100 Days are Gone!

Exactly one third of my training time is over.  I’m not sure if I’m happy or sad about that.  I definitely know that I am not yet ready to compete at Worlds. 

Since Daylight Saving Time went off at the beginning of November, I have been focusing on weight training and cardio during visits to my local YMCA.  It is too dark to play disc golf after work, so this gives me something to do every day to stay busy training.

Generally, if I have the chance, I play some disc golf on the weekends, weather permitting.  This weekend was one of those times.  Both Saturday and Sunday we had rain showers, but I considered them practice for what Worlds would be like if the day was rainy.

Let’s just say that I’m hoping that won’t be what happens in July!  Yikes!  It added a few more steps to every throw when I had to wipe each disc after it was thrown. 

I did learn a few things during practice.  

• First of all, I am getting stronger.  My throws are starting to go farther.  The remarkable thing about that is I’m not practicing the actual form of disc golf right now.  I feel very “rusty” on the rare weekend day when I can play.  Which brings me to point two:  
• There is nothing like a lot of regular practice to get my body moving the way it needs to move for maximum affect.  At my age, I need to continually work on form so that I don’t have to think about it so much during match play.  
• My foot continues to ache as it has ever since playing in Charlotte over Thanksgiving.  I think that it was so cold there that I never properly warmed up, and may have strained the tendons in my right foot. 
• So point four is that I need to warm up my joints before starting to throw.  
• Point five would be that I still need to lose more weight so that I can better tolerate all the walking/standing that is required during a round of golf.

One hundred days of training has gone by in a flash.  In four months I return to the doctor to see what my blood work shows.  That will be a good goal period to see how much more weight I can lose before the World Championships.  

In two months I will be competing at Barnett Park in Orlando, where I will have to throw over open water and make it on the island.  Good practice for throwing over water at Worlds.  In three months, I will be competing in the Sunshine State Shootout.  Another milestone as I will not have much opportunity to practice on the actual course where this competition will be held.  

At the end of May, the Orlando Open will be held at Bill Frederick Park.  This will be a perfect chance to see how much I have improved since last competing there at the first of September.

So lots of milestones are set in place.  There is still a lot of training to do, but I can see that by the time Worlds actually begins, I will be wishing that I had even more time to prepare.  

200 Days to Worlds

Out of Sorts

Last Saturday I played a round of disc golf in DeBary.  My right foot still aches a bit from when I played in Charlotte over Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if it is tendonitis, or a slight sprain, or just aching bones.  It was so cold in Charlotte, I believe that may have had something to do with it since I didn't really have much time to warm up before beginning to play.

But the really surprising thing was both last Saturday and the one before that, I played really lousy!  I was so disappointed that all the weight training I'm doing has translated back into throwing farther.

Now, I must admit that I FELT stronger even if I didn't throw better.  It seemed to take me a good 10 holes just to feel like I was in some sort of groove with my throws.  Am I tired?  Lacking practice?  Forgetting basic form?  Unable to move like a used to  6 weeks ago?

The truth is, probably all of the above is correct.  I wish I was able to throw a bit every day, but I just can't do that right now.  And with the holiday season upon us, it seems as though I have no time on the weekends either to play a couple rounds of disc golf.  I'm lucky to get one in.

My foot is another situation altogether.  I can't really put extended pressure on the foot as I'd have to during a long walk.  It seems that I've been trying to redistribute my weight on my foot which has now made other parts of the foot ache.  Most cardio involves pressure on the foot, so I'm a bit stuck right now.

I'm still going to train, lift weights, and will resume longer walks when my foot feels better.  But for right now, I'm just out of sorts when it comes to the training.

Blood Work

Today I had to go in to the doctor to have blood drawn.  One week from today I will get the results.  It will be interesting to see if there have been any changes since last time I had blood drawn which was August 8^th of this year. 

At that time I had been playing a LOT of disc golf – every night if the weather held, because I was preparing for the Southeastern Amateur Championships held over Labor Day at my home course in Orlando.  It was the first time I’d seen my new doctor after having had a kidney removed in April.  I had determined it was time for me to find a doctor who I was able to communicate.  Years of suffering with undiagnosed kidney problems resulted in me losing my left kidney.  It was clear I could not make that mistake again.  I only had one left.

My new doctor wanted to take me off of some of my medications which she did after seeing the report on my blood work.  Today’s blood tests will determine if reducing my medications had any affect on my numbers – and if the change was good or bad.

Next week Wednesday, I will go back in for a follow up with the doctor.  She will review the blood results with me and we will see where we go from there.

Since August, I’ve begun full-blown training for 2014 worlds, have been exercising like crazy, and have lost some weight.  I’m very curious to see what affect that has had on my numbers. 

Stay tuned for the answer!

