<- Left Turns Only!

We are back at.  The new season started on May 1st, and workouts are under way.  Thursday and Saturday we did our workouts at the Pettit Center.  This early on it’s about building our conditioning.  Then, in the weeks ahead, we work on strength, speed and technique.  For now, our the two workouts were very similar:

4 x 60 meter sprints, followed by 26 min run (the run was at a mild tempo, with 1 min faster tempo runs at the 5th, 10th, 15th, 20th and 25th minute).  We repeated that set - sprints, run - then finished with one more set of 4 x 60 sprints.

Saturday, it was the same workout, except after the sprints we added two sets of continuous broad jumps.  The first set was 30 seconds, next set was 45 seconds.  So, the workout went - sprints, jumps, run, sprints, jumps, run, sprints, jumps.

Between each set we would take time to stretch, get water and recover.

I felt alright Friday, some leg soreness and some good ab/lower back soreness Sunday from the jump routine.  Was pretty sedate during the month off.  I was trying to get as far ahead as I could at work (which doesn’t seem to happen) and set up my schedule to keep my mind on training hard this season. 

To that extent, I’ve sold almost all of my Cubs tickets for the season - should keep the distractions at a minimum… being around Wrigley during the summer turns into a giant, two-day, distraction.  The second day is usually required to recover from the game… but I’m not sure if it’s the pain of watching them lose or the beer that eases the pain that makes the recovery necessary.  Anyway, had to sell the tickets even though they might actually be good this year, but then again, they are the Cubs.  :)

Got an hour long spin in to get the blood flowing on Sunday.

  In the truly important baseball news, the Yanks have started to wakeup finally.  Although Posada and ARod are on the disable list, a three game sweep of the Mariners seems to have the offense coming to life a bit.  This series against Cleveland should be interesting.  There are some good pitching matchups in all three games.  With a record of 17-16 they are 2 1/2 games ahead of last season’s abyssmal 13-15 start.   And by the end of this month they were 22-29, so they’d have to go 5-13 to be in the same situation.  Hopefully, the warm weather brings out the bats the same way it did last year.  The pitching will be interesting all season long.  Mussina has looked good - hopefully he keeps it together.  Rasner could be a pleasant surprise.  We’ll see if they’re able to get anything out of Igawa (now that he’s been called up to replace Kennedy).  Disappointing start for Ike and Hughes, but they’ll be back… I have no doubts about that.

 Yes, you read that right.  Time to turn over a new leaf.

After 16 years of school, work, and weekends - where in most cases I did not have to be out of bed before 8am… it is time for a change.  

In college I quickly learned 8:30 and 9:30am classes on M/W/F, or 8:40 on T/Th, were not something I had a great desire to attend.  I think my professors learned that too.  You could say that I sometimes spent a little too much time hanging out with friends or roommates into the wee hours of the night (or early morning hours, depending on how you see it).  For the most part, after graduation, the past ten years in Chicago have included a lot of commuting to work.  I prefer to live in the city, but as things have played out, the office has been in Schaumburg or Lake Forest.  Luckily, both jobs let me wait out traffic, and stroll… ahem, report into the office after 9am.  The current routine gets me here more like 10:30 or 11, on a good day.

I’ve been paying the price for it at the rink over the past few years.  How can I put this…. to say that I’m a regular at 7am warm-ups would mean you’d probably have to call everyone else a warm-up addict.  That is going to have to change… the clock is ticking, I’m not getting any younger (so help me if one of you smart asses comments on that) and Olympic trial qualifying times aren’t getting any slower.

The change is in progress.  Today was actually day two of the new routine.  Out of bed, into the gym and done with my workout by 9:30.  We’ll see how it goes… still in easy workout mode.  Physical therapy exercise routine, light weight lifting and a quick spin this morning.  One more week of easy stuff, then slowly start to build the intensity, without group workouts starting on May 1.

 If you haven’t been paying attention, baseball season is under way!  The Baltimore Orioles are in the lead in the AL East.  Mark it on your calendars O’s fans… it ain’t gonna last.  The vaunted Red Sox (3-4) are in the cellar, but leading the lowly Detroit Tigers (0-6) today, 5-0 in the 8th inning.  While the Yanks (4-3) are battling the - again, get out that calendar - first place Kansas City Royals.  To think that the Tigers could be 0-9 at the end of this series… that’s gotta hurt.  We’ll see how The Captain bounces back from the strained quad he suffered last night. 

Over in the NL, the Cubs have bounced back from a shaky first two games (although almost losing, while blowing a 7 run lead yesterday was less than inspiring).  We’ll see if the Cubs fans are once again saying “Next year is the year”… well, I don’t actually think they say that anymore, after 100 years of… being the Cubs.  Keep your fingers crossed, I want playoff (hysteria) tickets. 

Finally, if you’ve got five minutes more to kill… check this link out, pretty amazing.