1RM'd a deadlift at 225, which is 1.5 BW.  It's kinda impressive, but not really.

Tried some thrusters, first at 95 which was WAAAY too much, then at 65, which was much better.  Did a triple set of 10 and that felt good.  Gonna do it again and try increasing the weight.  3x10 was good though.  Not too much, not too little.

Overall, my work has been pretty sporadic.  Work has been really tough on me recently, which has been a problem.  I've been trying, but it's tough.

Doing work when I can,
~#28

Another update:

I've had a pretty solid routine for the past month or so.  Two days a week lifting, plus two days a week winter league.

Sundays: Leg day
Deadlifts (5x185,185,185,185,195 current PR)
Front Squats (5x5x100something current PR)
Kettle Bell swings (10x70,79,79 current PR)
Then I head upstairs and work on my footwork and my vertical.  I love rope ladders...
Sunday nights I head to winter league so I can play on tired legs.  So far, I can see the benefits of being healthy again and I think I'm seeing the lifting as well.  I skyed rob once (though I missed the disc), and have gotten nice D's in the air.

Wednesdays: Arm day
[Pull ups (around 15 in 5 sets, different ways)
Standing/seated DB military press (5x25,25,25,25,30 current PR)
DB press (5x35,35,35,35,40 current PR)
Some sort of shoulder/back work (a row, back fly, etc.)
Core (They have an ab roller wheel which was something that really worked for me in Boston)


Thursdays: Winter league
See above.




Other than that, my nutrition is....eh.  I've been doing a shit job of getting enough protein, but I've also been doing a shit job of eating enough in general so....one thing at a time, i guess.




Today's Thursday so tonight is Winter league.  Doin' work,
~#28

Not that it's been forever or anything, but...

I've been working out.  Intermittently at least. 

It's strange how everything changes in just one year.  Two years ago, I was kinda doing stuff with Toad maybe sorta.  One year ago, I was working 40 hours a week and enjoying my gym.  Now, I'm struggling to find time during 50-70 hour work weeks and thinking as much about how to make my team successful as how to make myself successful.

Work is crushing and I've been traveling, which means it's even harder to find the time to work out.  When the hotel has the facilities, I try to use them.  I don't always remember to pack stuff for it though, and that means working out in my own room so it's not that weird that I'm not wearing pants (better than the alternative of jeans or khakis).

I set myself new goals today, so I want to write them down.  I'd like to be able to touch the air ducting in my gym.  It's probably something like a 30+ inch jump, so that's gonna be....a lotta work.  Welp, might as well get to it.

I rebenchmarked as best I could these past two gym sessions, trying to get a feel for what the season had left me with:

Legs:
[Barefoot DL: 10x95,115,115(?)
Chin Up: 3,1, 3(pull up grip)]
TRX 1-L Squats: 5/Lx3 (These were really good.  I think I'm going to do them more.  The TRX bands definitely helped stabilize.  I pulled myself up more as the sets wore on, though.
1-L Quad Extend: 10x25,37.5,45
TRX Roll-out: 4x10s hold, 1x 15s

Arms:
Wide Lat pulldown:10x84,84,86.5
Bench press: 3x10x85 (last set was actually 7)
Decline press: 2x10x45/arm (iso), 10x50/arm (bilateral)
Tricep pulldown: 3x10x60
Run 1 mile, 8 mph, 2%

Doing this left me with a decent idea of what's going to need doing for the next months.  Time to go back to work.
~#28

I stopped posting a few months ago, not because I stopped working out, but because I just didn't find the time.  I did stop working out though, due to injuries and constant ultimate tournaments, I never thought I was in a good place.  That said, Udderburn just failed to qualify for Regionals this weekend and now begins the long, hard winter.  I will be ramping down my ultimate and ramping up, significantly, my training.  Lessons learned:

1) It matters.  Training for just 1 winter made me a VASTLY better player.  I turned myself from a player considered 100% O-line to a player who plays nearly all the D points when the pressure is on.  This is an accomplishment I am beyond proud of.
2) It isn't hard.  Not that it doesn't require hard work.  I mean, 150 pounds of anything is hard to pick up.  I mean it wasn't hard making the time, making the plans, making the choice again and again to hit the gym.  The hard part was flipping that mental switch.  In many ways, I didn't do it actively, it just happened.  If there is something I think was key to my improvement, however, it was that switch.  I wish I could tell people how to do it.  Getting a trainer didn't work quite how I wanted, but it did teach me quite a bit about training and many different lifts.
3) There is a wealth of information out there, go and find it and you will be rewarded.  I used so many different workout regimens in the past few months.  I had two different trainers (with two different styles), I used Toad's tabata-fanatacism to fuel a few workouts, I ran, I didn't run, I stole Ironside's workouts.  All that I had to do was figure out where to look and things just...work.
4) Losing fucking sucks.  I took the losses at Sectionals here at least as hard as the losses at College Sectionals.  And all I could think was "This is right.  I _should_ be upset.  Losing should hurt because you should care so much about yourself, your team, and your game that losing is a punch in the gut."
5) You can't be too proactive.  There were lots of problems with how Udderburn was run, but that was lots of inexperience.  Keep the pressure on captains, make sure they know what to do, push for your ideas.  Captainship is full of politics, especially when you start adding captains (Udderburn ended up with 4!) and it pays to navigate those waters.  I feel very much that I acted like Corey when he first arrived at Yuk- full of knowledge that only half the important people were listening to.  There are lessons to learn from that, too.

Speaking of which, Corey and Gail might be coming up to Madison in October and that would be amazing.  I'd absolutely love to see them again, especially if I got to show them around.  Ginie and I are both excited.

The work begins again,
~#28

Day 2 of the Ironside July.  Harder.  Much harder than Day 1.

[Pre-lift: 4x6 box jumps
scapular mobility 3x10]

[DL:5x115,135,155,165,175

Wall ankle mobs 4x 8/s]

[Pronated DB Row: 3x8x25
Walking DB Lunge: 3x8x25]

[TRX Elevated Pushups:3x10
Pull throughs: 8x40,10x40,60]

[Pallof Press: 3x3/s x10s
External Rotator Cuff Rotation: 2x12/s x 10]

I'm straight up stealing Ironside workouts for the next month.  Let's see how it goes.

[Front Squats:6x95,105,115,115
Chin Ups: 5,4,3,3]
[Incline DB Press 3x8x35
DB Reverse Lunge: 3x8/s x35]
[Hip bridge off bench:3x8/s x45
Half Kneeling Cable Chop 3x10/s x 20]
Situps 3x10 for speed.

Great workout.  Walked out feeling fantastic.  Went out and practiced with Udderburn yesterday and pulled it all off.  Definitely lost a step or two but can still sprint, can still cover.  Things are looking up again.

~#28

Biked to gym
Roll and stretch
One leg press 3x10x70
Groin close 10x80,80,90
Hamstring curl 3x10x75
Triceps
Abs
Stretch
Biked around a little bit more.

Busted my leg again Thursday at ultimate.  Not badly, just enough that I couldn't play and was in real pain for a little while.  Still staying off it for a few days.  Probably stupid of me to have gone to the gym hard wednesday and then straight into ultimate Thursday.  Next time, I'll leave a few days between things.  Foolish.  Just foolish.

