Transformers...

..kicks ass.

Comments?

(if you post a negative comment, i'm going to edit it, so it appears that in addition to your comment, you said, "bleah blah blebby blah blah. i'm an idiot". so obviously, it's not in your best interest to be a nattering nabob of negativity (a term attributable to some famous quaker).)

Also, crappy turn out at frisbee this morning, but i got in a throw, and i have my last duathlon tonight at 6:02. Not looking forward to it, because it's 100 F out right now. Strike that. Just went up to 101. F. No, that means Farenheit.

Tommorrow, i'll bike at 6:30, and run at 8:30, and swim, or paddle in the evening.

Same over the weekend. Anything hard will be early: But the heat is supposed to pass after today....

god bless my underwear.

i really love that song. what's up this week. monday was the workout day, 1.75 hour bike, 40 min run, 4x200 striders, core, weights. tuesday, just frisbee, for like 1 hour, plus the usual requisite biking about... dentist, race packet, etc. wednesday (today) was a 5km. I guess I tapered, seeing as i did a 22 hour week, a 14 hour week, and then an easy tuesday... like a taper, but not. but the result was OK, i wanted to go 6:05 for each mile, instead, I was like 6:10 ish... it was fine. i can't say it was 'off the couch' as i've done at least one half assed interval workout a week for a month. i need to race more, however. it's painful, but visits to the pain cave pay off in dividents. So i was 19:19, 17th loser. My goal is to run under 18 this year... not impossible, but nor will it be a cake walk. Oh, i biked to the run, ran 2.5 to warm up, and then did 3 or so as a cool down... tommorrow is ultimate early, and duathalon 5, die, duathalon, die.

Which of course means, the duathalon, the.

Probably not doing anything for the fourth but read a little, and get the bike ready. Oh, I'm going to go get a flyrod in a minute.

Exciting stuff.

Friday, 2 hour early ride, practice, weights, maybe a late evening roller ski (long easy day)
Saturday, long day, long bike, hopefully wi/ hike thrown in.
Sunday, long ride, need to roll. Got to get some paddling in.

new deal

Saturday, i went rollerskiing, not long, like 40 minutes (skipped the intervals) and biked 1.75 hours...
Sunday, 30 minute run, and went fly fishing. Pretty fun. a couple hours kicking around in a float tube, wearing waders, first time casting a fly rod. I could basically make the cast, I caught a 12" rainbow and released it... I'm 'hooked'. Going to go get a rod this weekend... nice something to add... there are several places to fish that i can do some nice bike rides to.

Tommorrow, AM ride, 8:30, 40 min run, 4 x 200 strides, core, 10:00 weights... rest of the day nap and read.
tues, frisbee, rest pm
wed, 5km race
thurs, frisbee, pm TT...

time trial / dual 4

so last week was 14 hours of training, plus solstice. i called solstice, playing from 9-3, and from 10-12, plus warm up, 8 hours of excercise total. there's just too much standing around at a tourney. so 22 hours last week. ridiculous.

the tournament was fine, we had 13 most of the time, with a couple pickups later. my 1000's and 800's might have kept me from getting hurt (i'd like to think i have some idea of what i'm doing) but didn't make me quick or fast. something to work on for the next two months. lot of work, but we played 'good teams'

lots of running and biking and some rollerskiing this week, some bike intervals tuesday (4 x 6 minutes up some ridiculous hill, recover 2 minutes) and the duathalon was miserable. i... just... felt... like... crap. oh, and the huge gain from last week was partly due to a shorter course (rather, we've doing 13 or so miles on the bike, instead of 12)... so my times look like this thus far, w/ the outlier in parentheses... 1:04, 1:03, (59), 1:01... so the progress is there, even if i'm grimly dissatisfied with the results. the top times are around :55 for these, so, obviously, i'd like to be there. oh well. i guess as long as i'm improving.

things i'd like to add/change: more stretching, tapering before events, weights. but frankly, i'm a basket case if i'm not outside during the summer. so paddling or double pole skiing (don't use legs) for the afternoons would be good.

frisbee, get a little faster/quicker... that's really about it.

