've been doing some real Work, I feel.  Hopefully I will be seeing the benefits on field.  Toad and Katie are coming and it'll be nice playing with them again.  I'm really anxious to see what Katie's like on the field now, since the last time I saw her play was at Girhales, I think.  And she was still mighty intense.  It's 4/3 and I think we have like 3 or 4 women, so that might help too.  Not that I'm averse to an intense game, but...well, whatever.  She'll be whoever she is and Toad, Schachter and I will just roll with it.  Not sure how, say, Jess and Sasha will respond if she's on the intense side, but that's for later.  Ian'll help, probably.

Our men's numbers look okay for PT.  I'll be able to sub when I want to and won't have to feel obliged to be on the field more than is good for me.  I'm going to try going no-brace again and see how it works out.  I'll definitely bring it though, just in case.  It'll also be the first on-field try at my leggings.  Let's see how they handle.  They're much thinner than my old ones so this could go either way- thinner and less obstructive or thinner and colder (leading to slower legs).  Likely the air will be the limiting factor, in which case my legs will just have to keep up with my lungs and all will be down to cardio.  The college kids will have a big leg up on me there, since they'll have been practicing in this weather while I've been gymtiming it hardcore.

Well, I'm just going in circles as a function of my anticipation.  I'll stop and try to focus.  Gotta hydrate before gym time.

Let's do some Work.
~#28

ETA: Ugh.  Annoying ass meeting makes me glad for the gym.

Got _way_ Stronger Saturday.  After some complications with Ken on Friday, b and I rolled into the gym, 10 AM, ready to ball.  Ball we did.  Ken finally hit me with some real hard work, doing 45 pound overhead squat cleans.  I loved it.  My legs at the time did too, and now they're reminding me of their love constantly.  It may feel like soreness, but it's actually just nostalgia by my legs.  I'm hoping to get back to those probably wednesday.  They were SO good.

I also hit a PR on Smith Squat at 205.  That's 1.3x BW and I'm still feeling capable of going higher.  I think I'll be able to hit my 1.5xBW sometime early in the new year if not in December proper.  That's my second PR on legs recently, having pushed a 235 on the leg press a week or two ago.  My upper body doesn't seem to be putting on the strength, but I might be making that up.  As well, my shoulder tendon continues to rub over the joint which is extremely uncomfortable.

I've been falling off the wagon about getting runs in after workouts but I've been doing agility work on a ladder when I can.  I've got to start focusing more on hitting the treadmill.  Running a mile only takes 8 minutes but if I don't do it, I'll pay in April.  Hitting it up again tonight.  Back and Biceps?  Something.  Getting Stronger.  Gonna get faster too.  Maybe I can commit to 1 day/week hitting the treadmill for a timed mile and the other days doing abs and agility.  That seems doable.

Gonna Get Strong tonight.  Gotta keep taking care of my shoulder.  I don't remember how long it took to heal last time I messed it up, but it was longer than I'd like.  Booo....

Got moderately Stronger last night.  I'm noticing my upper body is full of broken bits while my lower body is doing pretty well.  For instance, the hamstring injury that has plagued me for over four years is more or less gone, as is the ankle weakness.  Meanwhile, my right rotator cuff seems to be majorly strained or minorly torn (hope Hope HOPE it's the former) and my biceps randomly hurt every once in a while while lifting.  If I had to chose one or the other to be broken (upper or lower body), I'd choose upper body, but i'd really rather be healthy....

Getting Stronger again with Ginie on Friday.  Ken offered to train us both.  I think that'd be fun.

Got Better today.  Not a lot, though.  Throwing work with Nimble, which was stymied somewhat by intense winds.

Also got to hit up an Ironside party.  That was pretty cool but amazingly awkward for me.  It's an incredibly awkward feeling to know the names of everybody around you and be equally sure they don't even know you exist.  It's so strange.  I made it through a round of Landmines though, so I'll chalk it up as most of a win.

Got way Stronger last night.  That was awesome.  After a hard but short workout with Ken (really beat up my pecs, which was cool), I noticed one of his trainers walking towards the parquet with an agility ladder.  Now, Toad's got me brainwashed into loving the ladder, so I instantly wandered over to Ken and asked if she was about to do the Boot Camp class he's got set up.  He laughed and sent me over, comping me the class.  It was pretty cool of him and when I got there it was...odd.  I've never taken a class at a gym, and never particularly felt a need or desire to, but i'll give anything a shot if I might get to do agility work.

