The first week of Zoodisc's Spring 2009 season is officially at an end. I think that this has been a most encouraging week of practice, and I can honestly say that I have never been as excited about playing for this team as I do right now. Hopefully we can make this excitement last through the entire season.
Two days ago school was canceled because of a fairly mild snowstorm. The amount of snow that accumulated wasn't terribly impressive, but there was some freezing rain so I guess that was the school's motivation for closing. The snow did prevent us from doing the plyometric and agility workout that we had planned, so we played snow football instead. We got a pretty big game going (10 on 10 or so, with the addition of Joe, Brent, and a couple B teamers) and had a ball. The players who decided not to show totally missed out on a great time. We ended up exhausted, soaked, and happy.
On that subject, I am dissappointed that some members of our team didn't show up. Some had pretty good excuses - Henry's knee was sore and he didn't want to risk it playing football, Allan doesn't own a pair of boots, etc. - but others didn't really have any reason not to be there. Now, I know that this wasn't the most important practice that we're going to have this season. Frankly, if somebody is going to blow off one practice, I hope that they choose to blow off the practice where we just play snow football. But participating in practice means more than just getting in shape and bettering yourself as an individual player. It means that you are demonstrating to your teammates that you are going to be there every day, no matter what, busting your ass off. Making a committment to be at practice every day helps your teammates to learn to trust you. It makes them understand that you are going to back them up when the shit's in the fan. It tells them that you are somebody they can depend on. Our team needs more of this trust. We need to get to know one another like best friends. We need to Be best friends, so that we can come together and work towards a consistant goal when we are all fucking exhausted and unity is the only thing that we can possibly have left. I understand skipping a practice that doesn't seem as important, but every practice is important in some way or another. We need to have everybody together so that we can grow together.
While I would have preferred to do something else, yesterday we met in Lederle to run stairs. The ground outside was too slushy and icy to really run a sprint workout, and I haven't yet figured out the schedule for the Curry Hicks Cage track (I should try to do this today or Monday). I put together a pretty good stair workout, I think, and I'm pretty happy with how the practice went. I put an emphasis on doing short sets of stairs quickly, hoping that we can build explosive power and footspeed through this workout. The workout went as follows:
Throwing outside.
Warmup of a slow ascent to the top of the building (floor 16)
2 floors of 2 stairs up 1 stair down.
2 floors of 3 stairs up 2 stairs down.
2 floors of 2 up 1 down.
2 floors of 3 up 2 down.
3 floors of singles.
4 floors of doubles.
5 floors of singles.
6 floors of doubles.
3 sets of 10 squat jumps.
5 floors of singles.
4 floors of doubles.
3 floors of singles.
2 floors of 3 up 2 down.
2 floors of 2 up 1 down.
Stretch.
4 sets of 15 pushups, holding leglifts or planks during the recovery.
My ab workout.
3 sets of 20 seconds sitting on the floor pumping our arms like we were running.
This was a pretty tough workout, but it was by no means impossible. Everybody got through it in pretty good spirits, and I think that we're looking pretty good for this point in the season. Afterwards, some people went to Greenfeild to play indoor pickup, and a few of us went to the gym to lift upper body. I'm pretty tired right now; my legs felt like jelly when I woke up this morning. However, I am excited to be going to the gym with a Keenan, Josh, Ryan, and maybe a couple other people at 5. This will be the first day in a week that I'll be able to lift legs (the gym was closed on Monday and Wednesday) and I'm curious whether I'll be able to put up more or less weight than I was able to last week, when I'd been pushing my legs pretty hard.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Yesterday's Practice Was Pretty Good.
We had a pretty great turnout from the A team guys, and a few B team guys were there as well. Overall, I would say that I was pleasantly surprised at the conditioning of most of the people on the team. Clearly, people have been working hard this break. I think I was most impressed with Allan. He isn't the fastest runner on the team (by any stretch) but he was always one of the top few to finish the sprints, especially as the practice progressed.
