Closing Out The Week

Yesterday I enjoyed some great catch up time with Mer and am definitely already looking forward to coming back for summer.

Hit the gym for a quick lift with the BD:
Bench, KB squats, alt SA pull downs, and BOSU BB squats.

Had a good catch up lunch with Brian, Braden, and Chad afterwards.

Came home and calibrated my new New Balance N8 watch/heart rate monitor - used the 1/2 mile calibration run as a warm up and then jumped on the bike for a quick ride.  Did a loop out to the Pleasant Green climb and back for a total of 9.5 miles in 30 minutes for an 18.7 mph avg.  Pushed it hard up the climb to see where my heart rate maxed and came in at about 207 b/m.  Possible lift with dad tonight and packing and prep the rest of the day to head back to VA this weekend.

Mid Week Report

This past weekend was a nice chance to get away for a bit...I headed up to Charlottesville with our Catholic Campus Ministries group on Friday afternoon (after lifting first with the team) for a first-ever Summit of VA college students.  I had a great time and had the chance to catch up with old friends.

Monday it was back to work in the weight room:
Hanging cleans, front squats, hamstring let downs, box jumps, pull ups, alt. box jumps, and abs.  Ended with another out and back 1 mile run.

Took Tuesday off to prepare for a big tax exam I have this afternoon.  Lifting beforehand to clear my head.  Hope everyone is having a great week!

Monday Start

I've found it hard to stay positive lately...it's hard when I have a lot of negative energy surrounding me...lots of stress with deciding on housing/classes next year while trying to finish this semester on a strong academic note. I think this cold weather doesn't help matters either...snow in VA after the first day of spring? Cmon...

I didn't want to lift before practice today, particularly when it was all leg exercises. Didn't want to practice either but I got the cleats on and when I got out there I felt better. Soccer can be therapeutic because it frees my mind and allows me to live in the moment.

Now off to have a nice dinner and then back to the homework grind for the evening...hope today was enough commentary and less workout jargon for ya T!

Big Texas Rodeo

So much to write about and little time to do it!

In short, we had a very successful weekend in San Antonio this past weekend. After a rough flight on Thursday morning, we landed in San Antonio and trained in preparation for our games on Friday and Saturday.

Friday afternoon we faced Southwestern. We also faced temperatures we had not seen for weeks now after a seemingly permanent rain had settled in Newport News (which I might add is still here!). Our first half as a team was a very poor showing, where we went down 1-0. It is not my policy to talk negatively of others' play, but our starting center mids were not having an up-to-par game by any means. I stepped in with just under 20 minutes to go in the half and played solidly against a very physical team. In the second half, I stepped in after we had tied it 1-1 off a PK for about 5-10 minutes to give our starters a breather so they could finish the game. Also played well and happy we pulled off a 2-1 win.

Two good things came from playing so poorly on Friday: the team was motivated to work even harder against #6 Trinity, and Trinity's coaches saw a sub-par CNU squad. Trinity is a beautiful school with a great stadium and lights so it was fun to play in a big game similar to the atmosphere we have at home. It was an intense game, and we struggled in the first 15 minutes to find our rhythm. I came in with 10 to go in the half and played well again. We went into half tied 0-0. Then early in the 2nd half Winston found the far post off a through ball from our outside mid to put us up 1-0. I came in for another 8 minutes or so afterwards and played solid again. I was able to win a ball off their outside midfielder, take it up the line and cross it to our forward at the top of the box. He beat the keeper but was tripped from behind. The keeper was red-carded and we finished the game up one man. It was an exciting game and we are very happy to hold our #1 ranking for another week.

Now back to the grind of school work and practice this week. It never gets any easier, and we hit the road again on Wednesday to face a tough Mary Washington team.

On another note, keeping the family of my former team mate Zac Tigner in my prayers as I have learned of his passing this past weekend. He was a phenomenal athlete and it is a shame to see something like this happen.