Pre Playoff Review

The Knights play against the Storm in the Elimination Final this evening.  The winner goes through to a Semi Final series of upto three games against the Blades (the other Semi Final is already set to be between the Flyers and Rangers).  We have entered the serious end of the season.  As such, now is a good opportunity to review the regular season just concluded, from both an individual and a team perspective.

My Season - GP 16 G 2 A 3 Pts 5 +4 10/4/1/1 PIMs 14


I played my second entire season in defence, didn't miss a game and had no serious injury events.  More than half of the season we have played with only three on defence.  I have generally been on the first pairing and had more time on ice than my partners.  My game has become much more physical, primarily crease clearing in the early season, graduating to board battles in the corners as time passed.  A perhaps necessary consequence of developing my physical game has been an accumulation of penalties.  I have also developed a tendency to join the rush and have skated coast to coast on a number of occasions.  Apart from games where my health was suffering I have finished games skating stronger than at the start.

My decision making has improved through the season, particularly when without the puck. Examples include taking my man, covering the rush, controlling the gap and keeping them on the outside, maintaining coverage in front of the net, setting up on the blue line and general weak side play and have all been reasonable to good. 

I have not been so consistent with the puck on my stick, still having a tendency to find the opposition D on the blue when trying to clear up the boards from our zone or to ice the puck when there isn't enough pressure to warrant this.  More head-up play is probably my best tactic to adopt to counter these failings this late in the season.

The increased physical performance has come about due a much more coherent pre-season training schedule than last year, training through the mid-season break and intelligent dietary choices (especially on game day).  My improved technique and reading of the play has come about through a combination of accumulating experience and making the majority of team training sessions.  Personal and team training combined have led to improved confidence, smarter play and a good foundation to rely upon as we enter the playoffs.

The Knights - 4th on the ladder G 54 (3rd) PIMs 108 (2nd)* SA 245 (1st) GA 37 (4th)
*if Stewy's ridiculous game suspension for momentarily removing his helmet prior the handshake at the end of a game is discounted (it triggered a major shakeup amongst officials with the responsible referee losing his position as head ref), we come in at between 4th and 6th in the penalty rankings.

It has been a good season for the Knights, especially considering that our roster was depleted of Bacon and then Matt before the xmas break.  We have a total of only eleven on the roster (plus Tommy the goalie) as we enter the playoffs, but are a fairly tight unit and usually field at least nine or ten skaters.  By comparison, the Storm generally fields thirteen skaters (occasionally twelve) while the Blades and Flyers generally only have eight or nine.

The primary stat of significance to me as a defender is that we have allowed less shots on goal than any other team.  We will need to continue to do this.

All in all, we have a competitive team who can push any of the other playoff teams and, puck gods smiling, beat them.  Certainly the Blades aren't invulnerable should we make our way past the Storm this afternoon.  IF we can keep healthy through the playoffs, we'll give them a shake.

Perhaps equally important, if we can keep the bulk of this team together for next season (and there are many signs that most if not all intend to return) and recruit a couple more useful rookies in the interim, then we will truly be a force to be reckoned with!

Let's go Knights!

Endings - Wheelers and Pre-Season

The winter inline season and my Pre (ice hockey) season ended within a few days of each other.  The summer inline season starts with training on the 7th of October and the first game on the 10th.  That's all within sixteen days.  Events have already got away from me as I post this (2 unblogged Knights games) so the reader will have to forgive me if this review of what has been is not as in-depth a post as it ideally should be.

Endings I - Wheelers Winter Season

We lost in the Grand Final against our Divisional foes, the Bumpers.  This was not only the end of the season but also the end of the current team formations.  This is because this Summer we are being encouraged to form our own teams, choose our own names, select our own jerseys (more on that later).  The organisers are of the belief that the Division has matured enough to allow for self formed teams (rather than centralised drafting for need).  As such, it seems appropriate to look back.

In the season just passed we fielded six skaters more often than not.  This was a major change from the past.  Our lines stabilised by the playoffs, albeit not entirely due on rink performance (a consequence of having two family groups, each with their own internal issues to juggle).  In this regard, the stats of Josh and Crystal look very good offensively but that was to at least some extent a result of putting our best defence with them (Merrilyn).  In goal, after a bit of chaos initially we settled in with Nicole between the pipes.  I think she was finding her game by season end.

In the longer term, I have played 48 games with the Wheelers across four seasons during which I went to four grand finals, won gold once and received an MVP.  My regular season stats have steadily improved over time but my post season stats remain woeful.

                                                               Regular Season          Post Season
                                                               GP   G   A  Pt     PPG
13/14 Summer C Grade    Wheelers     5     3   1   4      0.8     (3/1/0/1 0.33)   Silver
14      Winter        DivII        Wheelers   10    8   7   15    1.5      (2/0/0/0  0.00)  Gold MVP
14/15 Summer     Div II       Wheelers   12   12   8  20    1.67    (2/1/0/1  0.50)   Silver
15      Winter        Div II       Wheelers   12   11  14 25    2.08    (2/0/1/1  0.50)   Silver

Endings II - Ice Hockey Pre-Season

After a false start I began an off-season strength and conditioning program on July 1st.  I kept to my schedule pretty well for the first month, and then maintained an acceptable level of commitment through to the start of the season.  I had noticeable gains in leg, core and upper body strength, aerobic capacity and anaerobic performance, quickness and agility.  As the program wore through its second and into the third month I derived a great deal of satisfaction from my commitment itself, the activities themselves and the almost daily challenges such a program poses.

At the end of eleven weeks I was regularly going for a run, interval training, using a HR monitor (thanks Jess for the loan!) and pushing weights (again, thanks Jess!).  To a limited extent I'll be bringing all of these activities forward into the season proper, for both their game specific values AND the intrinsic pleasure I derive from them in themselves.  Who would have guessed it?

As to the value of the program, it was well worth it!  I had a small amount of weight gain (a primary goal of mine for years) and increased performance on many health related indicators.  Perhaps more importantly, the value has already shown itself in my inline games and the first two games of the ice hockey season.  They show themselves particularly in the following ways...