I'm still frustrated, but it'll work itself out.
~#28

Great day for me yesterday.  Got back in the gym and could lift at my body's limit, instead of just getting held back by injury. Here's what I did:

Bike to gym for a warmup
DL: 3x10x155 (BW)
Squat: 10x135, 5x145, 5x155.  After the 135s, the tendon in my right knee was moving and it was too uncomfortable to do long sets, so I cut them in half.  Kept moving the weight up though, so I'm not too upset.
Invert Row on TRX straps: 10,9,3x3.  These got hard fast, hence the set splitting.
Hamstring bridge: 3x5/Leg
Core:2.5x[
Decline Situp x 20
Superman x 10
]

Back to doing work.  Hell yes.
~#28

Back on the field.  Just a dick around scrimmage but I pushed myself close to top speed (which has dropped precipitously) and no pain in either the hip or the thigh.  So far so good.  Now just gotta treat them right for a few more weeks while I ease back into real ultimate.  Also bought a bike which is gonna help me get my cardio back to where it was.

Back to doing work,
~#28

It's been a long frustrating couple of months, ultimate wise.  Absolutely no good ultimate played by me since mid/early April.  Last night's workout:

1 mile bike
Long roll and dynamic lower body stretch
DL 1x1x135.  I immediately tweaked out when I lifted the weight.  Very aggravating.
More rolling
1L Leg curl: 3x10/L.  R@ 37.5,37.5,50.  L@62.5,62.5,75.
1L Press: 3x8/L 70#
Chinups: 3x4
Calf Raise: 10x90,110,130

God, I just feel like I've backslid SO far.  I need to run, I need to play and I just can't.  I keep meaning to ask J and Katie Shafer how they handled it when they were in the same position.

I'll find some work to do,
~#28

Last hours before Swiss.  Tournament goals:

-No drops.  I've been having some dropsies in summer league and it's just totally unacceptable.

-Hydrate and sunscreen.  Two tournaments in a row I've gotten really bad burns.  Can't compete if you're stuck thinking about how your skin hurts.

-Aggressive underneath defense, 100% of the time.  No poachy bullshit.  That's not how I do.

Gonna do some work,
~#28


ETA: Injured in the first five points, sat the rest of the day.  FUCK that.  But hey, I didn't get burned!

Last major workout before Swiss.  Upper body:

[chin ups 4,3,2
[TRX Invert Rows 5,5,5
DB Press: 8/5x 30#isometric, 35# isometric, 8x40# bilateral
Tricep pulldown: 10x60,8x72,6x72,4x72,2x75
Run 1 mile at 8 mph

I was in the gym a few days ago and I did a lower body workout I can't remember.

Leg update: Feeling better.  I've gotten on-field a few times now and everything is working more or less the way it should.  I'm concerned I'll always have a pain there, like in my hamstring, but even if I do, it's not really stopping me from doing anything at this point.  I have Wisconsin Swiss this weekend.  Very excited.  Three teams to care about: Ibex (1 and 1), Gambit (#1 team out of Chicago, Brando's playing with them) and Drag 'n Thrust (Bid to Natties last year).  Time to get real.

~#28

Day of mixed lifting.  I wouldn't normally, but I figured out which muscles exactly are causing me trouble.  I see a doctor this afternoon, so that'll certainly come up.

Ring ups:3,3,3x1(very tired for the last set)
1-L press: 35 pounds: 3x6 (when I turn out my left foot and press, I really target the pain.  Another way is lifting my knee with weight, so I'm trying to figure out how to do that.  Probably a resistance band.)
1-arm row: 5x40(?),62.5(?),62.5(?)  Not sure on the weights.  Trying to really focus on pinching at the scapulae.
Squat: 3x8x155 Really working on depth.  Got good and tired by the end and could feel it working all the right muscles.
DB press: 6x30,30,35 Pretty rough at full weight.  Definitely came closer to bailing that I expected.
Tricep dip: 3x3 Not great form, didn't feel all that good.  Maybe I'll go back to pulldowns.

Doin' that work,
~#28

Back in the gym.  Gotta go more often.  Just wish it was cheaper/easier to park nearby.  I'm going to focus increasingly on unilateral movements.  Not only because of the injury but because I think it was caused by an increasingly noticeable imbalance between my sides.  Bad.

From memory:
1-arm,1-Leg KB DLs, don't remember the weights but it was dropped each time and I worked on taking it lower and lower.
2-Leg DLs with increasing weight.
2 sets of left-leg,1 set of right leg split squats with just the bar.  Working my depth more than my strength, though I definitely felt them in the appropriate spaces.
Quad extensions- 10/6 splits Left/Right leg. Increasing weight.
Hammy curls- 10/6 split L/R leg.  Increasing weight.
Ring ups on the TRX ropes.  3-2-2.  Decreasing ability but very good in the first set.  Ahh chin ups, my old enemy.

Doin' some work,
~#28

Frustration and...promise?

Udderburn practice.  It feels like a bunch of college kids who have never known anything outside of the college sphere run a team.  It is almost the exact opposite of how I want to run it.  I don't think the offense suits the roster, I don't think the team has a strong identity (though in part I will admit fault there, they had a pretty good one until the cohort of people who really wanted to win showed up), I don't think the people running things know what they're doing.  I mean, sure, nobody _knows_ what they're doing in this sport, but it seems like they've never gone out looking for something else to see what's there.  The mix of people is frustrating as well- talented players and people who can't throw dumps. 

Many of the problems are epitomized in our choice in drills- we run rhino (which I consider a vestigial drill) and we run the five-man dump drill.  In half an hour, Udderburn covered what ISide covered in literally 5 minutes, as did Ubuntu- if the main dump fails and you're the backup, you're go do what you have to do to get open.  But when you run the drill, you emphasize the wrong things and the wrong people practice the wrong positions.  90% of the team never needs to be dump cutters.  We have perhaps 8 handlers on the team, maybe 10 and there is so much more value to just working them on the dumps and having everybody else learn their tendencies.  If the point of the drill is to work the swing, all the more reason- what purpose to teaching our cutters how to throw a swing?  That isn't their job.  It wastes their time and the handlers time.

There were so many good ideas from Boston tryouts last year and to come here and see this is so frustrating.  Ball ran good scenario walkthroughs (though in too large a group, I felt), and 7th tried them also.  Iside and Ubuntu both had very good understandings of not just the basics but the nuances of their offenses, as did Slow.  This was borne out through the work that they did (ISide at least)   I really don't feel like udderburn know what their strengths are, nor the subtleties of the spread.  And there's a very strong tendency to do things "our way"both at the team level- they refuse to call it a spread, insisting on the much more confusing "split ho", and the personal level- this is a much more common, but extremely bad habit, one which I'm guilty of all too often as well.


