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.