Hang Clean, Jump Pull-ups, Burpees & CKs

Warm-up:

1 mile @ 8.5 mph
Active Stretching

21-15-9 for time:

Hang Clean @ 105lbs
Jump Pull-ups
Total Time: 9:52

Tabata Sets:
Burpees:

9, 9, 8, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7

Chuck Kellers:

13, 11, 11, 11, 10, 9, 10, 10

This quick n dirty workout is sure to get your heart rate up and keep it up. I put it together in order to replicate the kind of exhaustion you should feel in your legs after doing a sprint workout.

Mercer A-League

Big Stick vs. Rutgers

Still a bit footsore from Wildwood and a bit tired from being up late to see Dark Knight (AWESOME!!!), I went down to Mercer for the last A-League game of the regular season. Too bad it takes me 2.5 hours to get there from work or I could've taken part in some skills work with Dusty. Man, I need to put a resumé together!

I spent a good amount of time warming up with plyos and active stretching before the game to work out some of the post-tourney soreness. During the game, I focused on getting behind my defender's momentum, trying to force him to fully commit to a course before I did, so that I could get more separation on my cuts.

Against higher level opponents, you aren't going to have an athletic or physical advantage so you need to find other ways to get the disc. If I can perfect this style of cutting, I'll be able to use my opponents' athleticism and aggression against them and essentially take away their ability to anticipate. Now, they're forced to react to my movements, and thus, to commit sooner than they would like. The final piece is being willing and able to take what is offered, something I've only recently started to fully achieve. Oh, and you need to be able to do all of this quickly or else you just end up squirreling up the cutting lane and confusing the hell out of the thrower.

OK, enough ego-babble... the game itself was fun. Even though Stick was able to jump out to an early lead which we maintained throughout, Rutgers has some young studs that make you work and a solid offense to see them to the end zone. Their lack of depth hurt them in the end, especially when compared with Stick's veteran roster, and Stick was able to cruise to a 15-8ish victory.

Workout:

quick run
active stretching & plyos
1 x summer league game

Wildwood, Day 2

Rule #1 of Scooby Doom Ultimate: The more time you spend with Nic on Saturday night, the worse you will feel about yourself on Sunday morning.

Glassy eyed and cotton mouthed, we stumbled back to the beach Sunday morning to get ready for Scooby Doom's quarter final match-up. Our hangover-induced ineptitude and 'that athletic guy who ran a lot and scored 2-pointers' kept the game close, but we managed to eek out a victory at DGP and earn a spot in the competitive 3-1 semi-finals. Off to the Melon's 2-2 quarter final we went where I spent most of the game on the sideline trying to get sand out of my eye. Dammit Jude! I said 'NO HAMMERS!!' As I recall, the game wasn't all that close. Semis there too!

WTF? Scooby Doom is in a semi-final? Let's face it, now we're playing with house money. That other team apparently 'slept' Saturday night and game out strong going up 4 or 5 early on. We eventually tied things up and even took the lead at some point, but at the cap horn, they were up 1. On the final point, I missed a wide open Raph in the endzone and they worked it up to score. Oh well, it was a nice run. Quick goodbyes to the Syracuse folks and back across the beach for the 2-2 semi.

Our late arrival prompted accusations of ringer-recruitment, but Beth quickly set the record straight. After that, Becca Tucker and Kim Tischler kept our NY opponents in the game, but the Melons were able to slowly build a lead before 'The Nothing' showed up and forced beach evac. With the day growing long in the teeth and the skies promising retribution for Saturday night's sins (and Jess needing to get back to Rochester some time before Fall), we said our goodbyes and, as nicely as possible, abandoned our teammates to begin our trek north.

From what I heard, the tournament triumphantly returned to the beach in time for the Melons to win the semis, lose the first game of the finals and start the second before 'The Nothing' realized what was going on, made a great big u-turn, and game back to make them ALLLLLLLL dead. Being in the hole already, the Melons conceded the win, handed over the giant metal lightning rod... err, I mean... trophy and ran for the cars as fast as their sandy feet could carry them.

Workout:

3.5 x 50 minute games of beach ultimate

Wildwood, Day 1

Mel, Jess, Raph and I headed down to Wildwood, NJ for a little fun in the sun. Not satisfied with playing in only one division, we signed up to play Olympic 2-2 with the Horned Melons and Competitive 3-1 with a Syracuse/Kaimana reunion team. As reigning 2-2 Champs, the Melons were seeded pretty high (not #1, but who's counting!!) while Scooby Doom ended up as the very last seed in the bracket. Basically, that meant that our two teams played at opposite ends of the beach requiring more effort to get from game to game than the games required themselves.

