3 Mile run

3 Mile run on the treadmill over lunch today. Gym was ridiculously warm and didn't like running on the treadmill so unsure whether I'll be using the gym to do my 3 Mile run again. Will probably look into finding a route on the pavements near my office in future and just use the gym as a gym.

3 Mile run time: 21 minutes 2 seconds

Will be cycling 2 miles back from offices to Waterloo station again this afternoon.

I am probably going to be doing Body Pump on Monday in the gym in our offices. Anyone with any experience of this let me know in the comments. Kind of looking forward to it after having a quick Google, but nervous as it will be my first go at it.
Circuits Tuesday and Yoga Thursdays as well in the Gym classes.

Gym and last few days

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday- 2.0 mile cycle rides

Gym tonight:
5 minute cycle warm up
3 * 10 Bench Press 42.5kg
3 * 5 back squats 55kg
3 * 10 push ups
3 * 10 lunges 20kg
3 * 10 leg press 90kg
3 * 20 bicep curl (10 reps of 8 kg per arm)
3 * 20 dumbell lateral raises (10 reps of 4kg per arm)
3 * 20 dumbell front raises (10 reps of 4 kg per arm)
3 * 20 dumbell upright row (10 reps of 4 kg per arm)
warm down


Tomorrow will do my 3 mile run in the Gym in my new office and Friday will do something in the Gym as well.

Mixed Tour 1

First big tournament of the year down and a pretty good weekend of ultimate in the Cardiff sunshine.

6 games all hard fought, included one difficult comeback, three games where we started strong and took control early, one devastating loss and one difficult loss. A 4-2 record for the weekend and a 4th place finish aren't bad but everyone on Herd felt it could have been better.

First day highlight: 3 point blocks, 2 on the endzone line we were defending. More than I've ever got in one tournament, let alone one day.

Second day highlight: Huge layout D in our 3 v 4 game against Rebel followed by getting the score and getting the team pumped up. Unfortunately, Rebel ground out a hard fought win against us, but I still felt good about the game in general.

Felt really good after the weekend, no aches or pains except for my right calf which got kneed in our semi final game. Fitness seems to be paying off.

I think, as a team, we were a little disappointed with 4th place, but mostly we were disappointed with our performance in our semi-final against Peeps.

I don't know what it is, but psychologically Peeps seem to always get in our heads. Ability wise, they are a very strong team, but we always seem to not play our game against them, which is slightly strange considering they seem to do that whenever they play Bear Cavalry in a Mixed Tour final (15-4, seriously, what's that all about). It seems strange that we don't have the same stigma with Bear Cavalry, despite them arguably being the strongest team in UK mixed ultimate at the moment. It leads me more to believe that we have a stigma more with the way Peeps act, rather than how they play.

This is not to say they are in any way bad spirited, just that they have a strange way of acting on pitch. Before the game there were comments from them about them being in the mindset of the game coming off their tough win over Golden Ants in the Quarter Final, whilst we were switched off coming from our comfortable win over Black Eagles. I don't think it was the case but the way they shouted it over to us as we were getting to the pitch contributed to the overall picture of how their team acts. Many of their players banter a lot with us as opposition, but then in a split second they go super focused. Another example being, in our first offense point, we were dumping and swinging and making gains through our male players when one of their players on the sideline commented on whether we knew how to play mixed. The next pass to a girl was incomplete, not by much, but the comment had been made right next to the thrower and the receiver and that can definitely affect someones mindset during a game. Peeps celebrate scores very well and that seemed to put a downer on us, and they have a lot of older very experienced players, both men and women, that can be kind of intimidating in their presence. Not that they go out of their way to make themselves intimidating, but their experience along with their team dynamic really contributes to this feeling.

The other aspect that makes them a dangerous team is their height, and their fearlessness with throws. Their quarter final win was on a stall 8/9 bailout huck to the endzone and they continuously came down with big discs in traffic against us and things like this, which they almost make look like luck, can be demoralising as well.

However, Herd as a team possesses the tools that could have earned a victory had our heads been in the right place and I am definitely looking forward to the next time we play them. There will definitely have to be some adjustments, but it is in no way a stretch of the imagination for Herd to come away from a game against Peeps with a win.

Some light fitness today as a pre-Mixed Tour warmup

Had to cycle (Boris Bike) from our new offices in Victoria to our Old offices near Covent Garden and do some dissassembly of our old server room and some heavy lifting, then boris bike back.
2.0 miles there, 1.8 miles back and I will be cycling back from the office to Waterloo this evening which is another 2.0 miles.
In the glorious sunshine at a leisurely pace I see that as a warmup for this weekend.

