State of the Blog - 12/16

Unfortunately I have not posted any updates for over a month. This is a funk I get into some times where there are things to write but for various reasons (laziness, work, etc) I haven't been able to bang anything out. Anyway tonight as I am holed up in my apartment because of the Nor'Easter that has come by Boston I figured I can get this thing caught up before the Holidays.

So first up is my physical health. As in all off seasons the number one priority is to heal up and rehabilitate from all the nicks and nagging injuries from the previous season. In my case the two biggest things were my left ankle and my groin. As of right now my groin is making great strides as I strengthen up my lower abs and abductors, abductors muscles. The biggest thing about this injury was getting those muscles use to working again. What I tried to do in the last season was give it a week or two off to let it heal but when I came back it was back into practices and tournaments. It was healing but coming back and running and cutting on it full speed was just putting me in a vicious cycle of rest and pain. My ankle on the other hand is not progressing so well. It had been doing well but who knew that flag football would be so physical? Anyway in a game a couple weeks back I was trying to grab the flag from a receiver and got blocked pretty hard from another player who I didn't see. I don't think it was a dirty play or anything but there is something about not really ever playing football at a competitive level that opens me up to injuries of this nature (expecting blocks or hits).

Training wise I've been starting to get back into gym (about 3 days and week) but have not really started on the weights yet. So I started out with short morning workouts to try to build up a base and condition my body to start working again. The sessions I'm doing now are geared around rehabilitating the ankle/groin and building up my body's work capacity. The ankle /groin work is basic balance/stability ball/medicine ball work, but the work capacity thing is something that I've done sporadically in the past. It's basically a Tabatha interval where I pick 4 exercises and for each individual one perform it as fast as I can for 20 secs with a 10 sec rest x 4. So all in all 16 of heart pounding work. On the surface and on the first couple reps it doesn't sound too bad at all but trust me it is pretty awesome. The first couple sessions of this left me sore as I've ever been in my whole body. Some of the exercises I do are burpees, jump roping, any ab work, medicine ball movements, mountain climbers, bike, rows and I'm looking for other movements. Looking ahead I want to start getting back into the weights and I will be using the Core Performance workouts again as the basis of what I will do. The difference this year is that it will not be all that I do in the gym. My deficiencies last year and what ultimately hurt me the most were that their workouts do not really address calves and lower ab work. In addition to this I think I will sign up for CATZ which stands for Competitive Athletes Training Zone which apparently is a functional training center in Needham. The pricing for sessions is really good actually ($199 for 10 one hour sessions, this compared to $299 for like 4 one hour sessions from the trainers at my gym). I'll see if I can try it out first before I buy, but from everything that I've seen on the site it looks pretty legit.

OK thats it for now, but I am determined to post again this week concerning turnover developments within the team and other random subjects.

Bitter Coldness

I started the program this past week but fell off the wagon almost immediately as I had to go to NYC for a business and was not able to even fit in the 20 minutes needed to finish the workout. But I will continue this week and should be able to accomplish each day’s work.

On Sat I played some ultimate at the local Lemony Fresh Fall tournament, picking up with the WHUF in the coed division. They were low on numbers so I convinced Franchise, Bunce, and his friend Dan to join up as well. I was excited for a chance to play ultimate again as I had not really in the time after regionals. Also I wanted to try out taking pictures with my new camera.

Long story short is we rolled a couple college teams and then lost to the other ringer squad in the last game of the day. It was pretty cold and windy (mid 40s) but no rain as was indicated earlier in the week. Realized that if I wanted to take good ultimate pictures that I would need a much better zoom lens then the starter one I have. The pictures of action near where I was turned out pretty good but everything else just looked small.

In terms of injury I decided to wear an ankle brace to see if it would help out as there were some aches and pains throughout the past week just walking around and moving. The groin/inner thigh flared up after the first game after I stood around after a long point, but some IB and the prospects of a good last game seemed to fix that. I probably should go see a doctor to see if things are healing up fine in there or not.

I also started playing in my indoor soccer and flag football leagues last week. Football is awesome and I am really looking forward to playing again next week. Cutting/defending is similar but I need to work on some of the finer points (jamming the receiver and working out of a jam). Soccer though was pretty tough, we are kind of low on numbers in both leagues, and while in football there is a lot of standing around soccer was kicking my ass. Trouble is that I am probably in the upper part of the team in terms of general athletic conditioning on the team and I was feeling like I wasted to puke.

Beginnings

So first off is the obligatory look back on the past season. As far as the team it was a pretty successful year. This was the highest finish ever in team history (4th) with some great games and tournaments along the way. I think we made good strides in becoming a really competitive club team plus well positioned with the mix of older and younger players in the years to come.

Personally I had a great early season, but then ran into some injuries around Boston Invite (first a groin strain, then a pretty serious ankle injury) which held me back during the second half and during Sectionals and Regional’s.

The past 2 years I've trained extensively in the off-season and then have been hit with injuries during the summer months that sideline me and affect my overall performance. In '06 I had a herniated disc and this past season a groin and ankle injury. Both years have been frustrating and disappointing in terms of how I wanted to play and how I ended up being injured.

So as with years past my main goal in the off-season is to get healthy and to get stronger in order to prevent my annual mid season breakdown. I’ve tried different training methods as well in the past some involving little weights and lots of running to lots of weights and little running in the off months. But I haven’t found a combination yet that has really let me play to what I think is my full potential.

Getting back into it:
3 weeks – 6 days
10 pushups
10 sit-ups
10 dips
10 squats
10 calf raises
10 scissors
10 super-mans

For groin/ankle
3 weeks - 3 days a week
30 sec toe taps
30 sec heel taps
30 sec alternating toe/heel taps x 2
1 ankle alphabet – each ankle
5x30 sec 45 degree abductors hold with tennis ball
5x30 sec straight leg abductors hold with tennis ball
30 sec 1 legged balance

Introductions

The weekend of UPA Nationals I got an email from Lipson that said that because of GOAT's performance at Nationals this year that the NE Region would be recieving a strength bid. My initial thoughts were 'we have a chance', and second 'we have to work harder'. Three weeks earlier we were blown away by PoNY in the game-to-go-to-game-to-go of regionals by the tune or 15-3. This would most likely be the team that we would have to beat if we wanted to go to the big show.

I decided to create this blog to document the next year as I and my team train towards this goal. Also I saw how effective it was for other ultimate players to help stay motivated and focused in the long months ahead. This will be a place to summarize workouts, thoughts on the training and playing as well as other topics.