this weekend (my training week ends sunday night), tommorrow, medium mt bike ride (1.5-2.5 hours) and intervals (Running, 3 x 1 mile). Might just do the intervals, and go for a paddle. Sunday, long bike ride (50 miles) up and down to mt. bachelor, hike the mountain. Should be a 4 hour workout... or something like that. Monday, bike intervals, tuesday, easy (frisbee/spenst/agillity/dynos/core type stuff), wednesday, 5k fun run, thursday, cinco de cinco. 5th time trial.

trimetrialtrois

6am mt bike ride in 55degree weather... set an alarm
8:30 am ultimate with the kids... sweet fields, a few cuts and throws
broken derailleur at 3;00 pm... thanks marshall
new bike shoes... 180 bucks sidi genius...
new running shoes... 75 bucks adidas supernova, 20th pair in 8 years
new pedals... 140 bones
2 flat tires changed 15 minutes as i've got to leave... uh... 15 mnutes and 2 greasy old tubes out of the garage

4 minute improvement on my tt time... priceless.

i'm psyched. it hurt. here was the secret. i changed my heart rate monitor. instead of me being 37, i changed it to say i was born in 1981. Then i went at the same heart rate percentages as last time.

Ways to improve: Better run. 1 min. Better transition. 1 min. TT bars. 1 min. Luck 30 seconds. Taper. 1 min (I worked out 11 hours m-thursday). Best possible effort in 2 weeks: 54:30 That would put me up with some of the better guys in the event. But, it's not a super deep field... just, trying to improve....

In other news, solstice is this weekend. I'm playing with Throwback. My goals are for the teams success first, and personally, I want to play well in a limited manner, have fun, and take care of business.

Then next week starts 1 month of base only plus two more time trials. Goal is 20 hours per week of zone one and two base. This will go on for one month, then i'll switch back to running intervals, play more ultimate, and move towards the fall series.

It'll look like this: Run with team, 40-50 minutes per day, plus strides and core, 3 days per week. Ultimate (low key), 2 days per week. Bike, 2-3 hours per day. Roller ski, 3 days per week, 1 hour. Paddle, 2 days per week, 1 hour. 1 or 2 long events (100 mile ride, or 4 hour hike with poles). Weights, 3 days per week. In august, volume will drop dramatically, and intensity will increase somewhat.

Summer is sweet. Getting up at 5:30 to go play is so fun. Getting up to go to work was fun, but, less so.

I also want to keep playing guitar (3 hours per week) and studying french (3 hours per week) and juggling (3 hours per week).

If i'm on it, I'll also write (short stories, not counting blogging and rec.sport.disc) 2 hours per week, minimum.

school's out.

saturday, the city league tourney, we lost. my first time watching the finals in 3 years. first loss in tournament play in three years. got jacked up by some guy as i was backpedalling for a huck that was coming up a little short. he dove into my knee... contested the foul call on the grounds that 'he was trying to get the disc'. where the eff to these people come from. knee feels a little loose, but just weak, not like i tore anything... it's been getting better everyday. lost in the semis, 13-10. i played all of those points, and most all day, so, i got my money's worth. they had free beer for the finals.

sunday, rest day. worked on the last bit of grading.

monday, AM run w/ XC team (30 min), then a meeting and finish up checkout, done w/ school by 3:30 then home, then a bike ride (short, 1 hour or so). today, tuesday, bike ride (mountain bike, 7-8:15), then coached ultimate, 8:30-10:00, then ate more, then biked around a bit, then went for a 40 minute roller ski... pretty good day.

duathlon deux

missed two more games of frisbee, bringing the total number of times i've skipped a frisbee game for something else (discretionary time) to like two... i have missed frisbee for work and stuff. the realization that i should do that was a fairly important step in actually becoming an adult.

that, and graduating from college at age 26. i'm not sure which was first.

dual deux came on the heels of a hard week of running, 3x1000 (plus 2.5 miles running to corse and back), w/ 2.5 hours biking sunday, 3x800 (same warmup/cooldown), plus 1.5ish in the bike tues, relative rest mon wed (30 min biking each day)...

of course, i forgot to press stop at the end of my race, but i think it was better than last time. last time was just under 1:04, i THINK i was about a minute faster. i wore the nerdometer, and kept my heartrate between 85%-90% of max (which is a made up number at this point, as i've not actually tested it in years. i use a number that assumes i'm 10 years younger than i really am) for the bike, and 88-91% of max for the 3 mile run. My impression was that my bike time was worse, but my run time better. OK, what with the hard stuff. I've got the city league tourney saturday: which i'm mildly dreading. it'll be some ridiculous 4 game deal, even though we've had like 80 league games (OK, just 14, but come on, the regular season should mean something) and there are only 8 teams... so it seems like quarters/semis/finals should be fine. Frankly, i'd be OK w/ semis finals only, as it would get better quality games... plus, i still end up playing basically every point... blah, blah, whine whine, yes, i'm from the northwest whiners frisbee world..

