This month Sarah Bowman, the 2009 NCAA Indoor mile champion (4:29.72) for the University of Tennessee graced the cover of my Runner’s World.
More recently she placed ninth in the 1500 at the 2010 World Indoor Championships.

Rating: Definite real athlete, total beast.

sectionals_01

Originally uploaded by suziepigtails

Wow guys. I still don’t think I’ve fully processed what just happened. A disappointing 0-3 on saturday to 3-1 and third place on sunday?? Are you kidding me?! I knew going into last weekend that we were probably capable of making that third place spot, but it would be a long shot, and after saturday I figured it just wasn’t in the stars for us this year. But everyone came out on sunday like, we’re here to win some fucking games damnit. And suddenly we were a new team, the team I knew we could be. We took care of V handily because we know how to work a zone. Then we went up against T, came out strong, and they never had a chance to catch up. The J game was hardest. Their team makes ours look tiny still. I was nervous about the outcome, I didn’t want to believe that we could actually win against them. But I looked at my team and I could tell that we wouldn’t be satisfied with a fourth place finish. We wanted that win so bad, I thought, shit I better not be the one to let them down, we’re going to take this game if it kills me. And I could tell all of you were thinking the same thing.

I know I can come across as emotionally detached sometimes. I want to make sure you all know exactly what yesterday meant to me. Winning that game for third place was the proudest moment in sports I’ve ever experienced.

Every single member of this team made it happen. You guys are amazing and this was the best possible way we could have ended our season. Thank you for being great all year. Going to regionals is a huge honor. You’ve proved we deserve it!

sectionals_03

Originally uploaded by suziepigtails

This was me thinking about things I wanted to say to my team the night before sectionals. I ended up giving a speech along these lines before our first game but it went nothing like this at all.

I don’t know if this is the appropriate time or place to have this discussion, I probably should have done it at a practice last week or something but I think it’s important, so I’m going to go ahead and talk about it before we start play this weekend.
As cheesy as this sounds, I was thinking a lot about what it means to be a team last night. It scares me to see how our men’s team operates because so few of them seem to know what it means to be part of a team, and those of them who do know don’t practice it. I once had a coach who told me my primary responsibility, as a member of that team, was to make my teammates look good. That goes for everyone on the field. When you step on the field your personal performance concerns need to go out the window. When you step on the field you take responsibility for triumphs and shortcomings of not only yourself, but six of your teammates. That means we can’t afford to say I dropped a pass, so-and-so is fucking up the dump throw, it’s the we dropped a pass, we fucked up the dump throw.
You want to know what makes us a regionals contending team and the men not? Forget what they tell you about the quality of competition and womens ultimate. They’re not as good as us because they’re not a team. The lack of respect the men have for each other is ridiculous and it’s poisoning their program. I don’t see this being an issue for us as long as we keep doing what we’re doing. Summary: Check your personal issues at the door and work as part of the team unit. If you understand this, then you understand what it means to be on a team.
Having personal goals will only get us so far, so today I want to go around and say one thing that you plan on doing to support someone else in game.

Ultimate Denial

Originally uploaded by Wolfram Burner

Learning handler weave? (self-sufficient handler skills) Movement of the disc to 1/2 or 3/4 field before even beginning to utilize vertical stack offense? Horizontal offense?

More pancake drill- hesitation will not be tolerated!

My theory on offense- disc possession. Maintaining disc possession for as long as possible regardless of field position. Minimizing turnovers. This means that your first priority is to get to and protect the disc from your defender. Eventually we may move the disc to a scoring position, but our goal should always be to minimize turnovers. Stop worrying about gaining yards on your cuts and go to the disc as hard as you can every time.

How to practice a horizontal offense with minimal people?

