I found Day 1 and Day 2 of the "Day in the Life of Sonnon" videos via this RossTraining thread. They won't have you (nor me) rushing out to buy clubbells, but I really like the exercise progressions he demonstrates on the rings (one in each video). Very creative. I'd like to see Day 3.
A couple Friday diversions: past and present YouTube highlight reels: Larry Bird and Dwyane Wade.
Never one to mince words, a bit from De Vany's Eating the Evolutionary Fitness Way post:
Seventh, you are compromising your long-run health and accelerating the rate at which you age. You are also turning your body into a sugar burner and in the long-run this will lead to a decline in your lean muscle mass. Your career will suffer. You will not have the energy to sustain a long and productive career. You will be sick more often. You will be tired and bored with life. And you will eventually become obese, ill and earn less income.
His follow-up, It's Not Paleo is also interesting.
These NRS straps look like the perfect thing for improvising some excellent fitness equipment. Buy a couple swing hangers and screw them into your basement joists. Then get a pair of 20-foot straps and something like vinyl tubing, PVC, or pipe nipples to use as handles (take care about sharp edges rubbing the straps). Thread a handle onto each strap and then make each strap into a loop. Hang loop from the swing hangers. Instant cheap-o gymnastic rings (here's the real deal). Since you can easily adjust the length of the loops with the cam buckles, you have an excellent unstable platform for dips, pushups, flys, "roll-outs", etc. You can also monkey with the handle configuration. I imagine you could make nice handles for these extreme renegade rows with a couple pipe T fittings and three pipe nipples. Something like this:
The looped straps would also be perfect for a variety of isometric exercises, I bet. Cheap, too. Might want to get a few so you don't have to thread different handles for different exercises. Not sure about shipping cost, and I have no experience with this vendor.
In light of the Floyd Landis test result, this Sisson/De Vany post is worth linking up again for your consideration. After you read that for background, then go ahead to the latest Sisson/De Vany bit on Landis specifically.
I've taken a couple ice baths now, both between tourney days, and I think the only way to describe them is "excruciatingly good." Immersion sucks, but it does wonders for next-day soreness. While still painful, my last approach for getting in worked well enough that I think I'll stick with it from now on:
After the first three minutes of agony the last seven are relatively okay, I guess. A teammate brings reading material, but I don't really feel like I ever get to a level of comfort where I'd be able to concentrate or enjoy whatever I'm reading. Maybe after a few more and I'm better acclimated to the practice.
Anyway, definitely worth it. It's like having a new set of legs.
UPDATE: Or maybe it's just a placebo effect.
Teammate Jon came through with a Log Jam writeup from the FSM perspective. Probably only of interest to participants...
Game 1: vs. Middlebury
Most of us showed up kind of late, and we didn't do a lot of warmup. Most of Middlebury was way faster than most of us, but luckily the young whippersnappers made lots of unforced errors. We played terribly for much of this game. During the stretch when we were playing lousy, we typically got possession of the disc three or four times per point, but could not execute our throws. Lots of turfed throws, inaccurate throws, miscommunications on dumps, etc. A few bad decisions, but mostly just bad throws or crossed signals on pretty good decisions. They took a 10-5 lead. We were very disgruntled. I think I saw some people making cell phone calls during halftime, to see if they could get a spot on another team or something. Then all of a sudden, things changed. We played slightly more conservatively on offense, but it was mainly just that a much higher percentage of our throws were now accurate. We went on what seemed like a very quick and easy 8-1 run to win the game 13-11. There were a few spectacular plays during the run, particularly a huge layout D block by Alec.
Game 2: vs. Chuck Wagon
Chuck Wagon = home team, mostly from Burlington. They beat us pretty convincingly at sectionals last year, won the section, and finished 6th at Northeast open regionals. We played reasonably well early on, taking a 6-5 lead. Seemed like our offense was pretty efficient and our defense adequate. Then they very quickly took advantage of some dumb turnovers to go on a 3-0 run and take half 8-6. Disappointingly, the game was capped at 10 at halftime (!) due to Chuck Wagon's first round game having run way over time. We traded points in the second half to lose 10-8. Still, an improvement for us over our previous meeting with CW, it seems like we legitimately threatened to win this game, sort of.
Bye:
Apparently, much Koob was played. Ancient Viking lawn bowling game, sounds like fun. Also, the inevitable rains begin, and the rain continued intermittently and with increasing intensity through the evening. Cassin, Lester and I went to a coffee shop for lunch and to stay dry, so I have little to report with respect to Koob.