back to the dual. i got one more hard fast workout (more 8's, or a ladder) next week, and the race on thursday, plus daily morning runs/ultimate w/ the kids... but it's kind of a taper week for solstice... then all base. I think that will give me better times next thursday, and the week after, and for the final one, i'm going to throw on some aero bars; my only goal for these events is improvement in each one. i'd be happy to average 1 min per event, and maybe get down to the high 50's... there are two guys in this thing that are better skiers than me, (of the skiers i know who do this thing), and my goal is to beat them at a race next year (no small task).

the race was pretty painful, i again had nothing for the run (perceived, at least), and had a variety of aches and pains (arch pain, which i'll tape for next time, and side aches, which i'll try to address with hydration and diet). Probably less fat and protein for the pre-race meal, or an earlier lunch, and a cliff bar at race minus 2 hours.

i threw disc one day this week... but i got my stack o' plastic back... so that's good.

question for people who play more than i do now, or strategery guys... what is the percentage of goals that H-stack teams score on ALL DUMPS to handlers, and ALL comeback cuts from the back? is it just a high school thing where the up line things KILL YOU?

thanks for your response.

luke.

fdfadadf

ended up taking yesterday off (slacker)... today, 3 x 800 in the park (so it's something like 800), 3:05, 3:05, 3:00...i got down to 2:45's in season last, but, this is 2 days after another decent interval workout... so it's probably ok... i was at 88-90% ish (i used my nerdometer)... so i had a little room to push... then a 1.5 hour easy ride. left the nerdometer at home.

i need to recheck my max. technically, the max intervals should be 90 plus, but i really didn't feel like it... it was a labor of love... hard to push the 2:45's on grass, w/ no one to work with...

tommorrow, 20 min commuting, 20 min of running, and a 1 hour easy ride. all easy.

thursday, duathlon. friday rest. saturday the city league tourney. in the past, this has been a 4 game, i play every point marathon.

i hope it's a 3 point, i take 5 points off type deal

ok.

meanderings and ramblings follow. brief ultimate anecdote at end.

shaq is running a fitness show. "better not fart on me" he says as he's holding a kid's ankles for situps.
tim duncan is a machine. it's amazing to see him work. the combination of quick decision making on secondary breaks, hustle on the run (after the slowed plantars duncan of past years), and this calculating assasination in the post as he assesses the passing lanes, the double... sometimes the quick move, but usually see whats there, and then a devastating scoring move... the spurs are sick.

so is lebron, but unfortunately, his team mates look like they are trying out for the generals, or whoever it is that used to play the globe trotters...

pretty good weekend. yesterday, a 40 minute run (run to the store to get a new i pod shuffle, picked up some pot stickers and yogurt at the grocery store on the way home, tried to carry the bag in the safe, tiki barber position), then a 1 hour mt. bike ride...

today, 2.5 hour ride, nice and easy, although there was one 20 minute climb (technically, it was a 1hr20 min climb, but only 20 min was steep enough to get hard)... then i ate lunch, watched the repeat of USAvsGuatemala in the Gold cup, then ran 1000's. I was kind of dissapointed. This was the 'long' 1000 grass course, i.e., on the 'short' course i'm 30-45 seconds faster per thousand, but the head coach claims they're both 1km. I don't think so, but we'll see.. I ran there, 1 mile at 7:30, then went 4, 4, 4 (even), then ran home. Last fall on that course, i went, 4:15, 4:06, 4:00, 4:00, but the blog says i was sick, so i'm moderately OK with today, but then i rolled my ankle on the run home, so that's a bummer. Hopefully minor. My ankles don't swell anymore, but it could hurt from 0 days to some weeks. i'ts a little achy right now. We'll see. I'll skip the run tommorrow, but I was planning on running 800's on tuesday. I'll see how it feels. If it still hurts, i'll do bike intervals instead, or just a long easy run on trail.

