today...

break has been good, lots of skiing. yesterday was ridiculous, 4 hours (in two skis) about 40 km... arms are toast... today, a 1.5 hour skate ski, probably like 15 km or a little more, steady, easy pace... then a 2 hour break for lunch, and back up, and on the snow for 15 min warm up, and 4, 4 min intervals with 4 minutes rest, and 10 minutes cool down. snow was abrasive and slow, and my form was OK... i'm at a stage where i reach a certain exertion level, and my form suffers, so i'm gradually working to improve my form, so that i can hold form to match my out put... it's ... delicate.

the intervals were on a gradual uphill to flat/uphill, so i was able to use V1 and V2...

i play it by ear... i'm generally inclined to make hay while the sun shines, treat the vacation like a 'camp' with as much skiing as i can stand, but i'm aware there are physiological downsides to going going going. like... uh, gone. but i try to go easy most of the time.

i don't know if i'm getting 'better' as fast as i could get 'better', but i know, relative to last year, that i'm skiing better, just by the vast increase in volume. my theory is that i'm trading 'training' theory (i.e., ski easy, moderately) for skiing fun, and hopefully improvement will continue.

in a year or so, i'll definitely have to train smarter, not harder... but by then, hopefully abillity will allow me to do similar work load with more appropriate effort (read, go easier)...

i haven't gotten around to grading all the papers, i'm only noodling on the guitar a little (my hands are always cold and tired), and no significant reading, in english, or french.

i hope that next week (next year) will be a 'taper week' with only one day per week skiing, when i'll have time to grade, and chill/relax and feed my head.

that is all.

and more...

christmas, skied (telemarked) for a couple hours. good snow up high, a little wet down low. yesterday, some crappy intervals (and in, i skied crappy)... like 4, 4, 3, 4, 4... today skied like 21 km... and now i'm sitting down for a few minutes and heading back up... to do like a 1 hour classic ski...

tommorrow, should be about intervals in the morning, and a more leisurely ski in the PM.

going to take some pics soon... for those of you who live where it's warm...

2 gnarly wrecks on the road up and back... should be safer going up at 3:00 pm though...

so, like 31 days?

29 days and counting...

tired this morning, but got in a solid hour and half ski at a very pleasant slow pace. the race was a debacle. i skied like $#!^, grip wax was same, etc. oh well. i'm inspired to start training in earnest now. where others will be ramping up over the holidays for holiday indulgences, i will be going fully macrobiotic, lean, wild protein, hunted and killed with my own hands, 1.5 hours of stretching each and every day.

and ice cream.

lots and lots of icecream.

tommorrow, thinking it's going to be worth paying to ride the chairlifts, so i'll do that for a couple hours, take a brunch break, then skate, and classic for 1.5 hours....

maybe this will be the year i get to 100 ski days... of course, maybe this will be the year i get up and dunk again. hmm.

today, threw in an hour of guitar, and juggled a little... over to some neighbors for some christmas eve dinner. peace.

according to the map it's 9.6 km, w/ 400 feet of rise... so i did that twice, in 40, and 37 minutes, (note, to who ever reads this, it's really just so i can figure out 'next time' what i did, how i did it, and how i was feeling. i'm aware that you, any possible readers, do not care what i had for lunch.

but if you do, you'd love to hear about breakfast.
waffles, yogurt, blackberries, syrup, coffee.

shit. i just realized that the $100 i spent at the store, did not include syrup.

for lunch... well i had an apple, a bananna, and 2 oranges around 10, then i had peanut butter and jelly on leftover waffles at 10:30(out of bread). this is a suprisingly good sandwich by the way. the buckwheat waffle is a strange color, but nutricious and delicious. at 11:35, after a ski team meeting where the head coach did the talking, and i just lamented the fact that i didn't have a spoon, i trotted down to the teacher's lounge where the principal and his wife had a big spread. i had chips and bean dip. returning to the classroom, i had pasta with fresh carrots, brocolli, and cauliflower. after a little while i had an apple. then, the ski, and at last dinner. a light repast of chips and home made salsa, and hummus and fresh veggies.

can you tell the fridge was out of meat? then to the store, where after spending a ton on groceries, i ate again, a gourmet meal of 2 corn tortillas, refried beans, a scrambled egg, and vermont cheddar, with a little hot sauce and garlic worked in there.

tommorrow, either waffles with jam, or oats, the usual meal... but man, those buck wheat waffles are gooooooddd....

tommorrow is a classic ski day... and a big feed day, as the bread should be coming out of the machine now. the sandwich, will be turkey and salami with cheddar on home made white. i mean, i just can't deal with the low fat content of the turkey alone...

if you came from ultimate talk.com, and if you made it this far, here's a frisbee point.

a great drill for developing your throwing is to get a stack of discs (all you have). and practice throwing game throws to a space, and a target, then jog and get them. i.e., if you have 5 frisbees, fake a backhand to move the invisible mark, then pivot, extend and throw the same 'leading forehand' to a cutter 5 times. they will all land in the same place. next, pivot, and throw 5 hard flat throws to an imaginary team mate who is making a hard comeback cut. measure success by having the discs fly low, level and true on a straight line past a point where they would catch them...

wait. this is so bogus.

make a friend. play catch...

race a coming...

so since the race i've skied another say 8 days? So that's like 24 or so. have not gotten around to lifting, although i'm going to try to do some yoga tommorrow morning... classic race saturday... i think i'm just doing the 10 k, but there is a 20 k race... it depends on who i can talk into betting on what... not that it's outcome dependent... this type of bet, i usually bet way above myself, but i keep the stakes low enough, and it makes it more fun...

Some fresh snow dressing the trees for some great scenery, and a couple of amazing skis, scenery wise, whether it was getting lost. er... lost-ish. long story for a couple hours in the woods, or catching a couple of sweet sun sets w/ the sun and the mountains... well, you get the idea... every morning right now i get sunrise and alpenglow on the mountains in the distance behind school... school is very busy, basically it's taking as much as 30-1 hour of prep for each class of 85 minutes, not counting grading.

the grading is suffering. so am i, but the workouts go a long way towards clearing my head each day.

i've gotten back into the swing of plugging away at the guitar, and the french... the juggling too, although, i've a lot less time right now... luckily, i have little or no life...

started reading sideways (as in the book they made the movie from. haven't seen the movie, and i hear the book is good)...

that's all.

what i'm listening to...

this guy is a genius, if you didn't hear him on NPR this weekend, or at whatever hipper than me places you live...

www.jonathancoulton.com

i recommend (highly)

re: your brains

code monkey

the acoustical version of 'baby got back' is certainly nice, too... nice to hear such a true to the original source material of that other seattle legend, sir mix-a-lot.

nothing to do with frisbee.

yes, it's ski season, and you know what that means. what did i have for lunch. where, and how much did i ski. what am i reading. how is the juggling coming?

first of all, the overview. I spent 6 days in yellowstone over thanksgiving at a ski camp. We took 15 hs students, plus another 10 or so who are dually enrolled in a ski training program that trains for both hs races and JO's (junior olympics).

We ski'd 2 times a day, for an hour or so. The rest of the time was taken up, getting ready to ski, winding down from skiing, and eating. By the last 2 days, the desire to ski overwhelmed skiing, and i skied like 30 or 40 km per day. That took 3 ski's per day, over an hour sometimes.

(that was 6 days of nordic skiing).

Then I moved into a new house, about a mile from summit (my work). Accessible by a well plowed bike path, my studded gary fisher kaitai (1996) with the new fenders is serving me well. This has been a HUGE boon to my work, as it frees up over an hour per day. The house also has 17 foot ceilings, a true boon to the juggling.

I attended a 2 day clinic that a US Nordic Wax Guru, and general skiing stud, (and his wife is a Gold/Silver/Bronze medalist... all in the same event... can you tell me who that is), that helped somewhat. Then skied, tues/wed/thurs/fri/sat, including some epic full moon skates. I also spent a lot of time updating my HS Website: You can see what i'm teaching, if you like.

Then I took Sunday and Monday off to concentrate on a tight IT band (my poor skating technique aggravates a general tightness), before skiing Tues, Wed, Thurs, and Friday. (We go up after school, about 18-26 miles, dependant upon venue.

Today was a race, a 10K. I skied it in 37 something, 7 minutes faster than last year at this time, 35% off the winner, about 15% off where i'd like to be in the next year or so. It was also about a minute faster than my spring time on the same course, on what was slightly slower conditions for me. I wanted to go 36, but I blew my splits (my bad, lack of experience in race tactics (maybe the big minute or two), questionable wax / base prep (worth seconds, not minutes), and fatigue from lots of skiing, and a bad night's sleep from a good deal of work related stress. Last year in this race, I was the 'overall most improved skier in bend.' To repeat will be difficult. The race is filled w/ sandbaggers, and a comporable 15% improvement will be 5.4 minuntes, and a really difficult 5.4 minutes. I think I can approach that w/ improved technique (drills and video), longer slower days that the improved technique will allow, rest and intervals in the last 3 weeks prior to the race, and an effort to nail the wax and base prep.

So, 16 days of skiing (and like 24 'ski workouts'). I'll either take sunday or monday off as a rest day, and start working out again (i stopped lifting for yellowstone, getting use to skiing stress, and a mild back strain from moving that i didn't think squats/hang cleans/ and dead lifts would really help.

I'm racing a classic race in 2 weeks (10k) and maybe a 5k in a week. It's tough for me: as a relatively new nordic skier, jumping into longer races is tough. The 5 K should be more my speed: at least it won't kill me. I was wrecked today, barely able to keep on my ski's for the 1 or 2 k ski back to the lodge after the race.

In other news, I bought a new waffle iron, and a bread maker. This may cost me getting that digital camera i had my heart set on, at least for the next month or so. I also bought a new guitar (a cheapie) as i was using one belonging to a housemate at the old place. Right now there's a 'bananna / wheat' bread cooking that looks, to my uninitiated eye, to be going swimmingly. Tommorrow may be french toast.

Oh, and at my house-mates insistence (an no real resistance from me), we got the cable internet w/ the cable and the sports package. Hello, english premier league soccer. Tommorow, I think Chelsea is playing Arsenal.

I've done a poor job on the french with the move, but look to get back into it tommorrow....

Um. A buh, A buh, A buh, a that's all folks.

for monkey face...

count, is that you? you can do better than that.

here's one for jerk face alex commenting on my previous post.

