I awoke Sunday morning and nearly fell down the stairs as my right knee apparently forgot how to bend overnight. Not good! I spent most of the morning wondering if I was going to be able to play at all and doing my best to disguise my concern from everyone since we were already short people, I feel like I still gotta earn my roster spot, and Goddammit I ain't going out like that!
After some vitamin I and a lot of warming up, it loosened up and by the 2nd half of our first game, I hardly noticed it. No idea what the hell that was all about! Anyway, we rolled our first opponents and won our quarters match-up against District 5 without too much ado. That game was pretty close, at least until Jeff Graham decided he was going to take over. Then it wasn't. That put us in the semis for a rematch with Slow White.
Similar to our first match-up, we had difficulties generating pressure on D, though we were somewhat more efficient scoring on O. In the end, we fell by a 13-10 margin.
The team itself looks very promising, especially since we were missing 10 people for the tournament and 3 of us had never played for the Ghosts before. As for myself, I was somewhat disappointed in my play. I played decent shutdown defense, scored and threw a few goals, and kept my turnovers pretty low, but only managed an occasional block. I wasn't able to overpower anyone with speed or agility on the weekend, which was pretty much my hallmark so that will be my motivation for training in the coming weeks. My footwork was sloppy, my changes of direction were slow, and my extra gear was not there. Probably more than anything, the supreme comfort on the field was missing. The ability to just take everything in and move and react naturally wasn't there and that really means the difference between excelling and just getting by. Come regionals, I need to excel again.
On a positive note, my legs and lungs held out the entire time, and while I was puffing after a few of the longer points, I was able to recover and get back out there. And though I'm a little sore in spots the day after, for the most part, I feel good and strong and ready for the speed and agility workouts to come.
Sunday, August 26, 2012
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Chesapeake Invite, Day 1
My initial thought after having completed my first club point in 2.5 years was, "WTF was I thinking? No way I'm getting through two days of competition." Thankfully, after the initial shock to the system, my body started to remember what this was all about. The training I did in the last month definitely paid off, and while I'm not physically where I normally would be at late August, my base is solid.
The Ghosts were a missing a third of our roster for the Invite, which meant a lot of PT and a lot of much needed reps. Apparently the team hadn't played together in two months, and so I wasn't the only one shaking the rust off, something that became apparent when we lost our very first game to a decent, but not spectacular, Bucket from Atlanta. We started gelling a little better after that first game and beat Ant Madness relatively easily. Next up was AMP, and after falling behind a bit early, we clawed back from 10-11 to win 13-11. That set us up for a crossover with regional rivals Slow White.
We battled in this game, but the D had a lot of difficulty bringing pressure until the very end of the game and we fell 10-13. Drat... no first round bye for us Sunday morning.
Somewhat mollifying was the spectacular crab dinner provided by Marika's parents at the family farm! My crab eatin' skills needed some work, but by the end of the night, I was getting pretty good.
The Ghosts were a missing a third of our roster for the Invite, which meant a lot of PT and a lot of much needed reps. Apparently the team hadn't played together in two months, and so I wasn't the only one shaking the rust off, something that became apparent when we lost our very first game to a decent, but not spectacular, Bucket from Atlanta. We started gelling a little better after that first game and beat Ant Madness relatively easily. Next up was AMP, and after falling behind a bit early, we clawed back from 10-11 to win 13-11. That set us up for a crossover with regional rivals Slow White.
We battled in this game, but the D had a lot of difficulty bringing pressure until the very end of the game and we fell 10-13. Drat... no first round bye for us Sunday morning.
Somewhat mollifying was the spectacular crab dinner provided by Marika's parents at the family farm! My crab eatin' skills needed some work, but by the end of the night, I was getting pretty good.
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Redfish Run
Warm-up:
6:45 RunRedfish Run:
Active Stretching
10 x Tabata Sprints (sprint :20, rest :10)5:40 Run
10 x 40-40s (jog 40 yards, sprint 40 yards)
Sunday, August 19, 2012
Moving, Day 2
We were back at it first thing in the morning. After packing a few more pieces of furniture, I took the truck up to the new house and my father-in-law and I set about unloading it. We finished up around lunch time, so we went home, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and loaded her up again. The second truck load probably had half the volume, mostly kids' toys and the rest of the stuff from the garage.
Once loaded, we went back to the new house and my father-in-law hopped on the tractor to get started on the yard work (back-filling the retaining wall, fixing the grade on the lawn with the york rake, etc) while I unloaded the truck. About half-way through, Mary Ellen came along to help me finish up. At around 4:30, we unloaded the last of it, returned the truck, and headed back to the house.
Now for some _real_ work! While Mary Ellen began tiling the backsplash in the kitchen, I headed out back to finish up the retaining wall. Now that pops-in-law had backfilled a bit, I put three more courses on the wall, then dug a 3' x 3' hole at the end so I could bury the drainage pipe in gravel and create a mini leach field of sorts. After that, I picked up rocks turned up by the tractor, shoveled dirt and gravel, and raked dirt around the foundation to finish off the grade. At this point, Mary Ellen had to pick up the kiddos, so I took over tiling the backsplash. At around 10pm, I finished up and headed home to bed (which now consists of a mattress on the floor of a mostly empty bedroom).