It turned out the ladder was only for a warmup, but I agility'd my ass off.  Of course, I was in a class with three girls, two of whom were not in shape and one of whom had just done a workout of her own (legs, even), so she wasn't really putting out the effort required either.  However, I felt good about how I did.  The format was a round robin: 2 sets of 4 rounds of plyo stations, 1 min./station, rest (30 to 60s if I had to guess), choose your weight with an intermission to change the stations.  The stations for the first round were thrusters with a body bar, chest press on a step and dumbbell open-ups from a pushup position.  I started at the open-ups with 5 pounders, which were easy enough but the exercise worked my abs and my obliques more than my shoulders and by the end of it, i was just trying to get one explosive pull to bring the weight up.  That moved into thrusters with a body bar which started out light and I was working the tempo nicely to start.  I was really happy with my pacing and REALLY happy with my form.  I got to check in the mirror a couple times and I was keeping my chest good and tall and my ass would go out, then I would triple-extend explosively back to a quick touch on the step and back down.  I powered through the first round and definitely got tired as i finished out.  I was feeling them (they're essentially deep box squats) for the entire rest of the day.  Those are killer.  The final thing was chest presses, which I just did with 30 on the bar (which might have been 45 total, if that) but for a minute with 0 rest, that's tough on the arms.  I found it easier to push through by counting out sets of 10, taking a quick breath and falling back into it.  After the final round, it was a quick break to get water and then back into the breach.

The next set of exercises was a DB weighted lunge with a tricep extend, raised leg twists (down to one side, up and down to the other), and frog jumps.  Frog jumps have always been my bane, since I never know where to jump and I never felt like i got the coordination down.  I nailed it last night though.  I was hitting good distances and, when my legs weren't tired, I was able to really get all my momentum from the previous jump into the next one by rolling my weight from heel to ball as i landed and prepared to jump again.  FJs were also the biggest source of tired that round.  The other two exercises were tough, but frog jumps have it all, eccentric contraction, coordination and explosive exertion.  Jumping's the best.  I love jumping.

That finished out and I headed home where I ate 6 slices of pizza and downed 2 large glasses of juice (not enough) after having pounded a protein shake at the gym.  Yesterday was a good day.  I'll feel the dividends shortly, I'm sure.  I gotta find something to eat now, but I'm gonna try to get another protein shake in me.  Free coffee at work makes it much easier to do all this.

Do Work.

getting...restier today.  Taking the day off to try to protein up and generally chill out.  Got good sleep, if not quite enough.  Gonna try to pull that off again and then Get Stronger tomorrow after work again.  Hope to Get Better this weekend.

Wasn't sure I was gonna do much today.  Made up my mind maybe an hour ago-

Getting Stronger tonight.

Ugh.  To quote Ken: "Nothing says Monday like Plank-to-Pushup".

But hey, Getting Stronger.

Update for a News Flash:

Mr. Yuk 2010-2011: Finish at CUFF 3rd from 18th seed.  Nothing motivates like the success of teams you care about and I can't think of a team I care more about having much more success.  So proud to wear the bracelet today.

Ugh.  Fuck running.  I did a moderate lifting workout followed by pretty acute ab work (hard but short) followed by a pretty tough run.  1 mi. at 3.5% incline at 8 mph (7.5 minutes).  After about 0.66 miles in, I was feeling it.  After about 0.85 miles in, I was completely stitched and when I finished, I was on the verge of booting for about five minutes.  I'm pleased with myself for finishing through the pain.  I'm displeased that it came so quickly.  The cardio will need to be a focus (not news) and I'm trying to keep that up.  I'll have trouble tomorrow, since I'm going before work.  It'll depend on what Ken gives me to work with and how the timing works out.

Sometime it'll be agility o'clock.  Gotta talk to Ken about that...

Nimble says he's gonna be going with the motto "Better, Faster, Stronger" for field work, track work and lifting respectively.  I like that.  This weekend I got Better, Stronger AND Faster.  I can take that to the bank, just can't be happy with it.