'i'm considering which offense to use for my high school team this spring.'
i think i'm going to implement a 2-1 4, with my best player in a german stlye feldrunner iso in the middle. the deep pairs will work to create space for the quick strike from the feldrunner. Also, by placing my talent back, w/ scorers up front, the transition from zone to man will put my best players in an advantageous position, possibly w/ a 3 on 2 initial break, and covered by teams often less skilled deeps/wings.

the intent is to develop dynamic flow and opportunistic breaks creating rapid strike and and secondary break opportunities. the negatives are perceived to be the same as with all high school offenses. skill inequities that can lead to break downs, especially when developing players are given the disc in 'power' positions.

see, i just made that up in like 1 minute. but it sounds just as real as anything else out there. it used the words dynamic, flow, opportunistic (2x), rapid, break (3x!), strike, offense, and w/ a tribute to crazy frank (power position). that just sounds like something he'd say.

but if you get all moist and squishy thinking about stadler and waldorf (alex and jim) prattling on about their quarterfinal escapades, why by all means frequent their sites. or if you want to read about timmy handing over the america's cup to pottsy and the rest of the australians, go for it. i'm a literary genius, dammit, and if you are too dumb to get it, don't come around here wasting my time again. I mean, did you even LOOK at the first letters of each line of that post you so cavalierly dismissed due to the puniness of your brain?!!! did you!

on and on...

slow week... exam week, or was that last week, so, today, 45 minutes biking, 20 minutes running, 20 minutes frisbee
yesterday, 35 minutes running and throwing in a 40 mph wind, lifted weights (squats, hang cleans, chinup, bench, abs)
tues, 30 minute run, and a 'core-circuit' of balance and ab work, and 45 min biking,
mon, bike, run, weights... nothin' special
sunday, roller skied for 1 hour, biked for 40 minutes, unicycled...
saturday, biked to school, rollerskied, lifted weights,
friday, rollerskied, biked, unicyled...
thursday, 7 mile run? biked.

so nothing hard or fast for days... lots of juggling, some french learning, plugging away at the guitar (some improvement). As far as my 'hidden talent goes' i guess my best bet is to wait until i'm in the company of strangers, and pretend to be seeing a frisbee for the first time...

tommorrow, last day of the week. duh. Saturday, first dayon snow. Sunday, 5:00 am for yellowstone for a week of 2 a days on snow. This is my frisbee worlds now. Uh, but I'm not reallyl in the quarters... but i hope to just be better/faster/stronger than last year...

new skis, some waxless classics (with these fish scales) for knocking around or for days when it's exactly 32 degrees and hard to get the kick wax right... a new pair of classic waxables for races(softer than my old ones, might be just right), that's all...

push it along.

congrats jim on the 200'000 hit mark. i'm at a lowly 35K or so. you'll be glad to know, a student asked of a disc w/ a visored playor: is that 'Jim'? i said no. i should have said 'no, jim neither wears visors nor dives.'

so thursday was weights and roller skiing... and friday was a trip to eugene to preview the course... we warmed up the kids, and i snuck in a workout... over 8 k, i got 3 miles at around 18after a 2 mile warmup... that's fast for me.... on saturday, between watching 1A races, i ran another fast 8K, including a 'race' against a team captain... we ran the following times (like, out of the car, no warmup)

5
4.5
4
3.67
3.303 (this was actually a short 'k', and scott declared victory).
3.7
4
4

so i lost the race, which turned out to be 4.7 when scott goes: 'i win'... i got my 'best 5 k' at 19:10, and a total time of 32 for the 8 k...

so two really snappy workouts... and a nice time on the state course... so i'm calling my pr for the year 19:10... i think i would have gone sub 19 if scott had held it together... but next years goal is sub 18... i've already started organizing a 'race'... the friends and family on course race... there are two options... on friday, we run, or better, on saturday, we run during the 'open course' portion... friday would be no one in the way, but i'm inclined to make it saturday, and you have to weave through the various people there.... here's the plan, kind of a white elephant prize, you bring a prize, and LAST gets first pick, FIRST gets second, and then NEXT TO LAST, then SECOND, and so on... the pool will be coaches, family friends, etc. You have to understand, there were 11 athletes families there, then another 30 kids and their families who came to support: XC is big at summit... could be a fun 25 or 30 person run... with brothers, sisters, moms, dads... should be cool... i predict 5th or 6th for me... ideally it will be an event w/ a bbq at the field site (if it's friday)... i'll let you know...

uh, sunday, 20 miles of biking, 40 minutes of roller skiing, read french for 2 hours...

today, monday, 1.5 hours of frisbee coaching, 40 minutes of biking, lifted weights (squats, chinups, benchpress)... uh, i'm tired...

bye.

ps. girls were 5th : if our 'frontrunner' (the girl w/ the broken femur) had run, they'd have been 2nd, and the presumable order of finish would have been, gradewise, 10,9,9,9,10,12,9,11... of course, wish in one hand and shit in the other, and see which fills up first, but it seems to bode well, that 9,9,9,10,12,9,11 bodes well for next year... and hopefully lacy comes back strong as all medical info seems to suggest...

the boys... well, we didn't qualify a team but one freshman went (17th) as the top overall frosh, and our other boy went 17:50 after a season of struggling w/ asthma (a big deal to a kid who's never had it)... so we'll see. i'm happy w/ the work of all the athletes, down to the slow fat kid who made every race... and hopefully they'll improve over the year.

and play frisbee.

trainin' it up

Saturday was districts. Obviously, i'm not technically elligible... but i went to have a good time... we got there on friday, and found the coolest playground in the history of the world... imagine hundreds of square feet of jungle gym. if you see this kind of thing, and feel it's time to go work on your io flick, your a bigger dork than me.

So we ran the course, and then had dinner, team meetings... funny story... on the mile walk to dinner, w/ the coaches, and one kid, it comes up that i'm juvenile. i'm called peter pan. i say, 'hey, it's not my fault i'm good lookin'' at dinner, one of the other coaches, a world class (truly) runner and i, and the head coach are there... we order beers, and i get carded. she says, (and she's pretty youngish, attractive), do you want to see my id? server says, 'no.'

OUCH...

Saturday,the usual, got up at 6, wandered around scenic dalles, ate some waffles, wandered, drank some real coffee, wandered, ate a egg sandwich, wandered... finally go to the course... got a good workout in on the course, warming up w/ girls, then, as they raced, running from one spot w/ no fans, to the base of the one hill to cheer them up... like 600 meters... did it 6 times (3 each way on the 3 loop race)... then warmed up w/ guys, and did the same thing... it was sweet to be at the base of the hill, yelling 'up up up' to the team... and i got in a nice interval workout... so 12 x 600 at a steady race pace... plus 2 x 2000 warmup...

again, i'm super proud of all the kids: missing perhaps our best runner (achilles injury early in season), the guys sold out... and the girls crushed... the next day was the frisbee tournament... and i was fairly friskee... monday, a 4 mile run at a 7 minute pace, and 30 minutes of roller skiing, today, a rest day, 15 minute recovery run, 20 minutes of double pole (upper body) on the skate skis, 8 chinups, 20 minutes of biking... calves are crampy...

tommorrow... a snappy whistle run (slow, medium, fast, based on how many whistles)... then some more roller skiing, then thursday is rest: we have to go get the SUV's for the trip... if it works out, i'll do a longish roller ski... if not, c'est la vie... friday, over to eugene, run the course, strides... saturday... lope around yelling 'good job, go go go'.

supposed to be the start of winter: forecast calls for rain and cold. interesting for running... great for snow.

peace, congrats to all attenders at UPA nationals.

bad league zone

don't read this if you don't care about low level effective strategery...

the 'pick-up' zone...
well, i got to play in a tournament today where we had to play much of the first half of the first game 6-6... and since it was a 3 game, games to 11,11,13 tournament, it seemed we should play some zone, early and often...

6 v 6... we went w/ 2 points, w/ the off point playing sooffffttt... and the middle as a short deep / mid making sure that all throws were short and under... the wings contained, and the deep backed...

when we went 7v7, it was much of the same, w/ these goals highlighted:
1) no easy long passes
2) lots of short passes
3) result goal: give up goals at the expense of field position turnovers, w/ numbers advantages for better chances of scoring...

we modified... as we had a VERY new player... and one hurt player... the 1-3-3 zone..., w/ the new player as front left (on a flick force)... the hard flick force allowed a skilled middle of the front 3 to cover a lot of ground... the front right sagged way back, allowing the swing to go to the downwind line. the goal was to get a marker in position to battle the trap... and give no dump, while the now tired primary marker and the middle stopped inverts... and try to turn it into a 2 man defense drill where our speedy wing would rush in to make blocks on medium range passes... it worked... and when it didn't, the hucks were to the deep, and the dump/swing, when it happened, lets the original marker recover... meanwhile, our injured player just got to hang out on the back left... when it didn't work, our overloaded deeps were encouraged to try, as our 4 or 5 person clogging 'd' gamely jogged down field hoping for a drop.... watching the superior team excercise their opportunity to finally 'pick apart a team.'

applicable notes for high level play...

walking up to a dead disc is often suicide. get it going fast, even if you get no yardage advantage
bricks are not necessarily advantageous, if you can run it to the line, and hit a player on the twenty w/ a quick pass...
HNH(TM) rewards the aggressive. fortune favors the brave.

UPA Nationals Write up...

... will not be found here. I will be glad to tell you about the one day Bend Hat Tournament. Detailed stats will be found at the bottom. This was the culminating tournament for the Bend Fall Hat League.... The day dawned cool and clear, but who would know, we're talking frisbee Players... I got there 20 minutes late, and had time for a full one hour warmup before play... (more to follow on the perfect warmup)

Once the teams were drawn from the hat, it seemed clear that there were two teams that were tigers. The team (Team Boo) of Doug V, Cinda, Katie, Andrew, RodK, Marshall, MarkF and someone durnnit... rolled through their pool play by a combined score of 22-2.

TEam BooWho aka 'paper tiger' boasted AndyC, Susan, Spencer, RussZ, Newbie Deb, Beckie, Todd, and your reporter played the same teams to a score of, I THINK, 18-10. We did manage to finish 'one' game.... the other got capped at 7-5 as our exploration of bad zone defense and poor offensive execution kind of slowed us down.

Before a small crowd, the Boo/Boo-Hoo game would be one for the ages. First of all it was a crampfest. Bodies were collapsing all around as athletes battled the savage 60 degree heat (yes, that's sarcasm) over the course of 3 games w/ little or no subs. Team Boo-who made hay from a series of spectacular blocks (uh, not by me) followed by writhing cramping... But the inspiring pre game speech may have made all the difference...

Russ: Shit, these guys are going to kill us.
Luke: Yep.

But to the team, a much more inspirational speech.

