Jersey #9: Kentucky's Journey

This is the end part of a poem I wrote a year or two ago.....the beginning part is kind of shit, but the end part feels pretty relevant right now...



Thus Fear will not impede mine striving
So much I love the beauty, pace, and pain
For it is still “The game they play in heaven”
Become I Eagle –
Or wingless self, remain.

Now that the emotional drama of Nationals is over, and school is (nearly) over, I've decided it's time to sort out where I'm going from here.

Well, let's make it official - I will be moving to Philadelphia after the U23 National All-Star Tournament and playing for the Philly Women!!! That's right, after some long hard decision making and much persuasion in many different directions from interested parties, I have decided to drag my redneck butt across the country once again, and replant myself in the city of brotherly love. This is all very exciting and extrordinarily terrifying at the same time. Let's list the positives and negatives...


Positives and Negatives of Moving to Philly:

+ I have a rugby team waiting for me
- I don't have a job waiting for me

+ I'll get lots of competition
- I might lose

+ I'll meet new people!
- New people are scary...

+ I get to live in a big city!
- Umm...hello!?! I'm a hillbilly...I might die.

+ Closer to friends and family from home
- Farther from friends from Iowa and the west

+ New challenge of playing for MARFU
- I really love playing for Midwest =(

...but in the end....

+ I'll become a better rugby player

...And that's the bottom line - Like I said, moving is scary and fun at the same time, but this is the best time for me to do it. I have no job, no prior committments, no romantic attachments - basically I'm free to restart life as I choose, and for now, I'm choosing Philly. Two years ago I made this same decision and moved to the middle of nowhere in Iowa. It was one of the best decisions I've ever made, and from that I've learned that you have to take risks to do anything in life. Anytime you get too comfortable, you're probably getting too lazy, and that is certainly not what I want - in rugby OR life.


So here I go - two more months of life in the Midwest before I take a big jump into the real world - *Deep Breath*

Here I go....

So as you probably know, my team traveled to DI Nationals in Florida last weekend and made it to the elite 8. We fell in the second round to a determined UC Davis side, and despite the disappointment of losing, it was an overall great weekend. I am officially done with college rugby now, and will be looking forward to my move to the world of "big girl" in the fall.....more details to come on that, but in the meantime, here are some pictures from Florida, and also from Midwest LAU's.....


This one is from LAU's vs. Wisconsin......I'm loving the cool angle on the photo, not sure how I never saw the photographer out on the field, though.

Pre-game huddle in Gainesville.

Ummm...I look pissed off and tired.

Here I am enjoying my favorite hobby - scrumhalf hunting =)

Photo after UNI's first win at DI Nationals over Appalachian State. I'm in front doing a totally awesome cheerleader pose with Mulf.

I had a couple of good games this weekend. Nothing spectacular, except that I felt like my conditioning has vastly improved. I was able to talk and direct the whole time without getting winded, as well as making it to the rucks, make my passes, tackle, and have a few runs. It felt good to be out there in some dry weather and really see what I could do - but I know I have a ton of work left...so no celebration here.

Nationals is up next. I have just 3 workouts (2 if I don't make it to the gym wednesday morning) and a practice to fine-tune myself before leaving for the big dance.....so, I guess you could say I have my work cut-out for me. I'm planning a strength workout for tomorrow, with some crossfit "metcon" workouts on tuesday and wednesday morning. I also want to get some passing sessions in everyday - a little work with the weighted ball might be good too.


This is kind of a short, straight to the facts sort of post, but there are a lot of things on my mind right now and I'm feeling a bit subdued. There is just so much work to be done it's all a bit overwelming. I'm trying to set some goals and see where I can go from there, only time can tell I suppose.

Love Song


My boots play a symphony of clicks,
Singing
An insatiable thirst
For freshly painted Earth.

As they reach the threshold,
They drink the sky first;
Snagging pieces of the blue on their way down,
Till their teeth
Slice against green blades
And chew the face of springtime
Into a mess of sweaty bliss.


The aroma of battle glistens on their fervent faces –
Waiting, waiting, waiting…

Till the whistle blows,
The ball flies,
And those boots of mine give chase to tell me:

We are in love.

So we finally know all the teams in our pool!!!

Saturday, April 21st, Gainesville, FL:

Univ. of Northern Iowa vs. Appalachian State

and

Virginia vs. UC Davis


I've never played against any of these teams, so I really don't know what to expect, except hard fought rugby. It's certainly a decent pool, now we just have to see what we can do with it...

We have Midwest U23 LAU's this weekend in the COOOOLD. Not the best thing to prepare for 85 degree heat, but that's life I suppose. I'm excited to see some of my friends from Kentucky and Ohio as they travel up to Iowa Falls this weekend for the U23 event...and then excited to see even more friends down in Florida next weekend!

As for my whole crossfit/nutrition approach, I'm feeling great right now! More details on my workouts and progress to come........

That was pretty random, I know. But I have had a very inspiring past few days, and I would like to share my inspiration with the masses.