Tommorrow, I'll do some biking, road if it's warm, mt. bike if it's cold or windy. If my ankle is inconsequential, 800's tues, rest wednesday (w/ like 20-30 min bike), duathlon thursday, rest friday, city league tourney saturday, Long ride sunday, bike mon, 2-4-6-8-6-4-2 ladder tues, wed lite ride, thursday duathlon, fri rest, sat/sun solstice... last week and this week are non frisbee for me, but i'll try to get in some throwing. I've got to find out which kid has my discs and cones, so i can at least take a stack of 30 discs over to the park to throw.

3.5 days of teaching left. But who's counting. After that, it's immediately M/W/F runs with the team, starting w/ 40 min, T/Th low key summer ultimate all at 8:30. I'll be doing early morning MTB rides w/ a ski training buddy a couple times per week before practice, and i'll do afternoon roller ski or biking. after solstice, july is supposed to be all base training for running, any intervals will be bike or the duathlons, and in august i'll go back to running intervals, and skip the bike intervals. July is supposed to be 60 - 80 hours of low intensity, high volume.

Why do i do this? I'm not that fast. I'm not that good at anything. I did do the 'multiple stage 20 m shuttle run' with a PE class friday. According to the chart, it says I have a good V02 max, and i was up with the top 5 of 100 kids, but, who knows... even so it hasn't yet panned out to anything other than being skinny-ish, and being able to tolerate a high training volume. So why the effort? I guess to make goals. I want to go sub 18 in a 5k this year, sub 17 next year. In 10 km ski racing (which is REALLY dependent on conditions), I want to ski around 28 this winter which will demand excellence dedication and dilligence in training quality, quantity, diet, and luck. Never count out luck. I figure I got this Masters season, and maybe next summer, and then it's coaching only and playing only for fun, and focusing entirely on skiing, and off season multi sport gigs to stay sharp for skiing (that was the plan for this year, until frisbee reared it's head).

i ski'd like 120 days this year: 100 skate or classic, 20 days hiking to ski. There were also a couple days of riding the chairlifts after ski days, and at least 18 days where i ski'd in the morning, and then ski'd again in the PM, but just as i would count one ski run as a ski day, 2 skis per day is still one day.

I've averaged a minimum of 8-20 hours per week of training over the past year (15-20 in the summer, down to 8 in the winter on weeks when i was driving, 15 for most of the spring). So like800 hours (guess) training for the year, which has not made me much faster, but has kept me at least as fast running as peak XC, and greatly improved ski times. mainly it's served as a nice ritalin replacement... which, when i was 22, my prescription ran out, and i just... sort of... forgot to go get more...

stay tuned. my pals were at poultry days this weekend. i hope they won. our team has never won in an odd year, despite winning in every even year from 2000 on... i was at two of them...

A story from that... I had a swollen knee after getting clobbered by I THINK paul greff's brother (does he have a brother?). A clean fair hit, i made a defensive play, he made the offensive play, and got it, and landed on me. This either caused a bursus injury, or beat up on my PCL which would finally go sometime later (a ligament you don't really need, often)... anyway, i wrap a tensor bandage around the knee, thanks tina, and kept playing...

late in the semis, i'm point in a zone, and we've got them pinned, and the 6" wide bandage unwinds until i'm trailing 4 feet of bandage... people are yelling do you want an equipment timeout... i yelled 'g-dammit, there is no such thing as an equipment timeout. ' then i caught the 'd', and threw the goal.

that was kind of funny.

i read on the wilmington website that they require players to read the rules. genius. it's so irritating to see people taking 'equipment' timeouts to tie shoes, etc. that said, I actually think it's totally kosher, if you and your mark are OK with it, to just stop cutting for a sec to tie your shoes while in the stack... but that's just sportsmanship. if they aren't OK with it, deal with it... and the new technical time out doesn't include calling a technical timeout after you've turned it over and the other team is walking it up... i think it would probably be OK to do (not by the letter of the law though) when YOU are walking it up... your team garners no advantage at that point...

duathlon number 1

i'm entered into a duathlon series... bike 12 miles, run 3. i'm not sure if either mileage is correct... registered and all on line, but was late to the start. i didn't wear a watch, as this was my first hard sustained workout of year. some thoughts though... i should have sipped a little more on the ride. i could have rode a little harder. aero bars would have really helped (how much, to be determined).. the run was ok but...