Let's do some work.

There are just some times a hard workout is all you need.  No matter the drama, the stress, the anxiety, getting your ass kicked by a lift is sometimes the best way to get past it.  This week has been rough on the home front and hitting the gym three days in a row helped me keep an even keel throughout.  Now I'm looking at a weekend with possibly some throwing work (necessary) with Nimble and maybe Toad.  It'll be good to cleat up again.  Just gotta keep on working.  I'll get there.

In related news, I was thinking about what my plans are if I _don't_ get there this summer.  Brayden had broached the subject of running a legit club team and giving it a shot and blah blah blah.  I'm...conflicted.  They're great people and I enjoy their company and we could definitely make a run at the middle as we are now.  But I don't have to say that I'm not interested at running at the middle.  I'm not sure we have the personnel to pull it off either, which means recruiting.  If we're going to do that, then we need the get the name out early.  But I'm not willing to commit myself to that team right now, nor will I be until after Tryouts for other teams have ended.  But the 7th Wheel model is pretty bad, though you can end up with some solid players.  I don't want to be part of the leadership of "the OTHER other mixed team in boston" (actually add some other's).  Picking up other team's slack can be worthwhile in any given instance but it's not a great team strategy.  So I'm stuck in this weird place of wanting to help them out if they're gonna do it but not being willing to actually help lead.  I think I'm currently solving it in my own head by saying I'll encourage them to do it, and if everything else falls through, I'll hook up with them.  Not the friendliest, but what I need to do.

The BEST post on Drama teams (and drama in ultimate) I've _ever_ read.

I strongly suggest this as reading.  If I had my way, it would be required reading in all college programs.  This is, while moderately long, totally to the point and a very sharp insight into what goes on on-field with bullshit teams. I don't necessarily agree with everything he says, but I'm very glad it got said.

cold rainy weather, life drama and a long remove from ultimate make for one seriously unmotivated Aaron.  As J is wont to say- Fuck.

Ah yes, about nationals-

Watched open (and mixed) finals with Corey, Gail and Ginie.  It was painful watching the Boys from Boston lose, but it's exactly what I said- Revolver didn't seem to run nearly as tight a roster as they did last year and they're just the better team.  The undefeated season was an impressive statistic, yes, but it's only undefeated in the US...nobody seemed to remember who the reigning world champs were.  A lot of mistakes on ISide's part, slightly fewer on Revolver's.  That's a game right there and you only get to play finals once.  Like they always say- if these teams met 10 times, maybe ironside wins 5, maybe ironside wins 9, but this time, this place, it was revolver's almost from the getgo.  Sad.  Next year.

Mixed was without many notes, other than incredible unprofessionalism in the booth and a sly, sideways disdain for mixed.  My opinions on mixed are that it hurts the sport's chances of going mainstream, but as long as it's part of USAU Nationals and as long as you're in the booth as the face of ultimate, you treat the game with respect.  Fuck, man.

Worked myself a good leg day yesterday.  I think it likely that, no matter my mood, legs will always get my spirits up.  I got in squats, deadlifts and powered through some relatively lighter quad/hammy work and it made me pretty happy.  I was all the more happy for seeing some improvement in my strength; the weekend (mostly) off was good for my recovery.  I'm scheduled to head back in tonight and I'm looking much better on the motivation front.  I've had my moment of down and now it's time to get back on the horse.  I'm glad things, so far, have worked out as they have.  I talked with toad about how meta I am, including how I get discouraged by _getting_ discouraged (the feeling of "the guys who make it aren't feeling like this") and he pointed out how stupid it was.  I guess I knew, but it always help to have somebody you respect tell you such things.

I've been...moderate about hitting the treadmill when I should.  I could be better.  I'm not hitting exhaustion like I should be, at least not often.  I've run a few "see how far I can take 10 mph" and the results aren't encouraging (.75 and .5 miles).  Knowing Jesse ran mile repeats in 6 min. approx is...strange.  I'm still confident I'm faster than him, not to mention smarter, but maybe that's just a conceit.  One way to get better, though.  Ken's suggested doing heavy uphill work, which isn't a bad idea at all.  I hit 12.5% uphill with around 6mph, maybe tonight I'll work towards 8 mph.  It was only half a mile, with the mile completed with a 10 mph  on flat ground (1% grade, since 0% feels like running downhill).