First of all, to report on my condition after having completed crossfit workouts on Thursday and Friday, I would like to say that I am still slightly sore, but feeling as strong and healthy as ever. Tonight, I am going to do a workout of theirs styled slightly different than the others -

Crossfit warmup:
3 rounds of 10-15 reps of
Samson Stretch (do the Samson Stretch once each round for 15-30 seconds)
Overhead Squat with broomstick
Sit-up
Back-extension
Pull-up
Dip

Then, the workout:

15, 12, 9 rep rounds of
backsquat
handstand pushups (I can't do these the right way, so I will prop my feet up against the wall)

In order to keep up with my speed training, I will do the agility, speed portion of my footworkcamp workout before the crossfit thing.

I've also decided I'm going to do at least the crossfit warmup on Tuesday mornings before I do my shuttle training, and then on Wednesday I will do a more traditionally styled workout involving olympic lifts, front squats, bench press, etc. As well as some of the "ass-fire"moves I learned at footworkcamp.

Then Thursday I will only do short sprint training in order to not remain sore by Saturday.


The key to all of this, of course, is not to overtrain - a chronic problem of mine. However, upon being completely honest with myself, I've realized this:

I have never trained too much, I've only rested too little. And that's my fault. Wasting time on things like television, internet, going out when I shouldn't, etc - just generally drain my day of productive time. What I SHOULD be doing is getting the real life stuff out of the way so that I can have a real estimate of how much time remains for things like training, resting, spending time with friends and recreation. Easier said than done, but I am going to really work at it over these next few weeks and see if it can help me get through Nationals without completely draining myself.

Hence my motto of late,

"Less obsession, more focus"


I obsess A LOT. About a lot of things. Which is fine, sometimes - it can be a catalyst for working harder and concentrating on my goals. But overdone, it prevents me from stepping a way and giving my brain a rest in order that I get the other things done in life that allow for me to attain my goals. When I suddenly hit a brick wall that forces me to confront real-life obstacles, I stress, forget about nutrition, rest, and training, and just generally self-destruct. On average, it takes about 1-2 weeks to recover from such disaster. This type of cycling just CAN'T happen.

I've also realized something else about myself. I love training. I would love to help other people train. So, why then, am I looking for jobs behind a desk that would entail me doing more of the things I hate on a daily basis, wearing clothes I'm uncomfortable in, and talking to people I'm uncomfortable around??? WHY? Well, because I have a degree that says "English" on it. But so what, I'm educated - great. I will always love to write and I hope that I can eventually find a way to make at least a supplementary income off of it. But I've decided I'm going to take seriously the possibility of working as a trainer as a source of income. If you're good enough, you'll get paid enough. So I guess my goal is to get certified, and get my own personal fitness at a place where others will BELIEVE I'm good enough.

This is all a lot of ranting and raving - and I'm sure a lot of the spunk I've got in my step will subside with Monday morning blues. But as my graduation date creeps closer, I've realized I don't want to be stuck in any kind of rut for the rest of my life. I'm sick of doing what mommy and daddy and friends expect me to do. I don't want to "follow the path of least resistance". I want to make enough money to support myself and my rugby "habit", and I want to be happy. If that requires working behind a desk at times, then so be it. But I want to be writing things that I believe in, and I want to help other people improve their lives through athletic pursuits.

Following along those lines, I recommend everyone check out the site, http://www.gymjones.com/ . Particularly, the "Knowledge" section. I discovered through a search as to how the actors of the movie "300" acquired their level of fitness, and my search led me to Gym Jones. Don't get too excited, however. This gym is apparently not open to the public, and only trains people by invitation only. They use the same techniques found at Crossfit, but apply their own self-proclaimed "fight club" philosophy to it. The founders are mostly mountain climbers, and they know what it means for your life to depend upon fitness. I find their dedication inspiring, and their refusal to conform, refreshing.

Check it out and let me know what you think.

Till then, Rugby Love

-KY

Oh, this is a video off the crossfit website....and it is maybe the most hardcore thing I have ever seen. Seriously, I want to be this girl - check it out HERE


If that link doesn't work, then copy and paste this address in your address bar:

http://media.crossfit.com/
cf-video/fran-greg_annie.w
mv

First of all, my apologies for locking the blog. I was undergoing some decision time as to whether or not I was going to continue recording my day to day rugbyness. See, I kind of tend to be an up and down sort of person - really big ups, really big downs, and constantly striving to be somewhere in the middle. Sometimes I have a hard time censoring what should go out for all the world to see, and what I should keep in my head. But, since I don't think I've written anything too regretable thus far, since writing might help keep me a little honest, and since some people were up in arms that this thing was blocked (steve), I suppose I'll keep at it and see how things go...



In other news, life has gone back to its regular hectic but liveable place. I've caught up on my schoolwork, spent some time with Brutus, and...YESSSS gotten back to my regular workouts.

Let's see, tuesday I ran stairs with the team (on like one hour of sleep - I had to keep thinking about Navy Seals training just to get through it), on Wednesday I did footworkcamp.com agility/lifting workout, and TODAY I did this way awesome thing called crossfit !

