Six Years Ago Today...

I was a senior at NYU, living at Water Street.

I woke up on a Tuesday much like this one (A little chillier, but a *beautiful* day) a little before 9am and rolled over to watch Sportscenter from bed, as was my wont in those days. There were a ton of sirens outside, but that was nothing unusual in NYC. I mean, sirens are about par for the course, really.

I don't recall who the anchor on SC was, but I recall being upset that they cut over to some news show. I started flipping through the ESPN channels to find sports news, but to no avail. I accepted that I should probably figure out what was going on and was shocked. So, of course, I went outside to see what was going on for myself. As you can see from the earlier link, I was about seven blocks from the World Trade Center, so all I had to do was walk to the corner and look down Fulton Street to see the towers.

Wow...

There were so many people just staring into the sky, mouths open. Some were crying. Some were running toward the buildings. Some were running away. I stood there for a couple of minutes and took it in. I saw some things that I won't repeat here, but suffice to say that the images are seared into my mind. I thought to myself "That's crazy. I hope they get the fire out soon. I'm sure they will." I then went back inside and fulfilled my RA duties by going to see the Hall Manager and ask what I should do.

Went around knocking on doors of residents to make sure they were up and and aware of what was happening and then went to visit some friends on other floors in case they didn't know.

Then, a huge noise and a powerful rumbling/shaking rattled the building. I rushed to the TV to figure out what was happening a mere seven blocks away. Holy Shit!!!!!! A building collapsed? A building that big? That I had seen every day that I had been in New York for the past 3 years? No fucking way.

Yes, fucking way.

Time to evacuate the 32 floor dorm. 2000 residents. As an aside, during RA training, when we were going over fire safety and the like, we were told that the building was fireproof and as such we would never have to evacuate more than 3 floors. Never. I asked the annoying question of "Well, say that we DO need to evacuate the whole building. How would we do that?" The answer came back, with a laugh, "If we have to do that, there are bigger things to worry about." THIS, apparently, was the bigger thing. We had no plan. We were dispatched to 3 floors a piece (some people were already at class) and told to knock on all doors, shout, and do what a reasonable person would do to get students out. We were assured by the fire department that while we were in no immediate danger, soon enough no one would be allowed down here. As I stopped at my dorm, I packed up a bag of stuff because I didn't know how long I'd be gone:

• Disc
• 10 beers
• 6 CDs
• Discman
• Pants
• Duct Tape
• 1 Book
• Notepad
• Pens
• Hot Sauce
• Hat
• Loaf of Cinnamon Raisin Bread
• Peanut Butter
• Nalgene of Water
• Waller
  

Not too bad, considering it took me less than 5 minutes to packand I was terrified that the building would come down around me...

I then decided to trek to the Broome Street dorm to catch other frisbee players who lived in an big 'ole suite (8 people?). When I got there, there weren't any. They too had been evacuated. I had my cell phone for about a month at this point, and while I had managed to get through to my father (thank god!) right after the building came down, I was entirely unable to make any calls after then as the network was overloaded. So I just kept walking north.

I met people along the way and offered them beer. This was a good tactic as they understood that I was an okay guy and were a little more open with me. The conversations that day were surreal. I walked all the way up to Central Park that day. Why? I don't have a fucking clue. I just kept going. I remember stopping on the way in Washington Square Park to gaze south through the arch at the remaining tower. It was very obviously on fire. I discussed the possibility of classes resuming with a random NYU student and the odds of that building coming down. We decided it was impossible that the building would come down.

We were wrong. That was the last I ever saw of the largest buildings I've ever seen.

Eventually, I managed to get in touch with the NYU ultimate players. One of whom, Man-Fai Tam, was offering us a place to stay for the night. That was fantastic of him. We all huddled together with familiar faces and watched the news until we passed out. Glued to the screens, watching another building fall in NYC as the enormity of the plot unfolded before us. Wow. Just, wow.

I decided to get on a a bus the very next day and go home to see my family. A good choice.

More interestingly, Jamie and I had been planning to attend a Hat Tournament in New Jersey that weekend. This was my fourth year of ultimate (and his, I think) and I was coming off of a torn ACL. This seemed like a good place to get out and run early in the season. As you can see by the website (I love the permanence of the internet!) it was a associated with the wedding of Denise Ryan and Zach Bressler. I had never met them before, but I was overjoyed that they were running this tournament this weekend. Anything to get my mind off of September 11th...

We begged the tournament directors to let us play on the same team together, as we were brothers and all, and they let us. Not sure why exactly, but it was the first time we had ever actually played together outside of pickup at Lehigh 2 summers ago. The events of the weekend are murky, but I did meet eventual Pike teammate, Matt "Bones" Dufort and congratulated him on his college title with Carleton (which I had watched in person). The bride and groom also played in a wedding gown and a tux, respectively and were wildly entertaining. 3 or 4 years later, I met them as well, playing pickup in NJ.

All in all, there couldn't have been a better place to be that weekend. I was in cleats, clothes and everything else borrowed from Jamie, and I was still having a hard time shaking some of the thoughts I from the Tuesday before, but while I was playing, it was all gone. Nothing existed but the game itself. Teammates and opponents were nice and all (And it was fantastic to play with Jamie for the first time-- He made one of the craziest catches I have ever seen in our last game) but it was the game itself that took me away from it all. Remove all outside distractions and get lost in the game.

As ever, when things were going crazy in my life, I found sanity in competition. Sports, marching band, board games, card games, you name it. They are all something to take me away from reality, for better and for worse. This is still one of my individual favorite memories of ultimate. There are better tournaments, and there have been bigger games, but never has a specific weekend of ultimate meant more to me.

Thanks, ultimate.
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Workout Total:
Full Dynamic Warmups
10 min wobble board
20 min stretching

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Day of Rest/Stretch

Not much going on today.

Work is crazy right now. Updates become sporadic and delayed. Tougher to maintain the pace of posting as I actually have to do, y'know... work.

Ultimate-wise, all I did today was stretch out and catch up on sleep. Recovery is progressively more important as the season continues.

Did watch the ridiculous Raves/Bengals game on MNF. Ray Lewis broke himself on a huge tackle. Ed Reed is incredible, nearly knocking himself out on a massive hit and returning a punt for a TD after BJ Sams went out with an injury. Steve McNair is finding it difficult to play with a giant fork sticking out of his back. He's still better than Boller. Palmer looked okay. Chad Johnson is a ridiculous athlete, no matter his need for attention. Sloppy game, but endlessly entertaining until the end. Yup. "Endlessly... until the end."
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Workout Total:
35 minutes stretching

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Chicago, Day 2

Wait... Where the hell am I?

I seem to be in a bed. Not my own. Why is someone sleeping on the floor? Oh... must be ultimate. Hmmm.... I think it's Chicago. Yup. Time to shower and stretch. Rounded up the troops and ambled down to the van.

Got going a little bit later than Saturday, but still within the acceptable margin of error. That's what good planning is all about. Allowing yourself a solid margin of error. I had to try the Bacon Lover's Supreme sandwich at Dunkin Donuts because, well, I mean there's bacon, love and supreme. How could I go wrong? While not fantastic it scratch the bacon-itch. A theme of the weekend was trying to come up with some food-item which bacon does not improve. I couldn't come up with anything. Someone said "Ice Cream" as a suggestion which is just erroneous. I, for one, bet ice cream with bacon would be fantastic.

Anyway, we got the fields at ~7:50 and started warmups at 8. Nice jog, active stretching, drills, throwing and live play. It was pretty solid. This led us to play our first game:

vs Chuckwagon, 13-3
Focus in this game was the D-Team's early-game energy. Coming out of the gate firing on all cylinders and not letting the wagon think that they're in the game. It was a matter of getting that confidence on full display. That fighting, clawing feeling of "every pass must be challenged." As we rode out a 7-1 lead at half, we seemed to accomplish our goals. Coming out of half, we started on O, the O scored, and then the O team stayed on for D. Well, they didn't get one, so they had to stay on for another point. Clowns. That's a pretty poor 0% scoring rate on D points. I guess that's why they're the O-team...

vs SD United, 10-12
This was not my best game, by far. When playing defense, (Like against the last 4 teams) I was basically standing around watching someone else put it up deep. This time it was Kubiak. Yup, he's still good. On offense, I ripped some upwind hucks that I felt were pretty much perfect, but none of them connected. One came back on a foul call (on our receiver), one had confusion between receivers on my team, and another (actually, this was in the Chuck game) was to a cutter who I didn't realize was being covered by a defender about a foot taller than him. Whoops. I had one other TO in this game, which was on the goal line. I broke the mark around as we were being forced backhand, and it bounced off of my receiver's hands (although he had to make a bid to get to it because it was a bit low). Gotta balance the risk/reward over the course of the game. Shooter's gotta shoot and all, but we would have won this game if I didn't throw three turns. That sucked.

Overall, the 5-2 weekend was pretty bad, but there were encouraging signs. The O-Team was no longer hemorrhaging points. The D team looked very solid on D, but not as smooth on O. Personally, I played well overall, but my pulls sucked ass. I had ~10 OB pulls. That's completely unacceptable. It won't happen again because I won't let it. Pulling is a matter of focus and concentration on picturing the throw that you want before the pull and then emptying your mind of anything but that image just before you pull. At least, that's what happens when I'm pulling well. I match the real world to the image in my mind.

