health

Session 2 of ASA's May MVP class, or how Kris got his ass kicked.

Blog kitt decided around 00:10 on 6 May 2004 to publish this:

I started month 2 of All-Star Academy of Baseball MVP class. I skipped the Sunday workout to play ultimate and check out how well I can play without being exhausted from a previous workout. It was great, but I missed having the workout. Can I get addicted to difficult workouts?

This was Kris' first workout.

We started the workout with ladders. LR-RL-LR-LR (which is becoming my favorite); outside-inside; L-outside-L-outside; R-outside-R-outside; L-outside-R-outside-together-outside; rip R-rip L; fast feet: inside, outside R, inside, outside L; and scissors (R first, then L first).

Shuttle sprints came next. We were working on arm speed, pumping the arms fast when changing direction. The transitions were 3 yards apart: forward 3 yards, run backward to the starting point, forward 6 yards, backward 6 yards, etc. We did four shuttles. I really really wanted to beat Kris on the third one. My legs were tired, and I thought it was our last one, so I went all out. Tragically, I was worried about the box along the wall behind me and on the last backward run, I turned to spot the box, lost my balance and landed smack on my ass (landed on my right hamstring). I was embarrassed, but, damn, it was funny! I was so close to beating Kris!

The next workout was tight figure 8s around two sets of four cones set in square patterns. The trick was to pump arms really fast. I did okay. Kris did really well. I fell like a dork, but Kris said I was probably faster than Ryan.

The dynamics of the class really change with three people in the class. We have longer rest periods, and pair up different. G spends less time with me, which, eh, I don't know, is slightly disappointment.

Next we did box-side-to-side steps (left foot on box with right foot on floor, hop to switch right foot on box with left foot on floor). 3 sets of 10 (both feet to a set) as fast as possible, followed by 10 tossing back a ball. When the other two people were working out, we did 10 squat jumps (with pointed toes). I think Kris did 20.

Next we did toe taps. 3 sets of 30 seconds each. I was slow, slow, slow for the first two sets (counted only 62 on the second set), but recovered and did 72 for the third set.

Jump ropes came next. 3 sets of 30 seconds. G was incredibly impressed by Kris. So much so, that he was distracted and Ryan and I got off half-ass. I couldn't get going on the third set. I did maybe 30 jumps on the third set.

Finished up with an easy set of abs. Bicycle, russian crunches, ball toss (6# is really heavy), side-to-side with 4# weight (too light), push downs (Kris did my pushdowns and did a poor job) and throw downs (Kris did mine and did okay, G did Kris and totally crushed him).

We talked about workouts afterward. Doing abs two days in a row isn't good, according to G. Upper body workouts are good every other day, though.

Friday's workout is 3 x 30 yards, 3 x 60 yards, 3 x 90 yards. Kris and I chuckled when we heard it. We'll be doing an upper body workout, too. I'm looking forward to the traverse!

Session 8 of ASA Baseball's April MVP program.

Blog Posted by kitt at 00:26 on 29 April 2004

Arrived just on time, which meant I was late because I had to go to the bathroom. We started off slowly as Ryan and I stretched before starting. Ryan's a junior in high school, and 17. I asked. G is starting to get excited about planning a workout for ultimate. He stopped by a game (not sure if it was pickup or team), watched for an hour or so, then talked to some of the players. I'm excited he's interested in planning more workouts for me.

Cabrillo Jr. College is just south of Santa Cruz where G is a coach for the baseball team. This is a building year for the team (they cut 14 players and have only 14 on the team, which is pretty low, according to G). Ryan seemed interested in the program.

Started out on the ladders for warm up. LRL-RLR (or however I described them before - LR-RL?); Outside - two feet inside - out - in; LR in - LR out - LR in - LR out (I think, I couldn't get the rhythm of this one); rip R - rip L; R-L-together; two feet in - two feet R outside - advance two feet in - two feet L outside. Might have been another one or two, don't recall.

The first exercise after warming up used the 12" boxes. Starting behind one, we jumped onto one back, off the front, onto the next box, off the front of the second box, landing on two feet, then sprinted forward. We did this a few times to work on arm movements: helping us spring up, as well as accelerate into the sprint. After we did a few of these, we hopped on the first box with one foot, landed between the two boxes with both feet, hopped onto the second box with the same single foot, landed with two feet then sprinted. We did this a few times, then switched the single foot.

Next, holding the weighted medicine balls (I used the 6#), we stepped up onto a box, then lifted the other knee up to chest level touching the ball, then stepped back down, both feet. Each leg was done 10 times, then switched legs. We followed this by walking, twisting lunges with weights. My first set was with a 10# plate. The second set was the step ups facing sideways, followed by walking lunges. G asked how the 10# was for me. When I answered, "Light." I received a 25# plate. That was heavy. The third set was 2 sets of 10 (alternating feet) step ups stepping backward onto the box, followed by walking lunges.

