state champs!

well, not true. but we're the central oregon champs. no one from the valley would come play co-ed (it's tough: they start earlier, it's tough to juggle schedules, the tournament was pretty thrown together. i'm sure someone would have whomped us).

We split X-Y. So it's

Summit Green
Summit Black
(Both wore white)
Bend High
Mt. View.

Bend was missing their most dominant player... a great young thrower with a lifetime of family discing from an old darkstar (long term eugene team) dad.

Summit green went up big versus Mt. View early, then traded points to win. Summit lost the best thrower on the squad, and between that and Bend finally 'showing up' it could have been closer.

Summit silver scores easily to make it 1-0, then with our starters in (we probably had 12 per team)a literally 20 minute point ensues. When it ends, it's 2-0 summit, while it's 7-2 on the other field. It the terrible feel of one of those points that can make or break a young team. But we scored, and our subs scored easily to make it 3-0, and the team did a little better than trading points from there on out to win.

round two: Mt. View defeats Bend High, in what all my kids felt was an upset. I was never so sure, as Bend had better flow, surer flicks, and more depth. But mt. view was willing to huck, and had tremendous desire. Mt. View wins.

Summmit Green vs. Summit black. Missing the best thrower on the squad, summit green is no longer the favorite. blackworks by executing the 'o' and and involving everyone. Summit Green gets great play out of the new arrivals: The state finalists in tennis (last year's champs, lost to other summit doubles this year). The two boys can run and jump (varsity soccer/XC running) and it's a close game. Thrower shows up, and gets a break on a long throw, and i told my best defender to bring pressure on the mark, and make his life hell (he rolled an ankle, and so he's a little slowed up, but always wants to throw, not run). Time cap comes, game over, 8-8. I could have made them play a point, but, hey, what the hell.
I told them before the game that only half of them could be state champs. This lit a fire under the team, and at half, i told them, 'you don't have to cool down. but be aware. this is the intensity i expect at scrimmages. and if you scrimmaged like this, we'd scrimmage more.' and they got it.

round 3
Summit Green vs. Bend: Bend was on to our complicated endzone 'o'. Cut to a corner. So they covered the front of the stack, and poached from the 2nd spot, and which ever girl was in the back half. The first time they did it, i yelled at person one to cut to to the cone, and for josh to come forward uncovered. he flared a little, but we got away with it. Then i showed them what the 'd' was doing, and it was easy from there out. Again, Bend was without their best player, and rather than split into 2 teams, they played a deep roster, so i'm not gloating, just saying.

Summit black vs. Mt. View. A little Nip and Tuck in the early going (2-0, 2-2, 4-2, and then it was trading and extending) until they locked down on defense, and finally realized that against a hucking team, 7 players have to run to the disc. ONe of my seniors who is solid, but not super agressive, finally made the play. A huck goes up, he sprints 45 yards, and deflects the trash away from the open 3rd receiver. They catch it, we bemoan luck. You make your own luck there.

Play of the weekend: Brando, a wicked fast (JO skier, sub 17 5km runner, low 2's 800, you get it) is marking. HIs player swings it, and he runs it down and d's it before it gets completed. Just amazing.

So Summit Green 2-0-1
Summit Silver 2-0-1
Mt. View 1-2
Bend 0-3

I guess I could figure out pt. diff., 17-7 in favor of green, but, the tie in the head to head shows the value of fighting.

Great little tourney, done early,
missing some of my better players (say, 3 'a' team starters) and a couple more.

Season wrap up.
Week one
Mt. View d. Bend 13-10
Week 2
Summit d. Mt. view 13-5
Week 3
Summit A d. Bend B 15-10
Summit B d. Bend B 15-10
Week 4 Bend, d. Mt. view
Week 5
Summit A d. Bend A
Summit B d. Bend B
Summit mix d. mt. view.

So a nice little season.

Central oregon is growing. The other teams are good, and developing their own style. Summit is just a year or two ahead in development, but that gap should be closed by next year.

Personal:
Tuesday: 4x400 at about 85 with 1min rest, 6min mile (rest 2), repeat the set.
Wednesday: uninspired league play loss
Thursday rest
Friday: run one mile, 8 miles at 6:30 pace, cool off one mile
saturday: coach
sunday, 11.5mile run. probably 8:30's
munday, hour bike, very easy, mow the lawn.

tuesday, i'm taking off from race training, to hopefully have some steam for the first time ever at city league, and more significantly, i'm tapering for a 1/2 marathon in a couple weeks.

why home is home... or... this blog's for you.

Tonight, a mix of frisbee an personal, coded frisbee. And a paen to why I live in Bend. And an invite, to those who feel frisbee has been served, and they deserve a Valkyrie's ride to Valhalla. Enough mix of greek and scandyhoovian.

I awoke at 4, but only because I had Santa Sickness. That child's disease that afflicts those who get up early in anticipation of something better. Sacrificing sleep for activity, I lay in bed, trying to sleep, but with a half hearted effort until 5 am, when I arose, put on the coffee, and showered. I ate a simple repast of a banana, a handful of wheat chex, and coffee, and sat until 5:55. Then I jumped on my new mountain bike, and rode on TRAIL to school, almost 5 minutes away.

There I met a coworker, on furlough from familial responsibilities associated with a new child, and in 50 degree weather, we rode mountain bikes in the high desert. Immediately upon leaving campus, we hopped onto the trail, and rode for the next hour on the shortest of many loops associated with the nearby trail system.

we arrived back at campus at 7:05, ate some school breakfast (not the fearful prospect you may imagine, i had a breakfast burrito, an apple, an orange, a banana, a fruit cup, and a juice) and taught engaged seniors: only 2 weeks away from graduation, they were involved in both the process and the outcome.

after school (here's the frisbee part), i gathered 2/3 of the team (that showed up to practice) ran them through a drill with modest results, made an adjustment in motivation, and then achieved perfect results in the drill. the scrimmage in 20 mph wind, while marred by turnovers, showed flow, and execution of the things we've been working on. And in the end, the 'worse' team won: because they won by doing the things we've been working on.

(and they got a little lucky).

home, a nap, then a tempo run:
1 mile warm up:
4.25 miles in 28 minutes (about a 6:35 pace)
then, bike to the local night at the Bend Brewing Company.
And on the way home, over he 3 mile bike ride, I was in pitch black riding in my small town of 70,000 for almost a third of the ride. And there, I saw a righteous shooting star.

So, a long but fruitful day.

ride reports for the weekend...

well, Friday evening, more of a run. i was uninspired to run until about 8 pm, then i cranked out a really pleasant 11 mile run, in about 80 minutes. felt good. challenging, but not brutal. the upcoming half marathon will be more uphill than i ran, but, hopefully, it will be a successful jaunt. the hardest part between now and then will be just getting used to running in the morning. uh, 'diet' and, uh, bathroom management for an early morning run will come into play, so over the next couple weeks i'm going to start some morning runs to get that dialed in, and switch over to an actual race diet. that is, less breakfast burritos, and more oatmeal. but damn do i love breakfast burritos.

saturday, i letharged the batteries, and vegged out. i skipped the insanity of pole pedal paddle and instead, went for a 2 plus hour ride that got a little hillier and speedier at time than i meant to go for. probably closer to 2.5 hours.

sunday: an easy ride with a couple teachers, should have been just over 2 hours, but some mechanical failures (flats and a broken spoke) stretched it out. mowed the lawn, and then went for an unsuprisingly unspectacular 9 mile run. i was slow and sluggish in what passes for oppressive heat here in bend. just 80 something but after weeks of workouts in 50 something degree weather, it felt like a july summer in georgia by comparison. acclimitization will occur, but i'm not up yet to the challenge of heat.

tommorrow will be rest (or maybe a short run with the state track attendees in the middle distance discipline).

peace

hs ultimate in bend.

HS Ultimate in bend is in flux. total numbers of kids have grown, as Bend HS now has 2 teams, MT. View may have 2 teams (but one for sure) and summit has 2 or 3 teams. Sadly, Sisters HS hasn't been able to maintain a squad this year, but we're hoping to remedy that next year, and add Redmond HS and Crook County to the fold.

Last week, Bend HS split into two squads (Blue and Gold) and each side played a half to Mt. View, with Mt. View winning the overall 'Cricket' score.

This week, Summit played vs. Mt. View, and summit High won. Summit High will probably play Black/Green for a few weeks, while I decide varsity / JV.

Game notes. I did play a 'starting 7' for the upwinder, which we scored. given the emotional nature of HS games, I'm well aware that this is different than subbing even/even for a full game. After this, I generally played a mixed team and tried to make sure that every player got equal playing time. The team put together a number of good 'flowing' points upwind.

Areas to workon:

1) endzone execution. it's mildly exasperating to see a team get upfield against a 25 mph wind, only to turn it 3 times on the goal line, and then the other team gets off a punt... and you start all over.

2) good flow in general, but our best points were 5 or less passes. the challenge will be against a team that makes us throw 10 or more passes against a stiff breeze.

3) sportsmanship: was, very good for both teams. there were very few calls, all were amicably resolved on the field, and thats really good for new players. i don't think either team was 'getting away' with travels, or whatever, and in general, where new players are concerned, I discourage my teams from making calls unless the whole team is not making violations. That is, play by the rules, and if you are, feel free to make a call. If you've got a few rookie foot draggers on the team: don't be making calls on the other team.

4) plays: a callahan, a couple diving 'd's a couple diving catches, and all and all, i thought the teams played well, with plenty of room for improvement.

City league: My co-ed city league is 2-0, but that will soon change. This year, we were allowed to build our own teams with a minimal draft. Mine is a couple 18 y.o. hs kids, a couple room mates, and a couple buddies. AND a couple of u of o players returning in june (yes, those U of O players plus a U of O girl) and a couple former players who attend, but aren't on the U of O team.

So for the next couple weeks, we're going to focus on 'process' not 'outcome' and try to develop the new players, with the goal of 'seamlessly' integrating the nudists.

We'll see how it goes. It's actually pretty nice: league play in central oregon is marked by either sun and wind, or hail and wind (i shit thee not), so the fact that we have only 11 players for the windy game is a plus, wind (sic) lose or draw.

But it'll be nice to have the go to guys for the tourney.

Here's the part where I talk about breakfast, so tune out if you like.

I'm part of a tuesday running group now.
The past few weeks were:
1) Trail Hill workouts, elapsed 'hard time' 40 minutes. (you don't count the rest)
2) 3x2km with 2min rest (hard) but i did that one on my on
3) Track: 200/400/600/800/1200/1200/800/600/400/200 with rest equal to the length of the run. Hamstrings hurt for 8 days.
4) 6 x 3min, (about 850 m) with 1 min jogging between
5) 30 total minutes of hill running, and the snaky nature of the run left a short 1.5 minute run down a steep hill to the start. 7 intervals of 3:00 (1:30 down) and then, blown up, the next six were 3:30 with 1:30 down). Actually pretty good or better or equal to what i've done in the past, but 7 not 3 or 4, and so-ok. actually averaged faster than 3:30, so, good.