"Shit, y'all, we're out classed. More experience, more height, more speed, just more better. We got one chance. Bring them down to our level. Turn it into a swilly hucking position based game. It's called Huck and Hope (TM). Every real fight ends up on the ground. This ones going into a gutter. Let's make it ugly, and winit in the end.

I specifically remember thinking, "what's up with these sissies cramping... oh wait... they are RUNNING... whoops"

Boo came out confident. The Ultimate Players Score Computer had them as a 5 point favorite. The crowd was on their side. But it was BooWHO who jumped out to the early lead w/ a series of idiotic forced hucks falling into play for goals.

Boo took the time out, and regrouped. With the disc near the endzone, and a high count, Boo took another time out. Fisticuffs broke out over whether it was StallingNINE, or Stalling 8. (well, no of course they didn't). Perhaps in hindsight, the better question would have been, wait, why are they taking another time out... where did that come from? Isn't it one timeout per half? But while Boo turned that pass over, they eventually scored the goal. Perhaps the controversy spurred them to rise up.

BooWhoo was not worried, but Boo scored again. And again to make it 3-3. Boowho was still not worried, as the loudest guy on the team couldn't count. But Boo scored again, and again, and again to make the score 5-3, then 6-3. Boo who countered to make it 6- 4, but Boo took half 7-4.
And 'Boo' was receiving the ball... er... frisbee... to start the half.

BooWho scored twice to close the gap to 7-6 (side note I could actually describe every point, but here's a generic one at this point.).

Luke picks up the disc and makes a questionable decision and throws it as far as he can (HuckNHope (TM)). Someone makes a catch (scores), a spectacular bid (maybe scores), watches luke's bad throw go (out the back, out of bounds, just out of reach). Spencer or Andy makes a stellar 'D' in the zone. I probably turn it over again, far away.

Repeat. Occasionally Russ might get in on the turnover, or farthrowing excitement. But not so much, at least w/ the turnovers. Played good, definitely...

back to the action. Down 7-6, Boowho watches as Boo scores twice to make it 9-6.
And then we scored 7 straight to win... Yeah team.
Detailed stats.
Points played 48/50
Turnovers: uh, is 'all' an option? Lots.
Goals thrown: lots?
Diving layout 'd': One for the 21st century.
MVP: Co MVP, Spencer and Andy.
yeah team. off for the post tourney pizza/salad/ feed.

And now the shout outs:

BeckyT for running a great hat league and tournament.
All the players who misseeded themselves too low who made our job miserable.
AaronT for bringing Nationals level heckling w/ a broken kidney to both encourage his gal Vie to greatness, and give a reality to the tournament... example... during our 7 point run, i went into howard dean 'heeee-yahhhh' mode after every play... after my nth (where n is a high number) turnover of some point aaron goes 'where's the heee-yahhh'...

The pizza and salad, hosted by SilverMoon brewery in bend, featured delish pizza, fresh salad, foozball, pool, tasty beverages and candy, and an age group from 2 months to 43 years... and some sweet costumes...

til next year...

oh yeah, ps

SOCK, SOCK, SOCK
EYEEEEEEEEEEE!

updoque.

another exciting day in short attention span land... early morning ride to work... then a GREAT day of teaching (hey when it's bad, it's good, but it went well today. in Modern World History, my curriculum (all new this year) has finally reached a point where i'm teaching 'old hat')... and the gov class went well, with a discussion of the bill of rights... and AP government flowed... so good... then, a 4 mile run, and 4 x 100 on grass (really, about 150) and 3 x 200 (about 300)... i just cruised them, as i was a little sore after the weekend... and didn't push it until the last 2 (3)...

then, back to school, 30 minutes of roller skiing, focusing on skills (double pole technique, and no pole technique) then bike home... then a good 1/2 mile to ALMOST mile of uni-biking (TM) w/ a mix of 'water -starts' (no help) and lean starts... (mail boxes)... lots of juggling...

so, good day... then, burgers and beers at 'locals night' at the deschutes... and now, tidying up the blogosphere...

g'night.

ps: wrote 'updoque' on the board, and got two classes to ask 'what's updoque'.

personal process, group outcome

well, that is what i think playing 'pick-up' ultimate.

personal process: "i am going to play reasonably hard defense for at least 2 turnovers." "i am not going to get angry when my foolish efforts to be a downfield cutter are stymied by other people running around in a manner that could be well simulated by pouring dye into a running mixer (i was going to say toilet. i have matured)." "i'm going to handblock the crap out of this high school kid who has 7 times refused to throw it to the obviously open cutter, whether guy or gal"

group outcome... "oh, for the love of god, will someone just go? they are forcing BACKHAND (i'm lefty)" and, "no really, flat mark, trust me, it's 5 more throws and it's not like anyone is in position any way," and, "let's just play zone"

well in all serious, i admit the little devil on my shoulder shouting in a high pitched voice (is it physically impossible for a miniature devils to have a deep voice? or am i attaching too much significance to the movies?) has made me think of some of the above... but when i play pick-up ultimate, i am constantly amazed by concepts that are anathema to me (or are they anathematic. i don't know. i had a ex who took albuterol for her anathsma)... like... let's work on the short game... let's get everyone involved... they are new, let them pick it up...

see, people are messed up.

let's work on the short game?! why? are we developing dynamic rapport amongst our handler corps so they can over time develop the subtle communication necessary to become the dominant 1-2 punch of this pick-up game?

let's get everyone involved?! i don't know, i guess i'm just horribly horribly obsessed, but when i first learned to play i had this unreasonable fixation on scoring goals and playing defense. frankly, i was a little nervous that if i tried to force a forehand, it might cause 1) me to play more defense and 2) my team mates... oh, i have to be honest... i was always just concerned that i would have to play more defense...

they are new, let them pick it up. you have to be effin' kiddin' me. are you just trying to make them feel bad, or what? what about saying... hey, next time you get a 'd', pretend you are going to pick it up, and then take off and i'll throw you the bomb?

now let me be clear: i'm a big fan of team process goals for, well, teams... like, developing an offense at the expense of early season wins, or scoring alone... or developing a defensive scheme that means you suffer for a while... oh heck, just turn everything i just said around, apply a little intelligence (DON'T use common sense, it doesn't exist) and there might be lessons for national bound teams...

which is interesting: outcome goals, DoG's assertation that their PlugandChug (AdF) offense is radically different than west coast Huck n' Hope (tTM), well, it's just less hucking than they used to, and less than some. But honestly, for DoG, still, the threat of a huck is always there, as it is for all elite teams... Even now, perhaps beyond their salad days, the threat of someone speedy taking off meant you would have to accept SOME amount of bowling alley cuts, and short gainers, and down field dumps...

moving on, in my own inimitable stream of conciousness way (note, i do actually write w/ caps and puncs, just not on my blog), my theory is that west coast HnH grew out of the earlier rise of 4-3 coed on the left coast, more space, more huck.

so boston gains a lot of credibillity w/ me in that i ASSUME they work on process early, at the expense of outcome (w/ pretty good outcomes coming from talent and experience), w/ a true plan of finishing well. but please comment on the much lauded boston/furious semi final 4 turnover game... did furious get 2 turnovers playing HNH, or is it more likely that in a true, good game, there is a certain similarity in the plays of the teams? i don't know. i was playing one field over. not much. losing, but playing...

meanwhile, the west coast teams are also working on process goals, but they focus more on HnH? and break marks? i don't know... i'm retired... until apparently next year...

i think there is more to be said here, but, my limitations are obvious. i don't care enough to save and edit this tale...

this week, i was tailing off the running... i.e., the shorter faster things would be appropriate if i was jetting' to 'sota, but i'm not, so i'm back to base training...

yesterday, about 60 miles biking (40 in a single ride), 45 minutes of roller skiing... today, oh, 20 miles of biking, 12 miles of roller skiing (like 1:10 or so, fell), 2 hours of frisbee (dove and landed on the EXACT same spot i fell on, one neato catch on overthrown pass on comback w/ a high trailing edge catch and a pull from behind the opponents ear). and some juggling... Got Mills mess, yeah!, and a new uni-bike (tm, sounds much cooler than unicycle, if you feel compelled to make the obvious observation assume it's the origin of the name, not the other way around) PR of starting w/ nothing to lean on, and then 1500 feet over varied hills and such...

frisbee was fun, i dove a little, few handblocks, caught some neat stuff, hucked and hoped...

oh, mildly irritated, when i offered the new player some advice : "would you like some advice (does everyone ask?!)" and heard some mediocre player who thinks i'm a ball hog say, "just say no"...

state of the bod, good, foot a little achy, but only after a lot of time on my feet this weekend... and i bought another new pair of shoes (note, i'm not a collector, i just go through running shoes fast)

dinner: new current fast food recipe...
1.5-2" of pasta
1 bag of mixed fresh veggies... poke holes in it, microwave for 4 minutes (i'm probably carcinogenating the crap out it, but it says to do so on the bag, so the material is at least moderately up to the challenge, and no ecoli),
2 large frozen chicken breasts, micro thawed, and grilled
healthy dose of decent off the shelf teriyaki sauce...
enjoy...

this week is just short running, sprints and easy runs as we prep for districts.
i will get to roller ski a lot after each practice(not much time before snow fall precludes this), it's strengthening some basic muscles, and identifying the holes in my game (my V2 stroke) that i can more cofortably work on when i'm on snow... the parking lot at the nearby middle school where i unibike is nicely lit...

the girls look pretty good, but the top girl broke her femur 10 meters from the finish (Where she might have gone sub 18:00 for a 5 K... likely number one in the state)... but they should qualify... they just aren't the number one team any more...

and the boys need a really good race to go to state...

and did you see the pics of the kid getting molested by the deer on NPR? well, he'll be at summit in 2 years...

last year... previously posted...
well, today we ran '800's' and i felt awful... the course is grass, and slow, and maybe a little long... here is last year...i did 6, w/ 3:00 rest, at 3:00, 2:58, 2:58, 3:01 (not fair, b/c i literally sprinted from bathroom to start line), 2:58, 2:54.

last week...
at 3:00, 2:56, 2:50, 2:45, and then 3:00 (totally blown...sloppy form, etc)...

yesterday, 4.5 mile run, easy, and 35 minutes of roller skiing (plus 50 minutes of bike commuting (easy zone 1))... today, 200, 400, 600, 800, 800... and then we were supposed to go 6, 4, 2... the varsity guys were burying me on the 2's and 4's... but by the 6, and th 8, i had moved up to the top 6 guys... so, i went w/ the mindsset of, just making it a workout (which was cool, we weren't keeping times)... but i did time my 8's... i ran 2 more, and my times were... 2:55, 2:55, 2:54, 2:55... then a cool down... i concentrated on deep breathing (i tend to be a shallow wind sucker), and the 4 runs were smooth... maybe even race pace, but that may be ambitious... but i was drawing deep breaths, and felt great...

