A week in my (athletic) life: Friday

This one is easy, today is noodles and rest day.

It's important to give your body time to recuperate, and I try to do this by giving myself at least one day off a week, and taking days off between weight sessions. And getting enough sleep is key too though that one often goes out the window.

Did I do enough this week to prepare for nationals? I'm not sure. I'm in decent shape, but I haven't been playing that much volleyball, and I'm not sure the endurance is there for a 4 day tourney. We'll just have to see. Next week I'll start about the same as this week, but mid-week I'll lighten up and focus on sleeping and resting to try to be fresh for the tournament. Wish me luck!

A week in my (athletic) life: Thursday

I was up pretty late last night due to poker night, but even though I went to bed at around 1, I got a pretty good night sleep and felt pretty good in the morning. Thursday started with hitting the weights at Golds during lunch. A fairly standard workout. A full body weight workout trying to alternate push and pull exercises, and keeping it moving not taking too much time between exercises. I got a good workout in, and I felt ok though I certainly wasn't a powerhouse. Weighed in today at about 168. Heavier then on Tuesday but my weight always varies a little and it's under 170 so I'm good with it.

Thursday night I played volleyball. There's a community center in Arlington real close to my house where we have a gym available from about 7:30-9:30 on Thursday nights. My men's team has been using that as an informal practice. It's kind of like pick up because you're not sure who's going to show, and pretty much anybody that shows up can play. Usually we get enough for 6 on 6, though I've been there when there was 20 people and also when there was 6. Tonight we only have 8. There's 3 guys from my team going to nationals, Ron, our setter, Jason, a 6'8 converted basketball player who plays middle and yours truly. There's 4 guys from another team going to nationals (but playing BB a level below us) and another guy, Jean, who comes every now and then. We start with typical vball warm ups, we pepper and then we do hitting lines. I've never been a really good warm up hitter. I don't know what it is. Part of it of course is that I'm cold and the first couple of hits I'm happy if I get it over the net. Part of it is also the missing intensity of a real game. Tonight though I'm actually hitting pretty well. Hitting is about rhythm, technique, and athleticism, and tonight it feels pretty good. I can feel my left achilles though. It's painful and tender and I'm a bit concerned about it. After hitting lines we do some drills. With 4 people we have enough to work on our offense and defense. We alternate with one team of 4 blocking and tossing free balls (a free ball is like when a ball gets tossed over the net) and the other team passing the free ball and getting a hit out of it with 3 hitters (left side, me, a middle and a right side). The blocking team has to try to read the setter and put up a good block on whichever hitter gets set. After that we play 4s, but the other team isn't very good, and they're playing so flat that it's hard for us to get a good game out of it. At least we're getting some touches in. Before we take the net down I decide to do a little drill to push myself a bit. We have 4 balls, and I stand at the net, do a block jump, transition back to hitting position as someone tosses a ball to the setter who sets me and I hit outside and then repeat immediately until we run out of balls. This simulates a long rally during a game and you're ability to transition from offense to defense and still have some legs. It's a tough drill and by the last ball I'm putting up a pathetically weak block and a weak hit. And that's only with 4 balls! I really should do this more often. Overall, not a great practice, but certainly better then nothing.

A Week in MY Athletic Life (the short version)

So Fabulous has been on me to post and I have been a slacker. In my defense, I did try to post the Grenada pics, but the blog wasn't liking me and wouldn't let me. Then after Fabian fixed it, life got crazy. But here is a quick one for you now.

I really like Fab's week in the athletic life series, and I wish that I could copy it. But his life is a little more athletic than mine at this point. (Even in a week where he didn't have a soccer game!) But I'll give you the Tamara version, which should only cover 1 post instead of 7! :)

So I've been stepping up the workouts for Nationals too. It's wierd, cause you only play 3 matches per day there, but by the end of the week, the 3rd match is getting tough to finish. I haven't had the best season volleyball-wise (a lot of it is mental), so I figured at the least I'll be able to outlast my teammates. Or maybe just keep up, since 90% of them are younger and at least 4 inches taller than me. :)

Anyway, Sunday I was supposed to go to the gym when I got back from Lynchburg, but instead I spent the day cleaning up a flood in my condo. :( Monday was the vball match that Fab detailed. It was a pretty cool match. It's fun to play a team that good, but only when your team is playing well too. It just feels good to be doing everything the way you are supposed to, and then occasionally get a block or a dig that no one thought you could get. And the other team was great, so it was fun to play the long rallys. And that last serve was a straight ace Fab - no one touched it! That was nice because I was nervous when I went back to serve - the spot I was aiming for was a tough one to hit, and I knew it would either be going out, or a really good serve. So it felt good to hit it, especially in such a tight game! And it was CRAZY hot in that gym! I was stressed out when I got there (work and the aforementioned flood) so that was a great stress release!