Other than that, running about 30 miles per week, with the tuesday thing, plus a couple mtbike rides per week (2 hours or so), and the wednesday game, plus taking off a day or 2 each week.

i had oatmeal for breakfast.

personal log: stop reading NOW unless you want to read what i had for breakfast...

frisbeeish

Weather improves, and so does the ultimate.
Numbers are steady, between 15 and 30.
Pretty weird.

What do we work on:
Warm up, say, 5 minute run
Warm up drills:
4 line drill, cut out, cut in.
lines face each other, and cut break and cut the other way. the facing drill can be either a cut from the front of the stack, or a cut from the side position to get open down line.

then a thrower option drill, where one line cuts out and it's either a huck, or, you wave the cutter in.

then, it's 2 teams do short scrimmage, while i work with a third team on a concept.
today, it was defensive positioning, marking, and cutting:

mark: don't get broken
defender: don't get beat to the open side, and, don't get beat to the break side so much you can't get a quick mark on.
defender: defend the dump or short throw, but not at the expense of the gainer that gives a powerful thrower the disc.

downfield defender:
'triangulate' or don't lose sight of thrower and cutter.

downfield cutter:
constantly juke so defender can't see thrower and cutter.

marker:
move laterally, move your feet, don't cross your feet, don't give up the cheap break.

that's what we worked on... here's what i worked on...

today:
ladder workout
200-400-600-800-1200-1200-800-600-400-200
the rest was equal to the work

it went
38-80-2:05-1:20-4:30-4:35-1:20-2:05-87-40

so very much not perfect, but the short rest made it hard...

monday rest,
sunday,
run 3 miles, 3.1 mile time trial (6:10 pace), 3 mile run home
30 mile mountain bike ride

saturday, friday, nothing
thursday, frisbee for 2 hours, 1 hour steady biking, weights.
wed: rest
tuesday, 3x2km with 2 minute rest, weights...

friskee...

current state of affairs...
typical practice...
throw
warmup run, involving run, bearcrawls, run over the picknic tables 8 times, pushups, situps, highknees, butkicks, etc.... takes about 8 minutes.
6 line running drill:
about 5 kids per line, cut out, cut back, focus on
1) don't watch your throw (throw and cut)
2) run through it
3) practice checking in as you cut so that you never run away from the disc blind
4) get faster each rep
5) throwers communicate with thrower by fakes or waving or yelling (out, in)

then we do that drill as a relay race: if one line is visiblly more talented, their cut to cone is farther away (i.e., have to cut out 30 yds, not 20).

then, the 6 lines pair up, 3 pairs of two, and do a check in, cut out. as they get more sophisticated, they should be able to run that as both a front of stack drill, and a cut and down line drill...

then, we remove 2 lines, and run it as a 4 line cycling out in, cut out, and thrower option drill where the kids are expected to throw completions, if that means waving the cutters in for unders...

then, we did groups of 10, where it was a 5 minute game, where teams pulled, and played, but were only allowed 3 turnovers per side (i know: but it's high school). the third 10 ran run throughs:

practice a stack start, and focus on:
1) initiate
2) continue
3) clear
4) attack
5) finish

so it's say a basic 1-3-5, but the fills clear space, sprint downfield, and the rest of the team moves up, and we finish with an off the back cut.
i'm trying to get them in the habit of attacking to the disc, but clearing deep to create space...

then we finished with 30 minutes of open scrimmage. a reward day. first nice day in 2 weeks.

personally,
monday rest
tuesday, 3x2km at 7:30, 7:30, 7:15 with 2 minutes rest in between, on grass.
bike 1 hour
lift.
wednesday, rest
thursday, practice with kids, run 80 minutes (9 miles and change), bike a total of about 50 minutes...

updoc some frisbee.

Monday Practice:
I had to coach track for the first hour, but I've got a great new 'cocoach': Another teacher who played a little in wisconsin, plays co-ed regionals type stuff, etc. Really cool dude the kids like. So he worked the team through the usual early season wamup and drills

1km warmup
drill lines (6 lines, cut out cut back, return the disc, and i allow the thrower a couple throws rather than one and go) and a second drill where the lines face each other and the opposing line makes a dump/down line cut or you can visualize it as a front of stack handler cut.

then mini and dutch...

for the 40 minutes i was there, i put groups of 7 through a very basic, swing, continue, continue, and gave special focus to having the 'fills' practice actively engaging in the stack through little jukes and then clear to the break and run down field to get into position to continue.

tuesday, it was 40ish, and howling. so we warmed up and played dutch. i just walked as my hip flexor still needs lots of warming up, and it was insane. passes of 3 feet were flying crazily out of bounds, etc.

tomorrow they are calling for an inch of snow tonight, high 40, gusty winds to 29 mph. i might see if i can get the gym, and just do drills and throwing.

otherwise, we'll make the best of it...

i'm thinking of the following for training tools:

personal schtuff:

monday rest, tuesday, 21 miles on the bike
wednesday run 55 minutes of fartlek with 2 kids who just came out for track (nordic ski kids i coach) with 10 min warmup, then 1:15 hard, 45 easy, 1:30 hard, 1:00 easy, 1:45 hard, 2:00 easy, and then 4 by 2:00 hard with 2:o0 easy and a 15 minute jog back. coached at the rest of the track meet....

then 1 hour on the bike.

updoc.

frisbee first:
we practiced for 5 days over spring break. 7v7 every day, usually on small fields. I kept it as a 'roll out the balls' practice, and was graced with some returning alums. We had a couple of U of O players and a couple of U of O b teamers... and the kids benefitted. I was a little dissapointed that there weren't more attendees.

Things to work on:

Zone: Teaching zone to new players is a challenge. It's easy to teach the static positions, but to teach zone defense against early season and new high school players is a challenge. Turnovers are cheap, and the players get stuck in the static zone positions, without learning to move to follow the disc because of the inabillity of players to complete multiple passes. I'm going to start next week, but with the following plan. I'll use a 'ball' either a softball or a kickball (doesn't matter) and the rule that it can be rolled or thrown but that it's not a turnover if it hits the ground. The goal is to teach proper recover and movement of the positions. It's limited by the inabillity to 'huck' but that ends up being a plus in some ways.

Warm up and drills: I'm doing a really basic warm up right now. Run a lap of the fields (about 8 minutes) then a modified line drill. 6 lines with 5 or so kids in each line. you cut out 20 yds, then check back. Thrower gets to throw 2 or three throws. Then the lines, which are in pairs, face each other, and the oposing cutter cuts jab step and down line. It's also used replicating front of stack cutting, and the cutter cuts 3 steps then cross.

New Players: Lots of dutch and mini. Dutch is a box of varying size, teams of 3 or 4 or 5, and complete 5 passes for a point. When I split varsity/JV, it's 10 passes for a point.

Breaks: I don't do breaks. Practices are 100 minutes long, and breaks are times to throw back and forth.

Conditioning: I push off day conditioning. I have too much to teach in 3 days a week. Kids who want to make varsity are told to run on off days. Right now I want them doing 2 30 minute runs. We'll move to shorter harder stuff.

Personal:
spring break '09 wooohhoooo.
Monday: Skate ski one hour, run 45 minutes with track team, play ultimate 1 hour.
Tuesday: Bike 1/2 hour, tempo run (10 easy, 15 hard, 10 easy), frisbee
Wednesday: Bike 21 miles, run easy 40 minutes, frisbee 1 hour
Thursday: (Rest) Lazy frisbee (for me) 1 hour
Friday: Ski 80 minutes, run 20 minutes, 1.5 hours vigorous ultimate
Saturday: 2 hour ski, 1 hour bike, 30 minutes weights
Sunday: 50 minute run, 1 hour bike
MONDAY REST

first practice, hawaii

phonetic languages are great. i seldome spell hawaii incorrectly. unlike mispell, or is it miss pell. my hawaii training program is basically my normal program, except i've run all winter. i took almost 10 days off from running, but until that point i'd run at least 3 days per week, varying between 9 mile runs and interval sessions varying between hill repeats or treadmill intervals. today i finally picked up a disc and played with the kids. we played dutch (10 passes for a point, 3 to win in a box) mini (short field make it take it) then small field 4v4 with pulls. i was ok. playing with kids, i end up aiming it a bit, so with the short field i was a bit off with the longer stuff, but i moved allright. the shin started hurting after an hour or so, but i'm saying it's probably allright.

been skiing my brains out,

monday weights
tuesday 1.5 hours easy
wednesday 1.5 hours medium, 1 hour bike, weights
thursday 1.5 hours with 5x6min decent intervals with 3 minutes rest
friday ultimate.

tomorrow, kids race, and i'll ski as much as i can, do some intervals or a time trial, and either run or bike easy when i get home.

thoughts: couldn't place the inverts well, felt like i wasn't springy, etc... but i'm not really ultimate training. the morning sessions fell through, but i'll try to play frisbee one more time.

thoughts for kaimana: hopefully i can get the team engaged in a little structure, as i think it will help us in the later games, but i'll be lucky if i can get them to think about anything other than the social game. cool team, mix of current studs, former champs, party stars, and me.

team of HS kids already has a couple of potential ringers showing up, senior receivers and soccer kids. the usual story, it'll be a mix of returners and new athletes.

the skiing has been stellar. we haven't had real snow in weeks, but miraculously it's been good skiing. over the past 2 weeks, we had enough snow in town to keep me off the roads running, but it looks to be good weather (or, bad, if you are a skier) such that i'll be able to keep the running up before the tourney.

ok, frisbee thought for the day:
generic 4 month frisbee plan for HS kids.
play frisbee 3 days a week, with drills and scrimmage
run 3 days a week, and throw 100 throws after.

the frisbee will build in terms of strategy and tactics
the running will move from base to short stuff so run for one month, do shorter hard runs or intervals for 1.5 months, do ladders for the last month, taper for the last 2 weeks.

if appropriate, strength train: but you have to be careful strength training HS kids based on physical development.

what the what.

i'm about to throw down the 3 week frisbee training throwdown.
Here's the goals:
3 days of shuttle runs
3 days of throwing. if i can combine the two, it's a 3 day training program.
lame, but, it's not like i'm off the couch, and i've run more than i ever have in the winter. and some intervals. just need enough speed to minimize risk of injury. i have neither the time nor inclination for a full on, 4 day per week frisbee prep program, but the team looks stacked, so hopefully i can play my way into shape over 3 days.

that's a joke. but at least i'm running.

ski'd a lot this week.

what the what.

i'm about to throw down the 3 week frisbee training throwdown.
Here's the goals:
3 days of shuttle runs
3 days of throwing. if i can combine the two, it's a 3 day training program.
lame, but, it's not like i'm off the couch, and i've run more than i ever have in the winter. and some intervals. just need enough speed to minimize risk of injury. i have neither the time nor inclination for a full on, 4 day per week frisbee prep program, but the team looks stacked, so hopefully i can play my way into shape over 3 days.

that's a joke. but at least i'm running.