As for the practice itself- in low wind conditions it was still a turn-stravaganza.  Personally, I had a mediocre/bad practice after a promising start in the three-man mark drill with Rob and Bill.  Two pretty decent handlers, rob's got length on me and Bill has good quickness with the disc.  I got somewhere around three blocks and got blocked i think twice, so I was up on that drill.  Again, though, that drill isn't really a drill for cutters.  Why teach them how to break the mark like that?  That's a handler's job.

Anyway, a guy from Mad Club showed up and balled all day, which was fun to watch.  He had the ups and he had the intangibles.  It was good covering him because he was a lot like ryan- he just ran away and then in and then away and then in all day every day.  Tiring and very good at getting you out of position- really made me work hard.  I had one shot at the layout d I wanted and he took it away with a great move to put himself in the lane.  Partly his good, partly my bad; I could have still pulled that trigger.  I had my head wrong, but still.  A great player and a lot of fun to mark up on.  Quick as hell, too.  Our team definitely won the suicides at the end, despite lots of confusion.

I reaped what I sowed after practice though, as my leg seized out and eventually I couldn't walk without shooting pain.  Oh well.  Advil and I will be buddies for a few, I guess.  Ginie and I have a tour, so there'll be plenty of walking...we'll see how it goes.

Doin' my work,
~#28

Day two in the gym and every day my leg is getting better.  Very good news.  Today, upper body-

Chin ups- 3,3,2 increasingly wide grips.  Felt okay, slight shoulder tweak in the right
Bench- 8x95,6x105,4x115,4x115.  Felt good, especially with the lower weight.  Really feel like the work over the winter is paying its dividends.
3x[
10 Inverse rows
15 pushups quickly
]
tricep pulldowns.  Not sure the weight or the numbers, but they certainly made me do work.
Tabata leg raises- felt this mostly in my quads, oddly enough...

Doin' work,
#28

Joined a gym.  A nice one.

Smith squat: 5x5x135
Pistol 3x5/leg
DL: 5x95,105,125
Calf raise: 3x10x90,110,110
Chin Up: 3,3,3,1

Back to doin' my work,
~#28

fuckin'.....back to square one with my leg.  Made it all the way through throwing warmups before my leg died at practice yesterday.  Goddamit.

Previously, tabata'd:
Mountain climbers (22.5,22,22,22)
Pushups from the knees (9,11,10,9)
Leg raises (11,12,12,11)
Plank

Today track workout was the one from tufts I posted about a while ago.
2x100, 60s rest.  These were on a slight hill in a parking lot.  Felt good.
3 min rest
8 set of tabata runs.  These were terrible and killed me immediately.  I split it into two fours with a two minute break and was still dying.
3 min break
2 x 100, 60 s.

Finished out and was really dying.  First track workout of the season.  I felt it.  It hurt.  Tweaked my hip flexor again.  Will be joining a gym soon and then I expect the deadlifts to help out.

I am covered in sun burns, I can barely speak and I have bruises on essentially every major muscle group on my body.  I won a tournament today.  Mad Udderburn goes to St Louis Classic and rolls to 6-1 (with the final win being 15-12 over our only loss of the tournament, an embarrassing 13-6 in the first round of saturday).  Point differential at the end of Saturday: +14.

Personal stats not kept but I was almost right where I want to be.  Played a lot of d-line handler, came out SUPER flat on Saturday, immediately costing us two points on dumb turns.  Pushed out to cutting shortly and then it was back in the handler set.  Rob's hucks have gotten _really_ solid and my defense was almost back up to par.  Getting beaten too often in the flats but holding position well while they try to fake me off.  I personally threw a couple of goals and caught at least one, which I spiked away accidentally.  Those guys turned out to be douchebags anyway, though, so I'm not too upset.

Big wins over sectional and regionals rivals.  A lot to be proud of.  A _lot_.  It's just up from here.

Doin' More Work
~#28

Tournament time this weekend.  Goals:

1) Stay healthy!
      ~I've had too many nagging little problems to be content with my body right now.  My number one goal is not push too hard, or even close.  Injuring myself in May is dumb.
2) Get my defense back
      ~Long term goal is #1 d-line cutter for MU, so the first step on that road is getting my downfield d back to where it was at Winter league.  Process goal: Stop the under without fronting.
3) Improve my mark
     ~Got broken a LOT at Udderburn scrimmage.  Not acceptable.

Do Work indeed,
~#28

Good work throwing with guys from udderburn (Madison Mixed).  Downwind, my shots sailed nicely and upwind I was throwing relatively straight.  What I wasn't happy about was:

-throws tended to go too high.  Toby is six foot plus and I was still making him jump
-I was not stepping out appropriately.  It's easy to hit distance from a stand, gotta make sure I discipline my throwing workouts
-if i caught on the run, planted and turned, my shots were very inaccurate, both laterally and vertically.  some would sail left, some would sail high, some would be too low but mostly they just didn't go where i wanted.  boo.

Got a tournament this weekend.  Excited.

About six months and a hundred posts in.  How bout that.

Today I appropriate a core circuit from Melissa Witmer and made some changes to fit my own situation (no gym, bad hip).  Here's how it went:

3x[
10x dead bug/leg,  Felt good.  Very tricky keeping your back flat to the ground but you can really feel the work.
12xOblique bridge dip/side: Difficult to keep balance.  Have to travel really slowly.
Aggressive roll on my left leg: Felt the pain of clearing up scar and tight muscle.  Found the spot that's tweaking my hip flexor and gave it lots of attention.  Definitely felt some improvement for it too.  If i can remember to hit that a few more times this week, St. Louis should go okay....right?....right...?
6xglute activator/leg (with extended leg): I always feel like I'm underachieving on these.  I don't feel like I'm getting good glute activation and am instead working my hamstrings.  Not terrible, but not the point...
]

EXTREMELY frustrated.  Made it into a set of BW squats and then side lunges and my leg tweaked out completely.  No chance to even get started.  Very Very Very unhappy about this.

Finally.

Finally got a good workout in.  Tabata, straight through, no rest between exercises (just the ten after every twenty)
Back Lunges
Side Plank Curls (Side plank, curl your torso and hips to bring your free arm through the triangle you make with the ground, then bring it back to vertical)
Pushups
BW Squats
V-sits
Tricep dips

Overview:The back lunges made my hip flexors tweak.  I'm getting afraid I've done some longer-term damage (more than a week for full recovery).  Advil will be employed.  The side planks felt good, but tough.  I've really backslid over the past month.  Hopefully I can get it back quickly.  I'll start refocusing on my eating habits.  The work takes up a lot of my time, but I still have enough to do this thing right.  The pushups got hard by, I think, the third set, but overall my results weren't that high.  I should have counted each set.  It's hard with the watch.  Still thinking of getting a tabata timer.  The bw squats made my hips twinge again but it was only twinging and didn't really slow me down that much.  The v-sits also got hard by the third set.  The tricep dips were only about six inches so focus was on quick drives and stopping myself quickly at the bottom.

Back to doin' work.
~#28

ETA: New goal- increase finger/hand strength for flick hucking.

Again, long time.  Life is hectic.  Still looking for a gym.  Friday was pickup- meh.  Saturday was pickup- awful. Sunday was the same pickup group as Saturday- I wisely chose to watch the Celtics with Rob.