Let me just tell you, I am WAY excited about this crossfit thing - it's from a site I came across a few months ago - I think I actually heard about it first on some rugby players Rugby Magazine interview, so I checked it out. It's basically a varying high intensity program that has a lot of bodyweight involvement. For example, the prescribed workout I did tonight was:

3 rounds for time of:

12 muscle ups (basically doing a pull up and then pulling yourself over the bar to do a dip at the top)
30 back extensions
400 meter run

Since I cannot do a muscle up, and since I want to be able to move my arms tomorrow, this being the first time I've ever done this, I scaled it down a bit:

3 rounds of:

12 assisted pull-ups
12 dips
30 inverted sit-ups (i didn't have a place to do back ext)
400 meter run

Let me tell you, these arms are FRIED!!! And running 400 meters after doing all that stuff was brutal - I was definitely on the verge of puking on my last trip around. I wish I would have had a watch to time myself, but I couldn't find it. It would be nice to know though, so as to keep track of progress. At any rate, I'm definitely going to try to put this in my program for a while and see how it goes - I would love to work my way up to doing all of this without using any assistance on the pull-ups, and eventually doing the whole muscle-up thing...but I'm gonna take it one step at a time.....here is my weekly plan for inseason training:

Monday: crossfit metcon workout
Tuesday: shuttles, scrumhalf passing, and practice
Wednesday: Agility/Olympic lifting/free weight workout (what I've been doing already)
Thursday: sprints/agility and practice
Friday: rest
Saturday: is a rugby day
Sunday: rest

Of course, things will change a bit if there is a sunday game as well, but I will work with that as it comes, and depending on how I'm feeling...

I'll also try to report on whether or not I am walking around like an elephant ran over me tomorrow...because there is a pretty damn good chance I'm going to be hella sore. At any rate, if you decide to check out the crossfit thing but get confused at the huge overload of information, just check out some of the FAQ sections on the side, or give me a shout, as I've looked through it so much I think I pretty much have everything down by now. Also, I'd like to mention that there seem to be a ton of rugby players (lots of boys from california) in the crossfit community who have given rave reviews...hopefully they are right!


Since I'm trying to be very committed to my reading for this last bit of school in order to avoid undue stress, I'm going to have to say farewell for the evening. It's off to read the ever-so-interesting 19th century courtship novel, "The Story of an African Farm"....woo-wee what a thursday evening!

Rugby Love,

Kentucky

Fine, I'll admit it. I've been avoiding the blog. Avoiding it at all costs, in fact. I wouldn't even visit other people's blogs because I thought it would remind me of this one...

What would I write? What could I write??? I mean, in a training sense, I didn't just fall off the horse, I killed the horse. After Memphis, I decided I needed a little breather. I was tired in training, so I took the advice of a friend, set my boots aside for a few days, and caught a jet to England. That was, well...that just was. I managed to find a few mornings to run around on a football pitch while I was there, but mostly I was hanging out with a close high school friend and checking out the countryside (FYI, Dover is way super cool). At any rate, that was that, it was probably a healthy rest, and I was hoping to come back ready to hit the gym and pitch.

School had other ideas...

Basically, school has been kicking my ass. My week would go something like this (starting with saturday because, well, i like it best)

Saturday - rugby game
Sunday - rugby game, drive home, sleep
Monday - go to class, stay up all night writing a paper
Tuesday - go to class, practice, read
Wednesday - FINALLY get to lift, class, stay up all night writing a paper
Thursday - class, practice, study for a test
Friday - class, sleep, prepare for rugby
Saturday - Rugby game
Sunday - two papers to write....etc

Anyways, I could repeat that for 3 weeks, but I think you get the picture. In fact, at this very moment, I should be in class, but the night before last I had two papers to write and didn't sleep at all, then went to class, and then went straight to practice where we ran stairs. I was able to get up this morning to lift, but it was pitiful. My numbers have gone down in everything, I haven't been eating right, and I'm SOOO tired.

However, the worst of it is over (for the moment) and I'm gonna have a bit of breathing room to try to get myself together. There has to be some way to make school and rugby work together, I just have to be very careful about how I use my time. I am a procrastinator through and through, so it's hard for me to start on a paper or any assignment until the night before it is due - in fact, I don't think I've ever written a paper ahead of time - but this time, I'm making a committment to try. I'm staying in from class today so that I can catch up on all my reading assignments, catch up on sleep, and be ready to come into the world a little refreshed tomorrow.

I have to admit, this has all been very frustrating. It's really painful to be able to literally see yourself growning weaker (I write down all my lifting stats every session). I had done so well, earlier this year - improving my 40, getting a lot stronger, improving my passing.......it was soooo much FUN! And now, well, though my conditioning is decent, everything else has just fallen off the track. But I suppose I can't give up that easily - Nationals is just a few weeks away, and I really need to commit to taking life seriously for a bit - I can manage rugby and school, I just have to get my act together and get things done ahead of time.

So this is me committing to be, well....just not to give up. There are times for committing to save the world, and there are times to commit to just staying afloat - this is one of those stay afloat moments. Once I'm there, then I'm gonna doggie paddle like hell to get back to shore and back in my old (and very sorely missed) routine.

wish me luck...