nags of a similar ilk

The email I sent to the SCU women's team for the season. We started late, so the workouts are cut short.

See also, the Special K workout.

Here's the season workout progression for the season I talked about at practice on Tuesday. We'll miss the last month of the workout (we should have started at the beginning of the year), but we'll still benefit greatly from starting now (like HUGE benefits!). The workouts become hard to the end, but the results are WAAAAAAY worth it.

There are three workouts a week, which should be done on days when we don't practice. If you can, run these in the morning (running in the morning will train your body to be ready to move in the morning at tournaments), though DOING the workout is more important than doing the workout in the morning.

The three workouts are: straight sprints, shuttle sprints and "long" distance running. I've put days in the workout (Monday, Wednesday, Saturday), but you should adjust the days to what works best for you.

IF YOU MISS A WORKOUT (travel, illness, finals, spring break, they happen), run a make up workout as soon as you can (within a few days of the scheduled day). If you cannot do a workout at all, skip the workout and continue with the schedule. If you skip two workouts in a row, don't skip the week, redo it.

IF YOU NEED MOTIVATION, lean on your teammates! Encourage each other. The team grows stronger as the individual teammates grow stronger! Failing that (bah, that will never happen, so I can make this offer...), send me an email. If I'm in town, I'll head down and run with you.

The straight sprints consist of multiples of 20m, 40m, 50m and 90m sprints. For each of these, sprint down as hard as you can. These are 95% sprints, not jogs, not runs, but SPRINTS! After ending the sprint, immediately turn around and jog back to the starting cone. This is a good jog, lift your knees, use your arms. When you're back at the starting cone, start your rest time.

The rest times between sprints are:

20 m = 25 seconds
40 m = 30 seconds
50 m = 45 seconds
90 m = 60 seconds

For the shuttle workouts, there are three types of runs: a stinker, a stinkette and a suicide (or I of pain, if you use that term). These runs are done so that you can FINISH the workout. You want to run as hard as you can (start the first ones at 70% in the beginning so that your final run's 100% time is the same as your first run's 70% time). Concentrate on form on the stops and starts.

For this workout, put markers (cones) at 0, 5m, 10m, 15m, 20m, 25m and 50 m.

A stinker is:

Start at the 0 cone, sprint 50m out and back 3 times in a row for a total of 300 m. If you are feeling really ambitious, do this in under 1 minute 5 seconds. Rest one and a half minutes afterwards. On the last one, pick up the 50m cone.

A stinkette is:

Start at the 0 cone, sprint to the 25m cone and back 6 times in a row for a total of 300 m. If you are feeling really ambitious, do this in under 1 minute 10 seconds. Rest one and a half minutes afterwards.

And a suicide is:

Start at the 0 cone, run 5m out and back, then increase to running 10m and back, 15m and back, 20m and back, and 25m out and back. Rest 25 seconds afterwards.

The workout schedule, 2/11/08 - late April

2/11/08 Monday
  7x20, 5x40, 3x50, 3x90

2/13/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 2 stinkettes, 3 suicides

2/16/08 Saturday
  2 mile run


2/18/08 Monday
  7x20, 5x40, 3x50, 3x90

2/20/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 2 stinkettes, 3 suicides

2/23/08 Saturday
  2 mile run


2/25/08 Monday
  7x20, 5x40, 4x50, 4x90

2/27/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 2 stinkettes, 4 suicides

3/01/08 Saturday
  2.5 mile run



3/03/08 Monday
  8x20, 6x40, 4x50, 4x90

3/05/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 2 stinkettes, 4 suicides

3/08/08 Saturday
  2.5 mile run


3/10/08 Monday
  8x20, 6x40, 4x50, 4x90

3/12/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 2 stinkettes, 4 suicides

3/16/08 Saturday
  2.5 mile run


3/17/08 Monday
  8x20, 6x40, 4x50, 4x90

3/19/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 3 stinkettes, 5 suicides