Increased ability to skate a shift and a game out
Better decision making through a game (due being less fatigued)
Decreased recovery time between both shifts and games
Greater strength along the board and in the crease
Quicker and faster
Increased confidence.
Greater knowledge about my own and other's bodies and physical capacity

All in all, a great advance in both my hockey and life potential.

Skating to the Smooth Sounds

On Wednesday night last week I went for a skate during public hours, seeing as A Grade hockey is over for the season and Wednesdays therefore return to being public scouting with Steve the DJ and his classic rock repertoire.  There were about a half dozen youthful figure skaters doing their thing prior some competition and maybe a dozen or so other skaters who were there for (most) of the time I was. 

It will get busier as people get used to Wednesday nights being open again so it was nice to take advantage of the relatively clear ice.  I'd been a bit slack on my training in the final week of pre-season (ie. none) so I wanted to use the time as well I could to help me be ready as the first game of the season was the following night.  As my most recent skating experience had been at the Inline Final four days earlier I thought some practice with my edges and basic skating techniques (as well as an implied Cardio Respiratory workout) was probably the best I could achieve. 

So that's what I did for ninety minutes, concentrating particularly on recovery periods, pivots, stride technique and tight turns.

Was nice to be back on a Wednesday night again.

Ice 37
 

Off Season Day 81 - Week 11

Sep 13 Rest
Sep 14 Rest
Sep 15 Stickhandling, Run
Sep 16 Arms, Vikings Training
Sep 17 Run
Sep 18 Ice (sprints)
Sep 19 Wheelers Game 

September 13 and 14 were rest days.  Significantly warmer than we've had for months.  On the 14th I was at the Ice Arena to watch the final period of the Bantams Grand Final before returning a Peewee jersey and then again in the evening to watch the opening game of the C grade season between the Kings and the Predators.

On September 15 I spent almost twenty minutes in the morning doing some stickhandling practice.  Around midday I went for a run - 22 min, 55% in or above Zone 3, Avg HR 139, Max HR 169.  It is interesting that I was 3 minutes quicker than the previous run, despite having 7 walking periods this time (was 4 last time).  Again, I returned to running from walking mode as soon as HR dropped to 120.  I was using my breathing as the guide to when I thought I was getting close to 120, and then looked at the wrist unit of my loaned HR monitor to fine tune the time of commencement of my running.  which I was generally able to .  I was feeling it in the calf muscles more severely than the other day, I suspect because I haven't been eating as much as I should have the last few days.

On September 16 I started the day with a change up in the Arms routine.  I have now dropped the weight on the 'heavy' lifts to 4kg (plus 1kg for the bar) per dumb bell, and 2kg plus bar for the 'light' lifts, increased the number of reps to 15 per set and dropped recovery time between sets to 30 seconds.  I did two circuits.  Emphasis now has changed almost entirely to muscle endurance and power (previous weeks emphasised muscle building).  All done in less than 20 minutes.

In the evening I went to Gawler for Vikings Training.  I wore the heartrate monitor.  Sadly, wiped the data not long after seeing it, but memory serves to say that I had 66 minutes of data, about 3% of time below Z1 and over 60% of time in or above Z3, Max HR 197(!) and Avg was 148.  I put a lot of effort into the session, but recovered reasonably well when required and was still strong at the end (though the fading point wasn't far away).  The monitor said I burned over 800 calories.

Drills included variants of 1 on 1 race/battle/shoot from prone, the game of building numbers from 1 on 1 to potentially 1 on 4, one with one passing/protection game, 4 on 4 shinny and red rover.  A dozen skaters and one goalie.  I got given some good advice about keeping my stick in front of me rather than to a side when protecting a puck from an opponent behind me.

On September 17 I went for a run in the late morning.  Ran in spurts that took HR out to 155-165 then walked until dropped back to low 120s before running again.  Recovery HR dropped about 20 per minute, fairly consistent.  22 min, 15 min (65%) Z 2&3, Avg 138, Max 166.

On September 18 I made up for getting too late to training the night before by getting the rink in the morning 7of an already busy day and putting in a half hour of drills, including a run of 5 line sprints with 2 min recovery periods.  Probably 60 stops and pivots and half that of undercut takeoffs.  Time 30 mins, 45% Z2, 5% Z3, avg HR 134, max HR 163.

On September 19 I took it easy until playing in the Vikings Div II Grand Final for the Wheelers (we lost 7-3).  We kept to our line changes generally speaking, I double shifted only maybe twice (to take advantage of a Power Play and to work on the Penalty Kill).  I didn't have a HR monitor on (I forgot to bring it) but was pulling my breathing down to the 120 level within the minute during each recovery period, had energy to spare for the needs of each shift, didn't hold back on pushing myself to the limit when required.

On fitness and conditioning scales, in other words, I have reached the pass mark.  In terms of speed, I wasn't particularly aware of any failing.  Similarly with strength battles, whether on the boards or over a puck (including against a significantly larger stronger opponent).  Coped with knockdowns and slashing incidents well.  Overall, I am happy with my level of preparation for the ice season.

Week 11 in summary: am starting to scale back on strength, aerobic and, in effect, agility training, increasing the proportion of time devoted to on-ice activity and anaerobic conditioning in particular.  I failed to perform agility or speed exercises, so this will have to be commenced within Week 12 and I'll have to work on it during the early part of the season.  Overall for Week 11, a yellow grade.

Inline 54 & 55
Ice 36
 

Off Season Day 74 - Week 10

Sep  6 Rest
Sep  7 Stickhandling
Sep  8 Stickhandling, Ice (sprints)
Sep  9 Arms, Legs, Stickhandling
Sep 10 Rest
Sep 11 Ice (Sprints)
Sep 12 Stickhandling, Arms, Run

On September 6 I had another rest day.  The previous two days had wiped me out.  This almost continued through September 7, saved only by 15 minutes of stickhandling late in the evening after another busy day.  Of hockey interest amongst the day's business was the fact that I came into possession of a heart rate monitor for use in training and attended registration/orientation for the upcoming C Grade season.