Our last exercise with the weights were holding them. We sat, resting our elbows on our knees, and held the weights (25#!) from the top of the plate. Yes, our hands started to sweat. 30 seconds is a long time when you figure the weight is going to land on your toes (especially the toe with no nail!). The response was: hold tighter. Next was pivoting the weight front and back along the axis between the hands. That one was hard, but not too bad. The next one was hard. Basically, like driving a bus, rotate the plate back and forth (sufficient that at the end of the turn, one hand is on top and the other is on the bottom). We had a short grip-the-plate exercise like the first exercise to finish the forearm workout.

Continuing the upper body workout theme, we had 3 sets of 3 exercises: clapping pushups, traverse the ball, and wheelbarrow. I had 10 clapping pushups. I managed one from my feet, the rest from my knees. The ball traverse is similar to the LR-LR balance onto the ball, but we traverse across the ball instead: RL onto the ball, RL off the ball on the right side, LR onto the ball, LR off the ball on the left side - that's two, do 10. Next was 30 seconds of wheelbarrow.

In these three sets of three exercises, I did okay. The trick on the wheelbarrow is to keep a straight back. The first time through I managed only 17 seconds. The second time through I managed 25 seconds. The third was a heartbreaking 29 seconds (so close!). My wrists definitely hurt after the last set.

The last was the usual ab workout: V ups (did well), Russian crunches (with the addition of moving to the sides), bicycle, balanced side to side (this time with no weights), back lifts (didn't lift very far), throw downs (which I did okay on: my feet touched only on the last throwdown - I had a death grip on G's ankles and was grunting like mad, but I did okay), another bicycle while Ryan got his throwdowns, 6" lifts (complete with the 2# ball dropped on my stomach a few times and the 2# weight put on my feet). The ball drop is often a welcome distraction with the 6" leg lifts since I can concentrate on the ball instead of how tired my stomach is.

Friday's workout is a 2 mile run, and 15 minutes of jumprope. The jumprope is 45 seconds of jumping, 15 seconds of rest: that's one minute. Continue for 15. Friday is going to be hard.

I'm not going next Sunday. I'm going to see how well I can play ultimate when I'm not tired before I play. I also signed up for May. I'll miss three Sundays (practice, wedding and tournament), but G said I can apply them to June.

I also convinced Kris to sign up. I think it'll change the dynamics of the class. According to G, there are three other guys coming to the class next month, so the dynamics will already be changed. But Kris has told me he's a bit jealous of the workouts I have (and the results!), so I'll sign him up, too. Should be fun.

Stupid headache.

Blog kitt decided around 01:53 on 27 April 2004 to publish this:

Mom is always telling me that I'm more in tune with my body than most people. I'm not sure if this is a good thing, as in I can sense when something is amiss more quickly than most people, or a bad thing, as in I'm a hypochondriac.

Currently, it's almost 2 in the morning on the 27th and my head hurts in ways I don't recall ever experiencing before. Part of me is thinking, Oooo, this is new and unusual, let me explore; another part of me is screaming, something's wrong!

The current pain starts at the back of my head, and wraps in a band above my right ear and across my forehead. It comes in fits and spurts, but each fit is really bad. It's very strange that it feels like a band of tightness and pain.

I guess the bottom line is, My head hurts.

Session 7 of ASA MVP

Blog Written with a loving hand by kitt some time around 22:22 on 25 April 2004

Whoa. Session 7 is already done! Only one more left of ASA of Baseball's MVP class (for April). Wow. I'm more than a little surprised that it's been a month. I've already gained a few pounds (presumably in muscle).

I arrived at noon to discover what felt like hundreds of little kids running around the facility. It was weird. There were at least two birthday parties happening, lots of hitting, a whiffle ball home run debry and many, many parents. I looked at the parents and couldn't help but compare the differences in choices they had made from mine. Of course, I'm projecting, crossing the net, but I've had those thoughts a lot lately. We all make different choices.

G arrived late. I handed him two videos and one DVD (A+B2, 1999 Open Championships and the CSTV 2003 College finals), and told him to watch them in the CSTV-then-other-videos order. He'll miss a lot of the nuiances of the defense, but the offense should be obvious.

Ryan didn't show.

