Views from Left Field

Dec 11, 2007

Volleyball Week 6

Very good games last night, the results could have been better but we played the top team in the league and played them well. The first game was a tight affair, and we played very well together with a very good rotation of 8 players. It was a very enjoyable game and I played pretty well, making some nice plays both on the front line and the back line. We won the game and were feeling very good about our play.

The second game was a bit tougher, we fell behind but still played okay. The other team definitely had a bit more talent than us. We had a very nice run to come back and tie it up and stayed neck and neck but ultimately lost by one point, 24 to 25. The final game was also a well played game but we could not put them away as they pulled away and won the final to take the tiebreaker.

I stayed to play pickup and did okay as I again tried to focus on aggressive play and better passing from the back line. My net play is improving, I got a couple blocks during pickup and even a few during the games. I still net to improve my bumping, I'm very inconsistent and a bit of a liability when I'm in the middle in the back.

Dec 5, 2007

Link Happy

I'm clearly link-happy today, but I couldn't resist this one. It makes me feel a bit better, and allows me to claim I'm better off than some of my skinny relatives.

There's a study out that suggests that being Fat and Fit is better than being skinny but sedentary!

"Men and women who were fit, as judged by a treadmill test, but were overweight
or obese had a lower mortality risk than those of normal weight but low fitness
levels, the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed."

Clearly I'm better off than most of you silly, skinny people! Long live the Clydesdale!

Another very cool link

It's amazing what is possible on a bike...

This video starts a bit slow with some commentary on a new movie coming out called "Crux", but once the bike shots start it's incredible. The stunts are amazing and the control these guys have over their bikes is pretty wild.

Enjoy.
http://bikemag.com/av/flash/crux_trailer/

It's nearing that time of year...

Here's a very cool link to a Happy Holidays message from Specialized Bikes.

http://www.specialized.com/bc/microsite/holiday/index.html

And some people say I'm obsessed with my bike!

Dec 4, 2007

Volleyball Week 5

Ugly... very ugly! We got swept all three games and did not play well at all. We had some stretches where we played okay, but would have a bad couple points and then tighten up and things would get away from us. We have one player who tends to overreact negatively and I think it makes us all press a bit and stop playing. We then try to force things instead of just playing our game.

I played okay, a few good hits and some nice digs. I also got to play 2 hours of pickup since the games before ours were forfeited when a bunch of players from 1 team didn't show up. Ultimately I was able to work on my passing which is improving and more aggressive net play. My blocking is improving a bit as well, but still needs a lot of work. I think I'm going to invest in some kneepads, since I tend to dive around a bit and my knees are getting pretty banged up.

On the plus side, I got in the pool again this morning and had a really good workout. We did a backstroke set which went much better than last week as I have a better feel for the stroke. Looking forward to swimming again on Thursday, I may even get to do some more new strokes.

Dec 3, 2007

New trails

While I haven't gotten bored riding on the same old trails, I've been looking forward to trying a new mountain biking area lately. This weekend, during our "holiday party weekend" with my family I managed to get out for a ride in Niantic on what turned out to be a great set of trails.

For the past couple of years, instead of having a Christmas party, my immediate family spends a weekend together at a hotel. We spend time swimming in the pool, hanging out and having dinner together. It's been a wonderful tradition in that it allows us to have fun with each other, eliminates some of the materialistic parts of Christmas, and we spend more time together as a family. This year we headed down to New London, planning a train ride, ice skating and some time at Old Mistick Village. I was unable to get out of work until later than I wanted and so we headed down Friday evening and just met my family at the hotel. Matt and I had planned a mountain biking trip Saturday morning early to let us get a few hours in without being away from the family too much.

We headed out at 6 A.M to a trail I located on Bikerag.com in Niantic which sounded like a lot of fun. It turned out to be a great spot, even though it was difficult because of all the leaves on the ground. Leaves tend to cover holes and other obstacles, and they make traction a bit more dicey. We had a few extra falls, but the trails were great fun. The only negative during the day was an issue I experience with my hub in the back wheel. I whacked a rock pretty good, and must have damaged it a bit because it wouldn't allow the bike to coast. It would catch on every revolution and stick until enough pressure forced the wheel around. Ultimately this meant that I needed to keep pedaling constantly other wise the chain would snap around and put a lot of stress on the derailleur. It made for an interesting trip back out, but ironically gave me some interesting training as I was forced to keep pedaling and had to be more aggressive through obstacles. I can see the attraction of a "fixie" or fixed gear bicycle and would probably be more receptive to the idea now.

The trail was enough fun that I'm considering getting a group to go back down for the day. It's over an hour drive, so it would have to be planned ahead, but I think the trail would be worth the trip. The only question is now, or in the spring when it's a bit warmer!

Nov 29, 2007

Near-drowning experience

My brother Matt joined me at Master's swimming this morning in the Suffield pool. This was his first experience with structured swim training and I'm guessing an eye-opener for him. After a couple attempts at flip-turns he decided to just use an open turn at the wall. I definitely could feel his pain, they are not easy if you've never done them before. Then after a nice long freestyle set which was doable but tiring, he experienced the joys of kick sets!

Kicking the length of the pool using a kickboard to hold up your head doesn't sound too bad when you describe it, but the agonizing burn in your quads, calves and ankles is a different experience. He also got the full "uphill last 3 yards" thrill as your momentum stalls and every kick seems to bring you no closer to the end. He gutted it out though, took a couple short breaks but kept going. I'm sure he will appreciate it more when he's climbing up and down ladders today at work!