In the morning of September 8 I had another 15 minute stickhandling session, then went down the Ice Arena in the afternoon.  I was down there for an hour and a half, but spent much of the time chatting with Rick (a fellow Viking who will be playing with the Blades in C Grade) as he got some new skates.  I again drilled myself based upon Corey's class from the week before.  I conducted four line sprints up the ice with two minute intervals between each thirty second sprint.  I wore the HR monitor at the Arena.  My peak HR was 167.  Getting to know the equipment.

On September 9 I did strength circuits for arms and legs and fifteen minutes of stickhandling.  Peak HR for arms circuit was 148, peak for legs was 137.  Both were completed within 30 minutes.

September 10 was a rest day.

On September 11 I went to the Arena for a concentrated 40 minute session.  Only had half the ice to work with as the other half was in use for hockey training (Ice Factor schools program).  For my sprints I went from Red to Blue lines and vica versa.  Six lengths were under 30 seconds, so I did seven (between 35s and 40s).  I did five of these sprint circuits, two minute recovery periods.  Spent approximately equal time for the remainder of the period on leg recovery and extensions during stride (forwards and backwards), transitions, pivots, stops, tight turns, cross unders and backwards first steps.  Peak HR was 173, avg was 133, 39% of time was spent in 'zone 3' of HR and 11% was above.  Despite the higher intensity and density of the session I felt less exhausted afterwards than I have previously, so I guess it is having a conditioning effect.

On 12 September I started the day early with 15 minutes of stickhandling, shortly afterwards followed by a short (10 minutes) arms session.  For the weights my heartrate averaged 111, maxed at 134, 1m30s in Zone 2.  In the dusk I ran my old run - 25 minutes, 50% in Zone 3 or above (5%), average HR of 135, maxed at 161.  Easing back into it as it's been 2 weeks since I last went running.  Ran it easy, with four walks.  During each walk I waited till breathing had returned to close to normal before setting off again (HR was between 116 and 123 when I felt comfortable with the breathing).

Week 10 summary: a yellow rating for this week, managed to pull it together due to my visits to the Ice Arena (with interval training) and run this afternoon.  I didn't, sadly, get in any agility training, downgrading what would otherwise have been a green rating.  The two big things that have happened were the confirmation that I am a Knight on Registration night and coming into possession of a heart rate monitor loaned me by Jess.  

The Knights have a bye in the first week of the season, playing our first game on September 24.  Which is almost two more weeks of preparation than I'd most recently thought would be the case.  Have added two weeks to the sidebar off season schedule.

Ice 34 & 35

Off Season Day 67 - Week 9

Sep  3  Stickhandling, Arms, Knights Training
Sep  4  Rest
Sep  5  Rest

In the morning of 3 September I backed up my efforts from the day before with a rapid fire strength session.  I kept recovery times to a minute or less between sets as the emphasis shifts from muscle building to endurance, and increasing the tempo of the actual lifts themselves (particularly adding an explosive push to full extension, rather than the more usual deceleration, as hockey is a game of explosive acceleration).  Good session.

Followed this up with a fifteen minute stickhandling session.  Still keeping it simple, concentrating on cupping the golfball as I move it either way through loops and figure eights, and where on the blade (ie toe or heel) it is held when I tap it away from or closer to my body.  Again, persistence is paying off and am gaining a lot more control at moderate speed.

Finally, I went to a good Knights training session in the evening.  Close to twenty people turned up, including two goalies.  Was still skating strong at the end of the evening.  Could really feel the positive impact of my training in a number of ways (eg. anaerobic energy recovery, strength in moving people off the puck).  I'd also had my skates sharpened as one of them was blunt as shit, this made a huge difference and I am now able to keep within defence range of all but the most skilled opposition.

One of the goalies commented to me after the session that I was doing good at clearing the shooters away, if not the puck itself.  Most hearteningly, I was connecting a lot more with simple poke checks and stick sweeps when in the D role.  The pieces seem to be fitting together.  Finally!  Let's hope this translates into match play.

I then had two rest days on 4 and 5 September.  This was not necessarily by choice.  Rather, due the fact that I was flat chat busy on both days with kids and had neither time nor energy left over for hockey pursuits.

In summary, week 9 started strong but finished quietly and with an orange rating due failure to train on three days in total.  Never the less, I kept up a significant effort for anaerobic and stickhandling/skill based work, which is where I should be at this point of pre-season.

Ice 33
  

Off Season Day 64

Aug 30 Rest
Aug 31 Stickhandling, Agility
Sep  1  Ice, Stickhandling
Sep  2  Legs, Vikings Training


On August 30 I was getting over a long weekend and so made it my third rest day in a row.  Not a regular practice (it gets harder to start up again with each day off) but it was nice to give the body a break as I enter the stretch period before the ice season starts.

On August 31 I started simple, with 20 minutes stickhandling in the morning and an opportunist chance to do some agility exercises during a quiet moment during an evening engagement (with no other opportunity to do more (such as Power & Edges) this was as good as it got - almost but not quite another day of rest).

On September 1 I started spring with 15 minutes of stickhandling and then went down the Ice Arena at midday for 45 minutes of concentrated effort.  Went through all the basic technical points Corey had led us through the week before and then powered through three sets of line sprints for some conditioning training.  A complete sprint set took 30s, I gave myself 2 1/2 minutes between each sprint set.  It was easier to do than the previous occasion.  Intention is to increase the number of sets and reduce the recovery times before season starts.

In the morning of September 2 I powered through my complete set of leg exercises (sans squats and lunges) in thirty minutes.  Felt a lot better for it, noticed how I was able to complete full sets of everything (including 3 sets of 10 leg raises) with bare seconds between exercises to fit it in the time available, pleased.

In the evening I was at Gawler for resumption of Vikings training.  There were only ten people there so it was a fairly free flowing but continual session.  Shooting to start with, followed by variants of the house drill (with only two forwards and one chasing D, adding a backchecking D and passing elements), finishing with a expanding battle game that grew from 1 to 5 players per side depending how the game developed.  Great fun.

Ice 32
Inline 53

Off Season Day 60

27 August Legs, Ice (tech/sprints), Stickhandling
28 August Rest
29 August Rest

August 27 began with a morning legs workout before breakfast.  Brought back supine lateral leg lifts to the mix (ten each side for 5s) and traditional and figure four squats (sets of ten for the former, five each leg for the later).