i started the run, and noticed 5 pounds of crap bouncing in my jersey... i was stilll carrying pump, tube, tire irons, cell phone... reached back, and pitched them... then the race director yells out, take off your helmet... duhhhhrrr... i also had a problem getting my running shoes on.

nothing like running after a hard bike ride.... that hurt. then i was running pretty good, then a side stich... ouch.

but i think i was OK. i was hoping for a 58 minute time. don't know yet what i ran.

i missed a city league game for this... mild bummer, but i've paid. i'll miss next week too. but i'll be at the tournament. this week has been a disaster training wise. sunday was a good 35 mile ride, then hill repeats, monday was a 26 minute run, medium, tues and wed i did jack. exhausted for no good reason (i think i'm sick), and i had hs graduation (i ride the bus with kids, and march in with them and stuff)... then today was sweet..

tommorrow i'll probably ride or run for some distance... saturday, i'll hike/ski, or bike/run, or MAYBE go run a half marathon, strictly as a workout... sunday will definitely be bike/1000 repeats...

next week, only guarantees are repeats, duathlon, and city league tourney. will probably work in 2 LSD workouts of 2 hour bike rides and a 45 min run...

go pax.

good weekend...

3 hour mt bike ride yesterday, tons of climbing, then a 30 minute run, moderate pace.
today, a 35 mile road ride (about 2 hours-ish) then a couple grad parties for kids / parents, then a run (10 min warm up, 3 hill repeats... the first one was up the back side of the measured hill, so who knows definitely a little shorter, but 3 minutes, the next 2 were on the regular hill 3:15 and 3:20 which is pretty good compared to earlier this year (4, 3:45, 3:30) I probably should have done 1 more, but i was pretty fried, and the leg was tight from a bike wrek tuesday...

tommorrow, bike (and frisbee), tuesday, 3-4 1000's (or like 3:30 timed repeats on flat, hard effort) (and frisbe), wednesday, walk (and frisbee), short bike thursday, hard bike and run (And frisbee)...friday, rest (and frisbee), saturday, go big somewhere, somehow... maybe hike South sister to ski...

pretty good weekend...

lessee, friday, some dutch drilll... not super soothing after a brutal bunch of points thurs, but...
saturday, got up and ran for 45 minutes, oh, probably 6 or 7 miles
then a 32 mile bike ride, then some chinups/pushups/dips...

today, a 45 minute hike and then a ski, then a 1.5 hour mt. bike ride...

tommorrow, tbd...

league night...

season wrap up will follow shortly...
we played the ony undefeated team tonight: we had one loss, the night i wasn't there, and we came out lucky. my preference, in an upwind downwind game, is to protect the breaks, so take decent long shots down wind, avoid anything that might turn it over on our own goal line...

we have 2 games every thursday from here on out. since that immediatly follows a HS practice, and i was tired after playing, and running mile repeats yesterday, i was significantly less than enthusiastic... but i went.

we had tons of turnovers RIGHT on our goal line, even my first flat out, breadbasket drop of the while, but i think we protected the break on that one... i played 18/19 points, had an actual layout block, and on game point, 1 hand block and 2 solid pieces that caused 1 turnover, and should have got at least one more... but we gave it up. bummer.

the lowlight, other than the drop... my team mate throws the first pass to me, it hangs, i circle under it, i'm stationary, i hear the d running down, i jump straight up, catch it, and get PLOWED by a current or recent grad U of O player... i get up, and said something loud, and profane. he said, i shit thee not, 'but i'm not contesting the foul.' i'd love to see video. basically, a player sprints 70 yards, and tackles the punt returner. i'm pretty sure this is discouraged in ultimate, and the other teams reaction was priceless... i get levelled, their reaction is, 'whoa luke, don't get so fired up, it was an accident.
truly, i went straight up, from a position i'd held for a full second.' irritating. there was also the full complement of lame complaining, etc... i pretty much just yawned my way through it...

but, given my lackluster mindset going in, i played pretty well, my ho' d was legit, i had to actually make some diving catches and stuff, stopped some goals up high in the endzone... ran better than i thought i would...

still, sore, tight calf, tight hams... we won the second game 11-9, and i took 2 points off that game... i played like 5 hours of ulti today... too much..

