Frostillicus: August 2007

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

STS 8-27-07, the Beach & Labor Day

Bruce Lee on competition:

"Do not be tense, just be ready, not thinking but not dreaming, not being set but being flexible. It is being "wholly" and quietly alive, aware and alert, ready for whatever may come."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bw_v67Izt50

Probably still the most amazing thing I've ever seen. The ability to generate usable force from a standstill (or deceleration) can't be understated in sports. It's what seperates great athletes from the rest. If that is not an area of primary focus in your training then don't be surprised if you find yourself left behind...literally and figuratively.

Did a beach workout on Sunday out in beautiful Santa Monica with a buddy and realized (again) how much I miss living out by the beach. SM is the perfect exercise beach. Tons o' deep sand, the usual running path stretching for miles, and a big-kids jungle gym full of rings, 40-foot rope climbs, and a different assortment of parallel bars, ring-swings, etc. Interesting note: SM is actually home to the 1st Muscle Beach. Venice Beach is the epicenter of the body-building craze and where the sport really took off, but the first beach to offer any kind of exercise equipment was SM.

Did a variety of sprint & agility work on the sand and found out that all my lateral movement exercises can be done effectively on sand, which was awesome because I was concerned that I'd get too bogged down and not be able to move explosively, making the exercise essentially useless. But much like swimming, the faster I moved the more I stayed on top of the sand. Was even able to do lateral bounds for about 35 yards across the sand. I'm okay with that. I forgot how much sand running exercises the foot muscles as they were aching at the end. Finished with some rope climbs and some parallel-bar work. Also forgot how much climbing rope makes your hands ache and how scary being 40 feet in the air is, especially when the only thing holding you up is fatiguing really quickly.

Sunday in the sand left my legs feelin' great for my workout yesterday. All springy n' stuff, exactly how I like them for the jump-intensive workout I did yesterday.

Movement Prep set #1 (no rest in between):

Jump-rope TF
Lunges w/weight overhead (25lb plate)
Hand-stand pushups
Side-lunges
Jump-rope TF

Set 2 I replaced lunges with bulgarian split-squats (essentially a lunge with back leg on a bench or plyo box) and side-lunges with overhead squats with the bar. If you have any trouble with your squat form (which is 98% of the population) these are the best way to correct it. Set 3 was clock lunges and hang-cleans with just the bar.

Lift #1:

Hang cleans 5 sets @ 6,6,4,4,4 reps with increasing weight

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/HangClean.html

Lift # 2:

Front squats 4 sets @ 8 reps with increasing weight

Lift # 3:

1 leg step-ups 3 sets @ 8 reps
(Haven't done these in a while and they crushed. Such a great exercise).

Next I did an Interval Circuit that consisted of 4 sets at 30 seconds, with 30 seconds rest, and 1 minute rest between exercises.

The exercises :

1. Jump-shrugs- LOVED these. Hadn't done them in a long time, and kicking myself for it. As functional as functional gets.

http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/OlympicLifts/JumpShrug.html

2. Box Jumps on a 30 inch platform

3. Romanian deadlifts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5eZA_QDy9cY

4. Row Machine- emphasizing generating as much force on the pull-back rather than using the momentum from the forward motion. Again, working on that generating usable force thing.

Finished with an ab circuit and lateral stepper walks. Lateral steppers= still ROCK.

http://www.power-systems.com/nav/closeup.aspx?c=4&sc=27&g=1419&Lateral/Stepper™

Labor Day is this weekend. Besides having quite possibly the lamest Saturday schedule I've ever heard of (game 1 at 8am, then 3 games in a row starting at 1:15...WTF!?!?) we've got a solid weekend ahead of us. At least we can play game 1 then grab some breakfast and have it fully settled before facing JAM & Sockeye back to back. Can't wait. We've definitely improved some from Colorado and cleaned up some much-needed areas. Hopefully we show up ready to blow up both days instead of coming out flat like we did on Sunday in CO. Time will tell.

