Saturday and Sunday June 28

Might have been me on the pitch...

Well, Saturday should have been a rugby day, but there was some rain coming down. The game was rescheduled to some time in late July. Hopefully by then the waters will have subsided and all the bad people will be dead ... or something like that with the Noah story ...

In any case, so ... yeah, the game was cancelled and I'm out of the house. I could have made some bad life decisions, but instead went to go and see the Niagara Kettlebell Sports Open. That was an awesome display of training and strength. I learned a lot just by being in the same room with these people ... and I even got recognized by a few people ... and met up with more than a few facebook friends.

That was cool.

What wasn't so cool was getting to watch myself play rugby. I was sent the link for my game from last weekend. I got to tell you, I was not impressed with myself. At all. It was depressing to see me not get around the pitch and basically be a one trick pony. Gawd awful.

As I watched it, it was hitting bottom - it was the last straw and I now know I have a bunch of mistakes for which I have the summer to make them up.

Sunday was a long rolling and stretching session in my basement and then a long day chasing my kids around, trying to let my wife get herself ready for the upcoming week of work. Around 10pm I got a chance to take my wife out for a nice 2k walk. Mental health and all that.

Wednesday and Thursday and Friday June 26

Wednesday was a typical recovery and planning day. I'm planning a bit of a "weight cut/lose that stupid shit on my waist" July.

Lots of stretching and rolling in the am, getting to work on time ... and then waiting for people to ask me to do stuff. I got a lot of cleaning done, getting ready for next year and all that. Also ... watched Mad Max Fury Road. Nice.

Thursday also started with a quick roll and stretch. I'd like to get back to using the garage for these little things, as using the basement ... is complicated. Too many toys, too many things that might get stepped on. Meh.

Thursday was also a training night, so I got there about 7:10 and got a warm up in. We then went through a bit of a technical session and I just shook my head with the number of cooks in the kitchen. It was really kind of annoying, but I got through it.

Afterwards, got this done for four rounds with the 16 kilo bells:
20 hand to hands around the body
15 "American" swings
15 bicep curls with the rope through the handle
15 double clean and presses

After wards, did some stretching of my shoulders and some rolling on my hips.

Friday was annoying, but I had to go to work for a good chunk of the day. I put the finishing touches on some paper work and then sat down. a four hour meeting. Four. Hours.

At least we got some fruit brought in. And I grabbed the bottle of Zinfandel. Yeah, I know ... ew.

I did stretch and roll after I got home, but I mostly hung out with my son. 

Monday and Tuesday June 23

Monday was a recovery day. Or, well, it should have been.

It did start out that way, with some stretching and rolling in the morning.

I got through my day at work ... I'm going to crawl through these days, to be frank. Not by choice ...

Body structure didn't matter - uncontested scrums

I got home and looked at the calendar ... and saw that I signed up to play some Old Boys rugby tonight. So .... I got my son into bed, then got my kit together and drove to the rugby club for about 7:30.... and got right on the pitch.

Yup, no warm up, just get right in there. Not ideal, but it was ok.

They were a group of Army guys ... fit, but not so awesome of the knowledge of the Laws of Rugby. Meh, s'ok. Uncontested scrums. Ew. At one point in time, I reached with my left hand from the loosehead position to help their hooker actually hook the ball back to their side. It was kind of sad how "honest" their 9 was being in the scrums.

Tuesday ... was a training night. I still can't believe that my beloved wife was ok with me going to training tonight. I got there for 7:20 and ... no warm up, just went right into the training session.

Yup, no warm up, just get right in there. Not ideal, but it was ok.

Yup, this is a great likeness of me

After, I got this done with my 16 kilo bells for four rounds:

10 hand to hand around the body switches
20 hand to hand overhead switches
15 double clean and presses
15 bicep curls with the rope through the handle

It was a nice workout, a beginner one with the yellow bells. Simply fun.

Saturday and Sunday June 21

Saturday was a bit of a disaster, as all the loud mouths came to play with me. I was just grateful that none of the loud mouths got us a penalty during the game. The game itself was a real drag. Our opponents only brought like 25 guys for two games ... so the seconds team lost at the 3pm kick off, while our first team won quite handily with a 4:30 kick off.