As a defender, there was only one guy that I had a hard time covering. It was some white-hatted handler on Frontline. That guy was given a lot of space by his team and always cut full-speed. I loved covering him because it was a challenge. There were some other guys that beat me on a cut or a throw or two, but he was hands-down the hardest to cover of my matchups. I got a couple of Ds over the weekend, which was fine as any Ds that you get while covering handlers are gravy for the D team.

My best play on the weekend was actually not a D! I was covering a Madcow handler in his endzone, and as he was cutting back, I knew the disc was not going to be led out as far as it needed to be. I bid for it and tried to catch it, but it hit me in the fingers and I couldn't wrap it up. Instead, I tipped it up, the guy caught it and threw a break. If only I could have grabbed it, CALLAHAN! If only I could have slapped it down, TO IN THE ENDZONE! Instead, they scored in 3 passes. Boo.

After the game ended, the van knew that we needed to get to a bar to watch football. I mean, with no games left to play, what am I doing at an ultimate tournament? Exactly. Nothing. Get thee to a bar! Buffalo Wild Wings it is. Apparently, this is a chain. I'd never seen it before and haven't since. In any case, my feelings on the place are summed up thusly, after I looked around the huge-screen filled establishment, "I'm so overwhelmed... I love it."

Eagles lost, Randy Moss outran a triple team and some other games happened too. I'm happy that football is back. I'm upset with the Eagles punt returners, but that'll pass. The problem is that they've given up their "one dumb loss" this year and can't afford another. Ah well.

The journey home was pretty bland for me, but Dan Yi had an exciting time of it. There was a ton of traffic on the way to O'Hare and he, sadly, missed his flight. My flight landed at 11:50 or something. Got on a NJTransit train, got on the PATH train and got home at ~1:45. Damn. Exhausted. Can't sleep... Ah well... so goes another weekend of ultimate...
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workout total:
2 games ultimate

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Chicago, Day 1, Part 2

So there we were, point diff screwing us...

Or rather, there we were, being screwed by our own point diff, something which we had total control over and knew could hurt us. Ah well, now we get to play familiar foes, the Medicine Men:

v Med Men, 13-8
Man, these guys still just bomb the disc, don't they? It was pretty close in the first half as we still seemed surprised by their non-standard throws. One of the differences from the past times that we had played them was that they were way more organized on defense. This included some sort of 2-3-2 zone that seemed to just let the O walk it up the field. Something must have been amiss there. On their O points, it still took us a while to adjust to their aggressive play, even though we knew what they would do coming in and we had just played against Tussin who bombed it all day too. I say that Med Men are always dangerous, but the flipside of it is that they could also lose every game by 10. The looks they take are just unbelievable. If they connect on them, you might well lose to them. If they don't, well, see the comment about "the flipside."

It was near the end of this game that I started feeling pretty out of it. I think it was the combination of not having my trusty Ultima Replenisher (d'oh!) as well as eating a bit too much food to compensate. Add that to a poach bid I made on a disc that just passed over my outstretched fingers for a goal and landed a bit awkwardly and I just needed to ask out of the game for the finish.

vs Sir Duke, 13-9
I sat out the first 3-4 D points in this one as I recovered a bit. It always amazes me how much better I can feel after just a slightly longer break than usual. most of the time this just means a point or two here or there, but in a 5-game day, an extended break is a huge help. Though the points would suggest otherwise, I think Med Men are a better team than the new Sir Duke (Though with the love I've got for Stevie Wonder, I might have to be a bigger fan of Duke). This team is similar in that they (Banyas in particular) launch the disc to the endzone over and over again. Again, as a handler defender, this is completely frustrating. I don't really get to do much of anything. As we adjusted to their particular style of "huck first ask questions later," we pulled away to end the day at 4-1.

One loss by one point and the best we can do is ninth? I'm guessing this is karmic retribution for Sockeye in 04's pool play. Fair enough. Now, can we never do this again?

As we gathered our stuff, we had a team vote about getting food first or showering first, and food won. I like food. Then again, I like showering, so whatever. We ended up at a Carraba's in the area, largely because the team has an inexplicable soft-spot for this chain. I don't really get it. The food ain't bad, but it's not really anything to write home about either.

Eventually, we were seated and it came time to make a critical decision. how many of us are having "Italian Sangria?" The answer was "Enough for three pitchers at my end of the table, the rest of you be damned." This, of course, made the dinner far more fun. Why we didn't stay for the FREE beer at the fields is beyond me, but as Pike goes, so goes I.

After getting lost on the way home due to an ill-attuned driver (not me, I was drinking!) and a hapless Navigator, we managed to get home in time to get about 8 hours of sleep before we had to get up at the same time as Saturday because we hadn't earned a first round bye. Fucking A.

There was Blokus to be had, but I never made it there. I showered and laid down on the bed only to be disturbed a number of times over the even due to a certain Dan's unbelievably Hall of Fame-worthy snoring performance. He got hit with a launched shirt at least a handful of times. I'll give the guy this, he's a creative snorer-- each snore is something new!
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Workout Total:
5 fucking games of ultimate

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Chicago, Day 1, Part 1

As usual, my flight to O'Hare was delayed.

I'm used to it at this point. The van was chock full once everyone arrived-- Me, Jamie, Dan Yi, Heckman, Art, Ben and Pribicko. We saw Eagles fans coming in and rumor has it that they were rather drunk on the flight. And then they'd have to find a way up to Green Bay for the game. Of course, they rented a van and put pink Eagles flags on the top. Of course.

Managed to get to the hotel and get to sleep quickly, but that still left us with about 4 or 5 hours for sleep...

Got up at 6am for out 6:37 departure for our 9am game. Shower, stretch, get on the road. Surprisingly, we only left 8 minutes late. That we pretty sweet. Hit up the classic Dunkin Donuts and grocery store breakfast. Coffee, sausage egg n cheese, golden kiwis (perfectly in-season and ripe!), blackberries, peaches and trail mix.

Arrived nice and early to warmup before the warmup. One of my favorite things to do, that is. Felt good and got ready for Game One...

vs Frontline, 12-13
There was a total of one break in this game, and it came on double game point. We received, turned the disc over (I don't recall how) and then Dono got a sick catchblock on the dump, jumped up, completed a pass, and then we turned it right back over. They then completed a stall 9, 40 yard straight up the line deep shot to a guy covered by one of our O-team handlers. Game, set, match, Frontline. We had our opportunities on D early and didn't take advantage. I'm pretty sure we got turns on the first two points and didn't convert. That's terrible. Especially in a game to 13. Especially against a team you've never played before. Especially against a younger team. We dug our own grave in this game and Frontline put us to rest. For a young team, they did a great job of taking care of the disc.

vs Madcow, 13-12
After an hour or so bye, we got the rematch against Madcow. Pallaver and the Meyers brothers, present and accounted for. If I remember correctly, we started this game off with a break to take the early lead. The game then continued in a back and forth fashion until we were receiving, again, on double game point. We turned the disc over and Madcow started marching it up the field. Eventually, about 20 yards from the endzone, they force up a OI flick hospital pass. As the crowd of hopeful defenders and recievers inevitably congeals where they think the floating disc is coming down, Trey comes flying in at 123rd gear from the spot at which he started (somewhere from the opposite side of the field). The crowd starts to jump for the disc, but it's too late. Trey's arm has alreays extended waaay above the crowd and he's got the disc in his hand before anyone on the sideline imagined it was possible. Incredible catch from an All-American deep cutter.

"Foul."
???

Arguments presented: He made contact with me before I could jump to get the disc. He jumped into a group of people. I was backing up as he landed on me.
Counterarguments presented: I caught the disc before anyone else had a chance. You moved into an unoccupied space that I was planning on landing in. That was a hospital pass and I caught it without any significant contact. The fact that you were backing up meant that you had no chance at the disc anyway.
Sideline arguments presented: "That's the worst call I've ever seen in my life." "The rules shouldn't reward terrible throws." "He was 4 feet over you, stop cheating." "This determines who enters the next round-robin." (Sideline arguments presented by players from Pike, Machine and Tussin)
Sideline counterarguments presented: "Just send it back, Trey. It's a foul contest." (From Madcow)

This argument ensued for nearly 10 minutes as Trey stalked around with the disc in his hand, yelling at the player who called the foul and refusing to send the disc back. The aforementioned player would not give any ground, and to everyone's surprise on Pike, was yelling just as loudly and aggressively as Trey. Most players on the sideline from Madcow, Pike Machine and Tussin (as well as others who wandered over later) had yelled themselves out and were now seated along the sidelines.

Then, Trey tossed the disc into the air and walked away. Much sideline confusion as a Pike player picked the disc up and the game resumed. Apparently, the resolution was to flip a disc. We scored. No one on the sideline responded to the flipped disc because a) We didn't have a clue what was going on b) we didn't hear anyone call up or down c) We were all sitting down waiting for a resolution we thought would never come.

As I was discussing with my teammates before this game, I hate ultimate. Bogus travel calls, rampant uncalled traveling, pervasive cheating, no care for the rules or the way in which they are laid out. Ultimate, yet again, seems to be stuck in a place where there are different acceptable levels of contact and the like depending on which teams you play. When it comes down to it, many teams/players (this is NOT directed at Madcow or anyone in particular) use the rules to gain advantages they would otherwise not have. Other times we make terrible calls out of ignorance of the rules or even the unknowability of a particular event. I'm just tired of it.