I was a little dissappointed, however, that the practice wasn't more difficult. When I planned the workout, I had believed that it would be practically insumountable for most of the players on our team. I really intended to use this practice as a wake up call, to shock my team into being prepared to work exceptionally hard. And that isn't to say that people Didn't work hard yesterday - people really struggled and then pushed through their fatigue to finish the workout. But that's the thing: people finished the workout and didn't look terribly sick at the end. Our next sprint workout is going to have to be considerably harder. I think that I'm going to do this by lightening the number of sprints per set (to help people to push their hardest through every single sprint rather than slowing down on the last couple due to exhaustion) and decrease the amount of rest time between sets. I was giving two minutes for water between each set of sprints. Next time, I'll toy with the idea of only giving one and of having more shuttle runs, suicides, and foot fires.
After practice, I ate dinner with the team and then went to the gym. There were some other people there, but I mostly worked with Patuluk and Keenen. Both of them worked pretty hard, but I was surprised at how little weight they were able to lift. Or how much weight they believe they can lift. I really think that a lot of it is in their heads; they think that they can only military press 20 pounds, which intimidates them from trying to lift more. I'm going to have to break them of this in the next couple of weeks to get them up to some respectable weights and build more explosive muscle. All in all, however, I am proud of the amount of work that they did for this first day. I hope that we can all keep it up.
Today is a snow day, which means no classes and the gym is closed (no lifting, bah). Since we clearly can't do the plyo workout and the agilities that we were planning on doing today, we are heading onto the field to play snow football. That should be a good, fun way for the team to get together and bond rather than just working out. Sprints can be tiring and demoralizing. It's definitely good to mix up the workouts to keep everybody fresh and into the program. I'm excited to go play football and hang out with the team.
This year is off to a great start.
I was a little dissappointed, however, that the practice wasn't more difficult. When I planned the workout, I had believed that it would be practically insumountable for most of the players on our team. I really intended to use this practice as a wake up call, to shock my team into being prepared to work exceptionally hard. And that isn't to say that people Didn't work hard yesterday - people really struggled and then pushed through their fatigue to finish the workout. But that's the thing: people finished the workout and didn't look terribly sick at the end. Our next sprint workout is going to have to be considerably harder. I think that I'm going to do this by lightening the number of sprints per set (to help people to push their hardest through every single sprint rather than slowing down on the last couple due to exhaustion) and decrease the amount of rest time between sets. I was giving two minutes for water between each set of sprints. Next time, I'll toy with the idea of only giving one and of having more shuttle runs, suicides, and foot fires.
After practice, I ate dinner with the team and then went to the gym. There were some other people there, but I mostly worked with Patuluk and Keenen. Both of them worked pretty hard, but I was surprised at how little weight they were able to lift. Or how much weight they believe they can lift. I really think that a lot of it is in their heads; they think that they can only military press 20 pounds, which intimidates them from trying to lift more. I'm going to have to break them of this in the next couple of weeks to get them up to some respectable weights and build more explosive muscle. All in all, however, I am proud of the amount of work that they did for this first day. I hope that we can all keep it up.
Today is a snow day, which means no classes and the gym is closed (no lifting, bah). Since we clearly can't do the plyo workout and the agilities that we were planning on doing today, we are heading onto the field to play snow football. That should be a good, fun way for the team to get together and bond rather than just working out. Sprints can be tiring and demoralizing. It's definitely good to mix up the workouts to keep everybody fresh and into the program. I'm excited to go play football and hang out with the team.
This year is off to a great start.
Monday, January 26, 2009
First Practice is Tomorrow
And boy am I excited! I put together what I think will be a pretty fucking tough workout for everybody to complete. Do you want to see it? No? Well, fuck it, I'm going to show it to you anyway!
6 100 yard sprints with a 30 second recovery between each.
4 backpedal/sprint shuttle runs.
6 70 yard sprints with a 30 second recovery between each.
2 20 second partner shadow drills.
6 40 yard sprints with a 30 second recovery between each.
2 20 second foot fires.
3 suicides at lengths of 10 and 20 yards.
2 100 yard sprints.
2 70 yard sprints.
2 40 yard sprints.
2 20 yard sprints.