Tuesday and Wednesday were gym days for me this week. I've been lifting with Jeremy at least twice a week for the past few months. Its funny, because "working out like a guy" has definitely produced some results. I used to do a lot of cardio - 30-45 minutes, a fair amount of abs (10-15), and then maybe 10-15 minutes of lifting. I still do that when I go to the gym by myself, just cause I think it is good to mix it up. But when I work out with J, I do 15 minutes of cardio, then we do 3-4 lifting exercises for 20-25 minutes. Then 10 more minutes of cardio, and 5-10 minutes of abs. I was worried that this would make me big, but I am doing 3 sets of 20, so it actually just makes me stronger. The only thing I have to worry about is pulling a muscle, because it makes me a little tighter...

So, to counteract that, today is yoga day. My job offers several exercise classes a day in the building. It's $45 for 3 months, and you can take as many classes as you like. Its a good deal, and I especially like taking the yoga classes. The instructor is good at giving us a mix of strength and stretching, and since work has been pretty stressful, the meditation aspect has been pretty good for me too. The class always starts and ends with meditation, plus all the movements during the class are tied to your breath, so with all that, it's hard to focus on the annoying co-worker or fast-approaching deadline. :) Definitely a good break during the day for me - plus it's a good opportunity to cross-train! :)

Tomorrow and Saturday - no workout, but I should be back in the gym on Sunday barring any floods. I am headed to Richmond tomorrow to be in the wedding of a college friend. I am in the middle of a 7 week marathon of celebrating other people's life events, with one week for me thrown in the middle. (bachellorette party, birthday, college graduation, wedding, wedding, nationals/my b-day (and Fab's), baby shower) . Then Jeremy and I are probably going to move into his new place the following weekend, then family vaca with my fam...

I'll just keep with the yoga breaths until July... :)

A week in my (athletic) life: Wednesday

I went out last night to hh, and as much as I like the metro in that it keeps me safe, maybe driving to hh would be better for my liver! I'm tired this morning and a little hungover, but I try to hydrate in the morning to fix that. On the agenda today, lunch hoops.

It's crowded again today. To switch it up, I warm up on the elliptical for 12 minutes. As I get off the machine, a game is ending and I'm expecting to have another game to wait, but somebody on the board didn't show and I'm actually up right away. It's good in that I get to play, but bad in that I haven't touched a ball yet, and I usually can hit a shot to save my life if I haven't shot around for a few mins. I can see right away that my team is overmatched. We have one big guy, one fairly tall and athletic, but skinny guy, and 3 little quick guards (me included, though quick is debatable). They have size, skilled strong players, and one really good young player. Surprisingly, my first shot feels pretty good and goes in. The guy who's Ding me up is about 6'7, but he has no interest in chasing me around and I can get an open shot pretty much when I want. We proceed to score on them the only way we can, by running hard, and hitting jump shots. But we can't stop them either. Too much size and skill. Game is to 21, by 2s and 3s, and we stick with them trading baskets, but always down a basket. 14-12, 16-14, 18-16. I go about 4-5 and have a great shooting game, but damn it we need a stop. It's 18-18, and one of our guards forces a steal, and we're off to the races. I'm on the right wing, he feeds me, and I have the 6'7 guy to beat. I go up for the right handed layup but I worry too much about the contact instead of just going up strong, and it rims out. They come back and score and end up winning 22-18. We had a chance at a nice upset and I blew the layup. I'm pissed. But you can't dwell on it, I'll try to do better next time. I wait a while before getting back on, and we lose another game. I'm a stiff now, and I start off guarding a guy who's a bit taller, stronger, quicker. Not a good combo. We play a lackluster game and we lose. Off to the showers and back to the office