Finally, we wrapped up the fun with a 50 backstroke / 50 freestyle set. This would be my third time doing backstroke in a workout and his first. The coach felt pretty bad for us I could tell, but offered some very good advice on positioning and form. I could immediately feel a tremendous difference, the only problem was that my legs were so shot that I had trouble implementing it. After completing the 50 meters of backstroke we would immediately go to 50 meters of freestyle, and I felt like I was going to go under and not be able to come back up. I was completed toasted after the backstroke laps and probably appeared drunk as I struggled down the lane. We were schedule to do 10 reps by the coach, which was changed to 8 in the interest of time and ultimately ended at 5. The last one she had us use a pull-bouy which helped a lot because I could take some focus off of my legs and concentrate on the upper body but I was so exhausted it was difficult to make progress.

Still in all, a fun swim, it was nice to feel a challenge again, it had been getting a bit stale with just freestyle sets. We'll see if my brother ever shows up again though :)

Nov 28, 2007

Training totals update...

I haven't posted a lot of summary information in a while since it's been essentially a month or two off since my racing season but it's occasionally nice to do some comparisons to get a feel for how much things have changed in my life the past few years.

Some exciting number differences:

	2006 total	2007 - 11 months	% Difference
Swimming	43,000 yards	90,000 yards	110%
Biking	2,000 miles	2,800 miles	40%
Overall hours	278 hours	338 hours	22%

You'll notice that running is not in my table... it's actually down from last year, essentially on the strength (or weakness I suppose) of the last few months where I haven't done much running. Ultimately, if I want to get a lot faster in Triathlon, this has to change. I really need to get back in the habit, hopefully some of my new found motivation will go into this area.

Overall some very exciting and motivating numbers... it will be interesting to see if they continue to ramp up in 2008.

Nov 27, 2007

Volleyball Week 4

Very fun night last night, we went 2-1 and I felt that I played my best games of the season. We started a bit slow, and give up a big run in the first game and couldn't come all the way back and lost a tight game but even then felt we played okay. The second game we played much better, stayed aggressive and took our shots when we had them. I focused on staying aggressive and got a couple kills in. I've worked on taken an aggressive approach when I get a good set and was able to make a difference in this game. The last game was also a win, and again I felt good about my game. There was a bit of a hiccup where I got handcuffed by a particular server who managed to hook his serves enough to make them difficult to handle. Ultimate I hit the final shot at the net that let us take the win.

My focus needs to continue to be on staying aggressive at the net and taking advantage of my opportunities when I get them. My blocking also needs some work, I can go straight up but I have some difficulty adjusting to the ball as it's being struck. My play on the back line also needs some work, mostly in getting more accurate passes to the setter. I'm pretty inconsistent on where my bumps go. I've been pretty successful at getting to all the balls that come my way, but have difficulty making the crucial first pass to my setter to start the play.

Overall, things have gotten to be a lot more fun and I'm really looking forward to every week.

Nov 26, 2007

Solid Holiday Weekend

It was a refreshing weekend, with a solid 4 days off from work. From an activity perspective, I spent 3 of the 4 days getting some fun in either riding or running. More importantly, it was a great weekend for spending time with my family and relaxing. My cousin was married as well, and so the family grew again. Bruce is a fellow mountain biker, and although he's been a bit distracted (and probably will be for a while now) I wish him the best in his marriage. We also visited my wife's grandmother and great-aunt in R.I. on Friday, and spent a nice Thanksgiving day with my in-laws.

Thursday, Thanksgiving Day, I did the Manchester Road Race with a bunch of family and really enjoyed as usual. It was a much nicer day, sunny and in the 60's, than last year when it was very cold and pouring rain. It's hard to call it a race since with 15k plus runners you spend most of the time dodging people instead of running. Once again, we started at the back after waiting in vain to meet up with some family and had to wait over 7 minutes from the gun to even cross the starting line. It's a 4.7 mile run, with two distinct sections the first 3 miles are spent dodging people and working your way up a long hill. With about 2 miles to go, you head downhill and the crowd has usually thinned a bit. This is the point where you can really run and see what you have. This year with the beautiful weather it was still really crowded at this point, but I managed to set a pretty good pace and hold it for the rest of the race. I passed my brother, but never saw my uncle and didn't end up catching him. I'm pretty happy with my effort, having gone over a month without any running to speak of. It's gotten me in the mood to start running again, I think I'm finally past the burn-out phase of this summer. Congratulations to every one that was out there for the race.

On Saturday I went to Case Mountain for a mountain bike ride with a friend from work who I managed to talk into giving it a try. It was a bit of a mellow ride, we headed up the fire road before running out the blue trail and back for a bit. A very cold day, the temps were in the teens, I just tried to stay warm and feel the new frame on my bike. It feels differently then the old frame, but I need to do some adjustments before I can definitely say what the differences are. It did seem to climb differently, I think perhaps both the lower weight and the softer ride helped. It also could be entirely mental :)

On Sunday I also managed to get out for a ride in the morning. We were a bit rushed for time, but managed to get a nice loop in, including a new trail with some pretty good downhills. I didn't manage to adjust the bike much before we went out, so I was still feeling a bit cramped on it but it was still a lot of fun. I'm thinking of heading up to Tolland Bike to grab some new, warmer shoes and have Dave check out my fork.