3 weeks later: Recap

I am gonna try to recap my last three weeks quickly and I promise to get back into the blog as I gear up for the series.

My ankle started hurting at practice August 9th, but I didn't worry to much and chalked it up to the grind of the last six months or so. Sunday practice rolled around and it hurt much worse than before. I taped it and got out there and after hobbling through some drills the pain started to leave and I was able to play through it. It looks like I was able to get in the gym on Monday as well, but I know I skipped the track workout that week. I was hoping I would be ok for Chesapeake after taking the week off.

Saturday morning and I am taped up and ready to go. My ankle felt like it did on Sunday the weekend before. It wasn't serious pain, it was more of a strength thing. I couldn't push off my toes when I needed to sprint. I tried to keep it to myself and just play through. I played a very blah day and was very frustrated as I saw all my work between Boston Invite and Chesapeake starting to unwind due to whatever injury this was. Sunday was the same and although my ankle was a little better in the semi's and finals, I didn't play that well. I felt like I lost a great opportunity to step up and play my best.

On Sunday night I flew from DCA to Chicago where I had a conference for work. My ankle had me hobbling at this point. No swelling, just weak and painful. I assumed it was a stress fracture or something long term that wasn't going to get worse, I just needed to rest it. I was in Chicago proper for the first time and all I wanted to do was walk around, but I could merely stagger around painfully. Sunday night I ended up walking about 2 miles as I was sent on a bit of a wild goose chase trying to get from the E stop to my hotel with all my shit on my back and a busted ankle. That adventure was followed the next day by a lot more walking as I tried to make my way to a Sport's Authority that didn't exist. Of course the E breaks down for like 20 minutes as I try to make it back to midway on Wednesday night and I have to hobble/jog/run to try and catch my plane, which I miss. It wasn't until I got back on Thursday morning that I could really rest it.

I attended, but didn't participate in practice that weekend, the 23rd and 24th, but did go to the gym that Saturday. I went to the Dr's and they diagnosed it as tendinitis, gave me some Naproxen, and told me to stay off it and schedule an appointment with ortho, which is on September 10th.

I stayed off it all week leading up to Santa Cruz, but developed this itchy pain on the top of my bad foot. Friday morning when I woke up it was angry and red and lumpy. Sweet. I went to the Chelsea MGH, or Crazytown, USA, and waited for 2 hours for the attending to tell me it was infected and I should take some stuff and put warm towels on it. Zoom to Burger King for 3 whopper juniors, zoom home to say bye to Alexis who is leaving for NJ for the weekend, zoom to Walgreens for the drugs and whatever they have for food for the weekend, zoom back home to get my stuff, grab a cab and zoom to the airport only to be confronted by a long snaking jet blue line due to their computer systems being down. Seeing that my flight was in 30 minutes they whisk me to the front, where they are writing out tickets long hand. Zoomed through security and had enough time to call my mom and give out some brownies, left over from our mural inauguration the night before, to the 30 other Boston ultimate players on the plane. 6 hours later we were in Santa Cruz.

Most of us woke up around 6 am on Saturday, buoyed by the time difference. Continental breakfast didn't start till 6:45 unfortunately. We made it to the fields in plenty of time, but the trainer hadn't shown up yet. I waited while the team started warmups. When she came she sterilized my infection which had come to a small head. I popped it like a small zit and then she cleaned it and put a band aid on it before wrapping my arthritic ankle. The infection area felt numb and tingly, which is still does, and weird with the tape pulling on it, but I was good to go. My ankle felt fine during warmups, worse by about the third game, but it bottomed out there and bottom wasn't as bad as the previous weeks.

We did allright. The loss to Pony makes regionals all that more interesting. Maybe it will light that fire that we were void of against them till it was way to late. We beat Sockeye last year around this time. We also lost to Bravo on double game last year in August. Regardless of the results those teams are a step above us. We need to be taking steps two at a time if we want to catch em while not forgetting about the other teams that are stride for stride with us right now.

We got back at 5:30 am on Monday morning. I walked from the Chelsea shuttle to my apartment (1.25 miles) had a bowl of cereal and then a bowl of soup (earliest in the morning Ive ever eaten soup?) and went to bed for a couple hours. I went to the gym that day which I am proud of. I'll write that workout later. No track this week, but no practice this weekend, so I will probably get out on the track this weekend or at least out to the chelsea turf fields for some work.

Gym: 09/01/08

Off the plane at 5:30 am, some sleep, hit some golf balls, went to the gym. I decided to go heavy this week to mix things up cause I will have a decent amount of time to recover.

squats:
(2) 6 @ 225
(1) 6 @ 235
(1) 6 @ 245

rack pulls:
(2) 4 @ 225
(1) 4 @ 245

side lunges:
(3) 14

bowler squats
(3) 8

gym: 08/11/08

3 sets of the following (once through is one set) rest after each set

front squats
8 @ 95

1 armed shoulder press
6 @ 45

lateral toe taps on 12 inch step
20 @ 35

push!ups
10

walking lunges
16 @ 35

pull ups
6 @ 25

practice weekend: 8/9-10/08

Two 4 hour practices.

Track: Wed 08/06/08

6:30 fartlek: ran two slows to start and did about a mile

4 min

6 x 200 75 secs: 30,31,31,32,32,31

4 min

2 laps of jog the curves sprint the straights

4 min

4 x 200 90 secs: 30,30,29,29

3 min

4 x 100 walk back to start: I started in the medium group and came in second, then I won the medium group, eeking out a win over Dan P who didnt get a good start, which moved me up to the fast group. I somehow won the fast group barely beating Colin and then Jeff got pissed at me for beating him and he crushed me in the last one. People were dropping quick during the 100's.

Done

This was a solid performance for me. Sticking to 31 during 6 200's in a row is tough for me. My legs felt like stiff heavy boards for the sprint the straights, but loosened up for the second set of 2's, which felt great with the 90 seconds of rest. The 100's felt great as well except for the last one.

Tennis: Mon 08/04/08

I dusted off the racket and joined Mullen and Jeff for tennis at Tufts. I played tennis in high school and by senior year was the number 1 tennis player at Lowell High. Of course we sucked and I ended up winning like three matches that year (2000) and since then I have played tennis less than 10 times.

For some reason I couldn't get my serve over the net for awhile, which severely limits any win potential. Lucky for me Mullen was in the same boat and and I got in just a few more than he did each time we played. Ben 3-Mullen 0. Jeff's serve started to leave him so he just started dinking his serve over knowing that we would hit errors. Jeff 3-Ben 0, Jeff 3-Mullen 0.

It was a lot of fun once the sun set and the lights came on.

Practice: Saturday and Sunday 08/02/08-08/03/08

I was not to optimistic that my groin would be ready to go. During summer league I never felt right and then I tried some sprints on Friday night. I got to about 95% and felt funny so I stopped and doom closed in around me. If I take this weekend off that leaves me one weekend to practice before Chesapeake. If I play this weekend there is a chance I would set myself back till Chesapeake. I was really frustrated, but it was all for naught as I started warming up. I felt fine if a bit behind in cardio after limiting myself for almost two weeks.

Saturday was ugly. Lots of turns as guys got used to each other again and try to shake off summer league impulses and the rust of taking a month off. The practice was cut to about 3 hours due to lightning and a downpour.

Sunday was less ugly. Decisions were a little better and throws a bit crisper. The rain held off till sprints.