What is the difference between us and the teams we lost to?
-powerful flick hucks, height/strength/speed advantages, break throws, beat in the air (how we got scored on)

How did we lose the disc?
-fundamentals: throwing, catching, dumps, premature huck attempts, in-cut defense

high tide team

Originally uploaded by suziepigtails

Letter to my team about predicted strategy at our annual spring break 3-day tournament

Strategy for our success as a team at Spring Break tournament:

Line Calling- Obviously with the number of people we have in relation to the number of games we’ll be playing, everyone will get plenty of playing time. If at any point in the tournament you feel as if you are not being played enough and/or have excess untapped energy reserves please let M and I know. Conversely, if at any point in the tournament you feel like you’re being played too much, risking injury or mental health, then also please let M and I know.

Line Calling (continued)- It should be our goal to have two, preferably three, experienced handlers on the field at all times. In case you don’t know who you are, this means: K, Me, C, M, Mn and T. It is your responsibility to make sure Michelle and I don’t send out lines without handlers and to take the initiative and put yourself on the field if that ever happens.

Offense (zone)- Do we need to spend time reviewing/discussing this as a team? New players?
Offense (man)- Vertical stack for the most part, I don’t think we’ll ever attempt horizontal.

Defense (zone)- Might be a good option against teams we can identify as having limited handlers, we just need to be careful about running everyone to death.
Defense (man)- Probably our primary option- we need to be prepared to mark up against teams running horizontal and vertical stacks.

Rules- Defer to C at all times… lawl- If you have the time this weekend, it would be a good idea for everyone to read the rules and ask questions about anything you don’t understand. We always seemed to get screwed in the rules department and that’s something we can definitely solve with minimal effort so there really isn’t any excuse for it.

Score keeping- This is also something that we shouldn’t have such a hard time with. It should probably be the captains’ responsibility to always have some sore of score tracking system, so M and I will be sure to take care of that, but everyone on the sideline needs to be aware of this task so that we don’t ever lose track.

End of the day Meeting (good idea?)- I’m thinking that we should meet as a team every night just to check in and talk about what went well and what maybe didn’t go so well in the days games after we’ve had the chance to process them. We can also watch any footage that might have been taken and discuss strategy for the next day.

It’s Winter!

Originally uploaded by NidalM

Dear teammates who are consistently skipping my scheduled conditioning sessions,

I’ve created this alternative workout to be the perfect substitute for conditioning practice in the event that you aren’t able to attend:

THE GREAT NORTH FACE WORKOUT (GNFW)* is designed to feature the two most important components of any great workout: 1. works up a good sweat, and 2. has the potential to make you look ridiculous in front of a bunch of people.

Here are the rules:

This is a timed (30min) workout designed for use on any major college campus. Run around the main campus drag for the allotted amount of time. Each time you see something on this list do the exercise associated with it:

A person wearing a black North Face jacket – do 10 jumping jacks
A person wearing a North Face jacket of any other color – do 10 squat jumps
A person with a North Face jacket AND backpack combo – do 10 butt-kicks and 10 high-knees
Two or more people wearing North Face jackets in a pack – skip for 10 seconds
Two people holding hands and wearing North Face jackets – do 5 pushups, do 5 more if the jackets are the same color
“North Face Swarm” where you see too many North Face jackets around you to keep track – do 15 standing mountain climbers

*Bonus: the GNFW also doubles as a drinking game should you have the means and desire to get drunk in a public place.

Just kidding! I’m pretty sure this workout would kill any person who attempted it. And the drinking game is definitely attempt at your own risk!

goal juve

Originally uploaded by pierodemarchis

I didn’t do a very good job identifying specific fitness goals for this year. I pretty much operate on a non-stop “harder, better, faster, stronger” model of fitness and self-improvement.

Some things that I’ve started taking more seriously lately are:

Strength training. For this I’m using workout videos and 5lb hand weights. I know that “toning” is supposed to be a silly form of strength training, but I’m currently at the point where toning exercises really do slay me -sad, I know. I feel like I need to do this to build up a base level of strength before I can pursue more hardcore methods of training.

