mako pete timae

Boyz,

How we all goin. Now I would like to draw upon my trainin and focus the last few months with an analogy. A 3 way analogy in fact of mako my dog, pete my climbin mates dog and my self. Now these 3 creatures are interelated in that they are all dogs of sorts and have a drive that is unrelenting.
I will not bore you will trainin stats. But i will give you an insight to these 3 DOGS.

Mako: I dont think there is anything out there that loves frisbee more than mako, human or animal. He will froth on the disc for hrs on end givin the oppotunity. He loves the block, he will always bring it back. His actions speak louder than his words. He cares little if he is tired, or its cooking outside, he not fased if blood is pissin out his mouth from the disc. He is an unamotional plastic wanting machine. He also doesnt have any balls.

Pete: Now my climbin mates dog is one of those raggid, matty, two different coloured eyed border collies that loves to root. He has no balls like mako but that doesnt stop him trying to hump everything. He gives it to my mates cats, (one even lets him.) Or any dog or bitch he is into. If you are two leggid with long hair and on the short side he doesnt mind givin to you too. My mates young son laughs, "he is huggin me!" as you try to drag pete off his shoulders. He even tried on another mate of ours who has long dread locks when he was asleep on the couch drunk one night.
Its like he feel into a cauldron of viagra when he was a pup or somethin. He has no fear. Pete will run up to a huge german sheppard, go for the backdoor 'ello boys' only to get savaged , mauled, and pinned to the ground. 5 minutes later he will try again.

Timae: Now much like both these dogs, their drive for various motivations, this dog. A DINGO dog. has trained and focused with an intensity to try and rival the other 2 dogs. If i get a little down, or knocked back, that will not stop me. I will have a primal focus that will fuel me. Nothing else matters for me over the next couple of weeks. I will achieve my goal of never giving up till worlds is done and finished. I dont need motivation, my drive comes from within.

That is how i have trained, that is how i will play for my country.
The lessons to be learnt from 1 or all 3 of these dogs. Do what you love, no matter what. When you start to feel tired, or think of holding back think about the 3 dogs. They will always go hard, even if 2 of them dont have any balls.

Timbo

Lonely San Fran

Hey Guys,
I got to San Fran 2 days ago and have been getting used to the time changes and such. Staying with one of the Fury girls, Team USA, and hung out with a bunch of them today. They talk a lot of frisbee and seem to be fairly confident in their open team to take home the gold. It got me real fired up and keen to get out there and show these chumps the Dingo and Aussie Mongrel! I just want to get out there and slap some seppos around (yes, I see the irony) and mess up every other freaking country! I know sports psych-wise, surely this post is breaking rules, but sometimes there is emotion and it needs to be released.

I did a Kai strength session tonight to release some of the built up desire. I got two pretty decent sized water bottles and filled them up to the brim with water. I then went into it. I took the two couches and put a broom in between and went into the pull ups. I did my set of 15 slow and hard, and then did the one leg butterfly looking thing to 15 on each leg also. I did 3 sets of this and then went forward. Next, 15 Kai push ups with the squat superset of 15 also. Did 3 sets of these. Didn't have the hamstring equipment, so substituted the saw horse and moved onward, pushing forward. I did 16 of the saw horse, then 15 of the extended crunch, and 3 sets of these. Finally, did the wall sits with arm lifts, 15 of course, and the superset of the laying on stomach and extending the arms forward, with 15. 3 sets indeed. I did all of these with the water bottles as weight and it was feeling great. Left shoulder felt good, worked through it hard, and never looked back boys!

I am so freaking fired up to have you guys get here and finally see all this training translate into performance! Just being around the Americans, they exude this arrogance that I want to bash out of them. We have been working hard and I know I am extremely proud, and lucky, to be a part of this team. We can't control the future, others, weather, genetics, the past, accidents, or (there was one more), but with what we can control, lets put it all in and leave it on the field! This is what we have all put it for, sacrificed for, and trained and worked hard towards, so lets look around at our dingo brethren and make sure we each do everything we possibly can to make sure they leave a world champion!

no excuses, no asterisks...just Dingos!

running around

Went for a run on Saturday. A few hill sprints on a cold / cool winter night. It wasn’t quite 3 degrees, maybe closer to 12.

