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!

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!

Strains of Rocky Playing in my Mind….

For the past three weeks, I’ve been lifting weights for the first time in my life.  In a never-ending quest to get stronger and have more endurance for the 2014 World Championships, I have begun a weight training program.  Our son, Danny, who has been weight training since he was part of the swim team in high school, has been my coach.  He designs my workouts and posts them to a Google Doc that we share.  I do some training every night, varying the type of workout from one day to the next.

Yesterday, Danny didn’t get a workout written before I got to the gym.  I felt as if I was floundering a bit, but decided to just repeat what I had done the week before.  However, to my surprise, I noticed that the workout was significantly easier than it had been the previous week.  Shock and surprise!  I guess it’s starting to work.

This being Thanksgiving week and all, I’m expecting that my workouts will need to be somewhat abbreviated later in the week, so tonight I’m going back to the gym and work out some more.

Sometimes, by the night’s end, I hear the sounds of “Rocky” playing in the mind as I feel as if I’m getting just a little stronger every time I lift.

My gym is connected to an online system where you can go in and look at the workouts you have completed, the amount of weight lifted, and an evaluation of your form.  It’s based on whether you are lifting too fast or touching down on the weights in between reps.  They also put a little chart on the sign in page indicating how much you have lifted in terms of how many “elephants” you’ve done.  

As of yesterday, I'm up to 14 elephants!  Inconsequential data, I realize, but a very visual representation of one’s progress.  

This Isn’t World Peace

 Week two of post-daylight saving time training is nearly done.  I am now fully oriented to all the weight machines in the gym, plus Danny has me on a pretty rigorous schedule of cardio training.  I also have a trainer at the Y who is assisting me do some other simple and age-appropriate stretches, balance drills, and core training.

Is my whole life focused on this?  It seems that it is.  But for now, that is OK.  I know that these next weeks and months are going to fly by and if I want to do well at Worlds I have to make use of every moment to prepare and train.

We aren’t talking world peace here it terms of importance.  But for the first time in my life, I have the time to do this, and not a lot of outside commitments that can conflict with reaching my goals.  It is sort of liberating.

Lifting weights is a whole new training element for me.  I’ve done a lot of walking over the years, and certainly played a lot of disc golf in the past few years.  But I’ve never had a regimented weight lifting program before.  I’m finding that I really enjoy it.

Part of the reason I like it is that I can log in to my fitness center and see my workouts that I’ve done each day.  It is fun and oddly satisfying to see the amount of weight increase each workout.  My account also shows me how WELL I’ve lifted at each weight machine.  That gives me direct feedback as to how I’m doing.

I’m not going for buff here….but I would like to end up stronger and certainly with more muscle tone.  Only time will tell!

Let the weights begin!

I had my first session with a trainer at the Y on Tuesday.  She only showed me half of the weight training machines.  Her first questions to me were about why I was wanting to do this, what my goals were, what (if any) physical impediments I had, etc…  After hearing my answer she decided to start slowly with me.  She started me out with stretching and then set me up on the first five machines.   

Considering my age and all, I wasn’t surprised. 

I have not been able to figure out what sort of routine I need to be in.  Danny has given me a training plan which helps considerably, but I’m not sure if I should go in the morning before work, or later in the day after work.

The other day I walked on one of the treadmills.  Years ago I did that while Danny was on a year round swim team.  The aquatic center where he trained had a fitness center, and I used the treadmill while he swam.  I used to watch him swim back and forth, back and forth.  It seemed so peaceful.

Running is something I’ve never been good at.  Walking suits me fine, but it can be so boring.  And if I’m going to walk, I’d prefer doing it outside, but that has its problems too.  By the time I get home it’s nearly dark.  While I’m not afraid to walk in the dark, there are all sorts of dangers that can get a person in trouble.  

Dogs that come running after you, uneven sidewalk pavement, low hanging tree branches, thick bushes with a myriad of spider webs, and the inevitable lawn sprinklers that make one hope from the sidewalk to the street and back again.

I found that walking right in the street was the best.  Now, I’m not talking about doing that on a main street with a lot of traffic, but on a quiet, safe, neighborhood street.  I used to do that near our home, and always took a small but powerful flashlight with me.  I’d use it not to light my way so much, as to flash at cars as they approached from either direction so that they knew there was someone in the street.

Then, one day, as I was walking about 7 PM, a car slowed down just past me.  Alarm bells went off, but I just kept walking, and in fact picked up my pace.  Then the car backed up.  I began walking even faster.  I started looking for a home that had a porch light on in case I had to make a run for it.  (Yeah, right!  Me run?  I might just as well give up!)

The person in the car told me to stop, and it was then that I looked at the car closer.  It did not have any markings on the outside or lights on top, but inside there were all sorts of lights and dials, and the driver was also sitting at some sort of computer console.  Then I looked at his uniform. It was a county sheriff.  That was a relief.

The relief was short lived.  He told me I wasn’t allowed to walk on the street and that I needed to go home because it was too late to be walking outside.  What?  Are you kidding me?

I explained why I was walking, and why I was in the street.  I think he took it as sass, but really I was not at all nasty.  Then he told me if I didn’t get out of the street he was going to give me a ticket.  I laughed right out loud.  Seriously?  A warning bell went off and I decided not to be a jerk, but just listened to his nonsense and started walking on the side walk.

That experience sort of soured my attitude about walking outside.  Shortly after that I took up disc golf and haven’t done much seriously aerobic walking since. 

So now I’m back on that treadmill. 

I wonder if I could write my blog while walking?  That would at least occupy my mind…..  Hmmmm….