Once loaded, we went back to the new house and my father-in-law hopped on the tractor to get started on the yard work (back-filling the retaining wall, fixing the grade on the lawn with the york rake, etc) while I unloaded the truck. About half-way through, Mary Ellen came along to help me finish up. At around 4:30, we unloaded the last of it, returned the truck, and headed back to the house.
Now for some _real_ work! While Mary Ellen began tiling the backsplash in the kitchen, I headed out back to finish up the retaining wall. Now that pops-in-law had backfilled a bit, I put three more courses on the wall, then dug a 3' x 3' hole at the end so I could bury the drainage pipe in gravel and create a mini leach field of sorts. After that, I picked up rocks turned up by the tractor, shoveled dirt and gravel, and raked dirt around the foundation to finish off the grade. At this point, Mary Ellen had to pick up the kiddos, so I took over tiling the backsplash. At around 10pm, I finished up and headed home to bed (which now consists of a mattress on the floor of a mostly empty bedroom).
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Suicides
The last thing I wanted to do after a day of moving was run, but I got a teammates to train for so...
Warm-up:
10 x 125 yd Suicides (0-10-0-15-0-25-0-25), 1:30 rest
After the suicides, Mary Ellen and I threw around for 30 minutes or so until it got too dark to see.
Warm-up:
7:20 Run
Active Stretching
10 x 125 yd Suicides (0-10-0-15-0-25-0-25), 1:30 rest
:26, :25, :25, :25, :25, :24, :25, :25, :25, :24
After the suicides, Mary Ellen and I threw around for 30 minutes or so until it got too dark to see.
Moving, Day 1
The good news is we'll be in our new house by the end of August. The bad news is we have to move out of the old house to do it! YUCK!
The morning was spent repeatedly loading stuff from the garage into a 5x8 trailer, driving it to the house, and unloading it. At about 3:30pm, we picked up a 16' Penske truck and started on the real moving. The rest of the day was spent hauling stuff out of the house and loading it into the truck. Sad thing is, I'm really not sure where we got half of it nor why we own it, but it sure ain't light!
The morning was spent repeatedly loading stuff from the garage into a 5x8 trailer, driving it to the house, and unloading it. At about 3:30pm, we picked up a 16' Penske truck and started on the real moving. The rest of the day was spent hauling stuff out of the house and loading it into the truck. Sad thing is, I'm really not sure where we got half of it nor why we own it, but it sure ain't light!
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Rocking Out
I took yesterday and today off to get some work done at the house and try to get ready to move in. (The first wave of moving will take place this weekend!) I arrived early to clean out the TV room and get it ready for the carpet installation, then spent the rest of the morning tiling the backsplash in the kitchen. Things are really starting to come together. By lunchtime, we had new carpet in the TV room, and Lowes delivered all of our appliances, minus my stove which was special-ordered elsewhere. Fantastic and all, but not workout worthy...
That's where there retaining wall comes in. 7.5 tons of concrete block were delivered yesterday afternoon and today is the day I installed them. With help from a friend we hauled, leveled and stacked a 35'x3' wall. It was pretty sweet, right up until a 20' section of it fell over as we were 6 blocks from the end. From sweet to suckage! Turns out, 2' is about the max you can stack those blocks before you back fill them. 3' is definitely no good. So... we picked up the fallen pieces and stacked it back up 2' high and will wait patiently until we can back fill it properly before building up the rest. At any rate, hauling 7 tons of concrete 25lbs at a time is definitely a good workout. Owwie.
That's where there retaining wall comes in. 7.5 tons of concrete block were delivered yesterday afternoon and today is the day I installed them. With help from a friend we hauled, leveled and stacked a 35'x3' wall. It was pretty sweet, right up until a 20' section of it fell over as we were 6 blocks from the end. From sweet to suckage! Turns out, 2' is about the max you can stack those blocks before you back fill them. 3' is definitely no good. So... we picked up the fallen pieces and stacked it back up 2' high and will wait patiently until we can back fill it properly before building up the rest. At any rate, hauling 7 tons of concrete 25lbs at a time is definitely a good workout. Owwie.
Monday, August 13, 2012
Crucible Deck
Warm-up:
Crucible Deck:
5:00 Exercise Bike
Running, 2 laps around FCC. (Lap 1: 2:24, Lap 2: 2:04)
Active Stretching
Crucible Deck:
Hearts: 10 x Sprint
Diamonds: 10 x Push-ups
Spades: 10 x TOs
Clubs: 10 x Squats
Joker #1: 10 x Mahlers
Joker #2: 10 x Burpees
Total Time: 14:36
5:00 Exercise Bike
Tossin' the B
I managed to con a co-worker into a disc around during lunch today. Unfortunately, it was relatively short-lived as he finally managed to put it beyond my reach and the fence, and into the briars. We thought briefly about scaling the fence in our work attire, but in the end decided to just let it go.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Hill Sprints at 509
After an afternoon of tiling, I hit the trail for another shot at the hill.
10 x Hill Sprints, 1:00 rest (rest includes the walk back down to the start)
5 x Hill Sprints, 1:00 rest (rest includes the walk back down to the start)
10 x Hill Sprints, 1:00 rest (rest includes the walk back down to the start)
:11, :12, :12, :12, :12, :12, :12, :12, :12, :12
5 x Hill Sprints, 1:00 rest (rest includes the walk back down to the start)
:12, :12, :12, :12, :11
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