Monday and Tuesday April 29

Man, am I glad to see the end of this April. Not as stressful as last year, but man ... still a lot of stuff going on. At least my training isn't taking a back seat to anything this year.

I did get made fun of ... or at least someone tried to make fun of me on Facebook, calling me fat. Ah well, whatever. At least I get to play rugby and run around with people that enjoy being tackled.

Monday was a rest day. It wasn't planned that way, but I had a silly meeting to go to and before that I had to be a dad.

Tuesday I had to wait until the youngest was asleep before I could train, which put it late.

I got this done for four rounds, but had to cut it short as I had to go be a husband.

10 double KB clean and presses
20 kb snatches
20 step ups
10 hanging knee tucks
20 bw squats.

Not a great workout, sort of in a rut, so to speak. I'm glad to announce that beach workouts will begin May 13, man ....

Saturday and Sunday April 26

Saturday ... we were supposed to have a game, but it was postponed due to field conditions. We did do an impromptu session in the end zone of our own club. It worked pretty well. Lots of contact and I got a blister on the heel from new cleats.

Sunday was a rugby day, too. I got in to the game versus the Toronto City Saints. It was a defensive struggle at 36-42. I had a few touches of the ball and made a few nice plays. All in all, not a bad day of rugby.

Thursday and Friday April 25

Thursday was a rugby night. I had an hour of running and ball handling.

Friday I was sore and got a bit of stretching done.

Saturday morning, I shot this for a potential photo shoot in my garage gym.

Wednesday April 23

A nice day at work with a nice evening of training.

Got this done for four rounds:

20 kb cleans - 20 kilo bell used
20 kb swings
30 step ups
10 hanging knee tucks

then got this done for three roudns:

8 deep squats with 70 lbs on bar
8 overhead presses with the same bar

A workout that I think I'll be feeling in the morning. I'm glad that this April is going by, and at least I'm less stressed than I was last year at this time ... but April still sucks.

Monday and Tuesday April 22

Well Monday was a walking night. I took my middle child on a 30 minute walk.

Tuesday was supposed to be a training night, but got the times confused and so did nothing of consequence except pay for a rugby shirt. It's epic.

Did do some stretching, just to get something done today. My body was stressed, but thought a bit of ball handling would be helpful.

Sunday April 20

I had a nice Easter, complete with three naps all day. I'm hoping I've caught up on my sleep deprivation, at least for this month. Now, all I need is for another week or so off and I'll catch the rest up.

I took my family to my parents place for dinner. Lots of fun and a few pleasant conversations about life and things in general. Good to catch up.

After I got my son settled into his bed, got this done for four rounds, just to get a sweat going:

6-8 deep squats with 50 lbs on a bar. Paused at the bottom, too.
6-8 over head presses with the same bar
20 kb swings -20 kilo bell used
10 hanging knee tucks

I should be able to up the weight and intensity next time; for now still recovering from the flu. Stuff still coming up from my lungs and such. Need to get back to jogging, too.

Friday and Saturday April 19

Friday saw me spend a huge number of hours in bed, as it was a stat holiday in Ontario.

Saturday was chasing my recovering boy - the source of my infection - around. He's getting a lot better, except that he's still not listening about the need for a nap thing. I had two and was in a great mood. He had none and spent the last half hour of his day screaming and crying.

Yeah, he fell asleep pretty quickly after that level of energy expenditure.

And so I got into the gym to get this thing sweated out of me

This is for your protection

I did this for four rounds:

20 kb cleans
20 kb snatches
20 step ups
10 hanging knee tucks
20 bw squats.

Nothing fancy, just to get the blood moving and the muscles pumping. I'm hoping the bugs in my chest take a quick hike.

Wed and Thursday April 17

I stayed off the pitch, I stayed away from people in general, as I'm fighting something ... sore throat and stuffed up sinuses. Hacking cough, bringing up weird stuff from my lungs.

No training, no rugby.

Monday and Tuesday April 15

Monday was a recovery day. Stretching and water and coffee. No Advil for me today. I made that choice early on in the day.

Me Gusta!

Tuesday was to be a stay at home and train night, but I got a chance to meet James Fell at an informal book signing for his new book at a cool little pub on the Danforth.

I did get a chance to drop in on training at the Burlington Centaurs session, but only hen there was like ten minutes left. I chit chatted about what I got to do that day and went home to a very stressed house.

My youngest had a reaction to his antibiotics and I found out we'll have to keep a close eye on an ear infection over the next few days and take him for allergy testing. Poor kid.

Saturday and Sunday April 13 ... and a pause for some gratitude.

Push over tries bring a tear to every prop's eye.

So ... this was a great weekend if you are a rugby player. On Friday, my day started with a 6am kick off of my Queensland Reds. They lost, but the part of the game I saw featured the Reds scoring a push over try.

Saturday was the first rugby day for 2014. I had to miss a bit of the training session my club was running, due to a swimming event my kids had to go to, but I made it for the full contact scrimmage.