Game 3: vs. East River Yacht Club
This is something like the #3 club team from New York City. They have some pretty good players but make a lot of unforced turnovers. We took care of business pretty efficiently in this one, and won 15-2, similar to the outcome when we played them at WMO. The game was notable for perhaps the worst shanked pull in team history, by yours truly. But we scored that point anyway, so cut me some slack. I think this was also the game where Jim B had a titanic layout D. Thank you very much, Burpees. I can only imagine what would happen if we all worked out as hard as Jim (of course, in my case, I learned this weekend that the answer is "debilitating achilles tendon disorder," but for the rest of you...)
Game 4: vs. PoNY
PoNY is the #1 club team out of NYC, and finished 5th at NE Regionals last year. It was a close game until early in the second half. Then we completely fell apart. The extended display of haplessness included a couple of devastating turnovers on what would otherwise have been short throws for scores for us, that were quickly returned all the way up the field for PoNY scores. They go on something like a 7-1 run to win 15-7.
So we played to seed on Saturday, finished the day 2-2, 3rd in our pool, and were scheduled to play the #2 seed from the other pool in the quarterfinals Sunday morning. By now it was pouring rain, so the outdoor tourney party was pretty much cancelled. No Koob for you. I did a 10-minute ice bath, which was absolutely excruciating, but my legs felt like new afterwards. Rich later did the same, but with even more ice, I feared for his life.
Quarterfinals: vs. Zebra Muscles
Zebra Muscles is the Rochester club team, a middle-of-the-pack performer at NE regionals every year. They were young and quick and played great man defense. We had a small early lead, but then fell behind 7-5 during an ugly stretch. I think I had at least 3 stall-nine turnovers during this run, where it looked to me like all the cuts and dumps were completely covered and often clogging each other to boot. Sorry. Better dump cuts and especially better chiliness from me should fix that in the future. I'm always yelling at people that they should never look off the dump, but I definitely looked the dump off at least once out of frustration when my glares failed to impel action. Someone suggested an L-stack set up where we always have two dump cuts going in opposite directions, I like that idea. Anyway, mistakes were made, and we were sniping at each other. Jim O wisely called a TO and told everybody to stop criticizing each other and to work on doing the ho-stack right. We then got our acts together, with the O team players doing a very nice job with the ho-stack, and before we knew it we took half 8-7. In there somewhere, a tightly covered Alec made a beautiful catch of my huck, which helped me feel not totally useless. Thanks Alec!
We began the second half trading points. Swilly hucks to Jed were unstoppable, he boxes out tres bien. After our only successful zone-to-man transition of the weekend got a turn, the D team calmly punched it in to get us another break and an 11-9 lead. The O team then lost its mojo, turning it over repeatedly and getting scored on three points in a row, so we're down 12-11. I belive Zebra Muscles had a huge layout D on our endzone line leading to one point, and a mac-ed D for a Callahan on another. Ugh. In the meantime, the cap goes on, game to 13. O team stays on, same personnel as the previous three points, but this time they convert to tie at 11. Next point D team fails as the Zebras make good use of their fastest cutters. Then the O team converts again, 12-12. We pull on universe point, play pretty good D, but are lucky that Rochester drops a short pass at midfield. To our credit, we were then very patient with the disc, working it until Alec was able to hit Matt Mann for the 13-12 victory. Overall, a good hard-fought competitive game, nice to pull one of these out once in a while.
Semis: vs. PoNY
The sun came out, it was hot, and our brains and legs were fried. But we played pretty well nonetheless, at least early. We built a 6-5 lead. When we broke the mark and swung the disc across the field, things worked really well. Then we had some dumb turnovers and they took half 8-6. In the second half, we seemed a bit tired and had some inexplicable turnovers. Just a few less missed dumps and swings and we'd be right in it. As it was, there were some moments of brilliance. The best was on a PoNY full-field huck to a guy defended by Jim B. The guy had about 10 steps on Jim and it was a perfect huck, but Jim closed the ground sprinting full out and then jumped / laid out very high to bap the disc away. Beautiful. To reiterate, work out like Jim. Also, some very nice grabs by Jed on more swilly hucks. There was nothing his defenders could do. Lowlights included Rich nearly getting killed on a widowmaker cut. He cuts up line for the scoring pass in the front corner of the endzone, Matt Mann's poaching defender and then Matt converge to the same place, I throw it without seeing Matt's streaking defender, and Rich gets crushed. Sorry again. Bad weekend for me. In the end, we lose 10-15. Without two late game turnovers at the opposing goal line, it's a 12-13 barnburner, so we're not that far off. PoNY went on to destroy New Noise in the finals 15-6.