ski'd a lot this week.

hiway hawaii

awright. gearing up for hawaii. don't have the personal days cleared yet. but the ticket is in the bag, so is the registration.

training. well, i'm doing a basic, build program. 15 hours per week right now. running 3-4 days per week, 2xintervals, one 9 mile run. plus 4-5 days per week skiing, 2 of those were intervals. resting fridays. monday weights, and easy biking. threw sunday, and wasn't nearly as bad as i'd thought i'd be.

planning on throwing in some early morning speed and agillity for 2 weeks prior to the tournament. probably try to throw 2x per week just for kicks.

my team is the typical hawaii team. lots of talk of shotgunning by players who will in fact show up and try to win. or have i lost it, and should i expect lots of winners showing up with nothing on their mind except drinking. i will show up with goals of playing to win, and temper them with the reality of drinking.

thinking about my cleats: don't like the new speed tds i have, may pick up some soccer cleats just so i can mix it up. and, yes, i'm thinking of the ridiculosu new pumas.

go southern dandys... it's blogonautoferific.

just kickin it on boxing day.

lessee. basically in a base phase kind of deal. Usually one hard workout per week. After the break, morning agillity training with a bunch of kids. Weird mix, since it's an open gym, mostly baseball, frisbee, but the baseball coach is a buddy, and he invited me and the frisbee kids to this open preseason deal. Should be fun. I'll have to figure out something to do on the other mornings other than sleep as i find it better to get up at the same time every day.

dec 26 80min skate (level 3), 50 min jog (lev 1) weights
dec 25 hike/ski say 2.5 hours. probably 1.5 of that was climbing, 30 min skiing, 30 min social, ski from the house very easy 1hour
dec 24 skate 1 hour, ski in town 2 hours -- easy but slow, skis were icing
dec 23 70 min skate (level 2/3) 1 hour skiing.(downhill)
dec 22 rest
dec 21 rest
dec 20 ski'd probably 15km. lifted
dec 19 rest
dec 18 1.5 hours classic ski, lifted
dec 17 skate 1.5 hours, easy
dec 16 1.5 hours classic ski, easy
dec 15 LT intervals on treadmill, weights, core
dec 14 ski 1hour. run 1hour
dec 13 ski 2 hours with kids
dec 12 rest
dec 11 ski 1 hour with kids
dec 10 ski 1 hour easy
dec 9 ski 1 hour easy
dec 8 rest
dec 7 ski, run

state of the luke

Sigh. I've been relegated to having to post frisbee tags to my blog to get a post on ultimate talk. Bummer. The kids today have no idea what they're missing.

Today was sick. First day on snow. Coaching, So we did a 4 mile loop, with drills coming back up the hill. Then a couple kms of drills of no pole on a loop. Then I squeezed in another 4 mile loop.

Then we played a fun game.

Pretty sketch skiing. 3 inches of snow ontop of the highway. but it was totally workable, and not hard on the skis at all.

Then, a burrito, a coffee, 2 hours guitar, and an 8 mile run, 8min pace.

Then some weights and core: really light: more focused on PT type excercises and some pistol squats, pushups, incine bench, deadlift, calf eccentric work, and core. 30 minutes exactly, which is my limit for lifting.

Then a good meal, a pint, and some ski care.

Tomorrow, ski, run or bike, and organize at the new house.

Weekly totals, Mon-Sun
run 35-37
ski twice, 2.5 hours
bike once 1.75 hours
lift twice

It's a base week: When i start ski racing (i'm no good, but i have a plan) I'll run less. And I did no intensity this week. If I had my druthers, I'd do no intensity for a 3 month period with lactate threshold runs, then switch to easy and hard runs. I have to modify.

Winter plan is a little different from the past as it will include running:
Ski: 4-5 days per week. Race 2x per month
Run: 3x per week. Intervals through January, then switch intervals to skiing and running as steady only.
Frisbee: Limited opps to throw, but will do one early morning set of cones/shuttle runs in the gym to be as ready as i can be for kaimana.
Weights: 1-3 times per week with attention to core, stretch, flex, and maintenance.

teaching zone

1) get 7 players who know how to play zone
2) get your team together
3) if they know how to throw and catch well, play agressor squad vs new players
4) if they are new players... use a red kickball and let the players throw the ball around so that they can have completions. If they need to, just let them throw it around... and bounces are cool.
5) Use a teaching technique called 'freeze and discuss.' where you let the play develop then call freeze. then discuss positional issues. use this as an opportunity to move people around.

To develop speed, incorporate this workout in the early season: not the late season.
run laps around the field: run the diagonols at a dead run with good form. then jog the endzone. Repeat for 20 t 30 min. Note. This is an early season workout. Not a late season workout. This is to develop form, and develop conditioning. Focus on form.

Then, 10 minutes of throwing. Focus on crisp throws, imagining a mark... Alternatively, 10 minutes of mark drill. College kids, do this now, and you will improve.

no, no real frisbee content, but it includes... the word hawaii... so idris, why don't you post this one just to piss some people off.

yeah, hawaii baby. at least that's the plan. all 'teacher' myths aside, i only get two personal days. it would be unethical to take sick days to go to hawaii, but i think i've got it worked out with the personal days, and the 3 day weekend.

my problem: i haven't played frisbee in february in 5 years. i barely run in february: i ski. coincidentally, i'd planned on running 3 times a week all winter to stay in shape for races: actually to get in better shape. i'm planning on running one tempo run (like 6 miles, with a middle (or whole portion) at 6:30 pace), one interval set (1000's or miles, of some utility for frisbee), and one long run (9-13 miles).

i'm going to add in one early a.m. in the school gym running lines and cones for 30-40 minutes, and try to throw a little at lunch.

but I still imagine conversations like this:

alex: huh. not to take the attention from my own stats, but, what's up with luke.
kid: i don't know. but, let me throw in here, did you see my sick stab? it was a no look. oh, luke. is he trying his 'off speed run' to set up the cut.
jim: no, between adding up my stats in meaningful points, and i want to note that i'm dominating, i noticed that he hasn't changed his pace. and between accounting for 5 of our 6 goals in meaningful ways, i clocked his pace. it's a steady 6:20 per mile. pretty slow for sprinting.
alex: well, i had assists on 3 of those, and you can't keep counting hockey assists as meaningful touches.
will: look. i captained sockeye to 2 national titles in the modern era. and i drew the hodag logo myself. so i'm personally responsible for 4 titles. but man, you're right. he looks slow.
alex and jim: 6 titles
all: pre-flick era.
alex and jim: no way. it was just as good back then.
luke comes off: man, did you see my sweet mark: perfect
all: lots of practice.
luke: but i caught the goal
will: well i wouldn't cover the cripple in the powered cart if he were out there
all: you got posterized by a girl
will: i got that d. and it was leslie calder
all: whatever.
kid: seriously, luke. try imagining your not in jello
luke: what are you talking about. i set up that cut with change of speed. got to have the off speed pitch.
robbye: so you're proud of your 75mph fastball?
luke: i'm a nordic skier. i use kph.
all: ooooohhh. hundy.
luke: fuck y'all i'm going for beer.
all: don't come back empty handed.

this week: didn't go skiing in yellowstone. not enough snow, and i had to move.
sunday: 6.5 miles, 6:50 pace.
monday: rest
tuesday: 9 miles, 8:00 pace, weights
wednesday: 5 miles, 8:00 pace
thurs: rest
friday: 13 miles, 8:00 pace, weights

basically an easy week. looking to go 35 miles, and throw in 2 mt. bike rides sat and sunday. got 10 more miles to do tomorrow and sunday. (my weeks end on sunday).

nope still no frisbee content. well, a little.

i'm going to hawaii. first time. i'll have run a lot, but this is going to require going to a gym and running shuttle runs. and find some time to throw disc indoors enough not to make a total choad of myself. since winter here precludes frsibee, i'll have to make a concious effort to at least throw.

monday, rest.
tuesday: ran 5 miles, played calvin ball, then ran another 3.5 miles
wednesday: ran 2.5 miles, lifted, ran home
thursday: ran an adventure race set up by another coach: 70 min, ran as hard as i could for the whole time, call it a 7 mile tempo effort (that's conservative, but, just being safe)

retro thread of the day. yes, definitely frisbee related

http://tinyurl.com/linkofday

this is the link of the day. a prolonged discussion about legitimizing ultimate. from 2001.

enjoy and comment.

seriously, nothing to do with frisbee.

11-14 40 min ultimate frisbee, 8 mile run.
11-15 13 mile run
11-16 3.5 hour mountain bike ride. maybe best ever

not potlatch part two.

none of this is for the frisbee readers. it's my defacto log. in frisbee, the kids are playing. we tried to go to a tournament, but the road got wiped out by a landslide. tommorrow, I think I'll just play frisbee with the kids, run 5 after. saturday, i'll run 10. sunday, i'll ride (90 min plus). that's technically rest. monday, we'll run and core, then i'll run longer. but it's kind of complicated, b/c i have to run xc ski practices... and i have to plan my workouts among them...

10-29 run 5
10-30 ran 5 miles and lifted
10-31 rest
11-1 8km tempo/race pace (5mile at about a 6:20 pace)
11-2 6 mile run
11-3 rest
11-4 5x1km repeats at 4:00 (like a 6:20 pace), 1 min recovery, plues 3 miles warmup cooldown
11-5 7 miles
11-6 run to gym. lift. run home. 5 miles
11-7 rest
11-8 10km race. plus 1 mile warmup. 7 miles total.
11-9 50 min run. 6 miles?
11-10 6 mile run. then 20 minutes of frisbee soccer game (i call it calvin ball. sweet. rules to follow). then 3 miles. then weights.
11-11 5.5 mile hike. call it an off day
11-12 1.25 mile warmup, 3x2mile repeats with 3 min rest. 6:20 pace. (it's a short course, let's call it 6:30 to 6:45 pace)
11-13 35min run, stadiums, core, weights, 25 min bike

Potlatch, Day 1.

Well, technically, it's d-day minus 3. I'd played Solstice with a young Oregon college team from UofO, and had a good time, and I was feeling friskee. Sunday night, mon, tuesday, at somepoint I was shooting the shit with John Hammond and he invited me to play on Dave Bestock's Potlatch team. Under normal circumstances, that might not qualify as an invite from the Kid, but it's pretty much how I landed on Sockeye in the first place, and Dave's a pal, so I figured it was worth a shot. As an aside, it's pretty much how I landed on my Solstice team, so I was game.

Thursday night I played City league, and dominated (whatever that means in city league), and was feeling friskee. I roped ryan, league coordinator, into going. He was iffy about playing, and I guaranteed him no guarantee of our team, but told him he'd have a spot on SOME team. Plus, selfishly, It's a long drive. And gas was costing $4.00 per.