so we're probably in 4th of 8. for the tournament, if it's run under normal competetive guidelines, it might be worth our while to move up to 3rd to make a slightly easier quarter... but the 4 semi teams have all beaten each other, and the past 3 years when i won (granted as a captain, different from this year) normal competetive guidelines were out the door, (ex, last year, as the 2 seed in a 9 team tourney, the pools were 1,7,9... 2,4,5... and 3,6,8... so we played 5,4,3,and 1 to reach the tourney... i'm not sure, but i think that's no particular type of legit 'snake'... so, anyway, i'm not too worried about it...

later...

fdaasdffad

monday: shitty day of school. no reason. the lesson plans were adequate, but uninspired. my lectures were good, but uninspired. we're out of copies at school. no more copies. one month of school to go, no more copies. kind of a hassle.

practice was fantastic. so, i got that going... warmup, handler drill (trident), goto drill (gladiator), throwers choice (huck or under with an audible), review of our stack endzone, and our arch endzone. good scrimmage, w' a side game of soccer. i sprained my anle mildly in soccer...

went for a 30 mile ride (road) after that, steady pace, 20 miles per hour, pretty good....

tuesday: run, stretch, (i will only do a seated stretch when it's WARM so that we're not sitting around cooling off), and it was warm. gladiator only, then our 2 stack plays, 1, and I - 5, then, our new play, shotgun... nothing special, an off the back play... then scrimmage. i covered a fast young dude brando who had no back down in him: he made some good, no, great plays, and will no doubt be a star in the next 2 years...

then a 90 minute ride, probably averaged 18 or 17 mph... that is significantly slower than 20 mph, but winds, etc...

tommorrow, match play vs. sisters.. in our league, we're 2-0-1, and at the top of the table vs. bend, who is 2-1... this weekend state... if everyone shows, we should hold seed at 4th, but, bend could beat us, or chs jv (just being honest)... i'd love a 4th place finish, but, well, we're 3 weeks away from peaking... and, we'll see.

sisters is a vulnerable team, and it's nice to have a tune up to work on our plays...

bend, the other local team, is all seniors. it's a huge advantage for all your players to be late pubescent... i've got a variety of short pretty fast guys ripping around, w/ great girls, and knowing the guys will all soon be tall fast shredders...

our offense is simple, and sweet. it's about 1/4 of the great NY playbook, w/ a nice endzone flatstack alternate, and 1 good zone. will we execute? i spend so much of my practice amazed at how close we are to GETTING IT DONE... we'll see if it works...

now i'm watching poker... and sending out about 20 emails about state...

ciao.

practice is coming together... but of course ,we have state in a week, and we're a month from peaking. can't be helped, too short a season.... too soon a season... but the long term goal of producing frisbee players who understand 'how to throw, when to throw, where to cut, etc...', well, that's improving.

watched idiocracy. great movie. highly recommend... good satire.

today, skated... like... well it would have been 32km if we'd done the full laps, but we for sure cut out 6 or 8 km, so, say, 20-25km?

then, biked, like 18 or 19 miles on the mountain bike?

tommorrow, either a longer (30 plus) ride, or i'll chill and grade.

i threw in some guitar for a couple hours today, and watched the san antonio vs. phoenix game. pretty good.

stuff..

lessee... monday, rest (sick day), tuesday, still not well, but played 'dutch drill w/ kids in 30 mph winds)...
wednesday, practice. promised them scrimmage, so after running, stretching, handler cut drill, goto drill, and huck drill, let them scrimmage.

oh: i have a drill i really like. 3 cones in a triangle, in the middle of field. point is downfield. each player has a partner. you are on one of the two base cones, and your partner loosely forces you to the line. we have two hand signals (deep, or under), and the cutter is fronted by defender who is not supposed to look at signal. defender fronts. player cutts, deep or out and in. player has some lattitude, and can modify cut: goal is to teach throwers to make good decisions. defender is not supposed to see who the thrower is, so while it is kind of fake that way, it basically gives players opportunity to make game like decisions (note, this is a high school drill)...

similar drill: no defense; call cutter to make an out cut, or out and in. i associate a mild penalty for this: if you keep trying to huck, and you can't, you become a perma cutter... and the line can make the thrower become a cutter if their 'huck' sucks... i.e., you are in line, i call huck, i float one up and you have to wait for it. the line goes...'go cut smith, that throw sucked'...