I ran around the corner to the nearby steep hill that leads down to the river. The hill is about 100m long with a steep middle section of about 50m. The first section got the legs working, then I hit a speed bump, after which the incline became steeper. I focussed on leg speed and getting the arms up to keep the momentum going. The last 25m flattened out a bit, but it was the toughest part, as I struggled to keep the same cadence to the end. I used a few cue words at the top to make the jog down a bit easier.

10 runs and 30 minutes later I trundled back home.

Support

G'day boys

Last night Stacy and I went over to the families house for a send off dinner. It was a nice time with some enjoyable stories and classic Neild family giggles going on.

One of the highlights from the night was that my parents has prepared a going away card for Stacy and one for me as well and I enjoyed mine so much I though you boys might take something out of it as well.


















Cheers Dingos

Mike

The life of a injured professional sportsman

8 days to go boys before I take off.

So....thought I would give you an update on all things Matt over the last couple of days and what's in stall for me for the next week (a massive creditcard bill and uni commitments piling up). I spent 3 days on the sideline at eastern uni games, so am eager to get on that field come worlds - so whatever it takes - "suck it up Matt" - no crystal balling.

Day zero was Saturday when injury occured

Day 1 and Day 2 consisted of icing and resting, with a small amount of stretching on day 2

Day 3, I saw Physio number 1 - diagnosed a inflammed / deteoriating tenden. Gave me heaps of strengthening excerises for all other muscles around this hip flexor tendon - couldn't get in too deep to see if tear, cause it hurt too much.

Day 4, I saw Physio number 2 - she said the same thing but I also have a tear associated with the injury which is what I suspected. Gave me immediate rehab using laser / infrared thingy to stimulate repair of muscle fibers. She also reset my back and pelvis to prevent anything else happening when at worlds and also this took a lot of tenderness away. Am currently now on witch doctor drugs, drinking heaps of water and less sugar in the diet. This chick was good - she knew who the Gack was.

Day 5 (thursday). Saw sports physician in the morning (she was recently awarded an "order of Australia", on the queens behalf) - same diagnosis as above but included lots of doctor talk and naming things. Gave me some advise.....get cortisone injection. Called up a place and stressed my urgency about world championships- they got me in this afternoon - yeah baby. Went to movie to wait for 4 hours. Got ultrasound and an ultrasound injected cortisone (obviously with local numb juice). Picked up prescription drugs for anti-inflammatory. Drove home via Kai's place to pick up more drugs and goodies (he's looking after me).

This is where I'm up to - with 1 hour worth of excerises and stretches each night.

Day 6 (tomorrow). See Physio 1 again for update

Day 7-9, will just be resting, excersises and stretching. Also, icing - which is helpfull if I can do it everyday.

Day 10, Physio 2 - for some more laser assisted physiotherapy and make sure pelvis is sorted (i actually have one leg which is true longer than the other and a very stiff lower spine (L4-5)).

Day 11, Sports Physician again for check up regarding cortisone and any other niggles i might have.

Day 12, Physio 2 - last laser assisted physio.

Day 13 - Get on plane for worlds baby. Get another creditcard to abosrb costs

That is as far as I have got (13 days, 8 visits to specialists) - but I'm sure there will be massage and physio visits in San Fran and Denver.

Although I can't physically run at the moment and train with you boys, I'm doing everything I can and my leg is improving everyday. I'm excited. Saw the boys rip out a training session in the cold and rain on wednesday - inspirational to me. People thanked me for turning up and enduring the weather - but I thank them - that is my inspiration and drive.

"I am a Dingo"

Matty D

A Rare Tuesday Night in Newcastle

Dingos,

Last night the Newcastle Dingos made the most of a rare Tuesday where we didn't have to drive 4 hours on the F3, and went and did a sprint session in leui of joining Sydney training.

The first thing we did was get the curry simmering on the stove at my place.