Friday night, we prepared to leave. My car was sitting outside the house, minus the fuel pump, stolen 2 weeks earlier (great story, I'd solved the crime, but not troubled myself to replace the pump, more on that to follow). So I was riding over with housemates Scott and Chris to portland, where Ryan and I would take Scott's car up to the fields. Scott Had been go to play until thursday night until a family emergency took him out. I'd actually promised to squeeze him onto the team with what was known as the Ketner clause (when, 3 years earlier, the last player to be named later I'd brought watched all weekend, played 2 points, and one of them was in the quarters where he played one point and delivered the game winning block. So my scouting rep was better than my own playing rep). Anyway, Scott's out, so he was being pretty cool with the car loan.

Ryan, guest of guests is late, so we don't roll out until about 7. Drop Scott and Chris off at the family hacienda in Portland around 10 or so, fumble around Gresham for a while, and then roll north. I think we arrive in Remond, or Kirkland, or wherever the hell potlatch is held (I don't know, garmin and google take care of those details, I just knew I could guide it in from the exit). I think we get there around 2.

As we approach the fields, the mist shrouds 40 acre soccer complex. A fox crosses the road in front of us. The scene is pastoral, and I'm relaxed to know that I'm going to get a good, peaceful nights sleep prior to 3 days of ultimate.

And then I turned off the ignition, and opened the door, and was greated with a cacaughanous roar from the fields.

No, The fox was fleeing drunks, the noise was terrible, and I simply hung my head. I'd been there on the other side of this debacle before, and now it was my turn to reap the whirlwind. It was loud, and it was time to suffer.

I set up my tent in the quietest (my thoughts) corner of the fields, in an area that would receive latest sunrise due to the location of the hill. I was a saavy vet, even if I'd not achieved countal levels of eye patches and neck pillows.

And then I notice ryan standing around with a sleeping bag and a pillow. "Uh, where's your tent ryan?," I asked. "Kind of don't have one," said Ryan.
Great. And now I'm stuck with a room mate. How could this tournament get worse in the next 6 hours. Games at nine, not technically on a team, some dopey giant taking up air in my tent, and the loud noise of 1200 twenty somethings freed from normal societal rules. I was being confronted with every painful transgression (Well, at least 15% of them) I'd ever made at a frisbee tournament, but now on the other end of the stick. It was Lord of the Flies. I was treading on Piggy territory. How could it get worse.

Turned out, Ryan snored.

To be continued.

(Non frisbee corner. Ran 80 min yesterday, and lifted. Rode 90 minutes recovery today, and did IllioTibial Band rehab)

xc districts, minimal frisbee content.

summit sweeeeeeeeeeps.
boys, girs, jv, varsity.
the hugest upset was in boys, where a great runner of ours who had not run for 3 years turned in a third in the district time and summit defeats a talented, and classy hermiston team 29 to 30.
.
they were great kids, and came over to shake hands after the match. when state comes up next week, its still up for grabs: their best runner is the best runner in the state, and due to the nature of scoring, they could defeat us by running the exact same, but having 2 runners from other teams finish after their first runner, but before ours. at the same time, we could widen our gap if the boys all run the same, and there are more scorers between the runners.

our girls were dominant, pack running, and our favored runner had her worst run of her year. she's suffered 2 fractured femurs in her hs career, and we're always concerned about that, but she was fine. and if she just had a 'bad' day, that's fine, it's just important to know that she just had a 'bad' day but is healthy.

our JV boys won the 'jv crown' for the first time ever. the heartbreaks come with the boys, where the varsity (7) battles with the first 3 jv guys for positions on the state team. All 7 were given sweet tights, but it's tough to see a guy who poured his heart out qualify as an alternate, not a primary runner. (that is, we carry 7 runners on the team, and 2 alternates).

On the girls, it was arguably tougher, where our JV girls team may have been the 2nd or 3rd best team in the district: it's got to be tough for a girl who knows she could go run for another school in the city and make it to the state team, but instead, she 'settles' for being on a more competetive team that drives her to be better. there is probably an ultimate metaphor here.

personally, i went out to forerun the course this morning, with the goal of running it in a sub 20 time, but within 800m, i felt the fatigue that is 'supposedly' associated with post marathon blues, so i just settled into a tempo run. so 2.5 miles at 8 min pace, then a tempo 5k at 21 min with no kicking. Frustrating, in a sense, but fine, and smart in another.

Then saw tropic thunder, which is hysterical.

no frisbee conten

today, i ran a 10 minute warmup, then 3x6min miles with 2 min rest, then a 10 min cooldown. that's ok, since i'm recovering from the marathon. technically, i should have run 6xmiles, with 1min rest.

i MIGHT play frisbee tomorrow, but likely not. that said, when 6pm rolls around, yeah, i'll probably be out there under the lights with tights on, and a big vacant look on my face looking off bad cuts with the mindset of chucking it deep to the only slightly worse long cut.

Fan mail

Hey, I've been receiving a lot of fan mail and comments lately, and I just want all you fans out there to know, I just don't have time to reply to every individual note. But know this: your thoughts matter to me, so, keep those messages coming.

I mean, you could could be choosing to read about how Match carried Furious to the world championship, fulfilling his lifelong dreams.

But instead you choose to come to my little corner of the world. So keep those letters of encouragement coming!

moving forward

the kids played ultimate today, i rode my bike for 2 hours, then played ultimate for 1.5 hours. pretty fun. first time i'd played since july. i was mainly looking for some extra excercise after the bike ride... I think half of my turnovers were on uncalled fouls (i mean seriously, who calls a touch foul in pickup), and the other half were on long throws out the back (i mean seriously, who set up this field).

pretty fun, ran around a bit, really didn't try to play every point. got a bunch of old guy poach d's a couple run by d's, got beat a couple times deep, stopped some deep looks, hooked up long a couple times, your basic fun pickup game with a bunch of new players.

since the marathon

since the marathon, i rested for 4 days, biked and lifted friday, ran 7 sat, ran 7 sunday, plus 10 points of low key HS ultimate, mon 5.5 mile, tues 7 miles (2 at 8, then a progressively faster run of 7:50, 7:20, 6:40, 7:20), wednesday, ran 4.5 miles in 31 min, with the last 2 fast, thursday rested, friday rested, today, 7 miles.

tomorrow, there will be a mountain bike ride, and maybe play frisbee with the kids, or both. hard to say.

feel pretty good, my shins hurt a little.

more to follow.

first marathon...

As I look back over my marathon training, It's true, that you really learn a lot about yourself. Yes, as the many month (Sic) went by, I came to value the long runs, the training, even the rest days.

Yes, when I overdid it, in day 20 of the training program, I trusted that the month and month of training would see me through... so I just sat on the couch for 2 weeks.

Anyway, it went fine, 3:29:23, I won't say it was easy, but mainly the legs just got stiff: It wasn't really labored, it was just long. I felt worse after the Hood to Coast, I'm just a little stiff, calves and quads. Just a nice long conversational jog.

In the pouring rain.

I'd hear that you needed to show up 1 hour early, we showed up at 6:50. Got to the crowd at 6:55, fought our way to the right place by 6:58.... and away... we... go...

I'll shoot for 3:15 for next year, and if I train right, it should be just as 'easy.'

XC season is coming to an end, going to look to an early season frisbee tournament with the students...

Taking a few days off to rest up, maybe a litle light spinning... next race in november, 10km with maybe a time trial on Oct 1.

upcoming.

wednesday, went to play frisbee: no one showed. yeah bend. threw for 1 hour.
thursday, today, 90 minute run.

this weekend, coach, and a 3:00 run sunday. ble-yech.

gonna try to host a late fall frisbee tournament here: we got new fields, and a sweet field turf field.

more to follow.

below me.

at the risk of alienating toad...
lessee, friday, i took off.
saturday, i was at the bus depot (school) at 6:00 am, and spent a full day coaching. the girls killed it: they may or may not win state, but for now, they are untouchable. the boys were solid, but missing 1 stud, and one stud has a broken femur... so, i mean, we're all good. I did a 5 mile run.
sunday: 20 mile run. well, that's an estimate. I did 2:40 running, and i did the first 5km on a set time trial to get an estimate of pace. worst case, a 19 mile run. the first 10 miles was with a roommate who's training up for a later marathon. but i had to do 20. my expected training partner for the last 10 bailed... so i was on my lonesome. ugh.
monday, rest: frustrating cause the kids were doing hill repeats (which i like), so i was relegated to hi-5-ing every kid.
tuesday: today, 3x1 mile, at 6:20, 6:10, 6:00, then 3x800 at 3:05, 3:05, 2:50. all on grass, on a slowish course, with 2:00 rest between.

and ok, a little ultimate. i spent about an hour throwing with players, and my girl players were bombing it. absolutely bombing it. maybe this is the year for the team!!!

seriously

frisbee first: at every practice, the frisbee players throw.
enough of that.

Sunday, 2:20 run (16-18 miles)
Monday, rest
Tuesday, The kids had a pool party, I ran there, 28 minutes, hills and running. probably 3.75 miles in about 28 min. Then 4 intervals, 6 on, (2 rest), 6 (3), 6 (3), 7, run 1 mile. I was running hard, I thought 6 equaled a mile, but lingering fatigue affected me, and according to mapmyrun, I was running about a 6:25 pace. So a quality workout, but slow.
Wed: ran easy, 3.5 miles, 28 minutes, but flat. Then 6 x 100 yards on the brand new sport turf field. My hip flexor was sore.
Thursday: Skipped the 2mile warm up run, (threw, instead), then played games with the kid on a designed recovery day. Then ran three miles on a track while I timed a kid doing a timed run for a scholarship. then ran 7 more miles. Total data: 10 miles, average 8:14. Knee was mildly achy, but not really. Tommorrow is rest.

Saturday, is a 4mile run, Sunday is a 2:45 run, 20 ish is the goal.

I'm trying to line up running partners for parts of the run. One of my room mates will do the first 10, then I'm hoping to get a fellow teacher to do the next 6... well then, I'm hoping to borrow CJ's dog for the last part. I mean, the dog can handle it.

on and on and on.

lessee, tuesday was painful miles
wednesday was an easy 25 minute run, weights, a meeting, another meeting, and work until 10
thursday was the kids racing, then i did a night run of 45 minutes.
friday, hour:06 run, say 8.5 miles?
saturday, rest
sunday, 2:20 run, somewhere from 16-18 miles. I figure 17.

So something like 41 miles for the week.

I'm on a rushed plan to run portland marathon in a month. only mildly rushed, but I'm being pretty good with my rest days.

school is good.

miles.

kind of a crappy workout today (i think), but the long miles this weekend make it kind of OK. 25 or 26 miles this weekend, then a 1.5 mile warmup, 3x1 mile repeats at 6:10, 6:00, 5:50 (over rolling grass with turns and stuff, not a track).

by comparison,
2 years ago was 4, 6, 5:55, 5:50, at 5:57.
3 years ago was 5 at 6:18, :15, :15, :05, :10.