In the afternoon I went down the Ice Arena for a fairly concentrated 45 minute session.  I did the various drills Corey had led us through on Monday, with the addition of several repetitions of my (wide) lateral line drill and three line sprints as an anaerobic workout.

In the evening I spent about twenty minutes on a lino floor with golf ball and hockey stick.  Am already noticing the difference in the softness of my hands and, correspondingly, in the increased degree of control of the ball.

I then went up country with the Missus on August 28 and 29.  I took the opportunity to concentrate on what was happening around me in the world, didn't even think of hockey for a couple days, let alone maintain my off season program.  As long as I get back into it sooner rather than later the break will do me no harm, and quite probably will add to my overall progress as I enter the final intense fortnight before the season starts.

Overall for Week 8 I think I did okay.  I have given the week a 'yellow' rating because for once I ticked all of the boxes, albeit didn't really reach required level for either aerobic (only one run) or anaerobic (counted my ice line sprints, but still did no hardcore interval training) activity.  It will be interesting if I can get back to green entries during the stretch.

Ice 31

Off Season Day 57

Aug 23 Run, Agility, Stickhandling
Aug 24 Arms, Legs, Ice Power & Edges
Aug 25 Rest
Aug 26 Arms, Agility, Stickhandling

In the evening of August 23 I forced myself to get ready and go for a run.  More of a wind than there has been before, still daylight, cool to cold.  I hadn't ran for five days so I knew it wouldn't be the easiest.  Which it wasn't, I had four walking periods of varied length which I used by being 'mindful' of the breathing/muscle/heart/brain interactions as I recovered for the next running phase.  I did, however, push it harder during the actual running through the middle phases, reaching pretty high running speeds along the river, to the school and on the final short slope to home.  Total time was 21 minutes.

After getting my breathing fully back I moved straight into a set of Agility exercises.  I built up what I'd done last week except that I increased the reps to six for each set and kept count of my best score amongst those reps in each set.  Will be interesting to measure the improvement now that the actual movements are pretty well secured in my neuromusculature.

Later in the evening I took the opportunity  to do some stickhandling training  during a twenty minute break between other, more domestic, activities.  I limited myself to two 'sets' each of two simple drills.  I will try to get the neuromuscular imprint fixed before working up the speed (treating this as an extension of agility training methodology).

The first drill involves facing a coffeetable from about 3 feet away, lay a hockey stick on the table edge with the grip end at my feet so as to form a diagonal obstacle between the edge of the table and my feet, then tap a golfball from one side of the obstacle to the other, performing whatever variants on the basic pattern I feel like doing at the time.  This drill requires the upper hand to pull/push the stick through the relatively stationary lower hand to control the height of the blade off the ground.

The second drill has two tins on the ground about shoulder width apart and about 18" in front of me, using them to form various improvasitional deking patterns, again using the lower hand to both rotate the stick for forehand/backhand sides but also to raise and lower the stick through the lower hand depending upon where the golf ball is.

I did each drill for about two minutes, twice.

In the morning of August 24 I did an arms workout.  2 circuits of ten reps each set, 1 minute recoveries between sets.  I backed this up with an almost full circuit of leg drills (minus lunges and squats, though I did Sumo Squats).  In both legs and arms sessions I reached the stage of moderate fatigue by the end of most sets.

In the evening I went down the Ice Arena for a 'Power and Edges for Ice Hockey' session with Corey.  Besides the technical side of things it was also a good anaerobic workout.  A short slalom event of tight turns and stops, crossovers (lateral extensions and cross under), T starts (glides), outside edges, backwards take off and first step (cross under on first couple steps), transitions, several long 'sprints' around all the circles incorporating above, line sprints, balance, recovery, core strength. A good hour.

August 25 I declared a rest day.

August 26, in the morning I completed an arms workout paced by agility exercises during my 1 minute recovery periods, and then completed the agility circuit, with six reps per set.  Have now added the wide variant to the lateral line drill, which is introducing distinct pylometric aspect to training.

In the evening I had about fifteen minutes stickhandling on the lino in the kitchen with a golf ball and my Bauer stick.  The lino is conveniently marked out in a grid composed of 6" squares which makes it fairly easy to create standard (and not so standard) patterns designed to exercise the various technical components of the act of stickhandling.

Ice 30

Off Season Day 53 - Week 7 Summary

Aug 21 Ice
Aug 22 Wheelers Game

On August 21 I went down to the Arena for an hour's skate in the afternoon.  Had half the ice due Ice Factor team practice on the other half.  Shared the space with a couple figure skaters.  I spent about ten minutes in recovery time.

Individual drills which I did were sideways walking, stops, first 'stride' backwards, first stride from transition (backwards to forwards), power stride recovery action, pivots.  Most technical was the exit from forwards transition onto the left leg.  Most measurable gain was power stride recovery. Least satisfactory were the pivots.

On August 22 I played in the Wheelers' Round 1 win in winter season finals.  We played with six skaters and thus were able to avoid double shifting.  Had a lot of energy left in the tank for the final minutes, could have played out another period.  Very physical game where strength on puck came into it, leg and core up to the task.  Several comments afterwards about apparent increase in my 'speed'.  I didn't think this while playing. 

What was noticeable to me, however, was that I spent more of my time in a 'high energy state' than is usual (ie. race to shut down uncontested space, open up a lane, etc).  This elevation in intensity came about due to increase in ability (physical strength and first step technique) as well as willingness to do so (no holding back energy for potential double shift, fact it was a final), wasn't an increase in speed per se.  That's what I think, anyway.

Week 7 Summary

I have only given myself an 'orange' rating for this past week.  Again, I didn't make quota on anaerobic conditioning (interval training) nor on Off Ice Technique (stickhandling).  I did make the cut on everything else, however, which wasn't too bad considering it was a rather busy week.

Ice 29
 

Off Season Day 51

Aug 18 Rest
Aug 19 Agility, Arms, Vikings Training
Aug 20 Knights Training

On August 18 I had finally had a rest day.  Although I moved some big furniture around and up stairs the rest of the day was casual and relaxed.  Calf muscles were almost crippling first thing in the morning, but within a few hours the tenderness had reduced to some quite specific points deep within the lower calves and there was no pain to speak of for the rest of the day.  I am thinking it was an extreme case of 'muscle soreness'.