Speed training (middle distance). I’ve done the marathon thing, I have stamina to spare, so now I need to focus on getting faster. That means shortening my distances down to 4 or 5 miles tops and utilizing other types of workouts than the tempo run.

Coaching/Captaining. I’m always looking for ways to become a more effective captain and coach to my team. I hope to attend a coaching clinic in February that might give me a push in the right direction.

Making progress in these areas will, I hope, help me become a better athlete in 2010.

IMG_7256

Originally uploaded by Alleh Lindquist

This about.com article was recently forwarded to me by a member of my family. You know, that aunt who finds all those fascinating internet tidbits that just have to be shared? Everyone has one of those aunts right?
Well the reception of this particular article was somewhat surprising to me because, I thought, if there is anything that I have established myself as in this world, it is the capacity to be in a constant state of post-workout appearance. In fact, I feel so confident in this fact that I’m going to put out some of my own tips and guidelines for anyone aspiring to such a thing.

Thus I present: How to Dress Like a Runner …Always.
1. Never wear a pair of nonfunctional shoes. Your choice in footwear should always allow you to move as fast as possible in your respective outdoor environment.
2. Sports bras. 24/7. No exceptions. And when you show up to try on bridesmaid dresses for your cousin’s wedding, make sure you’re wearing one in a particularly obnoxious color.
3. Never wear jeans ever. They’re the most running-unfriendly of pants. Instead, opt for layering sweatpants over your base layer underarmour tights.You’ll look great at parties.
4. By this point you should know that blouses and nice sweaters won’t match the rest of your apparel, so of course go for free tshirts you got from races, old jerseys from teams you played on in high school, or brand name athletic tops. Again, the more layered and shapeless you are the better.
5. Accessorize your look by either giving people challenging glares or flaunting how sore your quads are from yesterday.
Bonus features: wet unstyled hair pulled back from the face, wrist/shoe wallet.

powerbar_day2_0062

Originally uploaded by KelvinM

Weight loss for athletes by Christopher D. Jensen
In-season is not the time to drop the weight, because the combination of strenuous training and cutting calories is bad for performance and bad for your health. When you’re not meeting your energy needs, you’re also not getting sufficient carbohydrates to restore glycogen fuel reserves on a daily basis. This can lead to chronic fatigue, poor training sessions, and a decline in performance. Too few calories combined with a tough training schedule also can impair your immune system and leave you more vulnerable to colds. Losing weight is tough enough on the body, so do it during the off-season.

I feel like I’m constantly grappling with this problem in particular, wanting to cut weight during the season when I need calories to perform well. It’s not like ultimate has a real “off season” anyway. So I struggle to find a balance between meeting weight loss or strength building goals and fighting off the effects of fatigue and soreness. It’s a recipe for the perfect storm, or a really great eating disorder!

“We can only appreciate the miracle of a sunrise if…”

Originally uploaded by mangtacio

I’ve decided that I need to become a morning person, mostly out of necessity. Early morning classes next semester will be much better dealt with if I’m waking at an early enough hour to actually attend them. So for the next thirty days I’ll be trying to train myself to wake up at 6am every morning. Hopefully after thirty days I’ll have become a fully actualized morning person.

How to Wake Up Early (stronglifts.com)
1. Wake up at the same time daily -6am goal
Don’t gradually wake up earlier
2. Set your alarm (out of reach)
3. Jump out of bed when your alarm goes off
Stop rationalizing -yep.
Stop snoozing -ouch.
Leave the room
4. Get light exposure
Open window blinds, walk outside
5. Have a reason to wake up early
Eat breakfast, cook food for the day, exercise -I definitely want to start exercising in the morning. Sometimes exercising twice at night just isn’t possible and/or convenient for me.
6. Write your goals daily -I try to do this already, but I generally do it at night before bed.
7. Build a morning ritual -Tea, exercise, writing daily agenda/goals, breakfast, shower?
8. Commit for 30 days -Tight.
9. Go to bed when you’re tired
10. Get quality sleep
11. Make yourself accountable -Keep a journal thing?