health

G has decided to help me go all-out on my workouts preparing me on my road to Team USA. Instead of working on building muscle with weight-lifting, we did a full plyo class. The class was made "worse" by the presence of another trainer, who was learning the game plan. Having a new guy watching means, of course, we have to show off. Well, at least I did. G did say a couple times that the workout was harder than most because I'm training for team USA, which made me feel good.

We started out with ladders. We had a few more than we normally do. Nominally, we had

  LR-RL-LR-RL
  Ali shuffle
  facing sideways, L over R in, L below R in, repeat
  facing sideways, with left foot in, R top bottom, as above
  facing sideways, RL in, RL below, RL in, RL below
  facing sideways, LR in, LR below, etc.
  L hop in/out, R hop in/out
  "hopscotch" with only L foot, again with only R foot
  hopscotch L-R-both
  quick feet: LR in, LRL out, RL in, RLR out 
  cross over: L cross over (foot lands perpendicular to the
    direction of travel), RL out, R cross over, LR
  hip switch (L outside on L, R outside on R, twist, landing
    with feet perpendicular to direction of travel), twist
    back, landing with feet on outside, repeat advancing one
    square.  repeat with other foot first
  two taps: heading L: LR in, LR out; heading R: RL in, RL out
    I caught up to Kris on these.  Zoom!

I was tired already after the ladders. I zipped along hard, both trying to keep up with Kris and showing off for the new guy.

We started the workout outside, with shuttles. With an 8# ball, we shuffled down and back throwing the ball back and forth between each other. We did a progression of 2 lengths (down and back), 4 6 8, then back down 8 6 4 2.

At the first 6, it became apparent that I wasn't doing them correctly. Instead of lowering my butt and staying on my toes, I was shuffling on my heels and leaning forward ("hunching over"). So, at 6, we rolled the ball instead of throwing it. The point was to practice lowering the rear and staying on the toes. We rolled for the 6 & 8 lengths, returning to throwing for the remaining 8 6 4 2.

Next came the "I of pain" shuffles (perhaps spelled "eye of pain", not sure). 5 cones, each spaced 3 steps (~3 yards) apart. Starting at cone 1, run to cone 2, run backward to cone 1, run to cone 3, run backward to cone 1, etc. Kris did 4. My times were 18.3, 17.9, 18.2, 18.0, 17.9. I did 5 because my time didn't decrease each time. The first 17.9 I cheated on, and didn't go all the way back to cone 1 on one of the backward runs.

Next were some quick feet drills. Ugh-a-rooni. Using a Reebok Step, with one riser, we did 1 set of 3 exercises, and 2 sets of 4 exercises, each for 30 seconds:

• feet together, jump on the Step, jump off to the side, jump on the Step, jump off to the other side, repeat
• bound over: two feet together, jump over the Step, landing on the other side, spring immediately to jump back over the other way, continue
• single step: RL step up, RL step down, LR step up, LR step down
• single step with crossover: same as the single step, but step up with the outside foot, using arms to explosively bound onto the step

3 sets of jump ropes were next. My goal was 120 jumps in a minute. If I didn't make it, I had to continue with 110 jumps in the second minute. If I didn't make that, it was 100 jumps in the next minute. This trend would continue until I managed the required number of jumps in a minute.

I didn't make it.

I went all the way down to 90 before I was so tired I couldn't manage more than 4 jumps without missing a jump. So, I threw down the jump rope and just jumped for a minute. Even then I had less than 90 jumps, so I had to do them again. Argh.

Kris had the great idea of jumping on the cement, since the cushy floor was causing problems for him. My second jump rope set was no problem, hitting 100 jumps in 52 seconds. Whoo! The third set was back on the squishy surface, and I managed 100 in a minute. Barely.

Next were 3 sets of lunge jumps using the Step. Using the Step meant our lunges were deeper, and the jumps harder. The first set was 15. We had sets of 15 because I stopped 15 times when trying to jump rope. D'oh. When G realized I hadn't swum today, he added another 5 on sets 2 and 3.

Last were abs.

• bicycles
• single leg V ups
• partner throw downs
• side to sides with 25# (!!!)
• lying down, 25# straight up, lift straight up
• lift feet up, hold weight up, lift weight to touch feet
• lying down, weight (8# at this point) over head, do V up bringing weight over to touch knees
• 6-12" leg holds
• lower back: supermans, twist lifts, lift straight up.

My upper butt and butt sides hurt.

It seems I can never get to a dentist appointment on time. I don't know what it is, but even when I try really hard, I still end up late. Sigh.

