We won the AUDL championship. I only played a few points, but it’s still awesome. Not quite winning-nationals-caliber awesome, but probably close. Really feeling like a pro now. #prolife #fearthebeard

Did a fairly intense workout with Ross, Patrick, Norm, Diana, Saltz and Keg. It’s similar to the PonyShape workouts we did last year.

• 2 rounds of 4 minutes (8 sets) of Tabata Sprints (sprint 20 seconds, stop and rest 10 seconds). We ran between two cones that were 30 yards apart. Norm won the first round, Patrick won the second. I was close to first on both rounds but closer on the first than on the second.
• 3-man marking drill. Each person marks for 30 throws total, in 10-throw sets (mark for 10 throws, throw for the other guys, mark again). We added a rule that each point block is like having marked two throws. I had a lot of point blocks, so I would not use this rule next time.
• Place two cones 40 yards apart. Split into pairs, start on opposite cones. Person A sprints to Person B and marks for 10 seconds as Person B pivots and fakes. Then Person A takes the disc and both people sprint back to the other cone. That’s one rep. We did 6 reps (each person marked 3 times).
• Place two cones 10 yards apart. 4 sets of 20 seconds side-shuffle, 20 seconds rest. Touch the cone before changing directions. Focus on getting low (chest up and squat low, dont just bend over).
• AMRAP in 6 minutes: 15 pushups, 15 full-body crunches, 15 squats. I finished 5 rounds exactly.
• Focused throwing. Emphasis on pivoting and stepping out.

I was beat at the end of the AMRAP. I haven’t done many Crossfit-style workouts this year and I tried to go hard (I kept up with Ross and Saltz on the first two rounds of the AMRAP), so I felt a bit nauseous. But I’m surprisingly not sore the next day, so maybe my overall strength is up.

A short pre-finals workout. All we did was go through our usual warmup (jog a lap, dynamic warmup, Omega (breakmark) drill, Santa Cruz drill, Santa Cruz with in-cuts from the outside to the middle). Then we went inside and watched our game against Indy to prepare for Saturday.

I spent the last week traveling and sightseeing in Europe with Diana. Here’s some of the things I did that may count as workouts:

• Approximately 50 miles of walking (3 full days in Paris, a day in Brussels, a day in Bruges and an evening in Cologne)
• One pullup and 366 stairs at the Belfort in Bruges
• About 20 minutes of throwing by the Atomium in Brussels

Not much, and it was probably negated by all the beer, crepes and waffles I ate.

Played a good game against Yellow Sub on Sunday morning. We went up 3-0 but ended up losing by three (11-8, maybe). I had two throwaways but got several Ds and caught and threw about 6 points (including a two-pointer). We should have only lost by one because Norm dropped a two-pointer that was in his hand. Great game overall. My quad started to bother me at the end, so I sat out the next game and watched (c)rabs kick our ass. Also, worked on my leftie backhand and scoober.

Spinners ran a track workout and then scrimmaged. I’m still resting my quad so I didn’t run. Instead I did pushups, crunches, leg raises, and an exercise for my back where you’re in a plank position and you alternate bringing one knee up toward your shoulder, then the other knee. I don’t know what it’s called but it’s pretty tiring.

After the track, we went up to the field and scrimmaged. We worked on making sure the disc does not stay on the sideline. Our D looked strong, though we had some trouble scoring from the red zone.

After the scrimmages, we had a fun scrimmage where we split up by SAT score (smart vs dumb). The smart team won the scrimmage 3-0.

Ran an abbreviated stairs workout. Apparently I pulled my quad for real on Saturday and it’s not ready for real work yet. Here’s what I got through:

• Every other
• Two up, one down
• Every other
• Kareoke
• Every other
• Left foot only
• Every other
• Right foot only
• Every other all the way up

Rest

• Every other
• Rotators (hop every stair, rotating 90 degrees on each hop. change the direction you rotate at each landing)
• Every other
• Every step, 5 burpees at each landing (this was brutal)
• Every other
• Every step, 10 full-body crunches at each landing
• Every other
• Speed skaters
• Every other all the way up

Rest

The crew did Kleavelands here, but I decided to stop running so I did some pushups and sit-ups. I took a dip in the fountain and we threw for about 15 min.

Last game of the regular season. We beat RI 29-20 or something like that. They only brought 12 guys, so they weren’t taking this game seriously. We only played man on D because we didn’t want to give away our defenses before the playoffs game. Overall, we played pretty well. We had trouble getting the disc off the sideline sometimes. Personally, I had a layout D and a blade for a goal in the same point, along with one or two caught goals. I played pretty well but got beat up the line and to the force-side cone a few times. Need to improve in those respects. I also had an up-line throw to Harrison that got Ded but he caught it anyway.

After the spinners game, Sean and I went to watch Termite’s play their last game of the day at Philly Invite. They looked pretty sloppy, but that’s to be expected of a new team with many of their top players not there. They went 0-4 on the day, but I saw some good plays from a few players, so I’m excited for the future.

Sprints

• 8x20m
• 6x40m
• 4x60m
• 2x80m

Suicides

• 5x 10m, 10m back, 20m
• 4x 10m, 10m back, 30m, walk back to the line, 30m back

Each set of sprints and suicides was immediately followed by 1 minute of throwing and 2 minutes of rest

Tape

Watched the 3rd and 4th quarter of the Detroit game. Our D was fairly solid and we often got them stuck where we wanted them, but too often we let them out at the last second (typically on an in-cut or an up-line cut).

Gym

• Cleans: 2x155lb, 2x155lb, 3x135lb

Ben says I don’t use my hips enough on cleans.