Anyway, on to game 3 vs Tussin, 12-9
Well... they're a college(+?) team and they like to put it up. They did. Early and often. They came down with their fair share and challenged us for most of the first half. In the second half, our D team stepped up and went on a 4 or 5-1 run to close it out. We need to get those runs early before we NEED them. This would start a string of 3 games in which playing defense on a handler amounted to "Run down. Stand. Watch them huck it. Either A) play offense or B) walk off the field." Very frustrating.

3-way tie for first? Fuck. We're losing this one. Madcow beat frontline by one, we beat madcow by one, frontline beat us by one. Madcow beat Tussin by 6, Frontline beat Tussin by 7, we beat Tussin by 3. We're out and on our way down to the 9th-place bracket or something. Boo.
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Workout Total:
3 games to 13.

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Jesus Just Left Chicago

I'll be listening to that upon touchdown this evening.

Probably both the ZZ Top version and a Phish cover. The easy choice is from Slip, Stitch and Pass, but I think I'll root through the archives and find something from a show I actually attended. We shall see.

This weekend we'll be in a pool with Frontline (Madison), Madcow (Columbus) and Tussin (?). I don't know the first or third team at all. We've got a loss to avenge to Madcow from Chesapeake. Definitely looking forward to that game.

Chicago is always a painful stop on the tournament circuit. Too many games to 13 on hard hard ground. Not sure that Pike as a whole or I personally have ever had a good experience there. Time to change that, I suppose...
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Workout total:
20 min stretching

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Sprint Endurance

Enjoyed the track today.

Well, as much as one can enjoy the track, at least.

4x100
5x80
6x60
12x40

Walk slowly back to the start for rest (usually 1 minute or so). For each, work on getting up to full speed as quickly as possibly and then riding out the acceleration. For the 40s, I did the first 4 with a standard standing start. For the last 6, I started 2 each with a 2 yard sideshuffle to my left, a 2 yard sideshuffle to my right, a 2 yard backpedal turning left, and a 2 yard backpedal turning right. In each of those, focusing on getting the mechanics of turning and accelerating down. That is, take as few steps as possible to turn and get cover ground while turning.

After that, it was time for some football. Drew Brees may have single-handedly killed my team this week. It doesn't help that I'm playing against Josh, who has Manning.

Julie and I also played spades, Manhattan-rules, against two self-proclaimed experts. What are Manhattan rules? Well, I don't really know, but it felt like they were making up rules whenever they wanted or at best not telling me what the rules were until I missed an opportunity to take advantage of them. Regardless, Jules and I triumphed with much shit-talking. Spades is a Jawing kinda game. If you don't think it is, you're not actually playing spades, you're palying something else.
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Workout Total:
40 min Track
20 min Stretching

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Jet Lag

When I covered my favorite stuff for ultimate, I was remiss in not mentioning Melatonin.

I would go into detail about why it it so awesome, but Mark's Daily Apple (A Pretty Phenomenal Health Blog, if you ask me) just had a post that covered it in more depth than I could possibly manage on my own. Essentially, if you're traveling through time zones for ultimate (or work-- JP, I'm look at you) this will help keep you somewhat attuned to the world around you and help avoid the jet-lag nightmare.

It ain't perfect, and like anything, you don't want to become dependent, but it does work. The only downside I've had is that sometimes I sleep waaay too well. Like a log. And then I'm groggy for an hour or so after I wake. The regular sleep pattern is definitely worth a little grogginess, for me.

For a workout today, I did a three-parter. The first was a little circuit of pain including some plyos and general strength work:

Circuit:
10 ankle hops
5 pullups
20 sec rest
10 mahlers
20 sec rest
5 4-star jumps (each leg)
5 pushups
15 sec rest
10 burpees
15 sec rest
30 yard *backwards* slalom jump
5 divebombers
10 sec rest
5 frog jumps
5 clap pushups (try clapping behind your back if this is too easy)
10 seconds rest

Repeat 3 times

The second was simulating Field-Like Cutting (aka, me on the parking lot behind my apartment):

Set up 3 cones in an equilateral triangle, about 8-10 yards per side. Assign the cones names like this:

A C
B

Get your stopwatch set to everyone's favorite interval: 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off.

Start at cone A. Backpedal to cone B, Sprint to cone C, backpedal to cone B, Sprint to cone A. Do 8 reps of 20 seconds on 10 seconds off. Dial in on your balance. Keep your weight low and over your toes. Focus on your footwork. Are you taking more steps than necessary to stop? Are you balanced to go in the other direction as soon as you hit the cone? Can you accelerate faster?

Take a 3min break to throw (in my case against a fence with a bunch of discs) and then repeat the exercise, but sideshuffle facing the inside of the triangle instead of backpedaling. Take a 2min throwing break and repeat with sideshuffles while facing outside of the triangle.

The third was an absolutely *killer* set of general-strength Tabata intervals. (Can you tell I love this protocol?):

8x20sec on/10sec off: Burpees
8x20sec on/10sec off: Bodyweight Squats
8x20sec on/10sec off: Pushups

12 minutes, no rest. When you finish this, you know you've done something. In fact, the pushups almost made it impossible for me to take a shower afterwards because I couldn't lift my arms. I started off with 24 pushups, then 22, then 12, 10, 10, 8, 5, 5. After I could no longer do regular pushups in the 12-5 range, I swallowed my pride and did pushups on my knees instead of my toes. These were what did me in, I'm sure of it.

Off to the track tomorrow before the NFL Kickoff!
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Workout Total:
15 min circuit
20 min agility/throwing
12 min interval
20 min stretching

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Pickup, of all Things?

Dropped by pickup today in Prospect Park.

I only got 2 games to 3 in as the sun was dropping, but I played aggressively and got a D or two. Almost got up to full speed on a couple of cuts. Got some throwing in before I could get on the field as well.

Good to see some of the "local" players as well. I say local mostly because there isn't any pickup in Jersey City at all, or, for that matter, in Jersey at all that I can get to without traveling much further. And with a car. Which I don't have.
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Workout Total:
20 min pickup
10 min throwing
20 min stretching

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BBQ

Roof BBQ in Harlem today.

Food was excellent (Jeff Ho's meals are not to be missed!) as was the company. Eventually made our way to the Beer Garden in Astoria. Conclusion: Overrated. Almost wildly so.

Also, Happy Birthdays to Dono (30), Spanish (21!) and Julie (Somewhere south of 30)!!
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Workout Total (All done in the morning):
20 minute agility workout
10 minutes wobble board workout
20 minutes stretching

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Let's Get Ready to Roll.

D-Team rocked at practice today.

The day started as every other practice day does, with me rising at ~6 or 6:30 to eat and then get on the train at 7:11 to get to Edison at 8:04 to get picked up and driven to practice by Dono. Except that this time when I got to the car, it was completely packed with Dono, Mellen, Dono’s brother and a bunch of luggage. We had to fit both Mio and myself in there, plus all of my crap. And by crap, I mean beer. Specifically some PBR (which I purchased at Whole Foods, of all places, at a $6 per 12-pack rate) for the team after practice and some Old Speckled Hen for Dono’s birthday.

D-Team’s focus at practice was to play as aggressively and with as much hunger against our own O-Team as we do against other teams. Hammering home the mental identity of being a team that fights for everything and never gives up is a key component at this time of year as well. It’s all about “Dog,” dog.

We worked on a couple different zone/man variants paired with small-score scrimmages (to 3 and 5 points) to dial in the specifics of playing the defenses as well as playing against them. The D-Team beat the O-Team down in each scrimmage—and we were sure to tell them all about it. We made some errors, but they were errors of aggression rather than passivity. That is exactly what the D-Team needs to be. We had 8 guys, one of whom is an O-Player who was heard to comment “It’s just so much fun playing with the D-Team…”

Yup.

Also of note, I vomited at practice today. This is the first-ever workout/practice/whatever related vomiting of my life. I’m sure it had to do with Ben’s inability to count to 45 at 1-second intervals (his 45 seconds is far closer to 2 minutes), but more than that, I killed myself at practice today. I did everything I could to demolish the other team, just like I do in games. It’s time to make that level of intensity the norm now that summer league and fun tournaments are done until after Pike finishes up. Making sure I switch that on every single time I step onto the field is a priority right now. I mean, I find it so easy to do that during Pike’s games, but practices have always been different for me. I put in the effort, but what I call the “life-or-death” switch has not been, uh, switched. That’s the one that makes me take that bid on rock-hard fields. That’s the one that makes me fight through contact instead of avoiding it. That’s the one that removes The Fear. I can’t play like that all season at practice—I’ll end up injured (sure I’m sturdy, but not *that* sturdy). But from late August on, I can’t accept less.

It is an interesting mental gymnastic event, to convince yourself that something as silly as ultimate is a matter of utmost importance, but in the end, so long as you don’t let that obsession spill over into the rest of your life, I feel like it may be good for me in some sense. That extreme stress of being in that flight-or-fight mode seems to contrast the day-to-day low-level stress of modern life rather well. It puts things in perspective, actually. When I really manage to amp myself up like that, I realize how stressful all of that other irritating shit isn’t. It’s just life, that’s all.

