TIL (Things I Like) #1: Big Cups

I've been spending of bit of time reading through the entries on "Things White People Like" and I figured it was about time for me to start my own. This list may end up being a little telling about what my bad habits are...

Reese's Big Cups
Nope, no longer just any old peanut butter cup. I need 210 calories (105 from fat) of peanut butter and chocolate goodness. Reese's first found a way to get me to trade in my double-pack of cups for a slightly larger, much better proportioned offering. Then, after a few months of treating myself to a single Big Cup I ran across the Big Cup King Size and quickly became of fan of doubling my peanut butter sensation.

The only thing that bothers me is the slight inconsistency with the peanut butter at times. Sometimes the peanut butter can be really oily and moist (thumbs up!!!), but then sometimes I'm left with a dry, crumbly mass of it (big thumbs down...). Of course there is no way to possibly know without buying one, so you might as well buy two just in case!

M-A-R-S

Here's a quick shot of the HUGE tent that Megan and I will be sharing at MARS next weekend. Of course, I did offer space up to anyone else who is interested. It's glaringly obvious that I'm playing with a team full of old people... Who wants to stay in a hotel?!?

We were a little worried about getting in late and not knowing how to set the thing up, so we spent about an hour and a half last Sunday setting up the tent in the front yard. The thing is great! If it doesn't rain, we'll be able to keep the rain fly off, and there are 4 huge mesh windows on the top of the tent that would look out into the sky. Not to mention "bay windows", a portable tent light (with velcro to attach to the inside of the tent), two rooms, and cup holders (a little overboard maybe?). Pretty cool. Pretty much a big, soft house.

Your Job is Your Credit

Ok, the revamped newsletter for May should finally be up in a few days, but there is some other news to talk about.

I agreed to play some late-summer Ulty with a group of club players who didn't make the cut on a few of the local teams. It's nice because I don't really have to make a huge commitment to practice, and I get to play in all the tourneys that really matter (Sectionals, maybe Regionals) against a high level of competition. This new team is called Eastern Motors, so hopefully we'll get some cool jerseys...

Vid Editing

So I got my Mac yesterday. It is so ridiculously sick. I wasn't able to fiddle with it too much since I had a summer league game and a presentation due today, but I didn't need much time to edit the video I pulled from the Ulty game. I think we only took 12 minutes of footage or so, but it typically would take me 15-20 minutes to check out the footage and mark which clips have highlights, before I even edit them(with my slo-motion PC) before making a short vid. Here's the vid I made in like 10 minutes (there weren't too many highlights... it was sort of a beat-down):



I can't wait to really get in deep with all these new apps this weekend. It's pretty sweet getting to explore a new operating system!

Friday - Linear Speed Day

Linear Speed Day

Jog
Backward Run
Shuffle
Carioca
Forward/Backward Skip
Hip Rotations
Arm Circles
½ Speed Build Up

Long Arm Swings
Straight Leg Kicks
Straight Leg Skips
Straight Leg Stride
High Knees
Lateral Lunges x8
Leg Swings x16
¾ Speed Build Up

Overhead Lunges x10
Power Skip
Mountain Climbers x20
Lateral Knee Raises
ACL Turns
Scorpion Squats x16
Foot Fire/High Knees/Sprint Transition
Maximum Build Up

Single Leg Bounds
In-Line Lunge x6
Lying Abb/Abduction Leg Raise x10
Squat and Rotate x16
Maximum Build Up

Workout

5x10yds Full Recovery
5x15yds Full Recovery
5x20yds 30sec. rest
4x40yds 90sec. rest
2x50yds 2min. rest
2x60yds 3min. rest
4x100yd. Form Strides

Stretch

Making the Switch!

I'm moving to a Mac! It's a little scary, but I feel like I've done my research and I'm getting a great computer. This one is getting a little old and I really want to move on to something with a little more power and some cool applications. The goal is to transfer the newsletter-writing to the Mac so I won't do it at work anymore and I want to start doing my own editing of the video that we're taking at tournaments. Metz is currently doing a great job with that, but I want a little experience doing it and I'm hoping to move to an HD camera at some point.

Exciting stuff. Sorry to say goodbye to old faithful, but I'm ready for something shiny and new. (Great justification, right?)

Sprint Camp

This Friday marks the first of many (*crossing my fingers*) sessions that are devoted to team agility, speed, and overall explosiveness. I know I mention constantly that I say but never do, and I really think this is a great chance to turn it around (Assuming I get the workout schedule from my bro in the next few days!).

Other than that I've just recently been wondering what the disconnect is between desire and the motivation to follow through with those desires... I mean, really. I spend a good 3 hours a day just thinking about Ultimate and how I can make myself and the team better, but I probably don't spend 3 hours a week actually working towards that goal. It's one of those if-I-had-a-nickel things. I mean, if my body was made physically better each time I just thought about Ultimate I would be pretty sick. So why can't we act on our thoughts? It's so damn hard to do for one. And, how do you get to that mental state where you're driving 100% on every rep without someone pushing you every step of the way? I tend to need a partner when it comes to anything physical like this. I'm actually more than willing to push others to the limit, and I feel that I do try to do that often.

The reason I set up this little "speed camp" was to give us a chance to build some team unity over the summer and to motivate myself to improve through the motivation of others. I'm really pretty excited to see what my brother has in store for us; Medicine balls, agility ladders, and a host of plyometric drills are sure to make me burn on Friday. The best part is the number of emails I've received from the guys who can't be there... Everyone wants to know what we're doing to get better this summer and that's pretty damn exciting. I can't wait for the Fall!