We then headed to the fields for our session:
- Warm up jog
- Plyos (A's, B's, high knees, heel kicks, bounds, power hops, power skips)

- 40 x 40m sprints
We did these on a 30 sec interval timed with a beep on Tats's watch, with a 2 min rest in between each set of 10.
The first 10 was just sprints.
The next 2 sets of 10 we started on a centre line and took turns to call "left" or "right" on the 30s beep - the others having to react and sprint the 40m in the right direction. The next sprint would be a normal sprint back to the centre line. I only got my left/right mixed up once.
The last 10 we did with a beach start on each sprint.

The 3 of us are pretty evenly matched over 40m so there was some good competition to push us all the way.

Then we did 100 throws with a pivot and/or give go, with consequences (we had to get 10 in a row of each throw or start that throw again). We had no turnovers.

Then we did 3 sets of 6 in-out kill drill. Cutter runs in and receives the throw, dumps it straight back to the thrower then cuts long for the huck - attacking it as much as possible, getting it at the top of jump. These were bloody hard - had to dig deep for the 6th out cut of each set.


Then back to my place for the curry, which had simmered nicely. Chicken Tikka Masala with eggplant, sweet potato and cauliflower. Basmati rice. Condiments of banana, yogurt, mango chutney and beetroot. I offered the boys a beer, but they opted for the brekky juice instead. Much better than our usual Tuesday night Maccas stop on the F3.

Newcastle's "Hour of Power"

I'm too excited with thoughts about worlds today to do any actual work, so I figured I'd write something about our Newcastle sessions.

Since a couple of weeks before Nationals we've been doing a Power and Agility session on Friday evenings with a personal trainer up here in Newcastle. Friday evening is not the most ideal time, but with all the other training going on there weren't too many alternatives, and it has the additional benefit of reducing Tats's drinking opportunities.

The guy who runs our sessions is Marc, I met him some time ago as he is a trainer at the gym I go to and he drew up a training plan for me before world clubs in Perth. He has represented Australia at "Floor Ball", which I think is something like hockey on an indoor court. So he knows what it's like to be an elite athlete playing an obscure sport, and he took me seriously from the start when I told him I wanted to train for elite level ultimate frisbee.

Marc is not your typical "drill sergeant" type trainer. He's more like Kai - quiet, knowledgeable, authoritative and ruthless...you know, a sadist basically.

Before Nationals we had 12-14 people at each session, mostly the I-Beam guys. After nationals the numbers droped off a bit, but we've generally been getting around 8-10 people at each. There's the 3 Newcastle Dingos, Greenie and Graig from the Masters, Leanne from the Barramundis and Ellie Sparke from the Junior Women. Not all of them come to every session, but there's usually a few other Newcastle frisbee people who come along too. Their support has been gold.

Anyway, Marc runs similar sessions for other teams like soccer, rugby and afl teams in Newcastle, and although he doesn't know much about ultimate he's tailored the sessions based on what I've told him we need to work on. The sessions are held on an indoor netball court and are different each week, but last Friday's went something like this:

- 5 lap warmup on the 250m upstairs running track in the gym;
- 5 mins sprinting through a marker cone course - side to side between cones, sprint up to next cones, side to side etc
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- 5 mins through the marker cone course, this time focussing on keeping low the whole time (working the quads)
- one lap race on the running track
- 1 minute rest
- 5 mins sprinting through a zig zag course, doing 1 standing vertical jump at each cone down the court, reaching down and touching the cones on the way back
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- 5 mins of "suicides". This is not just a name, and it's one of Marc's favourites. Sprinting through the same zig zag course, but at each cone drop to the floor like a push up and jump back up again. There's about 12 cones in the course so you probably do about 60 of these. After about 3 mins its pretty hard to explode back up sprinting, you're just trying to survive it without Marc adding another minute if he sees you slacking off. They suck, but good for developing the strength and stamina required to continually lay out and get back up sprinting again in a game.
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- In pairs, get down in the bottom of the push up position, one person with their feet on the wall of the court, the other in front of them. The back person jumps up and runs to the front and gets back into the pushup position, then the next person gets up does the same (kinda like leap frog). Do this as fast as you can till you get to the other end of the court. Then back.
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- Same pushup thing again.
- One lap race on the running track.
- 1 minute rest
- Last exercise, get into squat position at one end of the court. 10 pulses of the squat, then sprint to the end of the court and back. Do this 3 times, no rest in between.