Stretch.
4 sets of 15 pushups.
Ab workout.
30 backhands.
30 forehands.
Looks intense, huh? It didn't seem so crazy when it was in my head, but I just kept coming up with more and more things that I want to do and now I have this gargantuan list. But I'm still excited; this is the first step towards creating the most explosive team that I have ever played for.
I've been swapping emails with a lot of different people. I sent several to the team clarifying what our tournament schedule is going to be. I've also been corresponding with one of our RSO advisers, who is going to try to schedule us gym space as a team. Two years ago, we were able to get Boyden once a week from 10pm to midnight, and that was fantastic. Last year, the only availability was Friday morning from 8am to 10 am, and that was all but worthless. Hopefully we can get some sort of schedule that is more reminiscent of two years ago. Oh, and I also received an email from the captain of Amherst College, who is looking to scrimmage us a couple of times before Spring Break. That would be phenomenal, since we otherwise aren't going to be able to get onto a feild at all before tournament season starts. Amherst College has a nice turf feild under the lights, which would be great to play on. I should email Ben and see if we can get something together to head out to Bentley and play on their feild sometime in the next month or so....
Anyway, as you can see, exciting things are in the works. It was one thing to think about the season a couple weeks ago, when I was building up a solid foundation. The season just felt so fucking long away. Now, though, with the first team practice breathing down my throat, it feels as if we have no time at all. We are going to absolutely slay ourselves at practice this season. There is nothing that I would rather do.
6 100 yard sprints with a 30 second recovery between each.
4 backpedal/sprint shuttle runs.
6 70 yard sprints with a 30 second recovery between each.
2 20 second partner shadow drills.
6 40 yard sprints with a 30 second recovery between each.
2 20 second foot fires.
3 suicides at lengths of 10 and 20 yards.
2 100 yard sprints.
2 70 yard sprints.
2 40 yard sprints.
2 20 yard sprints.
Stretch.
4 sets of 15 pushups.
Ab workout.
30 backhands.
30 forehands.
Looks intense, huh? It didn't seem so crazy when it was in my head, but I just kept coming up with more and more things that I want to do and now I have this gargantuan list. But I'm still excited; this is the first step towards creating the most explosive team that I have ever played for.
I've been swapping emails with a lot of different people. I sent several to the team clarifying what our tournament schedule is going to be. I've also been corresponding with one of our RSO advisers, who is going to try to schedule us gym space as a team. Two years ago, we were able to get Boyden once a week from 10pm to midnight, and that was fantastic. Last year, the only availability was Friday morning from 8am to 10 am, and that was all but worthless. Hopefully we can get some sort of schedule that is more reminiscent of two years ago. Oh, and I also received an email from the captain of Amherst College, who is looking to scrimmage us a couple of times before Spring Break. That would be phenomenal, since we otherwise aren't going to be able to get onto a feild at all before tournament season starts. Amherst College has a nice turf feild under the lights, which would be great to play on. I should email Ben and see if we can get something together to head out to Bentley and play on their feild sometime in the next month or so....
Anyway, as you can see, exciting things are in the works. It was one thing to think about the season a couple weeks ago, when I was building up a solid foundation. The season just felt so fucking long away. Now, though, with the first team practice breathing down my throat, it feels as if we have no time at all. We are going to absolutely slay ourselves at practice this season. There is nothing that I would rather do.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Running Alone Sucks.
That has been a major obstacle to my training this Winter. Lifting alone isn't difficult for me. I don't have too much trouble motivating myself to get down to the nice, warm gym once a day for a lift, even if my workout buddies aren't available. Likewise, I don't have too much trouble sticking to a regimen of pushups and situps. Both of these workouts are comfortable and indoors, which helps me to get them done. Both of these workouts are also fairly regulated. I know how much I can squat and I know how many crunches I can do. These numbers remain roughly the same day in and day out, so I can't easily let up on the workout when there isn't somebody else to push me.
