Jersey #9: Kentucky's Journey

What began as a fairly sluggish and disappointing workout ended well enough. I decided to start the week over from the beginning so as to stay on track...here goes:

Back Squat- (reps, lbs)

5 x 95
4 x 115
3 x 135
2 x 155
1 x 170 (Fail)
1 x 165
1 x 165 (Fail)
1 x 155
2 x 150
3 x 150
4 x 145
5 x 145 (F @ 4)

Pull-ups -
4, 3, 3, 4, 3

Hand Stand Push-Ups (with legs propped against bar) -
8, 8, 8, 8

Barbell Curls -
7 x 55
10 x 50
10 x 45

MB V-Sit Tosses -
20, 20, 20 (6 lb ball)



I was a bit disappointed I couldn't hit the 170 mark with my squats today, but I came in feeling more than a shade under spry, so I guess it wasn't that big of a deal. I will definitely hit it next week. I am curious about the use of heavy negatives when it comes to squats and building strength...I plan on looking it up and reporting back, but if anyone out there has any experience with this, let me know. I have dead lifts and front squats coming as my other major lifts this week and I'm really hoping that building my strength in both of those exercises will help me to improve my cleans when I move to power training.

At any rate, I found a spare patch of grass and a tall fence on La Salle's campus after I was done with lifting and decided to take a few passing reps. It actually went better than I expected considering the performance of my right hand on Saturday. Then again, I'm fairly certain that my hands aren't to blame for any of my passing woes - more likely my feet are the culprits. When passing with my left hand to the right, my right foot seems to be cooperating more with pointing in the direction of the pass than my left foot is when going the the other direction. I have a tendency to want to torque my body around, which has worked well enough for a while, but I know that I'm losing a degree of power and accuracy by passing that way. I'm sure I'll figure it out...it just takes time for the body to learn new tricks I guess.

All right. Time to work - have a good day, all.

In the spirit of renewal, I thought it might be time to update this blog a bit. I added an extra column, a rugby news feed, some fancy-shmancy slide shows, and a couple of my favorite RWC montages. Hope you enjoy...I'll probably be looking at some other gidgets and gadgets to include in the coming days....if you log on and things look kind of in a mess, well...it's probably because I'm screwing around with the format, so try again later.

In other news, the past couple of days have been spent working and catching up on my fitness a bit. After my heavy workout Thursday, I was looking to get to do a little bit of work outside but the rain stamped that out so I did about 35 min. of interval work on the treadmill instead. My legs were pretty angry after that so I spent the rest of the day friday working and using the rainy day to catch up on some reading, etc.

Yesterday I was a little bit on the sluggish side, but I made it out to the field nonetheless and actually managed to get in a pretty decent amount of skill work. Oddly enough, my drop kicks seem to be the part of my game which have improved the most. I don't really practice them very often, so I'm not really sure what that's all about, but oh well...maybe it'll help me along toward my life's goal of scoring a drop goal in a game =).

Working on my passing was also a little weird, because for some reason, my left handed pass has become a bullet, whereas my right handed pass is...eh...not so much. I worked on it for a long time and my right arm is screaming today from the effort, but hopefully I can catch it up to snuff with the left one again. Although, chances are at the beginning of the season I'll have to change my passing form completely so it won't really matter anyways - we'll see though.


As for today, "Stupor Bowl Sunday". Well. Yeah.

I watched a 6N game this morning - Ireland vs. Italy, which provided decent entertainment, even though my fave midget Peter Stringer wasn't wearing the 9 for Ireland. Since then I've just been messing around online...and then I'll probably go for a hike outdoors. And then, well, Brutus and I will probably settle in to watch the Pats and Giants and see what goes there. I don't really have an opinion on the winner, except that it might be cool to see the perfect Patriots stay that way...or I guess it could be cool to see the Giants break their hearts. Whatever I guess - it's something to do. I am quite a fan of Super Bowl parties but most of my friendsies are living in far off lands these days so I suppose I will enjoy the event with a couple of my less-talkative buddies (Brutus & P-Nutt).