220 Days to Worlds.

One Fourth of the Way is Complete!

Today is the 75^th day of the 300 days set aside to train for the 2014 PDGA Disc Golf Amateur World Championships!  That is one fourth of the way there.  

In the last 75 days, I’ve

• played disc golf 50 days
• lifted 195,255 pounds of weights in 28 days
• walked (apart from disc golf) 18 days
• had 3 days of putting practice
• successfully met diet goals 69 times

I miss being able to play disc golf every night as I can do during daylight saving time.  It has been fun playing in some different courses on the weekends and especially while we were in Charlotte last week.  Tomorrow I’m going to play handicaps at my home course for the first time in about a month.  It will be interesting to see how rusty I am at playing those courses.

At any rate, tomorrow brings on my second quarter of training.  I’m ready to say, “Bring it on!”

225 Days to Worlds!

Rest in Peace, Ed

 Shortly after I got home last night, we heard someone at the front door, and then the roar of a delivery truck pulling away from our home.  While we didn’t hear the doorbell go off, we surmised that someone had delivered something for us.

Sure enough, there was a thin square box at the front door.  It was addressed to me, and when I opened it, this is what I found in the box!

It was a “Lines of Headrick Memorial Freestyle Disc” with the inscription, “Herein lie the ashes of “Steady” Ed, founding father of Frisbee and the sport of Disc Golf.  A giant of a man who was many things to many people.  Fly Free and rest in peace.”

It was “Steady” Ed’s wish that once he passed away his ashes be incorporated into discs so that his soul could fly freely. “Steady” Ed loved the Disc Golf and Frisbee® community and wished them to have his discs. Tiny specks of ash can been seen in the disc when you shine a light through it.  It is amazing to know that I have one of these discs.

All proceeds from the sale of “Steady” Ed Memorial Discs go to the nonprofit “Steady” Ed Memorial Fund, raising money to support “The Ed Headrick Memorial Museum,” home to the Disc Golf Hall of Fame, showcasing many historical items from the early days of our sport at the PDGA International Disc Golf Center at Wildwood Park, Appling Georgia.

I received the disc since I was named a weekly winner of the Disc Golf Association’s Spirit of the Game Contest.  While I didn’t win the final prize, a MACH X disc golf basket (which would have been awesome) my essay was one of the four weekly winners, and I was honored to receive this disc.

My first thought was to take it to work where I have a display of some of my competition discs, and that is where it is at the moment. 

However, since his wish was that he could continue to fly freely down the disc course, I will have to honor that request and take it for a spin every once in a while.

Rest in peace, to be sure, Ed!

226 Days to Worlds!!

Dry Creek Monroe, NC

Last week we visited our family in Charlotte, NC.  We often try out some of the disc golf courses there when we visit.

This year we discovered a new course in Monroe, NC, which is just a few miles away from where our oldest son lives.  About half of the holes were in wooded areas and half had more open fairways.  It’s called Dry Creek Disc Golf Course. 

I’ve only played the Charlotte courses when we visit around Thanksgiving, so all I know about them is what they are like during the late fall.  There are a LOT of leaves on the ground.  

This year, there was a fairly big rain just before we got there, so the leaves were quite matted down.  Some years, they are all fluffy and crunchy which is fun to walk through, but discs get lost so easily when there is six inches of fallen leaves for them to disappear into.

On one hole, Danny got as close as a person can get to the basket on his drive, without making an ace!  It was great to watch.

I think this is the kind of course we will enjoy playing again the next time we go for a visit.

A Golden Day

On Friday after Thanksgiving, I had a chance to check something off my bucket list.  Danny and I were able to play the Winthrop Gold course at Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC.  This course is the home to the United States Disc Golf Championships (USDGC) which is played each October featuring only about 150 of the best of the best disc golfers in the United States.  It is one of the few tournaments that is televised.

Danny had a chance to experience the course when he played in the USDGC Performance Edition in 2011. It was a daunting experience to say the least, but he actually played quite well.  Since he had played the course during that competition, he remembered well each hole.  Some were slightly different when we were there after Thanksgiving, but mostly, the general layout was still in place.

Of course, none of the out-of-bounds ropes were up, but he told me where they had been and Danny played as if they were still in place.  I just played the course from the short pads, as it stood -- that was challenging enough for me!

We took a few photos while on the course, and of course took some at the famous Bamboo Hole including a video of Danny making the shot through the garage door-sized opening.

Many of the views from the tee-box were exactly as they appeared on Disc Golf Planet, but the shot looked a lot tougher in real life than it did on the computer screen.

Having watched some videos, and having a DVD of the 2012 USDGC, it was so interesting to actually play the course.  I'm going to replay that video now that I'm back home and can do it from the point of view of having been there!  It was thrilling, and definitely a bucket list item.

229 Days to Worlds