Running is, in every way, quite the opposite. Running outside in the Winter is cold and unpleasant. It is a workout that I detest, and this makes it difficult for me to complete the workout without somebody else to drive me forward. Unlike pushups, situps, and lifting, the severity of a running workout is almost entirely precipitated on the speed that the individual runs. Because of this, a running workout that would be almost impossibly difficult to complete in a group can be relatively tame for an individual, if that individual does not know how to motivate himself.
If the previous two paragraphs haven't already tipped you off, I am not very good at motivating myself to run.
I would say that I've done a pretty good job attempting to run this break. At least a couple times a week I got outside and did a sprint workout. Recently, I have also been using the treadmill at Gold's Gym to run interval workouts. However, I'll have to admit that I haven't gotten out to run as frequently as I would have liked, and the speed with which I have run has been dissappointingly poor. Without other people to hold me accountable, I find my speed inexorably sinking as I reach the end of a sprint. Or I find myself getting distracted and spending too much time between sets. Or I give up on the final sprint and walk home instead of taking a cooldown jog.
I think that I'm in pretty good shape. I look better than I looked at the beginning of break (which isn't necessarily saying much), and I feel okay when I elevate my heart rate. This first week of the spring semester is going to be an important test, however. I need to demonstrate that I can push myself through a tough running workout when I have a couple teammates to urge me on. More importantly, I need to show my teammates that I can be a leader and that I can push them to achieve more than they ever could before.
I'm excited for Tuesday, but it's going to be pretty fucking hard.
Running is, in every way, quite the opposite. Running outside in the Winter is cold and unpleasant. It is a workout that I detest, and this makes it difficult for me to complete the workout without somebody else to drive me forward. Unlike pushups, situps, and lifting, the severity of a running workout is almost entirely precipitated on the speed that the individual runs. Because of this, a running workout that would be almost impossibly difficult to complete in a group can be relatively tame for an individual, if that individual does not know how to motivate himself.
If the previous two paragraphs haven't already tipped you off, I am not very good at motivating myself to run.
I would say that I've done a pretty good job attempting to run this break. At least a couple times a week I got outside and did a sprint workout. Recently, I have also been using the treadmill at Gold's Gym to run interval workouts. However, I'll have to admit that I haven't gotten out to run as frequently as I would have liked, and the speed with which I have run has been dissappointingly poor. Without other people to hold me accountable, I find my speed inexorably sinking as I reach the end of a sprint. Or I find myself getting distracted and spending too much time between sets. Or I give up on the final sprint and walk home instead of taking a cooldown jog.
I think that I'm in pretty good shape. I look better than I looked at the beginning of break (which isn't necessarily saying much), and I feel okay when I elevate my heart rate. This first week of the spring semester is going to be an important test, however. I need to demonstrate that I can push myself through a tough running workout when I have a couple teammates to urge me on. More importantly, I need to show my teammates that I can be a leader and that I can push them to achieve more than they ever could before.
I'm excited for Tuesday, but it's going to be pretty fucking hard.
Friday, January 23, 2009
2009 College Nationals Bid Allocation
The UPA released their decisions regarding the 2009 College Championship Series. I was able to view these decisions this morning. As they have previously indicated, Nationals will be expanded this year from 16 to 20 teams. Under the new system, each of the 8 Regions will receive 2 automatic bids (up from 1 automatic bid in past years) and 4 strength bids will be allocated based on last year's results. For 2009, the Central Region will have 4 bids to Nationals, the Southwest and Atlantic Coast Regions will each have 3 bids, and everybody else will have 2. While I personally do not think that it is fair for one Region to have 4 bids (the Central Region will likely send Wisconsin, Carleton, Minnisotta, and Iowa - while Wisonsin and Carleton are deserving teams, Minnisotta is usually fairly average and Iowa... well, I would be suicidal if I were to lose to Iowa, based on what I know of their team) I do think that the UPA is moving in the right direction with these decisions. There is too much year-to-year change on a college team to assume that the number two team in a Region is not better than the number one team from another Region. In past years, it was possible for a strong number two team from one Region to be sitting at home while a weak number one team from another Region blew it at Nationals. That hardly seems fair. While deserving teams will always be left out of the Championship Tournament, giving two automatic bids to every Region will help reduce the number of deserving teams that are not given the opportunity to compete.