work was fun, hard, since i bike i have to carry clothes, and i forgot my shirt, so i spent all day in a tye-die tshirt w/ the summit hs logo on it (anyone know how to do those cool old wilmington tye-dies)... i spilled coffee in my crotch, but it was cold. so i taught my 52 person ap gov class wearing stained shorts and a tyedie.

of course, both the princi-pal, and the vice made appearances... but i was on my 'a' game... so... not bad...

i think i have mills mess down, so as soon as i feel comfortable... w/ emphasis on the able (the emPHASIS on the SYLabble) i'll post a video... as soon as i can consistently go... cascade, reverse cascade, cascade, tennis, flash, cascade, flash, cascade, columns, cascade, arches, mills, w/ a little 4 ball, and a little of a couple other tricks who's name i forget... give me a week... music will be provided, you get your own food and drink...

state of the luke

well, today we ran '800's' and i felt awful... the course is grass, and slow, and maybe a little long... here is last year...

i did 6, w/ 3:00 rest, at 3:00, 2:58, 2:58, 3:01 (not fair, b/c i literally sprinted from bathroom to start line), 2:58, 2:54. For your real athletes out there, the top guys ran them at like... oh, 2:45-2:20 w/ 5 sec. improvements for each one. Also, Varsity 1 ran 7.

we did a 1.75 mile warmup, and then i did 5.... last night i slept awful... woke up 4 times... hamstring and calf cramps, so i considered not doing the workout...

so, in hindsight, todays workout was not so bad... at 3:00, 2:56, 2:50, 2:45, and then 3:00 (totally blown...sloppy form, etc)... if i'd known last year was 6 when i was running, i'd ov run another... but i was blown..., so i guess it was a much better workout than last year. varsity ran 2:45 - 2:30, so it turned out to be better than last year... then went and got my orthotics adjusted (i've been having '4rth metatarsal pain'... so the guy dug a little hole for my 4rth metatarsal joint... i feel pretty good... and it's actually a nice cut down from last year, especially since it seemed like a 'bad workout'... and the previous day (mon) was harder, a 6 mile at like 7:30 pace, 126 heartrate (i.e., easy, which means i'm getting stronger)

sunday, 20 miles of biking (but easy, like 2 trips to town, one to school, where i did 35 minutes of skate skiing), one to ultimate, where i played for 3 hours...)...

thursday is the 400's and i may or may not run them.... it's nice to see the year to year improvements, but since i'm training for skiing, i may do 800's to get an interval, vs speed, response... but who am i kidding... i'll run them... but i basically missed 10 days with illness, so my stride length, which should have been improved by 2 weeks of fast 1000's is still static... i think i should have done mile repeats today, and i would have been faster than my earlier times... just couldn't quite 'stride it out'

frisbee: my ignorant prelim is coming...

year in review.

nope. wasn't at regionals. the luke who was posting was probably luke johson, but i don't know.
today, i am 26 years old. my drivers license says otherwise, but that's not my problem.

it's been a great year. i got a new bike (thanks bike thief), and i've been riding like crazy... probably 150-200 miles per week during the summer, and 115-150 mpw since school started. plus 30 miles or so of running, a day or two of ultimate, unicycling (suprisingly tiring), roller skiing...

i'm running as fast now as i did the only year i ran cross country, my freshman year... which is to say i'm a moderate talent w/ a pretty good pain threshold, and a love of working out... probably, on a fast 5k course, a sub 19 runnerish... and hopefully i'd be faster when 'we' peak in 3 weeks... i'd like to think i can run a 5k around 18.

i weigh the same as i did the day i graduated, 6'2, 175#, and i still have my fingers and toes. my pinky is a wreck, worthy of a picture, but if you've seen it, you know... interesting, the heaviest i've ever been was 205 (and that was from lifting) and i could get over the rim. right now? haven't looked at basketball court in years...

i do have a few lines in my face. i guess i've laughed a little in the past few years.

frisbee? i throw a lot better than i did 16 years ago, but i run a little slower than i did 10 years ago. i'm definitely mellower. i still have an 'on' switch, but i know when a game w/o refs, for no pay, is just that.

biking? well, i could kick my 10 year ago ass, skiing, never saw them 10 years ago...

i've learned more new skills in the past 2 months than i learned in 10 years before that... juggling (cascade, reverse cascade, columns, 4 balls, showers, behind the back, under the leg, over the head, 3 ball flash, under the arms, fake mills mess, tennis), a little unibiking, a little roller skiing...

i'm reading less: i used to be a book a week reader, now it's just 150 pages a week or so for school, plus grading. and since grading is, uh, not usually the highest quality, i'm probably getting dumber. for instance, i used to use caps and punctuation.

but frisbee is what i miss. the camraderie: the teamwork: the throwing deep to someone open and knowing that ONLY they could be cutting. but, the occasional billy berrou no look behind the back offhand throw for a goal... or is that idris. whatever. they are the same.

i guess it's time to set goals.

i skied a 10k in 38:14 last year. it was enough to be the 'most improved' and i won a sweatshirt, but i want to go 32 this year... this will put me w/i 3 minutes of the really good skiers... it's my 4th year on nordic skis, should be about right. i.e., i'm not good, but i want to be. to achieve the goal, i've worked on base conditioning all summer, and now i'm roller skiing. i've also changed my diet to include... like 8-15 servings of fruit and veggies...

race my bike: this is scary. bike racing is a hairy deal, an hour or 3 of traffic jam at 100 milesperhour (metaphor). but it sounds fun.

cut my running times to sub 18 for 5 k. not a big deal for an elite athlete, but never claimed to be. just dogged and persistent.

learn french. i've got harry potter and the socerers stone in french and english, i took french in college in hs, and i'm willing to try.

develop a rudimentary guitar playlist of say 20 songs played w/ competence.

learn to windsurf.

play in at least one non co-ed 'elite type tournament'. not at elite play, not at sectionals, but play well, for a good team, at tempe, hawaii, solstice, tune-up, or other... this is a hard goal. the early ones are in ski season (which i'm loathe to miss), the late ones are usually 'hard roster' tourneys.. but it's a goal... maybe there will be a sweet oregon/whore team to join up with.

juggle 5 balls.

unicycle 12 miles in one stretch. or at least in one day.

play in a local tennis tournament.

long term: clean up the finances and consider buying a house (although, the market here is so weird, it's not necessarily in my best financial interests, but hey, how can such a gamble possibly go wrong)

become a competent age group ski racer

coach my hs team to a state title: but more importantly, foster long term love of the sport, and develop players who go on to make an impact at a higher level

write a novel.

that'll do.

refreshin' the podcasts

http://www.ultimatetalk.com/?cat=17

and the podcast commentary tracks...

http://mlsmith.blogspot.com/2005_12_01_mlsmith_archive.html

right at the top for podcast two

and

scroll down to december 13 for podcast one commentary track...

and then there was wednesday...

i was fried today. half the team is sick. literally. me too, some kind of sore throat wheezy lung thing. i knew i had no chance running w/ the varsity, so i ran w/ the varsity girls... on a different track...

4:15, 4:06, 4:00, 4:00...

only one girl was able to run more than 2, that was faster than the JV boy runners, but still. i was wheezing. when my form went to hell, my lungs turned into some kind of broken vacuumn cleaner.

the course was significantly longer: the guy who ran 2:55 for his fastest last week, running 6, only ran 5, w/ 3:30 as his fastest time... so not a complete debacle... but all things considered (sick, hammy) did fine. hammy was significantly better than even yesterday, but there is no way i could have shaved off the 15 seconds i needed to shave to 'move up' today... c'est la vie.

sun don't shine on the same dog's butt everyday.

yesterday (tuesday) 25 miles of biking, hit tennis balls for a while, core workout, 3 hours of juggling.

monday, 4.3 mile run, 45 minutes of tennis, 15 miles of biking

sunday, uh, 20 plus miles of biking, 30 minutes of roller skiing, 2 games of limply (hammy) frisbee...

saturday, 5 mile run at the site of the race (and probably, point zero of infection, at least, the crowded bus ride)... but i'm no epidemiologist. could have gotten it weeks ago.

friday, ok, i see i'm overlapping...

school still hard, 10-12 hour days, but in good news, due to a grant, i look to be getting a laptop in the next couple months: it's hard to go back into the school at 6 pm after school and coaching and enter grades: this way, i can bring it home and accomplish a few things at the house...

ate... 8 pieces of fruit, sandwich, raisin bran, soup, salad... couple beers, just for the carbs, of course.

stuff...

reviewing the blogosphere, idris cares about rules, kd is on fire, and not much shaking in boston... and me, well, i'm good to talk about me.

thursday, real sore from 6x1000. friday, same. went to the beach, and threw into a gnarly upwind for about an hour. really fun. (the team had a race this weekend). ate some production spaghetti, juggled, went to the oregon coast town of seaside and had a rediculous icecream brownie sunday, juggled for a while and made a dollar (i returned it), chaperoned a dorm w/ 5/12 kids snoring.

ran a little on race day, still sore, (the boys placed 4th, missing a top runner, girls were 1st, yeah team), spent several hours on the bus working on a mail in test for a coaching certification...

sunday (today) still sore. i know. i'd think i'm 'injured' but... it... just... doesn't... feel like it...

helped w/ the team in a race (we marshall it to raise money), roller skied (3 x 5 minutes double pole, 3 x 5 minutes no pole... just drills to help the muscles and balance), biked 25 miles commuting around, played in 2 ultimate frisbee games... still... unbelievably sore. tommorrow, run, play tennis... bike.


you

push it a long...

1000 repeats today. I guess I'm getting better, which is pretty normal for a guy in his mid 20's.

Checking the blog, on
9/29/2005 3:42, 3:49, 3:49, 3:49, 3:34.

10/3/2005 3:41, 3:38, 3:38, 3:40, 3:30

9/20/2006 3:37, 3:25, 3:21, 3:20, 3:16, 3:16

exact same course, so unless they've added a newer more resillient bark chip, I guess I"m a bit faster than last year, and I did 6. Today's top runner went...3:40, 3:30, 3:20, 3:10, 3:03, 2:55, which is a much cleaner workout than mine (see the nice even knockdowns?) I think that he and the rest of the varsity guys could have run their easy ones faster, and gone for 3-5 second cut downs instead of 10 second. but a bunch of them blew up in the miles last week, so we deliberately held them back a little. they could make a huge improvement (not as likely for me, but i'll be out there). It's very misleading... this guy would go 2 minutes faster than me in a race... i'm sure.