I took advantage of the mild winter weather on August 19 to do my agility drills out under the back veranda.  Took about 20 minutes to go through sets of Forward and Backward Line Drills, Lateral Line Drill, Split Leg Shuffle and Split Leg 45' Shuffle.  Reps were between five and ten seconds each for the line drills, five seconds for the much simpler shuffle patterns.  I did five reps per set and kept the rest intervals between sets to 25 seconds.  The patterns were less confusing to my feet than they had been the first time I tried them.

I went straight from my Agility circuit to my arm strength circuit.  Kept up patterns of twin circuits of ten reps for each type of lift.  I am trying to increase the tempo of the lifts themselves, and have now reduced recovery time to 1 minute.  I might hold it here for a while as this was a challenge at a couple of moments in the circuit.

A couple hours later I set off for Vikings Training at Gawler.  There was a fair stress on anaerobic conditioning, with two sets of 'suicide sprints' (line sprint interval training) and a couple commando crawls.  My upper body strength was quite handy for the pushups and the commando crawl but my anaerobic threshold needs to be raised to be able to compete at the higher intensity of sustained anaerobic activity.

On August 20 I limited myself to going to Knights' training.  Don't want to inadvertently overwork myself in the leadup to Vikings finals and the season opener on the ice (besides, I was pretty darn busy sorting things out around the house). Coped pretty well with the aerobic and energy demands, lacking a bit in core strength (sore afterwards) and will need to brush up on skating techniques.

Off Season Day 48

Aug 15 Vikings Games
Aug 16 Arms
Aug 17 Agility, Run, Legs

In the afternoon and evening of August 15 I played in two games of inline hockey at Gawler.  This was the second week in a row I've done this.  I think I coped with it better despite both games being more demanding than their counterparts from the week before.  Importantly, the next morning I was nowhere near as sore either.

The first game had been four v four (ie. only one on the bench for each team) and every player could skate.  Thus, recovery periods were short and shifts were long and one had to be disciplined.  In the second game I played the role of 'responsible reserve' and tended to give as much time as they wanted to the team's own players.  This time, though, there were only two 'naturals' playing with us, so that led to more and harder minutes than the week before.

My aerobic recovery on the bench was sufficient to the task in both games and I was able to sustain play through extended shifts allowing others to recover.  Keeping my legs moving as soon as I had regained breath and, importantly, through the period between the games dissipated much of the lactic build up I was probably suffering and, I think, made a big difference the following morning.

The improvement from the week before is probably most due to a 'conditioning effect', of knowing what to expect (allowing conscious mindfulness) and having prepared the body for the experience (freeing up the mind).  Although I had eaten sufficient for the task through the day, probably the easiest way to further improve my performance will be through better dietary energy loading.

On August 16 I was still a little fatigued (though less than I had been in the previous week) and thus was again in danger of declaring the day an unplanned 'rest day'.  I did manage, however, to motivate myself to the extent of doing an arms session, usual weights, two circuits of ten reps, cutting the recovery time from 90s to 75s.

On August 17 I commenced my new life as a self funded layabout (having taken a package in return for my day job) so I put my status to good use and spent about ninety minutes on training activities.  I started with 25 minutes of agility drills, limiting myself to the four 'easiest' of them and trying to keep all movements slow and measured so I can drill into my neuromuscular self the movements needed before I step up the pace.  I did five reps of each drill, limiting myself to about the 5s per rep that is recommended for beginners with 25s recovery periods.

I found that by the end of the fifth rep I generally had the gross movement patterns down and was starting to concentrate on the 'popping' of the steps (removing the pause between contraction and extension motions), the point of the exercise.  If the motions are drilled in it will be interesting to see how the quickness develops in the next agility session.  For the record the four agility drills I commenced today were Forward (and Backward) Line Drill, Lateral Line Drill, Split Leg Shuffle and Split Leg 45' Shuffle.

I then went for my usual run.  I didn't stop to stretch and walked only twice (about 100m each time).  I was taking smaller steps than in past due pain in my calves from some ill considered isometrics I was doing yesterday (serves me right, I should know better) so my time was still relatively slow at 24 minutes.  Going at the slower pace, however, also allowed me to be a little more fine tuned with my breathing awareness, able to track VO2 efficiency (I suppose) against energy demand as I varied the pace.  Hopefully the legs feel better tomorrow.

To finish off the day's exercise I spent about a half hour going through my core leg exercises.  I left hardly any time between sets, and generally only 5-15s between reps.  Even so I didn't manage to fit the whole routine into the time available (no squats or Swedish Ball Planks).
 

IH Season announcement resets Off-Season plans.

The date of the start of C Grade competition has been announced to be Sunday, 13 September.  Registration/orientation will be Monday, 7 September.  Cost is $166 for IHSA membership, season fees won't be about $470.  I am assuming Div II will have the same number of games as last season, 18 regular season and two playoff rounds of up to 3 games each.

This is good news.  Less than a month to go!  It is a little sooner than I had expected when setting my off-season schedule so I will need to rejig it a bit.  Perhaps best to work backwards...

Sat Sep 19   -  Vikings Grand Final
Wed Sep 16 -  Vikings Training
Sun Sep 13  -  IH season commences
Mon Sep 7   -  IH registration/orientation
Sat Sep 5     -  Vikings Finals 2nd Round
Wed Sep 2   -  Vikings Training 
Wed Aug 26 - Vikings Training
Sat Aug 22  -  Vikings Finals 1st Round
Wed Aug 19 - Vikings Training

As you can see, that leaves four weeks to get ready, starting last night.  If I extend the current weekly period of my off season program ('Week 7'), commencing on Wednesday the 12th of  August, to end on Saturday the 22nd, I can fill in the gaps on what will for all intents and purposes be a 10 week schedule (though actually 74 days), with the last two weeks being effectively a blur between off season preparation and pre season training.