Anyways, Happy Super Bowl and Six Nations to all!

It's amazing what a difference the little things can make. One phone call. One kind word. Someone to talk to over a meal of much-needed Mexican food.

A few days ago, I was on the verge of jumping ship. A lifestyle I had invested myself in had turned its back on me. Friendships I had valued were all but dissolved. My passion for a thing I had loved so very much was impossible to detect.

And then, things began to change.

One caring individual took me out to lunch, bought me some comfort food, and reminded me that some people do care. He didn't have to say a lot. Just took some time out of his day to listen a bit and offer some general advice about life. It's not that it even mattered all that much what he said. I think sometimes we just need to be reminded that we are not drowning in the abyss alone - to hear someone say, "Your life sucks right now. I understand that. Only you can make it better, but I will be here cheering you on". I didn't eat a lot at that meal, but I did soak up the company and wisdom of another human being, which was of far greater value to me than the food. Soul nourishment, you could say - and I certainly needed it.

The next day, looking upon my world with slightly brighter eyes, I learned that perspective is a funny thing. When I first began playing rugby, I believed that I was an immediate rock star. I remember imagining (falsely, of course) that there wasn't a girl in the world who could take me down or whom I couldn't take down. I believed I was immensely strong, I thought my passes were amazing, and that my knowledge was unsurpassed. Five years and much criticism later, I see the opposite. I see my passing as weak and inaccurate, my tackling suspect, my strength inferior, my speed downright embarrassing, and my knowledge as verging on the non-existent. In reality, I have likely improved by 100% in every category since my first playing days until now. However, the competition was easier and my standards were much lower. Even so, I believe in all things it is easy to forget how far we've come when we still have so far to go. Luckily I was given a reminder of the value of reviewing perspective upon meeting a few college rugby girls in the gym. Having recently had a discussion about how desperately I needed to improve my strength, I was working very hard on the weights in the hope of making some strides in that area. I didn't say much to the girls, just asked them their names and positions and told them I knew their coach and was thinking about helping out in the spring....Upon returning home, my teammate and their coach tells me, "You are going to love this. One of my girls just returned from the weight room and was telling me about how she had met U23 such and such player at the gym. She says to me, 'ohmygod she's jacked!'"

After I recovered from a fit of laughter, I realized that indeed, perspective is a funny thing. Looking back through the eyes of a wide-eyed college player, I realize now how proud of myself I would have been for having made it this far, and how much I would have killed back then for the skill and athleticism I have managed to create for myself through hard work and dedication.
I realize now that I must keep playing, not only to fulfill the dreams of the wide-eyed freshman college player I once was, but to rediscover the kind of passion which bore those dreams in the first place. I played because I loved it. And you know what, I still love it.


In a case of good things happening in threes, I am also happy to report that some of the absentees from my life seem to be slowly but surely reappearing. It's interesting that only a couple nights ago I would blog about having reached the breaking point in dealing with my losses, only to experience a surge at just the right time as to save my sanity. There is no greater feeling than to hear the voice of a sorely missed friend, especially one whom you were not sure you would ever hear from again, sounding from the receiver of the telephone. It's even better when the words are kind, the temperament is jovial, and all seems to have reconciled without skipping a beat. If the lessons we learn from past mistakes are kept in place, then perhaps a renewed friendship could prove better than the original.



To sum all of this up....I'm on a roll right now. Nothing insanely inspiring or magical has happened - just the return of normalcy. A compliment from a stranger, the voice of an old friend, and the company and kind words of another human at mealtime - all things easily taken for granted when present, and devastatingly missed once gone. Proof that the meat of life lies in the little things. In ourselves. In each other. In being ourselves with each other. As Winston Churchill said,


"Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge"


Amen to that.