I guess that somewhat faster pace explains the complaints from all of the banjo string like hamstrings... But no complaints, I was pretty maxed out, and the numbers, while generally not important, don't lie. so it was a good day...

The big question is, am i training for pride, ego, or vanity. Cause I don't have any races scheduled, except for a grudge match in december w/ one of the skiers with huge stakes... i guess i just want to be fit for life... fun to see improvement... but really, i'm training for...

a cliff bar. the big reward for winning a 5k in december.

yesterday, largely rest: got in some jugggling, a couple hours of guitar, probably 1/2 - 3/4 mile of unibiking (still can't free start), and i have yet to get a properly sized one... super fun. and biked the least in months: 6 miles... i caught a ride home from the open house... (At school to 8:30, i forgot my light).

Monday, 4.3 mile run, and 40 minutes of whacking around tennis balls.

academic highlights, the standing 'O' the 52 kids in government class give me, the fun of making 4 versions of a test for that class that were really just 2 versions that i scribbled '3' and '4' on a couple before making copies... the kids thought i took this no cheatin' thing seriously... the first class of the day is suprising bubbly in the A.M... But, I'm sort of tired w/ over 200 kids' names to learn, etc... kids are doing the work, reading, discussing, engaging... life is good.

well hell...

idris is down... down...
so i might as well post my bs, non ultimate related shit...

hippo defeats rhino. i was invited to play. could i have contributed? hellifino? i did play ultimate today at 'bend league play' and i was on. but it's hard to say. i was exciteometereriffic. that is, every time i touched it, i threw a goal, caught a coal, or threw a turnover, in the goal.

is that good enough to put me on the 4th best team in the nw? well, my defense was, uh, horrific. that is to say, not at all. so could i have muscled up in the 'big game?' shit. i don't know. i'dve tried...

but i was throwing like a god, and i got a couple handblocks.

am i missing regionals? well, yeah, but, i mean? i think i have somethin to coach that weekeknd.

i had dinner w/ a former athlete's family (and a current athlete) and that was cool.

the new roller skis were SUHWEET. pretty amazing to do something scary. got in one hour of juggling. also, 25 miles of biking... and a mile of joggling for warmup...

highlight of the day? i got a 100 gig harddrive of music coming...

what's missing? i wish i'd been throwing every day for a month... note to self, note to others: i got A LOT better at throwing when i started coaching throwing...

new toys...

not christmas... but payday is coming, and i demo'd some new roller skis. the aero V2.. i took them out for a demo today... just 25 minutes... mainly double poling (like, you don't do the skating motion, you just double pole. It's very specifically good). yes i wore dorky knee pads. yes, i took a mild spill on the rough road. i lived. we've had our first snow. 4-6 inches at 5000 feet. (i'm at 3500). winter is coming.

i also threw in a little unicycling, and some juggling. and 12 or so miles of biking around for commuting. messed around w/ the guitar for a couple hours. still awful. i also took a course in teaching me to be a better coach. here is what the 6 hours taught me. "kids, don't do drugs. coaches, don't date kids. hitting is discouraged." but i got a bunch of fruit and sandwiches out of the deal

but i think i probably could have guessed most of that information on the pretest.

I had to miss the students racing for this. While I'm never enthusiastic about 7 hours in a bus, I like to be there for the races.

I watched a good movie. District B13. I guess the best term is french kung fu. pretty sweet.

Tommorrow, i'll bike, do another, longer roller ski (i'll bike somewhere with the roller skis and use them on better pavement, and actually skate a little), and if the weather holds, i'll play ultimate. if the weather is iffy, i'll mountain bike instead. then, i have to return the roller skis.

Yesterday, biked just for commuting, and hit tennis balls for an hour. Oh, and taught and shit.

Thursday, kind of an adventure race/hash race for the team. I won, I guess. i'm undefeated in high school adventure racing for 3 years. It's kind of like Mitch Hedburg promising to kick ass in little league if he could play now. (note: Mitch Hedburg, is now dead, and cannot play now). So this one was for Mitch.

This week, 1000 repeats. I'll see if my new shoes the (i'm not making this up) nimbus 2001's are better than my adidas supernovas.

that's all.

miles

today was mile repeats.... i did 4, at 6, 5:55, 5:50, and the last, a cruiser, at 5:57. mile warmupu, and a true cool down...

i did 5 repeats last year, according to the blog. if i'd known that, i'd have cranked out another. last year, 6:18, :15, :15, :05, :10.

the last was fun. i roped in 3 of the varsity guys who had 'blown up' and were kind of cooked, and we worked on pace lining in the stiff upwind for about 600 yards... that was the 5:57. i think we could have gone (well, i could have gone) 6 seconds faster if the lead runners had pushed a little more... that is, one guy would lead for a few seconds, and drift off. if we had done it better, we could have cut a great deal of time off.

the draft was sweet, and it was a great object lesson in team work...
hopefully, it's a workout we get to repeat.

yesterday, 35 minutes, unicycled, guitar, juggled...

monday, 55 minute run...

sunday, 52 miles of biking (16 on the trail) and rode all three bikes between errands, and a flat tire... also ran and threw a bit, and played 2 points of pickup ultimate (two touches, one flick huck, one hammer/blade to corner).... saw the davinci code. ok movie...

saturday... i don't remember... seems like... oh i rode around and worked at a car wash... and a sweet napoleon dynamite party...


really can't remember before that...

oh yeah... thursday, ran my first race in 3 years... did ok. i'm hangin' steady in the top 10 on the team (if i were on the team)... we'll see what that means. they came in second in state last year... i was... like top 30 out of a say 125 guys... lost to a girl...

but she's sort of a stud. and i had to pay up, w/ a pint of haagendaazs.

wednesday, rode 30 miles, ran 6, w/ some pickups (100/200/400/400/200/100) in the middle (included in distance)...

tuesday... uh, i can't remember...

that's all. i have aeon flux to watch tonight. i assume it sucks. but, it's free from the library. unlike glory road, which was 'OK', which i think i'm about to buy if i don't get it back to blockbuster...

a bunch of stuff you don't care about...

...at least if you are reading this over at the meta blog ultimatetalk.com...

but, while i'm here...

OK, i'll admit it... i'm a farce... my frisbee playing has been almost non existent lately... i still hang out w/ frisbee players (housemates, former coachees), still like to throw... still throw well... well... well... great... if only the receivers knew what to do w/ out the back throws...

honestly, i'm kind of doing too much 'stuff' (running/biking) to play much ulti... that is... i can't tack on the extra suprise workout these days and have it be a sprint workout... i prefer my faster stuff to come in the context of the team workouts, or as pickups or intervals on the bike... but now that school has started, and i can only excercise once per day... (plus commuting... 4.9 miles one way) , plus weights... well, i will start playing...

in the mean time... the blog...

i had a great summer... i worked at a bike ride as a baggage handler... an elaborate, and hopefully humorous photo essay will follow... or maybe you'll just get some bogus paste eating thing... but where i never intended to put any video of me eating paste... i do intend to put funny pictures w/ captions up... perhaps even mildly self mocking... stay tuned... and the story of the secret door is coming...

my biking has been outrageous... by my standards... i can now do this neato 27 mile, 3000 vertical gain ride (and then back down for 54 miles total) in pretty good form... not that big a deal for real riders, but pretty cool for me... and while for lance, it may not be about the bike... my 20 speed makes it... uh... funner... (but not easier... you need a triple chain ring... like a mountain bike, or a touring bike... for that)...

running is steady... i'm yet again... on the 'jv' for a team that has a decent shot at medaling at state... based on the 'time trial'... you can see it at summitxc.com. find results/2006/time trial.

clark (head coach) put me down as joe b-a. it's actually supposed to be joe k-a. you translate.

also: i can now juggle 4 adequately(well, depends on your standards... 5 or 6 seconds, for sure), ride the unicycle about 450 feet... goal is 6 miles in 2 weeks, and basically unlimited on the 4 balls... or tricks... why should you (the frisbee populace care?)... well... remember how much fun it was however many years ago learning something new (Frisbee?) and being enthralled by both the challenge, and the improvement? if you don't, learn something new... if you do, then you know what i mean... it's both improving my balance and coordination, and getting me fired up to dominate on the field... whether it's tempe or hotbox... see my rec.sport.disc post re: playmaker...

whether it will turn me into a triple threat... ask billy berrou... for non frisbee types... he's a famous wacko, who hates ultimate... but talks about it all the time... don't ask..

beyond that... today... i read 'we die alone' , an amazing story of a scandahoovian who battled germans, elements, and lapplandish sense of nonhumor during ww2. pretty good.

now (and it's late) i'm going to go watch an hour or so of glory road about basketball... first all black team... should be good...

on to the mundane...

lessee... today, sunday, 14 miles biking, 1 hour juggling, 30 minutes unicycling (actually a good workout), 1 hour learning guitar, read a book, watched agassi's last match.

saturday, 54 miles riding, up to mt. bachelor, watched the race... link to follow... juggle, unicycle

friday... easy... games w/ team...commuting only... i think? juggle, unicycle
thursday... team time trial, juggle, unibike, then foolishly played ultimate... almost reinjured hammy...
wednesday... 6 k easy run, then, preran a course (photos to follow) w/ a 1.8 mile warmup...(4.8 total miles)
tuesday... seems like it was an easy run... modest bike like 35 for the day (miles)?
monday... heck if i know... so long ago... easy run... oh no... that's the day i showed up w/ two right shoes, and so ended up doing an easy 8 mile bike ride... rest day...

there you are loyal reader... comment away...

and idris (host of ultimate talk)... hope adding links later doesn't screw things up...

school's in...

and i am out to lunch... but what a great summer... the past 4 years have been the best of my life... and this summer has arguably been one of the best of the 4 (hard to compare experiences, but short of world's in hawaii... well it's been a good one)... tons of riding on my new road bike (30-50/day between commuting, and put on the tights type riding), riding my mt. bike... maybe once per week, but enjoying that... running say, 20-25 miles per week, ultimate 1/2 times per week (and sometimes that has meant 'a half)... learned to juggle and do a few tricks, got started unicycling... basically a great time...

the only things i didn't get to do... looking back on last year... i had hoped to learn to windsurf this summer, but didn't... but i did get in 80 days of skiing, my running times are getting a little better...