Seeing Bunn this weekend was scary.  To think I might have to compete against him someday is not a nice thought.  Kid's in fantastic shape and looking to have all the time and money in the world.  He's gonna be making Vijay Money.

Gotta go buy some new protein.  Nom...nom?

Weekend and vacation over.  Time to refocus.

I'll try to put thoughts on Nats up, but there isn't much to say.

Every once in a while, you get a flash of insight into something.  Today, that flash was into what a strange thing the Club Championships are.  It was odd to think of the tournament as a four day thing, like it's some sort of cricket match.  Then to think about the conditioning required to perform at that level for that long.  Then to think about how far that is from my whole experience to this point. The three-day tournament was a strange enough event, the four-day is even stranger.  I'm not sure I'd have the mental toughness.  I'm not sure I wouldn't either.  It's just not something I can even guess at.  Does playing College Championships prepare you for Club Championships?  I guess I'll ask Dan Heijman next time PoNY rolls in, yeah?  Okay, that may have been a joke, but the more I think about it, the more it's a possibility.  Josh provides me with possible access to the ISiders and the majority of them (all of them?) have played college championships at one point or another.

Edits: I'll try to keep my thoughts on the series as it unfolds simple and brief.

First and foremost- Ironside/Revolver in the final 90% certain.  Revolver wins unless they pull the same dumb shit they've pulled with line-calling for more than a year, hence...ISide Club Champions, call it 75% sure.

Secondly- PoNY is proving they belong at the big show.  No doubt.  Their victory over Goat will be the first of a run that puts them just on the cusp of quarters.  Deciding factor?  Don't know, other than some help from the other teams and a good pool on Friday.  PoNY's coming on strong and people should watch out.  I'd be interested to see what happens in their game against Ironside.  Last game of the day, a practically guaranteed loss but now I think they have a taste of blood they didn't have at their last meeting (Regionals).  Do PoNY come out fired or do they sub for tomorrow?  Wish I could be there for so many reasons.

Third- Pool C is looking more interesting than Pool D.  I was wrong.

motivation problems lingering.  They come and they go.  Right now, though, I'm incredibly antsy to get to Pittsburgh and play ultimate with Yuk.  Hope Jesse's down...

On the plus side- I've gained 4 pounds, more or less.  Gaining any weight for me is a pretty big deal.  I never put on weight.  I've been topped out at 150 for a long time and I'm up to 154 wearing just boxers.  I'll take it!

Success Story: After months of getting amped to play ultimate from reading other people's blogs, getting amped to play ultimate by reading my _own_ blog.  I'll call that a win for me.

Gym this morning for Legs and Shoulders.  Despite a new routine, still felt bored and lackluster the whole time.  Seriously flagging motivation.  Gotta keep my eyes on the prize.

I browbeat myself into going to the gym last night, it was both humorous and worth it.

The backstory is that I had a training session yesterday morning but my trainer either slept in or had to go fire an employee in Waltham depending on whom you ask.  Either way, I showed up around 8, got on a treadmill waiting, got sick of waiting and did a light workout before leaving without running a complete circuit and went to work.  After work, I got in a very brief self-argument about whether to return to the gym which ended shortly with me going "you're going.  I don't care what your responses are.  You're going."  I stuck to it and was very pleased I did.  I ended up getting in a short workout with Ken that was actually really tough and good for me.  I mentioned Deadlifts and he got me doing them for the first time in a while.  It was really really good.  Also did some one-leg squats and this weird back squat/deadlift mix that's still gonna take some getting used to.  After that, ran 3/4 mile at 9.5 mph before my body gave out on me, then walking to get my wind and running another 1/8 mile.  It was incredibly rough running and I wanted to go home afterward, so naturally I went to do abs.  After abs, I was all jumpy so I worked some footfalls and turnover speed in some accelerators/striders.  After that, I was all beat and headed home, happy and sore.  Looking forward to another training session tonight...

The deeper into the off-season I get (and fall club ending means I have very little ultimate on my horizons), the harder motivation gets.  I dread the coming winter.  On the other hand, if I treat it as a challenge- as a chance to see how strong my will is, I'm much more likely to buckle down.  The real trick will be the cardio, keeping my ass on a treadmill, keeping my resolve to make sure I do such things.  Maybe I'll be doing stairs or something.  The stairwell at my office is promising, as long as I can get in on weekends.  We will see.