I had fun, was around the pitch and secured ball; which, of course is what people playing prop are supposed to do. I did make a few breaks and had a couple of nice assists on some tries. All in all a productive session and I made myself look good. I needed a rather long stretch after and got to a players meeting on time and also spent that time wisely. I did get rushed out the door to come home and didn't stop for gas, though.

Why make that point? Well, my vehicle ran out of gas just as I got to my driveway. I had to push it onto my drive way. Which I'm pleased to say I could do after playing in a game.

Thanks, Glynn!

Sunday was my 44th birthday. I got a fair number of well wishes both in person at 7am from my family and from a lot of people on social media I haven't seen for a number of years. To no surprise to anyone, I got to play in a rugby game today. I "only" got in for a few sets, all told I think I played 25 minutes of an 80 minute game. To be honest, I was good with that. The team on which I played had a lot of subs - nearly an entire second side - and so, I was good with being patient and trying to help where I could. I think I was the oldest player on the sidelines and one of the handful who had also played the day before.

In short, we won and I enjoyed being a part of the game. I'm not saying we won because of me, however. I'm not that vain. We won because we had good fit players, who played as a team and a good support staff in place. I was grateful to be a part of it.

It didn't hurt that I knew players on both sides and had coached a few team mates as u16's and u20's, too.

I'm sorry to say that I had to sprint away after the game and help move my kids around from swimming to home. But, that is all part of my next idea.

I wanted to take a moment and express just how much fun this weekend was. I'm not sure about how many people get to play rugby. I'm not sure about how many people get to turn 44. I'm really not sure about how many people get to be a dad, a fitness nut and make enough money from a job they enjoy in order to be able to be fit, relax on a weekend and play rugby twice. That number of people has to be kind of small. And ... I'm one of them.

I can't say I made a huge impact in either game, but I'm happy that I was an integral part of both. I made passes. I ran with ball in hand. Players had to make an effort to tackle me and make sure that I didn't make them look silly. In short, I had fun today ... and if life teaches me nothing else ... that is a rarity. For that reason alone, I'm really grateful for the young men with whom I played rugby this weekend. I'm also grateful for my family who is patient enough with me to let me be fit, be happy and let me spend this weekend being a rugby player.

Thanks.

Thursday and Friday April 11

Thursday was a rugby night. Sprints with the ball in hand, sprints without the ball. Then some ball handling drills, then ball handling with sprints.

And you know ... it was needed.

Friday was a stretch and recovery day. And my knee is hurting.

Tuesday and Wednesday April 9

Tuesday was a stretch and recovery day.

Wednesday I got this done outside. I want to retype that ... I got a chance to train outside today in shorts and a t-shirt.... quite frankly ... that was a long freaking winter and I'm glad the snow is almost all gone...

and I got this done for four or five rounds ... and I had a buddy do this one with me.

20 kb cleans
20 kb snatches
5m sled push

It might not look like much, but it was. A nice quick workout before I had to go and be a dad.

Sunday and Monday April 7

Sunday was a planning and recovery day.

Another shot that may have been taken at training

Monday .... Lots happening in rugby land these days. I understand that a high school schedule has been set for the area around me. I'll have to try and start making it out to them in order to meet the coaches and the like.

Tonight's training was the last two hours on the "turf" at the Toronto Rock Athletic Centre. It's not bad turf if you are playing lacrosse or ultimate on it... but tackling, playing the ball and wrestling on it ... not so much fun.

In any case, tonight was two hours of ball handling, wrestling, sprinting and learning a few rugby league tactics for this weekend's game. On the way in and on the way out, it was almost warm drizzle. Not good for trying to set up training sessions and rugby games on real fields. Of course, it was also not good for the snow banks I want disappeared, too.

Win some, lose some.

Meh, at least rugby is almost here.

Friday and Saturday April 5

So Friday I was sore and it became a stretch and recovery day. It didn't help that work took a turn for the surreal and I ended up working what felt like a day and a half.

Saturday I trained on my own in my garage. Did this for six rounds:

20 double kb cleans
20 kb snatches
20 step ups
10 hanging knee tucks
10 bicep curls/tricep extensions with 60 lbs

After this, had to go be a dad. Took my two youngest to meet dogs, get stuff for rugby and generally be a fun dad. I also had a bit of surf and turf for dinner. I'd like to tag that as "hashtag awesome".

Thursday April 3

it was all good today ... a little sore in the legs getting up, but other than that, I was all systems go.

Thursdays are a rugby night. We did sprinting with ball handling. And then some ball handling while we sprinted. And then some passing drills. Then some sprinting.

This may or may not have been taken at training

Tuesday and Wednesday April 2

Yeah, Tuesday was a recovery day. I was stiff and tender, so I took it easy and got ready for a big fancy presentation and conference on Wednesday.

I did a presentation to about 20 people today. Nothing too huge, man. I had fun.

After getting home and getting my kids to swimming and then to bed ... I got this done for five rounds:

20 Kb cleans
20 kb snatches
20 step ups
10 hanging knee tucks
20 bw squats

Monday March 31

Two hours of Rugby training.

Not sure if this was me last night...

At least my ball handling is getting better.

And my fitness.

Two hours of rugby is a lot.

But fun.