i'm mildly bummed i'm not playing more ultimate this year, but i'm kind of focused on school, and coaching, and frankly, it's easy to get pretty much broke (money wise) for that last month of the summer when you are teaching...

i also got a little burned out on disc after march/april/may/june, pretty much 5or6 days/week of practice, or when my hammy was busted, running practice when i couldn't really run... i'm pretty psyched... now that the season of daily doubles is over, to start adding back in some disc, and some weights...

weeks workouts for those of you who's life has been lessened by my absence?
today, recovery day... 26 miles on bike. 6 of those miles due to bringing two right shoes to morning cross country practice... and by right, i mean wrong... juggled about an hour (working on 4 balls), lifted weights/abs... worked a little, but school wasn't ready w/ the books, so i ordered what i could from the print shop, organized the room a little, hooked up the computer...

sunday, 54 miles riding, including 30 while following a race riding the course backwards... topped by a 10 mile sprint trying to match the womens pack... unfortunately my riding partner was kind of small... so i got no draft, so no rest... i.e., a sweet interval ride... we lost by 200 meters or so... but i was tired b/c

saturday, hiked down off of south sister (big 10000 foot mountain) and rode around say 10 miles for recovery...

friday... light, say 15 miles riding, couple miles run/walk, a vigorous game of everybody's it tag (hey, gotta havethe fun days) (then hiked up south sister, 5000 foot vertical, say, 7 miles?. steep. camped on top at 10000 feet, nice)

thursday... i think that was the 30 mile ride... plus some extra commuting... say... 40? oh, plus a run... of probably 5 miles... can't remember... no, wait... easy 3-4 mile run... slow and easy, with core workout... played ultimate...

wednesday... now it's getting hazy... oh yeah, ran the steps at the college... 6 hard intervals of say 2.5 minutes each? plus the run there and back...

tuesday... shevlin park run... 5.5 miles, 37 minutes, 7 minute pace, (much slower in beginning, faster at end)... lot of commuting... weights...
monday... run, maybe that was the day i mountain biked 20 miles plus the 25 miles of commuting...

and i'm eating my veggies and fruit...

out of here...

watch me eat paste!

well, i'm having trouble with my server, so until i can get the tape up at youtube, you'll just have to settle for the transcript:

"sound of paste jar unscrewing"
"sound of smacking sound"
"kind of a 'eh, not as bad as i thought sound'"
"more smacking"... then kind of an "uh-oh" but more like "mrewerrh mreooih"
then... kind of a pasty belchy sound...

uh, hamstring improving, monday, i ran friday, and biked, took saturday and sunday off, ran 5 in 34:20 and lifted, tues am, played some hotbox, and mini, then rode around and went for a ride (say 30 miles for the day), wednesday was just a brisk 6.5 mile run, hammy is 'tweaky', minor riding, say 10 miles, walked the dog i'm dogsitting a couple miles, today, ultimate, and rest... it is like 95 right now... i could play ultimate again in an hour... in a windless area surrounded by trees... i think i'll pass...

supposed to get into the 100's over the next few days... so i've got a morning run tommorrow, and i'm going to try to wake up early to do the longer rides on saturday and sunday... need to lift one more time, tommorrow or saturday...

this week, read

henlein's The Cat Who Walks through Walls, To Sail beyond the Sunset, Foundation (Asimov), finishing up Sleeping w/ the Devil by Baer about US Corporations/US Gov and Saudi's (Basis for Syriana), and starting Lucifer's Hammer by Niven (which i've read, but i've also seen Raiders of the lost ark more than once)... I have a book about the US v. England soccer upset of 52 or whatever year it was... The Game of their lives...

this blog has been brought to you by paste...

state of the hamstrung...

the nice thing about a blog... is it's a nice place to go back... and look for running times... nothing comparable... but i can go back and look and see my times... my times for running are a little faster this year... my 5-6 mile runs are more at a 7:15-7:30 pace... about 15 seconds per mile faster... my total mileage is way up... as i'm now biking average 20-30 miles per day... but my hamstring is a bitch...

it only bugs me when i play disc, and sprint... but it's there... and it's only there when i 'stride it out'... but it's there...

today... morning frisbee w/ the hs kids... 1.5 hours of mini... and hotbox... (plus 5.2 miles commute), then a 28 mile bike ride (road) then another 1.5 hours of frisbee... a little gimpy... total ride, 40

the espn highlights of the day... a fake the lefty flick (i'm lefty) righty nutmeg 20 yarder for the goal... a behind the back no look righty flip for score, some hucks... and...

3 easy pancake drops... am i done? that's literally the total number of fumbles for... like... a year? 2 years? i don't mean missing a hard one... got all of those... just the kind of nonchalance idiocy that reflects youth...

i think it reflects training load... this week... wednesday...6.25 mile run... in 7:15 pace, w/ minor hamstring tweakage... lifted weights, biked, oh, say13 miles... ... tuesday, rest, monday, 5 mile run in 36:15 (7:15 pace)... plus 26 miles of riding, plus weights... sunday... 12 on the trail, 26 on the road....

and loads of stretching... 3-4 by 10-15 minutes each day...

goal: 'healthy' hammy in the next 2 weeks (the stretching and weights is per my PT, so i'm hopeful i'm on the upswing)... hit a 60 mile ride, go sub 7 for an 'easy run', ie, 35 minutes for a flat fast easy conversational run... w/ the goal of nice fast mile and 1000 times that coincide w/ the 'healthy' hammy...

i defend zz.

do you know what i mean. i mean it fececiously. is that simply a mispelling of shit?

zinedane zidane. what an emabarassment. the single player who defined the world cup for me. i watched everygame but one. i was lucky enough in my teaching to have my ap gov class done in time for the cup... every kid... graduated... and my prep... game after game.

and every game... mediocrity... EVERY game mediocrity... the occasional brilliance... but time after time... how many games... 64 i think... i missed one during finals... and another during graduation... but...

i saw 60 plus games... only from zidane did i see the brilliance...

and i'm not talking of the play here or there... great team work... i mean individual brilliance...

his work against brazil was rediculous...

cancelled by anger... too many calls... too many cards... and the horror of the best player in the finals eliminated by anger....
it's like when mike g spat on eddie... except that mike is not zidane, and eddie is not the italian guy...

but, what a travesty that the game was decided on pks...

today... ran, 5 miles in 36:15, then lifted weights, then an easy 17 mile bike ride... and frankly... the fact that the world cup ended on pk's... attrocious.

pathetic that france dominated the pitch w/ 10... and if zidane had shot... almost a gimme... would it have been different... i don't know.

ribery's brilliance... thierry's genious... but for the italians... the defense...

i ... don't know...

congrats to italy, i hope zidane plays in the US in retirement...

the end...dddddddddddddddddddd

stolen bike, pt. deux.

dammit. twice in one year. last time, my mt. bike, this time my classic takara 1984 road bike. literally on the day i bought a 150 dollar saddle. so if i had that kind of insurance, the bike would be worth 280 bucks. saddle, plus 100 dollar pedals, plus a 30 dollar bike.

the replacement, was somewhat more... a 'felt f75',

here it is in german... just because... it's sweet though...

yesterday...25 miles of bike commuting (3 plus trips to town and back), today, 5 mile run, 37:30, and another 25 miles of just riding... most of it on the ginormous clunker (no pictures of the 1996 fischer kaitai w/ the snow tires still on) but some on the new sweetness... aluminium/carbon blend... 20 speed... yes, from 12 to 20... and several pounds lighter...

tommorrow, 8:30 am frisbee... 12:00 soccer... evening... either nothing or a bike ride... then well i live like 250 yards from the butte they launch fireworks from... yippee...

it burns every once in a while...

potlatch... sorry i missed it. sounded fun... hamstring, well i went to a pt, no evidence of bad shoes, or gait issues, or what... just a 36 year old trying to play friskee 4 days in a row, culminating in a 4 hour workout... so, diligent stretching, and about to begin strength training... just need to be 'good' 'good' by sectionals... for prides sake... but i can lope around at pickup and kids league no problem...

updoc

whither kenny?
whither more billy?
and.. flg, whither worm?

and idris, was that a spam? the lost podcast?

school is out, i'm moving, putting together furniture... and finally getting legitimate attention for my hammy. unlike real countries, this meant a 1.5 hour trip to see a doctor for a prescription for an appointment already made... but... USA...

i fell asleep in the office chair after an easy day of (well including pre and post doc) 14 miles biking, 1.5 hours of ultimate...

the frisbee was awesome. it's been 90-100 for a couple days... and this morning it was raining steadily... no doubt, lighter than east coast... but raining... apprehensively, i biked over, arrived soaked at 8:40, and was taunted by the 11 kids for being late. it's a nice game, right now, it's all 'experienced' frisbee players, upperclassmen, a couple of alums... we played a mini mini tournament, then played some shortfield 6 on 6... i had my side experiment w/ some 3/3 'euro' just to see what it felt like... it cut down on the goals from 'huck and hope' but was fun to mess with... and see the kids understand some space clearing stuff...

the road bike needs work... and i'm waiting on a new lower chain ring to sub out... from 42 teeth to 39... hard to find for a 20 year old bike... but it should make hill riding better... also have to put in a new front derailleur... should make cruising fun...

but the frisbee... 1.5 hours in the best weather ever... probably 65-68, in a steady rain... it really was something you'd want to play for hours in... just awesome... left, bought a new chamois...

tommorrow, basic rest, PT, and if i get the chance, a mt. bike ride. the rain turns the already dusty lower trails (about 3 -4 mile ride at new house) into perfection... more to follow.

the trophy is off, having my name carved in...

champions!

well, count, i guess it's not as cool as a big saturday at easterns... but it's what i got... so i'll take it.
first round bye based on our season record of 9-1... earned us the toughest pool.. don't ask me how.

talbot is at some kind of first aid seminar: he's expected at 5 pm. 3 of my best girls are gone to europe... 4 of my best boys are gone, to wherever... the replacements are some girls sister (who's a stud, but has never played ultimate), tosch (my best young player, crushed w/ a mild concussion/broken nose)'s sister... and a couple girls who either haven't played in a year, or have never played... one kid back in from hawaii at 2 in the morning... one kid w/ 1 day of 'league' experience...

first round game, 13-7 i used all 3 time outs, for rest, and to stalll.

second game, against 'blue'. it was close for most of the game, but the 'throw it as far as i can' offense bogged down a little in the wind, and we dug ourselves a hole, 11-7. it was tough, my choices were, throw it to the open player, who was brand new, and then watch them get smothered, or just settle for the long turnover...

down 11-7, we ran off 5 straight to win, 12-11. we went w/ the same 7 for the run... wasn't even a question of 'the best 7', it was simply, time is short, the cap is coming, line up, let's pull...