This brings me to the reason why the UPA has made these rapid changes: the C1 controversy of this past fall. I don't believe that I have written anything about C1 in any previous posts; I'll have to make sure to write something up about that soon. For better or for worse, C1 seems to be serving as a catalyst of change within the Ultimate community, and it deserves due recognition.
Furthermore, while the presence of size bids has helped our Region in the past, I am glad that the UPA is finally doing away with that particular system of bid allocation. Though we never made use of this opportunity, I always felt funny about the prospect of taking a number two bid to Nationals that is based solely on the fact that our Region has more piece of shit liberal arts college non-competitive Ultimate teams than any other Region in the country. The UPA should be trying to let the best possible teams into the Championship Tournament. It doesn't make any sense to say that a Region deserves an extra bid just because it contains more teams than any other Region. Being the second best of fifty uncompetitive teams is less impressive than being the fourth best of ten contenders. I admit that the strength of the Region in the previous year isn't a perfect way to determine whether a Region deserves an extra bid in the current year. However, this method is certainly superior to the method of allocating bids according to the size of a Region. At least now the UPA can say that they are trying to reward teams for beating quality competition instead of rolling over a rabble of unqualified hippies.
The long and the short of all this is that nothing changes for my team. Our Region has two bids to Nationals, and that's nothing new. The Northeast Region has had two bids to Nationals for my entire college career. However, learning about our bid situation at this point in the season makes it feel very different. In the past, we've had to wait until all of the teams from all of the Regions submitted their rosters before we knew for sure whether we would receive a size bid. Though we were always pretty sure that we would get this coveted second bid, we could never be certain until the UPA officially notified us. One year (two years ago, I believe), the Northeast came within three or four shitty teams of losing our size bid to the South Region. Our potential second bid was always a matter of stress, a distraction as we geared up for the College Series. Personally, I am relieved that the UPA has simplified matters by letting us know early on how many bids each Region would be recieving. We know for sure where we need to place in order to make it to Nationals. We know for sure what we need to fight for.
Nothing has changed since I looked at the UPA website this morning. Nothing is different between this year and last year and the year before and the year before, at least in terms of the number of bids allocated to the Northeast Region. But these new developments do change the way that I think of the upcoming season. They make it easier for me to set goals (personal and for my team) without the chance of having my goals disrupted by a silent uncertainty. Somehow, I feel as though it will be easier for me to visualize the season and think about what I have to do.
Man, oh man, I am fucking excited about this Spring.
This brings me to the reason why the UPA has made these rapid changes: the C1 controversy of this past fall. I don't believe that I have written anything about C1 in any previous posts; I'll have to make sure to write something up about that soon. For better or for worse, C1 seems to be serving as a catalyst of change within the Ultimate community, and it deserves due recognition.
Furthermore, while the presence of size bids has helped our Region in the past, I am glad that the UPA is finally doing away with that particular system of bid allocation. Though we never made use of this opportunity, I always felt funny about the prospect of taking a number two bid to Nationals that is based solely on the fact that our Region has more piece of shit liberal arts college non-competitive Ultimate teams than any other Region in the country. The UPA should be trying to let the best possible teams into the Championship Tournament. It doesn't make any sense to say that a Region deserves an extra bid just because it contains more teams than any other Region. Being the second best of fifty uncompetitive teams is less impressive than being the fourth best of ten contenders. I admit that the strength of the Region in the previous year isn't a perfect way to determine whether a Region deserves an extra bid in the current year. However, this method is certainly superior to the method of allocating bids according to the size of a Region. At least now the UPA can say that they are trying to reward teams for beating quality competition instead of rolling over a rabble of unqualified hippies.