A week in my (athletic) life: Tuesday

Tuesday is a pretty vanilla day in this athletic week. I hit Golds at lunch time to lift. Full body workout trying to hit the big muscle groups, legs, chest, back, core and a couple of arm exercises, you know for the guns ;)

In the past 2 weeks I've had several people call me skinny. It's definitely better then fat, and I'm ok with keeping my weight down (I'm actually about as light as I've ever been since high school), but skinny? That gives me a little added motivation. Golds is where, by routine, I usually weigh myself, after my workout and right before lunch so probably about as light as I'll be for the day. The count today, 165 and change. That is pretty light, but as long as I don't lose too much strength I'm ok with it. It'll hurt me a bit on the hoop court, but on the vball court the less weight the better!

A week in my (athletic) life: Monday

Monday sports starts with noon ball (hoops) at Tysons. It's a bit crowded today so as I sign up at the board I know that I have a couple of games to wait. So I warm up with 10 minutes on the bike, first 2 minutes warm up, then alternate hard for a min and recover for a min. Then I do a few abs. I still have some time to wait so I grab a ball and shoot around. I'm trying just to get warm and get my shot feeling right. My body doesn't feel so good. I've had issues with my achilles on and off for years, and even though it's been pretty good this year, in the past week or two it's been flairing up. So I do my best to get it warm but it doesn't feel great. When I finally get on, I'm on a pretty good team with 2 young strong offensive players. But it's not a great showing by the kid. I defer to them too much, and after all that work on the jump shot I spend most of my time feeding the studs and playing D. And to top it off, we lost. I think I probably stuck around for another game (or maybe I didn't) but nothing memorable. And my achilles feels like shit and I end up icing it at the office something I haven't done in months, maybe even a year. The worst part of noon ball, especially on a day like this is the time around 3 or 4 when I decide to get up from my desk and it hurts to walk and I feel like I'm 50 I'm so stiff.

Monday sports ends with a 9:15 reverse coed vball game. When I get home that night I'm beat and I actually fall asleep on the couch so at about 8 when I'm getting ready for the game I feel completely groggy. Tonight, we're playing the best team in the league. These guys have been dominating the league for 5-6 seasons. League matches are 3 games to 25 and I don't believe that we've ever even taken one single game from them, and our team is pretty good. So far this season they're undefeated. We've been having a good season, this particular team has been together for 3 seasons I think and when we're on we're on. Well tonight, we were on. The team we're playing is dominated by one player, Jason, and he's awesome. He's probably 36 or so, played at George Mason back in the day. Lefty, with crazy skills and he can hit from anywhere. The rest of their team is good too, but whenever they're in trouble they just set Jason from just about anywhere and he does his thing, and they play mad D. But tonight we came to play. Achilles or no, my legs feel pretty strong and I'm jumping and hitting hard. Chris, the other guy hitter on our team is 6'5, can jump, and just nasty when he's on. The girls are playing well too, and more importantly, we manage to dig Jason a couple of times, get them to shank a few serves, and get a few blocks. The first game is close, but we come out to a lead. We've done this before, but always when it gets close they turn it on and end up coming back. Tonight they start to do so, and I worry a bit, but we hang strong and win the first game, something like 25-23. The second game is close, and again they come back, but this time they do manage to come all the way back and win. My legs still feel pretty strong. Volleyball is a weird sport, not a lot of long running, but many short bursts of high energy movements. The key to knowing if you're in pretty good volleyball shape is if you can recover from a long rally. You jump for a hit, come back, get in defensive position, maybe make a sprint for a dig, jump for another hit, get back low for defense, run to cover a hitter, then the point is over. You're breathing hard, but on the very next point are your legs too tired to jump again, or do they still feel strong? Tonight, at least up to this point, I still feel strong, and I think that my workouts maybe paying off. The third game is tight again, we come out to a lead, but they come back. Now fatigue, perhaps physical, perhaps mental starts to set in. You have to play hard all the time against that team and it's tough to do for 3 games. We start to make more mistakes. We hit a few out, we shank a few serves. We're up to 24-24 but you have to win by 2, and we go back and forth. But amazingly, for once they're the team to cave. We win a long rally, and Tamara finishes them off by getting them to shank a serve for a 27-25 W. We just beat them flat out! Feels good, though the real key will be to see if we can play that way in the playoffs. On a side note, the gym was hot, and as we walk out I ring my shirt out, and shit you not, it sounds like I'm pouring out a glass of water. Nasty, but no one can say I wasn't working!