Wk 10 - S1, Ae2, An1, A1   Ice Team Training/Shinny 
Wk 9   - S1, Ae2, An2 intervals, A2 pylometrics   OffIce shooting,   Ice Power
Wk 8   - S2 increase tempo, Ae2, An2 intervals, A2 pylometrics,  OffIce shooting,   Ice edges
Wk 7   - S2 reduce recovery, Ae2, An2 intervals, A1 conditioning, OffIce stickwork, Ice technique

I've updated my sidebar schedule to include the above schedule in abbreviated form.

Off Season Day 45

12 Aug Run
13 Aug Legs
14 Aug Arms

In the evening of 12 August I went for a run.  Despite being much better weather conditions than the night before I found it to be relatively hard yards.  Several small walk periods, mainly to rest the legs as I recovered breath fairly fast.  No strained breathing, but not as rhythmic as the night before.  Total time 23 minutes.

In the morning of 13 August I did a 25 minute legs work out.  I minimised recovery periods to bare seconds, added one new exercise (Figure 4 squats, ten each leg).  In the time available I couldn't fit in all the exercises I now have in repertoire that target legs.

On 14 Aug I began my day with a double circuit of weights with the arms.  I am changing it up, having heard that it is now only a month till the start of ice hockey season, pushing the tempo of the reps and cutting recovery time to 90 seconds.  Definitely feel the load fatigue in the arm afterwards more than I have previously although during the lifts themselves I felt no increase in either rate of fatigue or intensity.

Off Season Day 42 - End of Week 6!

Aug 8   Vikings Games
Aug 9    Rest
Aug 10 Legs / Arms / Core
Aug 11 Run

On August 8 I played two forty minute C grade games of inline hockey at Gawler.  From a fitness and conditioning perspective the night showed my progress to date as I had energy to spare after playing the Wheeler's game early, enough to fill in competently as a reserve for the Bumpers in their game against the Shufflers.

During the first game it took about a minute on the bench after each shift to regain my composure.  Generally, I was right to go from that point and would get to my feet to indicate that I was ready to go out again.  While waiting for my next shift I would try to constantly keep my feet and legs moving on the spot as a means of minimising and delaying the onset of lactate build up.

For the second game I put myself onto pretty short minutes, essentially giving my team mates as much of a run as possible (it was, afterall, their game).  I didn't feel exhausted at all and put on the afterburners a few times on the rink to keep the game locked down for the team I was playing for.

That evening, once the endorphins had worn off, I felt the onset of fatigue.  This evolved into an overall physical tiredness the next day.

Therefore, on August 9, I declared the day to be a 'rest day'.  Which it wasn't really because I spent about five hours moving furniture in the afternoon.  Still, there were no extreme loads and I know my body appreciated it.  If I'd done Interval work as originally planned I'm sure that I'd be done for days.

In the morning of August 10 I realised that I was again at risk of falling behind schedule so spent a bit less than half an hour going through a basic Legs workout, stopping for only bare seconds between sets of the different exercises.

In the evening, due a combination of being delayed for over an hour at work and the passage of a cold front, I decided not to go for my planned run and instead do my arms workout (now two sets of ten reps each for each lift, often a killer effort required for the last lift) interspersed with core exercises in between.

I limited the periods between lifts and core exercises (and vice versa) to between five and fifteen seconds, but was careful to ensure that I didn't work out the same muscle groups on consecutive exercises and so managed to get away with it.  I spent forty minutes on the routine, making it about an hour of high density work for the whole day.  Quite productive.

Not bad for a day that wavered from being limited to a run, to being at risk of washing out in the threatened rising tide of 'rest days' (this despite the frequency of these days decreasing if I look at my activity log).  Afterwards, a general tiredness, particularly in the upper body and arms, less so through the core region (but still noticeable), and below-awareness-level in the legs (though I can feel that they got a workout recently in the weaker muscle groups).

It was a rainy evening on August 11 and again I so nearly decided to call off my limited plans and have another 'rest' day that it's scary in retrospect.  Stubborn pride, however, intervened and saved me from myself and I set off through the wet suburban streets.  I kept to the road mainly, because I could (most people, even in cars, stay inside on nights like tonight) and because it's a more stable and less potentially slippery surface than the varied materials from which our footpaths are constructed.  Didn't see any other pedestrians for the whole trip, and only about four cars in the 21 minutes I was gone.

It's been a while since I last ventured forth so I was careful to pace myself for the sake of both my breathing and my leg muscles.  There was an initial knot in my right calf muscle, not debilitating but enough to be aware of and 'manage' as I worked my way down to the river, where I ducked under a tree during the heaviest shower and did some stretches.  No more knotted muscle.

That initial period of running was probably the most painful, but it was made easier by the fact that within metres from home I was glad I was doing this (I think I actually like running for running's sake, truth be told).  After that, things got a little easier, I didn't drive myself too hard and gave myself short walks on several occasions.  My stretching stop at the school was a lot shorter than usual, and I ran the last kilometre (the hardest, hilliest kilometre) without too much effort except in the legs as I paced myself up the hill.

When I got home, my heartrate didn't seem to be elevated too much, and my breathing was pretty normal within a couple minutes (at no time had I laboured in my breathing, though as the pace picked up over the period it had definitely grown a lot more rhythmic and deeper).

With my run I qualify Week 6 on my schedule (see sidebar) as a 'yellow' pass, pretty good but didn't achieve all I had planned.  I will have to make a real effort to get some interval training underway over the coming week.

Off Season Day 38 - Back on Track.

Aug 5   - Arms, Legs
Aug 6   - Knights Training
Aug 7   - Legs, arms

By the morning of 5 August I was feeling reasonably confident about my right arm again.  It'd been four days since I had slightly strained the lower bicep and there was only a slight sensation of 'difference' so, after deciding that I hadn't had enough sleep and therefore wouldn't go to Vikings Training in the evening, it was a fairly straight forward choice to pick up the weights again.

My session lasted a full fifty minutes and was moderate to high density.  I worked my way through my entire weights circuit, peforming each set twice before moving to the next, allowing two minutes minimum between sets, all sets now of nine reps (except the overhead and chair lifts, which are ten reps).  I found myself fatiguing on the last lift of each set, though not totally.