I'll do 4 or 5 next week when we do them again, and I'll try to run them all 5 seconds faster. (goal would be 6:05, 5:50, 5:40, and 5:30). perhaps ambitious, but we'll see.

labor day.

nothing to do with frisbee, but friday, after a day of work, got some good sleep, then up pretty early to cheer on the kids in the sunrise to summit, then up to cultus. paddled upwind in some ridiculous wind with a full boat, met up with the rest of the crew, did camp stuff, ate hotdogs.

sunday, 13 mile run, stopped halfway to eat a burger at the lodge. ate a lot, drank coffee, etc.

today, 12 mile run, paddled back.

was going to time trial this mountain, but no in my party was in for it, so it was just long distance stuff, at a decent pace.

time trial, blog review

What was i thinking. Saturday, I couldn't even make the wheels roll, Sunday, and Monday were walk backwards down stairs, tuesday was 32 minutes at 8:45 pace and it felt like i was dying, wednesday was 20 minutes of limping. Today I did the team time trial.

I couldn't help it. It's what I do. 2006, august, 12:52, 2007 I couldn't run in august b/c of injury, but I repeated the run at the end of the season in 12:25, and today, i ran it in 12:31. I'm not PROUD of the result but I was still pretty toast, and even worse, I ran an absolutely terrible first 400 meters (90 seconds). My next 600 meters were the worst as I necked way down to get my motor back, and frankly, the 12:31 was not a disaster. I am going to run it again next week when i'm 'fresh' (that is fresh after this coming weekend's coaches mini camp of

sat 45 mile ride/2mile paddle
sunday 11 mile hike, 5 mile hill run (max effort)
monday 13 mile run (easy), 2 mile paddle. I think i'll skip the bike back at that point.

But by wednesday, I should be able to crank, and I will, with the goal of 12:00 even. I may cheat: and get some pacing help from a couple kids who are making up the TT and can't run the race the next day.

All things considered, I'm pretty happy with life. I'd like to think it's pretty odd for 38 year olds to make progress in this way, and I think I have 7 years to sort of 'peak' in my second career as a middle distance runner.

As an aside, there is a 15 year theory that holds, that, no matter when you start doing an event, you will continue to improve for 15 years. The idea, then, would be that your frisbee career would PEAK 15 years after you started, barring physical break down. Obviously, in a demanding, cutting sport like ultimate, starting when you are 10-15 would be ideal. But just 'cause you peak in a year, doesn't mean that a 10 year old couldn't have a 25 year career: it just means that at 25 they might be their best, but could conceivably still be good for 10 more years... just not their best.

Personally, I started when I was 20, but I would say my best 2 years were when I was 31 or 32, living in bend, commuting to play with sockeye. And with markedly diminished sport specific regimens, my game play at age 34-35 was pretty good. Now, 17 or 18 years in, my feeling is that, without a team to focus on, I can't continue to IMPROVE: but that i can still 'do it.'

Nuff said. Coaches corner.

On worlds:
You can't imagine my sadness in seeing sockeye lose. This is my team. While they may have passed me by, 12 of those guys were my team mates for 1 or more years, and another 6 of those guys are former team mates of mine on varied other teams. I have the utmost respect for furious, and having never won a national title (somehow sockeye went on to win 3 without me. ahem. outlast, outwit, outsmart, out-out-foul-luke), I still feel a more recent connection w/ fish than chain (still got big love for kid, barrett and a bunch of younguns who i only got to play against when i was a 26 yearold college senior). Just a bummer, and I can't speak to the play of the games, other than to say, i hope payback comes in the form of a national title.

On RSD. Gawd almighty it sucks. I can't even bring myself to do a thread review. Todd continues to mask relatively valid points with hyperbole (but, see, I know the guy, and I've seen him play, and played with him, and frankly, ON THE PITCH, he was great) so I can look past the absurdity, Frank continues his rants (but, while I've not played with Frank, I've had some one-on-one e-chat, and frankly (no pun intended) his desires are not impossible, it's his general unwillingness to deal with people... and then there's the latest kook, who's just brought a desire to extrapolate pickup to the real world. shit.

How bout a Blog review.
KD brings tremendous depth to his writings. Frankly, I make no claim to either his command of the syntax, grammar, or most significantly, language in his writing. Truly beautiful stuff that should honestly be finding a place in a literary magazine, not this pathetic venue. I hope he's working on a novel.
I claim only to have an honest voice. I guess I should draw inspiration from Ken's command of the language, but I go the route, why try to compare myself to his strengths. A caveat: In my few (two) (lame) publishing credits, I have tried to use real grammar.
Match: I appreciate the effort, but there are just some things that make me puke. 'Cogs in a wheel' Varied painful misspellings, bizarre homonyms, odd, weird thoughts that remind me of jackie harvey. But, Match, if you bother to read this, Aplus for effort, and I note the improvement, and applaud the mssui-ish effort.
Mssui: Seriously, is this Cyle? Is half that shit true? And I thought I had a checkered college career.
Frosty: Don't know the guy. Takes his shit seriously. I approve, even if I think a lot of this may be just as faddish as the whole run forever slow thing (which I think he and dusty think I do, but really, I never jog. I RUN. And when I train for frisbee, I run FASTER.
Al: I almost threw Al and Jim in the same line, just for humors sake after years of referring to them as stadler and waldorf. By the way, by far the largest sets of hits to my site are from people searching for stadtler and waldorf, so you guys are getting some hits from me. Guy could always play, even when he was deliriously thinking he got a layout block on me. Truth be told, I never got enough playing time for him to get a block on me. And, I remember every block on me in 18 years. They are few and far between. I'm usually not open enough to be a target. Anywhoo, great blog, selfabsorbed, detailed, pics. Sweet.
Jim: Losing ground on his formerly ridiculously stat heavy set, or gaining ground in talking to people, Jim has entertained me for years.
Billy: Second only to Kenny in language, maybe most captivating in terms of frisbee, he had us all going for a year. Speedy recovery on the Leg.
Flash: Must read for a perhaps small set of us who were around at a certain time, and his link to his poker buddy is fascinating stuff.
DlK: Oh, why, oh why did you run away.
Dar. Oh, let's not forget Dar's blog, lives in denver, wife works with my brother, who lives in dublin.

And yes, I still type deja.com to get to google groups.

Hood to Coast.

I'm starting a new blog to separate my non ultimate stuff, but, in the meantime, just to piss off the ultimatetalk readers who can't stand to read about anything but h-stack...

Tuesday Night I somehow went from 'saturday 30min bike ride' to thursday-sunday, massive Hood to Coast Relay run. Next thing I know, I'm driving the Van over from the Redmond airport (only place the team could get the van). I also somehow drew the long legs/ hard legs of this challenging race. The team was great, the girls were members of a race team in SF (one or two were at the olympic trials kind of deal) and the guys were pretty good. (But, really, the girls were the difference makers).

The team at the start. The race included 1000 teams (plus shorter walking and HS divisions). We were iTeam (reflecting our apple sponsoship). This allowed for some plays on that in the van painting (Putting the i back in Team, there ain't no US in WIN, etc) and allowed for some funny schtick about the merits of selfishness. Two vans of 6 played leapfrog as we went accross the state. You would run a leg, tag off to a van mate, and eventually, the next van would take over, and our van would drive ahead 30-40 miles, and chill out for a while (and wish we could sleep).

I joined up tuesday night, and thursday I ferried a van 3 hours over the mountains. We went to the Kennedy School for dinner, and I must have gotten 2 solid hours of sleep in the hotel. Then we drove BACK 1.5 hours to the start (conceivably I could have slept in my own bed, and driven over, but the team bonding thing was cool, and it was no biggy. We decorated the vans, cheered the start, and then our van went to safeway for lunch (soup and sandwich) and then to hang out at FredMeyers for the exchange (bought a new travel scrabble (which i never used, but my current set is missing a letter)). Finally, the time neared for van ii to start.

Van ii (our van) waiting near the exchange for the start of our first set (of 3). Laura and Karen went first, before handing the baton to me. My first leg was 7 miles (averaged 6:45 pace), before tagging off near dusk. We finished up after our next leg evan ran, tagging off to janet, and then we were done for 3.5 hours.

We made a mild error here, in our effort we went to a hotel to avoid trying to rest at an overcrowded transition area. In hindsight, we should have gone to the tranny, but, c'est la vie. Here I piled on to my crazy driving mileage, and continued driving late into the night. My late night leg was a 5 miler, I averaged 7:00 pace, but about wet my pants when, in a stretch of deliverance country, in a spot where there were no cars, or runners I heard

crash crash GURNT HONK MROWW. I don't know. Buck deer will apparently make noise before charging. Could have been a cougar or a bear. Fuck. could have been an angry chipmunk on steroids. I was scared. And sprinting. I discussed this with people, one of whom mentioned, "dude, if it's a cougar, you got to face it down."

Uh, I've seen movies. I go up into the woods investigating, and some kind of Predalien leaves my drumsticks behind. But in any event, i'm sprinting in the dark, and I KNOW that if it's a cougar, i need to face it, so I'm running down some crazy country road, looking over my shoulder, holding my water. Finally, another team's sag van comes up on me (oh, it's 3:50 in the morning), and I flag them down:

Me: "Hey, can y'all pace me, I heard some animal growling at me"
Driver (British); "Are all Americans so brave"
Me: "Well, we did invent the disposable diaper"
Driver: "Are you wearing one?"
Me: "Depends"
Driver laughs.

At this point, I'm catching runners, we chat, and eventually another van appears in the back. I say, "thanks, you can race up to the exchange if you need to"
Driver: "Naah. You're entertaining us now."

Eventually, they leave me, and now I'm racing into the exchange. It was fascinating. I thought I was going fast, but the dark, uneven road, demanded a keen awareness of what was going on. My theory is that the proprioception required made things SEEM to be happening faster than I thought they were. I also was running without my race mandated reflective vest (I somehow forgot it at my first exchange: we broke 24 hours only because we never missed an exchange, but this didn't mean that I didn't need every spare moment at the exchanges to go to the blue room, and warm up, and after the driving and what not I just forgot it, and my fatigued team noticed nothing weird when passing me). As I approached the exchange, and worried about getting busted for no vest (a potential 1 hour penalty or DQ), my brilliant plan was to pull my shirt off so it could conceivably look like i was running with the vest in my hand, or that my white-ass chest was reflective enough, and I covered my number on my shorts so I could make the exchange and sprint to oblivion. Either they didn't care, or it didn't matter. But the bibs were no joke. One young lady was hit by a car on the race, but my rural run was better suited to forgetfulness.

We made the exchange, annnnndddd.... I was driving again. We arrived at the next exchange at dawn, now moving up on the pack, enough that we parked right at the exchange, and only had to wait 5 minutes for frenchtoast, bacon, and eggs, and a coffee ($6.50) prepared by some fundraising group. I caught 15 minutes of sleep (literally my only sleep of the race). Off we went. First Laura, then Karen, then Me, an 8 mile (did I mention the previous 12 miles, sleep deprivation, etc). My leg was working me, and I ran it at a 7:15 pace, but oddly, this was the only leg no one passed me on. One guy sat on my wheel for 4 miles, and I somehow shook him. I considered walking, quitting, etc., but only sort of in passing. I mainly just focused on my breathing, and tried to ignore the pain in my leg. I finished in form, and handed off to Evan who, again turned in another 6:45 set. He should have taken my legs: He'd run 5 marathons in a year in preparation for Boston, and where I faded 6:45, 7:00, 7:15, he just held on.

