Go dingo go!

My fellow dingo pack,

This fitness blog is the sh%t. Anyone who needs inspiration need only go back through some of the old posts here – they fire me up. Anyone who prefaces it with negative sh%t like Brett did, though, should get a slapping. F#ck that sh%t. Inspire.

So, both my doctor and my physio told me to rest for a day after running on my ankle. Sounds like sage advice; implementation is an entirely different matter.

After two days of running on it (and dancing on it Friday night :-), the ankle felt pretty gosh darn good. So I met up with Pete yesterday lunchtime for a throw and then we did some “light” plyos – As, Bs and Cs.

We did them as A1, A2, A3 etc, so 9 drills in all. The three progressions are march, skip and run. Check out the info on the dingos site:

http://sites.google.com/site/dingos/fitness/demonstrations-of-plyos

We then went through the section of the plyos book called “Bounds”, starting with the early stuff that was similar to ABCs – “prancing” and “galloping”, through to some reasonable intensity bounding, but no box or stair work. It took us a while to work out what each exercise was, but if you read it and look at the pictures you can work it out, and then you’ll be able to teach others…

Not content with a single session in a day, I accompanied Brett to league, he having assured me that I would be able to pick up with his Div 2 team. Of course, once we arrived it was apparent that this wasn’t going to happen. No matter, I was mentally prepared for that eventuality.

Had a bit of a throw with Phil White, captain of the U19 men’s team. He is having a sh%t time with injuries, lower back pain has kept him out of action since regionals I think. The quacks say it’s because he has loose ligaments. Hmmm, methinks too many 400s on the juniors fitness programme… Anyway, you gotta play through that lower back pain hey Wavy!!! Just develop your high backhand, bladey flick and hammer.

Then I did my second set of ABCs for the day, and then Brett joined me while subbing off his Div 2 game and we did another set. Then we did some run-throughs – push-up and then sprint 20m. Brett stayed for 4 but then had to rejoin the game. I continued to do another 10 or so, pausing often to heckle Brett whenever he got involved in a turnover. Often.

Then we trundled off to Div 1. This time, thanks to the graciousness of the Hammerheads, I was allowed to pick up with Hills. The ground was a bit dodgy underfoot, but ankle stood up to it OK. The most remarkable thing about Div 1 is that there are 3 divisions below it.

During one set of subs I went across and joined the masters for a drill. I played D on their deep cuts. Happy to say that I overtook Charlie, decimated Jens and was slightly slower than Duncan Macintosh.

During my other breaks I went up and said g’day to the U19 boys. Heckled Tullett when he didn’t lay out for a disc. Chatted with the legendary Dave Noble as well. Since I was in non-Dingos company we paid out on some non-Barefoot clubs. Got to keep my eye in.

Rejoined my league game and it was quite a tussle, point for point from about 6-5 to 16-15. I had them for speed, but my sprint endurance needs some work, not surprisingly.

After a third day of punishment, my ankle still felt great. Much better than it did before the three days of play.

After tonight’s training it will be four pretty solid days in a row of hard work. I think I need to take a day off the ankle and will do gym work, I don’t think I’m ready for one of Kai’s sessions yet, will aim to join next week.

We all need to do more sprints/plyos/fartlek/throwing/gym sessions. I am aiming for 10 sessions this week, I want to see the team averaging 9 this week, so start scheduling two sessions some days. They only have to be half an hour long to be worthwhile…

Go dingo go!