From Indy, we went to Lexington, KY to play the Revolution. They were missing their best player and looked weak overall. We won 27-17. I played a good amount, especially at the end when we were up a lot. Again, no turns but no Ds (though we got several team Ds from our wolf). I scored two goals and cut fairly well most of the time.

After the game, we showered (well, hosed off) and hung out at the bar waiting for our bus. We played two games of Mafia (the first had 25 people) and I won both of them (as mafia the first time, and as a townsperson the second time). Boom!

Traveled to Indianapolis to play the Alleycats. We won 19-16. I didn’t play much but I was solid on D and had no turns. I think I caught one or two goals. Didn’t get any Ds but my guy almost never touched the disc and my marks were strong.

Track

• Warmup: jog the curves, accelerate to a sprint over the first 50m of the straightaway, decelerate back to a jog over the last 50m.
• 5x200m, 2 min rest between sprints.
• 5 min rest
• 2x Whistle drill (described below)
• 5 min rest
• 4x40m, 15 sec rest between sprints.

Whistle Drill

Start jogging. When you hear the whistle, sprint. When you hear the next whistle, jog. Repeat. When you hear a long whistle, the person at the front of the pack starts jogging in place. Everyone else jogs to where they are and keeps jogging in place there. On the next whistle, everyone’s back to sprinting.

The interval between whistles is between 3 and 12 seconds (random). Each rep was a full lap (400m). I think we did about 5 or 6 sprints total. The rule for jogging is that your arms cannot fall below your waist and your feet have to come up to your shins on each step (no baby-stepping).

Practice

Start off with hunger drill, with each person taking turns throwing and the offense has to catch with both hands. Did backhands and flicks. Then moved on to scrimmage for 5 pulls. The D worked on zone-to-man for the first 5 pulls, then ran wolf for the next 5 (from a standstill). O and D took turns going through wolf. I honestly think the O did it better. They run a diamond in the backfield and do more switching than we do. After wolf, we played a 5 min game that went into overtime, then sudden death. The D got a turn and worked it up, but we turned it over on the goal line (I threw a dump over Panna’s head). Then O scored.

Ran the art museum stairs, then took a dip in the fountain across the street and threw for a bit. Biked there and back. Here’s the stairs workout:

• Every other
• Two up, one down
• Every other
• Kareoke
• Every other
• Right leg every step
• Every other
• Left leg every step
• Every other all the way up

Rest

• Every other
• Side-to-side skater
• Every other
• Broad jumps
• Every other
• Every stair, 10 full-body crunches at each landing
• Every other
• Bear crawls
• Every other all the way up

Rest

5 Kleavelands with 10 full-body crunches at the top and the bottom of each one

• Squats: 3x5/200lb
• Dips: 7/80lb,6/80lb,7/80lb
• Power Cleans: 5/145,5/145,2/145,3/135

• Squats: 3x5/190lb
• Deadlift: 5/225lb, 5/245lb

The whole team paid the piper at practice. Lots of pushups, planks, squats, ‘sun gods’ (hold your arms straight out, palms up), and jogging in lockstep. Then we worked on defending upline cuts on the dump (force them in, if they go behind you then turn towards the disc and use your arms to feel where they go) and baiting an IO to the front of the stack. We also worked on communicating on our cuts so we don’t have timing issues. Then we watched film for an hour at Sussex.

I finally got around to running the numbers on the AUDL games. I used this algorithm. The results are almost the same as the win-loss standings, but take a look at Indy vs Columbus (and also Bluegrass). They are very close in RRI (the Final Score column), but Columbus is ranked much lower in win-loss. In fact, Columbus has the same record as Rhode Island, which is ranked far below them in RRI.

RRI

------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Team                     | Point Diff | Avg Opp Rating | Final Score |
|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Philadelphia Spinners    | 70         | -5.5970        | 64.4030     |
| Connecticut Constitution | 29         | 4.0603         | 33.0603     |
| Columbus Cranes          | 1          | 0.1003         | 1.1003      |
| Indianapolis AlleyCats   | 11         | -12.4326       | -1.4326     |
| Bluegrass Revolution     | 7          | -12.0623       | -5.0623     |
| Rhode Island Rampage     | -29        | 8.6616         | -20.3384    |
| Detroit Mechanix         | -24        | -0.5124        | -24.5124    |
| Buffalo Hunters          | -65        | 17.7822        | -47.2178    |
------------------------------------------------------------------------

WIN-LOSS

-------------------------------------
| Team                     | Record |
|-----------------------------------|
| Philadelphia Spinners    | 9-2    |
| Connecticut Constitution | 9-3    |
| Indianapolis AlleyCats   | 7-5    |
| Bluegrass Revolution     | 7-5    |
| Columbus Cranes          | 5-7    | 
| Rhode Island Rampage     | 5-7    |
| Detroit Mechanix         | 5-8    |
| Buffalo Hunters          | 1-10   |
-------------------------------------

• Pullups: 9,6,5,4,4,5,5,4
• Pushups: 15,10,9,5,6,5,5,6

We lost a super close game to Detroit. They were up the whole time, but never by more than 3 or so. We came back to tie it up late in the 4th, but couldn’t hold onto it. I didn’t play much, but I was mostly happy with my game. I scored once, but also missed a D that I probably should have had and also got burned deep off a foul (though Art bailed me out).

Do 10 burpees every minute on the minute. If you finish early, rest until the next minute starts. Stop when you can’t finish 10 in the minute.

I lasted for almost 13 minutes, doing 128 total burpees. Jeremy was still going after 16 minutes, so I joined him for his last two rounds, doing another 20 burpees.