It was a good tough session. Tim won most of the 250m races, but I got him on the ones after the upper body things. Leanne was also looking strong, she'd usually be the first to get from the court to the track and we had to work hard to chase her down. Craig is also very fit, he was up there with me and Tim most times.

Other sessions have followed a similar format - a few mins of an exercise followed by a lap on the track. Exercises we have done in other sessions include:
- Starting lying flat on the ground, on Marc's call get up and sprint 25m then lie down again. x 30 (with no rest in between, maybe 5 secs if you're quick while he waits for everyone to get down - brutal)
- sprinting from one end of the court to the other, but when Marc claps you have to hit the ground, roll to the right and get up again (he starts this easy, but on the last few laps he's a real bastard).
- sprinting down the court holding a medicine ball above your head (works your core)
- sprinting up the hill outside the gym holding a medicine ball above your head
- Working up the hill as a group in single file, everyone close together holding a squat, the back person runs to the front of the line and gets into squat position, then the new back person runs to the front etc.
- boxing - not real sparring, just fast punching pads held by your partner. This was the one where me and Tim couldn't lift our arms above our heads for a few days.

You get the idea. Most sessions get me close to vomiting at some point.

This Friday is the last one before we leave, can't wait!

Chris

Exciting times

Lads,

In the eloquent words of Mikey Neild we are currently entering some "Very Exciting Times" ... personally, I'm currently counting down the days like this: "After today I only have one more Wednesday for hillsprints on Federation Mall". Just got back from my second last one.

Federation Mall is the long strip of grass extending up the hill from the back of Old Parliament House to the front of Parliament House. It's very close to where I work and it's where I've been basing my lunch time plyo and hillsprint sessions for the past couple of months. Today's session was a bit of a kick in the teeth - the current apparent temperature at 1:15pm is 1.7 degrees centigrade - but it feels good to have smashed it out and I'm sitting here in a post running glow avoiding doing any actual work.

Gareth's comments about cue words really struck home with me on the weekend. I started using a four word phrase some time after Nationals when we really started turning up the training and I've been using it more and more in recent weeks. During a game I'll think it before the pull. When I'm riding to work through freezing Canberra rain/sleet I'll think it and crank the pedels and suck it up. When it's a shitty training session here in Canberra and I need some motivation, I think about these four words. They mean a lot to me. They are simple, they make me run faster and focus more intensely. They remind me of the past, they inspire me for the future and they anchor me to the present.

The four words: "I am a dingo"

Frisbee chicks are (relatively) hot

Yo,

So, Marty called me up Monday night and offered me tickets to State of Origin. I was already considering whether I was ready for my first Kai session and had my doubts, so it just forced the issue a bit sooner than Wednesday afternoon. No regrets - it was a great game and the best state won.

To make up for it, I committed to a sprint session last night (Thursday).

Put out the email for some company at ES Marks but didn’t get any response. Sad. Messaged Abra who is always up for a sprint session but he gave me the cold shoulder and a rebuke for not having a life outside Frisbee and work, but inspired me with his closing remarks “solo sessions at es marks are fun. You will be great”

Unfortunately, it was getting pretty late at work and I was missing my 7pm nominated start time for the track session. A long public transport ride home, stopping off to buy some screwdrivers to fix my computer and got to my car at 8pm and it wasn’t looking good since the track closed at 8:30pm. The temptation to pull the plug was strong my friends.

Backup plan: drive around and find a lit field and do track on the side. This would also mean less impact on my ankle by avoiding the tartan. I drove past Waverley Oval and the lights were on, a couple of gaelic football teams were training there.

Ground very dodgy, strapping tape on, pop a pill.

Did a quick lap of the field. Warmed up with a set of ABCs and some dynamic stretching.

Measured out about 40m in the in-goal area of the field, some undulating ground but not too bad, actually better than the field itself. Navigated a path with no major divots. It was slightly uphill-downhill, so I was kind of doing resistance work in one direction and overspeed in the other.

Between sprints, I had about a 30m runoff area and then walk back to start the next.

After about 6 sprints, my right shoulder really started hurting, it had been annoying me all day, but now I thought I was starting to do damage. Note: this is a remnant sand-boarding injury. Solution: bit of a stretch and suck up the pain and keep going.