It was very clear: the marathoners (the ladies karen, laura, janet, lisbet, sarah, and evan, greg) all held consistent splits where the rest of us faded a bit. But everyone was strong (enough) and we never screwed up a transition, which I saw happen over and over. For a team that finished 23:59:43, well, no mistakes was significant.

Evan handed off to Scott, a strong runner hamstrung by a groin pull forced to run well below his pace, but he showed great discipline in not hurting himself. I finally got some sleep, nearly 20 minutes, before we arrived at seaside.

We were corporate sponsored (apple/nike) so we hung at the nike tent site for a while, some people got free massages, drank free beer, ate free food. A couple team mates scored some nifty polypro beach blankets. We got our last team picture taken, and headed back to clean up and eat pizza. There was a little bit of ocean-ing, but if you're not from here, you need to understand, you wear a wetsuit to swim in oregon.

After pizza, a small group, organizer Don, Cat, Laura, and Myself went out to shoot some pool and check out the end of the bands... before crashing at 11:30 and waking up 5 to drive back.

Our Co-ed team came in like 76th out of 1000 total teams (all categories), or 4th out of 80 in corporate. Pretty competitive!!! Honestly, the ladies won it for us. We averaged 7:18 as a team for the race, had no major screw ups in transition, no arguments, and through the miracle of wetwipes our van never smelled bad.

Since then, Sunday, I couldn't walk down stairs, or my driveway. to the extent I walked backwards down both. Monday, I was still walking backwards, but I found riding a bike, due to the use of different muscles, was fine as long as i stayed in the saddle (no cranking). So I rode to work, and rode with the team while they ran 40 minutes (I don't count that as training, too slow on the bike, just wanted to do my job. I'm still a few years from coaching from a golf cart, I guess). Today I ran with the team...

AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHH!

Exquisite pain that defies description. I ran very slow for 3 miles, trying not to throw up, but I DID find that if I ramped it up a bit in the last half mile, that it didn't hurt any more. It's called doms, and i'll recover. But it's no fun. We do have the team time trial this week, a 3200 m (approx) run in a park, that I've done the past 2 years. I guess I'll do it, in the mindset that It's OK to show weakness, but I'll probably repeat it again in a week or two to get a better baseline for personal training.

this weekend, I was planning to repeat an earlier running camp with some friends in an environment where I don't have to watch kids: bike 40 miles, paddle 2, run the mountain, run 13miles, paddle home, bike home, over a 3 day period, with only the mountain run being HARD. At this point, I may have to modify that, but I think I'll start to freshen up in a day or two, so it's still the plan, but I will DEFINITELY modify it, probably, bike 20, walk 4 with gear, sleep, do the mountain (to the best of my ability), sleep, run, sleep, go home. Or something.

thanks for reading. nothing to do with ultimate.

heck yeah.

i loved Generation Kill.
I don't talk politics, but that it is a great miniseries.

But I got to approve anyone who is so american they eat apple pie for breakfast, have a flag tatoo, but keep a flag pin through the skin next to it, an Ipod that has 80 gigs of 'America the Beautiful' and 'StarSpangled banner', and drives a forklift b/c pickups are for sissies...

Well, those boys rock.

Seriously, great miniseries, looking fwd to reading the book. More to follow. Also, my Hood to Coast race. 24 hours. 3 legs. Nike/Apple sponsored.

adfadda

long week. i'll have to look when i last posted. week of too much work, too much heat, and before that a running camp. basically, every morning, i'd sleep until awoken: in the back of a UHAUL van, at around 5:00-5:30, people would start walking around and slamming portapotty doors: 5:30 to 5:45, someone would toss a bag on the back of the van. depending on my fatigue, i'd immediately, jump up, at 5:15, or snooze til 5:45: then load 260 riders heavy ass bags for 2 hours, squeeze in a 10 -20 minute brekky, dissassemble and load some heavy ass tents and chairs and tables...

then drive an hour and reverse.

i also squeezed in 3 40 mile rides, an 88 mile ride, and a run (10 warmup, 4x6 hard effort, 4 min rest after each, 10 cool down).
today, 4.5 min, 40 min run (very easy, 104 degrees). also squeezed in a serious night on the town.

lost about 5 pounds, i look like what passes for emaciated (for me).

ciao

on and on.

ON the bike ride up to the running camp I stopped to take a pic with the new camera. Not bad for a cheap digital. Set it to 10 second delay, it takes 6 or 8 photos over a 3 second period, pick the best, voila. I dig the camera, i haven't figured out how to have all the images preview or show as thumbnails, so i'm a step slow in sorting them right now.



Good camp,
tues: 49 mile ride there (from the house), paddle accross,
wed: get up, 3 mile hike to mountain, run the mountain (5 miles, x1000 vertical), (56 minutes, 11th place for the team, totally fine, probably 3-5 minutes better than when i did it 2 years ago), then read, and ate,
thursday, 13 mile run, read, ate
friday, biked home, included 17 minutes up sparks grade (which I THINK is about what i did it in last year.)

Tomorrow, 8:00 am, bike ride the second.

my first loss...

well, that's not totally true. the team lost one when i wasn't there. and we lost one to a team that played 5-2 to our 4-3. but tonight we lost one basically fair. so, meh.

it was kind of annoying that they insisted on playing 5-2 (it's a 4-3 league, and both teams had enough... i just didn't really care). basically, they had 4 players who could put it, and we had... well every time i had the disc, i had plenty of targets deep to look at. unfortunately, several were wearing white. but we kept it close, i came up with a couple d's, matched that with a couple throws out the back (SHIT SHIT SHIT WHO SET UP THOSE FIELDS), and we were outplayed.

my league record in the draft where i'm a captain: 3-0. when i'm a draftee: 0-3. no complaints. and it was pretty fun having a team with good defenders take turns cover me. it was a bit more frustrating trying to cut to get open for throwers who can't break the mark... on defenders who know that.

we lost by 2 (i think), and frankly, it was dark enough that had we scored to make it -1, i'd have been cool with calling it. i got in a 20 miles of riding (to and from morning frisbee, running errands, to pm frisbee). i had a couple up high, missed a couple d's up high (on good receivers), got piece (but no joy) on a layout block... dang.... it was a fun conclusion to my summer league season, albeit, bitter sweet.. 14-3, one loss i wasn't there for, one loss again, to the team that played with an extra guy, and tonight... so, ok. if i was sticking it out, i'd push the league td, who is on our team, to draft a couple players (he's been generous to a fault letting other teams pick up players, us, well, not so much. our one pickup wasn't there).

tomorrow: i leave early for the bike ride then it's off the to cultus mountain running camp, then the second ride... then it's pretty much back to work. I think i got the allergies/cold licked, so that's good. the bike rides are like boot camp: lifting hundreds of bags, then PM bike rides of 2 hours or a run or both. other than that, i'll pretty much play guitar. they bookend the running camp, which is, bike 50 miles, run 3.5, chill, get up, hike 3, run 5 (uphill) and run/walk 8 back to camp. then run 13 miles the next day, then run back 3.5 miles on day 4, and bike home, then another bike trip. it's pretty burly. do-able, but i usually end up with some foot pain.

I spent 3 hours getting my 'song book' in order. i usually play guitar using my computer as my music stand, showing tabs. I went to the trouble to print 100 songs (guess) and hole punch them. my goal is to start to 'memorize' the songs...

oh, and the last day of organized morning frisbee. only had 14: but, i got to say, 6 weeks of 15-25 kids has been pretty fruitful:

the gems:
i got a girl who was slowing up when covering her mark to attack the frisbee when it was going up: she immediately got 2 d's.
a kid called a travel on me (totally legit), which is always hard, as i coach: play by the rules first, then make calls. (as opposed to the god awful make calls you can't play by).

closing note: the hardest thing about coaching youth friskee:
BE VERY SURE WHEN YOU GET TO THE GOAL LINE IF YOU THROW A LEADING PASS.
The classic turnover is a 3 pass sequence that gets the disc on the goal line, and then the unforgivable pass: a tight leading pass when a dump or a reverse of field, or even a fake would lead to the goal. and, we eliminated some of that.

tryouts.

ok, so this may be on the absurdist side for most, but for those of you with a certain sense of humor:

the first tournament we played this year was 'state'. single gender. the second was 'state', co-ed. the last was the local tournament, which i called districts. this set in motion a running gag, that we went state, districts, practice, tryouts. in keeping with that, i've constantly used bad grammar in our tryouts, telling kids to 'try not to be nervous,' we'll set the teams previously.

i know... maybe you don't get it. the joke is coming to fruition, as today, our second to last summer practice, we ran drills (for the first time all summer), and this thursday, we're going to do the name game, and meet all the new players.

it's actually been a great summer. i've averaged 15-20 kids (sometimes more), tu-th mornings at 8:30. and it's a real team dynamic. we do semi-structured throwing until 9, then we play mini and / or dutch, then we scrimmage. several players have made huge gains, and, man, it's pleasant.

in contrast, tuesday and sunday pickup, it's a disastrous mix of noshows, lateshows, etc. and tons of players, who get off their bike, and their first throw is their first of many turnovers. i go back and forth as to whether or not i should offer to run some drills or short field games... but it's pretty frustrating when uh, no one can catch.

there are a few good players out there... but, i mean, let's get better, m'kay?

personally, sunday, i took it off, but played ultimate, everypoint, for say, 1.5 hours, then,
monday, 45 minute run, with the 24 minute 3.5 mile run... i'm still congested, so averaged like 7 minute miles... but felt shittay.
tuesday, morning frisbee, 2 hour 35mile ride, then a 1.5 hour frisbee sessh. one argument... but i'm trying to stop doing it, even when people are acting poorly:
long story short: i asked a guy why it was OK for him to call someone out from 40 yds accross field, but i couldn't get him to consider whether he was (1 yd) out when i was right behind him on the line.

got in 3 hours of guitar: hard for me to sing, not that i sing for other people, but the cold has made it unpleasant for me. (for you, imagine blackboards screeching). but i'm getting my register back.

sat/sun, i re-read rainbow six (crap, but at least it's reading, so no worse than watching RAMBO (which i did last week), and mon/tues, 'without remorse' (more clancy crap, but again, better than watching TV), and downloaded about 60 songs...

current faves to play:
twilight zone (golden earring) although, I prefer the f# to the f#m, tainted love, love me like a rock, and sultans of swing (i got a problem with the instrumental... i'm reading tabs, so the measure isn't listed...)... logical song is pretty cool. rehab, by amy winehouse, although, i'm not sure how comfortable with my 'daddy' so i go back and forth between 'baby' and 'mama'. i'm not sure which is more bluesy correct. is 'old lady' acceptable these days?

batman, no spoilers.