We started with ladders: LR-RL-LR-RL (with the second foot outside, first foot inside), zig-zag (both feet together, outside L, middle, outside R, middle, repeat), R-L-together (alternating with outside), crossover rips (L foot perpendicular to the forward direction, R foot perpendicular, repeat), L (L foot in, straddle outside), R (R foot in, straddle outside), scissors,
and a new one, which was LR-LRL outside-RL-RLR outside repeat (which was really hard for me to learn, for some reason)

Next we did a bounding drill where I did 5 hops with two feet landing, followed by 2 hops landing on one foot, pause, then explode forward. We did two or three running straight forward, 3 running at 45° to the right, another 3 running 45° to the left, followed by just hopping to the end, land on one foot, sink down, then explode out.

Next, we did the circle shuttle drill, where there are 8 (though there were 9 today) cones in a circle, one in the middle. I shuffled middle cone to outside cone to middle cone to the next outside cone, two times going counterclockwise, two times going clockwise. My times started initially in the 14s, went up to the 15s as I started standing up in my shuffles, and back to 13.9 when I stayed nice and low.

The next exercise worked on explosive starts. Starting at a 30° stance (one foot forward), G, standing about 3 meters away, dropped a tennis ball. My goal was to catch the ball before it bounced twice. My problem was mostly that I was running with my arm outstretched instead of running hard and then reaching. G was surprised that I caught the ball right handed a lot, and asked if I threw left handed. I said no, that I was trying to catch left handed, but that I catch mostly right handed. Probably needless to say, I didn't catch the ball on the first bounce but maybe once.

Next came horrific jump ropes. The first two were just jump for 30 seconds (might have been a minute, but it seemed short). The next was jump side to side. The next was front and back. The last was five jumps normal, then one with a double spin, where, if I jump high enough, I could get the rope under my feet twice. That's the theory anyway. I tried probably ten times and succeeded only once. And the time I did succeed, I was so shocked, I stopped jumping. Whoops.

Abs came next. Lots and lots of abs. We started by throwing a 4# medicine ball, using the rotating hips. Right side then left side. Then we passed the medicine ball low to high, right to left, then low to high, left to right. The next set was just a straight pass across.

At this point, Ryan walked it (as it was 1:00 or so) with a surprised look on his face. "I'm not late, am I?" he asked. Turns out, he had made the mistake I made last week, and thought the class started at 1pm instead of noon.

Next came V ups, bicycles, one legged V ups, sit ups with the ball tossed down that I had to throw back up, then lower back lifts from a medicine ball.

At several points during the session, I was tired, but at the end I was okay. I felt good. I wasn't sure if was the Cytomax or a lighter workout, but I felt good. I made it through about 2 hours of ultimate before I was exhausted. I should sleep well tonight!

I'm supposed to do abs tomorrow and an upperbody workout. Wednesday will be another upper body workout. Friday's workout will be 30 minutes of jump rope. 30 minutes! I'm doomed!

Session 5 of ASA Baseball MVP class

Blog Instead of being asleep at 21:27 on 21 April 2004, kitt created this:

Ryan was back for session 5 of ASA Baseball's April MVP class (well, one of them at least). Turns out, Ryan was down in Southern California looking at Pepperdine for college. Time to re-estimate Ryan's age up a few years.

We started late, as Gino was working with a 9 year old catcher whose first class was today. He's in a one-on-one program (10 class package), so he's getting lots of love from G. The usual ladders started us off: LR-RL (which stumbles me every time), both feet outside - hop to left foot in square, both feet outside - hop to right foot in square, L R both repeat (alternating with outside, of course), left foot outside - left foot inside - advance, right root outside - right foot inside - advance. There may have been another one in there, I don't recall.

We then did the T run for time. Basically, run forward 10 yards, shuffle to the left 5 yards, shuffle back 10 yards to the right, shuffle back left to the middle and run backwards. We did it for time. I think I did 5, Ryan did 4, because we were supposed to beat our times, but I didn't. However, when we did these in week 1, I ran an 11 something. This time my fastest was a 9.4: 9.4, 9.8, 9.6, 9.5, 9.6. I didn't improve on any run, so I had an extra minute of abs at the end.

Next we used the boxes for two exercises (3 sets each). The first was running in place, tapping our toes on the top of the box on each step, for 30 seconds. I ran a 68 taps the first set, which I though G had miscounted and I really had only 48. Turns out, I miscounted, because I had 68 on the second set, too. For the third set, G said if I didn't beat 68, I'd be doing an extra minute of abs. That's inspiration, and I did a 72 on the third set. I think it helped that I could see his watch. There was sheer desperation in the last 10 seconds to get enough steps in.

The other workout with the boxes were side to side steps: one foot on the box, the other foot on the ground, jump to to switch which foot was on the box/ground. First set of 10, second and third set of 12 (6 each leg) with a 6# ball being thrown at my knees (toss back) and the final set of 20 (10 each leg) just holding the 6# ball.