5 minutes later, on to the semifinals...

at this point, i've played 43 points of frisbee. game was against decent players... we kept it close. again, i used all timeouts... i knew that talbot would show up at 5 pm. tough, tough draw.
our pool play opponent was in the 'semi-final' on the other side. odd, since as the number 2 overall team, an 'easier' pool seemed in order. but, the kids kept fighting... and down, 12-11, 76 points into the day, talbot shows up, we score the upwinder to tie, and hold on to win...

10 minutes later: on to the finals. started close. stayed close, but we took half at 9-7, and never looked back... what made it work? obviously, having a good player show up w/ fresh legs was good... but our win was against our one defeat... and i finish up 41-2 for 3 years, w/ 3 trophies... final was 15-10...

highlight, the 5 point run to win a pool play game w/ half a team of brand new kids... lowlight... down 12-11, both calves locked up, needing my buddy to help win.

i'd of won it on my own, of course...

but have you ever been so cramped up that you can just concentrate on running on your heels, as that seems to minimize the pain... well, there i was...

anyway, i only played about 20 of the points of the finals, to finish up at 96 for the day... not a record, but a high count of points...

the hamstring, well, a minimal amount of real sprinting. almost all d's on the mark. but i survived, so i guess, time to go to the track.... hamstring cured...

luke.

thirty something and 2

a loss...
12-11 loss to a good team (i know, i was the 'draft consultant.)

we just dug ourselves a whole, and couldn't get back in.

we brought in a few more (new) hs kids for this, as most of the team has left for europe, or mexico, or whatever...

so we weren't able to run our endzone plays, uh, play... which usually goes for 1-2 per game.

hamstring is coming back, my defense was still joke-er-iffic... but, what else is new. the offense was not going well, but, frankly, if i play any better on saturday... well, that's good...

talbot is unavailable for the 1st 2 or 3 games, so i'm counting on him to anchor the line for the finals. too bad. i was hoping he'd do the dirty work for 3 games... hee haw...

2nd game, less pleasant, a purple player's follow through broke the nose of my best young player... a 15 y.o. w/ wild athleticism... i.e., the best player on the team... we carted him off at 9 ish (yes, games start at 6)... and lost him, his sister, and her friend (who had to drive).

the mom, an awesome athlete (div I 800 runner, world class biker, great ski racer) was super cool... had the kids just meet at a friends for ice cream...

nice.

final was 11-3 or something. after we scored a couple w/ 6 players (4/2), they agreed it was dark...


next up, the tourney. hopefully we'll have a team. i count... 3 girls... just enough... go-zone.

world cup.
moderately dissapointing finish for the team.
let's spread the blame around...

1) take more shots: my impression is that the US team at some point read a stat that time of possession = wins. as a result, i saw many, MANY back passes that maintained possession, but gave no positional advantage.... maybe we couldn't shoot more because of the lack of...

2) dominant player: we have some wonderful players... but if we are to be successful, we need someone fearless to take shots. but it's almost as if they fear for their place on the field. i'm a big dempsey and mcbride fan... but donovan never seemed in the form he's brought to other games... maybe due to...

3) coaching issues: i don't know arenas. but leaving mathis behind for being a dick head may have denied us the fiery game breaker we needed. also, our midfield oriented, possesion attack might not have been appropriate for a desparation game... (yes, i understand what a counter attack is)... and personel wise, if we don't have the players, playing for the counter attack is well and good... but, flg, someone TAKE A SHOT, and don't fear that your spot on the team is gone. likewise, arenas is gone, which is not very fair, because of...

4) state of US football. we are not yet getting the aggressive large forwards who fear nothing... giant egos who fear no coach.... which brings me to the officiating...

5) actually, the officiating was OK... by that i mean, it was equally horriffic in the italy game... and the call against whasis face in the ghana game seemed 'poor.' but they are not to blame...

6) now, bandwagon time... i like the relentless, opportunistic brazillian attack. who doesn't. the depth and talent of argentina... awesome... and germany's talented 11 w/ the home court... those are the obvious favorites (i haven't looked at the brackets to see where they fall out)... some fun-derdogs.. australia, ghana, and the new, more exciting italian attack... the door lock (what is that , the cattenacio, or something) is gone, and the attack is better...

predictions:
ok, looked at the brackets... brazil d. spain, brazil d. england, germany gets by argentina on homecooking, and germany knocks brazil off 3-2... deutchland... uber alles...

dday

d day.
the d stood for day.
as trivial as this one.

thursday, is league night, and we're playing for 1st or 2nd or third in a double header... i THINK second or third should seed us in the same spot relative to the tournament... i.e... we should still regardless of game result, not see the 'other' team until the finals.

but we'll see.

our team, like man others, is depleted by late season, summer vacations.

unlike other teams, the players are not going rafting, they are going to senor pepes or whatever you do when you are a senior in high school going to mexico.

likewise, a. talbot, the other 'adult' on the team is going to wofa (wilderness oriented first aid)... which i believe is an experience like first aid/cpr, but they don't make you count breaths and heart beats...

it won't change the game plan which is based on the 'beautiful game.'
and if you think the beautiful game requires touch pass to touch pass... well, you're an idiot.

the beautiful game requires one thing...
goal shots...

and i promise them...

aside, just got done watching some joel silver interviews, and i got this to say about frank... he's right. his game is pure. it looks a lot like the early frisbee games. and by that i mean, it seems free flow, and meaningless.

personally, i'm not impressed. but i did get the impression that silver was lying. his game was a copy of the northfield mt. hermon game, and he, even in his detachment from 'frisbee' felt compelled to give himself credit...

today... a little 8:30 am frisbee w/ 12 kids... mostly coached, played a few points, and finished w/ a game of dutch (3 v 3 in a box, 5 passes a point, 3 points win)... the hamstring is better... not 'best'...

then came home, read, ate pancakes, watched some world cup, and went for a 2.5 hour mt. bike ride... say, 25 miles... just a cruise... (lamely, i watched my heart rate monitor to make sure i kept it 'easy')

watched the replay of the england/sweden game... and a little dvd... and here you are...

more to come...

new team forming...

the arisocrats.

well, i'm not sure i have the chops or energy to form a decent nw club team...
but what a name.

if you've not seen the movie, it's brilliant. and if you hated it, here's some more ammo.
'waiting' is also brilliant.

school's out. i've got to go in monday for a few hours to finish, and enter grades, but i'm glad to be done. next year's schedule is out, and i have a ridiculously complicated schedule. probably the hardest at school (i.e., many different subjects, on rotating days)... so i'll probably gack it as i get sidetracked by the yearlong coaching (xc running (we may win boys and girls state), xc skiing, and frisbee)

plans? increased prose volume, if not... weight... run/bike/frisbee. i just now realized how detached from 'real' frisbee i am. solstice is this weekend, and while i'm recovering from an injury, that never would have stopped me in the past. but, there doesn't appear to be a 'whore' team there that i can just show up and mill around the sideline...

or maybe i just wasn't invited...

today i read the section of the coffee table book (zagoria and leonardo) dealing w/ co-ed... and just for the record, officially, co-ed is killing 'open' play. i don't 'hate' co-ed. but i do hate sloppy tournaments. and unfortunately for co-ed, those tournaments are often sloppy.

i just can't deal w/ the 14 minute points as a going concern, nor can i deal w/ a game where me throwing it as far as i can every time i touch it is as good a strategy as any...

me: two games last night (see previous post), so today, just 34 minutes of biking (17 each to and from work)... tommorrow, some biking (probably a 2 hour bike ride), same sunday... next week, i'll get in a few runs, play the last regular season league games, then the tournament. i'm a little bummed that i don't feel fully 'frisky' for the tournament... but i suspect, adrenalin will cure that.

the season is shaping up to a 2 team race. maybe 3. we have yet to play the 'top two' teams. for some reason, we're seeded 4th, w/ a 9-0 record, and a plus 6 diff... it has something to do w/ the fact that we were just 6 and 0 when the seedings came out. i'm not sure why the team w/ a loss was ahead of us...

and finally, soon, both 'grown ups' on the high school team will be allowed to play at the same time. for yes, there is a rule against a. talbot and myself being on the field at the same time, except for the finals, or the tournament... or something....

bowling night

double header...
vs 'blue', 13-4?

then vs 'white.'
13-3?

as is usual, games start on 'ultimate time', although, my team is there on time... then there is some kind of cap for the game... then an untimely break while the other team huddles... at some point (5-0) i asked for an 8:45 cap... agreed, then after a couple exchanges led to 7-2, the opponents smelled victory... and a few minutes later, we were chastised for 'taking too long.' i don't know if it was 90 seconds but it was quick.

this led to a change of strategy. 'jog back orange', let's play. some presumably good natured heckling by the white team only pissed off the kids... i told them that this was a sign that we were in their heads, and don't let that change. (the kids just generally run around, and never say anything to the opponents...)

needless to say, the kids started making blocks all over the field.

hamstring getting better, still not ripping around the field, but running at least... and played probably 15 or 16 points... been 6 weeks now, w/ 1.5 weeks to tournament... a one day, 4 games to win deal...

more to follow.

3 year record in bend city league.... 36-1, 2 trophies...

the stress is palpable

league, continued.
rematch tonight... a missed game... lightning.
it was the 'b' team (the a team graduated on sunday) plus a. talbot and myself...
won... 13-9 ish.

personal: uh, running... at 85%? 85% is a big jump from 80%. but i made a few downfield moves. no big breaks to the endzone, but some comeback cuts.

thoughts: the kids just need to 'run.' they are doing well at thinking through the offense, and making smart cuts... but there is far too much thinking about the cut...

my advice... just run. we'll adjust for errors... but lets' be a team that runs first, thinks later.

sorry boston.

played 17 or 18 points. did you ever notice, there is a certain point where an ultimate game is no work at all, and a certain point where you get a little tired.... minor point... i called d. nace on a 'violation' where he threw from about 8 feet in after an out of bounds 'ran in w/out checking feet'... i called violation before he even checked it in... throw was a goal... it came back... i told him, look even if you'd turned it over... i'd have given it back... i think a t.o. would have been a t.o.... but... i mean... i felt bad enough, up 4 to be mildly ticky tack....

but i mean, i wasn't even marking....