After practice, Mio and I got shitfaced on Margaritas and PBRs on South Street in Philly while Jamie cleaned out his apartment so that he could drive to New York to move to Baltimore. Yeah, I know it doesn’t make any sense, but that’s what he said he was doing. We played it smart and went to get food. I think he had to see about a girl—at least that part of his day made sense. The ride back consisted of a ton of irritating chatter on my part, as well as Mio’s, but at least Jamie had some noise to keep him alert.
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Workout Total:
4? Hours of practice

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Wait... September??

Where did the year go?

So much has happened in 2007... most of the ultimate-related stuff is here in the blog, but even outside of that... Every year gives something so different. I mean hell, once we get to June 08, I'll have been out of High School for 10 whole years!

Which also means in September 08, I'll reach my tenth year of ultimate. Well, to be accurate I had played one or two games before that at CTY, but then again, I never played in a tournament until April 99 (Yup, Sectionals with 8 people).

In either case, I have often read that the 10 year mark is when you really begin to learn how to do it. That seems about right to me, as there are things I'm learning about ultimate now that I never even thought to think of before. The levels of strategy, skills and the like that reveal themselves to the dedicated player are endless. Little tiny cues that I used to have to actually process when given (my defender is shifting his weight, I can change direction now, or the thrower I'm marking is unbalanced-- he cannot recover from this fake and so forth, the defender has turned his head-- my man is open, and so on) now are just things I react to without consciously processing.

Anyway, looking forward to practice tomorrow.
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Workout total:
20 min stretching
20 min explosive strength
90 minutes throwing in Central Park

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Very Sore

From yesterday's workout.

Not surprising, but still... REALLY sore. I originally had a workout scheduled today, but work and ridiculous soreness got in the way. I'll just move the workout to Friday morning instead.

Pike's got practice this weekend, and I'm pretty pumped about it. It is time for the D team to stop letting the O team play poorly and win. If the D Team gets that same swagger in practice that we get in games, our team will be stronger for it. The lack of consistent practice attendance is killing us right now in specifically this sort of way, as it is difficult to determine what your team's attitude is when you have a different team every weekend.

Just another obstacle to overcome, and I have full confidence that we will.

We, quite simply, MUST.
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Workout Total:
20 min stretching

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Deck of Cards

Repeated the Deck of Cards workout from 3/15.

This time around, I had a goal. To get under 20 minutes for the whole deck. That's 8min, 9sec less than the first time around.

As I mentally prepared myself for the pain of the coming workout, all I could think about were things like getting Ds in big games, pushing through that hell point to help my D team score, and other thoughts of domination.

The other thing was that I had a goal and I like to reach my goals. What happened with this one? Well...

I FUCKING DID IT!

I turned in a 19:27!! I think I could have broken 19 if I had dialed in just a little bit more, but I didn't. All I know is that it is a phenomenal feeling to put out a goal for yourself, put in the work, and reach it. I love it.

This was a great workout. It let me know that my feelings about my fitness and levels of preparation are not just in my head. I am actually in better shape than I have been. I can't wait for Chicago, Sectionals, Regionals and Nationals. I'm unbelievably excited right now. We're coming up on the best part of the year in terms of weather and ultimate and nearly everything else...
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Workout Total:
20 min Circuit
20 min stretching

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To the Track!

Did some track work today.

I was excited to push through some longish distances (200s) as I've been missing that last10 yards of acceleration when tracking down deep shots. I also finally tracked down the distance of my runs to the track. I found out that it is a 1.8 mile run to get there. 1.8 miles in 15 minutes while doing intervals determined by stoplights is pretty solid, I think. Hard sprints followed by rest at the redlights. Good stuff. Also, the 1.8 mile walk back to the office to get my stuff before I go home is a great opportunity to stretch out the legs and calm down before I deal with people again. Also, keeping up a brisk pace on the walk with long strides is a great way to get ready for the stretching that is coming after the walk.As an aside, I also discovered that I walk at least 1.5 miles to/from work everyday. That probably helps me stay in shape on a somewhat minor level, but it is way better than commuting by car and the like.

Somewhat analogous to yesterday's entry on ultimate stuff, I also thought a bout what makes my workouts not suck:

iPod Shuffle
I need music when I run. This is because I don't like running.

Interval Watch
No specific link, but it needs to be able to do repeat intervals and intervals of various lengths. Otherwise it is a waste. I find that rest seconds go by so much faster when they are actually seconds as opposed to me counting to myself.

I'm feeling great about my fitness level. Especially knowing that the things I need to improve are already scheduled as a part of the plan.
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Workout Total:
15 minute interval run from office to track (rest/sprint times dependent upon whims of stoplight gods)
4x200 (1:15 rest between each) Times: 27, 27, 28, 26
8x100 (walk 100 for rest) 13s all the way through, focus on quick, powerful steps early for acceleration. Then ride out the speed with longer strides. Rest the walk back to the start line.
8x20 seconds on 10 seconds off of burpees.
30 minute walk back to office
20 minutes stretching

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My Favorite Ultimate-Related Crap

Unbelievably tired today.

I called off of work due to the aforementioned dehydration and the like. I would have been completely worthless at work. I did manage a low-level stretch/workout today, but nothing to major. I did, however, take a moment to think about some of the things that make tournaments better for me, personally:

Walkstool
This is a perfect tournament chair. Travels easily, comfortable and larger than you think. Very sturdy Swedish-made. As a fellow nordic-type, I feel comfortable recommending things from Sweden. This chair is pretty much awesome. Too bad I left mine behind after a 4th of July Hat Tourney at Edgely. All attempts to locate it failed miserably. The chairs are a little expensive (40 bucks? I don't recall.) but entirely worth it, so long as you don't lose yours.

Ultima Replenisher
Completely dopey website, but a perfect drink for me while playing a tournament. No sugar, plenty of good-for-you vitamins, minerals, salt and the like. Maybe a little pricier than Gatorade (I don't know since I don't drink the stuff) but wholly worth it. Also, a great hangover recovery beverage.

Cleat Dryer
As mentioned before, dry cleats are better than wet cleats. Hands down.

New Balance Cleats
These cleats are phenomenal. And available in widths. I can't put to words how much of a difference getting a pair of great cleats that actually fit my feet has made. Unbelievable. I can cut without pain, play without damaging the bones in my feet, and actually move quickly on the field.

Thorlo Socks
Tons of cushioning, moisture wicking socks. I switched to these 5 years ago and have never looked back. I'm told they have thin socks too, but who wants that?

Under Armour HeatGear
Everyone asks me if I'm hot when I wear these during the summer, but I'm not. It keeps the sun from bearing down directly on my skin, it keeps me cool by helping the sweat evaporate, and it minimizes the number of open wounds I have at the end of a tournament. All good things.

Patagonia MLC (All the way down on the right)
This bag is the perfect size for ultimate-related (and other) travel. Two pairs of cleats, all jerseys and the like, other clothes and assorted accoutrement (like the Walkstool above) all fit into the bag. It fits into the overhead carry-on compartment. Perfect. Back when we had the extra-sweet deal from Patagonia (now we're down the regular deal) I picked this one up and it has paid off. No wheels, but that's for pansies. Who carries enough heavy stuff to ultimate tourneys to need wheels?

Dry Hands
This, interestingly, keeps your hands dry. I don't find rain to be much of an issue int he first place, but those days when I can't stop sweating, my grip is a little off. So, beforehand, I put this on. Problem solved.

Dr. Bronner's Soap
Liquid Soap. Great for traveling/camping. I prefer the peppermint variety because it really wakes me up in the morning while stretching in the shower on gameday.

Tiger Balm
On those rare occasions when my body isn't cooperating, the unique smell of Tiger Balm fills the air. I don't question it. I just know that it helps loosen my muscles up when I need it. I've also had at least one teammate who swore by rubbing some just under his nose to "tiger himself up." He felt that it woke him up when he wasn't quite in the game. I bet it did...

Neutrogena sunscreen
Works all day for me. Put it on just before warmups, don't worry about the sun for the rest of the day. Looks girly, works like a charm. I only get burnt when I forget to put it on, or use some other sunscreen that I expect to work as well.

Endurox
Recovery drink. This stuff just works. End of story.
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Workout Total:
30 minutes full active/dynamic warmups
10 minutes wobble board
20 minutes stretching

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And Then the Evening Hit

After we finished off Burgh, there was beer to be had.

I managed to get a ride home with Min from Ambush (Thanks Min!) who was still playing, and due to the aforementioned lightning, there was more than enough beer left at the fields for everyone. This was a joyous discovery.

Tangent the First (aka the Lightning Tangent):
Lightning is awesome. When I'm on vacation with the family in North Carolina (Outer Banks, Bitches!) one of my favorite experiences is always to sit on the deck overlooking the ocean and watch the storms out on the sea. The lightning strikes are incredible and ever-present. There's something about the power, speed and, well, light that completely mesmerize me. There's a chance that my eventual death will be caused by sitting in a rainstorm marveling at the lightning strikes all around me until one decides to strike me down. And when it does, "I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine." Or at least that's one ending.

Tangent the Second (aka the Beer Tangent):
Beer, much like lightning, is also awesome. I don't mean in terms of getting hammered (Please Drink Responsibly!) and all that, but after a hot day of ultimate, there's little in the world I want more than a nice cold beer or two. Say what you will about the health effects of downing a beer right after you play, but sometimes you gotta follow whatever makes you happy. Beer after playing makes me happy.