Now, beside me on the field were a bunch of girls attempting to play gaelic football. Oh my god we have it good in Frisbee - not just looks, these girls were so uncoordinated they could neither catch nor kick. No wonder a bunch of Frisbee players joined gaelic in Brisbane and became stars. No distractions at the Waverley Oval track tonight.

40 sprints is a lot on your own. After each sprint I was still breathing extremely heavily before I started the next one. Many thoughts of finishing at 20. But I wasn’t dying, I could keep going.

When running in one direction, the floodlighting projected my shadow in front of me. I looked at myself and became increasingly aware of my loping gait, especially as I got more tired. After about sprint #24 I decided to take action.

“Jonathan,“ I said to myself, “you know how you did those ABCs at the start of the session? Maybe you could incorporate some of that into your sprinting?”

“Hmmm, good idea”, I responded, “perhaps concentrate on driving down more quickly and a slightly shorter stride.”

Oh baby, I am a genius. A new lease of life and a bit of extra speed through the late 20s.

Harder work though, and by about #30 I was starting to feel it in my calves, probably from the increased stress of driving down into the ground. By 32 I decided to quit to avoid any niggle.

Short warmdown and long ice when I got home. Ready for the weekend, and Kai next week! See you out there boys.

Turf Trackin' it!

Dings,

So, my time in the states has been somewhat of a roller-coaster ride of emotion. From the lows of losing ALL my checked luggage (including roughly $10,000 in camera equipment) to the highs of finding Vapor TDs online and putting a smile on my teammate's faces.

My first training session was at approximately 9,500 feet in colorado. After my 38 hours of Thursday that ended in driving up the rockies to a resort at 11pm, I awoke on friday at 6am. Shook off the cobwebs, left the king size bed and headed to the first field i could find. I proceeded to do the hard plyos workout plus some of the cutting drills kai has done with us recently. It was fucking tough. I couldn't do more than a set of 3 before i needed to take a break. After about an hour and ten minutes, i was beat. It was so beautiful up there that I thought I'd go to the back of the SUV we rented, pull out a camera and take a shot to put on the blog. That was when I first realized that I had been relieved of a pelican case full of cameras.

I threw twice in the next couple days and attempted a fartlek at altitude. . . that was short lived and not much fun. I felt like Tats's stomach at the sydney uni indoor session, but probably looked more like bretty at kai's session two weeks ago.

In answer to your question, ken. . . No, I have not yet hit the Stanford track.

We were at the Redwood City High School track facilities last night, they have that super plush surface on their football field. The ground up tires in synthetic grass. It felt so good on my still bruised cartilage. Luckily Patrick Hard came with us, jo wasn't so good at resisting me using the harness.

I've been staying with my mate Turtle, he lives about 2 blocks from the College of San Mateo, that also has a very plush synthetic field, so i'll be up there tonight for another plyos session that will end in 20x25s and a bunch of throwing as per Mike's last spreadsheet entry.

Anyway, both the case of cameras and the pack frontier airlines lost in denver found their way back to me. I'm not sure how, but i have them both in my possession, and with that sorted, I'm fired up to have some cleats to throw on and run around in.

That's about it, glad to see our VC running on the track.

Frank Hugenaard will be attending our game against Jam, and will be setting up a dischoops court if anyone's interested.

Tonight's training

Did 90 mins of drills at Albert Park with 12 other Worlds folk.

Then 80 throws with Mama: 40 throw and go, 20 hucks, 20 attack-a-random-floating-pass

Home to do strength session. Had some complex components: strength work followed by plyo set.
1. 10 x single leg squats, 10 x ponies, repeat
2. 10 x pushups with 1 leg on fitball, 10 x quick clap pushies against couch, repeat
3. 10 x Russian twists on fitball with toolbox as weight, 10 x superman with cans of chopped tomatoes, repeat
4. 10 x kneeling, slow roll fitball fwd and back w/ forearms
5. 45 sec wall squat with back against fitball, 12 x max vert leap, repeat
6. 10 x inverted flies on fitball, repeat, with toolbox in one hand, bag of tins in other. The tins were: 3 x chopped tomatoes, 1 x coconut milk, 1 x cannelini beans, 1 x beetroot, 1 x champignons (small), 1 x condensed milk.