today, run, dynos, drills (which we did till someone caught an overthrown layout, again, different focus for a high school team), goto drill, 15 drill (named for our huck play calls), scrimmage. got into it with the baseball team, who decided to play golf through the back of our huck drill... their coach backed down right away, but i made the point further by throwing into their golf game... i'm a loser... then scrimmage... increasingly good performance, but we're going to suffer at state next week, we're still mid season, i mean, we have 3 weeks of league play after states...

then, league night, against a weaker team, but we had 7 players... one point of 2-3-2 zone, then switched to a 1-3-3, then modified the 1-3-3 so that it was two middle players who trade out on the mark, the other drops... so it's a 1-3-3 but the 1 changes... it was effective. i think it's a natural modification to the 1-3-3-, but best done by smarter teams where when the marks can change without giving up the middle...

so we win,13-4, and the switzer v talbot game goes 13-11 switzer. this puts us at the top of the table, cuz when we played talbot (loss) i wasn't there, but we beat switzer when he wasn't there... so... i think we are #1 by tie breaker... better to be lucky than good...

personally, tried to tone down the huck game. i had one turnover, up 8-0, where i called a team mate out of bounds, bad move in hindsight: he thinks he toe'd in, so i apologized for second guessing him, and noted that i was inclined to be generous, given the lead... i turfed a swing up 13-2, ouch, threw a bad hammer that dropped at the feet of my receiver (i believe QB always takes Turnover, but, come on)... other than that, thew at least 8 of the goals... so, ok... nothing special...tried to be a set up guy for the game, but did throw a couple bombs late to put it away.

frankly, i feel a combination of a step off, a step slow, and that i'm reading the plays a step too fast (i.e., i make a jab step cut that seems money, but no throw... so i end up directing the stack, and making opportunistic cuts...

other than that, lame week. no weights, basically a 'taper' week. this weekend will be a bigtime cardio weekend...

oh, wednesday, after practice, did go up to mt. for a 1 hour hike, and sweetest corn skiing EEEEEVVVVVVERRRR....

sdfgsfgsfgsfg

ok, ok bear with me, more ultimate to happen

today a 2.5 hour roadbike ride, in shorts and a tshirt, a far cry from getting out of a car in 11 degree temps yesterday... then i ate twice more, then a kayak... first ever... lots to learn... it was tippy, i didn't tip, but it was fun...

this week, we're supposed to have 70 degree weather (if you read this, you know it was ridiculously cold last week. welcome to central oregon)

i'm splitting all practices now: varsity plays v. varsity for 2 points, jv v. jv, i let a couple players swing, to figure out who will move up to varsity, and to let defender/cutters get handle opportunities.

we're pretty much a Vertical stack team, but we've seen enough Horizontal stack to at least have a defensive concept... Tommorrow, intro to Arch Endzone... thanks to idea from boston... Jim, or Al, or someone, love to hear from you sometime about how you used it... (you did say you used it, eh)...

constant individual throwing work w/ camera, some 'freeze play' in scrimmages, that's all we'll introduce. 2 weeks until state. way too soon for our wintery weather... and our new team...

things i've not addressed to my liking: ZONE (basic intro, but not enough nuance), more play...

things i'm working on... running to endzone so that comebacks are shorter, moving stack down field to be ahead of the play, but still leave room for huck: what I stress is the habit of players to stack too far from disc, but crowd thrower during flow... trying to teach close stack, and stretch field in flow...

the team suffers from losing a top sophmore to an ongoing achilles, and two 4th year seniors (one to early graduation, one to shoulder surgery in preseason). I had no idea how much their loss would affect the team, but, that's life. it's just a game, and the other players are stepping up.

Hopefully, we can come in 4th again, and maybe MAYBE improve to a higher seed over the next 2 years. Hard to say: the teams on the warm side of the mountain have more opportunities for quality comp, and a longer 'growing season'...

that's all.

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friday, coached only, weather said 40, w/ 35 mph winds, felt 20. cut practice short... flipping miserable for da kids...
today, lessee, at mountain and using tele gear before or close to 7, climbed i don't know 2000-3500 feet vertical (repeated laps, and too much math for right now) to ski 2 runs of EPIC knee deep powder with no one around... then 16 km skate, 8km in like 30min, 8km in 26 minutes, total cardio like 2.5 hours, then biked around to look at stuff, drink a cup of coffee, brief unibike stint, lifted weights (squats, vertical row, millitary press)... in garage, so fairly light weights, tried to be explosive...