Friday I tweaked my hip flexors/groin.  They twinged badly enough that I had to stop on Saturday.  I assumed they'd be better by today, so I went out to sprint with Andy.  Poor choice.

3x[100m, 30s, 100m] with a long rest between sets.  A simple workout, but it's early season and it turned out to be too hard anyway.  Dammit.  now BOTH my hip flexors AND my groin AND my back near the pelvis are twinging.  The next few days will be lots of advil.  In the meantime, I will try to roll them until they're less angry.  I'm afraid to tiger balm that area.  Maybe the back?

Doin' poorly chosen work,
~#28

It's been a while since I last posted.  In that time, I've done essentially nothing in the gym.  Instead, I moved halfway across the country.  I have to find a new gym, and new time and get a house and everything.  It's been a monumental change in my life, but hopefully for the better.  I reflect on what has changed in the last year and I think about how subtly yet significantly my life changed even while I was trying to keep it all the same.  I took a huge step and I hope I can turn this into something really valuable.

I'll do some work, for sure.
~#28

Gymmed yesterday.  Winter League tonight.  Hollywood and Randy's team again.  We're gonna need a response to their triangle defense.

Yesterday, I beasted a Hammy lean, straight out, down and up.  After that, though, I wasn't as able to do it again.  My sustaining power was running low.  Been thinking about deck-of-cards-ing it on Friday.  Maybe saturday.  Plyos, baby.

Feeling the soreness from throwing yesterday, though I didn't recognize it for what it was until just now.  Either way, good quick day at the gym just now.

DB Power Snatches: The inequality between right and left is becoming troublesome.  My left arm needs to be able to pull this much weight, though the legs at least seem relatively equal.  I can feel in my pistols that the real difference is stability, whether from the ankle or my proprioception I don't know.  Got up to 60#, feeling good in the right arm.  The left arm, however, was weak, possibly in the shoulder.  Will probably follow Mackey's lead and start working the left harder than the right for injury prevention.  This imbalance, while natural, is unnerving.
Hang Snatches with the bar: 45, 65.  Felt good, but tough.  Hang snatches really make you get the explosion out of the legs.
Chin Ups: 5,3,3(with a wider grip on the final set).  I'm getting happier and happier with my ability to push out especially my first set.  I need to be able to sustain, but that will come as I keep working these exercises.  I'm also getting better at stabilizing myself after I jump up to the bars.
Bench Press: 5x95,105, 105, 4x115.  I could have gotten 5 on the 115 with a spot, but I foolishly didn't ask anybody around me.  That's my loss.
Chest Fly: 10x20,22.5,25.  The 25 was the right weight to end on.  In fact, the whole exercise felt good across the sets.  20 to get me warm, 22.5 to get me tired, 25 to really work the muscles.

After that, double strength protein and going home.  Doin' Work,
~#28

Went and threw.  Got about 50 yds on both forehand and backhand for about 50 throws each.  Additionally, I did some ring-ups, which was a new experience.  Much more stabilization.  Did a 4-3-2.  Felt good.  Will keep them in mind as something to throw in for variety.

Gym time with Eli again.  Back into the routine.  Got good strong hammy leans, down and then up.  Snatched 85, though poorly, it was still clean enough that I'll count it, so that's a new PR.  Otherwise, just a regular day, felt pretty strong but otherwise nothing special.

Doin' Work,
~#28

Winter League.  I had what I think may have been my highest jump ever.  There is no proof, but it felt like I got my ass on the shoulder of a dude from Bodhi.  It was a gigantic foul and Alex Howlett(!) played the rebound off the wall to score the point against us, but still.  I had some swagger after that.  Overall, a good game, though there's one layout opportunity that I didn't take and will piss me off since I couldn't play the wall and pull it off.  Otherwise, good defense, good offense and a lot of fun handling some pissant little asian who underweighed me by probably 30 pounds and kept trying to play physical with me.  As i described to dad, he defended my fakes really well, unfortunately, this just let me push off him and get extra yards under.  He was not very good.

Doing Work (and probably more snatches...they're working!)
~#28

After a break for Madison, I hit the gym again today.  My snatch is not coming along like I want it to.  I've got the motion for a hang snatch down, but I'm a) having trouble getting my knees out of the way fast enough to power snatch and b) can't hang snatch 85# (though I can snatch it from slightly lower than a normal hang).

Other than that, my day was pretty easy.  Snatches (45,65, 75, 85), Pull ups (5,5,4), Incline plate presses (45, 55, 60), Iso DLs, protein.  Shower and then writing more thank you emails to my contacts in Madison.

Missed posting about a couple of gym days and last night was winter league.  Gym days were meh, same old same old.  Been chilling with Corey for a couple days because he's up in town.  Winter league was another win against a team we beat previously.  This game was much closer because we were missing Dang and Egg.  Miller and I  were clearly the top two players on the field by a long margin.  I played like it, I feel.  I was also Spikey McDouchenstein, but I'm alright with that since my team was playing chronically lame ultimate.  I don't know why, but they just couldn't get together any energy to play.  I made a couple of Brando-esque plays that, had I been watching, would have gotten me pumped and the rest of my team just sorta sat there.  Pretty frustrating.  I had to make plays pretty often because terrible throws would go up or defenders would just give up their assignments.  Not was I wanted to do, going into the night, BUT probably pretty good for me skill-wise.

On the major plus-side, got to talk to Heidi about the coming summer, which is one thing out of the way.

Doin' Work,
~#28

Hill Sprints. 8x~70m, 3 min. rest each time.  Simple, hopefully effective.  I kept all my times hovering around 10s, which I was comfortable with.  I aimed to get under 10, but seldom accomplished this.  Focus was on foot drive, follow-through of my leg and keeping my chest forward and down.  My breath suffered for lack of attention, but that wasn't too bad.

Also, winter league was a pretty rousing success for me.  Dang and Egg weren't there, but were replaced with others of similar caliber.  I felt more than confident enough strutting out there, even though we were playing the number 1 seed.  I never felt really outmanned no matter the coverage and every once in a while, they would throw their worst guy on me (should I feel insulted?) and I had no trouble opening up quarter field spaces between us on every cut.  Additionally, although I got boxed out once and had an AWFUL turn on what should have been at 95% throw, I played overall well.  I think I definitely hit my goals of focusing on starting cuts before the tap and working the deep space well.  Not much of a chance to work my ups, but that's alright.

Doin' Work,
~#28

Yesterday ended up mostly being a rest day.  Did 2x15 pushup and 2x15 pike pushup (shoulder work) and called it a day.

Today, had training.  The usual sets, plus DB snatches.  I've been watching videos and practicing my snatch form and i really felt it improve today.  I snatched 5x40# on both arms.  That was not bad.  Additionally, my pistol is getting better, though as I get tired, it goes downhill hard and I start falling to the side.  After I was done with Eli, I did a few front squats with the free bar (not the smith rack).  I had to work much harder in these to keep my spine neutral.  I would love to get a coach on it, but barring that, I'm just trying to focus.  I've got ultimate tonight and there's a real chance I'll be the best person on the field at some points.  Hopefully I can go out there and play like it.  My focuses today are going to be on starting my cuts before the disc is tapped in, making all my deep cuts work towards the break side and really pushing on my ups.  I've gotten skied too many times in the past few weeks.  Way too many.  gonna try to start locking it down today.