Nimble is making overtures to do some work.  I'll almost certainly take him up on it at least once.  He's a good guy and we've both got a lot to gain and nothing to lose.

On a totally different note, I've gotten increasingly afraid of injury, at least while I'm off the field.  I remember distinctly talking with Katie when she came back from England with her torn ACL and she talked about how discouraging getting injured after working her ass off to get in such good shape was.  I've started worrying about what I would do if I got seriously injured, like an ACL tear or a shoulder cuff tear or something similarly severe.  Would I have the resolve to get back on the horse?  I don't have any clue, but I hope beyond hope that I'll never have to find out...

Last fall club game tonight.

Goal: Layout D.
2nd Goal: Layout grab.

Having put up a number of defensive bids over the weekend, I'm in the mood to actually connect on one tonight. No idea who we're playing, but from now until 9:15, they're chumps.

ETA: Missed it by inches.  Less.  Dammit.

Quote of the Day:

I hit the gym for back and biceps with my trainer.  I had a bicep pain a few weeks ago that flared up again.  When I mentioned it to him, he queried:

"What kind of pain?  Vaginitis?"

I'll admit I laughed.  Which was not good given that I was in the middle of my lifts...

Clambake was a great time.  I picked up with a team that was composed of about half One Trick Pony/Flight School and half pickups.  We had a sizable roster on paper, though it ended up not feeling that large, especially as we started losing players to injury.

Man, I'm getting so psyched for Clambake.  It's gonna be so much fun.  Also, if I play the way I played at Fall League on Tuesday, I'll be kicking ass and taking names.  EXCITED

...now I just need Toad to bring me back my ankle brace...

Some notices from today:

Regionals: Inspiring.  Ironside always puts on an excellent show and PoNY went balls out to beat Goat, then Bodhi to take the other bid to Nats.  Saw Heijman play and Zip came to support his sister (I think), so there were three Callahan winners on the field today, which is pretty baller.

Speaking of Baller...

Ballo: disappointing.  After hyping themselves, they again fail to place for Nats.  Partly this is due to the dissolution of Colt and gutting of MissCONNduct to form District 5, but still.

Speaking of disappointing...

Disappointing: minor bicep tear in my right arm.  Can't throw painless flicks of any distance.  Hopefully this'll turn into some Rookie of the Year thing and when it heals, I'll have a 90 yard upwinder.

Finally, according to some 12-year olds who passed while I was working my throws...

Frisbee: gay.  I learned something today.

Had my first moment of wavering commitment just now.  Just a sort of malaise about hitting the gym today.  I was up at 6:30, I'm training at 4, my back still hurts; I just sorta had a moment of whining.  Luckily I recognized it for what it was.  I'm back to looking forward to the gym.

Case in point for my whole headspace right now:

All day, I've been feeling pretty annoyed at life: I dreamt about work, I woke up with a fucked up back, there's work drama and girl drama and I'm pretty hungry to boot.  I'm scheduled to hit the gym after work, but there's no training so my commitment is only to myself and it's starting to lag.  I hit up a random new ultimate blog (The SHubbard, hailing from UCSD), and in about twenty minutes, I already want to hit the gym.  I'm gonna hit the squat rack again, bad back be damned.

I love squats!  Squatty squats squats.  Here I go down, down with my weight.

...well, after that I go back up and the repeat a couple times, but anyway...

Squats have the most direct effect on how I feel while playing ultimate of any lift I do.  My weights dropped since before training (155 from 185) but the depth of my squats has increased markedly.  I'll make that trade.

Now my back hurts and I don't know what to do.

I threw 363 throws today, within the span of 2 hours.

100 standing forehands to "under" cuts
100 standing forehand deep shots, alternating up and down wind with 9 discs
100 standing backhand deep shots, alternating up and down wind with 9 discs
63 deep shots on the run, alternating backhand/forehand, and upwind/downwind

After this, my right arm was entirely seized up and the last 20+ backhands I threw were utter shit.  My arm and other muscles were completely wasted by the end of the day.  My bicep, tricep and forearm still ache, six hours later.