The long and the short of all this is that nothing changes for my team. Our Region has two bids to Nationals, and that's nothing new. The Northeast Region has had two bids to Nationals for my entire college career. However, learning about our bid situation at this point in the season makes it feel very different. In the past, we've had to wait until all of the teams from all of the Regions submitted their rosters before we knew for sure whether we would receive a size bid. Though we were always pretty sure that we would get this coveted second bid, we could never be certain until the UPA officially notified us. One year (two years ago, I believe), the Northeast came within three or four shitty teams of losing our size bid to the South Region. Our potential second bid was always a matter of stress, a distraction as we geared up for the College Series. Personally, I am relieved that the UPA has simplified matters by letting us know early on how many bids each Region would be recieving. We know for sure where we need to place in order to make it to Nationals. We know for sure what we need to fight for.
Nothing has changed since I looked at the UPA website this morning. Nothing is different between this year and last year and the year before and the year before, at least in terms of the number of bids allocated to the Northeast Region. But these new developments do change the way that I think of the upcoming season. They make it easier for me to set goals (personal and for my team) without the chance of having my goals disrupted by a silent uncertainty. Somehow, I feel as though it will be easier for me to visualize the season and think about what I have to do.
Man, oh man, I am fucking excited about this Spring.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The Week Before Spring.
Since the Spring Semester begins in under a week, I figured I'd get my first post of 2009 out there. I had intended to write a lot during Winter Break, but that sort of thing always turns out to be a lot harder than I anticipate. With working out, working at Walker, hanging out with friends, hanging out with family, and spending some quality time with Jesse... well, let's just say that I didn't spent much time in front of a computer. Hopefully I'll be able to turn out more material at school.
This winter, I worked out harder than any other winter of my college career. Maybe it was the desperation of being in my final year and knowing that this is my last opportunity to contribute to the team that I love. Maybe it was the added pressure of being a captain and knowing that my work ethic needs to set the standard for all of the younger players on the team. Either way, I had very little trouble staying motivated to get in shape this winter. I got a one month membership to Gold's Gym and made a commitment to go every day. For the most part, I went with Jake and Jimmy (of Wisconsin) and Brian (of Colorado). We lifted seven days a week, alternating between leg days and upper body days. With such a rigorous schedule, it wasn't long before we started seeing some serious results. Probably our most pronounced results were in the amount of weight that we squatted. We started at a relatively low weight (I think 75 pounds on either side of the bar, so about 195 total) but eventually got to the point where every member of our little group could squat 300 for a set of 8. The most that I ended up doing was 315 on a set of 8, but I'm pretty sure that I could have done a little more. We also worked hard at power cleans, and exercise that I had never done previously but which I quickly learned to love. You can just feel your whole body working its explosive muscles when you do a power clean. It's fantastic.
Additionally, I also ran during break. After talking to a whole bunch of people regarding the right type of workouts for Ultimate, we have decided not to do any distance running this season. Instead, we are going to do a massive amount of short sprints with low recovery time. For instance, one of the running workouts that I have been consistently completing is 5 100 yard sprints with 30 seconds recovery between each sprint, 5 backwards and forwards shuttle runs with 30 seconds recovery between each set, and then 5 more 100 yard sprints with 30 seconds recovery. By the end of this workout, my heart is racing and I can really feel my cardio fitness improve.
Finally, I've been working hard on my core. I do a pushups and a fairly intense ab workout every day. My core is pretty strong right now (though it will certainly improve in the next few weeks) to the point that I can see a light etching of abdominal muscles through the layer of fat on my belly. This is an extremely compelling sign for me. It isn't that I am fat, but I am thickset enough that it is rather difficult for me to develop a sixpack. Perhaps this will be the first time that I get into good enough shape for my abs to push through and show the world how bulletproof they really are. We can only work and hope.