I was subbed off at about the 65th minute with the second team game very much up for contention. I shut my mouth and got off the pitch and stretched and watered myself. I really really felt like going home at that point, not wanting to stay. I was asked to be a sub for the first team, but of course, they didn't need me to sub in, as they were winning every set piece. In the end, the first team won 75-0.

It was a mixed bag of emotions, as I really wanted to win both games, but glad that we won "the important one". I was pissed that I was subbed off, but glad I wasn't really needed. I was glad the idiots shut their mouths to the ref, but disappointed in that I had to hear what they were saying to each other and myself. Meh, these emotional/drama things ... not really worth the time.

I got home in good order and fell asleep on the couch. I was supposed to bake with my middle child, but just fell asleep about 7pm. I felt badly, but as my kid said "....you looked like you needed it, Dad." I woke up about 10pm and just went to bed. hashtag exhausted.

Sunday was a recovery day. I spent the day driving my kids around the city and prepping for my next games. It's late as I am writing this, and I might just go for a walk. I also had to clean up some of this laptop's hard drive, making room for some work that needs to be done.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday June 19

Wednesday was the State of Origin. I'm glad it's going to come down to the third game, should be a real barn burner. Wednesday the recovery from the scraping continued. I stretched and did my epsom salt bath, but not much else.

Thursday was a training night and I did as well as I could during the training session. I was named vice captain of the seconds team for Saturday, starting at loose head prop. Nice little touch that.

In any case, after training, I got this done for four rounds with the 12 kilo bells.

10 hand to hand around my body
15 snatch to release and catch
15 clean and presses
15 bicep curls with the rope through the handle.

After that, rolling and stretchy band work on my shoulders. I got shown what to do by the people at Progressive Sports ... it's really getting the shoulder feeling good for a while each time I do the exercises.

Friday was a recovery day, starting with the rolling and stretching on legs and shoulders. I ended the day with a nice 2k walk with my wife.

Monday and Tuesday June 16

Monday was a recovery day. I had promised myself to start training on Mondays, but it was a recovery day instead. a wonderful massage after work came at just the right moment to help with muscle recovery.

My wife wasn't too impressed that I was out of the house, though.

Tuesday was also a physio appointment, then rugby. I felt a lot better after I got some Chinese scraping done, but then it was off to ruin the good feelings with contact rugby. I did smell awesome, however, as the oil that was used was some kind of essential oil. I smelled like an incense store, to be frank....

After rugby got this done for three rounds with the 12 kilo bell

15 one arm snatches
10 overhead presses

Nothing, really. Then I got some stretchy band therapy done on my shoulders.

I did not do an ice bath experience after rugby, as I had to get myself home in good order. I had a shower at the clubhouse, and was rudely made aware of the scraping feeling on the skin of my chest and shoulders.

Man, that was some kind of scraping they did on me ... skin feels scrape-y but my muscles feel awesome.

Saturday and Sunday June 14

Saturday was a rugby day - We were off to a nearby club, about a 40 minute drive away. This is this club's first year in this league and they haven't done too well up to this point in time. It started off cloudy, but by the end of the first game, it was sunny and humid. We won, and did quite well against their scrums and their lineouts. In open play, our defense was up to snuff, keeping them to milited points int he seconds game, and not letting them back into the game on the first XV.

I had fun, but then had to run away to get home, thanks to an emergency text. Did get a chance to roll and stretch once I got home, though. Man ... sore.

Sunday was a clean up day around my house - I had the task of "helping" my kids clean up their rooms so that I'd stop going insane. It was a long day of moving, lifting and working. I did feel tired at the end, but managed to stay loose and flexible. Lots of water to drink.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday June 12

Wednesday was a recovery day ... rolling and stretching in the am, with a rugby meeting in the evening.

Thursday was a rugby night, of course. I'm having to get my son in bed and so I'm late for most of these training sessions. I've been told not to do much after these sessions, so ... I'm focusing on recovery and strength work after this week.

Tonight I rolled and stretched out my legs and shoulders, though. Just trying to get myself ready to play after a rather difficult training session.

Friday, was a recovery day, much like Wednesday. Rolling and stretching in the am ... I just want to roll and stretch in the evening, too. I also did a physio appointment today and they focused on my knees. Eesh, they need some ice, man.

Monday and Tuesday June 9

This is post number 1001.