Do Work,
~#28

Day with eli.  Spent doing ab rollouts, 6" step-ups, inverted rows, pushups, pistols and bench situps.  Nothing too hard, nothing power-based.  Annoyed.

Gym time again.

Wide Lat pull down: 5x85, 100, 120, 120, 120
High Row:10x50, 55, 65, 70, 70, 70
Low Row: 10x45, 50, 60, 60, 60 (?)
DB Chest Fly: 10x15, 15, 20 (felt these too much in the shoulder, too little in the pec, hopefully that's a supporting muscle issue, not weakness in the main muscle group)
Tricep Pulldown: 10x30, 35, 42.5 (good hard weight at the end)

No run.  I had just eaten a pretty huge lunch and breakfast WAY too recently.

Doin' Work,
~#28

Good workout today.

4 chin ups (hands perpendicular the the body, not parallel yet)
Hack Squat 10x140, 160, 180#(?)
2 more sets of 4 chin ups (the chin ups were broken because some guy jumped on the equipment and I just let him have it while I was hack squatting).
Front Squat: 5x90, 140, 140, 140, 140# Got a much better handle on how to hold my arms as I went through this.  Front squatting should be good for my olympic lifts.
Inverse Row: 3x10.  Feeling much better with my upper body strength now.  Not sure why.  Hopefully I've started to understand how the muscles around my scapulae fire correctly.
DL: 3x95, 115, 135, 155, 165.  The higher weights were totally liftable, but my form suffered.  I'll take that as a good sign, I guess.  Also, between DLing a BW and doing chin ups, I'm happy with what I did today.
Ab Rollers: 5x3.  My abs weren't holding their own in this.  Definitely let too much happen in my lower back which _has_ to be bad for me.

Doing work,
~#28

At this point, I think I'm willing to say Eli is systematically undertraining me.  I can and should be doing more during training sessions.  Had one this morning, I'm antsy regardless.  I'm hoping to go to the gym with mom tomorrow, in which case I'll give myself a good hard workout.  At least, that's the plan.

Good winter league.  Played a team we deserved to crush and we went and crushed them.  Felt good.  I played decently well, until the last twenty minutes or so, when all my deep shots went to shit.  my short range stuff and my defense were still good.

Got some really good advice about my deep cutting, put it into practice and immediately started getting the looks i wanted.  Really liked that.  Overall, I'll give tonight a B/B+

Doin' Work Now,
~#28

Training.  Felt good for it.  Worked.  Didn't overwork.  No snatches.  That made me a little upset, but hey.  Winter League Tonight.  That part I'm excited for.

~#28

Good rest day.  Slept a bunch, didn't work out.  I'll probably do a set of pushups before bed, but that's it.

Doin' Work...just not today,
~#28

I realized that my gym days somewhat take the form of a day of pushes (yesterday) and a day of pulls (today).  With one exception, today was entirely pulls.

Good warmup
Wide Lat Pulldown: 5x100, 120, 2x2 chin ups
High Row: 10x80 (tweaked my shoulder here and weights dropped significantly), 50, 40
Low Row: 10x40, 50, 55
Machine Row: 10x 70, 80, 105 (accidental jump on the last weight, i was sharing with some random guy and didn't check my weight)
Tricep dips: 3x5 (The only real push)
Tricep pulldown: 10x35, 37.5, ~7(?)x40
Run .5mi at 10 mph, 1.5%.  Rest.  600m at 10mph, 1.5%.  Was meant to be half mile repeats but I couldn't push through.  Pulled out after 600m.

Just a workout.  Sorta whatever.  I'll take it.  Just doing work.
~#28

Stolen From the Tufts EMen

This track workout looks _fantastic_.  I want to do it.
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Run:Warm up 

 2 x 100 (17 sec) 60 second rest, 3 minute rest afteward 

Tabata run - 20 second sprint as fast as you can, 10 second slow. 8 times (4 minutes total). Make sure you run as fast as possible, otherwise it's not working. Have someone time that 20 seconds so that you don't miss it. The goal is to get your heart rate up and going fast, and then get it down fast too. 

 2 x 100 (17 sec) 60 second rest, 3 minute rest afterward.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A little workout to do some work.  Nothing on a machine, just free weights.

Hack squat to warm up, 1 set, 90#
Squat 5x135, 165, 185, 185, 185
Deadlift 10x95, 125, 125
Bench Press 10x85, 95, 95
DB Seated Shoulder press 10x15, 10x20, 6x25
Core: 3x[5x ab roller, 10x oblique raise each side]

No run, no agility.  Felt good after this, really tore up abs when I rolled out the first ab rep.  The weights were good when I topped out.  I can probably go higher on Bench Press but not without a spot.  I enjoyed trying out the 5x5 squat sequence.  I walked in planning to hit 185 and I did, so I'm happy about that.  I should be able to hit 200 pounds if I can work out a few kinks in my form.

Doin' Work,
~#28

100 Burpee repeat- 10:16

Obviously adding about a minute to my time wasn't the plan.  I'm not _too_ upset, since a) I haven't really eaten all day and b) I'm just getting over a cold.  I'll take it.  Not pleased about it.  But I'll take it.

~#28

Trainer gym time again.  FITFU last night.  I played okay at FITFU, especially given the competition.  I put up a couple assists.  I'll find out how I did whenever they send out the recap email (probably around Wednesday).  Today, it was a similar circuit to what i did last time.  Exercises include
six inch step up/jump
DB snatch (30#, felt alright.  Getting the hang of it.  My left arm is MUCH weaker than my right, i'm finding)
A hamstring exercise where you put your knees on a balance ball and lock your heels under a bench, then lean as far forward as you can.  EXTREMELY hard, especially on the tendons.  I'll admit I worry about fucking up my knee with this one.
1-arm rows (60# now that I'm only doing 5 reps on most exercises)
Clap pushups.  These are hard on my wrists, but I've got the explosive power to actually get the clap well, so it's a start.
Ab rollers- where you have one of the small wheels with a handle and you get on all fours and roll out on the wheel, then roll back.  Like this (the background noise is totally ignorable).

After the workout, I did some agility work.  I particularly enjoyed doing a 10 yard sprint to the ladder, then doing quick feet in the boxes.  It felt like it was really working a good ultimate skill (stopping to follow an in-cut).

Doin' Work,
~#28

Workout with a new trainer.  Much more full body circuit work.  Did a bunch of plyos, did some snatches (barbell, for the first time), did some full ab work with the rolling handle thing.  Interesting.  I'll be going back Saturday to see how it goes.

Month-from-now goals:
1) perfect the snatch
2) perfect the clean and jerk OR the power clean
3) Squat 200 Pounds

Winter league against the Toads.  Felt pretty good for the first twenty minutes, played strong D.  After that, things started going downhill as my lungs went.  I definitely started letting up cuts I shouldn't have, especially underneath and especially on guys I am in _WAY_ better shape than.

