Slogging through the Winter Doldrums

When I began this blog last September, I thought it would be interesting to track my progress during the 300 days prior to the 2014 PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships.  

I have found that finding something to write about every day is hard.  Who wants to hear about how much weight I’ve lifted every day, or how may miles I’ve walked? I mean really, day after day, after day is just boring.  I'm actually rather surprised that I continue to stick it out.

So sometimes it seems that days go by before I post another message on my blog.  Today is one of those days. 

Training through the Christmas/New Year’s season was a new thing for me.  While I continued to train every work day, and played disc golf on the weekends, I also had the added detraction of all the holiday food, Christmas cookies, and family gatherings with all sorts of good food to deal with as I tried to  work toward my goal of being as fit as possible by July.

The last few weeks have been a turn around.  I lost those few extra pounds that crept on the scale and am still working hard to not waste a day of training. 

The last few times that I have played disc golf I’ve noticed that I actual can throw farther than I could previously.  I’ve also noticed that my technique has suffered.  I guess muscle memory at my age needs more regular reminding of how I should throw those hunks of plastic.

This spring I’ve signed up for several tournaments.  This is a new thing for me.  It will be interesting to see how I do. I will definitely report the results here.

171 Days to Worlds!

Women’s Global Event May 10, 2014

This year I’m going to participate in the Women’s Global Disc Golf Event.  On May 10th, women from all around the world will play two rounds of disc golf at their local participating Women's Global Event. Scores from the first two rounds of each participating tournament will be submitted by the individual tournament directors and rated by the PDGA. These round ratings will be totaled and averaged to determine the player's "Global Score."

For the rounds to qualify, the event must include two rounds and have at least three ratings propagators playing on the same course layout each round for ratings to be calculated as accurately as possible. The Global Scores will be updated throughout the day to determine our Women’s Global Event Champions and the winner in each division will receive a memorable trophy.

I’m so excited to be able to participate in this…..just hope that Danny will be my caddy!  J

184 Days to Worlds!

Visitors have left, time to get serious again!

For several months now, I’ve been proud of my progress in my quest to train for 300 days for the 2014 Disc Golf World Championships.  Then Christmas and New Year’s hit.  SCREEEEECH!  Did you hear me come to a screeching halt? 

I valiantly tried to remain true to my training schedule, but the truth is that things didn’t go as well as I hoped they would.  I enjoyed the time with our kids during the holidays, but now it’s time to get back to business.

Last weekend Danny competed in the “Throw Down the Mountain” Disc Golf Tournament in Brooksville, FL.  What?  You didn’t know there were mountains in Florida?  

The course near Brooksville is as close as it gets.  I’m sure my friends from Colorado would scoff at the suggestion that there is a mountain in Brooksville, so let’s just call it a really nice hill.  He had a great time and ended up tying for tenth place.  If both rounds could have been played from the long pads he probably would have done better.

While he was there, I went to my home course at Bill Frederick Park and played the T2 course.  It is the more technical of the two course at BFP.  The minute I stepped out of my car, I said in my mind, “Follow through on every drive.  Follow through on every drive.” It must have worked because I did quite well on most holes. 

My goal for the next month is to focus on the elliptical for my cardio workout.  The first time I got on that machine in November I did it for three minutes – BUT – I had to stop and rest for 30 seconds after each minute.  Before Christmas I got up to 26 minutes nonstop – my goal is to be able to work it nonstop for 60 minutes.  I have no idea how long it will take to be able to execute proper form for that long.  Hopefully by the end of January I’ll be close.

Danny has me on a schedule of low reps and high weights for the lifting part of my workout.  My preference is to do more reps at a lower weight, but I guess it’s the constant variation in the routine that keeps me getting stronger.

Last weekend while I was throwing, I was noticing that I was able to get the disc farther down the runway than usual, and that was a sign that all the lifting I am doing is beginning to make a difference out on the course. Hole five for instance has been a difficult hole for me, and resulted in me getting anywhere from a 7 to a 10 on it during competition.  Sunday I made it in 5 throws.  That was fun!

All this is to say, that I have my own mountain to continue to climb….even if I took a short holiday respite. 

   

186 days to go

New Year’s Day Fun

New Year’s Day would not have been complete without a trip to Bill Frederick Park for a round of disc golf. 

Besides being a day off of work, it was the start of my second hundred days of training in preparation for the 2014 World Championships.  It’s also supposed to be a day to begin resolutions for the new year.  In my case, that began 100 days ago, when I committed to spending 300 days preparing for Worlds.

I played all of the Original Course (T-1) at the park that is my home course.  I was happy to see that I haven’t totally forgotten how to play since so much of my training has been focused on weight lifting and cardio.

So, in spite of the nasty weather, damp, cold, cloudy, and with a slight drizzle of rain, I set out to play, and enjoyed every minute of the outing.

Since it was practice, I felt no compulsion to play every single throw but instead took several drives off the tee until I got that perfect starting throw.  I didn’t have to rethrow eve

ry drive, but a few times took a second drive to reinforce what I would consider an optimal start for the hole.

I enjoyed the practice immensely.  Before leaving the house, I told my husband that I was going to throw in the field since it was drizzling.  But when I got to the park, I could resist the temptation to just throw and have fun.

Last weekend I also played a round in the drizzling rain, and by the time I was done, my shoes were soaked, my socks were filthy, and my discs were coated with sand and dirt.  I took my time when I got home that day thoroughly clean all the discs and the bag, so I wasn’t thrilled to have to do all that again yesterday.  Thankfully, my discs stayed cleaner yesterday and all I had to do was take them out of the bag and lay them out to thoroughly dry.

Later today I will once again go to the gym, hit the weights, put in the time on the elliptical machine – but I will remember what it was like to throw the discs and will look forward to being able to do that more often once daylight saving time returns.

198 Days to Worlds