Funny note: my Summer League team won the LA Men's League despite me being there. Coolest part about the team was that it included my old Fraternity brother and college roomate Ulises, the guy I started playing Ultimate with and who I won back-to-back Fraternity Champs with. Also on the team was 3 guys from our rival Fraternity, the guys who used to win it before we came along. These dudes were actually the spark that ignited my ultimate career. In college ultimate was the first sport of the semester-long competition and since it was directly around rush there was always BIG bragging rights on the table. Well, the 3 dudes (along with some others) would play in the LA Summer League every year and clean house till we joined the league and then cleaned house on them. From my Summer League team I was invited to play with DAMN, a Winter League that included Butta & Corey, who took me under their wing and really taught me the game and later on invited me to try out for the Condors. The rest, as they say, is history...

#40

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Cabo'n & Wabo'n

Like Tom Glavine, now it's time for a change-up.

http://www.stevenellis.com/steven_ellis_the_complete/images/wallace_circle_changeup.jpg

Instead of crushin' in it in the weightroom and on the grass like my normal, I spent a glorious 5 days in Cabo San Lucas with some great friends last week. Although I've already given up my soul to Mexico many a' time in college (mmmm...she was a giver), this was my first time experiencing the Wabo that is Cabo.

Epic & beautiful are the two most appropriate ways to describe this place. Warm water beaches and air temp so perfect you want to spend every moment you can outdoors. Palm trees as far as the eye can see, beach town vacation vibe, and carne asada & 'ritas 'round every corner. The bansion (beach + mansion= bansion) was the true main character of our story as it was THE place to be. The greatest part of my room was that it was beachside so when I left my huge sliding glass doors open as I stood in the open-air shower I could watch the waves crash onto the rocks. I can't describe what that's like, but I hope you get to experience something like that someday.

The view looking out into infinity:

The view from the right:

And the view to the left overlooking the most awesome rocky shore I'd ever seen:

This trip was the longest amount of time I've taken off from training since my foot break. Since I only had a 1/2 season last year (started playing about a month before sectionals) I didn't need to take any time off after Nationals, instead jumping right into my program the day I got back as I was still ridin' the Natty's wave and determined to do whatever it takes to get back there this year. And the next. And the next...etc. :)

I figured the best way for me to fully enhance my 5-day break from training (and life) was to drink my body weight in Tequila. Luckily I had my partners in crime (or enablers, as some people like to call them...whatever that means) Brian Bogle, Aussie Steve, & the infinity pool to help me in my quest. It was a big task, but we were up for the challenge.

Cigars taste good in Cabo. Real good.

Our schedule consisted of laying around the infinity pool listening to the uber-swanky sound system that was hooked up to every room in the place, including outside, meandering down to explore the rocks & our private beach, and heading out to the club/bars at night. The spots were decent, the employees were well-versed in the art of handing you alchohol when didn't ask for it, making you drink it, and then charging you for it. They only fooled me 9 times before I caught on to their sinister plan. Tricky bastards. But a sizeable amount of dodgy characters plus the Entourage-esque bansion waiting at home made for us mostly just showing our faces for a couple hours, getting some drinks, and heading back to the swanky pad. Plus I'm now fully convinced now that living in LA has tainted me in the club department.

Another unexpected bonus in an already over-the-top adventure was that the company that owned the house also gave us another smaller condo & private resort to use during the day since they were doing construction on the house next door. The only thing better than having one isolated picturesque place to chill is...having two! This resort came with another private beach, 4 ridiculously beautiful and huge pools to relax in, and a nice lil' grass area to throw the ol' bee around.

All in all, it was a perfect trip that I'll never forget. Getting a chance to spend some quality time with Steve and Brian was SO great since they're up in the Bay and we only see each other sporadically. Miss those guys already.

Random awesomeness from the trip:

-The $1.50 silver plastic running suit that Steve & his girl found at the supermercado. Apparently mexian physical fitness extends further than futbol and bullfighting. Who knew?

- Supermercado's have a whole aisle dedicated to straw hats. They LOVE them straw hats.

- Apparently eating 3 pounds of fresh shrimp + 5 pitchers of margaritas = a bad thing. Again, who knew?