Day 1 ended up being a ton of fun with both teams going undefeated. No surprise for the Melons, but a huge shock for us Syracuse folks! 8 games in the bag, we headed over to the beer garden where we opted to drink smuggled beverages and play silly games on the beach (Thanks to JB EZ from Ghana for teaching us Rough Tag). Apparently, Raph and I didn't get enough exercise during the tourney.

Workout:

8 x 50:00 games of beach ultimate
lots of trekking across the sand
assorted shenanigans including Rough Tag, flutter, mac lines, & MTA

Quick Circuit

The fates have conspired to make this a light workout week for me it seems. That's probably good, since I have serious trouble pacing myself on my own. Last night after 8 hours of traveling to Worcester, MA and back, I was going crazy from lack of physical activity so I did the following before bed:

Quick Circuit:

50 x push-ups
10 x mahlers
30 x crunches
10 x burpees
30 x crunches, legs up & bent 90 degrees
30/leg x mountain climbers
30 x leg raises
10/leg x 1-legged squats
30 x crunches, knees apart, feet apart
30 x push-ups with feet on bed
30 x crunches, knees apart, feet together
10/arm x 1-armed push-ups
30 x left side oblique crunches
10 x burpees
30 x right side oblique crunches
10 x mahlers
50 x push-ups
50 x push-ups

CFrosty Circuit II, plus CKs and some core

Warm-up:

1 mile @ 8.5 mph
Active Stretching

CFrosty Circuit II:
Medicine Ball Routine (part 1):

20 x front-squat vertical toss
20 x sumo-squat backwards toss (against wall w/ catch)
25/side x side-twist
20/side x chest throws in lunge position (against wall w/ catch)

Functional Lifts (part 2):

2 Sets of:
10 x Hang Clean @ 125lbs
10/leg x Split Drops w/ 15lb Dumbbells
:30 Overhead Squats as fast as possible w/ proper form (29 reps, 31 reps)
8 x Walking Superman Push-ups
10/leg x 1-legged Squats w/ toe touch

Tabata Chuck Kellers:

13, 12, 12, 12, 13, 12, 13, 14

7 Steps Abs:

7 x 40 crunches in various positions

Sneak Preview

With my local track closed for repairs I hopped on Google Maps and searched the satellite images for conspicuous ovals near local high schools. Once again, Google did me right and pointed me straight to Piscattaway High School and their beautiful new track. I'm telling you, this track is primo.

While I was there, a lady showed up with her trainer and proceeded to kick some serious ass in her racing chair. Man, she was flying around the track. Seeing an athlete like that was great motivation.

Warm-up:

1 mile in 6:37
Active Stretching
Plyos

Base Building Workout:
2 x 400m with 2:15 rest

1:08
1:09

6 x 200m with 1:30 rest

:34
:34
:34
:35
:36
:28

Man, between the fast (for me) 400s and the heat, I was hurtin' on the 200s. I was ashamed enough by the :36 to will myself through the last one, but overall I'm disappointed with those times.

5:00 rest

6 x 100m strides, walk back to start

start w/ 5m jog into 180 degree turn left
start w/ 5m jog into 180 degree turn right
start w/ 5m jog into 90 degree turn left
start w/ 5m jog into 90 degree turn right
start w/ 10m jog
start w/ 10m jog

10 x 14-count Body Builders

25 x TOs

Cardio

I went with low impact/low intensity exercises since this was to be my fourth day in a row. I was feeling a bit bored though so I picked it up a bit towards the end.

Rowing Machine: 10:00

10 x Military Pull-ups

Exercise Bike: 11:00

15 x Pull-ups

J&J Stair Workout:

10 flights as follows:
every step
every step, high knees
every step
every other
every step
right foot hops
every step
left foot hops
every step
2-legged hop up 2, back 1
Total Time: 2:24

15 x Chin-ups

3 x 162 yard suicides, :30 rest between each

10 x Pull-ups

MCUDL A League

Big Stick vs. Illuminati

Once again we faced Illuminati and once again both rosters were a bit depleted. Still, I think they were missing more folks than we were tonight. They definitely could've used Jake and Raphe, but Dusty and Amy were back so that helped. At any rate, Stick won by a fair margin in the end.

Workout:

quick warm-up run
20 minutes of throwing
1 game to 15
30 minutes of throwing

I spent much of the second throwing session working on stepping out on my backhand hucks rather than forward in order to more effectively huck against a mark.

CFrosty Circuit & Some Core

If you haven't seen Chris Frost's blog yet (http://cfrostyrun.blogspot.com), you should really check it out. It's full of great articles, professional advice, and plenty of ideas to keep your workouts fresh and effective. I based today's workout on an example from an article of his.