Stretch for 20 minutes, then ate the chopped tomatoes as part of a pasta meal, while watching the 2004 dvd and scouting.

carn Dingos!

homebush track

Tubs is writing a bit of a report from yesterday. Just thought I'd put in a couple of pics and video clips.

(Steve, have you hit the stanford track yet?)

Applying my feedback discussion in training

Dingos,
I had a really productive individual feedback session that I want to thank the leadership for producing for all of us. Its always good to hear about your game specifics from others opinions. The information was really practical and applicable which I appreciated, they weren't there to tickle my balls. The final month was to primarily be focussed on shorter faster sessions for me, with less quantity and more top speed work and agility. I have another notch of top speed to develop was the jist of the communication. That is the path to blockgetting (My mission statemnet for the month). So I took that on this week in my training. Had a killer plyo session on tuesday with Steve. When you hit those sessions hard, your legs are fucking axed. Thats how you know its working. Today I hit the track alone in rocky style,. It was cold and windy but some burning motivation to churn out some speed work in a sexy red thong shirt kept me focussed..
Did shuttle runs 5 reps no rest (7m-15m-23m-30m).
Then did 5 100m dashs, heaps of chicks around so I was determined and feeling light as a feather.
followed this up with 10X50m dashs with walk backs and a variety of plyometric starts focussing on balance and quickness off the mark.
from there I hit the stairs for some more plyo inspired speed work.
every step 5 reps
every other step 3 reps
left leg 2 reps
right leg 2 reps
two foot hops 5 reps
two foot hops every other step super frog jump mega balance explosion jumps! new for me
3 reps
left leg 1 rep
right leg 1 rep

after this I finished with 10 more 50m dashs with plyometric takeoff stuff like pushies and burpies an such. A sweet session.

Tomorrow is the future, after work I am gonna hit the gym to do some power based upper body work as well as some squats and clean jerk manly shit. Then weekend madness begins. word.
I wake up and go to bed proud to play with dingos and stolked for the brutal battle ahead. lets make out short insignificant time on this planet a little more meaningful by conquering everyone!
Love
Bra

Pretty boys, smelly towels and god fillets

So, I didn’t make it to Kai’s session last night, but I’m hoping to be there ready to rock and roll next week.

Instead, Gus and I headed to Fitness First Darlinghurst to pump some iron. After a slightly awkward greeting where we almost kissed (which is not an uncommon greeting between males in a Darlinghurst gym), I started off with a five minute row for a warmup. Then we went straight into the bench press (Arnie’s favourite - all hail Arnie!).

Pushed out a couple of sets of 60kgs and then a final set of 65kgs (possibly assist from my partner on the final rep – I dunno I couldn’t open my eyes at that stage). Wanna get that up to 80kgs by the time I step onto a plane. "Does the bench press bear any relationship to ultimate performance?", I hear you say. It does when you've ordered a sleeveless playing shirt.

We moved onto leg press (except gus couldn’t do that due to knee), cable flys, abba dabba work on swiss ball, tricep dips and chin-ups with 5kg assist (I could only do one set of each), single leg hamstring curls (25kgs), shoulder/military press (35kgs), inside and outside cunt muscles (abductors and adductors), calf extensions, lat pull-downs.

After 8pm, it seems like the all the cute women desert fitness first and it becomes the domain of the gay boys. There was one fit babe there though and it seemed like she was following us around, but then she went to use the hamstring curl machine that Gus had been using and very thoroughly disinfected the whole machine. Twice. Yuck - boy sweat. I wondered if she showers straight after sex. Need to think about that one some more.

So then Gus had to finish his last hamstring set with his face in my stinky towel that I haven't washed in about 4 weeks... he'll bring his own towel next time.

At 10pm they kicked us out, probably because we were making all the gay boys look puny and unattractive in the mirror.

We then retired to the BBQ King for some “god fillets” and ginger, bbq pork and bbq duck and a little sip of tsing tao. Oh baby!