'yes, laugh..

now meal 4, grading tonight, tommorrow, i'll bike, and paddle, might... MIGHT run some mile repeats...
need to throw too...

afggfgagf

Good day, up at 5:30, 30 minute run, up to school, AP test prep for the kids from 7-8, taught, coached from 3-5... pretty good... then, I missed my ride to go ski b/c i was coaching, so i went to league night, i was soooo slow... but i busted out some goals thrown, and had one highlight high layout catch... so kind of fun... that said, we went , 0-1, 1-1, 2-1, 3-1, 5-3, then they pulled ahead to 7-5, 7-7, 8-7 us, (half), 9-7, 9-9, 9-10 (and for some reason they start to implode, lots of calls, arguing with each other), 11-9, 11 all, cap on due to dark, game to 13, i get scored on, 11-12, i think i threw the 12-12 goal, win 13-12. I played all 25 points, unfortunately, basically jogging most of it, occasional timely hard 'd'... i'd like to think it led to the 3 two point runs we made... threw like 6 goals, caught 1? Not too bad...

coaching...

throw, run 1/2 mile, marking drill, run 1/2 mile, swing drill, run 1/2 mile...

new version of the line drill. instead of the usual goto drill, cutter runs 20 yards, plants and cuts, then catches the come back... i'm trying to teach that they need to run down field, towards the endzone, past the play.

then, a fun drill, pair marking, the mark is a basic force forehand or backhand... not a 'hard flat mark.' defense must front, thrower signals with hand deep or under, run it. short scrimmage, better focus on running the 'o', finally getting kids to try to overthrow cutters in drills... coached a couple kids on throwing. Big, BIG fan of video for teaching.

One girl, who's throws tend to be a little outside in because of arm/had position, so i'm showing her, outside in, inside out, and her question is, why didnt' you show me this the first time... a year ago, and the question is, well, i show everyone how to do the basics, but you are good enough to understand what's going on. that said, teaching people that a little hyzer helps so much is easy for some harder for others.

But w/ digital video, reviewd immediately after throwing, progress is so quick...

stuff

Frisbee:
We went to Eugene Sunday for the State Tournament. We got whomped. This is the single gender state, and we went over with like 14 guys, and 9 girls... Missing a few key players (and of course the 2 injured starters for the guys), it was a great learning experience for the kids. Chuchill, South Eugene, and Crescent valley are talented, have a system, and execute on the goal line.

The lessons I was able to highlight for the team, are the value of the short passes, and executing on the goal line. Basically, when I get outside to practice at 3:00 or so, I usually find the kids lofting a variety of fun throws (chicken wings, bad hanging mid range throws, etc), and they are starting to see that that is time that they could best use working on realistic practice throws. They are in good spirits: They see the progress, and are consistently willing to work for it.

We have a basic offense in place, vertical, short stack, a couple of basic sequence plays, and a simple endzone w/ a 3 basic options, all of which we are increasingly using in practice.

The team is young: I have a group of 25 freshmen and sophmores, so the future looks bright.

The biggest challenge for our team is geography and schedule: here in the high desert, snows continue. High winds are common, and our season doesn't really start early: the valley teams play longer, but most importantly, they have several quality teams that get to battle it up on a weekly basis as close to year round as they want...

There was a nice article in the local paper this week: Apparently it was mostly Summit until the editor made them change it to an all city thing, which I think is for the better. It's actually a pretty good article, no dogs, no frolf.

In league play we're 2-0. This is after getting pummelled as X/Y teams at the kickoff scrimmage/tourney. That lesson took hold, and the team is picking it up. We Won 13-3 scoring several tough up winders in the first game, then, the B-Team (w/ a couple swing players), lost the first half 7-5 of game two, and the 'A' team came in and swapped points to 9-7 when i made the risky move of having them call time out on our on goal line going upwind. I just told them to relax, and calm down, and they scored the upwinder, and the next 6 to win the game... so they outscored Bend High by 8-2, including several nice goal line executions.

Personally, Sunday, the tourney, monday, weights in the AM, skills and drills with the team, and played 2 points during the 20 minute scrimmage, then a 95 minute bike ride (road). Today, ran for 30 minutes in the morning before school, then a 90 minute mountain bike ride.