flipping unbelievable. i'm a huge nolan fan, and this delivers. it's dark, and long. long enough that my mid day showing was challenged in the last hour by my absolute involvement in the story, and my full bladder from the xlarge arnold palmer (tea/lemonade). suffice to say, i'm a pushover for the good graphic novel movies/escapist fiction (liked VforVendetta, OK w/ Ang Lee's hulk (not great), but more a fan of the cinema, I really liked Batman Begins, Matrix (can we pretend the sequels never happened), X2 is good...

but to me, this is great, challenging cinema. Ledger's work is maybe or maybe not oscar worthy, but that's immaterial: he commands the piece. bale is solid, eckhart, is solid... and there are some stomach turning twists. i'm not sure if slate's comparison to 9/11 i spot on, but overall, it's 2.5 hours of thoughtful and commanding cinema, the best i've seen in months.

the cameos are great too: tiny lister, anthony michael hal, wm. fichner (is that right)...

without giving too much away, it has the feel of an 'empire strikes back', and with ledger's death, it's questionable who could fill his shambling, feral role. i didn't see brokeback mountain, and while he was entertaining in brothers grimm, a knight's tale, ned kelley, and the patriot, and something a bit more in the monsters ball, he's always been a vanilla throway character (with the caveat that i'm not a 14 year old girl).

however, his work in this moving was compelling, and while the movie doesn't demand a sequel (thank god, it's not one of those lameass matrix 2 unfinished movies), the quality of nolan's work leaves me wanting more.

maggie gyllenahll (wrong spelling, i know), was great: loved her in donnie darko, and in other work, was great, and i look forward to more. if nothing else, she's far superior to katie holmes.

in all aspects, its a wonderful movie. if you comment, i'll delete spoilers, for say, one week. just out of fairness. then all bets are off.

in other news, my new protocol seems to deal well with my allergy/cold, or i'm coming close to licking it. my second day of 7 hours of sleep was heaven. after almost 2 weeks of 4 hours of sleep, i'm wrecked. but i mustered a 43 minute run today, just over 8 minute pace, but after a week of illness..... i guess it's alll right.... and it was a hilly profile... but, i was pretty unimpressed with myself. after a few hours break, and 3 hours of guitar, i went for a 1 hour (58:30) 17 mile ride, nice and easy... but i'd say i'm at about 80%. that run should have been a 40 minute run at that effort...

tommorrow, i'll ride,and run... or i might play ultimate, but someone kneed me and stepped on my ankle thursday.. so i'm a bit limpy...

one more week of coaching, then it's a 1 week bike trip: i handle the luggage, and set up tents (the big kind)... i can get in as much biking as i want, but while the paying customers do 505 miles in 7 days, i'll do maybe 250, but with lifting bags, and stuff, it's plenty. then a couple days rest, then a running camp... 45 miles in 4 days, then another bike trip. the last 2, combined with other injuries, have left me limping for months... we'll see how i do.

what a terrible week.

ok, since saturday, i've been debillitated with allergies/ maybe a cold.
saturday, i did a 45-50 mile ride.
sunday, i woke up with gawdawful sinus issues. like, i'd hickup, and my ears would hurt. i did steam inhales, advil, antihistamines, etc. but, sunday, and monday, were lots of time on the couch, trying to breathe. awful.
mon, see sunday.
tues, i rallyed for morning, and p.m. frisbee, but, i mean, i actually don't count frisbee as training anymore.
oh, tuesday night, i went out to someone's birthday, and ran home 3 miles, but, that doesn't count. i spent the night hacking so hard my room mates were awakened and thought i was throwing up.
wednesday, i ran a mile and a half to practice, hawking around, and ran back after the head coach and i agreed i didn't need to run.
thursday, i 'cancelled' coaching morning frisbee, but they played anyway (that's fine, i just wanted them to know that they were 'unofficial, i.e., if your parents need an adult there, it's cancelled. ' i did this with a cell phone.
thursday night, i rallyed for league, played everypoint of two games, and just for grins, introduced someone to shotgunning (i opened them both with my thumb, always a crowd pleaser).. so, 3-0 tonight.

so by my standards, zero exercise this week. i'm hoping to ride the bike after running tommorrow.

i'm about to try a new sleep regimen, hopefully one that will give me more than 3 hours sleep (which i've not had more than in a week)

1) pot stickers
2) cloraceptic spray (to numb the throat)
3) 1/2 dose of nyquil
4) 2 advil

i'll let you know how it gos.

july 12

Thursday, July 10, woke up very tired. I'm suffering from brutal allergies, which wake me up around 2 am... So thursday, I just chillaxed, played a few points of jogging A.M. ultimate early with the kids (probably 20 there, most consistent summer ever), ralleyed to play the 2nd game of the city league double header. Sort of miffed, our opponent had only 2 girls, so played 5-2, and acted pissy when I said, at the beginning of the game, 'so you forfeit? why not play short handed like everyone else does?' they were very happy with there cap win and the numerous goals they threw to the girl covered by the guy.

Friday, kids played games at XC practice, i just organized things, little everyones it tag, clock tag, ultimate, sharks and minnows. as an aside, a 50 person game of sharks and minnows really looks like sharks... and minnows. Then I went for a 1:04 slow jog (about 8:10 pace), a 20 minute swim, lifted weights.

Today, (Saturday, July 12), I went for a 3 hour bike ride, nice and slow, about 47 miles. Tommorrow, a ride, and a short run.

generic.

solstice write up to follow.
july 9, today, 45 min run (hard, figure 6to not quite 7 miles), then a 42 mile bike ride (road)
july 8, yesterday, threw around in the morning, 2.25 hours biking (1.5 in a single ride, the rest commuting), swim 20 minutes, weights, frisbee for 1 hour in the evening. ankle achy.
july 7, rest
july 4,5,6, solstice
july 3rd, frisbee in am, 2 hour ride, weights.
july 2nd, 30 min run, 2 hour ride.
july 1... already covered.

southland tales

I'm watching southland tales. Im a big donnie darko fan. the movie is off the hook weird. but.. good. i'm thumbs up... they screwed up... it was supposed to be Justin Timberlakes version of i'm not a soldier... but it's sweet...

more to follow...

sabe

sunday: rest day.
monday: 6mile run. awful. it was about 95. i ran it at a 7:30 pace, calves cramping, mouth dry. miserable. lifted weights that evening.
tuesday: early morning frisbee, 1.5 hours, getting worked by some 18 y.o. kid who got 2 d's on me, which i answered with 2 handblocks... basically, chasing a sub 16min 5km runner around like crazy. we played a few points, i called game to 5, down 4-0, we won, 5-4. a great battle. prefaced by 2 hard fought games of dutch. then a 2.5 hour mountain bike ride, then some p.m. pickup ultimate... i cleated myself on a layout catch... my sore ankle seems to be improving... i'm pretty sure it's bone spurs (a recollection from a conversation with a doc about 5 years ago in similar symptoms)...
tommorrow-3-7 mile run(depends on how i feel)... getting ready for solstice....

later

pretty good...

thursday, ran 7 miles, at about 7:30 pace, biked 1.5 hours (mountain)
friday, ran 7 miles (about 7:15 pace), swam 20 minutes, lifted
today, 2.5 hour mountain bike ride. i was going to swim, but i'm thinking i'll do it tomorrow, with running intervals in the AM, and maybe a medium bike (1hour or so), and shoot for a full 30 min swim.

solstice, etc.

i played solstice this weekend. here's the line.
1 drop. 1/2 turnovers, several hucks, several d's (mainly in the zone).

i was pretty solid. my throwaway was a lead break mark that kind of hit the guy as it went by, and then he could have run it down... i think. I definitely take the 1/2 turnover there. The drop was of the embarassing sort. the hucks were leading, easy catches. i missed my one 'h' bid on 'd', but covered 2 players in the zone a couple times, and i think forced d's (like i'd break to the side for the catch 'd' and it'd be in the turf in front of me). my ankles are starting to look so so even. If anyone has a set of the two year ago used, size 12 speed TD's in decent shape, or one left, I got 40 bucks.

the team was so-so, not talent wise: great young players, it just took us a while to shake off the rust. we lost by 2 to the 2 finalists, and should have won both games. (this was the open bracket, but see my Rec.sport.disc post for my thoughts on the superiority of elite play)

the U of O is in good shape if they take it upon themselves to win; dusty was sick, nice long shots, aggressive, but backed up by stellar 'd', stout made some plays i can only have dreamed of making in my prime: kevin minderhout was everywhere, and solid the whole time. We just came out of the gates shaky, and only decided as a team late to make a serious play on saturday. Great play also by dan force and all the other kids (and i mean kids only in the complimentary manner).

monday morning, i went for an 8 mile run, and my ankle blew up like afro - sheen. It's definitely related to the weekend.I'm really struggling with my new cleats. I think it's just the slight differences in ankle cuff height, and new cleaty-ness.

tuesday, i wasn't going to play hs ultimate, but i did, and sort of was fine, jogging around in my limpy running shoes. i won my two games of mini (players picked their own teams), and sort of won the full field game, but i called travel on myself on the winner (i mean, it's sort of silly to beat up on HS kids just 'cus I can throw it far).

i encouraged my kids to use the silly mark: 'don't count to ten, just go 1, 0, 1,1, 0' since no one was going to hold onto it for more than 5 seconds, also, 'turn your back to the thrower, and wave your arms' and 'put your hands peekabo style in front of the thrower for 1 second.' It was pretty funny.

Then I ran 30 minutes, lifted weights, swam 20 minutes, and then rode my bike for 1.3 hours watching the Georgia College world series game... before Georgia's dismal performance led me to take the bike off the trainer and go do 3, 4min max effort intervals on a big hill.

today, i 'rested' and just timed the kids runs. I probably biked around for 40 minutes total.

Ankle is quickly recovering: it's clearly related to cleat break in. I'll just tape for further games. I may or may not play league tomorrow: i need to call Krupf: If he's playing, I should play, and if not, I can skip it in good conscience. Definitely odd: I spent several seasons in seattle taping my ankles in much worse shape: I just don't want to take advil right now, nor do i want to limp through anything.

Tomorrow is morning frisbee, then I'll swim or ride for a while. Maybe league night: If i don't do it, I'll run, or bike intervals.

I'm inspired to play potlatch: I got the usual shot in the arm by playing open ultimate. Got a good team?

We've had 20 kids out every morning for frisbee (t/th), and pretty decent play.

sabe.

pretty low key week.
monday, i rode my bike for about 30 miles (but just sort of commuting). let's here it for commute options. also threw in a 20 minute 5km.
tuesday: a rippin' morning frisbee session, with 3 great dutch games, and then 30 miles of biking, then a casual afternoon frisbee pickup game.
wednesday: rest day. watched a couple movies.
thursday: easy early morning frisbee session. lazy 12 mile bike ride, then, 2 league games. i actually got a legit layout goal. we won both games. i'm a little miffed, as we had 3 subs, but somehow, everyother team had 3 new pickup players. my long game was working, but about half were due to lucky catches.

this weekend. solstice, i think.

next week, i'm going to talk with my HS kids what do they want to do to be winners next year, and what do they want to do to win this year? i'm happy to have all games as casual, but if they want to run drills, i will.

skools out.

wednesday, I think I rode the bike a bit, but pretty low key.
thursday, biked to and from league night, about, 30 min each way, played, we won.
friday, i think i rested...
saturday, I got up, and did 4x4 intervals on my bike. the first one was amazing. this very steep hill i climb for the intervals is marked by a road at the approximately 4 minute mark, except it's VERY rare I can hit it 4 times (I don't think I ever have). But this time was different. Even though I've barely ridden this year, I hit the road at 3:30!!!! I was cranking.