Now, back to the afternoon at hand. I picked up some beer from the kegs and meandered over to watch Ambush. In the process, I ran into a bunch of people in the ultimate world that I haven't seen in a while (which is bound to happen) including heads from Kaimana. I love being reminded of that tournament. Sat down to watch some ultimate and talk about Taxidermy (!) while enjoying the Remains of the Day. No, not the book itself. I just love the phrase. And the book. But I wasn't reading the book at the tournament.

Now that we've put that behind us, we got ready to get home. Ended up stopping at a burrito joint, which was pretty good, really and discovering Julie completely forgot her stuff. Not at all surprising. We sent out a search party to find it consisting of Julie and someone else (I'm completely blanking on who) who returned triumphantly in ~30 minutes.

As the ride continues, I start getting really warm in the car. Unbearably warm. And thirsty. I drink all of the remaining water, and suddenly I'm cold. This is not at all a good sign. I alos feel like I'm going to vomit. I know that I won't (I'm fervently anti-vomit) but I still feel not-so-good. I know that what I need (my body can feel it) is water and to lay down somewhere cool and quiet. I also know that we're close enough to being home that I don't need to require anything crazy of the car/driver. That being said, I feel awful.

Julie thinks it might be food poisoning. I don't know since I've never had that particular issue. I'm sure it is exhaustion/dehydration setting in on some level. I've never really been one o pace myself while playing. This leads to humorous things like me passing the hell out after most ultimate tournaments and not-so-fun things like the end of this particular car ride.

When we got home, I drank water and laid down. I felt better, but not good. The AC was nice to feel. I fell asleep soon rather than stay up and deal with feeling awful. When I woke up in the morning, I was still out of sorts. I even called in to work to let them know that I would be unable to make it in until at least the afternoon. I had breakfast and kept drinking water (both helped).

Eventually, I felt good, but still strange. After speaking with my mother (a doctor) we both agreed that it was exhaustion (mentally/physically) and dehydration (I did drink a ton over the weekend, but by the last game I didn't and then I had beer) combined into one fun evening/morning of headaches and general related unpleasantries. Not good times at all.

We all pay the price for playing this stupid game all day in the hot sun. Some of us cramp, some of us have traumatic injuries, some of us have a horrible car ride home. This was the debt I had to pay for playing as much as I did at Chesapeake. Whether it is worth it or not, I don't know, but I do know that I'd make the decision again in a heartbeat.

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Chesapeake, Day 2

Woke up easily at 6:45 this morning.

Got in the full morning ritual of stretching while taking a hot shower and catching some Sportscenter. Those three things are the constants with which I start my tournament mornings. No matter where I am, it gives me a center. The first two give me some time to focus before the day really gets going (waking up teammates and figuring out where to eat and finding the directions to the fields and all of that) and I have yet to have a teammates complain about Sportscenter in the morning while getting up. Sure, I can definitely start the day without these things with little to no deleterious effect, but y'know what? I like it better when I start the day on my terms. The start of the day goes from "pretty nice" to "awesome" in such a short time.

This morning I was lucky enough to find some mystery bruises on both quads. That's always fun. These are one of the ways that playing ultimate is like a night of drinking. You wake up sore and discover that you have unexplained injuries. Well, at least at first. Soon enough, you can replay the tournament/night and recollect vaguely when these things were likely to have occurred. This morning, however, I was entirely unable to determine from whence the bruises came. I wondered for a second if we had stayed at the bar with some of Ambush (Yet another out-of-date ultimate site) until someone did something dumb and I joined in. If so, I must not remember it. It must have happened while playing. That's good, I think.

Apparently, even with the much-ballyhooed snoring of one of the Dans, I was the big winner at night. At least according to my brother. We'll assume for now that he's trustworthy enough to make that call. We gathered our belongings and waited for Dan Yi, who apparently folds all of his clothes at ultimate tournaments. Or, to borrow Jamie's words, Dan "Packs like a Woman."

We roll down to the Einstein Bagel place where I am roundly mocked for suggesting that it will be packed. Well, as it turns out, it was packed. But not until after we had ordered and started eating. We're apparently trendsetters. I did break down and go to Starbucks about 300 feet away to get my coffee because when I can, I like to get really good coffee. I'm just a snob like that. Before we can get to the fields, we stop at a supermarket to get ice and the the like. I knew we were going to be late (Dan's girl-packing set us back) but I also knew that stopping there for ice and such would pay big dividends again. Speaking of big dividends, the cleat dryers were clutch for day two. After sweating buckets into them for a full day, they were perfectly dry and non-stinky on day two.

Once we got to the fields, it was patently obvious that we were late. Shoot. When this happens, I feel like a heel, but I know I'll still be ready for game time. The problem is that I'm supposed to lead warmups for Pike 07 and now I know that I'm letting my teammates down. That sucks. Get in my abbreviated warmup and then jump into our drills. I'm feeling pretty damn good for day 2 of a ridiculously hot tournament...

vs Madcow, 12-15
We come out on D and immediately go up two breaks. We have the disc after a third turnover and completely fail to capitalize (some terribly high degree of difficulty shot is taken here) and as such, hand the keys back to the O team up 2-1. The next thing that I remember is thinking, "Wow, it has been a long time since I played." At this point, I think the score is 2-3 with Madcow winning. The D team comes in and scores on O to make it 3-3. After this point, I think the D team only generated one more goal (2 maybe?) and the O team gave up a couple more breaks over the course of the rest of the game. That's not good ultimate. I had the misfortune of matching up on Pallaver early in the game after I tried to no avail to explain to my teammates that he would be cutting downfield. Not a terrible matchup for me, but not exactly to my advantage either. This game was a contentious early on as there were a number of strip calls on our part that Madcow did not agree with. I didn't really have a good view of any of them, so whatever. Pulls were good.

vs New Noise, 15-7
Well, we came out hot and stayed that way. I had a couple of dumb turnovers in this one, precipitated in large part by ex-Skidmore ex-Metal Micah playing a particular type of poachy D. I turned it around in the second half though and took advantage of those same defensive decisions and turned them into goals. This game was a little testy, especially after a ridiculous D by Spanish that came back on a strip or foul or something. Anyway, we notch our first win on the weekend (how depressing that it came in consolation) pretty handily. Pulls were pretty good. Our O got broken either zero or once in this one.

vs Burgh, 15-10
We traded for the first 4 or 5 in this one, then the D got a break or two right before half, followed by a break or two just out of half. They were connecting on covered hucks for most of the game, which was frustrating to watch. I don't think our O got broken in this game. My pulls were a little too linear in this game. That is, they were going the distance, but they were also getting down waaaay too fast. Just have to dial that in late in the day at Chicago to see where I"ll be at for the series. Also, I won't be pulling quite as often once Tim's back in the lineup full-health.

2-5 is a pretty awful tournament record. I mean, we did poorly here last year too (also 2-5) so maybe us Jersey Boys just ain't built for the heat, who knows. Actually now that I look at the Score Reporter from 06, the only difference on the first day (06 v 07) is that we lost to Clapham instead of Chain in pool play. We have a ton of stuff to work on as a team, but I won't get too into that here.

Personally, (and that's what this blog is about) I actually had a solid, if unspectacular weekend. I got some Ds, marked well, rarely let me guy get the disc in useful positions and even during the half where I threw 3 TOs, I didn't make terrible decisions, I just made them too slowly or didn't accurately anticipate what would happen next. Pulling was good, but it can be better. The legs felt great all weekend, and I stayed positive, on the whole. I think I even caught a handful of goals (Including one on a pull play when I was in on O. That was pretty sweet.). Some of the negatives were that sometimes I got too dialed in on handler-movement and the like at the expense of looking downfield which did not help our D's O and that once or twice I had complete positional lapses when covering guys downfield, even though most of the cutters didn't recognize/take advantage. I could also, verbally and on-the-field take a little more charge of the D team's O when we're having difficulties.

Anyway, the weekend sucked, but I think that we learned about the team and I know I learned about myself as a player, so it wasn't a complete loss.

Practice this weekend, Chicago next weekend.

And, possibly more importantly, the NFL season is nearly upon us!
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Workout Total:
3 Games of Ultimate

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Damn. That Lightning Was Crazy!

Up at 4am to start it off.

Not sure why exactly I keep doing this "get up early and drive to tournaments" thing, but I do, nonetheless. This time it is Jamie, Dan Yi and "Spanish" driving down from Emmaus, PA to the Chesapeake Open. The trip supposedly takes 3.5 hours. Last year, I think Jamie and I did it in 3. This year, we got off to a good start and, as always, had some good driving music (Kings of Leon are easily at the top of the list right now).

The three of them were in various stages of sleep for most of the trip. Which is exactly what I expected and wanted, both for their well-being and for mine. They would get more sleep (even if it is of dubious quality) and I would get time to think. This is why I always like driving the first leg of an early AM drive. That whole American Dream of an open road and a full tank of gas still grips me to this day. Never mind that we were driving a large minivan (yup, "large mini") instead of a "very fast car with no top." As the trip continues, the scenery changes, the light gets stronger, and I'm still smiling. My mind is all over the place on the drive from ultimate to life to news to whatever. The Silence of the Morning, so to speak.

