Today.

We had a pretty tough stair workout today. It was quite cold this morning, which made me move practice indoors. It warmed up in the early afternoon, but I'm still glad that we had the workout that we did because it was pretty darn cold by the time that practice ended. I also think that workouts like stair workouts are important, as they work muscles that we wouldn't necessarily work through sprinting (further building our explosive power) and they aren't as brutal on our knees. Personally, three consecutive days of parking lot workouts completely wear down on my joints. I know that several other members of my team feel the same way. Stair workouts are the hardest on my shin splints, though, which aren't feeling so hot.

We did the same stair workout that we did the last time that our entire team convened at Lederle (not the workout that we did the Friday before last, when only Babbit, Tim, Ryan, and I showed for a makeup workout and we let ourselves go rather easy). I believe that I posted that workout on this blog a few entries back, so I won't waste my time and yours by rewriting it. Suffice to say, it was a pretty extensive workout, and I'm quite tired. Hard workouts are important, but we've worked ourselves into suitable enough shape that it's starting to take a long time to get through a practice that is difficult enough to tire everybody on the team. I suppose that being in too good shape is never a problem that I can really complain about, but it does make for longer practices.

Having a strained rotator cuff is annoying because I can't do pushups until it has had a chance to heal. In the meantime, I have been holding a six inch leg lift during the time that the rest of the team is doing a set of pushups. Additionally, as a team we hold thirty second six inch leg lifts as our recovery between sets of pushups. Therefore, instead of doing four sets of twenty pushups and three thirty second leg lifts, I have to do seven six in leg lifts in a row. That's a pretty good way to shred my abs, and that's before we even start our ab workout! Henry commented, not complaining, that our ab regimen might be a bit excessive. That may be so, but I'd rather have excessively strong abs than excessively weak ones. As long as we are continuing to run hard and stretch at the end of every workout, I can't imagine that iron abs could possibly be a detriment to our playing conditions. Anyway, as Henry put it, at least we're going to develop fantastic beach bodies for Spring Break. So why not?

I forgot to take my pills for a few days in a row, and my knees are feeling much worse than they felt last week. I'm really kicking myself for letting my supplement routine slide, since these chemicals build up in your body to work the way that they do. When the reserves start to run thin, they don't really do so much to protect my joints. I just hope that it doesn't take long for me to get back on schedule and renew the balance of knee-healing chemicals in my body.

Speaking of supplements, I had a funny conversation with my creative writing professor this afternoon. We were walking in the same direction when we left Bartlett, and we started talking about running and suchnot. Apparently, this professor runs all year in the woods behind his house. In the winter, he straps spikes to his shoes and prays that he doesnt break a leg on a log concealed buried beneath the snow and ice. It sounds terrifying, but he says that he can't run on the pavement because of his knee problems. I advised him to start taking the type of supplements that I have been taking since the beginning of the semester, but he seemed cynical of such things. Well, I suppose it wasn't actually that funny of a conversation, but it was a noteworthy occurance for me so I figured I might as well log it down. It seems ridiculous to me that somebody will run in the snow in the woods and won't even try joint healing supplements.