Overspeed

G'day boys

Early on in this blog Checking line posted a link to an article about specificity of training and 'over-speed' work. I expect most of you blokes have had a read of this, it was a great article. I've been attempting to work on the specificity principle with the running that i've been doing (top speed, sprint endurance, 25 - 100m efforts mainly) and i've been thinking about the over-speed concept a bit. I understand the idea to be that if you can work your system (running ability in our case) harder or faster than you are going to need it in a competition situation you will gain benefits when you have to compete due the adaptations your body will make.

Difficult to do for our sport as our speed is as fast as we can run and how do you go about training at over that speed. Well tonight I got onto it, I ran down hill boys! Get that into ya.

So I have a street close to my home which has a saddle shape to it. High at one end, 70m of down hill at maybe 25-30 degrees (thats a guess - pretty steep though), then a brief flat bit 3-4m followed by a 25m rise back up before it flattens out again. Saddle shape with 1 side being twice as high as the other.

After about 25mins of running drill plyos i got onto 10 modified hill sprints. I started at the lower of the 2 high sides, ran down the 25m as fast as I could and then pushed up the opposite 70m to the top of the rise. It was a pretty tough little hit. The great thing was that over the last 4 or 5 steps of the down hill, the 2-3 steps of the bottom and 3-5 steps of the incline my legs and feet were having to go faster than they would normally have to in order to keep up with my body which was rocking down through this gully shape - over-speed.

On all of the runs I found myself right up on my toes in full sprint mode going down a hill - high knees, high heal recovery under the body and snappy fast put down and rake action with my toes. I was going full on as a fast as I could to stay upright. It felt really fast and the first section of the uphill was equally fast.

The 2 main positives that i see from this situation are:
- I was training my running system, motor unit recruitment firing patterns, reflexes and other neuromuscular systems to work at a faster speed that they have in the past.
- I was running really fast and working extremely hard while running by myself without a team mate to push me or a trainer to crack the whip.

It was massive.

I'm a little disappointed I've only discovered the saddle of speed this late, however I reckon i'll get on it a few more times before we head over in 3 weeks. I reckon its worth a try boys. I think the down hill bit shouldn't be much more that 20-30m at the start as I don't know if i could have kept up the speed to say upright over a longer distance at this stage. It is also great to have an uphill to blast out of it with.


Looking forward to hearing how you guys are all going. Lets get that average up to 9 sessions this week, its a great short term goal to be chasing. Lets run for each other this week boys, I need you guys to be reading and writing on here so i know that i'm running for more than just myself.
It keeps me going when i'm hurting and only part way through my sessions.

See you soon

Mike

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!

running training, many sprints

Sydney training was pretty grouse last night.

- Found a spot out the back and threw with Gus for half an hour. Really happy with improved vertical jump. Can get better though.

- 10 of us warmed up with plyos, stretching, then got into pushup–sprints. x 30.

- Next were the box jumps. We didn’t have any boxes so we just did 2 vertical jumps in succession. Sprints were then added to this.

- Divided into 2 groups, and did 25m sprints with staggered / handicapped starts. x 20.

- Kept same groups and sprinted 25m to a cone and back with staggered starts. x 12.

- Next were run throughs, turning 90 degrees, sharply at a cone. This developed into chasing someone in front, grabbing a t-shirt from their shorts after the cone.

- Last was dead man carry. 2 people carry a person hanging onto 2 metal poles - 100m. This was a competitive relay so everyone had to be carried once. x 3.

Great work lads.

Lonesome afternoon in Homebush

Preface: I am not a huge fan of these things, but will do my best to encourage and entertain.

Howdy All!

Spending the morning and early afternoon on the computer, I figured I would get out and do a plyos session as I have yet to partake. I went to the website, which is well constructed, and printed out Owen's session and was on my way. Got dressed into my Philipines jersey from Beach Worlds and was pretty pumped to remember the highlights of a successful campaign. Put some tunes on and headed on my way, yogging to the field. I set up the session with a 10 meter mark and 15 meter mark, as all the plyos distance on owen's session said to do for 10m and run out the last 5m, and it looked way too easy, so decided to overhaul the distances and improv them. I believe it turned into a 25 meter and 35 meter, respectively. I ran around and did some dynamic warming up, high knees, butt kicks, side to side, grapevine, and so forth, and then got into it. Before we get into the nuts and bolts, I figured I would make my Advanced English lit teacher proud and remember SOAPS (Setting, Occasion, Audience, Perspective, I forget the last S) and therefore enlighten you to my surroundings.