6 and 0, good victory margin (4-6)... kids are fine....

my first cleats

my first cleats...

well not exactly. i played soccer for 10 years as a child, and other than one inexplicable year where my parents didn't feel i needed them (which was weird, since i was playing on the supposedly elite 'kangaroo team'... elite because we had jerseys, and a mascot in a kangaroo suit who would come to the games and never talk. i still don't know who was in that suit. i do remember that our goalie was j.c., who was m.c. (the coaches) son... he was bad...but i remember my first ultimate cleats.

i had sprained my ankle in the yellowstone employee touch football challenge game, lodgepole lodge (the lodgepole longpoles) vs. everyone else... it was actually a break, but i wouldn't find that out for several years when i finally, for another sprain, had an xray...anyway, moving to eugene, i moved in w/ oregon players gb and cf, and heard about this game ultimate. i had never seen it. i had certainly never played it. i was vaguely aware that this one fraternity at my first college played it a lot.it sounded cool.

so, while still limping around, i bought cleats. i waited exactly 6 weeks from the 'sprain', per the docs instructions... ankle more or less stable, i strapped on my champion high tops, only one size too big, and went to my first practice. and there in the summer of 1990, at the fields by the oregon track, i began playing ultimate...

i was terrible, of course. my first memory is being taught a 3 fingered flick by some leaguer. my next memory is playing at sectionals, w/ some swilly team (but did have some old heavy guy who had played w/ the flying circus)... it turned out it was sectionals, which would cost me my elligibillity some years later. i'm not happy about the loss of that year of elligibillity, but i think it only fair that the UPA should send me the newsletters i never got.by the end of my 6 months in eugene, i thought i was far better than i was. at my last practice, i caught huck after huck from mike wing w/ c.f. diving behind me.i thought i was the sh!^.

today i finished up as the tournament director for the oregon hs tournament. and it made me reflect on my early days...

it's not a bad career, 6 nationals (3 w/ Chain, 3 w/ sockeye), 2 college nationals, 3 worlds... but... no championships.

bummer.

but its had its moments...

lowlight: played w/ a team of legends of boston at the boulder in 1994, and lost a game, then jumped ship to play w/ a bunch of NYNY stars and lost the rest of the games. i was, you guessed it, the only person to lose every game at that tournament...

highlight? probably worlds '02. playing w/ sockeye, in my 2nd year w/ them... played a near flawless tournament (albeit, w/ some restrictions on playing time), until i had like 4 goals and 4 assists against furious... i suspect that the game for bronze meant less for furious than for me... but i caught the game winner w/ a move i'd like to patent... i jabbed for the cone... and a young, but already obviously very talented oscar grabbed my jersey... i pulled up, said calmly... 'hey, don't...' and bolted for the cone, and caught the game winner and looked down to see my foot land just inside the line... yeah team.

along the way, couple poultry days wins, a fist full of seattle and bend league championships, a couple of upa newsletters appearances and some nice photos... most in the 'pre digital era'. shit. now, everytime there's a tournament, there's 800 pictures...

favorite tourney, is still, ironically, my unbelievably worst ever finish, some awful result in st. andrews... but what a tournament that was...

more to follow...

unlike literary genius kd, i promise no great prose this summer. but i do promise more. and i look forward to reading some classic blog entries... and writing some long pointless ones myself...

league...

da kids... are 2-0. I was dnp (dl) or for game one, a 13-8 victory... in game 2, thursday, i was probable, but played a couple points... it MAY have been a bit premature on the hammy, but nothing 'sharp' during the event itself... 13-2 for the kids... current state of workouts... 1200 trot/jog, 6 x 100 high knees (slow), 600 brisk jog, 6 x 100 easy butt kicks, 600 'run'... and now i'm up to the sprints... or in my case, a couple points of mellow ultimate... i.e., cover a handler, work at the mark, put it into the endzone... apparently, though there is a league rule that 'designated adults' talbot and smith may not actually be on the field at the same time... that was news to me...

last night, the kids defended their 'central oregon' title w/ a 6-5 (whew) win over sisters and a 5-0 over mt. view in STRONG up and down win. Of the 'starters' who were there, when played as a unit, they scored up wind at a good clip... the problem was, the kids got out of a car at 3:45 and played 10 minutes later against a team that had been warming up an hour... oh, and the game to 11 became a game to 7 at 5 all by fiat of host... needless to say, i changed the substitution patterns... but good practice for the kids to finish w/ the pressure on... we talked about the value of intensity in practice afterword... not a bad job missing several of the better players...

tough: i try to sub as deeply as possible and win the game, but it's really amazing how quickly a team can be let into a game... most significantly, a game to '7' is really kind of short... 3 weekends to state: focus is going to be on 'greater intensity' at practice... and i'll have to split up the teams pretty soon into 'a' and 'b'... beyond that, it's just practicing existing, but rough concepts... trap zone, position man d and helping, stack management, endzone, and cutting...

we're gonna work on 'these 10 simple things...'

got a solid 10 hours of sleep: the school year is working me... and ate some french toast... a note. charging the mp 3 player for the inaugural mt. bike ride of year... going to head up to the snow line and back... hope to get a couple hours out of it...

HAMSTRUNG!!!

hopefully a minor one today... first in years... kids were playing, i did warmups and drills, played a point or two... then threw and ran w/ talbot for an hour, then got into a 'local scrimmage'. for some reason i felt compelled to 'be the first one down on the pull.' after catching and throwing a couple goals... sprinting on pull, right leg cramped up on 'medial anterior hamstring' is that in a non scientific way right... a few inches above inside of right knee... locked up... i'm hopeful it's just a cramp, and the result of 3.5 hours of frisbee...

aside... jerseys in (i'll link to art, it's kind of cool), city league starts thursday... the league: 9 teams, 15 each. We are team 9. The other 8 teams are 120 varied experience players, all adults. My team, the summit high school team w/ me, aaron talbot, and mare schelz. should be interesting. could go either way. I got the hammy, mare hasn't played in a while, and aaron dislocated his trachea... my best hs kid has mono (that's bad for frisbee, i hear)...

more to follow. I served as draft consultant for aaron switzer, so he's got the best adult team. we've got a chance.

luke.

gandy goose.
a team of mostly bend players (russ and port zinner, aaron talbot, luke smith, doug voderberg, doug geygan, and 3 high school players (nate benson, acacia baldner, and scott dostert (ok, scott is my green 30 year old housemate), vi ho, hillary, anne, cathy O from portland, rob and alice from hood river, bob from eugene, tara and andy from corn valley....

jees, i hope i didn't forget anyone...

oh yeah... darth himself... switzer...

25 mph winds on saturday, good play by a couple of portland coed teams, and we squeaked out... 15-3, 15-9, 15-7....

sunday, faced 'eugene jedi' in the a pool quarters.... they got 4. I think. i was imbibing the free cofee and bagels. our pool was apparently tough.... also, the calm winds let the long game work... and it didn't hurt that our pickup team was actually figuring out everyone's name.

ok, just adhd luke. it really takes me that long to learn names.

semis. good times. no. yes. shit. 8 days later, i can't remember who we played. we won by a few.

now it was like 4 pm. the 'no cap rule' would come into effect.

finals.

1-0 us. 1-1. 2-1 us. 3-1 us. 4-1 us. 4-2. 5-2.

a wall of hail approaced from the east. this is unusual, because usually the weather comes from the west. preparing to pull, we noticed that hair was standing on end. only a few complained when we ran for the cars. later, i learned, that people were being shocked by their umbrellas. this did not stop utah dan from smashing a beer on his fore head, and drinking it.

eventually we returned, hair still on end. 'purple vein', a trigger/donner... ashlandy talented bunch, worked it down wind for the zone score.... we answered....

and we (both teams) called the game. when everyone's hair stands like mine.... well... not so good...

some fantasy stats....

talbot... 2 assists, 2 goals...
andy... goal, assist.
anne, assist
smith (ME!, self aggrandizement time), 2 assists, 2 blocks
hillary, goal...
i'm missing a goal and an assist...
mark of vein was on....

Week of HS practice:
5 days, 3-5, focus on vertical stack, the 'arch' endzone (thanks DoG!), zone.

Saturday
30 mph winds, 34 degress, snowrainsleet, and summit is undefeated in green/white split against churchill mostly freshies, and mt. view.... the arch is money.

thoughts: new players have a VERY difficult time in the wind. at the same time, young players have a hard time recognizing when it's not windy... i.e., when a brief calm comes, know that your old throws are good again.

but this clearly does not apply to experienced players.

with 8 inches of snow on the ground, mondays bike ride to work was miserable.

beyond miserable.

go put your head in a portapottie. pull it out. punch yourself in the neck.

repeat.

monday, practice cancelled for snow on ground.

Tuesday: 65 degrees and sunny. A little moist spots on ground. Crazy.

Focus was 'back to basics.'

Interesting thoughts. Only 16 kids out today. and 2 BRAND new ones. they struggled, but again, learned the basics....

here are my current thoughts on basics:

flick: grip, 'the gun'. hold it up. throw a blade. repeat. now at waist. usual mistake? a modified 'backhand grip.' answer. before throwing the flick, if you need to, hold it like a blade.

both: get low. lower. no, lower. you are a new thrower. even if you are not, you are not as goood as you think. trust me. get lower. bend your legs. lower. no, dont lean over your front legs. spread your stance, and drop evenly. balance is key. good job.

marking drill: teach it 2 ways.
1) chicken. no arms. easy for new throwers to complete. teaches footwork to markers
2) standard. encourage low stance. commit to throw. extend. ignore the mark.

'goto drills'

i do two.
1) trident: a handler cut. cut to one side, flare to other.
2) gladiator: standard goto, but i require a 2 or 3 step fake deep before the end cut....

philosophy:
kids wanted to practice: i.e. scrimmage. i said, if we have no turnovers in drills, we'll scrimmage.

responses:
average: oh no.
winner, jake hermeling, div 1 college pick at wide receiver, 'OK, we can do this!'

unfortuanately, jake won't be around much this summer for my summer league team.

but it's illustrative: and i will add it as a mantra. 'give me a "KILL" has been less than sucessful.
'OK WE CAN DO THIS' may be sucessful. You simply CAN NOT exceeed your goals on a regular basis. if your goal is perfection, you may not reach it. fine. but for one drill... 30 passes... you MIGHT... along the way... you may have to make exeptions for yourself (i dove, i missed it)... if you can make exeptions for others..if you can accept that a young person may make an error in the goal for perfection, that's actually OK. it's different. first time playing you make mistakes.... but if you make an effort to get everything, do it all right, you can within yourself work towards perfection...

bottom line... you should do everything to the best of your abillity... every time... and at the same time, you should forgive failure, at least, you should not let the failure of others lower you...

joke time... do you know the one about the brown pants? reply and i'll answer.

the end