A week in my (athletic) life: Sunday

I was up late Sat night with the Smiths playing poker and Saturday was a long day in general so I'm pretty beat. Not to mention that I am in fact sore from Saturday, but not too bad. Sunday is mostly a chill and recover day. But it's a nice day out, and I can't stay inside all day, so at about 5ish I get the itch. Before I leave I do a few ab/core exercises (bridge and side bridges) then grab the basketball, the soccer ball, cleats and hight tops and head to a park just a couple of minutes from my place.

One of the hoops is occupied by some kids playing but the other is open. On the agenda for today, I'm trying to extend my range a little to the 3 point line. My hoop game is somewhere between the 1 and the 2. Decent ball handling and passing skills but not really good enough to play the point, good jumper but not really enough range to play the 2. Quick enough to get to the hoop, but I didn't get beat up enough as a kid on the court to make me a strong finisher. I spend most of my time on the court coming off of picks and cuts looking for catch and shoot opportunities. My most comfortable shot is about a foot inside the 3pt line, and that's a terrible shot when you're playing 2s and 3s. So I'm working on extending my range by that crucial foot. I start by warming up a little, getting a consistent stroke. Then I work on shots from the 3, off the bounce, off the dribble, off the jab step and head fake. After a while the shot feels alright and I'm shooting it pretty well. As a side note, some people were having a picnic in the park and it just so happened that Steve Trundle and his family were there as they live down the street (Steve was the CTO at MSTR when I started working there, and we played on a couple MSTR hoop leagues back in the day).

When the people from the picnic clear out, the soccer field is free and I decide to switch gears. This is a miniature soccer field with really small goals good for little kids, but it actually suits me fine. Yes, because I'm really just a kid, but also because I'm trying to practice for my indoor league and these small goals are almost better then a regular outdoor ones. Added bonus is that the net it tight so that if I hit it right it bounces right back. I work on ball control with juggling, then shooting left and right footed, shooting after making a hard cut, juggling and shooting off the volley, and shooting off of a move (e.g. step over left, shoot right, vice versa). I try to work on what the french would call "une frappe seche", a dry hit. Meaning you want to pop the ball and hit it hard but not give it much spin. Standing 15-20ft out and trying to hit a 5ft goal forces me to keep the ball relatively low which is good for indoors.

All in all I was out there for an hour, hour and half and managed to work on a few things so I'm happy. Too bad I don't have a soccer game this week to see if it helped, but I am playing hoops tomorrow.

A week in my (athletic) life: Saturday

I'm in a sharing mood, and after all that's what this blog is for, so I figured I'd give you a taste of my athletic week. An athletic journal if you will.

Saturday:
I went out last night. Not too late but I've been fairly tired lately, and when I wake up, the last thing I want to do is workout. I'm meeting a friend for lunch at 1 downtown, and I contemplate heading to the gym, going out for a run, or just crashing on the couch until lunch time. Normally I'd probably bag it, but I'm headed to Austin in a couple of weeks for volleyball nationals and now is not the time to slack. So I suck it up and head to Golds to hit the weights. On the agenda, a full body weight workout with focus on legs as that'll be key to surviving nationals. Squats, lunges, straight-back deadlifts, then a chest and a back exercise, set of bis, set of tris, some abs and core work to finish it off. As much as I didn't want to be there, I ended up getting a good workout in, I can tell cuz my legs feel like jelly and I'll probably be sore.

IAD to PTY

So I just found out today that Copa added a daily direct fly from DC to Panama.

http://www.copaair.com/nuestraempresa/noticias/noticia.aspx?ID=98

That's the first direct flight I've ever seen to Panama. Pretty exciting, though I can just see Tommy squirming at the thought of getting on a non-american airline... ;)

My brother Chentin is talking about going in early August with Clement and Ines and I'm most likely going to join them if anybody's interested.