I matched up on Toad once and, while he ran me around, I never got myself crazy burned and I took him to a full stall on the mark.

There were a few plays that will stick in my mind, both positive and negative.  Sweet grabs and not so sweet drops.  Poor coverage (including one REALLY stupid poach into the lane on Katie Shafer who proceeded to break her mark and hit my guy for like twenty yards) and fantastic shut-down D.  Overall, I could be happier, but I'm happy enough.

Doin' Work
~#28

Welp. Ken got fired...somehow.

I'm scheduled to spend some time with his replacement.  Today, it was Chest and Triceps

Plate Press: 5x55,60,65
Decline Press: 3x10x50
Chest Fly 10x20,22.5,25
Tricep Dips 5,4,3
Tricep pulldown 5x30,32.5,35,37.5,42.5
Suicides- 3xForward, 3xbackward, 3xbrenenborg.  Rest between reps was a walkback, rest between sets was full (however long it took to get my heart rate down.  usually 3-5 minutes).  Felt strong off the blocks but quickly decreased.  I blame the cold.  Hope I can get over it by tomorrow, when we're playing Toad's team in winter league.

Gym:

Wide Lat Pulldown felt okay something like 100,105,110#
Low Row 45,50,55# felt fine
High Row 45, 55, 60(?)# felt good
On both these rows, I pulled smoothly for like 90% of the lift, the last 10% were not great
Hammer Curl 20#
Machine Row 70,80,90#

Went home.  Of my month goals, I hit the OH Squat and the 6 minute mile (both more than once), missed terribly the power clean and nightly work goals.  I'll come up with new ones soon.

Did some work,
~#28

Back to work.

Smith Squat 3x10x105 to warm up
Overhead DB Squat 2x~10x20 Very difficult.  I can see why Mackey writes that OH Squats are great for displaying lack of flexibility.  I really felt my back getting tight.  Easier with the bar than the DB.
Power Clean and Jerk 3x10x65 Felt my form improved from previous try.  This weight is an increase.  I'm seeing things suggesting I should be working strength even through February.  I am skeptical, as tryouts have different timetables than returning members.
1-Leg Quad Extend 50, 55, 60.  Whatever.  Can go higher.  I'm in the process of looking to replace my notebook.  When I do, I'll track weights again and focus on increasing them.
Attempt at a 1RM on Seated Hamstring Curl.  I made it to 120 pounds before I got bored.
1-Leg Calf Raise 5,switchx2/leg 75#.  Just a warmup.  I left feeling fine, walking tall.  Not my best, but I was pleased I got my Olympic work in and now I'm moving on to FITFU tonight.  We'll see how that goes.  I'm absolutely not going back next year, but for this year, it'll do.

I've lifted twice here in Pittsburgh with Corey.  Once working shoulders (shoulder pressx5, push pressx5, shoulder jerkx5) and I ran about 25 pounds behind Corey each time.  Not surprising, perhaps, but a little depressing.  I have no idea where I would have trailed him a year ago, and logic tells me it should have been more than 25 pounds, but really I just ended up feeling inadequate.  Time in Pittsburgh has followed the "I know I won't eat well so I won't try to make major strides" principle.  Hopefully, when I return to Boston, I'll get back on the protein wagon and I'll go back to doing work.

P.S. the second workout with Corey was a crossfit: 5 shoulder press 15#/hand, 10 captain's chair leglift, 15 clean 25#: AMRAP 20 minutes.  I got 8+6 clean.  It was intended to be hspu, knees to shoulders, clean but i can't HSPU and I am trying to save my shoulders trouble here by not trying to do the knees to elbows that would have been my maximum output.  I got a weird feeling in my legs where they ended up pretty twitchy, but that was pretty much the most drama the workout gave me.  Now I'm feeling down because I leave Pittsburgh soon.  I want to go back to doing some real work in the gym.  I need to get back out there.

Getting skyed twice in a row by Alex Thorne is more than enough incentive for me.  Fuck That Noise.
~#28

Upper body day but really just a slow easy day to loosen up my lats.  Worked surprisingly well.

Worked bench press, which was a nice 95# lift.  Hard, especially on the 3rd set but that's fine.  I stretched out nicely, i did ball pushups and i finished up just generally easy.  Overall a very light day, but my lats are feeling much better.  Got winter league tomorrow.  With Team Casbah.  Boom.

Doin' Work
~#28

Nice lower body day.  Hit up some overhead squats at 25# (too heavy) and 15# (little light).  Gonna hit 20# next time and try to work up to 25 and on up to 40# DBs (Ken believes this possible, me....less so).  As well, overhead squats with the bar, up to 65#.  This was another month goal.  I felt more than good enough to work to higher weights.

Ken threw in pistols because i'm bad at them, then we did Turkish Get Ups with the 25 pound KB.  He has the first drive be explosive through the shoulder which isn't how i'd learned them before, but hey.  Then we worked KB cleans and power cleans with the bar (95# was too heavy for explosive lifting, but 45 and 65# were totally workable).  I finished up with sprints: 2x5 flying 25s with walkback; 1 minute rest between sets.  Then 5x[backpedal 5yds, plant and run 30 yds].  Overall, the sprints felt alright, with diminishing results coming midset each time.  I've got training tomorrow and winter league saturday.  Looking forward to a really good week.

Doin' Work,
~#28

Winter league.  For a team as talented as ours is, we managed to lose by almost 15 points.  Ridiculous.  Personally, I had a score, played good man d and layed out a bunch (though never succesfully).  Saw toad and Katie at about twenty minutes from the end.  Had a couple points I ran, had a couple points I lagged behind.  Overall, I played at least as well as Dang, I think.  For now, that'll do.

100 Burpees 9:21
50 burpee split: 3:30

Felt great for the first 20 except I tweaked something in my right knee on literally the 3rd burpee.  Took breaks of varying lengths after 20, 33, 50, 60, 75, and 85.  This drops another 40 seconds from last year which was a 9 minute drop from the previous year (when I did them outside in the snow like an idiot).  I felt much better to start off with and faded much faster than previously.  That said, the style I did last year was to do 10 at the start of every minute.  I might be able to do it again faster if i used that type of splitting instead of what I did this time (stop when my legs/arms start failing).

I was really hoping to break 9 minutes.  I'm a little upset I couldn't.  I might do another one later.

I'm definitely starting to push more and more taxing cardio work into my workouts as the season approaches.  The thought of not having a team _again_ is too terrible...

Gymmed it up.

Back and biceps, so I rocked lat pulldowns, wide and close (felt really good on the wide), tried to high and low row, but the high row was making my shoulder ache, so i just did low row and then a machine row.  With the machine rows, I can really feel my back engage.  I think it's promising.  After the back stuff, I did a series of biceps curls, ending in hammer curls at 20# each.  Shouldn't be too hard, but after a long workout of rows (which work my biceps hard too), it was more than enough to hit full fatigue and failure.