However, the next few were worse, and I realized, that I counted incorrectly on my stopwatch... But the workout was solid. Foaming at the mouth, working hard. Later, I ran 50minutes easy with a dog i'm sitting.

Today, birds woke me at 4 am. Walt Disney can kiss my ass. the soothing song of songbirds? More like Swiss cukoo clock hell. but i ran a bunch of errands on my bike, biked with this crazy border collie (slowly, I know not to abuse a dog on a bike), put in about 25miles in total. Then frisbee started out slow. At 4 (the stated time, there were 2). At 4:15, there were 4. By 4:45, though, we were playing 3v3 dutch, then 4v4 mini (games to 3, then 4, then 5), then a low key 5 v 5 game of 'regular' then 6v6 to 7, then 5, then 3. I didn't play the game to 3. Pretty sweet, couple of alums showed up, and some other Uof O guy I didn't know, and it was a really fun brisk game of pickup. I won every game, dutch, mini (won the first 2 x-nil, switched teams, won that one, won all of the frisbee games).

you know what I say, better to be lucky than good. but a good high paced game, got to run the field a little, played some occasional OK defense, got 5 handblocks... but, boy o boy was i tired by 6:20. nba game was pretty good.

tomorrow, day one of xc practice... i'll bring the dog, and it's a 15 min run to the meet sight, so, it'll be a 70min run. maybe less if i'm fried (i guess i can walk back).... then i'll take the rest of the day off, or maybe swim or paddle. oh, and move my room across the hall...

dgfdhgfgd

i dunno. where was I. quick tourney wrap up. varsity goes 3-1, losing a heartbreaker to Crescent Valley. Up 7-3 at half, we lose 13-9. We agreed not to cap the game: the 2 hour plus game may have gone the other way, but a great team with more experience won. tough loss, but hopefully the kind that grows the team. basically, we won ugly early in a hucking game, and in the second half, our defense was too soft, they broke the flat mark repeatedly to the backhand side. and the most importantly, they completed 20 plus passes per point to win. my kids were bumming:

I said, we had a good half. They said, we always had a good first half. I said, no, in years gone by, we'd have no good halves. We're on the upswing.

Personally Friday was the great run, 7miles, 49 minutes with a 21 minute 5km sandwiched in the middle: no great times, except for the overall.
Saturday, coach allday.
Sunday, rest.
Monday, bike 1.5 hours. Run 30 min. Lift 30 min.
tuesday, bike to and from school (20 min?), rode the trainer (40min) (It's coldish, watched a little diehard2). Biked to pickup: 15min, ran 15min, then, 3x4min HARD intervals. with 3, and 4min recovery. Then another hour of ultimate, mixed bag. had my first discussion on the new marking rules (through a completion, and called violation on a guy (he was wrapping with the arms, definitely over the pivot with the line). It was a pretty funny conversation, where my team is downfield turning it over, and the opponents are coming back, and I'm explaining the new rule, this character moves his arms back flat (they weren't to start, they were wrapped), and says, I wasn't wrapping.

pretty funny to see him spread his wings and say, 'naw, this is what i was doing.'

my side won the 2 games to 5, the first was playing 4-3 vs 5-2.

best current conspiracy theory

Polybius

afdad

What follows is a true story.
The names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Tuesday 7 am, I go to start my car. It disagrees. After pumping the gas, etc., I look under the car. Lo and behold, my gas line is severed. “Whoa, I think. I must have hit a speedbump too hard.” A note. I tend to drive my 25 year old car like a grandpa, unless there is snow, or speed bumps involved. Where speed bumps are concerned, I go with a 'speed is safety' approach. Where snow is concerned, I tend to go with a 'rear wheel drive rocks.'

Cut to Wednesday night at the BBC. I retell the story for the 4th time of the day, when Scott notes. “Seriously. How far could your car have run with NO GAS.” I'm a pretty trusting fellow. And frankly, what's the value of assuming that my pump was stolen. However, the fact that 2 feet of hose was missing should have tipped me off.

Well, I’m a trusting soul, but I’m wondering if perhaps, my Graduatiing seniors on ‘Senior Campout Night” stole it as a prank. That evening I board the senior bus as a chaperone, and after discussing the graduating requirements (any drugs, alcohol, or beachballs will be met with tasering) I ask, “and by the way, did any of you steal my fuel pump?” I retell the story to the gang (my first bunch of kids I’ve taught 4 years, and several note, “well, it’s funny, but we’d go to jail.” I'm pretty sure none of them were drunk (they breathalyzed), but i'm not sure they weren't inebriated.

Either I taught them well, or I taught them too well.

Cut to Friday. Work ends, and I decide to go for a run. I make it all of one block, when I notice another old Volvo. With racing stripes. And all f$%$ up.

With a pile of automobile parts underneath the car. I jog home, and call 911. It turns out, when you do that with a cell phone, it locks up the phone, and causes all sorts of problems. Eventually I return to real world, and within 10minutes, an officer, Officer “P____” is on hand.

I’ve had extensive experience with the police, as my repeated “Yes Officer. Thank you sir,” demonstrates. I relaxed with a 'whush' when he was done, then checked myself, and realized I was not being investigated.

He leaves, and goes to investigate.

I go on my run. Pretty good run: 7 miles, with the middle 3 miles in about 20 minutes. Total time 50 minutes.

After a thrilling hour, I return home. I’ve literally been home for 5 minutes, when the officer returns, and knocks on the door.

“We got your fuel pump back.”

so, Great. I got a gasoline soaked pile of rags on the deck, and some dude out there who thought fuel pumps cost 500 dollars (his story to the cop). Sadly, this 100 dollar part is going to cost someone a lot of shit. And for me, I'll have to deal with the tow. Conceivably, I'll get paid back from the crime. but, It's nice to solve the crime myself.

affdafd

Monday, I rode for 2 hours
Tuesday, a little practice. My new cleats (I think) are hurting my right ankle. Not an achilles, but back of ankle pain. I remember this from 2 years ago when i bought new cleats. Very sore and stiff at work. If my new cleats work out, I'll probably buy 2 more pairs, and break them all in. Hopefully I can get through the next few years. Then we tie-die'd shirts for the team, and a BBQ. I spent a lot of time cleaning the hosts kitchen.
Wednesday, today, bike intervals, 4min,4min,4min, 6min. Hammering. I'm a little concerned that I could only get my heart up to 175, but when I run, I can get it up to 185... the times are all that matter, as I measure my improvement...

Uh, I woke up this morning, and my fuel pump was gone. I thought I just dropped it, but, maybe it was stolen. I mean, it's something weird to lose.

That would be weird.

more of the same.

i'm completely wiped. teaching, coaching, etc. i'm not even at the magic 5 year mark of teaching by which 50% of teachers quit.
02-03, grad school
03-04, subbed
04-05 half time
05-06 taught
06-07 taught
07-08 taught

so 5ish.

the coaching is wearing me down. i coach, almost 52 weeks a year. i get paid for about 20 of them. it's affecting my training.

tuesday, i cancelled practice. it's been pouring rain here: our fields don't accomodate them well. it doesn't help that our 'fields' were closed by sinkhole for 2 years. pretty irritating. i ran stairs.

wednesday. i went for a short bike ride.
thursday. coached frisbee, played a lame league night.
friday. slept
saturday: got dressed to ride, saw lightning, went home, sat around in my kit for 5 hours as it poured rain. the break never came, so it was another rest day.
today, 1.75 hour mtb ride, .5 of commuting errands, 2 hours of ultimate.

and what sweet ultimate it was.

my ideal 'pickup' ultimate was met.
a bit of a breeze (makes things more interesting)
hard play (everybody was running)
civil play (it's pickup. there are rookies out here. let's skip the close calls)
good humour (a personal beef. i have a hard time with bullshit heckling)

literally, as far as i can remember, not a single call was made... i know i tried to play my part... i dug one out on a go to cut... but i felt grass (it was high).. i just threw it down, told my team mate (ahh... shorter grass, it's for sure up, but it may have hit the grass)... a nice, tight clean game was played, with every player giving the other team the benefit of the doubt. win it with excellence, not with calls.

to me, the perfect way to play a pickup game. that said, i can be the worlds biggest asshole, stickler to the rules. but sunday in the park, just win it with your legs, and throws, not with your calls.

in contrast: i've just given up on some calls in league play. they fall on deaf ears.
'a turnover in the endzone, and the opposing player is walking it up, and spinning it on their finger and drops it, and picks it up. (i just let it go).
'a player cramps, (on a team with tons of subs).' they stay in
'2 players leave for injury in one point.' i sub 2. they say 'you don't HAVE to sub' 'Thanks, i say'

i'm good with all of this, until the opposition starts screaming pick, when they poach, or losing it when we play zone, and they call every ticky tack double (fair) but when i ask their cup to step off the double a bit, they lose it.

back to an earlier post:

why is it OK to let a bad result stand in the interest of 'let the players sort it out' where ignorance is concerned?
if a player doesn't really know the rules, is it right to let a new player be taken advantage of?

at the risk of alienating everyone:

your child gets in an argument with your other child or another child.
is your instruction 'work it out' . or is your desire for a right outcome.

seriously. teaching the rules is part of spirit of the game, codified in ettiquette.

From Section 1. Introduction, item B. "Spirit of the Game. Ultimate relies upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of mutual respect among competitors, adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play. Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate unsportsmanlike conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting opposing players, dangerous aggression, belligerent intimidation, intentional infractions, or other 'win-at-all-costs' behavior are contrary to the Spirit of the Game and must be avoided by all players."

specifically, adherence to the rules. that's part of spirit of the game. where players don't know about the rules, we should make sure they do!!!!

training.

I cancelled frisbee practice today. I needed a mental health day after 5 hours of grading on memorial day. I also squeezed in a 1.5 hour bike ride, and a 35 minute run, and a quick circuit of single leg squats, chinups, dips (jogging from station to station, 3x).

Came home, slept, ate, and did a 30 minute workout. 10 minute warmup up to the college, 4x2min hard effort stair sets (stairs that run from the bottom of campus to the top, got my heart rate up to about 185, which is pretty high. By my age, guestimate, time, i think my heart rate max is about 193. So, that was a decent set.

felt really good. like i could have done at least a couple more: I'd do as many as 10 of these on a bike, but the higher impact of running was taken into account. And it was, again, a long day.