I spent much of my free time today reading all of Kenny Dobyns' blog and learning a lot about those who came before.  Earlier this summer, I read most of Parinella's current blog, as well as his old website and absorbed a lot of history from it.  To my high school self and even my college self, real competitive ultimate started with DoG.  To look back and see NYNY and before, reaching back into the 80s, the time when I was born- the styles were awful, the ultimate was...not.  It was real, balls-out ultimate.  As far as I can tell, it predates the Ho, the clam, the you-name-it scheme that is commonplace today, but it wasn't easy or lazy or any of those things we think of old players as being now. Unsophisticated, perhaps, but unsophisticated like a hobo fight- if you're not on your toes, you'll be on your ass.  The real thing I pulled from it was a recognition.

Just got back from the gym.  Went in in a terrible mood, left in a fantastic one.  Good hard workout.  Got in some one-leg work.  Did a simple captain's chair routine (knee/leg lifts) that was easy.  I logged it as such in my notebook.  Actually, what I wrote was "easy/lazy" since it was so easy I assumed I must have cheated.  Later, while waiting for mom to finish up, Ken came by and asked what I did.  I handed over my notebook.  I didn't really think about it, until he kicked my ass with a plank progression.  I laughed my ass off because it was ridiculous, but it's hard fucking work.

Got myself some steak, gonna cook it up tasty after my shower.

Gym alone (technically with mom, but let's be honest...) so I worked my lower body and just took it pretty easy for shits.  It's my second week of four-a-week (my goal for the month, as stated here) after last weeks workouts + sectionals.

I'm unsure what I want to do for my next four-a-week.  Ken has three sets of workouts- back and bicep, chest and tricep, legs and shoulders.  Trying to hit the gym four times a week leaves that fourth slot unfilled.  I'd considered doing a hard cardio day, had settled on doing a quarter or half deck of cards, then left my cards at home because i'm stupid.  My workout:

Roll my hammy
bike for 15 minutes at very low resistance, got about 3.5 mi with ~80-85 RPM avg.
Hack Squat: 3x10x120
Inverted Squat: 3x10x150
Quad extend: 10x70,50,50
Hammy Curl 3x10x55
Standing Calf Raise: 3x10x155
It's odd.  I feel stronger than I used to be, but these numbers are, in many cases, lower than they were before.  I'm not sure if this is indicative of overtraining or underfeeding myself, but it's something to pay attention to.  The numbers are, at least, increasing from when I started with Ken.

The thing I'm really posting about is that I'm at the gym, or more realistically, at home, while all my friends are at sectionals.  J, Toad, Schach, Ginie are all with their teams.  I'm here alone.  It's not a good feeling.  I've found myself struggling with it all summer- it's a mixture of jealousy, despair and defiant hope.  I have, at least so far, channeled it into determination to get better physically.  I toyed with visualizations heavily near the beginning of August, but my focus wasn't in it.  Perhaps the next time I shower, I can return to the Bartlett House technique.  It's very difficult visualizing what I want to work on, especially downfield d- I can't seem to see the cuts developing the way I need to.  Alternative options include working my timing or feeling my fakes or deep shots better when I visualize.  And, there's always the layout d.

I should eat.  Protein o'clock.

Workouts

Ken had a tight schedule.  Naturally, he took this out on me.  This took the form of a brief machine workout followed by some crazy plyos.  It was awesome.  He's got some crazy shit that just shattered my upper body and abs.  He keeps teasing me that there'll be a day of full plyos or deadlift and squatting days.  I can NOT wait.  Every time I think about next tryout season, I get so excited...


Another session tomorrow, on my own.  Gonna be rough but probably not as hard as yesterdays...

The Beginning Of It All

It seems to be the thing to do.  After spending most of July and all of August reading ultimate blogs, it seems right to start my own.  I kept a livejournal going for a while back in High School, so let's see how this thing turns out.  Maybe I'll be able to sustain it, maybe it'll crumble but hopefully it'll keep the fire under my ass to keep working and, if I'm lucky/good at it, light a fire or two under yours.  The point is to get things down on paper (as it were) and make it where I want to go.  It seems smart to say, upfront, where I want to go.  Luckily, that's easy- Nationals.