As the drive continued, we rolled through Gettysburg and got onto smaller and smaller roads. Eventually, we ended up stopping at some crazy market/trucker experience a little before the fields to unsuccessfully procure food. This is in part because I was out of it and didn't realize that they sold sandwiches (I'm an idiot) and partly because the three passengers didn't feel the need to tell me that they sold sandwiches after I left the place to stand out next to the van. We did, however, get Ice and Water. This was a money decision. No other way to put it.

Anyway, we get to the fields and warm up and all of that and get into the games:

vs Clapham, 9-13
I don't think it was as close as the score indicated. Especially since the Ribbit-men were up 7-2 at half. Ouch. Our defense was porous and our offense was groggy enough that the D didn't get enough points to get into a rhythm. This game also had the most turnovers I've ever thrown in a single game with Pike. Either 4 or 5, I can't recall now. A misunderstood eye-contact throw, a swing pass that was faster than the receiver, some other piece of crap, a second throw turnover (also an eye-contact misunderstanding) off of the pull (yes, we were so bad that D players were both playing O *and* called in the plays...) and something else that sucked. Three of them were in the first half. Ouch. The worst part? My astronomical number of turnovers were NOT what killed the team. Yow. I did play some pretty good defense, including at least one sweet block and a bunch of irritating marks.

vs BAT, 11-13
This never really felt close either, even though I know it was close for a good part of the second half. We, once again, started off like straight asscrack and slowly picked it up. For the record, Ricky is still no fun to cover and Colin is still a baller. Personally, my pulls really started picking up in this game and, while I was too tired to keep notes, I remember playing well overall. That being said, I also managed to pull my first OB pulls of the tourney in this game. The worst part? They were the last two times the D was on the field. I was definitely guilty of trying to do too much with each pull. Frustration can affect us in a myriad of ways.

vs GOAT, 9-13
This game started off with one of my teammates telling me to cover one of their "handlers" who actually turned out to be their main lane cutter for that point. Not only that, but he was about 6-8 inches taller than me with long arms. All I could hear from their sideline (the sideline on which he was cutting) was "Take that guy deep! You're so much taller than him!" which is emblematic of the way I perceive GOAT as a team. They will throw to matchups when it is favorable and they will put up unexpected deep throws to the breakside. I wanted to rise to the challenge, but the cut never came. Historically, we've had some battles with these guys, but this was not at all like that. Pulls felt great in this game. I think I had a couple nice deep looks in this one, but the hazy memory through the ridiculous heat may be messing with me. Oh, I also threw the deepest OI bladish pull I've ever thrown in this game. I was behind the line by a step or two (working on not going "Over the Line," Smokey-Style) and I launched this thing waaaay out to my left. Not only did it stay up forever, but it also sailed all the way out the back of the endzone and into the foot of the woods behind the field. I was shocked, but at the same time, I knew as soon as I released it that it was pretty much a perfect transfer of energy to the disc. Take what positives you can, y'know?

vs Ring, 7-13
Well, this game started off well. We may have even gotten a break right out of the gate. At half, I think we were down at half 5-7. The second half did not go nearly as well. In fact, it was just depressing. The pulls were good and I don't think I had a turnover in this one (or the Goat game, for that matter, but I could be wrong about both) and had some good matchups against Tuba and Hinkle. The more I play these guys, the more patterns emerge. Not systemic patterns as much as individual patterns. That's kinda the game they play though.

All in all? It was a spectacularly craptacular day. I stayed in a positive mood for *most* of it and after I personally shat the bed in the first half of the opener, I picked up my play significantly. Oddly, I felt the best in the Ring game. I guess Regional Rivals will do that to you, no matter the heat.

We had a little team meeting after the last game, which I felt was a really positive experience. It is always good to hear how your teammates are feeling at the end of a trying day. We addressed to some deeper issues with the team and I feel that we made some mental progress. Before you ask, no details will be forthcoming.

After our games ended there was much debate about dinner and the like, and we eventually decided to go for the free beer and 5 dollar pork at the other fields. Pork and beer were both good. The ridiculous lightning display was mixed. It was awesome. Both in terms of incredibly cool and really scary. After we got chased away from the fields by the storm, we left for the hotel to clean up and then go out for more food. Passed out soon enough (11pm?) to get ready for Day 2.
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Workout Total:
4 games of ultimate in 95 degree heat.

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Workout/Film

Well, that's pretty much it.

Workout was explosive lower body stuff and a mix of explosive/interval upper body stuff. Finished it up with Tabata (8x20sec on/10sec off) Burpees. I did a better job counting this time. The first two sets were 8 each, the next 4 were 6 each and the last two were about 5.5. I find that the quality of my burpees is significantly increased if I have something to jump up and touch. It forces me to explode out of each jump instead of doing it half-heartedly.

Speaking of burpees, here's some crazy stuff. I've tried a handful of those out, and they pretty much rock. It illustrates that you don't need to own or purchase anything to workout like a champ. Just think of something reasonably full-body/ROM and do it. If it is too easy, change it. Keep altering and training. You can make a workout of anything. We all have enough time and space to take care of ourselves. Why then, are there things like this or this? Well, laziness and poor eating habits start it off, but the biggest thing, in my opinion, is that people are looking for excuses. Gyms, diet foods and the like simply provide easy excuses for us. Things like "I can't afford a gym" or "I won't workout because I ate my 100 calories of wheatthins instead of half a box" or whatever.

We're missing the bigger picture. A "good life" (I know that's a subjective term) involves more than just one aspect of health. Mental, physical, emotional, intellectual, et al are all components of enjoying life. We tend to be so focused on the little details or distracted by the marketing of the American Dream that we lose sight of the ability to craft our lives into whatever we want them to be.

I know I'm getting soap-boxy here, and I'm on a tangent, but, to say it again, this is my blog. I'll say what I want. (I do love making that point) I feel that there are so many paths to live a rewarding life and if you completely neglect any of them, you'll be left out in the cold wondering why everyone else smiles so much more than you.

End Psuedo-Soapbox-Rant.
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Workout Total:
30 min lower body explosive
15 minute upper/full body mix

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Chesapeake a Comin'

Now I'm starting to get more excited.

The last hurdle to my undivided attention was removed this evening.

That's right, the NYU Alums+ had the annual fantasy football draft last night. I'm not entirely sure who's on my team yet, but highlights of the evening included one owner forgetting the draft entirely, Jamie calling in his picks while getting yelled at at work, a number of classic homer picks, some actually asking the question "Who's the best kicker left?" before the last two rounds and much general tomfoolery (possibly some ballyhoo as well).

It was a fun time. Had to do a quick AM workout to avoid another complete day of rest (which would be a bit gratuitous at this point) while not doing anything too crazy. Just did 1 Tabatas each of pushups, squats and burpees as well as some wobble board work. I'm feeling pretty good in the muscular endurance realm. The number of pushups completed was over 20 for the first 4 (of 8) reps, squats was over 23 each time. Burpees... well, I kept losing count. I'm not sure why exactly, but I'm never able to count properly while doing them. To paraphrase Raoul Duke, "I was pouring sweat. My blood is too thick for [Burpees]. I've never been able to properly explain myself..." (If you want to find the exact quote after following that link, search for the word "properly" in that script. It only appears once). I'm feeling pretty good about those numbers, but I know I can do better on the pushups. I think that will have to wait until after the club season to really get some work in on upper-body endurance.

Anyway, looking forward. Chesapeake, Chicago, Sectionals, Regionals, Nationals. Not that long left. The best part of the season started a couple of weeks ago (Colorado, by my count) and rides through Nationals. We actually start to see full teams and nearly-full teams. Strategies become more solidified. Roles become defined. Nothing is definitely good or bad, but results begin to carry weight in addition to the experience you gain. Everything before this was exhibition. Now we're in the preseason. Sectionals/Regionals is the season proper and Nationals is the playoffs.

That sets it up a number of ways, mentally. The exhibition season is just that. Sure, you use it for tryouts and all us competitive folk still play for the Ws, but no one cares by Monday morning. Once we get to the preseason, training camp is through and teams are making "internal cuts." That is, you can be on the roster, but that doesn't mean you play a large role. These are the tournaments when that really gets sorted out.

Once the season roles around, we know our roles and our strategies and our teammates, but we've never really put it all together, full force playing-for-keeps style yet. It is always at sectionals, while still a joke for most teams, that the high-level teams begin to prove it. Sectionals is where, if you play summer league, you'll be likely to see some league players who don't really know what the big difference between "club ultimate" and "summer league ultimate" is. That is, until they match up on those same club players that they covered effectively in summer league only to learn that resistance is futile. A club player surrounded by his teammates is 1000x more difficult to cover than he is in summer league. This is something that I have always been entertained to hear people ask: "Why is so-and-so on [Team X]? He doesn't seem that good to me." Because there's more to it than that. That's the best I can say.

And then the Playoffs. If you have not been to Nationals, you have not played high-level club ultimate. There, you get the very best of each of the very best teams in North America in every round. Every point is played at the highest level possible. Oh yeah, and its in Florida in October. I love it and I need to get back.

The experience is absolutely worth the effort.
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Workout Total:
12 min Interval
10 min Wobble Board

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Frank

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly?

Not really. Just the good and the bad. Frank got some crazy ideas, but he's not as mad a everyone thinks, he just doesn't seem to deal with people well.