After lifts was sprints, so I ran a series of suicides.  3 sets of 3 reps, ~1min between reps, ~3min between sets.  I set up cones: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 at 5 yd intervals.  The first set of suicides was 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.  The second set was 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.  The third set was 3, 2, 4, 3, 5, 4, 5, 3, 4, 2, 3, 1.  The first set was tough but felt good.  The second set I had trouble focusing on my turns and pushing hard through.  The final set was next to impossible to push hard the whole way through.  It was constant direction change and i was on parquet (dirty parquet at that) which was really making my feet slip and slide.  My legs were shot, my lungs were shot and my cardio was fading fast.  I'm really glad I did them now.  I can start really working on this shit in the next few months.

In other news, Ginie told me about a former teammate of ours who is looking to put together a team for the series.  It's mixed, but they look like they're grabbing some serious talent.  I'm surprisingly excited about it.  I think it could be a real opportunity, if they get the right people, to make definite noise at regionals.

Got in a good leg day on Saturday, lots of plyos.  Helped me feel better.

Today, I'm going in midday.  Probably work my back.  Saturday, I leave for Pittsburgh.  While there, I hope to try to get in a good workout with Corey.  Try one of his crossfit things.  We'll see how it goes.

Finally!  I finally broke out of my stupid goddamn rut.  I hit the gym and felt GOOD about it.  Then winter league rosters came out and my team looks really solid.  I'm so excited.  As in, I was excited enough last night that I didn't fall asleep for a while.  I have training again tonight, followed by FITTFU.  Hopefully FITTFU will come off better and I can go into the weekend feeling good.

Fingers crossed, doin' work,
~#28

It's been a while again.  Since last time, it's been mostly FITTFU and gym work.  I...was displeased with my FITTFU play.  And it's been dragging on me since then.  I haven't played in too long and my self-confidence is shaking.  I need to be back on the field, back on the track.  Just...out of the gym.  I need to be competing again.  Fuck, man.

Gotta do some work,
~#28

WITTFU last night.  Hence, Getting Better.  To gauge how I was doing, I'd say I was on par with the college kids with club experience more or less.  I don't think I can afford to be on par with them.  Obviously, they carry the benefit, come tryouts, of being much younger.  Players like Adrian bring both talent and youth and that's a pretty tough combination to beat.  Oh well...gonna have to do it come April.

I can feel my work in the gym paying dividends.  But I'm not where I need to be.  Gotta keep doing work, keep proteining, keep my nose to the grindstone.  I'm on the upslope, so I just need to not lose track of things and it'll be okay.

What a strange workout it has been.  Last night was legs, which normally gets me jazzed, but it had been a weird day and I just wasn't feeling it.  I focused on form, i lifted decent amounts, I powered through my core work and I went home.  This all occurred in a daze, as if I wasn't controlling any of it and my body was just running on autopilot.  I repeatedly had to remind myself that I would only get something out of it if it was hard, so not to slack (especially on my core work) but even in itself, that's a strange thing for me.  Normally I'm psyched to gym it up.  Yesterday was just...a workout.  Not sure what it means.  I'm inclined to say nothing.

Just gotta keep doing work
~#28

ETA: Never mind.  Got the call that there's ultimate tonight.  Ballersauce.  I'm excited again.

Got Stronger AND Faster and hit a monthly goal last night.  Ballersauce.

Chest Press: 45 bilateral, 45 isometric, 50 isometric
Incline Press: 25 iso, 30 iso, 35 iso (all as fast as possible)
Decline Press: 45i, 55i, 60i
Chest Fly 30, 25, 20, 15 @ 5 reps each, no rest.  Then, 25, 20, 15 for 5 reps each.
Alternating for three rounds:
(10 decline pushups, 15s hold hands on a medicine ball, elbows bent in a plank position [work core and triceps])
Tricep dips: 5, 3 1/2, 2 1/2
Run: 1 mi at 10 mph, 1% grade. MONTH GOAL.  That's one off the list.  Awesome.  I felt good doing it too.  My cardio was good enough that I didn't get tired really, but my legs were weird.  I came down with my knees relatively locked too many times.  I don't know if that was a form thing or a tired thing or what, but it made me a little nervous I'd come down hard and something would snap or i'd hurt my foot or leg or any of a million terrifying things.  BUT, none of that happened, and I finished my mile in 6:01 or something (the treadmill includes the distance spent getting up to speed, otherwise it would have obviously been just a regular 6 minute mile) and got my protein shake in me.  Awesome.

Doin' Work
~#28

I read this again (my inaugural post on this blog) and it makes me think.  I laid out where I was at the beginning of september there.  I'm three months deeper into training, three months further away from the season.  I feel and look better.  I am definitely stronger (and my weights correspond to this).  I have gained ten pounds, which is more than I gained in four years of college.  I'm learning new routines.  I'm feeling more competent on the field against all opponents.

And yet...  And yet, I think I feel even _less_ assured of making a team in April than I ever did during the summer.  I'm, yet again, in a down period.  I'm a 24-year old club team virgin hoping to make a meteoric rise.  I am trying to do this in the face of unpromising odds and a lot of hurdles.

They say that walls are there to make sure that only people who really want something can get it.  I guess writing all this helped get me back on my feet.  I already have plans to gym it up after work.  Hopefully, it'll work as it often does and I'll walk out of the gym feeling great again.  Here's hoping.

~#28

A little Back and Biceps work with Ken today.

Seated Row - old hat
Plate Low Row - This was new.
Plate High Row - This was new
Machine Lat Pull Down - This was new
1-arm row - old hat
Preacher Bench - PR:80 pounds

Aside from the PR on biceps work, which is nice but not high on my list of "Care abouts", I felt like I made a real breakthrough in understanding the back work.  I always feel in my shoulders and biceps what I'm supposed to be feeling in back muscles and that made me suspect I was doing them wrong.  Today, I really felt them in my back and the lifts got much easier, as though I was recruiting much larger muscles, like the ones in my back.  Awesome.

Now, before I shower, I think I'm going to try glute activation work to see if I can understand it.  Here's hoping.

Boomtown.  Modified Crucible:

10, 9...1x[
Smith Squat: 90 lbs on the rack
DB Squat Deadlift (dumbbells on the floor to my sides, feet close, lift with neutral spine and hip action, return fully to floor for 1 rep)
Hack Squat 50 lbs on the sled
Rest (30s for 5 sets, 15s for 2 sets, 10s to finish out)
]

I walked in planning on doing the first crucible in <11 minutes.  On this modified crucible, I got 10:23.  I can do better, too.  I know I can.  My calves were still aching from my workout tuesday, so if i started out fresh, I'd be money.

After that:
1 Leg seated press (don't remember the weights)
1 leg quad extend
Hammy
St. Calf 30x135
STRETCH

Good workout.  I went home and ate about three pounds of food.

Wrote up some goals.  I've slacked on explicit goal setting because I've been letting Ken take the lead and I've been chilling in the passenger seat.  Time to fix it.  By Valentine's Day (1 month from now), my goals are to:

1. Run a 6 minute mile at 1% after a workout (not just hop on the treadmill; have at least one major muscle group tired)
2. Overhead Squat 65 pounds
3. Finish the Crucible in <10 minutes
4. Power clean .5 bw (80 lbs)
5. At least 4x/week- 45 pushups, 60 crunches, 18 glute activators (Do them BEFORE hopping online)

These should all be entirely completable, given some work ethic. We're three months and change from the start of Tryouts. I want to make some goddamn noise this time around.