3/22/08 Saturday
  3 mile run


3/24/08 Monday
  9x20, 7x40, 5x50, 5x90

3/26/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 3 stinkettes, 5 suicides

3/29/08 Saturday
  3 mile run


3/31/08 Monday
  9x20, 7x40, 5x50, 5x90

4/2/08 Wednesday
  1 stinker, 3 stinkettes, 5 suicides

4/5/08 Saturday
  3 mile run


4/7/08 Monday
  10x20, 8x40, 5x50, 5x90

4/9/08 Wednesday
  1.5 stinkers, 3 stinkettes, 5 suicides

4/12/08 Saturday *sectionals
  3 mile run


4/14/08 Monday
  10x20, 8x40, 6x50, 6x90

4/16/08 Wednesday
  1.5 stinkers, 3 stinkettes, 5 suicides

4/19/08 Saturday
  3 mile run

Regionals are April 26-27. Plan on attending Regionals (we made it last year!).

4/21/08 Monday
  12x20, 8x40, 6x50, 6x90

4/23/08 Wednesday
  1.5 stinkers, 3 stinkettes, 6 suicides

4/26/08 Saturday *Regionals
  3 mile run


4/28/08 Monday
  14x20, 9x40, 7x50, 7x90

If you want the rest of the workout (what I'll be running, since my season starts in April), the rest of the workout is:

4/30/08 Wednesday
  2 stinkers, 4 stinkettes, 6 suicides

5/03/08 Saturday
  3 mile run


5/05/08 Monday
  14x20, 9x40, 7x50, 7x90

5/07/08 Wednesday
  2 stinkers, 4 stinkettes, 7 suicides

5/10/08 Saturday
  3 mile run


5/12/08 Monday
  16x20, 10x40, 8x50, 8x90

5/14/08 Wednesday
  2 stinkers, 4 stinkettes, 7 suicides

5/17/08 Saturday
  3 mile run

Maintenance: repeat or increase the last week, as needed. The maximum runs should be:

20x20, 15x40, 10x50, 10x90
4 stinkers, 6 stinkettes, 10 suicides

Second practice of the year tonight. Still cold. I arrived late, to see the team running the four lines drill. Oh, my, I was so happy to see that! They weren't sure about what they were going to do at practice, but they started out very well!

We had a new girl come out to practice tonight. I don't think she even had cleats. She played pretty well, for a complete beginner. I hope she had enough fun to continue to come out. Her reactions to my directions reminded me of how much of the sport's terminology I take for granted. Just because I yell at someone to clear, doesn't mean she's going to know what the heck I'm telling her to do. Or to cut deep. Or to clear wide. Or to stop clogging. Or to force home. Or to start the stall count. Or to mark. Or pivot. Or throw to space.

Lots of words, and phrases and meanings that are so ingrained I'm unable to immediately recall not knowing what they mean.

Kate showed me a Macbook Air after practice. I both wish I could buy one and am glad i can't afford it at this point. I haven't worn out my current computer, which works very, very, very well for me (knock on wood, or aluminum as the case may be), so I won't be upgrading, or laterally-ing to a MB Air (it won't drive my birthday present). Which is fine, I'm still happy with what i have.

Wait, did I really just say that?

Went to practice tonight, for the first time since mid last month. It's been cold at nights, all the way down to 46°. Forty-six degrees. Forty six.

My dad is laughing at me right now.

At least my mom is thinking, "Brrrrrrrr!"

Given the team hasn't really been out and running around together for a month, just playing sounded like a great idea to me. We did a lot of throwing (about 200 throws per person of various grips and lengths), and played games. I'm not sure they liked the way I divided the teams up: number of letters in their last name, odd on one team, even on the other. I followed that one up with something like the number of letters in their first names. The teams seemed pretty even.