Yup, I broke 1000 times sitting at this screen and wondering what the hell I was thinking.

I'm pretty sure I need to write another blog post about this ... yeah, that one is coming up soon.

In any case ... Monday.

Monday was a DOMS day, still. Not a lot of movement, not a lot of physical activity. Clearly I'm not stretching and rolling enough; not getting the things done that will help me stay on the field.

I did get a walk in ... about a 3k walk... and got a chance to get my legs just moving.

Tuesday was a rugby night and we did a fair amount of rugby activity. I missed the warm up, arriving about 30 minutes late. I'd already made that up, by the way. I got this done in the afternoon:

1k walk on the treadmill

 then four rounds of this:

15 double kettlebell clean and presses
10 kb rows

Then it was stretching and rolling around.

Then it was rugby ... we ended training with a series of sprints. I got through them ... they were not very much fun, but I got them done:

4 x 50m sprints
2 x 75m sprints
1 x 100 m sprints
2 x 75 m sprints
4 x 50m sprints ..... yeah ... I stretched out and rolled my legs out after this one .... 

Saturday and Sunday June 7

Not me, but still a cool pic

Saturday was a big rugby day. I've been resting and not training as much in order to be ready for the games today. My teams won, which is a nice. We won back some hardware that for the last few years have been elsewhere.

I was really sore and stiff after my game and took some time to relax then keep stretched and warmed up in case I did get back in.

Meh, I didn't but ... what a game to watch.

Sunday I woke up really sore and rolled right away in the morning. I wasn't the paragon of fitness, but I got it done.

Sunday night I got a walk in, just to get a nice walk in. Warm and quiet and .... man, just an incredible step up from walking in February.

Wednesday and Thursday and Friday June 5

Wednesday was a day off. I just didn't want to move and quite frankly am struggling with something.

Thursday was a rugby night. I got about 90 minutes of rugby in and was enjoying the contact and the running around. After I just rolled and stretched and did a bit of work on my shoulders with stretchy bands and lacrosse ball.

I did an ice bath experience, too.

Friday was a physio day - I got my shoulder looked at, and it wasn't all nice and happy. Some really unfortunate things happening there, as well as my knee and my hip. Meh, I got some things done to help my body. All good.

Monday and Tuesday June 2

Usually June is a lit less stressful for me than this particular June is. I could point to a number of different factors, but no one would care ... so ... on with what I did.

Monday was a weird day, starting with a police raid at the place at which I work. Not really a police raid so much as it was a search during which various idiot pieces were found. By 8am. On a Monday.

Yeah, it was a weird one.

Later on in the day, I had to get out of the house and so went on a 3.5k walk. It was ok. At least it wasn't snowing.

Tuesday started with an epsom salt bath and also was a training night.

Before I got to training, I had to get to the gym and got this done for three rounds before starting a stretching session:

15 double kettlebell clean and press
10 single KB rows each side
15 kb snatches

I think the bells I used were 35 pounds, but they weren't mine and the numbers were all rubbed off. Heck thye might have been 20lbs, I just don't know.

I got to rugby and then I got to roll and stretch after training. I did about 20 minutes of rolling and stretching, followed by some work with the stretchy bands. I ended the session with an ice bath experience. I needed advil to get body parts to shut the hell up and got to sleep.

Sad prop.

Saturday and Sunday May 31

Saturday was, of course, a rugby day. I played a full game at seconds XV prop. I have to admit, I was disappointed int hat selection, but I was needed. The opposition tight five were very big people, tough to move and scrum against. I switched after the second scrum to tight head and things got better for my team.

Of course it was me abusing the Laws of Rugby to my advantage ... or at least that is the most positive spin on the day I will put... ;). I got around fairly well, and hit the rucks that I could. I would like to hit a few more, but people need to stop running away form their support. Hashtag, just saying....

We ended up making it a lot tougher of a day than it should have been. Alas, it was still a good day of rugby. Wet and not very hot, which made it just perfect.

In any case, after the game, I was told to recover as I might see some time on the next game. I did as asked and roled and used my lacrosse ball on various parts. I didn't get in, which was also disappointing. I'll have to work smarter this week at training.

Sunday was a recovery day. I did wake up and stretch and roll, spent the day with my kids and then rolled and stretched some more. Later on in the day, got a 2k walk in. I'll be doing longer walks this week.