Jon continues his tradition of writing only good things about his teammates and bad things about himself, so I have to chime in with a few points:
Ross Enamait has a new article and video up titled Hardcore Training: An Experiment In Mass-building and Athletic Performance. Interesting and impressive, as always, even if I'm not personally looking for mass gain at this time. I gotta say though, for all the amazing feats of strength on display, the thing that impressed me the most was the rope skipping. I wouldn't have imagined it possible to do those arm-crosses that fast.
Oh, if you're looking for workout gear, the image at the end of the video is from a new T-shirt he's selling . Any money sent to Ross is money well-spent.
A teammate of mine is theoretically doing a thorough writeup, which I hope to blatantly steal and post here. Real quick though, we got rained on yet again. 4 out of 5 wet tournies since '05 Regionals. We lost in the semis to PoNY. If they went on to beat New Noise (and it was looking that way early on) that makes us 3-for-3 in semis exits against the eventual champs this year. Kinda a dubious honor, but not too shabby for a masters team running against youngsters, and it feels like we keep getting better with age. Anyway, hopefully more to follow.
On a more leisurely note, one of my teammates broke out Köob during our bye. I was only spectating, unfortunately, but it looked like a blast. Think Bocce, but much more interesting (IMO), and suitable to a much broader range of surfaces (you can play Köob on rough terrain, sand, etc. while Bocce is really only any good on a nice court). I'm predisposed to like the Italian goods, but the I gotta give this one to the Swedes hands-down. The quality of the components is excellent (I'm pretty sure that link goes to the same set my teammate has, but I'm not 100% positive). Definitely need to pick up a set before our next vacation.
I don't really read much on conditioning for endurance sports, as the methods are generally counterproductive for field and power sports. Since Ultimate tourneys are grueling two day (or more) affairs, though, nutrition and hydration strategies can come into play. The NY Times ran an interesting piece around a week ago where they talked about a few things, but the marathon hydration bit caught my eye (well, my teammate's eye, who pointed it out to me, thanks Matt!):
[Dr. David Martin] said that while it seemed logical to drink as much water as possible before the race—and runners try it—"it doesn't work." The reason, he explained, is that drinking a lot of water increases blood volume and the body responds by getting rid of it, in urine.
"What you need to do is to increase your total body fluids another way," Dr. Martin said.
He added that the legal, safe way to do it is through glycerin loading. The technique exploits the unusual properties of glycerin, a thick, gooey sugar alcohol that is sold in drugstores as a lubricant. Each molecule of glycerin absorbs three molecules of water. During a race, the body uses the glycerin for energy. And every time the body metabolizes a molecule of glycerin, "it unleashes three molecules of water," Dr. Martin said.
The result, he said, is that "you have a water bank account."
Glycerin loading, he added, should be reserved for races of a half marathon or longer, when runners are competing in intense heat for at least an hour and a half.
That last sentence there worried me a bit. If the technique is so good, why reserve it? Why not just use it all the time? Happily, the Times ran a follow-up piece a couple days later:
Glycerin should be used with great caution, Dr. Martin says. It you use too much you can end up with excess fluid in your cells. The excess fluid in your brain can give you a headache, and excess fluid elsewhere can make you bloated. Glycerin should only be used for long runs, two hours or more, under conditions of high heat. It is useless in cooler weather. And anyone who tries it should start gradually with lower dilutions and be sure they can tolerate it before using it in a long race. That said, the formula is one tablespoon of glycerin in 36 ounces of water. You should sip it over one to two hours before you run. Dr. Martin discusses the technique in his book, "Better Training for Distance Runners," 2nd edition, published by Human Kinetics in 1997. The glycerin section is on pages 370 to 372.
I'm also curious about the rate of release of the "water bank". Marathoners never go anaerobic, right? So would a field sport athlete just burn up all the glycerin, releasing all the stored water, in short order?
Okay, I'm not quite gone yet...
Art De Vany addresses (via a Mark Sisson essay) a question I ask myself frequently when I read his blog. Namely, is the pursuit of elite fitness for sport unhealthy, big picture-wise?
The essay mostly references endurance athletes, and I ask a question about that in the comments.
There, now I'm outta here. Looking forward to reading replies either here or there when I get back next week.
Ross's workout, The Magic 50, has become my de facto benchmark workout. I feel like I've been going a bit light on the running lately (partly because of the damn achilles, which are still bad from Easterns), so tried a variation yesterday. I substituted a 50m sprint for the DB swings, so it looks like this:
Challenged myself with the DB weight (60 lbs.), sprinted all-out, and did the burpess as fast as I could (no hitches or breaks in the movement, one flows into the next).
Thought I was going. To. Die.
Enjoy!