Although playing ultimate and teaching people (and combining the two!) is a lot of fun, I have to admit that hanging out with Kate, even in the cold, cold, cold, stop laughing Dad, cold weather is the best part for me. I like chatting on the sidelines with her, talking about life and plotting women's ultimate domination in two years with her. It's a lot of fun.

If only I could feel my toes.

This morning, I drove to Santa Clara, picked up three of the women I'm coaching on the women's ultimate team, and drove to Santa Cruz with them for the 2007 Sean Ryan Memorial Tournament. Kate and I seem to be consistent in our time availability with the team: every day I'm not available, she is, and any day she's not available, I am. As a result, I was coaching this one on my own.

And Kate's the one with the calm demeanor and beaucoup experience, not me.

The team had 13 women today. That's a lot for the team, even if it was about half of what the other teams brought to the tournament. What they lacked in numbers, they made up for in heart.

The first game was against Berkeley X. Berkeley had a large number of players tryout this year, so they split the team into two teams: X and Y. We played X, which had 3-4 players who could catch, throw and defend well, and another 20 who couldn't. So, the game was really, really close as both Berkeley and SCRUW, the Santa Clara women's team name, worked the disc down the field and scored sometimes, turned it over sometimes. The score went something like 1-1, 2-2, 3-3, 5-3, 5-5, 6-6, 8-7 (yay, we took half!), 9-7, 10-8, 10-10, 12-10, 12-11. Here's where the heart breaker is. If, on the score where they scored that 11th point had happened 20 seconds later, as in, a second after the hard cap went on instead of 19 seconds after they scored, the game would have been over, and Santa Clara would have won the game. As it was, the hard cap went on as the team was walking down the field to start the next point. Berkeley scored the next point, tying the game, and the following point to win the game. The game finished 15 minutes after the next game was supposed to start, so the team immediately ran over to the next field over to start the next game.

I forgot to suggest they eat something between the rushed games.

The second game was against UCLA BLU X. This team was in much the same boat as the Berkeley team: a few good players (as in, really good players), and a whole bunch of not so good players. The problem was, however, that they had three or four of these good players, compared to Berkeley's two or three. BLU was able to play three of these women pretty much in all the points and move the disc very effectively.

After a number of points of SCRUW moving the disc down the field, only to turn it over within yards of the endzone, and watching the three BLU moving score on three throws, I suggested a change in defense. We'd still force the team one direction in general, but the three women on the line who could play we'd play straight up. With a quick tutorial on how to force straight-up, and the calls incoming defense should make (left and right, brilliant, eh?), the team received the next pull, turned it over, forced straight-up on the good players, caused a turn over close to the endzone, and scored. Molly came up to me after a few points of playing straight up on BLU's top player and excitedly said, "Wow, that's totally working. She's throwing it away, and struggling!" I was so excited to hear my advice was so well received.

The final score of the second game was 4-12, so we missed our goal of 5 points by one. If we could count the "within 10 yards of the endzone" as a half point, though, the score would have been more like 10-12.

The last game was against UC Santa Cruz. Having watched the team earlier, I really thought SCRUW had a chance to win this game. I told them as much before the start of the game. However, they played more of their top line, and, well, pretty much crushed SCRUW. The team had run out of steam, run out of legs, and, well, it showed. I think they were done when the score was 1-6.

All in all, it was a great day. We need to work on initiating a stall count (rather than letting the opponent stand over the disc directing traffic, actually get that stall count going!), keeping on our opponent (no turnstile defense), and throw, throw, throwing!

As I arrived at practice tonight, the team had just started their warmup lap around the field. They've been bringing out a boombox and blasting music during practice, but I was surprised I heard music.

Turns out, they carried the boombox all the way around the field.

It died less than a quarter of the way around the field, and they had to lug the dead weight anyway.

Practice was actually quite fun tonight. I'm not sure why, but I felt more connected with the team, and had a good time laughing with them. Having only one practice a week, with Kate taking the other night, has helped me timewise. That helped during this crazy week.