Here's what it all breaks down to with me:

His *ideas* have more merit than most want to admit. I agree, specifically, with the notion that we should all be able to throw with both hands. Possibly not at the same high level with your non-dominant hand, but still. For those of you who have broken your throwing hand, you know that it isn't that hard to become serviceable with your off-hand in a season. Take a period of a year or two and you can become dangerous with both hands. I do not understand why more people don't agree with this.

Also, the idea of emphasizing the give-go and the various extensions of the triangle offense within ultimate is a worthwhile concept. There are similarities between basketball and ultimate. Certainly not a 1 to 1 correspondence, but there are enough similarities that the strategies are related to each other. We've all experienced covering/being that handler who never has the disc more than 1-2 seconds at a clip and never stops moving. Irritating as hell, right? Well, imagine that being the whole basis of the offense. Irritating as hell. All Game Long. And no, the defenses that we currently use will be unable to consistently stop this sort of movement. Then again, the defenses that we use today are unable to consistently stop high-level offenses anyway.

There's the issue. Right there. See it? Frank doesn't seem to accept that ultimate is a sport (despite his complaints about the rules, which always sound, to me, like someone looking over the rules to Bridge and complaining that it isn't more like Magic: The Gathering). As such, the prevailing strategies in sports are determined by the winners. You can complain about elite teams all you want, but until you beat them, they have no reason to take note of you or your ideas. No incentive other than common courtesy and curiosity. That's the deal. Not that it isn't a raw deal, but that it is still the deal.

The other logical gap that Frank moves past via ignoring is that one strategy cannot be optimal for all defenses and conditions. Teams will build a defense against your chosen offense designed to take you out of your comfort zone. At this point, you'll need to mix your strategies. This is something that his view never truly seems to allow for.

To summarize: I agree that an increase in base-level skill is needed (including, but not limited to throwing with your non-dominant hand). I also agree that many teams hold the disc too long and fail to utilize the types of strategies and moves that Frank prefers.

If he could just stop being so over-the-top and 100% sure that he is 100% correct, perhaps he'd better communicate his ideas. The problem is in presentation and extremism. There should be more of his-style of ultimate, but that should not be the only style. There should be huge hucks and lane cuts too, but that should not be the only style. There isn't one right way or wrong way to play and when the argument is couched in black and white terms like that, Frank's side loses every single time. There is no evidence that the offense will work against a good defense. Until he convinces someone to take him on as a coach/coordinator/something, it'll stay that way. Either that or some rogue team taking his ideas and adapting them as needed while taking the ultimate world by storm.

Barring either of those? He's just an interesting footnote in "Ultimate: The Next Couple of Years" (the obvious follow-up to Ultimate: The First Four Decades).
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Workout Plan:
30 min Explosive Strength
10 min Interval

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The Weekend was Hard on Me

Not to get too into the details...

...because then I'll just be a whiny little bitch, but the combination of both traveling and playing a ton this weekend was pretty rough. It left me with some sore muscles for once (my arm was worn out after Saturday and then pushed to about a limit on Sunday) and a couple of occasionally recurring injuries to my feet. Nothing a couple of days without cleats won't fix. Although, I'll be sure to get my boots back on for a field session or two before Chesapeake this weekend.

Speaking of which, the schedule is apparently up. I can't really quibble with our bottom-of-the-pool seeding, and even if I could, who cares? I just want good non-intra-team competition! Clapham should be a good way to warm up. We last played at Boston back in 04 or 05. Nice to play good teams that you don't have an established relationship with. Without preconceptions of "how a game will play out" you are often afforded a glimpse into the actual attitude/talent level of your team. We always seems to have close games with Goat, no matter who is having an up or down year. Similar with BAT . At least as far as I can remember (exception: Last year at this very tournament). Finishing straight through with Ring in round 4 should be fun. I haven't seen them all year and don't know what to expect from them in 07.

Last year at Chesapeake, we got pasted to the tune of 0-4 on the first day and 2-1 on the second. I expect much better things this year. I don't know exactly how or why, just that my confidence level with Pike v.2.007 is much higher than Pike v.2.006 at this point in the season. That makes me happy. Same with my level of confidence in my own abilities as a player and comfort with the role that I play on my team.

That last thing is very interesting to me. As I've progressed in ultimate (Roughly: Best freshman -> 3 years of college captaining w/o knowing anything -> bench on Pike -> starting cutter on O w/ Pike -> starter handler on D w/ Pike -> ???) has been very informative in terms of learning my own preferences and tendencies on the field and as a teammate. I've been increasingly happy at each stop thus far. I wonder what can top this role? What's next? That's a thought for November, not for August. I will return to it.

For now, I'll note that I'm still really sore this afternoon and will be sure to take a brisk walk after work to stretch the muscles out and then do a short/moderate intensity/low-impact bodyweight workout. Just to keep the muscles active and get through full ranges of motion of major joints. Yoga will be included.

I will then follow it up with Madden!
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Planned Workout:
20 min walk around the city (rain be damned!)
20 min stretching/yoga
10-15 min bodyweight strength workout

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Practice

It rained for practice today.

Yay? I'm not sure. Attendance was far from perfect, and, for the most part, all those who were in attendance had played in Summer League Finals yesterday (PADA/Wudi) and/or today (PADA) and were unreasonably whiny.

I did myself a favor this morning and started stretching as soon as I got out of bed. It improved my practice experience by a ton. I stretched for about 30 minutes this morning and then did some stretching in the evening as well.

We played 3 scrimmages, and we (the d-team) lost each. I can't remember what this puts my record at, so I'll just start over at 0-3. That kinda stunk. We had crazy drops int he rain, including one that I dropped well after I caught it. All that I could think was "Well, that never happened before so it won't happen again" and move on.

My throws/pulls felt really solid in the rain/wind/cold, which was a good sign. I think a good goal for me will be to make sure I get out and throw in "conditions" as the series approaches. It helps remove the adjustment period (however brief) when I play in non-optimal weather. This weekend's finals and practice were all in either wind or wind and rain. I love that weather. It separates the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

The other thing is that the errors that are occurring now are the sort that just require more team-level familiarity. This is a good thing. There will be no more turnover in the roster now, so we can just learn to play together. Fine-tune the split-second decisions. We've got the basic concepts and forms down, now we've got to work on our improvisational skills.
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Workout Total:
3 hours ultimate
30 min stretching x2

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Summer League Finals

In the end, we weren't good enough...

But it was a blast nonetheless.

Pregame: Got up to drop by Johnny L's this morning, only to discover that Johnny has found this website and now wants to know what "Pike" is. I didn't anticipate that! Regardless, the ham egg n swiss breakfast sandwich was perfect as usual.

Eventually got the fields with Jimmy in time for a good, though not exhaustively complete, warmup. Got a *ton* of throws (blade after blade!) in with the wind, and felt great for game time.

First Game v Purple, 15-9
This game was in the bag from jump street. I think we were up 6-0 before Purple realized what was happening. They tried zone and man and everything in between on us, but really had no shot. The team stayed positive and kept on cutting hard in man, and kept sitting in the soft spots in their zones. They made a predictable second half comeback to keep it close. I think I threw ~10 goals in this one as there was a significant wind for this whole game. This puts me at a huge advantage in summer league. Why? Well, the defense plays like the wind is overbearing, but it isn't. At all. This leaves players open everywhere. This might have been the best summer league game I played all season.

Second Game v Black, 15-13
This game sucked. We played 7 on 6 the whole time and kept getting scored on. It was a sign of bad things to come, but I didn't take it as that. I just played passive O (Get their best defender out of the play!) and solid D. Evan took me deep twice (one he skied me hands down, another he caught .3 seconds after I D'ed) and some other guy (Micheal?) skied me as I got my fingers on the disc too. He was also tall. This game sucked both because we didn't do a good job taking advantage of our extra player (who works on that???) and because 7v6 ultimate is no fun at all. The other team should have just forfeited so we didn't have to play. I mean... really. Who is that game fun for? In playoffs? C'mon.

MVP Presentation
They lined up all of the still-present MVP candidates and took pictures. Yes, I was nominated from my team. As for my predictions, Will Reed did win the Open MVP, but Tucker did not win the Coed MVP. That honor went to Seth "But I look so innocent!" Cannetti. The darkhorse candidate!

Finals v Moss, 10?-15
I played slightly above average in this game. Our downfall was the depth of their men. They had enough good men that I couldn't poach to help that much and the remaining men were matched up well to run the offense without whomever I was guarding. Frustrating. I did ahve a couple of nice deep grabs in this game. One I had a better read on than Ramsey did and got to the spot first to box out, the other I just went up excessively early because a really tall guy was on me. That was a pretty sweet feeling, to go up knowing that the 6'2" (taller?) guy guarding you hasn't jumped yet and come down with the disc in your hands as he says something to the effect of "Shit..." I've got to relish in it, because with the amount of time I've spent handler of late, I haven't gotten the opportunity very often. If we were going to win this game, we would have needed to either A) Find Success in Zone D B) Throw deep to me more often because our dudes were really tired C) Have wasted less energy on beating the team with 6 players

Anyway, the day was great fun, our team stayed positive, and despite dragging our a 7v6 game far too long and eventually losing in the finals, there is no other team I would have wanted to play for. All kidding aside, Julie is one of the best summer league captains in the biz. I'd put her up against the SL captains round the country.