Had my teeth cleaned this morning. I'm fairly religious about my 6 month teeth cleanings. They may average every 6.5 months, but I go nominally twice a year. I was at the dentist about 2 months ago with some sensitivity in my lower right molars. Turned out to be bruised roots from clenching my jaw, and not cavities, so I'm trying not to clench so much.

As a result of said tooth sensitivity, today's cleaning was surprisingly painful. At one point, the dental hygenist (can I just call her the tooth fairy?), jabbed the little hook thingy into my gum between two back molars and pulled. When my gum didn't immediate come out, she puzzled, "Something sticky is in there."

Yeah, my flesh!

The experience reminded me of my dentist/orthodontist from childhood, Virgil Gassoway. My aunt Sonnie was quite enamoured with the fellow, and encouraged us to see him as our dentist. At some point, I think Mom was enamoured, too, so off we went.

For the record, Gassoway had horrible "bedside" manners. When tightening a band on one of my braces, he slipped and gouged the inside of my jaw. I was gushing blood. His response? "Hold still, I'm not done." No apologies, no cleaning of the gushing blood, just a "hold still damn child lest I beat you when your mother isn't looking."

I had more head X-rays with that man than the rest of my life combined. I suspect he'll be the cause of any brain cancer I get when I'm 97.

He was also my first orthodontist. Somehow Chris managed to avoid braces as a child. Beej and I were not so lucky. The deal, however, was that we went to Gassoway. Now, Gassoway wasn't really an orthodontist. He wasn't trained to do any moving-of-the-teeth, only cleaning-of-the-teeth and repairing-of-the-teeth. Actually, he didn't even do those well. He was recently (5-6 years ago maybe?) sued for leaving a broken drill bit in the tooth of a patient and filling the cavity anyway. Ever wonder why mamma keeps buzzing when she walks through the airport metal detector? Blame Gassoway. (not really)

To do orthodontics, Gassoway would take photos and molds of his patients mouths, and take such documentation to orthodontia conventions. What would you do with this mouth, he'd ask. He'd then come back, and adjust the braces or give the Frankel (which, according to my little brother who had one, is just a little less barbaric than head gear).

There's the outside thought that maybe, just maybe, I dislike the man so much because he pulled four of my teeth out (first teeth behind the eye teeth), rather than suggesting space maintainers and roof expanders that later real orthodontists suggested for me. In high-school, I wore a retainer that expanded the roof of my mouth by a 1/4", leaving gaps that, oh, I don't know, say, two teeth could fill. But saying that's the cause of my dislike ignores the incompetence of the man, and the lifelong harm he's caused.

So let's just say he sucks.

Because he does.

Today was rainy. As a result, there were a lot of accidents on the freeways. And, as a result of that, Kris took over an hour to get to ASA, and G couldn't make it at all. After getting stuck in traffic for 45 minutes and not moving at all, G gave up, called in and went home.

Pat Frost, an ex-MLB pitcher, stepped in and ran the class for us. We started out with ladders. I started well before Kris arrived (mostly because he was taking so freaking long to get to class). I managed to get all my ladders done, and two runs at the T drill before he was ready to run.

Ladders included my favorite LR-RL etc. One leg in, both out. Hop scotch (L R together). Ali shuffle. Shuffle R first (facing sideways, R foot in, L foot in, next square R foot in, L foot in, etc.). Shuffle L first. Facing sideways, R foot in, L foot in, R foot out, L foot out, advance one square. There were a few others in there. The outside foot in horizontally, both feet outside, other outside foot in horizontally, etc. I'm sure I'm missing a few new ones.

Next was the T drill. The T had 8 steps on the base, 3 across the top of the T. I did four shuffling to the left first, another four shuffling to the right first, for a total of 8 runs. Most of my times were around 9.5 seconds, though I had an 8.9 in there somewhere, and a 10, too. P didn't do too well in telling us suggestions like, stay low, use the arms, butt down on the shuffle, don't pop up. On the runs I did things well, I ran quickly. Otherwise, I did only okay.

Next, we had ice skaters & hurdle jumps

Next was box jumps and 180° jumps with weighted ball.

Last was abs. Instead of our regular, brutal G abs, we did 4 sets of 30 seconds of 5 ab exercises. Starting with bicycles, we did swimmers (lying on our backs, arms out sideways, legs out straight in front of us, move feet up and down from 6" to 12" off the ground), then criss-cross (same position as before, holding feed ~12" off the ground, cross them left on top, then right on top, repeat). Next, we had trunk lifts (hold feet up in the air, left hips off the ground), and finally Supermans (or, lie on your stomach, hands under chin, lift head straight up. That's one set. Repeat 3 times. Four times total.

It was neat to have a new instructor. I prefer G, but I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow. Change is often good.