It will be interesting to see what ten reps per set achieves, which should be by this time next week.  After that I start to shift emphasis from power to endurance, reducing recovery periods and increasing the tempo as I head into pre-season training and a maintenance schedule for the strength.

In between sets of weights I performed a complement of core exercises that worked primarily on the legs (sumos, squats, lunges, high lunges, single led balances, hamstring suspensions, sideways lying leg lifts).  I did two sets of each or on each leg, as appropriate (one during each weight recover period).  This usually left less than a minute for complete rest between the end of a drill and the start of a weights set.  Thus the 'high density' for the session overall.

At the end of it I notice that my right arm was a little more tired than the left and that my legs have returned to what passes for their normal state ('normal' since I did my PCL last year, that is), in that the right leg is more challenged than the left by most of the activities.

On August 6 I limited my exercise to a training session at the Ice Arena with fellow Knights and friends.  From a strength and conditioning perspective I coped with it much better than I have to date, most recently about a month ago.  My core feels exercised but not under done, and my leg strength was not the limiting factor to my skating.  Aerobically, I stayed within the zone, muscle fatigue was more of a challenge than running out of breath.  Anaerobically, my recovery time was 2-3 times that spent in the battle zone.  It was deficiencies in skill and technique which let me down the most.

Note to self: Progress!

August 7 was originally going to be a rest day.  This had been an easy decision as I was feeling a little stiff and sore from the night before and had a dinner engagement in the evening.  I did however manage a short twenty minute leg session in the morning (squats, high lunges, single leg balances, hamstring suspensions, side lying leg raises, sumo squats).  I did twin sets of all exercises, of each leg where appropriate.  For the leg raises, I did ten raises of ten seconds each on each leg.  And then I got home from work a bit early and so managed to do a full arms workout (10 reps in first set of each lift, 9 in the second, hitting fatigue on most) before going out for dinner.

Off Season Day 35 - End of Week 5

3 Aug - run, lower core
4 Aug - run, core

On 3 August I returned to my program.  Or at least those parts I felt safe doing.  I was able to do this because the pain in the butt that resulted from Saturday's game was almost all gone this morning and my leg movement was almost entirely free of adverse sensation (eg. when mounting the stairs).

I took my run at a slightly slower and regulated pace, keeping to a fairly inefficient technique for the running itself to shelter my muscles.  I felt I've taken quite a large step forward with my running as I managed the entire circuit with only a short break for some basic stretches in the middle.  Apart from that, I ran the whole way.  Perhaps not surprisingly (as the run consisted of smaller than usual steps and less spring in my step) my time was a good but not great 20 minutes.

Upon return home I counted my heart beats and averaged it up for a full minute.  The result was 100 beats per minute at the end of the exercise.  If I'm average for my age this is about 60% of my maximum and the least required to derive a training effect from the exercise.  Next time I'm out I'll aim at extending my paces a little, perhaps lope a bit more, push the heart rate up and the time down.

After I'd performed a few stretches at the end of my run I moved straight into a round of leg/core exercises, still respecting the fact that I am sheltering my arm muscles after their weekend strain.  Total time for the evening's exertions was 50 minutes.

 On 4 August I still was not confident regarding my arm muscle, though they could carry weight without pain in the morning there was still a discomfort.  So I gave it another rest and more or less followed the same plan as they day before, though with a greater emphasis on upper body and abdominal core exercises and a total duration of 55 minutes.

My run time was approximately the same as the day before, but heart rate had dropped significantly in comparison.  I am aware that there can be quite marked gains in the early days of any exercise program, but to drop from about a hundred to about sixty is ridiculous.  Admittedly, I felt a lot less fatigued and a lot more in control of my breathing throughout the journey, but even so...  Perhaps I need to get some sort of objective heart rate monitor?

For exercise routine, I added sumo squats and most of my Swedish ball exercises to what I did the day before.  I must have stepped up the intensity because I managed to fit it all in and still be at it only five minutes longer.

That completes week 5 of my program.  I have coloured it Yellow on the sidebar to mark the fact that I didn't complete all elements according to plan (didn't perform any interval training).  Partly because this lack was due to injury, partly because I managed to perform all other routines required, I didn't colour it orange or, worse, red, and still feel I am making significant progress each and every day.

Off Season Day 33 - Injured Recovery

2 Aug - Rest

On Sunday 2 August I had an enforced rest day due injury.  The night before I'd been thinking that due the leg muscle strain from the game the night before I wouldn't be able to do anything that activated the upper hamstring / glute interface, but I could do specially selected core exercises and strength work.  Definitely no interval training until I am ready.

Alas, this was not to be.  Because I have become naggingly aware of a right inner lower bicep strain (minor aggravation of previous hyperextension of the elbow?).  This is probably due something I did in the wee hours, lifting a bunch of heavy music gear around.  Bottom line of this, is that has put paid to arms and upper core work also.  Which basically cuts out pretty well everything.  So I spent quite a while lounging around with about twenty minutes of icing on the leg for every two to four hours.  As for the arm, am just observing the strain as I work through daily life, try and figure out if simple rest or a more active treatment is advisable.

Assuming I don't get back to the program in the next day or two, this week will be a relative write off in terms of off ice progress.  So it won't qualify for a green highlight on the sidebar chart that is up presently.  However, it's not like I've slackened off or anything, so I won't colour it red.  Maybe a neutral yellow will do.  We'll see.

In any event, I obviously didn't take up on the offer to skate as a reserve in Division I.  Hopefully I get another chance when able to take up on it.

Off Season Day 32 - hamstring

July 29 Vikings Training, Arms, Legs and lower core
July 30 Rest
July 31 Arms, Legs (core)
Aug 1  Wheelers Game, lower Core

On July 29 I went to Gawler for Vikings Training.  Upon my return home I did a workout lasting 40 minutes.  It consisted of 2 cycles of my six 'arms' sets, using 6 kg weights (plus the bars) for curls, butterfly raises and overhead lifts (10 reps for these), 4kg for forwards and sideways raises, and the coffee table for my 'chair' lifts (10 reps).  Between each of these strength exercises I performed various of my leg/lower core drills.  Namely two Sumo Squats, 2 sets of ten squats, 2 x single leg balances (3 reps per leg), 2 x hamstring plank (40s each leg), 2 sets of nine lunges (used to fit ten into the stretch of floor I use).  So it was a pretty dense session.  Had meat and bread afterwards.