I was next to the beautiful lake, dreary due to rain and the sunless sky, invaded by precipitous creatures looking to occupy all that is blue, but nonetheless magnificent for its serenity and fortitude. The park was damp and lackluster without the rays penetrating the once illustrious sky. A man was flying a kite giving a calm, warm feel to the whole event. Trees surrounding the land, occupying the perimeter of the park, giving me a terrestrial island paradise with which to train.

So onto the workout. It went as follows:
A1 X 2 for 25m, run through 10m, jog back
A2 X 2 for 25m, run through 10m, jog back
B1 X 2 for 25m, run through 10m, jog back
B2 X 2 for 25m, run through 10m, jog back

Motorbike X 2 for 35m, twice with each leg
Bunny hops X 2 for 25m, jog back
Ponies X 5 - 15 reps

Zig Zag bounds X 2 for 35m, jog back

Burpies X 3 - 10 reps with 25m run out

Cool down - stretch, then jog the perimeter of the park, repeat till all stretching was done.

It was good...

East Perth Plyo Pad

Dingos,

Haven't had a report from out west so thought I might pencil in a recent discovery last night. I left work a little early with the intention of doing some fartlek running around the river.

Cali Steve's been going on about box jumps for ages and I have been keen as to get into them but have struggled to find anywhere suitable to do it. My gym crappy stadium seating isn't really ideal.

Anyway low an behold about 500m into my run I come across some nice sandstone fencing which built on a hill varies in height from about 30 cm to 100cm. Score ..... I found box!!! Did three sets of 10 at about 50-60 cm. I then started jogging again noticing some hills that would be good to run a few circuits around. I felt inspired by Matt's metal workouts out Macquarie Uni so I ran down to the Swan river foreshore and sprinted up this hill and began a 800m circuit that I was going to do. As I jogged around some swanky houses attempting to recovery from the hill sprint I came back down to the foreshore and was amping up for my next attempt about 200m away when I looked to my right and found this beautiful patch of grass leading up the Swan's banks to the aforementioned swanky houses. 20 m flat section, then 70 m hill @ 10% incline, meant for hill sprints so up I went, it gets tough towards the end but felt good, so I thought I' d knock over 10. As a jogged back down the slope about halfway along and slighty to the left I noticed a nice park bench where I decided to do some split jump things that Kai had us do the other week. Knocked over a cheeky 20 then ran back down for my second sprint. Again not to bad and another 20 jumps for good luck. Third time up ...... has the hill got steeper?? starting to feel a little slow. Anyway I kept up with the 20 jumps after each sprint until I reached my seventh sprint at which point I decided to reduce the times between sprints. The last four sprints were a struggle, as I did them I was thinking of Gladiators the night before and how I was laughing at the poor buggers that fell down on the travellator. I'd be going backwards on that thing. I gritted the teeth though and got through them until I reached my last one. Alright, leave nothing in the tank this time. What can I do to inspire me this last sprint? and I immediately thought of chasing Chase SB deep for the disc. I hate these guys, and any other mofos that want to take gold from the Dingos!!! ...... and it really drove me in the absence of someone else pushing you. Not really sure if it was fast as I wasn't timing but it felt like I flew up that hill for the last one.

I then strode back down the hill sucking in the air and the rain that started falling was a nice little cool down. I then began a series of plyo excercises, or at least the ones I could remember.

Anyway despite being buggered at the end of the session, I was utterly stoked to find this place. Perfect for some sprints and plyo work and just on a 1km from my place.

Bring it on for the next four weeks!

Denyer

monday evening throw

Lads,
Went out for a throw this evening down the road. There was a bit of rain around which meant I had to focus on catching and a firm release on the throw.
I then did 12 x 40m sprints with 60m recovery, concentrating on leg drive and then arm drive on acceleration.
Looking forward to training tomorrow.

Here are some pics from TC4 to change it up a bit.