I am in Amherst right now because Jesse had to have some testing done for her ADHD. While I am here, I am trying to get some of my Ultimate responsibilities taken care of. I've been talking and emailing people regarding tournament bids, gym space, uniform orders, etc. Last night, we had a meeting in my kitchen to discuss our training plans for the first part of this spring. I was there, with Babbitt, Mitch, Josh, and Henry. We talked about what sort of training we would be doing and what our general attitude should be. I believe, and I think that the others agree, that the emphisis should be on getting in the best shape that we can possibly get into while working on fundamental skills. This fall, we were plagued by bad throwaways and drops. If we can learn how to throw and catch and mark effectively, and we are all in good shape, we will win the games that we need to win. It's that simple. We also decided to emulate the Wisconsin team and establish a buddy system for the coming season. We randomly paired each player on the team and emailed out the list. Every player is responsible for making sure that his buddy gets into the gym, and each player is responsible for pushing his buddy in practice and during workouts. By making every player accountable, we hope to prevent anybody from slipping through the cracks and not getting into the best possible shape. We need everybody to be working at full capacity this spring, and I really think that we can only do this if everybody is held accountable for their actions by the other players on the team.
My buddy is Keenan. I hope he's ready to work.
I know I am.
This winter, I worked out harder than any other winter of my college career. Maybe it was the desperation of being in my final year and knowing that this is my last opportunity to contribute to the team that I love. Maybe it was the added pressure of being a captain and knowing that my work ethic needs to set the standard for all of the younger players on the team. Either way, I had very little trouble staying motivated to get in shape this winter. I got a one month membership to Gold's Gym and made a commitment to go every day. For the most part, I went with Jake and Jimmy (of Wisconsin) and Brian (of Colorado). We lifted seven days a week, alternating between leg days and upper body days. With such a rigorous schedule, it wasn't long before we started seeing some serious results. Probably our most pronounced results were in the amount of weight that we squatted. We started at a relatively low weight (I think 75 pounds on either side of the bar, so about 195 total) but eventually got to the point where every member of our little group could squat 300 for a set of 8. The most that I ended up doing was 315 on a set of 8, but I'm pretty sure that I could have done a little more. We also worked hard at power cleans, and exercise that I had never done previously but which I quickly learned to love. You can just feel your whole body working its explosive muscles when you do a power clean. It's fantastic.
Additionally, I also ran during break. After talking to a whole bunch of people regarding the right type of workouts for Ultimate, we have decided not to do any distance running this season. Instead, we are going to do a massive amount of short sprints with low recovery time. For instance, one of the running workouts that I have been consistently completing is 5 100 yard sprints with 30 seconds recovery between each sprint, 5 backwards and forwards shuttle runs with 30 seconds recovery between each set, and then 5 more 100 yard sprints with 30 seconds recovery. By the end of this workout, my heart is racing and I can really feel my cardio fitness improve.
Finally, I've been working hard on my core. I do a pushups and a fairly intense ab workout every day. My core is pretty strong right now (though it will certainly improve in the next few weeks) to the point that I can see a light etching of abdominal muscles through the layer of fat on my belly. This is an extremely compelling sign for me. It isn't that I am fat, but I am thickset enough that it is rather difficult for me to develop a sixpack. Perhaps this will be the first time that I get into good enough shape for my abs to push through and show the world how bulletproof they really are. We can only work and hope.
I am in Amherst right now because Jesse had to have some testing done for her ADHD. While I am here, I am trying to get some of my Ultimate responsibilities taken care of. I've been talking and emailing people regarding tournament bids, gym space, uniform orders, etc. Last night, we had a meeting in my kitchen to discuss our training plans for the first part of this spring. I was there, with Babbitt, Mitch, Josh, and Henry. We talked about what sort of training we would be doing and what our general attitude should be. I believe, and I think that the others agree, that the emphisis should be on getting in the best shape that we can possibly get into while working on fundamental skills. This fall, we were plagued by bad throwaways and drops. If we can learn how to throw and catch and mark effectively, and we are all in good shape, we will win the games that we need to win. It's that simple. We also decided to emulate the Wisconsin team and establish a buddy system for the coming season. We randomly paired each player on the team and emailed out the list. Every player is responsible for making sure that his buddy gets into the gym, and each player is responsible for pushing his buddy in practice and during workouts. By making every player accountable, we hope to prevent anybody from slipping through the cracks and not getting into the best possible shape. We need everybody to be working at full capacity this spring, and I really think that we can only do this if everybody is held accountable for their actions by the other players on the team.
My buddy is Keenan. I hope he's ready to work.
I know I am.
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