Let's go Herd!

My psych up playlist

First big tournament of the year coming up this weekend in Mixed Tour 1 and tomorrow afternoon will be the time when I break out the psych up playlist. I feel that if I get excited with the playlist after I know work is finished for the week and then use it again to get pumped just before a game, that's when I'm most up for a tournament. I also use it to get pumped for training sessions, track sessions and whilst running. The thing with using it whilst running is I usually find my feet hitting the ground to the beat, which is weird when songs change, so it's mostly just because otherwise I'd get bored running without music rather than to make me run faster.
Here it is in alphabetical order by track name:

All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me) - Bullet For My Valentine

Barbra Streisand - Duck Sauce

Bleed American - Jimmy Eat World

Blow me away - Breaking Benjamin

Boom - Snoop Dogg ft. T-Pain

Boom - POD

Break Stuff - Limp Bizkit

Burn Burn  - Lost Prophets

Champion of Endings - A*

Crushcrushcrush - Paramore

Escape Velocity - The Chemical Brothers

Every Teardrop is a Waterfall - Coldplay

Falling Down Ft Kenzie May (Original) - Sub Focus

Halo Theme Mjolnir Mix - Martin O'Donnell

Headstrong [Explicit] - Trapt

Hell Yeah - Rev Theory

Huck It - Offspring

Icarus (Extended Mix) - Madeon

Kings And Queens - 30 Seconds to Mars

Last Man Standing [Explicit] - Asher Roth ft Akon

Let It Rock - Kevin Rudolph

Let's Get Ready To Rumble - Jock Jams

Like A Boss [Explicit] - The Lonely Island

Lose Yourself - Eminem

Louder (Club Mix) - DJ Fresh

Machinehead - Bush

Mountains.wma - Biffy Clyro

My Hero - Foo Fighters

No Breaks - The Offspring

Orpheus - Ash

Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO

Remember The Name (Album Version) - Fort Minor

Rock It - Sub Focus

Rush Song - A*

Sexy And I Know It - LMFAO

Shinobi Vs. Dragon Ninja - Lost Prophets

Slam - Pendulum

Ten Speed (of God's Blood and Burial) - Coheed And Cambria

the Feel Good Drag - Anberlin

The Kill - 30 Seconds to Mars

The Resistance - Anberlin

The Devil Went Down To Georgia - Steve Ouimette

THIS COULD BE ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD - ALEXISONFIRE

This Is War - 30 Seconds to Mars

Through The Fire And Flames - Dragon Force

Thunderstruck - AC-DC

Tick Tick Boom - The Hives

Voodoo People (Pendulum Remix) - Prodigy

Warrior Concerto - The Glitch Mob

We Owe This To Ourselves - Anberlin

We Still Kill The Old Way  - Lost Prophets

We Made It (Edit) - Busta Rhymes feat. Linkin Park

Wild Wild West (Album Version With Intro) - Will Smith

You Don't Know (For Fuck's Sake) - Ed Sheeran ft. Yelawolf

Easy run

Tonight would usually be a 3 mile run, but I'm taking it a bit easier due to Mixed Tour 1 being this weekend. Tonights workout was similar to usual, but I took it at a slower pace as my shins were hurting running at the weekend.
2.5 mile run, no wrist weights 18 mins 45 seconds
3 * 40 lat pull downs (like usual)
easy 0.3 mile warm down

Felt good and shins were fine after.
Looking forward to the weekend!

Gym tonight

5 minute cycle warm up
3 * 10 Bench Press 42.5kg
3 * 5 back squats 55kg
3 * 10 push ups
3 * 10 lunges 20kg
3 * 10 leg press 90kg
3 * 20 bicep curl (10 reps of 10 kg per arm)
3 * 20 dumbell lateral raises (10 reps of 4kg per arm)
3 * 10 back hand frisbee movements holding 2.5 kg bar bell weights with a moderate pivot (5 right handed and 5 left handed backhand movements)
warm down

Felt really good, only thing was ab muscles felt a bit tight on the push ups. They've been feeling a little tights since the pull ups after track last week. No pain, no gain but wasn't anything serious.

Chocolate milk to recover.

Weekend Training

Saturday- Thundering Herd

Good training before Mixed Tour 1.  Ran through the plays one last time and had a 1st team O vs D team game before a 1st vs 2nd team game. Feeling good for Tour next weekend, especially since we will have the whole squad together. Looking forward to seeing the schedule.