Warm-up:

1 mile @ 8.5 mph
Active Stretching

CFrosty Circuit:
Medicine Ball Routine (part 1):

20 x front-squat vertical toss
20 x sumo-squat backwards toss (against wall w/ catch)
25/side x side-twist
20/side x chest throws in lunge position (against wall w/ catch)

Plyometric Power Exercises (part 2):

2 sets of:
20 x sitting box jumps (mid-thigh-high box)
10 x depth-drop push-ups
20/leg x box jump march
15 x jump pull-ups w/ tuck
10 x jump shrug @ 125lbs

Core Work:
7 Steps Abs:

7 sets of 40 x crunches, various positions

Back Extensions:

25 x

Edgely Workout

Jon, Kyle and I met up at Edgely for a workout during our month off from official practices. As it turned out, OLD SAG, who was practicing there, was short on numbers and invited us to jump in for their scrimmage - nice bonus!

Warm-up:

Fast but short run
Active stretching

Workout:
4-cone suicides w/ catch & throw on the cut-backs

Scrimmage to 7, no subs (lost 7-4)

Scrimmage to 7, no subs (won 7-6)

Circuit Workout:

2 sets of:
5 x pull-ups
10/leg x split-squat jumps
8 x Dive-Bombers
20 x overhead squats
25/side x bicycles
15 x TOs

Jump Muscle-ups:

3 sets of 5

SAQ Workout & MCUDL A-League

I definitely over-did things the first half of this week. Despite still being sore from Monday, I still hit the gym this morning and doing a SAQ workout tonight probably wasn't a good idea. By the time our A-League game started, I was pretty much shot. Fortunately, Big Stick managed to win 15-3ish despite my shoddy D, lackluster cutting, ill-advised hucks, and lazy TOs (1 drop, 1 point-block). Still, I'm working out for the fall series, not for summer league.

SAQ Workout:

• ~5:00 run
• M Drill - 5 x through from both sides
• Agility Ladder
• 40 yard Shuttle Run

1 x (mercifully short) MCUDL A-League game

Pull-ups, Dips, and Pillar Strength

Warm-up:

9:00 Elliptical Machine for 105 Calories
Active Stretching

Muscle-Up Training:

4:00 of 2 pull-ups, 2 dips for max reps.
Total reps: 14

Pillar Strength:
Turkish Get-up w/ 16lb KB:

10 x per side

Corkscrews w/ 35lb plate:

10 x per side

Superman Extensions:

30 x

Cool Down:

5:00 Elliptical Machine for 45 Calories

Deadlift, KB swings, OH Squats, JPUs & RTs

Warm-up:

1 mile @ 8.5mph
Active Stretching

21-15-9 for time:

Deadlift @ 125lbs
Kettlebell Swings @ 25lbs
Overhead Squats w/ 20lb dumbbells
Total Time: 11:26

This is a great example of a strength/power workout that will also improve your cardiovascular fitness. Guaranteed to get you breathing heavy and to elevate your heart rate.

Tabata Sets:
Jumping Pull-ups:

28, 28, 21, 19, 17, 17, 17, 17

Russian Twists w/ 25lb plate:

16, 16, 16, 15, 12, 12, 10, 11

Push-ups & Crunches

While watching Wimbledon:

600 x Push-ups
600 x Crunches

and added some more during the Yankee game:

100 x Push-ups
100 x Crunches

Snatch, Pull-ups, Dips, and Core

Warm-up:

8:45 Elliptical Machine for 100 Calories
Active Stretching

21-15-9 for time:

Right Dumbbell Snatch @ 25lbs
Left Dumbbell Snatch @ 25lbs
Kipping Pull-ups
Dips
Total Time: 14:16

3:00 Rest

21-15-9 for time:

Dumbbell Roll-outs
Back Extensions
Total Time: 7:01

MCUDL A-League

Big Stick vs Mud Sharks

Apparently my playing offense this past weekend has upset the balance of my ultimate world. How else can you explain the Sharks playing man defense all night long? I was a bit sluggish, footsore, and uninspired tonight, but my teammates were able to pick me up and we took the game 15-7ish.

Afterwards I put in some serious work on my deep throws. My role is not to be the guy who hucks off of a stop disc, it's to be the guy who gets the disc in motion and either hucks it in flow or throws one fake, forcing the marker to over-commit, and then hucks out of a quick pivot. To that end, I focused on hucking out of a pivot and hucking after a catch. Main points: find balance quickly, maintain balance through-out, keep the arm compact and maximize power through legs and hips.

Workout:

a jog
some active stretching
some throwing
1 x summer league game
30:00 throwing