Nationals, Day 3

Saturday morning saw us in the bottom bracket and we faced off against Chicago's Machine.  We lead for most of the game, until the wheels fell off and we finally gave it away 11-15 or so.  This was definitely a hard loss, especially for me since I had a drop on game point.  After that we played a rematch with Streetgang and this time, we couldn't pull it out.  The cruised to a pretty easy victory as we just couldn't seem to get anything positive going.

So, we came in last and went out last, which is a little disappointing because we definitely could've won a few more games over the course of the weekend.  Still, it's exciting that we went in with such a young team (and 16 Nationals rookies) and were able to compete.  Pike will be scary-good in the near future.

Nationals, Day 2

After going 0- on day 1, we dropped into one of the lower pools and carried our loss to Goat with us.  We were dispatched fairly easily by Bhodi in game 1, but managed to get our first and only win in our second game versus Streetgang.

Nationals, Day 1

Pike went 0-3 on the day, starting things off by battling Goat to 12-15.  When then got rolled by Revolver, and ended the day with a strong game vs Truck Stop who beat us 11-15. 

Toothsome Twenty

I wasn't planning on doing any workouts this week, but a being sick all of last week changed things.  Today's goal was to get the heart rate up a bit, fire up the fast twitch muscles, loosen up some of the phlegm in my chest, and shut er down.

Warm-up:

3/4 mile @ 8.5 mph
1/4 mile @ 10 mph
Active Stretching

Toothsome Twenty for time:

20 Box Jumps w/ 18-inch box
20 Jump Pull-ups
20 Kettleball Swings w/ 25lb ball
20 Lunges per leg (stationary lunges)
20 Knees-to-Elbows
20 Push-Press w/ standard bar
20 Back Extensions
20 Wall Balls

20 Burpees
20 Kangaroo Jumps


Total Time: 6:27

Cool-down:

8:00 Exercise Bike
More stretching

¡Vaya mierda!

So my carefully scripted plan of workouts designed to get me to peak condition for next week has taken a back seat to the consumption of copious amounts of Vitamin C, electrolytes, and enough fluids to drown a medium-sized horse.  With some luck, hopefully I can shake this nasty little cold before heading to Sarasota.  If not, well, adrenaline is a far more effective than NyQuil anyway.

Sumo Deadlifts, Pull-ups and Dips

Warm-up:

8:00 Rowing Machine
Active Stretching

CFWoD "Tyler":
5 rounds of:

10 x Pull-ups
10 x Dips
Sumo-Deadlift High-Pull (21x, 18x, 15x, 12x, 9x), 85lbs

50 x Inclined Sit-ups

Pike Practice

Sunday morning practice: 8 AM, in the cold and rain. Yee-haw!

Oddly enough, I felt much better today. Guess my legs finally recovered enough to move a little bit.

Pike Practice

Jake and I headed to Philly on this cold and rainy Saturday for a morning practice and an early afternoon scrimmage vs. OLD SAG. Thursday's workout definitely weighed heavily on my legs as, well, they felt like lead weights were tied to them. The ole posterior chain definitely got some work this week.

Anyway, practice began with a hour or so of Mini in the muck, followed by some game play, and drills designed to help throwers and cutters make better use of open space. A little after noon, Pike and SAG squared off in the sloppy conditions for a pretty tight game which we took 15-13 or so.

Hang Squat Cleans and Push-ups

Warm-up:

10:00 Rowing Machine
Active Stretching

CFWoD for 10/15/09:
Five rounds of:

15 x Hang Squat Clean @ 55lbs
30 x Push-ups

Baby Hill Sprints

6:50 Run

10 x ~50m Hill Sprints pushing the baby jogger (11:36)

1:25 walking rest

4:35 Run

Thrusters & Pull-ups

Warm-up:

1 mile @ 8.5 mph (yay, treadmill is [mostly] fixed)
Active Stretching

CFWoD "Fran":

21-15-9 for time:
Pull-ups
Thrusters w/ 25lb Dumbbells
Total time: 8:21

10:00 Elliptical Machine

Nightcap

Just a quickie before bed...

8 x 30 Crunches, various positions

50 x Push-ups, wide

20 x body-weight Goodmornings

20 x Standing Crunches

15 x K2Es

25/leg Single-leg Squats

50 x body-weight Squats

80s, 40s, Push-ups, Squats & Burpees

6:06 Run
Active Stretching

80s Circuit:

2 x 80m sprint, 25 x Push-ups, 25 x Prisoner Squats
2 x 80m sprint, 20 x Push-ups, 20 x Prisoner Squats
2 x 80m sprint, 15 x Push-ups, 15 x Prisoner Squats
2 x 80m sprint, 10 x Push-ups, 10 x Prisoner Squats
2 x 80m sprint, 5 x Push-ups, 5 x Prisoner Squats
Total Time: 11:09

5:00 walking rest

40s Circuit:

5 x 40m sprint, 5 x Burpees
Total Time: 2:56

2:00 walking rest
3:05 Run

Pike Practice

I took leave from the family and headed to Philly for our first October practice. Numbers were a little low, but we got in a lot of solid work on our defensive looks (both for the O and for the D lines) and tweaked a few things from Regionals that needed work. The morning was windy and drizzly which made for perfect practice conditions.

Baby Hill Sprints

Mel and I headed out into the fall night to run a few hills with Jamie Rose bundled up in the jogging stroller.

6:36 Run

10 x ~50m Hill Sprints pushing the baby jogger

11 x Muscle-ups at the play ground (5, 4, 2 reps)

10 x Pull-ups

3:48 Run

Red Fish Run

Warm-up:

8:49 Run
Active Stretching

Tabata Sprints:

10 x :20 sprint, :10 rest

40/40s:

10 x jog 40m, sprint 40m, (3:41)

4:00 Run

Regionals, Day 2

We started off with a win over X-Rates before coming out flat and getting jumped on again by LOS. The O had a few mistakes, but it was the D that couldn't get the job done in this game coming up with 0 breaks in the game. We bounced back from that with another solid win over X-Rates and set off to watch the end of the 3rd place game. LOS took Ring to double game point before falling.

There was some confusion as to whether we'd play for 3rd, but we did, and we won, which resulted in a whole lot of controversy a couple of days later. Check out RSD for all you can read on that. As for the game itself, the D went out on a mission, changing up our strategy and playing a defense we hadn't played much all year in order to try to slow LOS down. Jeff George gets the credit for this one, because it worked and really seemed to confound the LOS deep game which had killed us earlier in the tournament. I should also mention that we were missing two D starters due to injury (Leon with a broken nose & Raph with a stress fracture in his tibia).

The O ground it out all game and played smart and consistent, eliminating the unforced errors that haunted them in our previous match-ups. In the end, we held out longer and took the 3rd bid 15-11.

I truly feel for LOS. As it turns out, they could have opted out of that game and gone to Nationals by default. Not sure I agree with the obscure forfeit rule, but it was there and they could've implemented it and gone. They must hate us for ending their season in heart breaking fashion yet again, but they're a great team and played their hearts out this weekend.

For the record, I think Regionals should be played like an Olympic bracket. You make it to the gold medal game, you earn at least silver, and the two semis losers fight it out for the bronze.

Regionals, Day 1

Pike went 3-1 on the day with wins over Wilmington, Philly Love, and Medicine Men and a tough loss to Los.