So...I've never really been a cat person, mostly because they had been the source of allergy misery for most of my life until I found Allegra. However, this isn't an infomercial about the miracles of modern medicine. I just wanted to say that, well....cats aren't so bad I guess. I've recently gotten pretty attached to my roommate's cat, P-Nutt. He attacks Brutus, tries to steal my food, and gets into the cabinets when I'm not looking...but hey, at least he makes happy purring noises when he cuddles. I even broke down and bought him a catnip toy recently because I felt bad that Brutus had so many toys and he had none. Oh well, I guess I'm going soft in my old age. Here is a picture of P-Nutt helping me work today...enjoy!

It's not a permanent switch, but it's nice to see that at least one of the overpaid NFL players is interested in learning about another wonderful sport....check out the article, here.

For those of us with Setanta, there is reason to be excited. The Six Nations begins tomorrow and I couldn't be more ready to watch some exciting international rugby once again. On top of that, the Super Bowl will swiftly be upon us.....what a great weekend, eh?

Anyhow, I found this awesome montage of last years 6 Nations on Rugbydump.com . Great stuff for gearing up to watch this year!

Okay...so, first thing's first.

I was in a bad mood last night. I was cold, tired, lonely, and Brutus refused to cuddle. So I decided to write on my blog, and I was pretty negative. Reading over what I had written today made me feel a little bit blah. It was a pretty much a free-write of how I was feeling at the time and was certainly very honest. However, the various situations and relationships I was pertaining to are very complicated and not so cut and dry as last night's post would make it seem. Lost of people come in and out of our lives for various reasons. Usually when they leave, it makes me sad. Fair enough. However, sometimes things change and people just need time and space. There have been a lot of wonderful people in my life from whom I have drifted - I am not disposable and neither are they, it just...happens. In some instances, friendships have been rekindled and in others not. At any rate, that is not the point. The point is, I am at an interesting juncture in my life where a lot of my support channels have faded, my closest friends are all very, very far away, and I am struggling to figure out who I really am. That's a difficult question for all of us though, eh? We all have careers, and hobbies, and education and families and so forth that help to define us....but in the moments when all of that is stripped away, the silence can be deafening. I am learning though - and I want it to be a positive experience. That's why I erased last night's blog. Because, well, it wasn't positive and it wasn't going to help me toward any goals or self-betterment. It would only remind me of my failures and self-doubt.

Anyways, if you didn't read yesterday's blog then all of that makes no sense and you've probably got a big wtf look on your face right now. If you did read it, it probably still doesn't make a lot of sense, but at any rate, I feel better now. Okay....moving on.


Recently, I have been informed of my squat max inferiority. Thus, I am setting out to remedy such faults through a lot of strength focused workouts. Here is the assault I inflicted upon my legs today:

Back Squat: (reps x lbs)

5 x 95
4 x 115
3 x 135
2 x 155
1 x 165
1 x 175 (fail)
1 x 170 (fail)
1 x 155
2 x 145
3 x 145
4 x 135
5 x 135

Pull-ups:
3,3,3,3,2 (arms were shot from the other day)

Dips:
8,8,8,8

Knees to Elbows:
6,5,6

This was the workout I planned to do and stop there...but then, I had more energy. Now, as an athlete I don't see a whole lot of point in doing bicep curls, they don't really accomplish much by themselves....however, I just felt like it. They make me feel good, like I'm strong or something dumb like that....so I did them.

Bicep Curls
12 x 45
10 x 45
10 x 45


All in all, the workout was fairly enjoyable. Lifting heavy stuff makes me feel strong. However, at 155 on the squats I was feeling like a rock star, thought I might make it to 175 or even 180. But....no luck there. I probably would have been able to get 170 had I went for it before the 165, but no dice. We'll find out next time I suppose.


In other news, since it appears I am going to be in the city of brotherly love for a while longer, I am looking into going back to school. Teaching seems to be the route I'm drifting in, so I'm gonna need to get certified and get a masters in ed and all that stuffs. Also, I'm dreading having to figure out which profs from undergrad to get recommendations from. I mean, will they even remember me? I have very good grades but it just seems like so many students come and go. Anyone have any experience with this?? I don't really even know where to start....oh well. More on this when I figure it out a little further....