Pike Practice tomorrow. I bet my arm will be sore.
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Workout Total:
6 hours of ultimate

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Predictions

For Summer League

1. Rebecca Tucker (Deceptisomethings!) wins Coed MVP.
2. My team faces hers in the final.
3. Will "Trash" Reed wins Open MVP.
4. Who knows what happens in the open final.

It should be a fun time. I think the biggest lesson I learned about my summer league team is that we play better when we're having fun. It seems obvious, but it is vital to our success. It can be tough in this particular league full of people who are constantly on the verge of fighting over any perceived sleight.

I, personally, have no problem getting into it with people when they start the argument, as my play isn't really affected, but I've discovered that when I do that while I'm playing with this summer league team, I negatively impact my teammates. Which is never good.

Anyway, tomorrow should be fun!
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Workout Total:
10 Min Balance Board
10 Min Core

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Rest it up.

After the, uh, festivities after the final Regular Season Summer League Game, I decided to rest today.

My feet were also in big-pain territory as the whole "not wearing cleats for two weeks" thing caught up to me a bit. Doing workouts when your feet hurt are terrible. I did get a handful of core work in though, just to leave my total-rest day before a weekend of ultimate (Finals and Pike practice) until Friday.

Of other note, I've been reading Everything and More, by David Foster Wallace. It's about the history of how math deals with the notion of infinity. It gets into calculus and set theory and all of that, which I'm getting a kick out of. His writing style is still unique and somewhat abrasive. Sometimes he gets too much in his own way and obscures the matter at hand. I still enjoy it though. I think I'll be looking into more books that cover this sort of thing. Books that, while they don't shy away from technical explanations, also weave them into actual words and text that give context/history.

So, if anyone can recommend some good "History of Math" type books (specifically for a guy who got through Calc 2 and is willing to write out examples on scrap paper so that I understand what's going on), let me know!
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Workout total:
12 minutes core/upper body work

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Finish it on a down note!

That's right, we lost our last regular season summer league game.

9-14 to Dark Green. Kinda unbelievable in the way that we lost too. One guy on their team (Jon Palmer?) scored well over half of their points by essentially standing in the endzone and asking for a jump ball. Which his teammates would inevitably throw because, well, the guy is 6'3" and can jump and catch. When I was covering him, it almost comical. The very first point that they scored on us (to put the game at 1-1) was a perfect example of it. As I went to jump, I realized that he was already in the air and just gave him an extra boost. I mean, I play pretty good defense, but this guy's got 6 inches on me. Even my extra-long monkey-arms can't make up that much if the player I'm matched up against is smart and aggressive, which he was. After that first one, I would consistently get my fingers on the disc just after he caught it, but that just ain't good enough.

The other thing that was killing our team was a terrible case of the dropsies. It was strange because our receivers would come down with some fantastic catches for goals and then everyone would drop wide open passes in the rest of the field. This was particularly irritating as the other team tended to play zone D against us in no wind. I handled a lot and threw many things into the open dead space downfield that hit receivers in the chest with no defender within 3-4 yards only to have him/her gack it. So strange.

I played well overall, aside from letting that tall guy sky me repeatedly, as my throws were on the money all night. this was a welcome change from Monday night's game when it seemed like I had never throw before in my life.
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Workout Total:
90 minutes ultimate

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Damnit.

Got an email from Zac today.

Yes, he of the ankle injury from Monday's SL game. As it turns out, even without significant contact, he managed to break his ankle. Something about the ligament being strong enough to shred the talus.

Fuck me. Sometimes your brain knows it wasn't your fault but you continue to feel shitty about it anyway.

I repeat: What an awful game.

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OWWWWwwww

I got up this morning and fell out of bed.

As it turns out, my hip is far more painful than I expected. I can feel exactly where the swelling is, and while I can definitely move on it, it came as a total shock when it hurt this morning. Time to start massaging that pain right out... I'm not looking forward to it, but I know i'll be fine, which is good.

Apparently, Heng-Scheng had a similar experience when he tried to get out of bed this morning. He's decided to see a doctor about it though as his injury seems a bit more severe. He told me not to feel bad about it, which was very considerate, but still... I don't want to injure anyone in summer league, let alone a club teammate.

This afternoon, I did a "track" workout, which was more of a field workout. It consisted of 8 sets of suicides of the 0-15-0-25-0-40-0-40 variety with 1min 45 sec rest between each. Times were: 33, 35, 33, 33, 37, 33, 32, 35. The 37 involved me choosing not to kill a kid as his father kicked a soccer ball into my path. Fucker. It's one thing if the kid does it, but the dad should know better. It was tough to do it in sneakers instead of cleats, but I didn't have cleats with me, so it had to do.

I followed that up with a 4x20 pushups with a rest of how long it took me to do the previous set (19, 19, 22, 30) and then 1min rest followed by 4x10 clap pushups with the same style rest (15, 15, 15, 25).

Good workout, overall. The hip held up, but I know I'll be a bit sore tomorrow.
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Workout total:
30 min track
5 minute upper body strength

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What an Awful Game

In the list of top two worst summer league games in 2007, this could occupy either spot.

The short of it is that we lost 8-10 to Red in a game that would have been very useful to win.

The long of it is that not only did I complete zero hucks (while attempting more than zero) but I also injured 2 guys from Red on unrelated and completely clean plays. Worse than that, on the first play I injured Heng-Scheng (a Pike teammates) and on the second, I injured Zac Roy (fellow NYU alum).

The first play, I was playing short deep in the zone, and I read the thrower perfectly as the disc was about to be realeased, I started my move toward the space it was headed into. I took a couple more steps, accelerated and laid out at about shoulder height to get my fingers on the disc. Just after I got my fingers on the disc, I felt a seriously powerful collision. I felt the contact on my hip and realized that Heng-Scheng had been coming from my blind spot to make a play on the disc. As we both hit the ground, I was aware of a bunch of pain in my hip, so I stayed down for a bit to check myself out.

Once I realized that I was okay, I also realized that Heng-Scheng was not. Apparently, my hip made significant contact with his quad. He was in much more pain. It didn't seem like anyone else was going to help him (or me for that matter) so I got up and calmed him down a bit before we figured out exactly what was wrong. The bet at this point is that it is just gonna be a nasty-ass bruise.

Later in the game, a pretty terrible huck went up to me on a broken pull-play with Zac covering me. Zac, being 3-4 inches taller than me, has a serious advantage when we're both stationary under the disc, so I did my best to box him out and not give him space to jump. I thought I had him, but he went up anyway, and righteously skied me. The problem, however, is that when you jump high, you have to come down at some point. When he came down, he landed on some part of me or something and twisted his ankle. I didn't even know what to do at this point. I just wanted the game to be over so that no one else got hurt.

The game plays tricks with your mind sometimes. I know that neither is my fault, but they still made me tentative. It also made me a big ball of negativity which did not help my team or engender me to the players on the other team with whom I had no prior relationship. Ah well. Just another experience from which to learn.

One more game on Wednesday to determine our postseason seeding, and then playoffs on Saturday.

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Ex-Vacation

Vacation is over.

BOOOO!

Ultimate is back.

YAAAAY!

I'll get back to posting on a pretty much daily basis in the coming days. To that end, I figured this is as good an event in space-time as any to explain some of the process that I go through for this shit-can blog.

As you've undoubtedly noticed, I try to write everyday. As I'm sure you've also noticed, I don't necessarily post every day. This is because I actually have a job and a semi-charmed/so-called life and shit. Okay, that was probably the worst pair of references I've made thus far on the blog, but I've got chances to one-up them yet. If you really want the awful references/puns, you'll just have to listen to me in person.

Anyway, the way it works is that every day I at least jot a couple of thoughts down either in the blogger interface or on a good old-fashioned pen and paper interface that I keep in my bag. I try to just type an entry, but time is a bastard, what with only 24 hours in the day and all. If I was only able to jot notes, I then go back and start with those ideas, aim at the second star to the right and type straight on till morning. Sometimes I don't get the opportunity to do that for a while. In this particular instance, I've got a backlog of about a month's time. Not 30 entries, mind you (I will not be recapping my vacation, for example) but more like 14 entries that are all in various states of incompletion.

Oh yeah, I also get distracted by shiny objects on something approaching alarming regularity.

Back to the vacation for a couple of quick notes:

• JK Rowling is not a great writer. She is, however, a somewhat exceptional storyteller. I read all 7 of those damn books over vacation. Each one from 4-7 took about a day a piece. 6 is likely the best, for my money.
  
• The Inner Game of Tennis is a MUST READ for any serious athlete. And everyone else.
• Rodrigo y Gabriela are absolutely incredible (thanks to Josh and Julie for that recommendation!)
• Training on the sand is still a great experience. Suicides and cutting drills are just out of this world difficult. I love it.
  

Looking forward:

• Summer League Finals are this Saturday. I'm excited. No really. I'm as shocked as you are.
  
• Chesapeake Open is next weekend. I'm even more excited about this.

That's all for now. Gotta finish up the work I left for myself after vacation before I get to summer league...
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Workout Total (planned):
90 minutes ultimate
8 minutes Tabata Interval work ("dump D shuffles"/90 sec rest/burpees)

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Vacation

Yup.

Relaxin' in Avon, NC. Have been for a week. Will be for another week. Vacation is a good thing. So is training on sand.

Wedding to attend tomorrow.
PiKE/PoNY scrimmage(s) on Sunday.

Past and future updates will be comin' 'round the mountain when they come.

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