Sunday- Ka-pow!

Another good training running through tactics/plays. Seeing as our offense is very reactive with set orders of cutters rather than plays and it was new to everyone it took a while to get heads around it. Was a good training, just a shame it wasn't as well attended as last week.

You know you're getting addicted to fitness when....

My company is moving offices from near Covent Garden/Trafalgar Square/Charing Cross area to the Victoria area next week. Reasons I am looking forward to the move:
- Cheap gym inside the new offices
- Cheap fitness classes offered at the new gym (£5 per month for unlimited classes including circuits, yoga etc)
- Showers in the new offices allowing me the option of running/cycling to work
- Closer to Battersea track

Track

Just myself at the track tonight.
1200m warmup gradually increasing speed (400m light jog, 400m 50%, 400m 60%)
8 * 50m sprints (decreasing recovery time: first 3: 3 minutes, next 2: 2 minutes, last 2: 1 minute)
400m warm down
Then used the outdoor fitness equipment at Battersea track to do
3 * max pull up with 20 seconds rest between (8, 7, 5)
Definitely feeling the benefits of all this.

Tonight's fitness

3 mile run (ish) with lat pull downs similar to previous weeks.
2.7 miles run (18 minutes) with 2 * 1 lb wrist weights
5 * 40 lat pull downs (10 supinated wide, 10 supinated narrow, 10 pronated wide, 10 pronated narrow)
0.5 mile warm down

 Good workout. Over 3 miles in total but broke it down due to where in the route I got to the park outdoor gym equipment. Did 5 sets of the 40 lat pulldowns instead of 3.
Felt good afterwards!

Gym

Good session at the gym. Really enjoying it, never really felt like a chore but look forward to gym now.
5 minute cycle warmup
3 * 10 bench press 42.5 kg
3 * 5 squat 55 kg
3 * 10 push ups
3 * 10 lunges 16 kg
3 * 10 leg press 90 kg
3 * 10 lat pull down 40 kg
wrist exercises with 2.5kg
2 minute warm down run

Next week will add in deadlifts.

The weekend! (feeling tired now)

So this weekend saw Herd training on Saturday, partying 'til 4 a.m Saturday night and then Ka-Pow on Sunday!

Herd Saturday
I felt I had a good training... the first as a whole did not. The weather was lovely and after a good warm up and a quick huck drill we moved on to a first to 5 points game against the seconds.
The firsts went down 3-0 before bringing it back to win 5-4 but it was close and the seconds had it on our endzone line forcing us to make a big block. I thought this would wake everyone up, but, after another drill (I forget what we were working on) we went into a full practice game and lost.
Our trouble was that the seconds were playing really well and utilising their main big player (Cian). He was being isolated in the middle of the field (usually from a horizontal or split stack setup) and either scored off a long pass or received it under (usually on the break side) and putting it long to someone else. The problem was the firsts deep defense was very poor.
The firsts were missing quite a few players including a large part of our female contingent and we weren't sticking to our Offense/Defense lines. But, regardless, the first team was not on form. This is especially distressing since it's 2 weeks until the first major tournament of the year (mixed tour 1) and the fact that some teams will definitely be playing this way against us, using a big player but with everyone on the team able to make big plays deep, Bear Cavalry spring to mind.
Next week is our final practice and I know we'll go into it hard looking to make it a big practice before Mixed tour 1 and I am still confident of our chances this year.

Saturday Night: does dancing until 4 a.m count as fitness? It certainly left me tired enough to be falling asleep in the taxi afterwards.

Ka-Pow Sunday
Only a slight hangover which wasn't enough to limit my speed, awareness or decision making. Lucky me.
Great training in great weather again. Had a large part of the full squad this weekend which definitely made a change. Ran the same mid length huck drill that we ran last week as well as an agility/reactions drill. We had plenty of game time and also walked through some of the situations that could present themselves as part of the offensive gameplan. Then saw the mockups of the sweet looking kit and heard about all the awesome swagalicious merch we could be getting to go along with it. My wants in order of priority for swag mentioned at training:

1. Tracky bottoms: love trackies, would wear them all the time...if they were allowed at work
2. Warm up zippies/hoodies: to go with the trackies
3. Caps: Need a new cap and the logo would work well
4. Baselayers: was mentioned as possibilities for Spiderman outfit style baselayers.
5. Stickers: For covering water bottles/discs etc
6. Rub on tattoos: great for the parties
7. Banners/Flags: more teams need flags
8. Mugs: got a lot but would love one
9. Business cards: Scoring on someone followed by handing them a business card "Ka-pow!"
10. Tents/Marquees: getting a bit tenuous here
11. Y-fronts with Ka-pow written around the elastic: hmm...
12. Condoms: I'll just leave this here...


