10th-16th March

Full week last week apart from Sunday! Very tough, especially since Saturday’s Ka-Pow! session was 6 hours long! This week promises to be even tougher; with my new bike I’ll be doing even more cycling every day (~7 miles more per day) and I have training on Saturday (Bear Cav) and Sunday (Ka-Pow!) this weekend. Therefore, I’ve decided on a loose plan for this week:

Monday – Gym ( - done!)

Tuesday – Gym, Track or rest

Wednesday - Gym, Track or rest

Thursday - Gym, Track or rest

Friday – Yoga

Saturday – Bear Cav

Sunday – Ka-Pow!

(with 2 days gym, 1 day track and 1 day rest + Yoga + Bear Cav + Ka-Pow!)

Last week went like this:

Monday Gym:

Warm up:

Medium pace short run

Internal/External Shoulder Rotations (1*15 @ 10kg)

4 way hip stretching

SMR (Foam Rolling and Hockey Balling)

Main Session

A

1. Dumbell Snatch (3 * 5 / arm @ 15kg)

2. Yoga Bridge (3 * 10 deep breaths)

3.  Swiss Ball Plank (3 * 10 deep breaths)

B

1. Single Leg Deadlifts (3 * 10 / leg @ 16kg)

2. Dumbell Row (3 * 10 / arm @ 15kg)

3. Dead bug series (3 * 10 / leg / movement)

C

1. Rear foot elevated Split squats (3 * 10 / leg @ 30kg)

2. Single Leg Plate Hop + Stick (3 * 6 / leg)

3. Single Arm Kettlebell Curl to Overhead Press (1 * 5 / arm @ 16kg, 2 * 5 / arm @ 14kg)

Warm Down

4 way hip stretching

Hamstring stretching

SMR

Tuesday Bear Cav Core Sessions

Core session:

Plank (40s)

Plank with knees to elbows (15 reps each knee)

Side plank (30s each side)

Short rest

Squat jumps (30s)

Leg raise and pulse (15 reps)

Hand Walkouts (10 reps to good extension)

Crunchy Frogs (25 reps)

Short rest

Lunge jumps (30s)

Mason Twists (45s)

Wednesday Gym

Warm up

Medium pace short run

Internal/External Shoulder Rotations (1*15 @ 10kg)

4 way hip stretching

SMR (Foam Rolling and Hockey Balling)

Main Session

A

1. Single arm Kettlebell swings (3 * 10 / arm @ 18kg *increase*)

2. Yoga Table (3 * 10 deep breaths)

3. Front Plank + Side Plank both sides (3 * 10 deep breaths / front and each side)

B

1. Single Leg Deadlifts (3 * 10 / leg @ 16kg)

2. Chin Ups (3 * 5)

3. Wide Leg Push up taps (3 * 10)

C

1. Skater squats (3 * 10 / leg @ 4kg)

2. Lateral Bound + Stick (3 * 6)

3. Single Arm Kettlebell Curl to Overhead Press (3 * 5 / arm @ 10kg)

Warm Down

4 way hip stretching

Hamstring stretching

SMR

Thursday Track

I really wanted to start hitting the track on a weekly basis again, as I find it really useful and the programme that had been sent over by some Ka-Pow! teammates looked really tough. I went over to the local athletics track nearest to my new flat. I had seen pictures and knew it was a gravelly (cinder) track rather than an artificial track. Unfortunately, this made the parts of the Ka-Pow! programme involving lots of quick direction changes a bit difficult as I didn’t want to slip over. Here’s the programme I followed:

Warmup

400m run

4 way hip stretching

Main session

3 * 20 seconds seated sprinters arms (with 20 seconds rest between each rep)

2 * 20 yard shuttles (this was cut down from 5 reps due to the surface. May do this part on the nearby pavement in the future… not ideal)

5 * T-drill (5 seconds rest between each rep)

<3 minute break>

6 minutes of 30-second runs (run hard 30 seconds, stand 60 seconds, repeat)

<4 minute break>

300M, 90 sec rest

400M, 150 sec rest

400M, 120 sec rest

300M

<1 minute break>

3 * (30 crunches, 15 vertical scissor kicks, 15 horizontal scissor kicks, 2 minutes rest)

Warm down run and stretching

Friday Yoga

Another tough session with little transition time between the poses, but with a different instructor to the first week. Whereas the previous week’s instructor focussed more on balance poses and leg muscles, this week’s session included a lot of arm and core work (with every transition between pose sets initiated with a dive bomber to cobra to downward dog). Wonder who I’ll get this week!

Saturday Ka-Pow! Session

Finally getting back into ultimate to start off the season! It was the first session with Ka-Pow! post trials and there was a great turnout from both the full squad and the training squad players. We started with an hour in the classroom going through goals for the season, a couple of admin details, team principles and ideals, and our offensive and defensive strategies including the introduction of our first three offensive plays in the playbook. After that, we began the 6 hour on pitch portion of the session with a warmup before running through the offensive plays via demonstrations and drills. Playing offense was the theme for the day with the aim being to try and get everyone used to playing with each other in the Ka-Pow! systems which were new for some of the players there. It was a great first session, and though it was frustrating at times when mistakes started to creep in, the improvement from the beginning of the session to the end in the play and the running of the offense was drastic and exciting.