At this point, I'm tired. But we're not done yet!

We played "Chase the Chicken" next, which was basically a game of tag where you run around in a 10 yard x 8 yard box, one person trying to avoid the other, and the second person (the Chicken) trying to touch the shoulder of the first person. Each round was 30 seconds. Ryan is much faster than I am, but I'm better at reacting to a cutter. Ryan tried a roll-off-spin-around football move that didn't do crap, as I anticipated his moves and adjusted accordingly. On the flip side, I suck at getting away. I thought my skills at cutting in ultimate would help. Nope. Not enough room to make a real cut (when I turned around for the cut at the end of the box, Ryan was standing there - d'oh!).

Wall Ball came next. As usual, Ryan kicked my ass in the game. I can't throw the ball for crap. Turns out, I throw overhand with my left hand better than I do with my right hand. I typically shot-put with my right. Either way, we played wall ball. I'm happy to say all my balls made it to the wall. <grin>

Balancing pushups came next. Unfortunately, we had to do 20 of them, with a slight lift while balancing. Yes, 20. 20! I struggled. A lot. I managed about 8 without stopping, then did 2 at a time after that. I didn't do well at all with them. I did them with the 6# ball, which is supposedly easier than the 4# ball. Surprised me.

Tragically, after the balancing pushups we did clapping pushups. If I thought the balancing pushups were hard, these were worse. I couldn't do them. I was laughing so hard at G for suggesting 20. I asked if I could do them from my knees, which G said I could. I did 10 before attempting the claps. Turns out that, yes, I can do a clapping push up from my knees. Barely.

After being thoroughly exhausted with the pushups, we did abs next. V ups (ugh), single leg twisting V ups (left elbow to right knee, down, right elbow to left knee, down, repeat), Russian crunches, bicycle, 6" off the ground (with karate chops!), seated push downs and (because I didn't beat my previous sprint times) inverted push downs.

Tired. Very, very tired.

Friday's workout is 8 x 100 m (10 if I'd like), and upper body workout. The upper body workout is bouncing the 2# weight ball along a wall, balancing pushups and clapping pushups.

I also talked to G about helping Mischief with training. I asked if he'd be interested in seeing the sport, and designing a 2-4 week training schedule. He said yes, so I'm planning on bringing in various videos for him to watch. Interesting to see how this works out. Things are going to get crazy starting in May. I hope I can keep up the workouts.

Session 4 of ASA Baseball's MVP class

Blog kitt decided around 14:25 on 20 April 2004 to publish this:

I was late for session 4 of ASA Baseball's MVP class. I thought the class started at 1:00 for me. Turns out, it started at 12:00 noon. I called at 12:00 to see when the class was. Oops. I was so embarassed. I really didn't want to be late.

As usual, we started with the ladders. We do several different steps. Scissors, R foot only, L foot only, Hop Scotch (L, R, Both), both outside - both inside - move forward one square, Z.

The next exercise was the hurdles. There were 5 short (6") hurdles, followed by 5 still short, but not as short, 12" hurdles. We jumped them both footed, R footed only, L footed only, alternating feet facing forward, L then R - facing sideways, R then L - facing sideways. I think there was another one, but I don't recall it. The last one was jumping backward. I flailed completely at that one. Completely.

We then went to the 1' boxes. These 4' long, 12" high boxes were spaced about 2 feet apart. We jumped down from one, landed on the ground between the boxes, jumped onto the next box, then sprang *high* into the air, landing past the second box.

While doing the jump off the boxes exercise, Gino asked if I thought I could jump up onto both boxes. I thought he meant after jumping down from the other box, so I said no. Turns out, he meant just jump up onto both of them (or a box 24" high).

Which was the next exercise.

We jumped up onto the boxes, which were stacked together, so 24" high. I was really really intimidated by the height. I did okay, though. 10 landing both feet, 10 landing R foot, 10 landing L foot, 10 landing both feet again. I really didn't trust myself to land with only one foot, and strained my back (lower, left side, near kidneys) when I tried to land with my R foot. Gino noticed and asked if I was okay. He notices every time I strain/injure something.

We then did side-to-sides, that looked like ice skating. Standing on one foot near a cone, push off sideways and land on the other foot, balancing, reaching low to touch a cone. 2 sets of 20 total, 10 each leg.

Abs were next. Russian crunches, bicycle, side to side with a weighted ball, V ups (couldn't do those for crap - managed maybe 6 in 45 seconds), lower back lifts, crunches from a ball, and 6" - 12" leg lifts.

Phew!