Not mentioned, but I would love this swag:

1. Discs: seems a bit strange they were not mentioned
2. Sweat bands: I like a good sweat band
3. Converse/Skate shoes: with Ka-pow laces as well

More DIY to finish sunday, again aching shoulders so gonna count it as fitness :-)

Skunks Ultimate!

This weekend is UK University outdoor regionals. Good luck Skunks! Go win the West and take the second team to Nationals as well!

Skunks website

Track tonight

400m warm up jog
12 * 50 m sprints with 3 minute rest between. We ran consistent times but we didn't time them.
Then 400m warm down.

Sat on the train home for an hour and ten minutes then, because I was still in my running gear and I saw no reason not to, I ran home from the station.
0.9 miles including a couple of stair sets with my rucksack which I imagine was about 6kg. Took me 8 minutes 35 seconds.

My thoughts on the UKU Mixed Nationals

Before I start, I doubt anyone will care particularly much but these views are my own and not in any way representative of the clubs I am affiliated with.

UKUltimate yesterday announced the format for this seasons UKUNationals tournament structure. See http://www.ukultimate.com/story/uku_nationals_2012

3 mile run workout

Ran 3.2 miles in 23 minutes 15 seconds with my two 1 lb wrist weights.
Finished at the park gym equipment again and did my regular lat pull down using them (see other posts for details).
Then finished with an untimed 0.5 mile jogging warm down.
Track tomorrow

Tuesday gym session

Standard gym session last night:
5 minute cycle to warm up followed by light stretching
3 * 10 bench press (40kg)
3 * 5 Back Squat (50kg)
3 * 10 Lunges (16kg)
3 * 10 Push ups
3 * 10 lat Pull downs (40 kg)
3 * 10 dumbell lateral raises (5kg in each hand)
3 * 10 leg press (70 kg)
warm down
Chocolate milk

Weekend training

Herd- Saturday

So, missing first team players and lots of second team players at this one. This meant drills were mixed first/second team players. We were focusing on dumping and swinging the disc, which is a fundamental that was exposed a bit at points in the previous few trainings. The drills we ran had been run at herdlodge last weekend as well so it was good for people to go over it again. The game at the end was tough as the second team had about 16-18 players to the first teams 11 (then 10, then 9) as people kept needing to leave early. I felt really good during the game, playing most of the points, and chasing in the zone for quite a few of them. I really think this fitness is paying off. Our zone was looking pretty strong for most of the game with the heavy wind, but got broken a couple of times towards the end. Our offense was rocking for most of the game too. Just a bit of a shame the numbers were so low.

Ka-pow!- Sunday

So with Saturday being really windy, training still went really well with everyone feeling good in the sunshine.
Sunday was another story though, heavy rain and heavy wind meant low numbers and low moral. The drills were hard with fitness and throwing skills in the first, then moving on to hell box (4 on 4 in a small space focusing on keeping possession on offense and body/feet positioning on defense. We then moved on to a mid length throwing drill looking to hit a player in stride in the back corner of the end zone.
The final drill we did was training one of the option plays we will be using in our roles based offense. The drill itself was good and people were putting in the effort but with tiredness, cold muscles and the wind and rain the completion rate just plummeted so we warmed down by heading to Starbucks for a coffee and a panini.
Even with the low turnout and poor weather conditions, I am really enjoying Ka-pow trainings and feel like I am being pushed into learning new things and this along with all the fitness I'm doing is making me feel really good about my play at the moment.

I finished off Sunday with the construction of mine and Anna's new sofa bed which made my shoulder ache so I'm counting it as more fitness ;-)

Thursday track@ Battersea

Track tonight was pretty tough. Mixed in some Plios with it too.
800m warmup
5 * 100m sprints. (14s, 14s, 14s, 15s, 16s)
Plios: 3 * 5m (small jumps off toes, high skips, bunny hops)
5 * 100m sprints (14s, 15s, 14s, 16s, 14s)

Was tough and felt a bit sick at times but got through it and was great having Riley to race against, really pushed me. Don't think I'llbe doing anything tomorrow, need a rest before training this weekend.