I had a rest day on 30 July.  I hadn't originally planned to do so but was absolutely knackered after work and decided not to push myself any further that day.  Perhaps just as well, because the next day I felt rested and more healthy.  Just as the recovery time during a workout is perhaps the key time of the whole session, so in some ways a rest day in a longer term program.  Life gets busy for me the next couple of weeks, so I'll probably have a few more.

On July 31 I pretty much repeated my exercise routine from the 29th, with the added pleasure of performing nine reps in the second set I did of any particular strength exercise (except for those exercises which I do ten reps for anyway), and carrying weights when I performed my squats and lunges.  I'd originally planned to also go for a run, which would have given me over an hour of exercise, but time and practicality intervened so I was limited to the stay at home exercises.  I seemed to cruise through the forty minutes so I might need to step it up with something else on future occasions.

August began with a forty minute core workout, picking up on most of the exercises in my usual routine which I have not done for a few days.  I upped the intensity of the session by limiting recovery to 15 seconds between sets most of the time (up to 30 seconds if the next set of exercises would work the same or similar muscle groupings).  Thus I did 2 high lunges per leg, 2 sets of 3 seated twists, 2 side planks per side of 45s, 3 sets of 10 leg lifts, 10 McGill Curls per side, 10 thigh rock backs, 3 10s bridges, and 2 45s Swedish ball plank leg lifts per side.  I have thus extended my plank times by 15 seconds (both on floor and ball) and doubled the number of leg lifts over the past month.  I guess that's success.

In the evening I played with the Wheelers at Gawler.  In this post I will limit commentary about the game to the health and fitness aspects only, and even then only as much as they affect my off season program (and the fact that we won 6-3).  Of most significance is the fact that I appear to have strained a muscle in the upper rear leg, just beneath the big glutes.  I am icing it as I write this about six hours later, having also put an ice pack on a couple hours after the injury and a liberal dosing of arnica shortly afterwards.  I had been asked to play as a reserve in Div I game tomorrow but I think I'll have to give it a miss.  As with any other running activiy, and exercises that drive the hamstring muscle group.  If I'm lucky, I'll be back on track by Monday.  If not then, Wednesday training might be the next best restart time.  If not then, next Saturday's Wheeler's game.

Until the injury, I had thought the challenge was to work in sprints and runs as well as workouts, work and family commitments over the next few days.  Sigh.  I'm sure there's some other things I can do in the meantime however.

All part of the meta-drill.

Off Season Day 28

July 25 - Arms, Upper Core Lite, Wheelers game, lower core
July 26 - Interval sprints, Lower core Lite
July 27 - Arms, Lower core
July 28 - Run, Upper core

On Day 25 I did two circuits of 7 rep sets (6kg or 4kg loads), 20 overheads and 10 chair lifts.  I did this in the backyard seeing as it was a relatively rare sunny winter's afternoon.  Another of the benefits of working out at home.  I backed this up with a light session of upper core exercises, keeping in mind I had a game later.  I finished off with a reduced lower core circuit later in the evening after the game.  That's keen!

On Day 26 I went down to the local school oval for some anaerobic interval work.  This has to be the most grueling work I've done yet.  I started 'easy' with seven 'micro-sprints,' each of about two seconds duration, with ten seconds for recovery between each sprint.  This is supposed to strengthen the body's ATP-CP energy system.  I then had a three minute rest, followed by my first interval sprint.  I went as hard and fast as I could for what I hoped would be 30 seconds (the recommended 'break in period' interval length for this anaerobic conditioning exercise).  The idea was to do six of these with rest breaks 5 times as long between.  As if!

The first sprint reminded me of the agony that is the 200m race (which is about the distance I covered in almost thirty seconds).  I struggled to get things under control again within the allowable time limit, managed to succeed (just), and set off on my second sprint.  This one I felt most in my legs, closely followed by my lungs.  Again, at the three minute mark between sprints I was pretty ready to go, and set off for my third sprint.  This one, the legs hurt more than during any other sprint and I found myself traveling a pace or two under my top speed.

I needed four minutes before my final sprint, hadn't regained total equilibrium by that point (still minorly oxygen depleted).  During my last sprint I must have felt a bit guilty about having played the 'age card' to reduce my required reps from 6 to 4, because I pushed myself as hard as I could right across the finishing line.  It was five minutes before I could walk/run back towards home.  Strangely enough, I did a couple of core exercises (bridges and McGill Curls) a couple hours later to relieve some of the tightness in my muscles resulting from the sprints.

Killer drill.  It'll be interesting to see how these anaerobic torture sessions evolve!

Day 27 saw me revert to a more traditional routine.  Out of deference to the stiffness and soreness resulting from my sprint training, I concentrated on arms and lower core (plus a couple sumo squats).  I did only one circuit for the arms, 8 reps, 20 each of chairlifts and above head lifts.  The whole sesssion was pretty busy/'dense" (did core exercises during recovery periods for the arms, and vice versa).  I feel like I'm almost back on schedule!

On Day 28 I started with a run over my now usual circuit.  A major difference was that I went around in the opposite direction to the usual, resulting in the major hill climb occuring in the third quarter rather than the first.  I also performed my stretches before and after, rather than during.  End result, without exhaustion I managed to cut my time down to 20 minutes.  Over the coming week or two I will continue to up the pace and reduce the walking periods.  See where that gets me.

I followed up my run with about a half hour of core exercises, concentrating on upper body and using the Swedish ball.  As I get more comfortable with the individual drills I am concentrating more on which muscles are activating, how it all fits together.  At the end of the half hour I sang for about twenty minutes on the loungeroom karaoke we have, good for the breathing.

That's the end of Week 4.  Despite my earlier doubts I've accumulated enough sessions and exercises to qualify for a 'pass' and I've marked my sidebar chart accordingly.  In keeping with the plan, I step it up again over the coming week.  Looking forward to it.