Ken's promised me the Crucible again today. I want to do well but after yesterday's shoveling and the calf workout I'm still feeling, I'm afraid I'll be sore or tired. All I can say, I guess, is that it's heavy on the quads, thighs and glutes and none of those are sore. As long as I don't have to use my delts to do a squat (and if I do something is seriously wrong...), I better be able to pull this off.

Doin' Work

~#28

Disappointing Power Lifts today.  Lower body day-

Smith Squats 10x125, 155, 175

3x
[10x Clean And Jerk 65 lb
10 Kettlebell 1-arm Power clean-type thing
10x Drive The Bus (hold a plate with hands opposite each other and rotate the plate)
Standing Calf raises 10x 195, 15x 175, 20x 155 with minimal rest.
Run .5mi at 10 mph, brief rest.  Then 100m at 4mph, 100m at 6mph, 100m at 8mph, 500m at 10 mph.  All at 1% grade.

The smith squats had decent depth, especially at the lower weights but I'm not as flexible as I like.  Perhaps now is a good time to drop weight significantly and really work a more complete range of motion.  As well, it may be a good time to get back on the quad extend and try to rack more weight there, see if that helps.  I can talk to Ken about it.

The power lifts went poorly.  I could enter a set with good depth and decent explosion but by the fifth rep or so in every exercise, I could feel fatigue set in and I lost explosive power.  I also lost rhythm frequently and more than once had to stop with the weight racked on my chest and in a standing position rather than catching the weight in a squat.  Can't really get much out of it that way...

The calf raises went much better than expected.  These are pretty modest weights for me, so when I was hitting burnout by the 11th 175 raise, I was pretty surprised.  I actually ended up doing the 20x 155 in 4 sets of 5 and even then there was a fair amount of resting mid-set.  This effectively killed my calves, which worked well for the run.
  I really had to focus through the run and with my legs so punished by the power lifts and my calves incapable of doing anything for me, it made a nice challenge to see how far I could push myself.  I also was dealing with a cramp that popped up within the first few hundred meters so that added a second, less welcome challenge.  Either way, I pushed through and it proved a pretty effective workout.  Ken has offered me a second shot at The Crucible (my workout from last monday which ruined my legs for more than three days) and I talked myself up big so I better be able to drop my time.  I honestly think I can do it.  Now that my muscles know the rhythm and about how taxing it is, I think I can pull a bunch of time out of there.

In the mean time, it's lean protein in chicken form and some c-milk while I wait for a monster blizzard to roll in overnight.  Great...  Just gotta keep doin' work.
~#28

P.S. Gained another 5 pounds!  Boom!

Good chest day.  Got in accidental core, as it were, also.  Lots of plank-style work.  As always, finished up with a run in <8 minutes (4% grade, 1200m at 7.5mph, 300@8.5mph, 100 at...something higher).  Did a set of tricep dips, which was pretty much the first time.  At the end of a number of other tricep exercises (cable pulldowns, bent-arm planks, etc.) I got  5,4,3 of tricep dips on bars.  It was absurdly hard.  Felt great to push them out though.  That's another exercise off the list that I am physically capable of doing more than once (along with squats, deadlifts, clean and jerk, KB swing/Snatch; still waiting on pull up/chin up and maybe even dragon flag).  Working through the lift makes me feel pretty good.

Tonight, if the snow holds off, it's another day for the gym, and tonight it'll be legs for sure.  Gonna work 'em hard.  Gotta get ready for lots of ultimate.  FITTFU and BUDA Winter Hat start on the 21st and the 2nd, respectively (or similar dates) and I can't roll in looking like a dick.  That would not be acceptable.  I got way too winded at Madison Pick Up.  As Adam called it, it was Wake Up O'Clock.  It's really important to me to be well into the top tier of my BUDA team, especially if I'm not on a team with KToad.  If so, I'd like to be the best person on the team.  That would be a major confidence booster and I could really use one of those around now.  FITTFU coming before BUDA may be a good thing, may be a bad one.  It'll probably depend on how quickly I get used to playing on the gym surface with the Tufts crew.  It'll either make me feel confident in my on-field results from gymming it up or it'll make me nervous that I'll have to take one (more than one) of these guy's spots come April.

~#28

P.S. Funny story, but I can no longer run at 6 miles an hour.  It's just too slow for me.  My legs physically cannot get in the rhythm.  I thought it was funny at least.

Going back to regular gym time.  Hooah.

Hopefully I'll be back to 4x/week or so.  That made for a really good system of 3 days of focused lifting (back & biceps OR chest & triceps OR legs & shoulders) plus one day of just cardio (get a hard run in).  This can hopefully become the routine, which will be very good for me.  In addition, hopefully I can make it back to having the 2 training sessions per week that I'm contracting Ken for.  The past long while, it hasn't really been that.  Boo.  I'm paying too much to not get my money's worth.

Gotta get around to weighing myself legit on a good scale.  Hopefully I've added another 5 pounds.  That would be nice.  Even though, given my eating recently, it's probably something like 2 pounds more muscle and 3 more of fat...  Not the ratio I'm looking for.

Other news: Ultimate season's kicking back up.  Soon, Tufts FITTFU (Friday Is The Time For Ultimate) starts up and shortly after that, BUDA Winter Hat.  Between the two, I'm playing two days a week, probably lifting three times a week and I'll probably be pretty damn happy with that.  Fingers crossed, eh.

That's about it.  Gotta keep proteining and things will work themselves out.
Doin' Work.
~#28

Got hella Stronger today.

Lower body circuit:
Hack Squat (90 lb on sled)
DB Squat (25 lb each hand)
DB Stationary Lunge (25 lb each hand)
Rest

Sets as 10, 9, 8...1 with 30s rest to 5 reps, 15s rest to 3 reps, 10s rest to finish out.  This smoked my legs and I could feel as major muscle groups gave out, moving between my quads, glutes and thighs.  That was awesome.  Naturally it was followed with more work.

DB Walking Lunge 3x20
Calf raise: 3x175 (easy weight to gently tax them)
Run 1 mi: 1200m at 6.5 mph, 400m at 8 mph.  All at 1.5% grade.  The run was interesting.  My legs were just crumbling under me for the first maybe 50m.  After that, it was relatively smooth sailing.  Sure I was tired but my lungs held on, so it was just a matter of waiting out the run (that's a really slow mile for me at this point).

~#28

Been a while.

I did, in fact, gym it up after the last post.  I've gotten stronger twice, I think, since then, once with and once without Ken.  Got a little faster too.  Most importantly, though, I got Better (at least a minuscule amount) in Madison.  Hit up winter league with Rob and Andy.  Got myself a layout d.  Got myself a few fantasy points.  All in all, I'm pretty solidly happy with how I did.  Looking forward to BUDA winter league with a burning fire and passion.  I gotta cleat up.  Gotta do it.  I'm so excited.  Registration opens Wednesday.

Doin' Work
~#28