Fitness Opportunities

Since I started my family I have struggled to find time for fitness. Gone are the days when I could spend hours at the gym lifting weights, playing basketball, running, or practicing hot yoga. So I have to look for fitness opportunities throughout my regular daily life to keep up my baseline level of fitness.
Here are some of the hidden fitness gems I have discovered:

• always take the stairs
• stair workout breaks at 10am and 3pm
• pull-ups at the playground
• chasing my kids in a game of tag
• morning push-ups before coffee
• riding my bike or walking to work
• a set of lunges or other plyos on my walk to a meeting

Some of these might be hard for those of you who commute long distances to work and some of these make you look goofy (lunges in the hallways). If you do drive, try parking as far away as possible and take a brisk walk in. If someone looks at you funny while you are on your 20th crossover lunge, just smile as you feel the burn.

UCC 2007 - Retirement?

I have now played competitive ultimate frisbee for 20 years. I went to UPA Club Nationals with HOSS (Wilmington, NC-based masters) in 2004 but we couldn't make it back in 05 and 06 so the team kind of disbanded for 07.

So I went to try-outs (52 candidates) and made the Boneyard 2007 Raleigh/Durham masters roster of 31. Boneyard beat Hoss in the 2/3 game to go in Pittsburgh last year and finished dead last at UCC 2006. This year the team was more serious with practices twice a week. I made a fair amount of these (the drive from Winston to Durham was never more than 90 minutes each way but still a pain).

My goals all year were to a) get to nationals, and b) perform my best mentally and physically while there. In years past I have often peaked too early in the season and have gone into regionals beat up from various injuries. This year I paced myself but doing light workouts between practices and not playing any other ultimate such as fall league and what not.

Boneyard went 4-3 at the UCC losing to the top 3 finishing teams and beating the top 4 finisher. Officially we took 9th place but we could probably argue an honorary 6/7 spot since our pool was so stacked.

I played 43 total points with 3.5 miscues (drops, throw-aways, or decision errors) and 4 fantasy points. Since I am a primary handler I don't get to throw many assists or catch many goals but if touches were measured I would be in above 150 range I would guess.

Boneyard was a fun team to play with and I learned a lot still. I am supposed to retire this year but if I move to RDU (or to a city with a good masters team) I could play again next year. I always like having something tangible to train for other than every day baseline fitness.

I'd like to do a few 5K runs this spring and perhaps a half marathon in the summer. Ah running. Hate it.